Chapter 63: Children of the Watch
It was Friday and Spyro was in the garage working on some maintenance for his ship, making sure nothing would go wrong when he left for Tatooine, which he wasn't a fan of heading to the one world where criminals would go to in order to hide from the Empire or from any other kind of person who might be after them. While he was running a diagnostic check, Rainbow Dash and Applejack walked in to see if they could use the simulator room, but ended up seeing that Spyro was working on his ship, deciding to come back another time, but he noticed them and the screen turned off.
"AJ, Rainbow, just in time." Spyro said. "I was going to call for you guys for a special meeting. Think you can get the others real quick?"
"And may we ask why?" Applejack asked.
"I'll explain when everyone is here." Spyro answered.
The two mares looked at each other, wondering what he was up to, but decided to get their friends so they can hear what he has to say. After they left, he went into the back room and towards the stack of crates and picked up the two ingots of Beskar he had in his coat while on vacation, one of them with the insignia of the Empire while the other one had the insignia of the Nobodies, looking them over and wondering what he could do with the Beskar besides make armor out of it. He then out the ingots into his coat pocket and walked out for the back room, continuing to check his ship for a good hour until his friends arrived, entering the garage just as he finished his maintenance.
"Alright Spyro, we're here." Twilight said. "Now what do you need to talk to us about?"
"Glad you could make it." Spyro said. "You see, I have to take a trip to the planet Tatooine and I need a couple of friends to go with me."
"Oh, another world!?" Pinkie asked excitedly. "I wanna go! I wanna go!"
"Not so fast Pinkie, before you volunteer, I'm gonna need to tell you girls something." Spyro said. "This world is filled with criminals and scum from across the galaxy. Going there is a risk, but one we might need to take."
"So, why are we going there?" Rainbow Dash.
"Because I got in contact with a Mandalorian who is known as the Armorer." Spyro replied. "She wants to meet me so I can learn how to use properly forge some armor from a special kind of metal. I want to know how to properly mold the armor before I get started."
"And why is that so important?" Applejack asked.
"Because the metal itself is indestructible." Spyro answered, the girls jaws dropping. "The forge itself uses a special cryo-forge to melt the metal into a liquid state, thus allowing for-"
"Wow, wow, wow, slow down there bud." Rainbow Dash said. "Way too much geek. You're saying this metal is indestructible? How's that possible?"
"Wish I could go into detail about the Beskar, but I'm due to meet her today and need to get going." Spyro replied. "Why is called you girls here is because we agreed to bring two allies with us for protection."
"Protection?" Fluttershy asked. "What do you need protection from?"
"From the bad guys of course." Rainbow Dash answered. "Well, obviously he doesn't need it, but still, it's good to have your friends with you. So, who are you going to bring with you?"
"Well, since this isn't an official mission, I don't exactly know." He replied. "So, I'm going to leave it up to fate."
"Fate?" Twilight asked.
A moment later, he pulled out what appeared to be a couple of six sided dice and a bowl, the girls walking over to see what he was up to.
"I'm going to roll these two dice and see who goes with me." Spyro replied. "I have already given you girls a number and whosever number is rolled will get to go with me."
"Are you sure you should leave it to chance?" Twilight asked. "Seems a bit... chancy."
"Hey, it's more fun this way." Spyro replied. "That way, you never know who will go with you."
Twilight was skeptical of his reasoning, but rolled her eyes and waited for him to roll the dice and when he did, they all watched as they bounced around the glass bowl, hearing the dice bounce against the glass until they stopped, revealing that first dice landed on a two and the second dice landed on the number five, looking to Spyro to see who was going.
"And it's decided." Spyro said. "The two who will be coming along will be Applejack and Rarity."
"Me?" Rarity asked.
"Um, no offense sugarcube, but is bringing Rarity along a good idea?" Applejack asked. "Ah mean, she's not exactly up for getting her hooves dirty, if ya know what Ah mean."
"Oh don't worry AJ, she'll be fine." Spyro replied. "It's just a visit to a dessert planet, no need to be scared. Plus, if we need to get something from someone who's unreasonable, Rarity has the charm needed to flatter them enough to get the job done."
"Well, when you put it that way." Rarity said, flicking her mane a bit. "I suppose it'll be alright."
"Good." Spyro said, taking the bowl and putting it away. "And don't worry about supplies, I already got everything we need for Tatooine. The sooner we leave, the better."
"Lead the way hun." Applejack said.
The three of them went to the ship as the boarding ramp was lowering down, the three of them walking onto the ship and moved towards the cockpit where they took their seats, but as Spyro sat down, his ship got a notification, telling him he had a message from an unknown source. Curious, he opened the message to see what it was about and who it was from.
