Chapter 46: Test of Strength
Just outside of Golden Oaks Library
Sora and the girls watched on in amazement and horror as the two large beasts seemed to be having it out with each other. They could see animals fleeing from the forest in the hopes that they wouldn’t get caught up in the battle. “How long has this been going on?”
Merlin pulled out his watch again. “Mmm, thankfully not terribly long.” The heartless in question had the appearance of a gigantic, menacing looking Minotaur with a strange black blade seemingly melded into its back. It had the familiar glowing yellow eyes that most heartless seem to share and sported a jagged underbite. Its skin was a dark purple with black chainlike markings on its wrists that seemed to peel off towards the back and flutter in a nonexistent wind. Finishing off the look were curved horns that looked as big as a house. Hanging from the horns were large metal rings, almost like they were piercings for the horn. They swayed and shook with every motion the heartless would make. Overall, despite the rings, the blade, the tattoos and the horn rings, this Heartless seemed pretty straightforward. It looked so close to a Giant Minotaur that Sora was a little disappointed. Just a little. “Thanks to Spike, however, I did get a hold of the Princesses and they have sent you a faster mode of transportation. Rather swiftly I might add.” Merlin gestured to the royal carriage with two pegasus royal guards strapped to it parked in front of Sora’s home. They seemed rather anxious after watching the battle from a distance.
“It’s almost like you were waiting for us.” Pinkie said with a smirk.
“That's because we were, for quite some time actually.” Merlin pointed out.
Pinkie tapped her chin and squinted. “Well played, Wizard man… Well played.”
...
“I have so many questions to ask.” Twilight started but shook her head. “But that can wait, we have a job to do. Sora?”
“Hm?”
“You and Rainbow to should fly on ahead of us.” She told him.
Sora raised an eyebrow. “Uh, sure, but what for?”
“Quite frankly, out all of us here, you have the most experience with fighting large heartless,” Twilight stated to which Sora nodded. “So we’re going to make use of all that knowledge and experience you have by having you scout out the heartless beforehand.” She then looked back at Fluttershy who started getting nervous at the sudden attention. “Last time, we just barely got through thanks to Fluttershy being able to fuse with you when we needed help the most. And even more so because your keyblade transformed into a support role the way it did, healing us and boosting our abilities for a prolonged battle.”
Everyone was silent, so Twilight continued.
“Knowledge is important, so the more we know about this heartless and the ones to come after, the better. So I figured, since Rainbow is the fastest one here, she can carry you over there much faster than a pegasus carriage ever could. Once you two are there, I want you to observe what you can and try as many different attack types as possible in order to learn its strengths and weaknesses.” She tapped a hoof to her chin. “It's stretching a bit, but I think if you have time beforehoof to get a feel for it, then by the time we get there you will know exactly what we all need to do.”
Sora looked over at everyone else then back to Twilight. “That sounds pretty smart actually.” He smiled. “I do get worried about what might happen to you guys whenever we run into a new bad guy to stomp.”
“As if it's not the same on our end with you.” Applejack pointed out, lightly jabbing at the stallion’s side.
“Yes, she is correct.” Twilight nodded. “It’s also helpful that Rainbow is going since you sometimes tend to just… runoff on your own when we aren’t looking. Granted, Rainbow may not be my first pick when it comes to looking out for you-“
“Hey!” The blue Pegasus was slightly offended.
“-But, it's better than nopony.” Twilight continued. “Plus, she is the fastest Pegasus around, so she should be able to bail the two of you out of a sticky situation if needed.”
Sora just scratched his head and chuckled. “Well, can’t argue with that.”
“Don't just brush this off. If things get too much for you two, then you back off immediately, understood?”
“Hey, why am I included in that?!” Rainbow asked.
“Do you even have to ask, Darling?” Rarity rolled her eyes.
“UNDERSTOOD?” Twilight took a step towards the two who both nervously looked at each other, then back at Twilight before nodding. “Good… you may go then, I expect you to come up with something by the time we get there.” She then turned to the others. “Girls, let's get ready. Fluttershy and I may know healing magic, but it's best to stock up on curatives as well.”
“I guess we’re stopping by Mogson’s shop then.” Applejack said adjusting her hat.
Sora and Rainbow watched everyone start to leave. “I guess we should get going,” Sora said to her.
“Ah, just a moment Sora?” Merlin trotted over to the two. “Might I see that bead bag of yours? The one you use to turn into your human self?” Sora was confused at the request, but seeing no reason to refuse, he retrieved it from his saddlebag and handed it to Merlin. “Thank you.” Sora then watched in horror as Merlin made his horn glow and set the bag on fire, instantly reducing it to ashes.
“What?! Merlin! I needed those!” Sora was in utter shock as was Rainbow.
“Yeah, how is he gonna change into a cool alien when we need him to!”
“Yeah! How am I-wait, you think my human self looks cool?” Rainbow blushed a little but Merlin grabbed their attention by clearing his throat.
“I’ve disposed of it because you will no longer need it.” He then held out an amulet he pulled from under his hat. “This will do the job far better than those detrimental beads. They were a temporary thing anyway.”
Sora stared at the amulet for a moment before taking it and looking it over. “This, is supposed to replace the beads?” The amulet was gold with silver vine-like carvings on it that seem to lead to the center where a red round crystal was displayed, there also seemed to be circular lining around the crystal, as if that part was moveable.
“Exactly and I’m sure you have more questions, but as you are well aware, time is of the essence. So here’s the rundown:” He then placed his hoof on the amulet and flipped the center part of it. On the other side was the same crystal, only it seemed to be glowing on that side. “It won’t activate until you wear it, but this is what you do to change into your human self.” He did it a few more times for Sora to get the picture. “After 10 minutes that glow will dim until it’s completely out, when that happens it will flip back by itself and start charging up again. Meaning you go back to being a stallion after 10 minutes of use.”
