The Parent Map
At the Crystal Empire, the crystal ponies of the recently returned kingdom were going about their daily lives. A mail pony went about his route, delivering some letters and mail to the different houses along the crystal roads in the big city. His bag was organized with all the mail meant for each address, digging through it as he passed by the crystal statues of the kingdom's two heroes, Spike and Sora. One specific letter for one specific pony made him sigh, knowing this particular resident all too well, for the worst reasons. Reaching this pony's home, which was a light blue with an orange roof in a similar shape to a wizard's hat, the courier let out a sigh, put on a fake grin, and knocked on their door. A few seconds of silence passed before he knocked harder, hoping to get the pony's attention.
Finally, the door opened, where the Crystal Empire's Crystaller, Sunburst, walked out, but with a book in his face. "Morning, Sunburst," the mail pony greeted, only after getting his attention by moving the book hovering in his aura out of his muzzle.
"Oh! Hello," Sunburst greeted, then went back to ignoring the mail pony as he pulled out a letter with a red wax seal from his bag to give to the brainiac unicorn stallion. "You know, no matter how many times I read it, 'Houyhnhnm's Guide to Magical Arcana' never gets boring."
"If you say so," the courier mumbled, then held the letter out to Sunburst. "I've got another letter for you. From Sire's Hollow."
"Mhmm, sure thing," Sunburst mumbled, focusing back on his reading as he took the letter from the mail pony, then shut the door on him as he walked back inside, denying giving the courier a tip for his services.
Sunburst headed into his study, tossing the letter on his table, which had a pile of letters with a similar seal on each of them. Sunburst returned to his little reading desk, getting back to his reading. While engrossed in the page he left off on, a strange light from underneath his cloak around his flanks and a strange tingling sensation caught his attention. He looked around, growing excited about this mysterious feeling.
"What's happening? Am I experiencing the cerebration transmogrification effect described in chapter seventeen-!?" In the unicorn's excitement, as he tried to flip to the page in his tome with the random effect he believed was happening to him, he yelped and fell over from his seat. The lower half of his robe flopped over his head, revealing his backside and his sparkling sun cutie mark, which was also glowing and pulsing every so often. Lifting the robe off his head, he looked back at his flank. "Oh. My cutie mark is glowing," he said with barely any interest. His bored expression quickly turned to excitement after realizing his cutie mark was glowing. "My cutie mark is glowing! I know what this means!" Sunburst stood up and gleefully danced in place. "...Why am I yelling!?"
"Absolutely not, mom!" Sora scolded Manami as he paced back and forth in front of her. After getting back from Mt. Aris yesterday with the Crusaders, Manami was relieved not to have gotten harassed or targeted by the Organization after running into Demyx. However, when she walked into the throne room this morning to talk to her son about her beach day, she made the mistake of thinking back on meeting the sitar-wielding Nobody, and the ornaments picked up on her memories. Sora was not happy about seeing Demyx there, nor was he happy when he heard his mother pronounce who he was to scare one of the most useless member of the former and new Organization XIII. Manami sat in Twilight's throne, watching Sora going off on her for something that reckless, almost like a complete role reversal where she's the child and he was the adult. "You're not going anywhere else in Equestria! I'm taking you straight back home where the Organization will have less of a chance finding you, and I will make sure Kaito keeps you at home!"
"Ok, so I might have panicked a bit and called a bluff, but it seemed to have worked," Manami explained. "And that guy was a wimp. He freaked out when I was about to clock him in the snout when he tried to hit on me."
"Well...Ok, Demyx is...not that reliable, and I don't know why he was brought back," Sora mumbled, knowing how pathetic of a fighter Demyx is, but he shook his head. "Either way, if anyone else in the Organization believes him, they'll come after you and use you to blackmail me! Just like they did with Kairi when they got her a few years ago!"
"I wouldn't believe someone with a mullet like that," Manami said with a roll of her eyes. "That hairstyle was out of date before I even turned five."
"His hair doesn't matter! HE knows who you are now!" Sora exclaimed. He let out a frustrated huff, now given another person on his list to make him anxious and wary of the Organization coming after them. "You need to get back home, mom. Pack up your stuff. Your vacation's ending early."
"Excuse me, young man? Are you telling me what I can and can't do?" Manami questioned. "I came back fine with the girls last night."
"But it's dangerous for you here now!" Sora enunciated.