Spyro,
I'm sorry for the sudden email I'm sending you, but it's the only way I can send you a message without Xemnas knowing. He knows you're going to meet with some Mandalorians on Tatooine and has sent Larxene to spy on you, see what it is the meeting is about and to see who all is attending. I'd be careful if I were you as Larxene is still ticked about loosing the Beskar and might be out for blood.
Demyx
"Is something wrong Spyro?" Applejack asked. "Ya'll seem troubled."
"It's nothing serious AJ." Spyro replied, moving the message to his private messages. "Demyx was just warning me about a member of the organization being sent to Tatooine. Seems my communication was intercepted."
"Well at least Demyx was kind enough to give us an advanced warning." Rarity said. "Seems we can trust him."
"Yeah, seems we can." Spyro said, still not believing that Demyx was sticking his neck out for them. "At least we know who going to be coming."
"So who the hay is Larxene?" Applejack asked.
"She's a member of the Organization." Spyro replied, getting the ship into the air. "She is the twelfth member and is known as the Savage Nymph. Her attacks are based around lightning, so she's the kind that will thrash you around while taking her time to destroy you."
"Anything we should do around her?" Rarity asked.
"Yeah, keep your distance." Spyro replied. "You girls are good at handling the minions, but with Larxene, she's a dangerous enemy. Best thing for you to do is avoid her all together and let me deal with her."
"Ya know we can fuse together, right?" Applejack asked. "That way, we'll beat her in no time."
"Let's hold off on that for the time being." Spyro said. "For now, we got a meeting to get to."
As they reached the world atmosphere, he turned back to his human form as he searched his ships data base for the coordinates for Tatooine, which he had to go to once to get a missing pore core he needed for his Lightsaber. After finding it, he put in the coordinates and immediately went into Warp Space, flying through the corridor of color and light as they made their way to to the dessert world, which he punch in a few commands and immediately a section of the floor beneath each of the mares opened up, a small table rising up as it produced what appeared to be a dictionary.
"What in tarnation is this?" Applejack asked.
"It's the complete dictionary of all languages of every alien species I've met." Spyro replied. "Took me nearly all of three years just to learn every language and memorize it. Which coincidentally, it has been nearly three years coming this Thanksgiving that I became the Prince of Light and Darkness."
"So, what do ya want us to do, read them?" Applejack asked.
"Exactly." Spyro replied. "The next thing I want you girls to do is study those languages between training sessions., try to memorize at least one."
"But why do we need these?" Rarity asked. "We haven't needed these so far."
"Well this time, you'll need them." Spyro replied, turning his seat to face her. "Tatooine is a world filled with criminals and scum of the lowest kind. And the language mostly spoken on that world is Huttese, language of the Hutts, a powerful crime family who deal in all sorts of criminal activities from smuggling all the way to slave trade." He then turned to face the front of the ship, keeping an eye on the screens. "Thankfully, there won't be any fighting this time. It's just going to be a simple chat and hopefully I learn something new."
A moment later, an alarm went off, letting them know that they had arrived at Tatooine, the ship coming out of warp space to reveal a dessert planet, all yellow, brown and white in color with no plants of any kind, no water, nothing but sand as far as the eye could possibly see. The girls got up from their seats and left the dictionaries behind, looking at the dessert planet and both looked appalled by its appearance.
"Eugh, what a revolting world." Rarity said. "Please tell me Tatooine is just behind this planet."
"Sorry Rare, that is Tatooine." Spyro replied. "A once lush and tropical world before it became a dessert planet where some people make a living pulling moisture out of the air."
"Wait come again?" Applejack asked. "Ya'll sayin' that some of them locals farm water from the air?"
"That's right AJ." Spyro replied, getting the communication tower ready. "Some families farm water from the air by using Water Vaporators, which are special machines that use refrigeration on hot dessert worlds like Tatooine to get water, basically condensing the water from the air and collecting it and then storing it for later or to sell. Easy way to make a profit on hot dessert worlds."
"Doesn't sound very glamorous if you ask me." Rarity said.
"It's tiring work, but it's one of the only ways the planet can get its water." Spyro said, turning the communications array on. "Armorer, this is Spyro. We have arrived at Tatooine and are entering its airspace."
"Very good, my men are waiting for you." The Armorer replied. "They will meet you in Mos Eisley Space port. Hangar bay seven, the maintenance technician is a friend and will keep your ship safe from the Jawa's."
"Ugh, hate those things." Spyro said. "Last time they got into my ship, they tried to make off with one of my engines. Would have succeeded if the little buggers had hit the gym."
The Armorer didn't laugh, unable to make sense of her expression due to her helmet covering her face.
"Maybe, maybe not." The Armorer replied. "My troops, Din Djarin, and Paz Vizsla will meet you at the hangar. Try not to draw too much attention to yourselves."