Sora decided to try flipping the center part a few times to get used to it, then flipped it back to its normal state and tried to figure out where to put it. “Ah, allow me.” With a glow of his horn a few gestures with his hoof out of habit, the amulet floated from Sora’s hoof and pressed itself onto his inner shirt. “There we go, not worry. I just made it… well, I guess the simplest way to explain it is I sort of magnetized that part of your shirt to that side of the amulet, but instead of magnetism, I used magic in its place. Better that way, otherwise your shirt would attract all sorts of metals, ho ho.” Merlin joked. “Now then, the last part is that once it runs out of gas, it’ll need 30 minutes to recharge before its back in action.”
“30 minutes? But what if I need to be human again sooner than that? There were situations where I had to stay human for a longer time.” Sora brought up.
Merlin simply waved him off. “Not to worry lad, I did say this amulet was far better than those beads and I aim to prove it. If you’re ever in a need to return to that form sooner than half an hour, there is one trick you can use to speed up the charge.” He gave a wink. “Just grasp the thing, clutch it tightly, and channel all of your magical powers into it. Of course, once you do, you’ll be completely out of magic yourself, so I’d keep a few extra Ether’s on hand if I were you.”
“That's it?” Sora was surprised the method was so simple.
“Of course, The Princesses and I worked hard to make sure what replaced the beads was as useful and convenient as possible,” Merlin stated.
Sora did recall Celestia making a promise about that. Staring at the amulet, he had to admit the trade-off definitely sounded better, since the beads seemed to harm him the more he took in one sitting. That couldn’t have been good for him in the long run. And Merlin seemed to know more about it than he was telling him, they were kind of pressed for time at the moment. Something he would have to ask about later, then.
“That's really cool and all, but can we get going now?” Rainbow garnered their attention as she trotted in place looking between them and the ongoing giant battle in the distance.
“Quite right! Apologies for delaying you. You should be off then!” He shooed Sora over to Rainbow who grabbed hold of his withers and shot off like a rocket. “Take care, my boy. I’m sensing the trials to come will be important... for all of you.” Merlin said while waving, leaving the two confused on his cryptic message. But they had more pressing issues to deal with in the form of a giant heartless fighting a space bear.
Merlin watched on for a moment before nodding. “Things are certainly progressing faster than I predicted, to be sure.” He turned to Spike who was watching Sora and Rainbow go. “It might not be long before you end up surprising me as well, lad.”
~~~
Scene of the Battle
5 minutes later
In record time Rainbow had brought Sora almost straight to the battle and was it ever a sight to behold. A full-grown Ursa Major was trying its best to pin down and tear a giant heartless to shreds, but the heartless seemed to have enough strength to prevent this and take a swing or two at the bear in turn.
“Sooo, anything I need to know about the giant bear?” Sora asked as they were closing in on where Sora intended for them to drop in.
“I dunno, it's a big bear? Looks pretty cranky, but at the bad guy thankfully. It's probably on its turf or something.” Rainbow shrugged. “Look, I ain’t Fluttershy, ask her about animal things. I’m all about being fast and awesome.”
“Clearly… Well then, I guess we just gotta wing it from here.” Sora replied.
“So, same old same old?” She replied.
Sora just laughed and shrugged back. “Yeah, pretty much.” And with that Rainbow picked up the pace, eager to get into the mix.
“Ok Dash, let's give it a wake-up call!” Once Rainbow had carried Sora all the way to the battle she let go of him as the two of them dove from the sky. Being the first ones to respond, their first goal was to make sure they got the heartless’ undivided attention. That matter was simple as they lined up with each other, gaining as much speed as they could from the altitude before they nodded to each other just a few yards above the beast, suddenly flipping their position from a nosedive to a double head stomp. This caused it to lose its concentration on the battle of strength with the Ursa Major for just a second, but that was all the bear needed to push the heartless back. Sora and Rainbow had already bounced off the heartless head and were on good old terra firma looking up as the Bull like creature took a starry bear palm to the chest, knocking it back a ways and stumbling onto the trees below. This lets the Ursa Major pounce on top of it. The tremors were something fierce for those nearby and Sora had to take a moment to get his footing
“Alright! YOU GET 'EM BIG GUY!” Rainbow hoof pumped. She had no issue, thanks to her wings.
“DASH!” Sora called out to her as he was galloping ahead. “Let’s go for its head again!”
“Huh?! Oh, right! You got it!” She wound up before shooting off toward the Heartless with great speed as it struggled to fend off the Ursa Major. She got a clean hit, ramming both forehooves square into its jaw. This lets the Bear get another attack in the form of a slashing strike to its chest. However, the heartless soon grabbed hold of the creature with its claw, attempting to pull the big bear off of it. In response, Sora made a mad dash before leaping into the air, twirling and whipping out his keyblade to perform a quick Fire Strike Raid at the Heartless’ elbow joint. This caused the arm to falter due to the impact, giving the bear the opportunity to get yet another strike in.
However, despite getting a hit in, the bear was then knocked into the air by its foe’s hoof before it came crashing down and shaking the ground from the impact. “Whoa!” Sora had to stop and look back. “This heartless is strong.” He then notices the bear start getting up. It seemed like the big guy wasn’t gonna take that cheap shot lying down. He then started to feel the ground rumble, prompting him to turn back and see the Heartless trying to get back up as well. “Oh no, you don’t!” Rainbow was coming around for another strike. Sora galloped over to the Heartless, jumped then grabbed at the amulet Merlin gave him. “Let’s see if this works!” He flips the gem inside the amulet over to the red side and immediately his entire body flashed with a bright light. A second later, Sora’s big shoes landed on the Heartless’ snout. “It worked...” He looked up at the beast's eyes with a smirk of defiance. “Alright!” He then charged right up its face, keyblade out. He gripped the hilt, wound up- ”Stay down!” -and then swung as hard as he could against its face causing the bull to reel back in pain, throwing Sora off who was then caught by Rainbow. It wasn't enough to stop it, but it slowed it down enough so that when it was back on its feet, the Ursa Major was already on it again.
“Well, we scouted it out!” Rainbow said. “What’s the plan now, Spikey?” Sora looked over at the two creatures in thought. Then at the surrounding area, noticing that parts of the forest were getting devastated by those two. Fluttershy would have fit about all the animals losing their homes, so Sora had to think of leading the heartless away somewhere. Looking around, he noticed a clearing off in the distance. Now that he had the target location, the question was how to get the big guy there. “Heads up! The girls are here!” Rainbow called out as she gestured her head off to the side. Those royal carriage pegasi were no slouches. Sure, they couldn’t keep up with Dash, but they still made a great time.