"Yes, I'm well aware of the powerful magic that could zap me to another dimension, a wild forest that seems as natural to us back home, evil creatures born from the darkness of people's hearts and husks from those very same heartless people who cause havoc in every other world, and many other things that could be dangerous to my health or life!" Manami listed angrily. "Don't you treat me like a child!"
"Well, you're acting like one right now!" Sora argued.
"Sora, I'm no stranger to staring face to face with monsters after that fat...cat beast thing tried to kidnap me! Especially when you turned into one trying to save me and when you attacked your father's Nobody because you didn't believe your father was still alive!" Sora flinched as his ears swiveled and pressed against the back of his head. He looked away from his mother after being reminded of his Anti-Form unleashed against his will when Pete attempted to use her to bait him into a trap. Manami gasped, realizing what she just said in her frustration. "Oh my...Sora, I-I didn't mean to say that. You're not-"
"You sure sounded like you meant it," Sora grunted. "Thanks for bringing that up." Manami winced as her ears drooped. She knew how sensitive of a topic that was to her son, yet she let it blurt out after getting scolded by her own son. Granted, she did deserve it for running into Demyx and hiding this from everyone, especially from Sora. "Sorry if I'm worried about your safety. I guess I can't be anywhere near you if you're afraid your own son's going to harm you or dad's Nobody like a monster."
"Sora, that's not what I-" Manami stood up and tried to reach a hoof out to Sora, but he shrugged her hoof off, clearly hurt by her comment. She knew he wasn't going to listen to her with his stubborn streak. Sighing sadly, she hung her head. "...Maybe I really am acting like a child being in this world..." As she tried to think of a way to apologize and make up for her harsh reminder to Sora, she flinched when she felt a strange tingling sensation around her flanks; an all too familiar feeling she experienced only a couple days ago. Lifting her head up, she glanced down at her hips, finding her cutie mark glowing. "...Uh oh."
"What?" Sora questioned, his back still turned to his mother. "You see me changing into a 'monster'? I can control my darkness now."
"Uhh, that's not why," Manami said nervously. She really didn't want Sora to see this, but a magical image of her cutie mark peeled off her flanks and floated over the Cutie Map. Sora rolled his eyes and turned around, only to gawk in shock at his mother's cutie mark slowly orbiting the crystal map table. "Hehe...I'm...called on another mission?"
"What!?" Sora scrambled to the table, his eyes shifting erratically to Manami, her cutie mark, the table, and the walls of the castle. "W-What is going on!? Why is the map calling you again!? Is this thing broken again!?" Manami stammered, unsure what to do to calm the stallion as he jumped on the table and examined it for any cracks or magical abnormalities, his face warping and phasing through the holographic geological map of Equestria. "Urgh! Ok, Starlight being called is one thing. Spike, understandable, since he's got his own throne in the castle. Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo...uhh...sisters to three of the Elements of Harmony? Well, technically, Scootaloo's not related to Rainbow Dash, but she's like a sister to her?"
"Maybe you should...try to take a few deep breaths, honey?" Manami suggested. "Perhaps the map can call just about anyone?"
"You're not going anywhere except home!" Sora shouted as he quickly turned to face his mother, making her flinch and press into the back of the Princess of Friendship's throne.
The doors to the throne room open, where Starlight walked in on Sora standing on the Cutie Map and yelling at his mother. "Uhh, what's going on in here?" Both pegasi looked at the unicorn, Manami silently pleading her to help calm Sora down before he has an aneurysm. Before Starlight could ask any further, she noticed Manami's cutie mark floating over the map, where hers soon joined the older mare's. "Oh! The map's calling you again, Manami? That's weird. I heard you just went on one the other day."
"Starlight!" Sora zipped over to Starlight, nearly toppling the unicorn over. "Did you break the map again!?"
"I literally just walked in here," Starlight blankly stated, gently pushing the stallion's chest to give her some personal space. "And the map should be perfectly fine after we fixed it months ago."
"Then re-fix it! My mom is NOT going anywhere else except home!" Sora exclaimed.
"I can't control what the map does. It has a mind of its own." Sora growled, his face turning red as he did his best to stifle a disgruntled scream. "Sora, relax. What's stressing you out? More unexpected wedding plans?"
"Uhh...It's...my fault, actually," Manami said. Starlight glanced at the mare, confused by her statement. "...I...brought up a couple moments involving his...darkness."
"...That's it?" Starlight questioned.
