Chapter Text
He and Donald, (and Pluto too by extension) were sent here to protect the Princess of Heart of this world as the world in question was on the brink of getting close to falling into darkness, in a natural sort of way that couldn’t be helped. It would awaken again eventually, maybe even restart itself but not for a few years or if light returned to as many worlds as possible, it was always too soon to say for certain.
After he met Donald and his eccentric family that also knew of other worlds existing, (they even had a ship to traverse them if need be and for business ventures apparently), Donald felt it prudent that he be followed around for safety in numbers, he even started learning how to use magic under Master Yen Sid’s instruction. Donald took to it better and faster than Mickey himself did, regardless, it was nice to have company and someone to talk and relate to about all the secrets they had to keep for the sake of the World Order wherever they went.
As soon as they got here to blend in, Donald's magic provided them with janitor’s supplies and cheap overalls. That was how they ended up meeting Goofy, by already being mistaken for janitors of the Musketeer’s quarters and training grounds. They ended up staying janitors for a year and a half before the Captain of the Musketeers randomly decided to finally promote them to being Musketeers themselves, after an entire year and a half of begging to be such in the first place, and blatantly denied the day before the Captain changed his mind all of a sudden. Eerily their luck was even luckier still that they were also to be the princess’ bodyguards. Never mind that they never saw a single Heartless this entire time.
Donald was instantly suspicious, and Mickey couldn’t help but agree. Goofy was completely oblivious to their exact worries but knew they were worried about something and did everything he could to cheer them up whenever they had long faces. It worked, more for Mickey than Donald but Mickey’s laughter was contagious so even the easily frustrated duck couldn’t help but ease up on his temper and laugh along.
Then their luck had to twist slightly as they waited to be introduced to the princess. Goofy had bumped into a suit of armor as they chit-chatted and its ax fell and spooked him something fierce. One thing led to another and they all ended up wrestling it, mostly to get it off of Goofy but then it was a scramble to put it back in place before…
The door opened.
Donald and Goofy were quick to salute and Mickey followed suit, the mangled suit of armor fell over and the princess finally came into Mickey’s immediate view.
Oh. No. Oh no. Oh no no no no!
A mantra of panic flew through Mickey’s mind in a similar fashion. He had seen others fall in love countless times and always thought it was silly, never once thinking it would ever happen to him anytime soon. Yet here it was, she was a mouse like him, about the same height too since the throne she sat in was huge in comparison and her dainty feet dangled despite the air of nobility she held. He could see it in her eyes that she was smitten too, eyes that begged him to come closer since this throne room was also atrociously huge, but he tried to resist because he had a job to do and he feared Master Yen Sid’s wrath more than anything, that and he didn’t know how to proceed since it seemed rude to even break from the salute just to walk in and be a respectable ten feet from her.
Gosh darn it she was pretty, adorable even, her bangs helped frame her face cutely, and her eyes…the kindest he had ever seen. Well, at least this gave him enough incentive to protect her from the darkness more so than the fact that he was already tasked with it, and now he had a reason to give his life to protect her if need be. And that was despite feeling something shift in the cosmos, as if this was meant to happen despite all the factors of this entire situation stating otherwise. All he knew was that no matter what was to come in the near future…he had to keep her in his life, he had to keep those eyes in his life, royalty or not.
Captain Pete eventually motioned for them to come forward, so they clumsily moved around the suit of armor and into the throne room proper. Then the princess’ lady in waiting showed up, he noticed Donald stiffen at the corner of his eye (the love bug must have bit him too), and she offered Roquefort to everyone, a cheese that needed to be sliced, and there was a small tableware knife on the platter.
Goofy jumped at the sight of it, and the mouse and duck beside him jumped to stop him from doing something silly…stupid would be more accurate, but Goofy’s heart is in the right place, so ‘silly’ it shall remain.
“Goofy, no! Down, big guy! It’s harmless!” Mickey shrilled as he tried holding the dog fellow from behind.
“Calm down, ya big palooka! She’s not gonna hurt the princess with a knife that puny! It doesn’t even look sharp!” Donald added hoping Goofy could understand him despite his speech impediment, trying to keep the goof at bay from the front.
“It doesn’t?” Goofy asked, physically calm as if a balloon popped, his demeanor switched so instantaneously. Mickey and Donald tripped over themselves at the sudden lack of movement and in exasperation. Goofy then squinted at the knife skeptically, as if examining it from where he stood, still being held back by Mickey and Donald.
“It only meant ta cut through cheeses, and besides that’s her Lady in Waiting, her most trusted servant, uh… her best friend! She’s not ever gonna harm the princess!” Mickey emphasized, having to pause to think of a good layman’s term that even Goofy would understand.
“Oh! Well, why didn’t ya say so?”
Everyone nearly fainted at that declaration.Though Donald noticed Captain Pete was trying to hold his laughter at bay.
“Why are we friends again?” Donald whispered with a deadpan look on his face as he really did catch Mickey, who fell over mid-faint.
“Donald!” Mickey harshly whispered back, righting himself back up upon comprehending it.
“Uh, it should’ve been obvious, Goof. Now, c’mon, let’s apologize.” Mickey turned to Goofy and gently instructed him, hat off and bowing deeply at the waist, making sure the other two copied him, Donald especially, silently glaring to remind him that they were a team darn it. The duck complied regardless, “We’re sorry, your grace and your ladyship. Goofy’s like a well oiled machine that’s, uh, wound a little too tight. He thought she was a villain.”
Mickey was too mortified by the whole thing to dare to look up so he didn’t see the princess look to her Lady in Waiting in question to be the one to forgive them.
“Well, your heart was in the right place, so yeah, I guess I forgive you.”
“I do as well to second my Lady in Waiting. I certainly feel safer already.”
Mickey’s ears perked at the second voice, already piecing together that it was the Princess. Her voice was honey sweet and adorable, which scared him as he realized he was already starting to fall in love with her. His impending doom with Master Yen Sid scared him more though.
Mickey was morbidly mortified after that whole first impression, he was sure she hated him now…or at the very least simply tolerated his presence because he was assigned to protect her. He wasn’t entirely sure if he preferred it that way since he had to focus on protecting her anyway since Master Yen Sid would absolutely kill him otherwise. That and her world falling to darkness or not this world’s customs might kill him, he was pretty sure a commoner courting with royalty was severely frowned upon, enough to get one killed by beheading, even so, he had to be careful in general. Plus, she’s a princess by title, that definitely meant even her word could be overruled, so she didn’t really have as much power as she probably liked to say she had, sole ruler of her kingdom and country or not, and that was if she liked him enough to try and vouch for him.
Gosh darn it, why did she have to be so pretty?
He tried flicking his wrist again and nothing happened, he tried not to groan at his silent failure, but Donald managed to hear it anyway.
“Having trouble summoning it, aren’t you?” The mouse said nothing so the duck continued. “Pretty sure it's partly because you’re falling in love, magic of all kinds tends to act weird because of it, even fails to work at times, some thought it was due to puberty but others are determined that no it's not just puberty, it is indeed falling in love that does it, especially in the early stages since you might stop believing in yourself at times. I’ll warn you now it might happen to me too.”