She ended the communication with him, allowing Spyro to fly his ship down into the planets atmosphere and breaking through the clouds to see a large city made mostly of stone and some machines sticking out, people walking the streets along vendors and shops to get what they need for home while others were working in order to make the money they need to afford the food and clothing they need. They soon approached the space port where ships were leaving and arriving, looking down to see the hangar they required and started landing procedures, slowly descending into he large room and saw two Mandalorians near an entrance, watching the ship descend to the ground, landing as steam and mist escaped the landing gears.
"Ah'm guessing they're our escort?" Applejack asked. "They don't look that friendly."
"Mandalorians usually aren't." Spyro replied, getting up from his seat. "They're a warrior species, they follow a creed and some follow it without question. The Children of the Watch are such followers." He walked out of the room and the two ponies followed behind him, following him to a room, which he pulled out a drawer and grabbed a bag full of something making clanging sounds. "The currency here is separated into two different kinds, Imperial Credits and peggats. Peggats are the currency of the Hutts while Imperial credits are the main currency for some of the other worlds within this galaxy. We're gonna need these if we hope to blend in." He then pushed the draw in and walked over to a crate, opening it and pulling out a couple of brown, ragged cloaks and goggles with some scarfs. "You're gonna need these."
He then tossed them to the ponies, Applejack catching her stuff on her back while Rarity used her magic to acquire hers while it was still in the air, looking it over while giving it the stink eye as if it was something that went out of fashion, looking disgusted by how it looked.
"Don't you have something in a pastel blue?" Rarity asked. "And maybe something in pink too?"
"Rarity, for goodness sake just put it on." Applejack said, wrapping the cloak around her neck. "Ya don't need to be knit picky about everything."
"Unfortunately Rarity, those are what we have." Spyro replied, tying a cloak around his neck. "If something appears to be too colorful or too regal, it'll draw unwanted attention. Especially on this planet where you will be robbed blind if you're unfortunate enough. We need to keep a low profile, especially for this meeting as Mandalorians aren't exactly that common around here."
Rarity looked at the cloak and looked beyond disgusted, wanting to just toss the cloak away and find something more suitable for herself, but put it on anyway, tying the string around her neck before putting the scarf on and the goggles, sneering at her reflection as she believed she could do better. She then looked to Spyro and watched as he put the hood up on his cloak and covered his face with the scarf, then turned to Applejack, who was doing the same thing, but she put her goggles on, covering her eyes, so she followed their example, though she didn't like it. They then walked to the boarding ramp and walked towards the two Mandalorians, who also approached the group and stopped midway, the two Mandalorians looking them over.
"You Spyro?" The Mandalorian in blue armor asked.
"I am." Spyro replied. "And I take it you two are Din Djarin and Paz Visla?"
"You assumed correctly." The Mandalorian with the silver helmet replied. "I am Din Djarin and my large friend here is Paz Visla. The Armorer told us to escort you to the meeting sight." He then looked at Spyro's friends, noticing how short they were and then the horn on Rarity's head, looking back to Spyro. "I'm guessing these two are your escort."
"You guessed correctly." Spyro replied. "The one wearing the hat is Applejack. And the other is Rarity."
"Strange names." Paz said. "From where do you hail from?"
"A world within the unexplored regions of the galaxy." Spyro replied. "I wish not to reveal its name incase the Empire is listening in."
"We respect that." Din said. "Secrecy is our weapon."
The two Mandalorians then walked to the entrance to the hangar, waiting for Spyro and his friends to follow them outside and once outside, they saw lots of different people walking around and many different species from across them galaxy from Rodians, humans, a couple of Sullustians, Twi'leks, and more. Spyro and his group followed Din and Paz through the streets, pushing through a couple of crowds of people and through what appeared to be a market square, but there was an incident where Rarity accidentally bumped into a drunk human who tried to pick a fight, but Spyro just talked with him and calmed him down, using the Force to manipulate the angry human to forget about what had happened and move along. After a few more minutes of walking, they arrived at a canteen, which seemed to be full of people going in and out, much to Spyro's surprise, but followed them into the canteen, which was buzzing with customers as they looked at them for a moment, but went back to their business, enjoying their drinks and paying no attention to them.
"The Armorer is in the back." Din said. "This way you can discuss your business in private."
"But make no mistake, should you try anything, you will die." Paz said.
"Don't worry about me, I'll play nice." Spyro replied.
They followed the two Mandalorians to the back, were there was a private dinning room and the automated door opened, revealing that the Armorer was there and waiting for them while Din and Paz took their seats on either side of their leader while Spyro took the seat in the middle, facing towards the Armorer while Applejack sat on his left and Rarity took the place on the right, removing his scarf, goggles and hood to talk with them.
"So, you are Spyro VanVickle." The Armorer said. "It's good to put a face to the name at last."
"And it is an honor to meet with you, Armorer." Spyro replied.
