"So…can you talk? And what the hell is wrong with your hair?" I studied the strange horse, guessing it was female due to its build. It was tall with a horn long enough to pierce straight through a human chest, pale violet eyes, swanlike wings, a crown, and a few pieces of armour. What puzzled me was her mane and tail—they floated with nothing to support them, and looked more like water than fur.
She studied me politely, like a queen on her throne. She damn well reminded me of Kaboa somehow—the air about her; the motherly air. But she also reminded me of a chess master, cool and detached. Glancing around, I realised the broken and collapsing building around us indeed reminded me of a palace or temple. Perhaps it had been once, but now the walls had collapsed and the floor was buried in what, for a minute, I thought must be snow. But no, it was warm and fragile.
I shivered in the middle of this city buried in rubble and ash. "What happened here?"
"Terrible things, key wielder. My world has all but fallen to the tainted dark. I did all in my power to prevent it. I embody sunlight, and so I fought it bitterly. I could not prevent it in the end, though, as it defeated my sister. In my last attempt to save our world, I sent both my sister and six ponies to other worlds that in some way resembled them. In these six, I stored the lives of the others."
"Wait, you're giving the safety of your world to six people?" Was she nuts? "Willingly? What if they die? Does that mean everyone tied to them dies too?"
"If I did not, they would all die regardless. I trusted their lives to the ones best suited to the task."
I dug my fingers into the skin of my temple by reflex, sighing. Was this a new world altogether? Just how many were there? I had a suspicion this stuck-up horse wanted something from me. "So is there a reason you're telling me this, or is it just 'cause I asked?"
"I would beg your help, key wielder. Foals, babies, dragons, diamond dogs—thousands are at stake. Would you turn your back on them?"
Okay, impressive. I studied her and repressed a growl. It had taken her approximately ten minutes to analyse me and know exactly where to strike to get what she wanted. Chess mistress indeed. I glanced at Sora to make sure he was still asleep, and turned a glare and a snarl on the horse.
"Let's get one thing straight, Sparkly. I will do what I can to save people, yes, but no one's worth more than anyone else. And I have my own problems and family, and biased or whatever the hell that is, they come first. Secondly, I'm not some pawn for you to shove wherever you want. I decide what I do, no one else."
"So you allow your rage to affect not only your own fate, but the fate of all who you hold dear? A fate that would not be of their own making? I know little of your key, but I know within them lies the heart balance. Would you doom the world with your sins?" Her voice was clean and cut, the insult lying in nary a look or gesture. Her mouth was fixed in a look of concern.
I wanted to tear that look off her face with my now vanquished claws. Mostly because she was right, and I hated the challenge she played—a melody of words.
Gritting my teeth and glaring, I huffed. "Fine, lend me a paw here and tell me why I need this obese chest key and I'll see about playing nurse-drake to your friends. Deal?"
"Thank you." The white mare regally dipped her head. "That is the generous path. And you do not need to threaten me with the loss of a world's worth of life to gain my aid, traveller."
Ouch. "Well, you don't need to treat me like a child."
"How old are you?"
"Thirteen; why do you care?"
"Then I have lived your life a thousand times to be standing on my crumbling throne, traveller. I have yet to meet one mortal who is not, compared to me, a child."
"Still not a little kid here, your majesty," I spat the words like a curse, and was shocked to see the slightest tremble in her forelegs. To a dragon, the non-sentient herbivores were easy to read, to catch, and to kill. Though I could not smell it like I could on the Atlawa, sorrow was draped around her. It darkened snowy fur to ash and turned the spiel of color in her mane to a sad affair.
I glanced down at my hand to find a green and silver shimmer. The Hopelilly shone for a moment with all the radiance of a star before dying again. Did it help me remember who I was? Let me glean powers from my true form? I looked up curiously, all venom lost from my tired voice. "I remind you of someone, don't I?"
"Perhaps, but my past is not the topic. As I'm sure you've surmised, the weapons you and the boy wield are called keyblades. They are usually powerful tools of light, and as such most hold a strong connection to me once they are in my sight. I know little else but that they bond our many worlds as one. However, while the male's keyblade holds strong bonds to light, yours seems different. It holds proud to a power I have only ever seen one other wield before."
I sighed, hoping for something more useful. "Lemme guess, purified dark? Do you have anything useful to say or are you going to spout folklore all day? Do you know anyone else with these glorified keys?"
"I met one once, a tall female with blue hair who went by the name of Aqua. It had been long since the last key-bearer had set hoof in my domain—but I left the others be. Lady Aqua did not tell me much, though she held some great vendetta against the peaceful dark, even if she seemed uncertain. Close to then I felt the flicker of a dark keyblader as well, but never made contact with her. I only glimpsed her upon her departure. Strangely enough, she was the only keyblader who smelled of dragon magic."