“I already figured that , ya stiffened at the sight of the Princess’ Lady in Waiting. Kinda funny we fell in love at roughly the same time, huh?” Mickey replied sarcastically at first just to point out how obvious it was to him that Donald fell in love too.
The duck rolled his eyes as his initial response before actually responding.
“Yeah well, at least we’ll fail together when it starts to matter.”
“Huh? Whaddaya mean?”
“Our magic isn’t gonna work very well, dummy! I won’t be able to shoot fireballs for beans and you won’t be able to summon your-!” Donald caught himself as he was riled up, a rare occurrence. “You won’t be able to summon your Keyblade very easily.” Donald managed to whisper.
“Oh no, how are we gonna find the keyhole without it?” Mickey asked as he had suddenly realized the dreaded reality of their situation.
“I don’t think we have to. Master Yen Sid said this place was gonna fall apart on its own, right? So why bother? We’d only be delaying the inevitable, and he sent us here to protect the Princess of Heart so…wouldn’t that mean taking her out of this world too? To keep her safe?”
“That…makes sense…but it doesn’t entirely sound like something Master Yen Sid would let us do…all willy nilly… but you’re right because how else would we….keep her safe if we hafta… let the world itself perish …” Mickey argued slowly, piecing together things that both made sense and didn’t.
“Maybe he planned ahead in knowing you and your antics for once…saw it in the stars or something that you would fall in love with the Princess of Heart, whose world was going to crumble and knew you’d act accordingly?” Donald argued back lightly, just as slowly but more succinct about it. “And since I’m falling in love too, you have my full support on how we go about this.”
“Thanks, Donald…let’s hope it isn’t too drastic…say how many people can we fit in the Gummi Ship?”
“We’re planning our escape plan now?” The two of them were on the back of the carriage, Goofy was driving, and the women of their still-forming affections were right in front of them, separated by a mere window and the material of the carriage itself.
“Might as well. Better ta be prepared than not.” Mickey shrugged with a smidgen of confidence one had when actually figuring it was better to prepare something than thinking of it last minute.
“Oy vey, fine , since we’d probably have the girls in our laps since there aren’t enough seats, nevermind that we’re taking Pluto back home with us…we’d probably be able to take Goofy with us too if that's what you’re really asking.” Donald answered, jutting his chin towards the Goof in question.
“Good, I wouldn’t wanna say goodbye ta him fer forever anyway. He’s too nice ta fall with this world, and it feels like I've known him forever too!” Mickey replied seriously.
“Yeah, I noticed. It is pretty hard not to like the guy. If I didn’t know any better I’d say he’s the heart of this world, not the Princess or wherever the keyhole actually is.” Donald deadpanned with a teeny tiny smirk at the corner of his bill.
Mickey chortled as he agreed, snorting even, it was too funny of a thought.
Meanwhile, inside the carriage Princess Minnie sighed wistfully as she was just able to make out her crush’s laughter outside the back carriage window.
“ Oh , even his laughter’s adorable, Daisy! Now all he needs to do is make me laugh and I’ll know for sure that he’s the one!”
“Still a commoner.” Daisy chastised simply with another obnoxious sip of her beverage. “And non college bound. You know what that means.”
“Our love is… forbidden ?” Minnie guessed excitedly rather than deterring her.
“ Bingo .” Daisy replied practically in sing-song after finishing another big sip, if not finishing off her drink.
“A forbidden love! How romantic~ !” Minnie sighed blissfully, heart and mind racing through a myriad of innocently romantic thoughts that could happen in the near future with him.
There was one slightly naughty thought that came to mind though, he was just outside the back window and directly behind her, if she subtly turned ever so slightly to her left… No, she still had to lean into Daisy in order to get the view just right…
“Don’t even think about it. I’m not letting you oogle his calves in those form fitting boots.” Daisy chastised, lightly pushing the princess away from her lap as she knew what she was trying to do.
“I give you explicit permission to be able to court your obvious intended.” Minnie offered as a tiny bribe while also meaning it. After all, any handmaidens in a princess’ inner court had to be given permission to go a-courting.
“ Hah! Thanks but no thanks, he may be kinda cute too but he’s not that cute.” Daisy nearly guffawed but only the one note for that one.
Suddenly it felt like they went over a bump while at the same time something landed on the roof of the carriage, something big, three big somethings even. Then they heard the muffled cries of their musketeers shouting ‘bad guys’ in sequential order, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy.
“Alright, lay down on the bottom of the carriage.” Daisy warned with a slight groan of annoyance. “If they’re gonna fight up there I don’t want you getting stabbed if it's actually an assassination attempt.”
Minnie did as she was told as Daisy guarded her from hovering over top of her, the bumpiness of the ride getting worse as the horses got spooked from the hijacking.
Mickey and Donald drew their swords but didn’t join the three bad guys, who Donald vaguely recognised to be a weird iteration of Beagle Boys from his home world, on top of the carriage. They had the home advantage of the wind beating them in the face, they just needed to trip the Beagle Boys to get them off the carriage.
Then they saw Goofy get flung from the carriage and all bets were off, the mouse and duck scrambled onto the top of the carriage and just flung themselves into the hijacking Beagle Boys, aiming for the knees because of their short statures compared to two of the three Beagle Boys. Though since the second taller one was the culprit behind flinging Goofy off, it was really just the one tall and one small ones that Mickey and Donald were up against.
So, Mickey flung himself into the tall one’s knees, and Donald flung himself into the small one’s stomach. It landed as the Beagle Boys were playing chicken since they were too busy mocking how small Mickey and Donald were, not that the smaller Beagle Boy was one to talk.
There wasn’t much of a plan after bowling into them, Mickey and Donald settled for punches instead, their swords wouldn’t do much good at such close range.Two punches in for our little heroes and they were kicked off of the Beagles and, consequently, off of the carriage.
After rolling in the road to keep from breaking any bones unnecessarily, Mickey cried out for the Princess, hopelessly watching the carriage disappear on the horizon. It actually hurt a little to see her awe-struck panic and confusion look back through the window.
There was no helping it right this second, they needed to gather up Goofy before they went off after them. Hopefully this was a simple kidnapping to get her out of the way for time constraint reasons and they were taking her to that tower in the distance. But they could speculate about that later. They really needed to get Goofy out of that Mud Pond (he saw the sign for it when they turned a bend).
“We should’ve used magic, obviously not Thunder ‘cause that would’ve scared the horses more than they already were, but still-! Ice probably would’ve been best since a fireball would’ve flown back in our faces from the wind.” Donald grumped as they located Goofy and slid down the ridge to get to him in the mud pond.
“I was taught ta never use magic on anything but the Heartless, plus we’d be severely ruining the World Order if we used it against those guys.” Mickey harshly whispered back.
“That’s another thing that’s weird, we’ve been here all this time, and if this world is going down, why haven’t we seen any?” Donald whispered back now that they were within Goofy’s earshot, even keeping himself vague in case the Goof was able to comprehend things past his speech impediment.
“That…has me worried too, but fer now it just means that we gotta stay on our toes.” Mickey hesitated, before addressing the more important factor right this second. “C’mon, Goofy, let’s hurry after them!”
“Did we fail?” Goofy asked mournfully and with confusion.
“Minor setback.” Donald told him, as he and Mickey helped Goofy up and out of the mud below them.