That was when Sora had an idea. “Perfect timing, throw me at the carriage!” Rainbow looked at him in confusion, before shrugging and getting into a spin. “Once you throw me, try to keep the heartless distracted till I get back!”
“Uh, ok… I’ll try!” She spun faster and faster until finally- “Off you go!” -she hurled Sora at the oncoming flying carriage, Sora took a moment to somersault in mid-air before spreading his arms and legs out and beginning to glide, surprising Rainbow for just a moment before remembering back when she was stuck as a rodent “Right… He can do that...” She would have chased after him since he dodged answering her question last time about it, but she remembered the mission at hand and reluctantly flew back at the heartless and Ursa Major.
I was at this moment that Pinkie stuck her head out the window. Twilight noticed this. “What's going on, Pinkie? Are Sora and Rainbow okay?!”
“Uh huh!” Pinkie said cheerfully.
“What are they doing?!” Twilight asked her.
“Ask Sora yourself! He’s here now.” Pinkie replied as she waved.
The girls were unsure what she meant by that when they suddenly heard his voice on the other side of the carriage door. “Hey girls!”
“What?” Twilight was perplexed as she saw the human form of Sora hanging off of the carriage window.
“Look no time to talk, I’m thinking we can get a leg up on this guy, but he’s kind of wrecking the place.” Sora then leaned back to point out to the clearing in the far distance. “I’m thinking we should get the Heartless over there to get him out of the forest but to do that I’m gonna need Applejack and Fluttershy!”
“M-me?” Fluttershy was already shaking, afraid that she might have to fight the big scary heartless.
“Whatcha need?” Applejack slammed her hooves together, summoning her gauntlets.
“Yes, and make sure to let us all know please,” Twilight asked.
Back over with Rainbow, she was flying circles around the two giants as the continued to duke it out, intervening every now and then with a flying hoof dive or just being a general pest to the heartless whenever it looked like it was about to gain the upper hoof. It wasn’t long before she heard Sora whistle, letting her know he was back. When she turned to him he was still hanging on the carriage and waving at her, but the carriage itself was now altering course. She flew over as swiftly as she could, and when she arrived she could see Applejack looking like she was getting ready to jump… at her. “So what's going on over here?”
“It’s a bit of stretch, but it might work,” Twilight said to Sora before sticking her head out to look at Rainbow. “Rainbow, we’re gonna move the heartless over there.” she points to the clearing. “Grab Applejack please, she’ll explain what’s going to happen.” With no other prompting Rainbow complied and flew closer to grab Applejack. “Good, we’ll see you two there?” Sora gave a thumbs up as he hopped in the carriage and flipped the amulet to revert back to pony form. This, of course, gave everyone inside a bit of a shock. Something he had to explain on the way over to their destination.
“Ok partner, take me over there.” Applejack pointed at the heartless. Rainbow did just that, but not without asking questions.
“So what’s going on? How are we gonna move the fight way over there?”
Applejack sighed. “Honestly, I’m thinking Sora might be overestimating my abilities, but we’re gonna grab their attention…”
“OK, how’s that?” Rainbow asked as she flew over to the beasts. When they were about to approach Applejack internally psyched herself up. “You’re gonna hurl me at that there heartless over and over until it gets ticked off.”
Rainbow blinked for a moment... before a smirk started to form on her face. “I like this plan...” And then she picked up the pace.
The heartless didn’t see it coming the first time. When it was about to grab at the Bear’s neck, something strong collided with its face that caused it to lose its footing and stumble to the side. Rainbow had spun in place, much to Applejack’s dismay, and flung Applejack at the Heartless as hard as she could. Despite the dizzy feeling, the farmer kept it together to pull one gauntlet back and give that creature a hoof-shaped, metal covered sucker punch. Upon impact, she bounced off in recoil, just in time for Rainbow to catch her and ready herself for another throw.
“Was the spinning necessary?” Applejack asked with her eyes still swirling a little.
“I dunno, but it felt like it was,” Rainbow replied with a big grin. Applejack only groaned, hoping to keep her lunch down. Meanwhile the heartless had stagger pretty far, relatively speaking anyway. The bear only helped in matters by charging at it and pushing it even further in the direction they wanted it to go. “Come on, we still got more ground to cover.”
“Hopin’ ya wouldn’t say that.” Applejack slumped while Rainbow flew after the two giants.
Over at the intended destination, the royal carriage had finally landed out in the center of the clearing where Sora and the other girls quickly hopped out.
“Good, this should be far enough,” Twilight said after getting a look around. She then turned to the Pegasi pulling the carriage. “We’ll take care of things from here, you two should go find a place to hide for now while we handle this.”
They both gave a salute. “Yes, ma’am.” And like that they were off, deciding to find a cloud that was nearby yet out of the way enough that they could observe and remain on standby.
Sora was already glancing around as if looking for something. “From the sounds of things it looks like everything's going according to plan on Rainbow and AJ’s end, so we better get ready too.”
“Ok then, what is the plan here exactly?” Twilight asked.
After a few moments of looking Sora seemed to be satisfied with something and gave a nod. “Pinkie.”
Pinkie was already between them with a bandana on her head, a “serious business” face and a salute. “Yes, sir.” She immediately giggled though, failing to keep up the facade.
“Gonna need you to set up shop right over there.” Sora pointed to the top of a nearby hill.
Pinkie turned to it and gave a smile. “Oooooooh. Okie dokie lokie!” She then saluted again and started bouncing her way over.
Sora nodded and turned to Rarity. “Rarity, remember when we fought Maleficent and she turned into a dragon?”
Rarity tapped her chin with her hoof trying to recall everything she could about that day. “Regrettably, I felt absolutely sweaty after that fight.”
Sora rolled his eyes but continued. “OK cuz I need you to use that one thing you did to her, the big, uuuh, needle… thing.” He tried to describe it.
Thankfully Rarity picked up on what he meant. “Oh, certainly, I’ve actually been practicing with that in my spare time.” She smiled, feeling somewhat excited to try it out.