"...And I accidentally called him...a monster," she continued, startling the unicorn. "...After he saw my beach day yesterday through those enchanted ornaments where I ran into someone from the Organization."
And Starlight's shock heightened. "You what!?" Starlight exclaimed. She glanced at Sora, who was slightly calmer, but still angry and emotionally hurt, refusing to make eye contact with Manami. "Why didn't you say anything!?"
"W-Well, the guy I ran into was...a bit incompetent?" Manami reasoned.
"How incompetent?" Sora dug into his pockets and pulled out an enchanted ornament. He showed Starlight memories of his encounters with Demyx in the past, even when he ran into him and Vexen back in the cave near Starlight's old village. She was a bit surprised finding the Organization near the town she created, but that all faded when she saw what Manami meant by Demyx being "incompetent". He was a coward who flinched anytime someone was ready to pick a fight with him, whining that he was the wrong guy to be sent, and even when he tried to be intimidating, wielding a sitar with the power of water wasn't threatening. Especially with his hairstyle. "...Oh...Wow. I can see now...But, who would believe a kook like that?"
"We won't know for sure, but someone will eventually. Probably Even, or Vexen, whatever he's being called," Sora said. "Mom even told Demyx I was her son, revealing herself, and now she's putting herself in danger more than ever."
"Oh. Yeah, that wasn't a smart idea," Starlight agreed. Manami grumbled miserably, unsure if Starlight meant if her insulting her child was the "brilliant" idea or pronouncing to an evil group of once-defeated villains that she was the Keyblade wielder's mother. "But, if that guy isn't reliable for the Organization, then nothing he says will matter. Right?"
"I'm not taking any chances," Sora argued.
"But your mom has a friendship mission with me," Starlight stated, pointing to the crystal map. "If the map's calling her, she can't go back home right now."
Sora was about to argue further, only for the doors to open again, revealing Sunburst and Twilight stepping inside. "Starlight!" Sunburst called out.
"Sunburst? What are you doing here?" Starlight asked curiously.
"You're not going to believe this, but I've been called for a friendship mission!" Sunburst announced excitedly, lifting up his robe to reveal his glowing cutie mark. As his mark flew from his flank and joined Starlight's and Manami's, he noticed the other two mares' and was elated to be joining Starlight with his first friendship quest. "And you got called too! This is great! But, who's cutie mark is that?"
Manami stood up from Twilight's throne and approached the group. Twilight noticed the dour expression on the pegasus mare's face, even as she tried to look happy to greet Sunburst.
"That's mine. I'm..." She looked to Starlight and Twilight, both mares nodding silently, letting her know that Sunburst knows about the other worlds and the Keyblade. "...I'm Manami, Sora's mother."
"Wow. Sora's mom. Heh, well, nice to meet you," Sunburst greeted. "I thought you were his older sister. You don't look as old as you seem."
"Heh. Probably the magic in this world to help me fit in," Manami laughed nervously. Twilight saw Manami glancing at Sora on occasion, along with Sora's sour mood as he muttered to himself. "B-But, around other ponies, call me Ocean Breeze."
"Ok. And don't worry. Your secret's safe with me," Sunburst promised.
"Not all secrets," Sora grumbled aloud.
"What's going on with Sora?" Twilight asked Starlight.
"Long story-short, Manami ran into someone from the Organization named Demyx, she told him who she was, and she and Sora got into a bit of a fight," Starlight summarized. "She mentioned his darkness and called him...something less than a Heartless, but still hurtful."
"...Oh," Twilight mumbled, but was concerned for Manami's safety now that she revealed her connection with Sora to their enemies.
"So, where are we going for our first mission?" Sunburst asked curiously as he approached the map.
"Second for us," Starlight corrected. The mares joined Sunburst while Sora continued to sulk, watching the three cutie marks hover closer to each other as they flew down toward the map. They soon fixated on a location, orbiting a village near the valley of a mountain range. Unfortunately, Starlight and Sunburst knew just where that village was. "Oh no."
"Sire's Hollow?" Sunburst groaned.
"You know this place?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Yup. That's where we grew up when we were foals," Starlight said, both her and Sunburst looking unenthused about returning to their old home.
Hearing where they lived peaked Sora's curiosity. "That's where you lived?" he asked.
"You two don't sound like you're excited to go back home," Twilight noted. "What's wrong with Sire's Hollow?"
"Nothing. Just...who lives there," Starlight mumbled. "Let's get this over with."