“We weren’t prepared enough fer that kind of fight, it could’ve easily happened t’ anybody, but we can still catch up to ‘em if we hurry.” Mickey reassured the goof, smiling more as Goofy’s smile picked back up.
“Yeah! Let’s get ‘em! Which way did they go?” Goofy asked, enthusiasm back up thanks to the support of his friends.
“I saw a tower in the distance up ahead. If they wanted ta get rid of the Princess fer good they woulda done it right then and there, but they didn’t. So they must just be getting her out of the way fer a bit. I’d bet good Munny about that tower being the perfect place ta keep her.” Mickey reasoned as he climbed back up the ridge and helped the other two up and out as well.
“You said it! Let’s get the girls back!” Donald crowed cheerfully, agreeing wholeheartedly that it would be that simple.
“All for one!” Mickey started, drawing his sword up, the other two copied.
“And one for all!” The trio cajoled in unison, swords clanging as they cheered, gearing themselves up for the challenge ahead.
Sure enough after a brisk jog in the direction the carriage had kept going, they actually came across it, and the tower in question not too much further ahead. The horses were fine thankfully, and given a quick treat from a packed up oat bag to stay put while they got down to business.
“They’re underestimating us.” Donald noted, pointing out the draw bridge that was still down.
“Good, we can use that to our advantage.” Mickey said simply, slightly astonished himself that it was this easy.
But then he thought better of it, these were hired thugs, and hired to simply kidnap and whisk away the princess for an undetermined amount of time, needing her alive for whatever the ultimate goal was for, presumably for whoever hired them. Some important event must’ve been coming up, but he’d have to ask the princess about that later.
“Seriously? The door isn’t even locked! What kind of bad guys are these?” Donald complained again as he had noticed the push sign on the door, and easily pushed it open with a mere finger.
“Now, now, let’s not jinx ourselves yet, this might’ve been a rush job for them but they still managed ta get the upper hand on us -!” He stopped short as he realized that they had already jinxed themselves. The Beagle Boys had at least a twenty minute head start and there were a lot of stairs.
“Wow! That’s a lot of stairs!” Cried Goofy in astonishment.
“Yeah, no kidding.” Both Mickey and Donald said in nearly defeated unison.
There wasn’t even an elevator, like the kind a janitor could use to wash really high off the ground windows.
“Welp, best get started!” Goofy cheered as he grabbed the duck and mouse under one arm a pop and started barreling up the stairs like a mad lad.
Mickey and Donald yelped halfway up at first just because of how sudden and fast Goofy was going. Then they nearly missed their stop as Goofy managed to run past their targets. Mickey managed to wiggle free from Goofy’s grasp upon his realization, Donald wasn’t so lucky and went out the window with Goofy on the top floor going through a tree, a cow, a windmill and through the same window they came out of, bumping and bouncing tush over tea kettle down the stairs, past Mickey. Though the mouse had enough sense to at least catch Donald, and in turn, the duck just had just enough sense to catch Goofy…with his webbed feet.
A collective sigh of relief wafted from our ragtag heroes. However that brief respite was shorter than the smallest leprechaun, as they had to pick themselves up as the Beagle Boys drew their own blades, after tossing the Princess and her Lady in Waiting into a nearby cage that was hanging from a ceiling beam. The girls screamed as their cage swung precariously, and Mickey called after her highness worriedly, but of course had to redirect his attention to the enemies at hand.
“I might be prone to cheating this fight a little.” Donald whispered at the corner of his beak to Mickey on his right.
“Don’t do it unless ya lose yer sword over the edge.” Mickey whispered back at the corner of his own mouth, knowing the duck was referring to using magic.
“Got it.”
“Let’s have some fun with these blighters, eh?” Egged one of the tall Beagle Boys to his own two compatriots before all three of them charged up the stairs.
Our heroic trio had the field advantage this time being on the high ground, didn’t make the ‘no outer hand rails to this ginormous spiral staircase’ thing any less intimidating, but at least two of our three boys had their patience run thin today, and that meant taking a few very uncalculated risks that they normally wouldn’t. Donald flung himself at one of them, grabbing the hood and pulling it tighter and further over the front of their head and face, and just started wailing on the guy.
Mickey did something similar but kept his sword out for a jumping slash, and did his own series of punches even with his sword’s handguard, anything to catch his opponent off guard.
Goofy was the only one in proper sword fighting stance, parrying and thrusting accordingly as if it were all a dance, but still a sword fight. He was only distracted by the Beagle Boy lying about seeing Halley’s comet in the distance somewhere.
However before Goofy’s Beagle Boy could pull his hat tightly over his head, Mickey had managed to get on and around his corresponding Beagle Boy’s back and was trying to choke him with his sword and got between Goofy and his foe.
“Not gonna be able ta see it ‘till most likely sometime in the next three years Goof, it only comes once every 75 ta 79 years, plus its daylight out, we got a bit ta go!” Mickey shrilled as he tried to keep hold of his grip on the chokehold, but with a rapier he knew it wouldn’t last.
“Okay, thanks Mickey!” Goofy replied, actually understanding every word, if he was a smidgen disappointed that Halley’s comet wasn’t actually there, he didn’t show it and went right back to fighting, but now had a slight disadvantage by having the lower ground as his respective opponent had snuck around, nevermind that Goofy parried to perfection and was otherwise, seemingly undeterred.
“And how did you even know that?” Donald queried as he decided to just tackle the small Beagle Boy and bite him on the shoulder with his inherited goose teeth.
“I was an apprentice to a guy who studied the stars as a hobby! It's called astrology!” Mickey squawked back as his sword broke and he had to quickly use his arms for the choke hold, while having to deal with the pain of being bashed against the wall in the Beagle Boy’s effort to shake him off.
“I know what it is! I’m just surprised you memorized the amount of years it takes to be able to see one measly comet!” Donald retorted, he sounded miffed because he was fighting anyway, but his shorter Beagle Boy pulled out a thicker, almost pirate like sword, after Donald had disarmed him of the original rapier. His own rapier wasn’t going to stand a chance much longer and he was very tempted to summon his wand instead. Even if he still managed to keep himself from using magic, at least bopping him on the head would be plenty effective.
“It’s the only comet visible ta the naked eye without usin’ a telescope! Other! Than! Meteor showers!” Mickey shot back with every exclamation being another attempt from his foe to bash him against the wall. Mickey wasn’t budging for anything.
Finally, Mickey’s Beagle Boy passed out from the lack of oxygen, Mickey made sure he still had a pulse before actually maneuvering the guy to be a little more comfortable on the stairs. He snagged his enemy’s sword so he didn’t have to resort to his Keyblade, and then debated his next target. One down, two to go.
Donald and his opponent would be the easier of the two as they were closer and in the most malicious of tactics, very easy to handle since Mickey had a clear shot of pushing the shorter Beagle Boy over the edge since these stairs had no hand rails on the outer edge. But that was too dark even for the sake of protecting the princess and winning a fight. There was a chance the beagle could land on the stairs lower and across the way, but Mickey didn’t want to chance it in case he wasn’t strong enough to push him that far. That was a lot of calculated physics, and Mickey was only average at math.