“Perfect! Now then,” Sora then turned to Twilight and Fluttershy…
Back with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, they were making good progress on their task. The Minotaur Heartless was steadily being forced out of the forest using the unlikely tag team with the Ursa Major, though the bear hardly seemed to notice them as it just kept doing what it was doing while the two girls “helped”. Rainbow Dash was flying in as the Ursa finished giving the heartless a Grizzly backhand. (Pinkie: Boooo!) (Oh be quiet…)
“Ok, this should do it,” Rainbow said.
“It better.” Applejack was starting to look a little green. “I don’t think I can take much more uh this...” And with that Rainbow started the wind up as the heartless stumbled back from the bear’s last attack, before hurling Applejack as hard as she possibly could. As straight as an arrow, Applejack flattened herself out to decrease wind resistance, as taught by the flying expert herself, and slammed both gauntlets straight into the heartless’ face. This particular impact actually pushed the beast back and into the clearing by a few yards. “Take that, Varmint!”
“Gotcha!” Rainbow was swift to snatch AJ up and fly ahead to join the others, just in time to see the start of the plan that Sora and the other girls came up with. It started off with a beam of light firing at the ankles of the heartless, causing the big beast to trip and fall over itself.
“Whoa!” Rainbow and AJ watched in surprise. Looking at where it came from, they saw that it was Rarity. Once her shot struck home she gave a knowing, confident smile as she flicked her head up so the gem on her Fedora she used for aiming would flip back into place.
“Splendid…” She praised herself as she tossed her mane back. A Little show-boaty, but one couldn’t complain seeing how far she had just sniped from.
“NOW!” They heard Sora’s voice, turning to see him at the foot of the hill thrusting an open palm forward. Atop said hill was Pinkie Pie, already set up in her turret with a big grin on her face.
“YEEEAAAH, SPLOSION TIME!” She cheered as she started hitting buttons and pulling levers. Then a barrage of fireworks and bombs were careening toward the heartless, relentlessly bombarding it with festive, yet devastating explosions. This caused the Ursa Major to finally stop and notice the tiny little creatures, backing away from the booming sounds on reflex.
“Fluttershy, you're up!” Twilight and Fluttershy were actually somewhat closer to the forest as she nudged the yellow pegasus.
“O-oh, um, right.” Fluttershy turned to the giant bear and gulped, yet flew over to it despite any misgivings. Meanwhile, Sora started charging in at full sprint, Keyblade out in one hand and the other reaching toward Rainbow and Applejack. “Applejack!”
Picking up on the gesture she nodded, reverted her gauntlets back into a necklace, which then launched her gem at him. “Comin’ at ya!”
“Um, hello ma’am.” Flutters was quick to identify the bear’s gender and tried to get the Ursa’s attention but it seemed more distracted by the explosions that pelted its, or rather HER foe.
When the Element was close enough he leaped into the air to catch it, and before he even touched the ground he held his keyblade out with the gem over it. “Connect!” A flash came and went as Applejack vanished from Rainbow’s arms.
“Hmph… Lucky…” Rainbow crossed her forelegs and looked away with a pout. When the flash disappeared AJ’s gem was once again firmly placed on the back of Sora’s jacket while streaks of blonde ran through his hair. The keyblade changed into the Farmer’s Key just before he touched down on the ground, but the moment he did he was already sprinting again.
“Oh, I see, I’m sorry this happened.” Meanwhile, Fluttershy somehow managed to get the bear’s attention, and boy did she look and sound pretty peeved. “But, um, you see, that's exactly why we’re here.”
“OK, gotta make this quick. We gotta take it down now before it actually starts attacking.”
Applejack agreed, Ok! Then we bash til we get the hammer-
“Then we smash five times as hard!” He finished. He then noticed that Pinkie’s barrage was finally letting up. “Twilight!” He called out without even looking at her. “Do it!”
Twilight conjured up as much magic as she could muster in one go into her horn. This was a big target, after all, so she had to improvise. The plan was simple, Sora heard that Merlin had taught Twilight the spell Gravity. He also picked up that every now and then Twilight would experiment with those spells to look for other applications. So, his great idea was to immobilize the giant heartless with an exceptionally large Graviga. Not even Sora had attempted such a move in the past, and if done right, she would quite frankly have stepped into a new field of magic no other has set hoof into. At least to both their knowledge anyway. She’d be lying if she said the prospect didn’t excite her.
“Oh, they sound like a sweetheart. I do remember seeing them once before in Ponyville, but I’m afraid I didn’t get the chance to actually talk to your little one.” Fluttershy and the bear were now so deep in a conversation that they somehow tuned out the rest of the battle.
Meanwhile just as Sora was closing in, the Minotaur beast finally retaliated. It reached behind its back, grabbed the blade fused to its flesh and to everyone’s surprise, ripped it right off, swinging it at the fused pair. The attack was short a few yards but the wind pressure pushed the boy back and slowed his running.
“What the? It can do that?!” Sora held his arm up to block the wind and any debris that might fly at his face. “Uh oh!” The heartless was quick to swing that blade again, and this time Sora was in range.
Defense, Sora! Applejack yelled into his mind.
Running off of instinct, both their minds were as one as he spaced his footing, stood his ground and lifted his keyblade overhead to block the attack. Once it connected the ground couldn’t withstand the blow and his feet were cratering the earth beneath him.
How strong is this thing?! That attack almost broke his guard! “Hrrrg!” Now fighting to keep the blade from pushing him down even further, it took him and Applejack a few seconds to finally push the blade off and bounce it back into the air.
“FORCE!” Twilight yelled once she’d stored up enough magic to cast the modified Graviga. A gigantic, dark purple sphere appeared above the heartless, lowering itself onto the beast until it was completely engulfed. Everyone watched as the magically enhanced gravity pressed it so hard into the ground that its body was shattering the earth beneath it and causing a massive indent in the clearing. In the process it lost its grip on the giant blade, letting it fll to the ground with a loud clang. They could feel its impact through the earth.
Fluttershy was starting to feel more comfortable conversing with the bear, so much so that she nearly forgot the reason she was doing it in the first place. Thankfully the sound of the sword hitting the dirt caught her attention, causing her to look back. “O-oh, right!” She nervously turned back at the Ursa Major. “Um, s-sorry to ask this, really I am but can you do a teeny tiny little thing… please?”