"You seem comfortable to reveal your face, but your companions don't seem to share that." The Armorer pointed out. "What do they hide?" He looked to his friends, nodding his head to let them know it was ok and they removed everything on their heads, revealing themselves to be ponies to the Mandalorians, but they didn't seem fazed by what they saw. "Interesting. I have never seen creatures like you in my lifetime. Especially ones who walk with a Jedi."
"So you know what I am." Spyro said. "Should have known you'd be the first to see it."
"And the first to understand why you made sure no one could see your face." The Armorer added. "But now comes the question, why do you wish to learn how to craft Mandalorian armor?"
"So that I can protect my friends." Spyro replied, peaking their curiosity.
"A Jedi with attachments?" The Armorer asked, looking to the ponies. "And I'm guessing these to are your friends?"
"Two of them, yes." Spyro replied. "This is Applejack and Rarity. AJ saved my life when one of my enemies tried to destroy me, taking the hit and nearly dying in the process."
"A noble sacrifice." Din said, looking to the orange earth pony. "I can respect that."
"Well, it was the heat of the moment." Applejack replied. "But I don't regret it one bit."
"Nor should you." The Armorer replied. "It is very honorable of a warrior to protect their allies." She then turned her attention to Spyro, looking into his eyes and seeing something behind them. "I will grant you what you wish, but I wish to see the Beskar before I agree to it."
Spyro nodded his head, reaching into his inner coat pocket and pulled out the two Beskar Ingots he brought with him, placing them onto the table between the two groups. The Armorer picked up the ingots and examined them, looking over the two pieces of steel and noting the two different insignias before putting them back on the table.
"The Beskar is of the highest quality." The Armorer said. "How did you come across them?"
"Took them from my enemy." Spyro replied. "They were using an abandoned mine on Concordia to harvest the Beskar from the earth. I took what they mined and destroyed the facility before they could acquire anymore."
"Your enemy?" Paz asked.
"They're a group of people who call themselves Organization XIII." Applejack replied. "They command an army of creatures called Nobodies and use them to do their dirty work."
"And unfortunately they know we're here." Spyro added. "A friend of mine, who is a member of the organization, informed me that they sent one of their members to spy on us."
"Were you followed?" The Armorer asked.
"I don't think so." Spyro replied. "I would have felt them if they were here."
"Then we are safe." The Armorer said, picking the Beskar up. "You have been honest with us so far, I can see it in your eyes. I cannot teach you how to make our armor, but I can supply you with the tools and knowledge for you to forge your own." She then brought out a small data puck and put it in the middle of the table, activating it to reveal it was a series of data and information on how to forge and meld Beskar into armor. "This puck holds a copy of the ways that Beskar can be forged, lessons and methods to properly handle Beskar. But before I give you this puck, I need something done for me in return."
"Should have seen that coming." Spyro replied. "What is it you need?"
"The Beskar you have presented to us." The Armorer replied. "We can use this for the foundlings we have in our care. That is our price."
Spyro looked down at the steel ingots, thinking about it for a moment before coming to a conclusion.
"The Beskar is yours." Spyro replied.
"A wise decision." The Armorer said, sliding the puck to him. "May you find use in the information on that puck and may the Beskar provide you with them protection you need."
As he picked the puck up, they then heard what sounded like talking and radio chatter outside, rushing over to the window, they peaked through the folds to find a that someone had entered the canteen with a few Snipers and a couple of dusks, walking throughout the room as a familiar blonde haired girl walked by their meeting place, looking around as if to find someone.
"Larxene." Spyro said.
"You know her?" Din asked.
"That's Larxene, the organization member I was telling you about." Spyro replied. "She's known as the Savage Nymph with electric based attacks. She's with Organization XIII, and she's looking for us."
"What do we do?" Rarity asked.
"I don't know, let me think." Spyro said.
"Don't worry, we'll handle her." Din said.
"No, you don't understand, she's extremely dangerous." Spyro said. "Please tell me there's a back way out."
"There is no back way out." Din said. "Unless you plan on cutting your way out, there is no way out."
"Cutting our way out huh?" Spyro asked.
He then ran over to the walls, feeling them through the force to find a way out when he found one that lead to the outside, walking over and leaving the small pouch on the table, he rushed back over to the wall and pulled out his lightsaber, igniting it and started to cut a hole in the wall. As he started to cut through the wall, there came a sudden bang, everyone looking back to the door and finding that someone was trying to bust their way in. Din and Paz got their weapons ready while Applejack and Rarity called their Keyblades, having them ready to go right as the door was about to give, but they then heard what sounded like stone falling to the ground, turning to see he had managed to cut his way through the stone wall, deactivating his saber and running out of the room, motioning for eveyrone else to follow him. When Larxene finally managed to bust through the door, she looked into the room and found that it was empty, not a single person in it, but a massive hole in the side of the room, indicating they had just left and ran to the hole and followed their trail.