Regardless, Goofy seemed to be doing okay with his opponent despite being on the low ground, but Donald was definitely struggling as his sword was definitely on the verge of breaking against the strength of the thicker cutlass.
Helping Donald it was then, as Mickey snuck up behind the Beagle Boy, Donald tried not to react to let his friend have the sneaky upper hand of whatever he was doing. Mickey then jumped and tugged the Beagle’s hood further down his face, and pulled him to the side so he’d run into the wall.
“Hey, Goofy! Need a hand?” Mickey asked as he and Donald charged up the stairs to assist if need be.
“Don’t know what good a third hand would do me, but sure, I got an idea anyway!” Goofy replied cheerfully, still parrying and thrusting in a fair stalemate of a swordfight to perfection.
“Lay it on us, Goof!
“We gotta get these fellers tuh the top floor!” Goofy explained as he managed to do-si-do around his opponent so that he had the high ground and led the Beagle Boy upstairs to the top.
“Oh no.” Donald groaned and when Mickey looked at him he vaguely explained. “I know what he’s planning, you go with him this time. I’ll stay here and make sure the girls stay safe.”
“What’s he planning?” Mickey asked without understanding Donald’s hesitance.
“It’s a good idea, but I’m not going on that ride again thank you kindly. You can go in my stead.” Was all Donald gave, waving him off in a shooing motion.
“Okay, then, I’m countin’ on ya!” Mickey said, putting his trust into Donald on this one. Then he got the attention of ‘Shorty’ and the big fella he had choked into unconsciousness (who had awakened to Shorty whispering some French words into his ear, French words make him mad apparently) to egg them on into following him up the stairs.
Mickey was a bit surprised at how successful that was since they completely passed by Donald without even looking at him. Regardless, the Beagle Boys got cocky as they considered themselves to have the upper hand since Mickey found that there really was nowhere else to go in this glorified attic.
“I’m up for whatever your plan is, Goofy.” Mickey mentioned as he was starting to really not like being cornered like this even if it was part of the plan.
“Oh good. HOT SOUP COMIN’ THROUGH!” Goofy bellowed as he grabbed Mickey and ran through the Beagle Boys and out the window.
“That was a bit of a barney, wa’n’t it?” Uttered the tall one that didn’t like French words.
Mickey shrieked as he and Goofy bounced off a tree, got kicked by a cow, went counter clockwise around the windmill and flung back to the top of the tower, punting the Beagle Boys out the other window and into the moat below.
Though the day was finally won, Mickey and Goofy’s momentum hadn’t stopped yet as they came tumbling tush over tea kettle down the stairs. Donald let them go just so they could tumble through the birdcage the girls were in to let them out upon the momentum of their exit, Donald caught Daisy bridal style, while the others (Princess included) kept tumbling down the stairs. Donald was in no hurry to help stop them from 87 floors of this tumblery, he was too busy trying to earn brownie points, knowing fully well that he wasn’t going to get very many since he let the princess tumble down with the other two, but he’d take what he could get.
“Hi again, I’m Donald.” He greeted cheekily, setting her down on the sturdiest looking step and trying not to look down too much.
“Daisy. Charmed I’m sure.” She greeted simply before touching on the obvious. “You’re really not gonna stop them? That’s a lot of floors.”
“I blame the architect, all these stairs and not a single corner platform to take a break from them. And those bad guys for taking you here and all the way up for whatever reason… oh that reminds me, anything important and public coming up?” Donald asked as he pulled one of the strings of the bit of rope made into a bow to release her from her bonds.
Daisy blinked a lot, first at how her ropes seemed to spring away from her because of how poofy her dress was and how tightly she was bound in the first place and how he had calculated that as he had taken two steps down the stairs to avoid most of the springiness, then at his question .
“Well, public yes, important… not really…we’re going to the opera tomorrow night.”
“...That’ll do it. That gives us the where and when, now we just need the who, what, and why for all this.” Donald hesitated only because his eye twitched in comprehension, then decided to explain a little of the ongoing theory as they started down the stairs together, he held her hand to help her down the stairs.
“Those bad guys were probably hired by somebody, somebody nice enough that they didn’t want to kill the princess, but just get her out of the way for a bit, hence the kidnapping. Whatever they’re ultimately planning, they’re gonna do it at the opera, in front of the public, and that could be any number of things.”
“Great, we might as well reschedule then, for the night after to prevent things a little.” Daisy groaned for her Princess’ sake, she wasn’t going to be happy to postpone her night off in order to do more paperwork.
“That’s definitely a safe plan.” Donald agreed, though he started to internally scream at the further thought process of a great deal of things that added up in his head, and he knew Mickey wouldn’t be happy about it either.
As they neared the bottom of the stairs they heard the Princess’ laughter echo through the open door to the tower. Daisy groaned again and practically scoffed muttering how she couldn’t believe that now the princess really did think he was the one.
“For what it's worth, he said he fell in love with her too.” Donald offered.
He tried to not flinch at Daisy’s immediate glare at him, whether or not he was successful, he decided to at least add an afterthought. “He won’t intentionally hurt her. After all, he already knows he’s not supposed to court her, otherwise someone higher in status than even her, might notice and would execute him without warning.”
Daisy’s gaze actually softened, and quirked a brow at him, curious that these boys were actually trying to be careful.
As they reached the bottom of the stairs and the open doorway Donald let go of her hand respectfully and rested his hand behind his back. They found that Goofy had brought the carriage closer and was double checking the horses. Meanwhile the Princess and Mickey were looking at each other with stupid smitten grins.
“Alright, break it up you two! No courting commoners on my watch, we are going home!” Daisy huffed loudly, gently turning the princess around and pushed her away from Mickey and toward the carriage.
Princess Minnie was very quick to protest being separated from her newly found and confirmed love, and her heart ached at the sight of his understanding but equally dismayed face as he drooped at being reminded of his place in social standing. That simply wouldn’t do!
“Hey, waitaminute, won’t the bad guys come back for the princess, as soon as they recover from their swim?” Goofy asked suddenly, a hand over his eyes to block out the sun as if he spotted the Beagle Boys in the distance.
“I hate to say it but Goofy’s right,” Donald offered.
“I am?” Goofy asked in bewilderment.
“Ya sure are, Goof!” Mickey cajoled, catching onto an idea that Goofy probably wasn’t actually planning in his head.
“The carriage might not be so safe for her highness.” Donald added for the sake of it, and to take any of Daisy’s ire of her apparent disagreement.
Daisy actually stopped and turned to glare at him again, daring him to elaborate.
“We didn’t kill the bad guys, and they were hired and are on a schedule, and are probably still in the moat on the other side of the tower, tactfully drying off hopefully. But anyway, they’d go after the carriage again and as we learned the hard way today, we are not good at combat on a moving carriage. So why not use it as a diversion while the princess gets escorted back to the palace on foot. I’ll stay with Goofy and the carriage to make it look good, and Mickey can escort the princess back home on foot.” Donald explained slowly to avoid confusion despite his speech impediment, nudging Mickey in the side to make him say something reassuring.
“Right, an’ if she gets tired, I’ll carry her the rest of the way if need be!” Mickey managed to come up with without missing a beat, smiling reassuringly.