Sora jumped out of the crater he was in and took a good look at the heartless. “Well, despite the surprise, everything is going well.“ He then noticed gem on his keyblade start glowing. “Oh, perfect timing.”
Then let's get to it, time's a-wastin’ Applejack responded.
Sora just nodded and held his keyblade out before him, one hand on the hilt and the other on the blade. “Transform!” Within moments the keyblade morphed into its 2nd form, the barrel hammer. Now holding it with both hands he lifted it up and stared down the beast. That was when they heard another set of rumbling. Sora turned to see the Ursa Major charging straight at them. “Uuuh… did it work?” The bear ran as fast as a giant star-covered bear could run before jumping high over the heartless and, to Sora’s surprise, dropping a People’s elbow right on the small of it’s back. “Whooooaaaaa, What?!” (Music ends)
Looks like it worked, go Fluttershy! Applejack cheered, Meanwhile said timid little pegasus just clapped her hooves and blushed a little when she noticed Sora and the other girls looking at her and cheering her on from a distance.
(Pinkie: Whoa, whoa, whoa, HOLD UP!... People’s Elbow?) (What? I thought it fit rather nicely.) (Pinkie: An Ursa Major... using People’s elbow…. You just wanted to see a bear use that move didn’t you?) (NO!............................ maybe…) (Pinkie: *giggles* moving on) (Editor: Doesn’t that move usually involve bouncing off the ropes?) (GET BACK TO WORK, WE’RE ALREADY WAY BEHIND SCHEDULE! *whip crack*)
Sora and the girls watched as the bear start getting up after that amazing display, using its hind legs to kick up dirt onto the heartless before looking back at it to give a sharp victorious nod and snort. Eventually, it seemed to become bored of the thing now that it was out of its territory and began lumbering back to its home.
“You were great ma’am.” Fluttershy flew up to the bear’s face and pet its head. The bear made some sounds that only Fluttershy could understand. “Oh, that would be splendid.” She then realized something. “Of course, a bit of warning beforehoof would be appreciated, i-if you don’t mind.” The bear just nodded, making another bear sound before continuing on its way.
Meanwhile back with Sora. He stared down at the defeated heartless, black mist already coming off of it as parts of its body faded away. “Well… I guess that plan worked a little too well…”
“I’ll say.” Rainbow landed next to him. “It's kinda lame, like… that was it?”
That’s a good thing, Dash. The faster we take down these heartless, the bett-
“She can’t hear you, Applejack.”
Oh… right. The farmer gave a sigh, causing Sora to do the same.
Sora had to admit, this fight really was kind of easy. Sure it was a good thing, but it gave him a sense of foreboding as well. It was almost TOO easy.
That was when they noticed an excess of black mist suddenly leave its body. Seeing the entire thing start fading out of existence and the amount of mist escaping, everyone had expected this was it and that a crystalline heart would finally start rising up into the sky.
Instead, something else rose up from within the escaping mist. It rose onto its hooves and its piercing yellow gaze could be seen through the mist. Sora immediately went into a defensive stance when he noticed. “I knew it!”
When it the mist finally cleared, they got their first good look at their enemy’s new form. It was fairly similar to the previous one, yet aside from the obvious fact that it was smaller, it also had several alterations that made it appear even more intense. Its body was still mostly purple but now seemed to have chainlike marking with the links styled to look like the heartless insignia. They appeared to wrap all around its body as if restraining it. They connected to chainlike tattoos at the back of the wrists and ankles that seemed to be float off the body, similar to the ones on the larger form. They even moved around in the air like them too, but there was one major difference. At the ends of them, the black mist started radiating off, raging at first but quickly calming down before evaporating out of existence around a foot from the starting point.
The jagged jaw was now even more pronounced and intimidating as if it could bite one of them in half if it wanted to. The already bulging muscles seemed visibly denser, to the point that it was difficult not to notice. All in all the creature looked far more menacing than it did when it was gigantic, as it seemed to adopt a slightly more feral stance while standing its ground, intimidating everyone with a flash of its angular and muscular form.
Rainbow Dash just scoffed. “Big deal, it's still smaller now, that will just make the flank kicking all the more-“ She trailed off as the heartless grabbed the handle of its ridiculously large blade and lifted it over its shoulder like it weighed nothing more than an ordinarily sized sword, the sheer size of it reaching the trees in the far back and knocking them over... and glared at them.
Sora and Dash were silent, one grimacing and the other getting a strange feeling of nostalgia after seeing yet another opponent with an overly long sword.
“...Dash?” Sora called out.
“Yeah?” She replied, both their eyes still locked on the heartless.
“AJ says to stop talking.”
“Yeah, that’s fair.”
The giant light needle that Rarity fired had started disintegrating behind the heartless, but by this point, it had already served its purpose. Once it fully disappeared, Sora saw the bull tense its arm and its left leg.
It was going to move. Both he and Applejack could sense it now. They were too close. They both moved his eyes to Rainbow. They knew the other girls were out of range. “FLY!”
Rainbow locked up for a split second from the sudden yell but she felt herself get lifted up and tossed into the air. She reacted on instinct and her wings spanned out, allowing her to hover before she heard the sound of two weapons colliding and a gust of terrible wind blasted into her, sending her tumbling away from Sora.
A quarter of a second after Sora and Applejack hurled Rainbow skyward, minds perfectly synced, they commanded his body to pivot to their left and hold out the hammer defensively. Just in the nick of time too, as the business end of that massive blade was already coming at them from the side to cleave them in two. The weapons made contact. There was a millisecond of resistance, but Sora and Applejack didn’t have enough time to plant their feet, so in the end, they were knocked away with a yelp. Hurtling from both the impact and the wind pressure the attack had created, Sora took a full second before his own instincts kicked in and he made an aerial recovery, finally landing back on terra firma.
It was astounding for the girls that were far away from the attack. All their hard work and planning, only to see this smaller version is far scarier to deal with than the large one. That was when the “bull” started charging at Sora again, sword held out. Thankfully for the forest, it was running towards the center of the large clearing, so no more trees would become collateral damage to the massive blade.