Why the hell was she staring at me like that? It was creepy. "Okay then. Please tell me you know how to get off this wasteland before you give me an even more permanent headache?"
"If you insist." Yellow flashed around the mare's horn, and the colors around me warped to kaleidoscopic blurs before fading away. Again.
"I hate my life," I muttered before my ass made another unceremonious reunion with the ground.
"You could stay at my castle if you so wish it," the imperial women murmured, opening the gargantuan doors with a wave of her hand and what Riku could only assume was magic. He wanted to ask, but something about the tall women did not beg to be messed with. She had an air about her, not unlike Cynder's, that rose the hair on the back of his neck. She didn't seem all human, and he didn't like it. But what choice did he have? He saw little point in playing hopscotch over the floating hunks of rock until he starved.
"What I wish is to find my friends and I'll get out of your hair."
"It is not that simple. If the darkness pulled you from your world, the likelihood of your friends landing here is dismal to none. You need a vessel of some kind, which I could provide.
"What's the catch?" Riku asked dryly.
"I merely require you to... rescue a few dear friends of mine."
"So, you want me to pay for my friends by kidnapping a person. That's totally fine. If I was some tall heartless villain with an attitude problem, which I'm not. Is there an alternative that won't leave a bad taste in my mouth?"
"Your morals taint your decisions. I would never bring bodily harm to the girls. But regardless, you must stay in the castle. After all, where else can you go?"
Riku wanted to refuse her, but there really was no other option. "Again, what's the catch?"
"Oh, nothing child. The company will be quite enough. The others here are not the most... conversational beings."
Riku resisted the urge to grind his teeth. She did not seem one to aid hapless vagabonds. Why do I feel like I'm walking right into a trap?
From under the nearby staircase, black eyes watched for a moment before a pink form scrambled into the shadows. Oh, how Angel hated that beast of a women. She shivered at the sound of them walking above her.
Above, Malificent led Riku up countless stairways until he was hopelessly lost. This whole castle was bizarre and seemingly twisted.
"Well, who would this be?" a voice cut like ice through the eerily chilled air. Riku turned to see a tall teenager sporting dark purple jeans, a tight black top and a deep purple cape. Though most of his hair was drawn back into an oily pony tail, a few grey-streaked black bangs framed his pale face and his eyes held as much compassion as a glacier. Those eyes...
A chill slithered up Riku's spine as those coal-black eyes caught and held his own. For a moment it was as if the world around him was fading to match the midnight hue, before Malificent's harsh voice broke through it.
"Bloor, cease this. Immediately."
"Oh, very well," grumbled the young man, bringing one hand up to stroke his wispy stubble. He averted his eyes and Riku's world snapped back into focus. "I don't see why, people can be so much easier to deal with. Anyway, I've done want you wanted—I have to get back before anyone cottons on to me being gone."
"Very well, but if I catch you using your talent on anyone under my protection again, I will not be so accommodating."
The boy turned cold eyes on the queasy Riku, who immediately turned his head away—that was one mistake he would not make again. "I am Manfred Bloor. Who are you?"
"None of your business, ponytail."
The boy stepped forward to the point where Riku would have to look up to see his face—not that he wanted to. "You would do well not to cross me, boy."
Heh. He can't be more than two or three years older than me. "Oho, look at me, just shaking in my boots."
"If that's so, why don't you look at me again?"
"Stop this. Manfred, on your way. Now."
The taller boy sighed, glancing at the towering women. "Fine. Have fun working with this one. Let me know when you want help with that thing again. Or this one, that would work too."
With a smirk, he paced to the end of a hallway and into another room. Riku squinted as darkness reflected in a paned window before vanishing.
"What was that about?" he asked stiffly. "Trouble in the ranks? And what's wrong with his eyes?"
"Manfred is the grandson of an old friend, and has skills I require for a personal project of mine. Unfortunately, he is also rather incorrigible. His eyes are the key to his power. I would advise avoiding eye contact."
"No, really?"
"I am patient, but only so much insolence will be tolerable if you wish to remain in my good graces, thus perhaps earning my aid in finding your friends. Many worlds hold more dangers than this. Is that clear?"
Effectively gagged, Riku followed the eerie woman further into the twisted castle. A feature that, he hoped, did not reflect its mistress's motives. Somehow he doubted that hope was founded.
He never noticed the piercing yellow gaze of the huddled smoky figure when he passed the room it was held in. If he had noticed, he would have been left to wonder on how those thoroughly blank yellow eyes could reflect upon the broken soul behind them.
Characters not from KH/LOC
Angel (Stitch the Series)
Manfred Bloor (Charlie Bone)
Princess Celestia (My Little Pony:Friendship is Magic)