Daisy squinted skeptically, first at Donald for making so much sense, then at Mickey because she couldn’t chaperone them if she allowed this, and she knew she had to. The carriage decoy needed a person inside it to make it look really good and it was a decent plan considering the circumstances. She then looked to her princess, only to see her silently begging to agree again like she did this morning. The one time that she hated that Princess Minnie was unbearably cute, it had to be for this.
“ Fine , but know that I don’t like this one bit.” Daisy told her charge, then she let Minnie go and wheeled in on Mickey. “And as for you! If you so much as let one hair on her head-!”
“I swear on my own life that I will not let any harm come to her, you have my solemn vow.” Mickey pledged, taking off his hat and getting down on one knee, hat in hand over his heart.
“Are you willing to die for her too?” Daisy tested.
“Of course.” Mickey replied without hesitation, and even if he did stop to think about his answer, he would’ve answered the same thing.
“Alright then…make sure you use the back entrance through the gardens, that should help stall for more time and add to the diversion.” Daisy relented.
“Oh thank you, Daisy! We’ll try to make it back before it gets too dark.” Princess Minnie tried to reassure her friend and Lady in Waiting in her own way to soothe whatever tension had obviously spurred from all this.
“You better, and no funny business or I’ll quit!” Daisy harshly whispered in Minnie’s ear.
“ Daisy! I would never!” The princess shrieked, turning beet red.
Mickey did too but hid it behind his hat as he had to scream without putting air into it because he had overheard what Daisy had whispered, and knew what she really meant despite being tactfully vague about it, more so since the princess had caught on as well and replied appropriately. His ears were more than just for decoration after all.
Regardless, the plan was set into motion as soon as Donald, Goofy, and Daisy rode the carriage off into the distance back to the palace parallel to the mice before getting ahead of them because of the horses’ natural speed. Leaving Mickey and Princess Minnie alone for the first time since meeting this early afternoon.
Minnie was thrilled, and Mickey was nervous, but he somehow managed to keep his composure as he kept mentally telling himself that he had nothing to be afraid of. Except for why they hadn’t seen any Heartless yet, but he’d cross that bridge when they finally started showing up.
“So, you were an apprentice once? What was the apprenticeship for, if I may ask?” The princess started, just to get a conversation going if anything while they walked.
“Cartography, believe or not…but my Master already had a bunch of other apprentices that he didn’t always have time ta focus on my training so I ended up being more of a chore boy…fetching water mostly and patching up the other apprentices’ uniforms since my family business was in tailoring, and he probably also didn’t teach me right away ‘cause I was too eager. So he made me learn about responsibility first.” He explained, knowing that she’d know what Cartography even was, and since it was a big fancy word for making maps, it would make him seem even more intelligent than he let on, more so for having some sewing skills.
“Really? Did you ever get to make any maps?” She asked excitedly.
“Only two, my very first one was a simple kind that was a sketch of a fictional land from a children’s book series, the second one was more complicated and involved putting in the latitude and longitude. But then another skill set entirely came to light so the cartography lessons got cut short in favor of it.”
“I take it that it wasn’t sewing?” Princess Minnie guessed with a giggle.
Mickey chuckled with her and shook his head to confirm that suspicion of hers, and to avoid the inevitable subject that would be him having to describe magic as being the new apprenticeship, he took the sewing subject and ran with it.
“Oh, before I ferget…please give my compliments to yer tailor or seamstress, I’ve never seen a Medici collar be that material before and match the sleeves, it’s kinda impressive, and, uh, really adds ta the prettiness of yer dress.” He had to bashfully add, to compliment her too darn it, and glance away since the material in question was see-through of all things.
“Oh, thank you, and I certainly will.” She replied, completely flattered and astonished that he knew the exact term for her collar and thought it was pretty.
Then Mickey noticed a cart with a bunch of hay as its cargo and they ran after it to hitch a ride. Mickey got the princess on first, lifting her effortlessly by her hips (she really was light as a feather), then he tripped but got right back up. Those fleeting few seconds caused some distance though and they both instinctively reached for the other’s hand so she could help him onto the cart.
His left hand, her right, so it was a little awkward but Mickey made it work as he used his own right hand, once the distance was closed enough, as leverage to get on the cart and turn himself around to sit properly.
Then he felt her eyes on him again and he dared a glance, she tilted her head and darted her eyes to the respectable space between them, only to find that… they were holding hands!
His hand was on top of hers, with her palm facing up. His hand just kind of fell there to be honest, but then it should’ve fallen onto the back of her hand like a normal ‘oops our hands are touching-how scandalous’ situation. So that made him a tad suspicious of her because she was being subtle about coming onto him, but that made sense, she was a princess, she had to be subtle about it anyway for the sake of the fact that she shouldn’t be courting a commoner. Even though they just met and this definitely shouldn’t count as a first date .
Still, the sight of his hand on hers made him a little nervous and he dared to look back up to her, only to find her fluttering her lashes at him, just twice, but it was definitely flirtatious. Well, if she really didn’t mind, who was he to deny her some hand holding? He smiled back at her as he squeezed her hand assuringly, then the cart hit a rock in the road jumping her an inch or two closer to him, and the hay fell over both of them. It made her giggle, shorter this time since they did sneak onto the back of this cart, they had to keep quiet, at least until they got into the city.
Mickey actually kept holding her hand despite trying to push back the hay, which Princess Minnie was immensely flattered by. Then he remembered that they couldn’t just waltz through the city as they were, they’d get mugged very easily, and quite frankly he wasn’t in the mood for another fight if he didn’t have to.
There was the river to consider, and the palace was off of it…they’d have to get on a boat. He kept his nose out for fresh water, and kept glancing behind them to see if he could see the river itself coming up, it would be on her side of the horizon, so that gave him a few excuses to steal a few glances to her. He did eventually explain to her what he was keeping an eye out for as soon as he stole one too many glances, and a good chunk weren’t at her.
Thankfully she understood and hoped they’d be able to catch one of the supply ships to the palace, it was the correct day for the kitchen and other supplies to be restocked and since he was in the most recognizable uniform in all of France, and he was with her , they should be able to get a ride for free.
Which is exactly what they did, even luckier still that there was even a bench at the front of the boat so they had a full glorious view of Paris on either side of the river. With the colors of the setting sun being reflected in the clouds and all of that being reflected in the water. It was gorgeous.
Once they were all settled Mickey dared a glance at her for the umpteenth time. He was heavily debating something. Granted, he was debating on pursuing a relationship with her at all since he first laid eyes on her this early afternoon. By many, if not all accounts he really shouldn’t, but…he couldn’t just let her die with this world. That and he already knew…from some kinda cosmic gut instinct, maybe even some kinda primal mating bond even (that comes with love at first sight), that they were meant for each other.
He couldn’t live with the idea of her not being in his future.
So he put the oldest smooth move in the book to good use and stretched an arm over his head, actually popping a tension bubble in a muscle. He hesitated again since it sounded so loud to him that he worried that she heard it and would catch onto him, there wasn’t much that was more embarrassing than being caught in the act of subtle wooing when it was supposed to be a surprise tactic.
He glanced at her again, she hadn’t made any indication that she noticed anything. So he slowly continued, reaching around behind her, slowly reaching for her shoulder (the one furthest from him of course). Slowly but surely, then finally one finger, then two made contact, the third, and the final (his thumb) joined after the moment of truth.