"Right." Starlight and Sunburst already began to leave, Sunburst grumbling irritably as they passed Twilight. "My first friendship mission, and it had to be there of all places..."
Twilight hummed curiously, wonder what soured the two unicorns' moods. "I...guess I'd better get going, too," Manami said.
Sora grumbled, only to let out a heavy sigh. "Stupid map. Of all the times to call anyone, it had to be mom again," he uttered to himself. "I'm going to. I don't care if the map didn't call me or not."
"But, Sora-" Twilight tried to explain why Sora couldn't go with his mother, Starlight, and Sunburst, the stallion gave her an intense glare.
"I said I don't care! My mom shouldn't even leave the castle right now!" he exclaimed. After panting a bit and startling the alicorn, Sora took a deep breath to try to compose himself. "Someone needs to keep an eye on her. And if she has a dumb friendship mission, at the worst possible time, I can't just deny this stupid map with who it chooses." Twilight opened her mouth, but Sora was quick on the draw and pressed his hoof against her muzzle. "I'm being a bodyguard. Not interfering in what problem they need to solve. Unlike what you did when Celestia and Luna had a problem, I'm not going to freak out and try to butt in with useless advice that'll make things worse."
Sora exited the room, barely giving his mother a passing glance while Twilight grumbled. "I was only trying to prevent another moment in history from repeating itself. And I wasn't freaking out THAT badly." Twilight looked back at the map, worried about the possible consequences of those not called by the map trying to help solve the friendship problem. When she looked at Manami, she forgot about the worst-case scenario with the mare's depressed frown. "Is Sora going to be alright? I think he's overreacting a bit too much to give you the cold shoulder, even though you are in a bit of trouble with the Organization now."
"I think I need to give him a little space and cool down a little. I haven't seen him this mad since we heard about what happened to his father," Manami said. She sighed and slowly shook her head. "I can't get a word in without him blowing up...And he has a right to yell at me for being so stupid telling that guy who I was and hiding it from him." Manami began to trudge out and follow after her friendship quest partners and irritated son. "I might not be around Equestria anymore after solving this friendship problem. Probably be placed under house arrest with Kaito being my 'parole officer' under Sora's orders. Hopefully you girls can visit Destiny Islands...and I'll need to say goodbye to the Cutie Mark Crusaders before I leave tomorrow..."
"I'm sure he can't stay mad at his own mother forever," Twilight reassured Manami before she exited the throne room. Twilight looked back at the map where the cutie marks orbited Sire's Hollow. "I'm going to warn the others about what happened. Hopefully no one else in Organization XIII believes that guy..."
Once Manami caught up with Starlight, Sunburst, and Sora, they caught the next train heading off to Sire's Hollow. After picking a car, Sora deliberately picked a spot far in the corner, claiming to be keeping an eye on his mother, but Manami knew he also needed space to calm down some more. She sat next to Starlight and Sunset, the unicorn stallion well prepared for the small bit of travel as he brought a few books with him. Needing a distraction from her sadness, Manami wanted to know a little bit more about her two unicorn friendship quest partners and their home.
"So, you two weren't all that excited going back to your birthplace back in the castle," the pegasus mare mentioned. "There something at home you don't want tourists to go see?"
"No, nothing like that," Starlight said. "It's a decent town to live in. It's not like I don't WANT to go home, but every time I do, my dad treats me like I'm still a filly."
"Ah. Always treated like daddy's little girl," Manami said. "You must have not liked being spoiled as soon as you hit puberty, huh? How does your mother deal with a stallion like that?"
Starlight grimaced, glancing out the window briefly. "...Well...Not for long," Starlight mumbled. Sunburst looked up from his current book, bearing a similar, smaller frown. "I'm not sure when it happened, but when I left home and began my cutie mark equality cult, my parents broke up." Manami blinked, letting out an awkward groan. She thought Terramar's parents were divorced because of how they lived in two separate worlds, but she was dead wrong after getting to know them. "But whether it was before or after mom left dad, he was also so clingy toward me and treats me like a foal, like nothing's ever changed...I'm not sure if it's my fault or if it was mutual since he doesn't talk about it."
"Well, we're kind of in the same boat, then," Sunburst said as he put down his book, getting both mares' attention. "My parents are divorced, too, but my mother does almost the exact same thing, and I don't even have to go back home."
"Oh boy," Manami uttered, wishing she didn't bring up the unicorns' familial life.