Outside of the cantina, the group was running away from the place where Larxene was at, running down multiple alleyways to put as much distance between them and her as possible before stopping, catching their breath as they sat down.
"Right... I think we lost her." Spyro said.
"Why'd we run from her?" Paz asked. "She doesn't look that tough."
"Not everything is what it seems." The Armorer replied. "Our friend says that she's known for electrical based attacks."
"But what does that mean?" Din asked.
"It means she has an electric personality." Spyro replied, everyone leering at him for the joke. "Right, bad joke."
"Spyro, we got what we need, let's get out of here." Applejack said.
"Agreed." Spyro replied. "We each got what we want, I think the time is right to get out of Dodge."
"Our ship is at the port yours came into." The Armorer said. "We'll travel together."
"Lead the way." Spyro said.
After they had enough time to catch their breath, they walked along the streets of the Mos Eisley, passing by several vendors and through large crowds, making sure the girls weren't noticed by passersby's who got too curious, even walking pass some of the local guards who work for Jabba the Hutt, watching them walk by as they were an odd group. After a little while, they saw the port their ships were at and walked along the street towards it, finding there weren't a lot of people outside, so it was a clear walk towards the port, but that was when Spyro felt a sudden disturbance in the Force, looking around to find that there were no people outside, not a living soul as it were. This didn't settle very well with him as he knew there was something wrong and hated himself for being right as multiple voids opened in front of them and out of them came a small group of Nobodies, wearing black suits instead of white with two blades sticking out of their hands, lifting one of their arms up as a fan of Kunai shoot out of their hands, pointing them at the group.
"Ninjas!" Spyro shouted, calling his Keyblade. "Group up! Defend yourselves!"
Rarity and Applejack then called their Keyblades, the orange farm mare grabbing hers with her mouth and lowering herself to be less of a target while Rarity used her magic to grab the handle of her blade, raising it up and positioning it to the side to be ready to defend herself. Din pulled out his blaster and pointed it towards the Ninjas while Paz took out his heavy blaster and charged it up, ready to unleash a hail of bolts right as the Armorer reached behind her back and pulled out a massive hammer with a pair of tongs, both made of some kind of metal, but was unsure of what kind. A moment later, a corridor of darkness opened up and out of it, Larxene walked out with a sadistic smile on her face, daggers between her fingers as she continued to walk towards them, several Ninjas following behind her as more Nobodies showed up around them, some Dusks and a few Assassins, all surrounding them.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Larxene asked. "A group of Mandalorians and the Prince of Light and Darkness with two of his little girlfriends. How exciting! I get to destroy the guy who stole the Beskar I worked hard to mine and his little pets too."
"Well the crates didn't have your name on them." Spyro replied. "So it was finders keepers."
"Cute." Larxene replied. "Real cute. You know, I was glad when Xemnas gave me permission to take you down because, I have a score to settle with you after you took my Beskar."
"So she's the one who mined the Beskar?" The Armorer asked.
"Yep, and these things surrounding us are Nobodies." Spyro replied. "Let's just say she's got a bone to pick with me."
"Enough talk, now we get to the fighting." Larxene said, raising her daggers up. "And maybe, just maybe, I'll let the little ponies go, but only after I'm done having fun with them."
That was the last straw for Spyro as he suddenly leapt forward and swung his blade, Larxene dodging the attack as she leapt up, but two of the Ninja's were hit instead and badly injured, being sent into a wall while he looked around for Larxene, finding her on a nearby roof top and throwing her daggers at him, which he blocked easily just as lightning shot down form the sky to hit him. He raised his Keyblade and blocked the lightning, using his own electrical abilities to redirect the bolt back towards Larxene as he threw his blade using Strike Raid, surrounding the Keyblade in a shell of electrical energy towards the Savage nymph, but she easily dodged the attack, but he suddenly appeared behind her and recalled his Keyblade, uppercutting her in the back and sending her higher in the air, but looked down after he heard what sounded like blaster fire, finding that Din and Paz were blasting away at the Dusks and Ninja's, which proved to be difficult for them as they are good at dodging their attacks, leaving Rarity and applejack to handle the Dusks, doing ok with hacking and slashing them, but when the Ninja's put their focus on them, Din and Paz lit them up, unleashing a storm of blaster bolts that ended up hitting them and destroying them.
Back in the sky, Larxene had managed to regain control of herself, turning around and diving towards Spyro while he was still in the air, watching the fight go down below, so she took the opportunity and threw her daggers again, this time they were encased by electricity, making the bolts of lightning arch between each of them, but Spyro just fell to the ground, avoiding the daggers and landing on his feet. A second later, he raised his blade above his head, flat on its side and blocked Larxene's attack, throwing her off and making her land behind him. She then tried to rush at him, rushing past him to land a hit, but he dodged her attack, infuriating her, so she encased herself with thunder and disappeared, only reappearing and when she did, she had two clones of herself standing next to her, all with their own daggers and the same sadistic smile.