As soon as his second finger had made contact with her skin (despite the see-through sleeve) she immediately leaned into him, as in her head dove right for his shoulder. Well, might as well scooch a tad closer to make it a little more comfortable for both of them! He leaned his head onto hers as his own form of reciprocating the physical affection…aside from his arm that was already there that is.
Mickey let out a small sigh of relief at… well… everything… He may have not expected to fall in love today or ever really, as he was pretty sure up until this point, he would’ve been perfectly content with his life as it was for the rest of it anyway. But oh how things have changed so easily. He already knew in a matter of hours that he couldn’t live without her. Nevermind that now he had plenty on his plate to worry about besides the Heartless’ eventual arrival to this world. He was already mentally planning how to propose to her, what the wedding might be like, ooh, and if she and Pluto would get along.
She let out a content sigh as well, and his attention shifted from his thoughts to entirely focus on her. Gosh, her perfume just finally registered, and boy does it smell amazing! It was light, since it must’ve mostly worn off from it being the end of the day, but still sweet like some kind of tree fruit he couldn’t recall off the top of his head since he was still partly frazzled that any of this was even happening, but anyway it was really nice.
However, all nice things come to an end as the saying goes. As nice as the twilight of dusk was from the reflection of what little sunlight was left in the clouds and the sky itself to the reflective waters below, it was still dusk, and they were nearing the Palace’s supply port. And the Princess needed to retire for the night…and he just realized he couldn’t do that himself…especially after the events today…it was too risky…He’d have to confer with Donald on that.
Regardless, they made it to the little port and made their way up some steps to be ground level with the palace, then made their way down and around all the way to the back to find the back door that led to the royal gardens. All the while, Mickey didn’t even realize he had held her hand the entire trek since they got off the boat. At least, not until they found the very simple looking backdoor to the Palace gardens. He didn’t mind it when he did realize, he also didn’t mind the simple looking door since it was simple enough that no one would suspect it led to the gardens of the Palace.
He did mind when they weaved their way through the maze of rose bushes, (were some of those purple? Near those weird blue winged purple butterflies that had been following them around all day/evening?¹) and he realized too late as he took her literally to her back porch steps…That he had to let go of her hand.
It didn’t help that she herself only noticed as soon as she saw the realization and the slightly disappointed look on his face that he tried (and failed apparently) to hide with an understanding smile to at least show that he had a lovely time with her regardless.
She seemed to understand that subtle message he was trying to convey, and seemed flattered and amazed that she could read it from him so easily. After all, that was a sure sign of their compatibility and she couldn’t be happier that the powers that be were confirming for her that he was the one for her.
In any case, Minnie’s happiness in realizing all this had bubbled up that she snagged his hat and kissed him on the side of his lips as a thank you for everything, as much as she’d like to have kissed him fully on the lips even she knew that it was too soon for that, so she went for him at an angle. She would never kiss and tell Daisy whether or not she put the tip of her tongue into it, but this was between her and him anyway. Their difference in social classes was bound to help keep that secret. Though now that she thought about it, the last thing she needed was for him to be scared of her because of their different social classes. If he was, even a little bit, she’d have to rectify that. With time of course, for now just a small, short taste of what he could look forward to in their now intertwined future.
She pulled away as suddenly as she had initiated the short kiss, taking his hat with her, reaching the glass paned door and turned to him, enjoying the growing silly grin forming on his face, her lipstick mark moving with his lips into the grin adding to the silliness. It took a lot of willpower to not giggle at him as she wished him goodnight in her native tongue, “Bonne nuit,” and expertly tossed his hat back onto his head, it rolled a little bit but ultimately stuck the landing. He blissfully fainted as she headed inside, knowing that he’d faithfully continue to guard her just outside her bedroom, with the others guarding the other doors.
Eventually, Mickey snapped himself out of his lovestruck stupor ( fer gosh sakes she didn’t have ta use the tip of her tongue too! And here he was gonna be a gentleman about it and not kiss her until their eventual third date! Never mind that they just met today and this evening really shouldn’t’ve counted as their first date! ) and met back up with Donald and Goofy to plan out the long night shift. The princess had two doors to her bedroom, and it was really big. Should anyone infiltrate the palace and attack from either side, it would take a few seconds too long for the other two to arrive to help. That wasn’t good.
However there were technically four of them as Pluto was well trained to assist in all kinds of situations, even if they didn’t feel that he was important enough to introduce to the princess formally as part of the team. Thus it was decided that he would patrol with Goofy to keep him out of trouble.
Donald had whispered vehemently to Mickey to remind him of the Halley’s comet distraction the Beagle Boy pulled on Goofy earlier today to finalize that decision.
Then after Goofy had gone off to his post with Pluto, Donald pulled Mickey aside again to discuss his suspicions of the day.
“Bear with me as I go through the strange things leading up to today. We were janitors for literally a year and a half, and were such just yesterday, we asked Captain Pete to finally let us be Musketeers, and he denied us yesterday . This morning he turns right around and lets us be Musketeers out of the blue. Bad guys showed up on our first day on the job, they only kidnapped the princess, and didn’t try to assassinate her. The princess had plans to go to the opera tomorrow…So, here’s where the theory comes in. Captain Pete hired those Beagle Boys and we’re the scapegoats set up for failure from the beginning because he underestimated us, mostly ‘cause of Goofy and us not showing off our magic, but let's be real, it's mostly Goofy. Anyway, whatever Pete’s planning, he needs her alive, and whatever he’s doing he’s doing it at the opera tomorrow. Daisy, the Princess’ Lady in Waiting, might be able to buy us some time by convincing the princess to go to the opera the night after tomorrow, but we’ll have to see tomorrow what that decision is.” Donald explained slowly to be understood to the fullest.
Mickey nodded as he took it all in.
Scapegoats. It made sense. Too much sense. If only because Pete didn’t know they could use magic…technically anyway. Both he and Donald were literally rusty now since they’ve been janitors for a year and a half, and without any Heartless showing up they really haven’t even had a chance to use their magic, nevermind that Goofy was definitely a part of the team and really needed a weapon of some kind to defend himself against the Heartless with… Huh. Defense …a shield would suit him, and it could be used as a weapon. Food for the thought for later though.
“Keep an extra ear out for Goofy then, we already need to keep on our toes tonight as it is after today…” Mickey told him in response, then came the afterthought, “And if something happens in your section or if you hear from Goofy’s section as trouble, squawk as loud as you can.”
Donald chuckled cheekily, that he could do very easily, the princess’ beauty sleep be damned.
Princess Minnie sighed wistfully again once she had settled in her nightly routine of the last few things before bed, Daisy brushed her hair, while she wrote some things down in her diary, though at the moment she had finished up with a drawing of her and Mickey, their future children (four would be just lovely; two boys and two girls), hearts everywhere including their names in a giant heart and their names in a constant loop of them loving each other, and then she realized as she was writing their names in the aforementioned giant heart that they both had the same last name and marveled at it aloud to Daisy.
“ Well , it must be destiny. Good thing destiny doesn’t control my love life.” Daisy replied.
“Oh, whaddaya mean?” Minnie asked curiously.