"She sends me letters constantly asking about my plans for the future. 'You're a grown-up pony, Sunburst! You need a plan!'" Sunburst moved his hoof as he mimicked how his mother nagged him, and despite his irritation, the stallion sighed sadly, feeling just as bad for disregarding his mother over her own version of babying him. "That's kind of why I haven't been home in a long while, either."
"...And...I'm guessing because your mom keeps pestering you about your plans for your future, your father...got fed up with her antics and...broke up?" Manami asked nervously. Sunburst gave a slight nod, though even he seemed a bit unsure, hinting that he was also just as clueless about his own parents' break-up. Feeling terrible for bringing this up for both unicorns, it only made her feel worse due to the situation between her and her own son. "Why can't I shut my big mouth?"
"You didn't know, Manami," Starlight reassured the pegasus. "But we'll just explain to our parents that we're on an important friendship mission so they don't bother us."
"Do you really think that'll work?" Sunburst asked skeptically.
"Nope," Starlight answered without any hesitation.
Manami wanted to suggest Sunburst and Starlight tell their parents about how they felt about their coddling their children. However, after her and Sora's argument earlier, she doubted her own advice would help the unicorns get their parents to treat them like adults and no longer like kids. Eventually, the train finally arrived at their destination as it came to a stop at the station. The four of them were the only ones to disembark, stepping down off the small boarding platform and down the road leading to the town of Sire's Hollow. Stone walls surrounded the town's perimeter, only able to see the rooves of a few of the two-story houses.
Sunburst let out a sigh as he sniffed the air, he and Starlight feeling a bit nostalgic as they approached their birthplace. "The great thing about home is it always stays just how you le-"
Sunburst didn't pay attention as he smacked into a metal gate between the stone walls, with a pair of curved metal along the vertical bars in the shape of a heart. "You alright, Sunburst?" Manami asked, where the stallion nodded his head and readjusted his glasses after rubbing his sore muzzle.
"Was there...a gate here before?" Sora asked, trying to recall what he could remember from what Starlight showed him and Twilight during her time traveling revenge plan.
"No. Where did this even come from?" Starlight questioned.
Shrugging, they let themselves in and opened the gate. "Welcome to Sire's Hollow!" an automated voice rang out, which surprisingly came from the metal gate through some sort of enchantment.
"Uhh, ok. That's a bit creepy," Manami commented under her breath.
As they passed by the gates, they ran into a mare wearing a dress uniform and skirt holding a bottle of what appeared to be perfume in her hoof. "Essence?" she offered to the visitors.
"Essence of what?" Sora asked.
"You tell me." Her statement didn't reassure the two unicorns and pegasi, but she gave Sora a huge spurt of the "essence" in his face.
Immediately, the Keyblade wielder coughed and hacked as the aroma sucked all the oxygen from his mouth and nose and replaced it with the free sample of perfume. "AGH! H-Holy mother of light!" he exclaimed with a wheeze, finally able to breathe, though the liquid also caught on his tongue, leaving him to really smell AND taste it. "A little warning next time!?"
Manami curiously sniffed the air around her son's muzzle after he was breathing normally, only to grimace at the strange scent. "Is that...supposed to be chocolate?"
"Not supposed to be chocolate. Definitely chocolate!" the essence sampler announced confidently. "And all the benefits with none of the drawbacks."
"Yeah, there's actually one drawback: breathing!" Sora exclaimed while trying to spit out the bitter chocolaty perfume taste out of his mouth.
Near where the mare stood, Sunburst noticed the shop that sold the "essences" she was giving free samples from, though he was a bit confused by its placement. "Didn't this used to be a fruit stand?"
"I don't know what it USED to be," the mare said. "The Sire's Hollow Development Committee determined what it IS."
"The Sire's Hollow Development what?" Sunburst questioned. "Then where do ponies buy fruit?"
"You can get a fruit smoothie two doors down," the perfume spritzer said, pointing down to a building not too far from her store.
The line of buildings down the road looked a bit too modernized for Sunburst's liking. His nostalgia was ruined with all these new shops, which weren't needed for a small, simple town like Sire's Hollow. He and Starlight were a bit flabbergasted by how much had change since they'd been gone.
"All of the shops are different, and new ones replaced the old," Sunburst complained. "Everything's changed!"
"Not everything," Starlight said as she looked down the other side of the road, where there wasn't much more of a modern upgrade than the little shopping district they were in. At least Sora recognized the other half of Sire's Hollow's building structures, thought it looked like the whole town seemed to be split in half, the older and modern buildings contrasting and making the committee seem divided. The four walked over to the other side of town, heading directly toward a big building that looked like a bookstore. "At least this side's the same as it ever was."