"Oh, how I longed for a chance to fight the Prince one on one." Larxene said. "After you're gone, I'll be second in command, and we will destroy that pathetic world you are protecting!"
"That world is off limits to sadistic little creeps like yourself." Spyro said. "There is no way I'll let you hurt my friends."
"Oh, we're not going to hurt them." Larxene replied, smiling a dark smile. "We're just going to KILL THEM!"
She and her clones lunged forward, a sadistic laugh coming from all three of them as they all tried to take a slash at him, but a wall of darkness appeared in front of her, causing her to back off while her clones ran into the wall, disintegrating on impact. When the wall lowered down, Spyro rushed forward and swung the blade in her direction, striking her in the chest and sending her into a vendor, the rolling cart collapsing on top of her as if to add insult to injury. He turned to see if his friends needed help, but Rarity was handling herself, ignoring the fact that she was getting herself covered in sand while taking down a Dusk on her own before moving onto the next one while Applejack had finished off a couple of Ninja's in one strike and was backing up Paz and Din, keeping the Nobodies at bay when they got close while the two Mandalorians had no issue taking down some of the assassins before this could go underground. But as they destroyed them, more appeared from the void, which he could see that Rarity was getting exhausted while Applejack looked ok, but could see that all the fighting was starting to drain her as well.
He ran to them to give them a hand, but Larxene appeared out of nowhere in front of him, lunging at him with her daggers, but he just grabbed her wrist and spun her around, tossing her out of the way to get to his friends, but the nobody just flipped in the air and landed on the ground without any effort. A moment later, Spyro arrived and took out a few Ninja's that had appeared behind Rarity, destroying them with a single slice while picking her up and leaping back just as three of them unleashed a storm of lightning where they were at, returning to the group and looking around, finding themselves to be surrounded.
"They keep coming!" Din said, blasting another Dusk. "Where are they coming from?"
"Why are you asking, getting tired there?" Paz asked.
"Don't worry, these seem to be the last ones." Spyro said, looking at the Dusks.
"How the hay do you know that?" Applejack asked.
"By how few are arriving." Spyro replied, finding looking at the last few Dusks. "There are fewer enemies now, so that means this fight is nearly over."
"Maybe, but I'm still here." Larxene said, walking up to them. "My minions might not be up to snuff, but I can easily defeat you, even with your Mandalorian friends."
The Dusks approached the group, which Spyro just raised his Keyblade, smiling to himself as his friends raised their weapons, but a moment later, a Twilight Thorn shot out of the ground, floating in the air for a brief moment before landing on the ground and leering at the group, causing eveyrone to back up.
"Seriously!?" Spyro shouted. "A Twilight Thorn!"
"A what?" Applejack asked.
"It's one of the strongest Nobodies out there." Spyro replied, backing away. "These guys are mucho nasty. Heavy armor and heavy attacks. If we don't beat this thing in time, it'll make fighting a Darkside look like cake."
Paz then raised his blaster and started firing, but the bolts just bounced off of its armor and made the massive Nobody look down at them.
"What the...?" Paz asked.
"What part of heavy armor don't you get?" Spyro asked. "Its head is the only weak spot on this massive behemoth."
"Well that'll complicate things." Rarity said. "How are we going to get up there? None of us have wings."
Before he could explain anything, he was suddenly surrounded by a dark light, everyone backing away as a flash of light suddenly blinded everyone, but when they could see again, they saw that Spyro was suspended in the air, dangling as his limbs were restrained by balls of light just like Roxas when he first fought it.
"Spyro!" Rarity and Applejack shouted.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Larxene asked, walking up. "The Twilight Thorn can suspend its prey into the air, making them helpless. A fitting way to end this, don;t you think? The Prince of Light and Darkness, hanging helplessly in the air, unable to fight back, while-"
They then heard what sounded like a Keyblade striking something, turning to see the Twilight Thorn was knocked back while Spyro was still suspended in the air, annoying the massive Nobody, so it backed away and extended it's arms, grabbing him and tossed him into the air and raised it's arm to smack him as he fell, but he just flipped over it's attempted spike, striking it in the head and causing him to collapse on the ground.
"You wanted to know how you'd hit its head, now you know." Spyro said.
The two ponies looked at each other, shrugging their shoulders and charged towards the collapsed Twilight Thorn, hitting it's head a few times before it got back up and swung it's fist into the ground, creating a shock wave that blew the ponies away and into another building. Paz and Din then started to blast the Nobodies head, hitting the mark several times and causing the massive creature to use it's arms to block the bolts, but then the two Mandalorians turned their attention to the Dusks who had engaged the Armorer, rushing to help her while Spyro leapt up and used the Force to pull the behemoth down, making it slam into the ground and delivering a massive blow to it, which caused the Nobody to bounce into the sky and land on it's back. Before they could celebrate, the Nobody got back up, but could see it was shaking with rage, forming itself into two separate rings with it's head in the middle, glowing a white and purple light as dark lights appeared in the sky.