“HERE COMES SUPPORT!” Pinkie called out, and just as quickly she was firing her rockets again. This thankfully snapped everyone back to reality from their stunned moment of awe and concern. I addition, the constant pelting actually slowed the heartless down to the point where it back stepped and held out its blade in front of it to defend itself from the onslaught. This gesture surprised the group, but they were nonetheless emboldened after seeing that their attacks were having an effect.
Twilight cast Thundaga in order to break its guard, briefly causing its muscles to lock up briefly. Meanwhile, Rarity had taken pinpoint aim and fired two thin yet strong beams at each of the Minotaur’s wrists, causing the beast to drop that massive sword.
As this was happening, Sora was already charging straight at it. Pinkie let up the pressure at just the right time so Sora could run straight for it, wind up that hammer, then smack the bull back. This time the bull was the one hurtling, it crashed and tumbled once it touched the ground but eventually righted itself and was on its hooves again before it finally stopped sliding back. “This one is... different” Sora murmured. The beast then bellowed an intimidating roar and charged straight at him. This Heartless seemed dead set on taking on Sora. He wasn’t sure if it was the heartless trait of attacking the closest heart they saw or that it just seemed to want to fight him for some reason, but either way, it didn’t change the situation. They had to take this creature down.
Twilight fired a few Firaga volleys, Rarity took a shot at its ankle to trip it up, Pinkie unleashed another barrage. This finally got the bull’s attention. Staggering to stay on its hooves, it roared in what seemed like anger before it thrusted its hand into the ground below it, then pulled up a huge portion of it, five times his size, and hurled it. The large piece of debris managed to escape the waves of incoming rockets somehow and head straight over Sora’s head, causing him to stop and look back. “Oh no, Pinkie!”
Pinkie was caught off guard. Before she knew it, there was this flying piece of Earth coming straight at her at extreme speeds. She scrambled out of her seat as fast as she could, and thankfully Rainbow managed to dive in and grab her with a high-speed flyby, narrowly getting the two of them out of the way before the oversized dirt clod collided with the turret. The turret itself looked like it turned into light for a moment before shattering and returning to Pinkie in necklace form. “Holy cupcakes!” Pinkie managed to say after a moment. “That was nuts!”
Rainbow just sighed at the relief that Pinkie was fine before turning her attention back to Sora and the Minotaur.
After witnessing Rainbow’s daring save, Sora finally released the breath he was holding and turned back to the Minotaur. The creature, now having dealt with the nuisance was charging at Sora again. But this time he was more prepared, charging the creature as well. He had to make sure this thing didn’t get its hand on that blade again, at any cost. The reach was too long and the attacks were devastating even if they didn’t hit the mark, so he and Applejack challenged it head-on. It was becoming increasingly strange how much this heartless seemed to resemble a person, actually appearing to think about its actions and surroundings. If it wasn’t for the insignia on its chest Sora would’ve thought it was an actual flesh and blood creature. But that couldn’t be, as far as he knew anyway... and yet...
Sora! Think about that later! Applejack called to him mentally, just in time for him to see that they were already upon the creature. It started by trying to throw a punch at him, to which he dodge rolled to the side and let his foe pass by him, before turning and swinging his hammer upward at its gut. However, this time instead of getting launched as expected, it merely staggers back as if in pain but remained planted on the ground. That didn’t make sense. He did it before, so what changed? For now, it didn’t matter, it just meant he needed to land more blows.
This time, however, the bum finally started retaliating, Sora having to rapidly dodge and block a series of powerful blows. Every time he blocked he noticed that he and Applejack were getting pushed back in a test of strength, if only a little, seeing how much he slides back whenever he had to do so.
As powerful as the hammer transformation was, Sora and Applejack just weren’t getting as many attacks in as they’d hoped. It was clear the weapon’s size made it more useful for crowd control or taking on larger foes. If only there was a way to harness that power so they could attack much with more speed and flexibility… for now, though it would probably be best to revert the weapon back, which they both immediately agreed to do.
Now that their weapon was back in its keyblade form they can get more hits in, though at the cost of a good amount of strength. At this point it seemed a fair tradeoff, Sora and Applejack were now doing much better against the beast. Getting more blows in, dodging more than just blocking. The Minotaur eventually wound up for a strong two punch combo that dragged the wind along with it. Sora backstepped to dodge the first, then pivoted his body to the side for the second. He then countered by continuing his pivot, hopping into the air and smacking his opponent on the back of the head, temporarily disorienting it and leaving it open to a long combo from Sora, finally ending it with a swipe across the abdomen, twirling into a strong upward slash, and jumping up with keyblade raised overhead. “Eat this!” With a cry, he slammed the beast into the dirt with enough force to crack the Earth beneath it.
Rarity took this as her opportunity. During their “duel” she had been preparing another charged shot with all her rapiers combined. With her gem reticule once more at the ready, she was planning to pin this beast with her binding strike when she saw a good opportunity. The aim was perfect, the path to the heartless was clear, gravity was starting to pull Sora back to earth, she fired. That was when the strange became the outright bizarre. As if the bull could sense something coming that would ruin its day, it used one arm to push its body aside forcefully, narrowly avoiding the large light needle that impaled the spot it was lying on just a millisecond ago. “What?!” Rarity was shocked. The others were as well, but they had already started reacting to this new development.
The bull tumbled along the dirt, stopping on one knee momentarily before standing back up again. Sora and Applejack touched the ground and were already running straight at it again. Twilight decided to fire Blizzaga this time, a more focused shot rather than the shotgun fire Sora would use most of the time. The first one missed as the bull started charging off.
Rainbow finally placed Pinkie on the ground. “Quick, the turret! Bring it out again!” Rainbow said.
Pinkie just shook her head. “Can’t.” Twilight fired ahead of the bull’s path this time.
“What?!” Rainbow was confused. “Why not?!” The spell hit home and froze the bull in place. It seemed like this would be a free shot for Sora and AJ.
Pinkie pointed her element. “I’ve been trying the whole time but my element won’t do as I ask.” When Rainbow finally looked at the gem, she noticed that it didn’t seem to hold it’s usual shine. It was slightly dimmer, and she could see pink sparks flying about every now and again within it.