Before Starlight could walk through the door to see if the inside was still the same, two mares who seemed to work there barred her path as they opened the door, one wearing a white long-sleeved shirt while the other wore a pink ascot and a pair of glasses. "Sorry. Our bookstore's been declared a site of historical significance by the Sire's Hollow Preservation Society," the mare with glasses said.
"You'll have to experience the books from here," the other mare said as she pointed to the windows along the bookstore. "That's why windows are see-through."
The two mares backed up and slammed the door shut behind them, baffling the two unicorns and pegasi even further. "Now there's a Preservation Society?" Manami questioned.
"What is going on around here?" Starlight asked.
"I'll explain it to you, sugarplum!" Starlight winced as she and the others turned around. Approaching them with a cheerful expression was a purple unicorn stallion with a two-toned aquamarine mane. His cutie mark was a gentle flame that seemed to fall while leaving a small trail behind it, and he wore a formal red vest with a white collar and a pale yellow tie. The stallion came up to Starlight, who grimaced and looked away, but he brought his hooves up to the mare's face and squished them with a chuckle. "You are just as cutesy-wutesy as ever!"
"Dad!" Starlight whined, her complaint muffled as her dad smooshed her cheeks together. She smacked his hooves away, already embarrassed to introduce her father to Sora and Manami. "Quit it! What is going on?"
"Oh, just a father wanting to preserve our town's rich history for his little pumpky-wumpkin!" the older stallion said, though his gleeful tone sounded like he was talking to Starlight like she was a filly asking a curious question.
Sora and Sunburst snickered hearing Starlight's little pet name. "Dad, you promised no 'pumpky-wumpkins' in public!" Starlight exclaimed bitterly.
"Sorry, chipmunk cheeks," the stallion whispered in his daughter's ear, though not quiet enough for Sora to hear as he nearly burst out laughing. Starlight glowered at Sora, warning him not to laugh or she'd blast him with magic if he told anyone else anymore baby names her dad spewed out. She smacked away another attempt at a cheek squishing, getting the older unicorn stallion's attention to the two guests who were with his "pumpky-wumpkin" and Sunburst. "Oh, hello there! Welcome to Sire's Hollow! I'm Firelight."
"Ocean Breeze," Manami greeted, then pointed to Sora, who was trying to keep a straight face while holding back his laughter. "And this is my son, Sora. I'm sure you've heard of him throughout Equestria."
"Wow. His mother? You look young enough to be his older sister," Firelight said, making the pegasus mare's eyes roll.
"Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot," Manami said.
"Dad, can we get back on topic?" Starlight interjected. "Like why you're trying to preserve the whole town!? That's crazy!"
"That's exactly what I told him!" Now it was Sunburst's turn to wince as someone else came up to them. This time, it was an older unicorn mare, whom Sora immediately recognized in Starlight's past as Sunburst's mother: her coat a darker shade of orange from her son's, similar white fetlocks on all four hooves, her mane three shades of scarlet, and her cutie mark was a sun with a swirl inside it. She also wore a pearl necklace around her neck, along with a blue tie that seemed to have the Sire's Hollow Development Comittee badge clipped on it. "I told him, 'Firelight, you are crazy!'"
"Mom?" Sunburst uttered nervously as the mare approached him.
"Our village needs the same thing you do, Sunburst: a clear plan for the future," Sunburst's mother said. She then pulled out a pair of scissors, startling Sunburst as she tried to clip off his goatee. He used his magic to lift his facial hair away before she cut it off, annoyed by his mother's insistence on planning everything, especially for him. She then pulled out a scroll and unfurled it, letting it roll several yards as it held a long list of upgrades she planned on making for Sire's Hollow. "That's why I started the Sire's Hollow Development Committee. And I've got plans for this town. Big plans!"
Before she could introduce herself to Sora and Manami, Firelight huffed, rolled the unicorn mother's plans back up as he marched up to her bitterly. "Now, you listen here, Stellar Flare! I'm not going to let you turn our historical heritage into Las Pegasus!"
Stellar Flare took back her list as the two parents leered at each other. "And I'M not gonna let you turn it into a museum!"