"Oh no." Spyro said. "We're too late!"
He looked back at the Mandalorians, who had finished the last of the Dusks, but looked to the Twilight Thorn, aiming their weapons to attack, but Spyro Force pushed them out of the range of the attack, keeping them safe, but saw that Rarity and Applejack were still in range of the Thorn attacks, so he rushed towards them and got in front of them, multiple thorn attacks shooting from the sky as they shot towards them, hitting the ground several times and making a screen of smoke that covered them and making it difficult to see anything. When the Twilight Thorn finally stopped its onslaught, Larxene walked up next to it, a look of surprise on her face as she defeated the prince. A smile then crept onto her face as her eyes shrunk to pin needles, laughing maniacally as she celebrated her victory.
"I did it!" Larxene shouted. "I defeated the Prince of Light and Darkness! I am the best!"
"He went back for his friends." Din said. "To try and save them."
"I didn't abandon them." Paz added. "He was loyal to them, wanting to protect them, even if it costed him his life."
"It seems we underestimated him." The Armorer said. "He was a true Mandalorian at heart. He was strong, honorable, and loyal to the end. He was a true Mandalorian."
The three Mandalorians starred at the cloud of smoke and sand, believing he was gone, but then everyone heard what sounded like shattering glass, Larxene's laughter stopping as she looked to the smoke and a second later, a purple dragon shot to the sky, roaring out as the sky above turned dark and stormy, surprising the Nobody and the Mandalorians, but following it was a white ethereal unicorn and an orange ethereal earth pony, both circling the dragon as it flew into the air until the three of them crashed into each other, releasing the colors purple, white, and orange as it shined down onto the battle field, blinding Larxene while the Mandalorians were watching as he descended from the sky and landed on the ground. When the light faded, Larxene looked at him, but was speechless as she saw his cloak and coat was orange on the right side with a lot of apples over it while the left was white with diamonds covering it. his hair then grew out to the length of Applejacks mane while curled like Rarity's, golden blonde on the right side, royal purple on the left, and regular purple in the middle.
He then opened his hands and immediately, the Keyblade he gets from Applejack appeared in his right hand and the one from Rarity appeared in his left, opening his eyes to reveal them to be royal purple, emerald green, and blue. Then Applejacks hat flew by, flying to his right and he caught it with his right hand, holding it from the top and putting the hat onto his head, swiping the rim as he looked up, smiling as he starred at Larxene, who was backing away in fright, and the Twilight Thorn, which was ready for another round of fighting.
"This town ain't big enough for the two of us." Spyro said, his voice and his friends fused together. "Let alone three. How about you mosey along and never return."
"Seriously?" Larxene asked. "You think this is a Wild West TV show or something?"
He didn't answer or get to as the Twilight Thorn sent it's arms out to catch him, but instead a massive ethereal diamond appeared in front of him, sending the arms through it, but closing the diamond portal, cutting it's arms off as dark light shined out of the wounds, causing it to screech out in pain, but Spyro just launched himself into the air, conjuring more diamonds above him and out of them, several massive apples flew out and slammed into the massive Nobody, crushing it in an explosion of fruity chunks, leaving Larxene speechless. She then drew her daggers and charged at him, throwing the daggers to hit, but instead of getting a clean it, the diamond appeared again, blocking the attack and launching a torrent of razor sharp rubies and sapphires at Larxene, causing her to raise her arms to block the gems, but ended up getting cut and seriously injured as she leapt back, her injuries healing, but was then struck into the air, followed closely by Spyro as a diamond column erupted from the ground and punched him into the air.
Larxene managed to regain control of herself and flipped, righting herself, but was then struck in the gut by his Keyblade before being backhanded to the ground, causing her to create a crater and a column of dust, making the Nobody cough the dust out of her lungs as she stumbled out of the crater. She looked around and saw that her opponent was floating down to the ground effortlessly, gently landing on the ground, so she tried throwing her daggers at him and rushing forward with two in her hands. Spyro dodged and deflected the thrown daggers while side stepping and dodging Larxene's attacks, using his blades to deflect and block her attacks until she encased herself in lightning again, creating two clones of herself again and tried to surround him, striking from all directions, but he just dodged and leapt around, avoiding her attacks and using the Force to tell which was the real one, using Strike Raid to hit her in the chest and knock her down, dazing her as she got up.
"I've had about enough of this!" She shouted.