Meanwhile, that “free shot” Sora and Twilight thought they had made disappeared before they even knew it. Sora was going for a leaping strike when the bull broke through the ice encasing it. Sora and AJ were too surprised by its sudden freedom to defend against the punch that went straight into Sora’s gut. “HURK!” Sora’s and AJ’s cry of pain could be heard across the whole field before they were sent flying back with great speed. During that flight, Sora flashed with light for a second before Applejack reappeared, the two now flying in separate directions before crashing into the ground.
“NO!” Fluttershy immediately flew towards them.
“Oh no…” Twilight was floored by what she had seen.
“Sora, AJ!” Rainbow flew towards them as well, Pinkie seemingly matching her speed on the ground. Rarity had gasped and was on edge, that punch looked bad. However, her attention, along with Twilight and Rainbow’s soon turned back to their enemy. It roared with confidence before pounding its chest with a fist, turning toward its blade in the distance.
No, this cannot happen. Twilight was back to casting spells, Rarity was charging up another pinning shot, while Rainbow wanted to give this stupid heartless a taste of its own medicine.
Fluttershy had tuned everything out as she was completely focused on the health of her two friends. Pinkie had helped to check on Applejack, surprisingly she was more or less was ok. A little scuffed up, but she was fine to stand on her own hooves. Sora, on the other hand, was another matter. He had gotten the wind knocked out of him and could barely manage to get on his hands and knees, clutching his stomach in pain as he tried to recover his breath from the blow. Thankfully, Fluttershy’s Curaga spell soon took the pain away and made it easier for him to regain his normal breathing. The fog in his mind soon cleared and he got back to his feet.
“Hah… pant…. Thanks, Flutters…” He heaved a sigh, still holding his stomach. Even though the pain was gone, the memory of that gut punch still lingered. “This heartless is different. Way too different.”
Applejack and Pinkie had soon joined up with them and Fluttershy, being cautious, cast Curaga on Applejack as well. She was leaving nothing to chance right now.
Back with Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow, they were giving their all. Twilight tried to slow it’s progress to the blade with Blizzaga and Graviga, even tried that new Stop Magic Merlin recently taught her, though that particular spell didn’t seem to work on this heartless. Perhaps she wasn’t good enough with it yet, or their foe was just too powerful to be affected by that type of spell. Rarity’s attempts to pin the beast were pointless, it somehow seemed to sense when she would fire her light needles, so she opted for hitting it’s joints with her beam attacks instead. Those attacks were so fast the bull couldn’t react to them no matter how much it wanted to. This aided Twilight’s efforts in slowing it down by tripping it up every time it tried to move forward.
Whenever Twilight and Rarity would get the heartless on its knee or make it stumble. Rainbow took the opportunity to make sweeping strikes at it, knocking the beast back a few feet every time. The beast may be strong, but because it was smaller it had less mass, making it easier to knock back than when it was huge.
Sora and AJ rushed off without a word, both knowing that they had to cut off the beast while the others were distracting it. They couldn’t allow that thing to reach its blade, or else the fight would become even harder. Twilight meanwhile had just taken a moment to replenish her magic with another Ether. Out of the group, she was the one who used the most magic, so it made sense that she would carry more ethers with her than the others. The spells she kept flinging around were powerful, extraordinary even, but that also meant she seemed to burn straight through her reserves. After using her fourth ether of the fight, she took notice of Sora and Applejack running back into the fray. The sight of them filled her with relief, knowing that they were okay after the hit they took. Her thoughts then changed from defensive to offensive. She learned a great deal about this beast during its earlier bout with Sora, and now that he was back in action she could practically sense victory approaching. She knew that she had to do everything she could to see this through.
Sora held his hand out. He was gonna ask Applejack for another shot at fusing, but before he could even call out her name he felt a gem slam itself into his hand. “Huh? That was quick AJ... I didn’t even have to ask you.” He said, calling out his keyblade.
“Ask what?” She asked while running beside him, having already summoned her weapon again. Sora could see the gem still in her gauntlets, so with confusion, he looked back at his hand and turned it over.
Rainbow couldn’t believe it... After all this time...
...It still wasn’t her. “WHAAAAT?!”
Twilight was shocked. She saw her gem in SOra’s hand. “What?” Then that… that could only mean…
Taking advantage of their moment of distraction, the Heartless made a mad dash for its weapon.
“Uh oh!” Sora had no room to question it. He held his keyblade out with the gem over it. Twilight felt anxious. “Connect!”
Both he and Twilight vanished in a bright flash of light. (Music end)
Woo! Hey Guys! Another Chapter is in! This one is a good one. I wanted some thoughts to bubble up in your heads one whats to come.
Oh and I guess since HoodwinkedTales already showed it in a subforum group. What do guy's think?
It was a commission I asked from her to represent the days when I get an idea in my head or am REALLY in the mood to write. If you're interested in making a commission with her, I'd definitely recommend it. Here's a linky of her commission rates: Click Here!
Alrighty! Moving on. So, isn't this exciting. it would seem Twilight's getting her turn now. Boy Rainbow must be... not very happy right now, and yet... One can't help but think... "Somethings off here"...
What will the future hold I wonder. What will Twilight's gem become, I wonder. What's the deal with this heartless? Why isn't Pinkie's gem not working?
So many questions I have purposely left unanswered, this chapter.... Guess you'll just have to wait for the next Chapter I shall post in the future, huh? :3
Next Chapter: This isn't how it's supposed to work...
As always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to future ones.
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nice work looking forward to the next chapter.
The Minotaur of the Beasts is here, huh. Well, I guess it's about time for one of those guys to show up.
8940544
Bum bum buuuuuuummmm!
Great new chapter, but Rainbow is going to be SO upset that she still hasn't gotten chosen yet.
8940604
One can only imagine lol.... and yet... I will say despite that, she'll be PRETTY important this next chapter. *covers mouth* oops did I say that out loud? *disappears with a sly grin*
HOW DOES IT FEEL RAINBOW DASH HUH?! YOU LOST TO THE EGGHEAD FOR FUSING NEXT! The Powerful God of Trolling has curse you til the end of this XD
8941000
He is not a god to be trifled with, that much is for sure lol
YAYYY!!! New chapter!