Firelight and Stellar Flare growled at each other, butting heads while glaring intensely at their rival's eyes. This was a clear indication that Sunburst, Starlight, and Manami's friendship quest was between these two, to the younger unicorns' dismay.
"Wait. Are you two...fighting over this?" Starlight asked.
"Like having a friendship problem?" Sunburst added.
Stellar Flare and Firelight looked away from each other and turned their backs toward each other. "Oh, there's no problem," Stellar Flare stated.
"Because there IS no friendship!" Firelight added, where both parents turned their heads and sneered at one another.
Starlight and Sunburst grimaced, dreading this mission already. They both slowly glanced at Manami, who noticed that all eyes were on her as she looked at the two unicorns, then to Sora. Her son was indifferent with who should solve this issue, leaving the ones chosen by the map to handle it as his main focus was keeping an eye on his mother. The pleading gazes from Starlight and Sunburst and the deadpanned, bitter leer from Sora made Manami grumble, left with no choice but to get the problem sorted. As Stellar Flare and Firelight stomped off to continue with their own committees, Manami flew over and dragged the older stallion back toward them, then to Stellar Flare.
"Sorry about this," she apologized as she pulled Stellar Flare back to the others. "Ocean Breeze. I'm with your son, Starlight, and my son, Sora." Manami pointed to Sora, though mentioning her relation with him shocked the unicorn mare. "I'm sure you've heard of him around the kingdom? Saving the day and whatnot?"
"Oh, I have, but I'm surprised knowing YOU'RE his mother. Though I can see the resemblance with your eyes and hair," Stellar Flare complimented. "You look no older than he does. There any special creams you might share so I can add them to our future health and beauty stores?"
Firelight let out an annoyed huff, but Manami giggled sheepishly. "Uhh, no face creams or ointments can give you looks this young," she lied. Clearing her throat, she ignored helping and being a part of the development side of Sire's Hollow and got straight to the point. "Anyway, your son, Firelight's daughter, and myself have been summoned by this magical map in Ponyville to solve a friendship problem. And, after seeing you two bickering, we think the map called us to help you two with your relationship."
Looking around Manami, Stellar Flare and Firelight stared at their kids, completely ignoring the pegasus. "You mean YOUR success depends on US?" Stellar Flare asked Sunburst.
"And you have to hang out with us the whole time you're here!?" Firelight added, both parents seeming excited to catch up with their kids, which unnerved both Starlight and Sunburst.
Stellar and Firelight glanced at each other with a scowl, then looked back at Manami. "Alright. I'll hear what you've got to say, Firelight. But every plan I've made for this town is perfectly reasonable," Stellar Flare said.
"Good luck convincing me my preservation efforts don't make sense," Firelight muttered with a huff.
Starlight and Sunburst sighed in misery as they hung their heads. Manami glanced at Sora, who only let out an annoyed sigh, knowing their stay here was going to be longer than anticipated.
"Alright. Let's get to work, then," Manami uttered.
It took quite a while to convince Stellar Flare and Firelight their preservation and development plans weren't necessary to give Sire's Hollow any sort of landmark in Equestria. In fact, Manami had noticed that both ponies starting these planning committees seemed very similar to how they doted on their children. And most of the ponies who sided with either the mare or stallion seemed just as baffled by how the future changes or protecting their town's history was more ridiculous than it seemed.
For Firelight, he couldn't help how things will eventually change as time goes on. They questioned the bookstore mares about the rules preserving the books inside, and what their jobs really were when they're supposed to sell the books they have in stock. No one could so much as be anywhere near the books, or even READ them, so it makes them worthless if their stories or information couldn't be read. There was even a bakery that used Sire's Hollow's old recipes to make their bread and other baked goods that the town founders ate, using grains that have been around for over a hundred years in their baking. Sadly, this old recipe ingredient left the bread hard as rocks and heavy as bricks, which made Starlight, Sunburst, Manami, and Sora question how the founders survived with such poor dental care with this sort of bread. Firelight tried to come up with a reason, but faltering and seeing their points that his preservation of their town was a poor idea.
Stellar Flare, however, was given a crash course in turning Sire's Hollow into another metropolis, though miniature, wasn't the best idea for a small town. For starters, the "essences", which Manami insisted to them just calling it perfumes since that's exactly what they're selling, were a bit too proper for a place like Sire's Hollow. That, and just spritzing the different scents in ponies faces with fruity, sweet, or "delectable" fragrances was a bit rude, and could kill someone if someone was allergic to the oils used to make these perfumes. Even the smoothies as a new way of ponies getting their fruit weren't good mixes as well. Manami could make better fruit smoothies at home, and with fruit locally grown back home. One important thing they brought to Stellar Flare's attention was the front gates to the town, along with the annoying welcoming voice, which happened to be Stellar's voice, every time those gates opened up. She finally got the message after her own enchanted recording grated her nerves, quickly dispelling it and leaving the gate silent forever.