She then brought her hands together, cupping them together as massive storm clouds above them circled around her, bolts of lightning arcing across the sky as she conjured a spell to do some real damage, releasing a bombardment of lightning down on Spyro, but he smelled his foot on the ground and immediately multiple spikes of diamonds and topaz shot out of the ground, turning themselves into lightning rods that captured the lightning and dispersed it into the ground. Larxene saw that he had negated her spell and was shocked at how powerful he was, drawing her daggers again to continue the fight, but the ground beneath her started to shake as an ethereal apple appeared underneath her, roots and vines shot out of the sand and wrapped around her, the savage nymph slicing through some of the vines before being tied up by the branches and vines. When the plant was done growing, it was revealed to be a massive apple tree with multiple apples having already been grown and were ready to pick, falling off the tree and towards Spyro, who kicked them back into the air and towards the tree, hitting the trunk dead in the middle and leaving a crack, which Spyro leapt up and a ethereal diamond appeared in front of him, teleporting him to the spot where the crack was in the tree and slicing through it, the tree falling down and causing a large explosion to follow, flinging Larxene to the ground.
She managed to get up, but dark magic streams was flowing out of her, some escaping into the air while the rest appeared as a dark purple liquid, the Nobody holding her arm as she tried to keep her wounds closed, hissing at the prince.
"Now I understand why Marluxia warned me against fighting you directly." Larxene said, barely standing. "Your power, your friends, this bond you have with them, it makes you stronger."
"Strong enough to take anyone on." Spyro said, his eyes turning purple. "And I'm not even close to done with you yet."
"Fortunately for me, i have other things to attend to." Larxene said.
A corridor opened up behind her and she turned around, rushing to the corridor and disappearing into it as it closed behind her, giving Spyro some breathing room as the Drive ran out of energy, separating the three of them.
"You are stronger than I first thought you to be." The Armorer said, walking to the as Spyro and his friends turned to face them. "You are more than you appear to be."
"That is the power of my bond with my friends." Spyro said, kneeling down and wrapping an arm around the two ponies. "As long as I'm with my friends, nothing can stop me."
"It's good to have friends you can count on." The Armorer said. "They are like your clan, and a clan is only strong when they are together."
"Armorer, the fight will have drawn the Hutts attention." Paz said. "We must leave before they arrive."
The six of them went back into the space port and returned to their respectable vessels, which Spyro went in to get some peggats to thank the engineer for keeping an eye on his ship, but when he came out, he saw that the Armorer and Din were outside waiting for him, walking towards him with something in her hand.
"Though you are not Mandalorian, you have the spirit of one." The Armorer said, moving to the side to reveal a crate. "I brought this along as I was sure you would need them."
"What's in it?" Spyro asked.
"Tools." She replied. "Molds, blank ones for armor and for Signets. And a map where you can find us when you need us."
"I don't understand." Spyro said. "I could have made my own molds as I had other ideas for what my armor and my friends armor would look like, but why a map of where to find you?"
"The Children of the Watch, much like other Mandalorian clans, follow a code." The Armorer replied. "A creed you might say. We respect strength, honor, and courage. You showed all three when you dove to save your friends, sacrificing your own to keep them safe and by protecting us when the creature you called 'Twilight Thorn' when it attacked. You have earned my respect as you kept on fighting, even when the odds were against you."
"It is rare for an outsider to earn the respect of the Watch." Din said, walking up. "When the time comes, when you or your allies need help, we will be there."
Before he could ask anything else, the two Mandalorians turned around and left them alone, leaving them with the crate, returning to their own ship right as the attendant came out of his station and towards them, which Spyrpo paid for the use of the port and for some of the maintenance he performed before taking the crate into the ship and storing it in the cargo bay, securing it to the ground before coming to the cockpit, seeing that the girls were strapped in and waiting on him.
"We all ready to go home?" Spyro asked.
"You have no idea how ready I am." Rarity replied. "When we get back, I'm going to take a nice bubble bath and relax."
"Don't relax too soon Rare." Spyro said, activating the ship. "We still have some training to do tonight."
"Oh, can't we just skip the training this time around?" Rarity asked. "My mane has sand in it and it feels all scratchy against my coat."
"Sorry little princess, no can do." Applejack replied. "If we're doing the training, ya'll are doing it too."
While Rarity groaned and complained about wanting to skip training, Spyro put in the coordinates for the return trip back to Equestria, charging up the engines and sending the ship into Warp Space to head back home, but at the Nobody Stronghold, Larxene had just returned from her mission, severely injured and heading into the healing chamber when she came across Xemnas, standing in front of the chamber and blocking her path.
"Sir, I apologize for my failure to destroy the prince." Larxene said. "He was too powerful."
"Indeed, he is." Xemnas said. "Which is why we are going to take a completely different approach."
"What do you mean sir?" Larxene asked.
He motioned for Larxene to follow him into the healing chamber, the door opening for the two Nobodies as he discussed what he had in store for the Prince and his friends.