Hm... that afterword in your notes is very ominous. I'm guessing Twilight would be too overcritical of the fusing and their chance would be for naught or Pinoie's element is broken after this fight. At least that's how it's portrayed as is for now but that's just speculation after all.
Heck this could just be a double troll both to Dash and Twilight. When we're not looking it will turn out that Twilight's gem can't connect right because they don't know what magic breeds. But like I said only speculation.
8944226
Indeed, speculation but definitely sounds plausible when you put it like that *nods*
8944544
Indubitably. /adjusts monocle.
Anything can happen at random.
hmmm..... did i lose track of a flying monster? or is this really twilights fusion and not rainbow dashes?
8947943
Well, it certainly looks that way. Hopefully that flying monster isn’t Bazelguese lol
8947960
i figured you would create a flying monster for sora and RD to fight
either one that is super fast like a sr-71 or or is massive like a zepplin
8948028
That is certainly an interesting concept but then you would expect it. ;)
Man, sorry for taking so long to answer. Had no Internet for a week. Anyway, this chapter was absolutely amazing. I’m going to take a stab at it and guess that the giant Minotaur is the Heartless version of the Minotaur convict, something that makes me wonder where is his Nobody. Anyway, seeing Fluttershy chat with the Ursa Major was hilarious as the others were busy attacking and bombarding the giant Minotaur. The fact that it has a smaller yet more dangerous second form that was powerful enough to endanger Sora and the girls was amazing, especially since it leads to a new Fusion...and I laughed myself to hysterics when I correctly guessed that Twilight would fuse first before RD. Based on the something is off comment, I’m guessing that the Fusion won’t work or Sora would enter Anti Form as a consequence of relying on Fusions too much. As for Fusion Weapon, I think Twilight would either use a magical book (would be funny to see her horrified reaction when she learns that she could use it as a bludgeoning Weapon or rip the sheets for clones like Zexion did), a magical wand, or a magical stave/staff, or even a book/staff combo. Anyway, thanks for the amazing chapter.
8950106
Glad you enjoyed the chapter and I love your theory. Wonder how it all will pan out next chapter
Very good chapter! Loved every minute of it as usual!
8956047
Actually, no, this is not his AU. Do you see an AU tag? I don't. Therefore this is canon with story changes. Meaning this is Celestia from the show, not an AU Celestia. Also, yes, Celestia is not infallible, but she's also not stupid.
So you need to out match a creature in speed and pressision... and you decide to cuck RD? (I really hope this isnt for the sake of a joke) This makes no sence! I also don't see the supposed pre-requisite for the fusion like in the others chapters now that that I think about it. Hmmmm.... (insert thinking emoji here)
I like this story. I really do! But this just seems surreal like very not what should be going on.
I see Twilight's element as a Final Form stuff, also while the first time they seemed a bit zany and cool now the Pinkies 4th wall breaking seems a bit of a pace killer.
Other than that I still like this story the action is well written and I like to imagen the fights play out like with the move that RD and AJ did
8958865
I can understand that, for them RD denial it wasn’t for the sake of the joke believe me. Of course I can’t say why yet. For the Pinkie part I actually agree with you their and had every intention to not pull it out from here on out, just particular chapter when I was writing it those particular 4th wall parts only existed cuz the referencing I used made me think about it. Don’t expect it to appear much in the future.
At the very least I’m glad you still like the story.
Finally caught up, just in time for the cliff hanger.
I see you dropping hints that this heartless is smarter than average. I feel it's worth mentioning that an intelligent heartless is nothing new to Sora, after (False) Ansem (Terra Xeahanort's heartless) and the Earthshaker (Scar's heartless/ that boss big enough that it's back was a second boss fight).
um the first video says its "Not Available" for me, what is it anyway?
8971022
thx for letting me know, I guess the original got taken down. Fortunately, I found another video of the song.
I saw the three E3 trailer
https://youtu.be/VYo3SHarXjM
8985199
I know I feel the same way haha
8985275
still sucks that we have to wait till january 2019 for the game to release.
kingdom hearts 1 came out in 2003 and kingdom hearts 2 released in 2005, so we are 14 years due a kingdom hearts three.
we are entering duke nukem forever levels of developmental heck
8986556
But we know it won't suck so that's the difference :3
It’s great that you loved the new Kingdom Hearts III trailers. I certainly loved the ones showing the fates of Aqua, Riku, and basically the reveal of some of the new members of the True Organization XIII. Have to ask, since the new chapter of your Hunter story came out, will the new chapter of the story come out soon in 3 weeks like your precious schedule was?
Also, thought of something. If Sora and the girls befriend Discord, do you think he’ll give them the Scan skill so that they can see the HP of their opponents? Or the ability to see their own life/magic/drive meter with changing images of their faces whenever they are injured?
9008956
Hey there, to answer your first question, it’s my intention to get a chapter done within 3-4 weeks. But I have to be realistic with myself when the time arises, so I said that as a goal, but passable to be within a month and a half. Doing stories while running life is abit of a juggle, it would seem, and there’s other stories I wish to do, but they have to wait until I wrap up one of these current ones. I so badly wish there was more of me to just do them all haha. Anyway, as long as I don’t take more than two months on a chapter I feel like I’m doing ok. As for the discord question. To be honest I’m still deciding how he could contribute. It’s ok to say he’ll be helping, I don’t think it’s a spoiler when it’s blatantly obvious. I’m just in thought on how he’d help. However that sound like a good idea.
9009713
Glad your enjoying the story. And you’ll be happy to know your choice won the vote, so look forward to that.
who would win a struggle match between RD and AJ?
9059953
In there current states in the story?
9059974
well .......
unlike RD I do not think AJ would take advantage of her weapon to win
and........... then I think that after the twilight fusion , RD has a lot of stress to dispose of so ....
what's better than a nice tournament to let off steam
9060143
That is... actually something I’d expect to happen actually lol
Anymore moves from Recoded going to appear?
This was a epic battle chapter like always on the edge of my seat. But dang RD is last to fuse purr RD.