“Well, look at me if it did, I’d get stuck with Mr. Awgagagagag!” Daisy told her mimicking Donald perfectly at the end, leaving the girls in a giggling fit.
“Now, Daisy, would it really be so bad?” Minnie started, putting her bangs into a curler, before pantomiming everything else she was going to say, “Just imagine, you and Donald, candle light dinner, soft music, he falls to one knee, pulls out the diamond ring and you say the only thing one can say to such an offer… ”
Both girls screamed, completely forgetting how attentive and gun-ho their bodyguards were. However, it was a best two out of three that looked before leaping. Though one of the two managed to stop the third from doing anything too rash, the third who was obviously Goofy was so oblivious to his surroundings (granted he crashed through the ceiling somehow) that he was prepped and ready to fight around the princess if need be, even and especially if that meant fighting within her personal bubble.
Mickey just barely managed to stop him… in midair… oops , and he did that magically too. With him simply shouting Goofy’s name and ‘Stop’ and his musketeer sword was magically conductive enough to let it happen. Huh .
So Goofy was just floating there now, in a bubble with clocks floating around it, right above the princess so that was a close call. Yeah, there was no hiding this as being magic, and neither he nor Donald knew any spells that could alter memories. Master Yen Sid would’ve killed him six ways to Sunday for this too.
Nevermind that Mickey had to jump higher than normal too since the princess’ bed was ridiculously tall, like, there was a ladder to get up this thing fer gosh sakes. Rich people could be so weird…but it was her bed, so that made it adorably weird.
Regardless, there was another ladder on the other side of the bed that Mickey doubted was used very much considering that side of the bed led to a wall of windows, and they were so high into the ceiling that she had a perfectly fine view from here…unless the moon was high of course but still…who in Sam Hill designed the size of this room for her?
Anyway, Donald scooted that ladder over a bit so he wouldn’t run beak first into the princess. When he reached the top enough to get a good look at what was what, he narrowed his eyes at Mickey.
“Tell me you didn’t.” The duck uttered in a deadpan tone the second he caught sight of the temporary temporal state Goofy was in.
“Honestly I’m surprised it even worked the way it did.” Mickey chuckled nervously, trailing a finger along a dull edge of his musketeer sword.
“I am too, considering copper is more conductive than any other metal, our swords wouldn’t even be good as lightning rods, ‘cause that’s a myth!”
“A what?” Mickey asked knowingly, unable to help himself to the bit because of Donald’s speech impediment.
“A myth! Myth!”
“Yes?” Called Daisy on cue, having caught onto the bit. Both the girls giggled from the look on Donald’s face upon his realization.
Again, Donald managed to stop himself from fuming, but only because Daisy added to the joke and that made it mildly funny even if it was at his expense. Quite the rarity indeed.
“Not you, toots, but that was pretty clever anyway.”
“Sorry, Donald, couldn’t resist, now let's get Goofy and head back to our posts, yeah?” Mickey relented and then suggested.
“Yeah.” Donald actually stopped himself from jinxing the situation, as that Stop bubble would pop at any second now.
“No actual bad guys I take it, yer highness?” Mickey asked for the sake of it as he and Donald scooted the floating frozen Goofy away from the princess’ personal bubble.
“That’s right, it was a conversational scream from girl talk. Sorry for the false alarm.” Princess Minnie apologized with a sympathetic smile.
“Aw, that’s okay, happy ta help even if there isn’t any real danger.” Mickey tipped his hat at her cheerfully.
“I take it that this was the other skill set that came to light during your apprenticeship?” The princess then asked innocently, there was even a twinkle in her eye that said she was in admiration of that fact.
However, he didn’t quite catch it as certain implications sunk in finally and Mickey’s fear of dying because of political shenanigans resurfaced tenfold, his pupils shrank and he gulped really loudly.
“I’m not gonna be persecuted and executed fer simply knowing magic, am I?” Mickey asked meekly, unable to help the slight shake to his frame as the chills of admitting this truth crawled up his back.
“What? No! Absolutely not! The church has no power over me! Mickey, you’re safe here, it's no one’s business but ours!” She had to shout to get through to him, since Daisy actually held her back from getting up and going to him.
It pained her greatly to see him this shaken up. To think he was this frightened of their difference in social classes, that he actually thought she would execute him over something that was part of him or anything petty, this simply wouldn’t do! She had to get this awful notion out of his head.
Donald noticed Daisy’s reluctance to let the mice hug it out because of decorum and put a hand on Mickey’s shoulder to ground him as best he could in the princess’ stead.
“Mickey, it's okay, Frollo can’t get us now. He… doesn’t even have permission or authority to get anywhere near the palace, I should think so anyway.” Donald reassured him, hesitating only to catch himself from reaffirming that Frollo wasn’t in this world.
Mickey shakily took a deep breath and managed to calm himself down at that. As much as Minnie’s words were reassuring, that she basically promised that she wouldn’t execute him, and in an implicated sense, won’t let anyone else try to execute him, it really was Donald’s words that broke through.
Frollo was an adversary from a different world, but oddly enough the same country, just a different time period and different appearances for people. Regardless, the man was a high standing member of society, and was a God fearing Judge and virtual executioner to those who strayed from his norm. His Heartless, summoned from his own nasty darkness, was nightmarish and huge. It was honestly sad and pitiful how he genuinely thought all the atrocities he committed as a crusader were justifiable, honestly thinking that he was in the right.
In any case, Mickey finally gathered himself back to normal by smacking his own face with both hands a couple of times, and put back on a face of determination to carry out the task at hand. Protecting the Princess.
“Sorry about that. I’m okay.” Mickey said for the sake of those who were worried. Then he took off his hat and bowed deeply at the waist. “And thank you, yer highness, fer… everything .” He decided on, better than voicing her pardoning him of something he couldn’t really help.
“Of course, it is my duty to protect my people.” She replied, and bowed back, shocking everyone, especially Daisy. Well, she couldn’t curtsy very well in a sitting position.
It was then that Goofy’s Stop bubble popped, and he had apparently heard everything and now was just confused at the subtle gasps in the room, and why Mickey was panicking more than when he thought he was gonna be executed for doing magic. Thankfully Donald brought him down to level and whispered in his ear to explain that it just wasn’t a normal thing for royalty to bow back to common folks. But she saw him as an equal, even after only knowing him for a day.
“Well, shucks, Mickey, guess that makes you extra special!” Goofy cajoled cheerfully, giving a well meaning but a little too strong pat on the back in congradulations.
“Wha? No, no, no, no, no! No picking favorites, Min- yer majesty!” Mickey stuttered, just barely correcting himself from saying her name.
The princess smiled slyly at that, having caught his almost slip at saying her name, she’d give him permission to say it, but not within Daisy’s presence.
“Isn’t that my decision to make?” Princess Minnie replied cheekily.
He didn’t have a retort to that.
“As you wish, then.” He left it at that with a cough of moving on, and felt that he and his friends had overstayed their welcome a smidge and decided to get on with it. “Alright fellas, you go on back to your posts at the exits and I’ll keep patrolling the hallways,” Mickey ordered conversationally, before turning to her highness. “Sleep tight, Princess. Your Royal Musketeers are on the job.” He and the other two bowed at the waist removing their hats (since Mickey still had his already off) with a flourish in their own respective styles.
“Merci, mon aje. Good night~!” She thanked him with a blown kiss his way.
Mickey jumped a little at her use of her native tongue again, he knew the first part was the ‘thank you’, but the last part took him a bit to decipher as being ‘my love’. He quickly put his hat back on to cover his eyes, she didn’t need to see his cheeks turn pink in her presence for the umpteenth time today. Never mind that he was a bit mortified that she actually saw him at his most frightened he had ever been in a long time. He still couldn’t believe she actually bowed back at him though.
It didn’t take long for something else aside from that false alarm to happen. An hour after the false alarm at most, it came from Donald’s section and he was finally cheating, as he had been threatening to do so earlier. He used a Thundaga on them, the Beagle Boys who had come in wearing oversized masks of, if one squinted, probably a poor paper mache imitation of Captain Pete’s face trying to scare him, since somehow Donald was labeled as a coward in their memo of how to pick off these three Musketeers. At the very least it proved Donald’s suspicion of who hired them to be correct.
In any case, Donald squawked ‘Thunder’ as loud as he could to warn the others, then magically showed no mercy as he switched gears and threw Blizaga spells at the Beagle Boys who realized too late that they were way in over their heads, a cruel irony to their own words back in the tower when they thought they had cornered Mickey and Goofy.
Speaking of which, they, and Pluto came running from their respective sides, Pluto only gave two warning barks before settling with growls. The domestic (Goofy) and real dog (Pluto) came up from behind where the Beagle Boys were, while Mickey came up behind Donald. Mickey noticed an open window with some rope, obviously how they got in, but still… pretty dumb of them to use such a blatant tactic of trying to get the drop on somebody. However, they weren’t privy to Donald being a magic user so they got their just desserts anyway.
“Donald, I think ya can stop now.” Mickey said, as he watched the trio of Beagle Boys running like chickens with their heads cut off as they ran away from miniature tornadoes from an Aero spell or two, more so when Donald set it on fire.
Goofy stared in awe at the spectacle as the trio of bad guys finally gave up and jumped back out the window they came in from.
“Wow, what was that?”
Donald looked to Mickey for permission to answer, Mickey nodded since there was no chance of hiding it.
“Magic.”
“More magic? Really? Can magic also be a weird little black thing with yellow eyes tearin’ up a person tuh bits?” Goofy asked sadly as he had clearly seen something before Donald squawked his loudest.
That had gotten the Duck’s and Mouse’s attention.
“Goofy, where did ya see this? Mickey asked cautiously.
“Over by my post. Someone was tryin’ tuh sound like you, Mick. But I knew it wasn’t ‘cause Pluto was growlin’ and it didn’t sound quite like yuh. They even managed tuh match yer shadow somehow, but that changed when that cow lady who was doin’ it got attacked by the weird black thing with yellow eyes and the scary thing is, she only screamed for a second before it tore her tuh bits and probably took somethin’!”
Mickey and Donald’s blood ran cold. Mickey’s more so as he knew a cow lady. Clarabelle, a busy body, one who had a penchant for trying to romance men, surely it couldn’t be the same one…right?
“It took her heart…she’s gone.” Donald said at last, finalizing Mickey’s dreaded thoughts.
“Here, Goofy, you should have this from now on, it’ll be the only thing you’ll be able ta use against those dark creatures. They’re called Heartless and it's best that ya don’t let them touch ya, especially yer chest. They’re after the light inside yer heart, ta snuff it out.” Mickey explained as he handed Goofy something from his hammerspace. It looked like a pin at first but as soon as it passed it over to Goofy it got bigger.
“A shield?!” Goofy marveled in astonishment, he looked over the design on the front to see it was gold with a shooting star with a red, green, and blue trail. “Wow! Thanks, Mickey!”
“Aw, yer welcome, Goofy. I couldn’t bear it if anything ever happened ta ya.” Mickey replied in a soft cheeriness.
Then Mickey tried flicking his wrist, giving a sigh of relief as his Keyblade materialized for once. “But where there’s one, there’s bound ta be more ta follow.”
So they followed Goofy back to his post and certainly found more Heartless, but the most surprising thing of all was that they found Captain Pete yelling at them for having torn up his lackey, Clarabelle.
Mickey picked off as many heartless as he could, Donald shot a bunch of fireballs at his section of Heartless, and Goofy did his best just barreling through them with his shield to protect him. Pluto…had a beastly enough bark that seemed to do a bit of damage to the Heartless, but it was still up to the others to finish them off. Mickey made a bee line for Pete in the process.
He even jumped unusually high to get over the railing to reach the Musketeer Captain.
“Captain Pete, by the power vested in me as a Musketeer I arrest you, Mister!” Mickey announced, forgetting that it was his Starseeker Keyblade that was drawn and pointed at the… now former captain? Right? Right.
“Ha! Oh that’s a good one, ya see, by the power vested in my fist, I clobber you!” Pete retaliated easily, and merely punched Mickey as the mouse leaped at him to knock him out cold.
“Mickey!” Donald and Goofy cried in unison, Pluto howled as they all saw Pete scoop Mickey up and throw him into a little bird cage.
However, the trio had enemies to deal with, so they would have to rely on Pluto’s nose when they got the chance. For now they fought harder than ever in an effort to hurry and get Mickey back.
The fight wasn’t easy, and it took them well into the morning to regain any traction, but thankfully Pluto still had Mickey and Pete’s scent fresh in his nose and had followed the trail all the way to a beach that thankfully had a pier with a row boat parked at it. It was facing a really scary looking old prison fort.
“Okay, I get that it's scary looking, but why take Mickey there, other than that it's pretty far from the palace?” Donald asked aloud, not expecting to be answered.
“Because that is Mont Saint Michel, the most notorious prison dungeon in all of France! The worst dungeon in the place is one where prisoners who are not eleven feet tall, drown with the tide.” Answered a turtle with a lute who was sitting on one of the spokes on the pier, specifically the one the boat was tied to…Donald was pretty sure the fella wasn’t there before but he had a more pressing realization.
“Tide?! Oh no! We gotta hurry! We already lost so much time fighting Heartless!” Donald yelped, packing Goofy and Pluto into the boat, and just as he was about to reach the oar, Pluto did something with his tail that made the boat go faster than a person could row. “I won’t question it if you don’t.” Donald told Goofy.
Goofy merely nodded, and looked ahead determined to find the pier to the prison.
“I don’t know about you, but I like this version of Donald much better, no?” The turtle fellow turned cheekily to the non existent audience.
Mickey’s arms weren’t long enough for him to use his Keyblade on his restraint, which was around his waist, never mind that it wasn’t magically strong enough to cut metal. The tide came in fast, just as Pete had warned him even though that was hours ago at the least.
The dungeon he was put in was already filling up with sea water and he certainly wasn’t tall enough to survive it. He had already tried pulling at the chain against the wall before the water got too high, he wasn’t strong enough to pull it out. He tried biting at the chain once the water just got over his head. He had no choice but to hope his friends could find him, could save him, he took his last few breaths with his nose above the water.
And waited patiently….until his lungs burned too much and he couldn’t wait anymore.