After both ponies were enlightened by their processes of preserving or enhancing Sire's Hollow, Stellar Flare and Firelight met up to apologize for their fighting. "I guess I see my preservation efforts were a little over the top," Firelight said.
"And I might have been trying to turn the town into a shopping mall," Stellar Flare admitted bashfully.
"Well, whatever direction the town takes from now on, how about we work on it together?" Firelight suggested.
"Deal!" Both ponies shook hooves, showing their kids they were finally getting along. It seemed to be a success, but as Manami looked down at her flank, expecting her cutie mark to glow, it didn't. Sora noticed as well, just as confused as she was. As they silently questioned what other ponies were having issues, Stellar Flare approached Sunburst with a comb in her pale emerald green magic aura. "Sunburst, you should move closer to Ponyville," she said to her son while combing down his messy hair, to Sunburst's frustration. "After this success, I'm sure the Princess of Friendship will want to send you on more missions."
Sunburst grunted after his mother tugged out a knot in his mane, messing it back in his usual unkempt style. "That's not how it works, mom," he stated, even after Manami mentioned earlier that a map called them here, not Princess Twilight. Wanting to get out of here, Sunburst looked at his forehoof, pretending there's a wristwatch as he chuckled. "Oh, and would you look at the time! We should probably get going now that we solved the friendship problem, right, guys?"
"We didn't solve it yet," Starlight stated, then pointed to her cutie mark. "Once it's solved, our cutie marks are supposed to glow."
"Aw, don't be disappointed, puddin'," Firelight cooed as he patted Starlight's cheek, making her grumble in annoyance and embarrassment. "Your papa will work this out for you."
"Heh. My papa wasn't called by the map in Twilight's castle; I was," Starlight emphasized, giving her father a stern leer, demanding him to stop calling her cutesy nicknames and squishing or rubbing her cheeks.
"How are you going to explain this to the princess?" Stellar questioned Sunburst, who was only getting more aggravated by her persistent nagging to make him a successful adult. "What's your plan if she fires you from friendship quests?"
"Mom! She doesn't-! It-It's not-!" Sunburst stammered in frustration.
"Use your words, Sunburst," Stellar Flare said, her tone making it sound like she was talking to Sunburst like he was a toddler just learning to express his wants with his words, which only made the Crystaller more irate as he strained an enraged groan.
"Great. So their fighting wasn't the problem," Sora sighed. "Wasting enough time as it is. And mom's still in peril the longer she's around here."
"Wasting time!?" Stellar exclaimed. "We have to figure this out before we run out of time!"
Sunburst was about to tell his mother that wasn't how it worked, but Manami quickly butted in before he yelled at Stellar Flare for the misunderstanding. "There isn't any sort of time limit," she reassured Stellar Flare. "And we have no idea who needs a friendship problem solved. It could be a few more ponies or just one, and it could be just about anything minor or major."
"So they're here for an extra long visit?" Firelight asked, a bit too cheerfully for Starlight's liking while he laughed in excitement, squished her cheeks in his hooves once more, and hugged the mare tightly, nearly cutting off her air supply. "You can stay in your old room, punkie wunk! It's just like you left it!" Starlight clearly did not want to spend a whole night in her old room, let alone with her dad for the whole day with the horrified grimace on her muzzle. "Now, we know you have your little job to do, but Stellar and I know the town a lot better than you two."
"That's right!" Stellar Flare agreed. "Neither of you have been home in ages, and Sora and Ocean Breeze are new around here. You're going to need our help to succeed!"
Both parents ran off to help their kids find the mysterious friendship problem, though taking it the wrong way and never listening to how these friendship quests worked. "I think I liked it better when they were fighting," Sunburst grumbled, Starlight nodding silently in agreement.
Starlight and Sunburst trudged after their parents, hoping they don't help them too much, leaving Sora and Manami to wonder who else in town was in need of friendship advice. "I don't get it," Manami uttered. "Doesn't look like anyone else in this town has any problems with each other." When she glanced at Sora, who was getting a bit more frustrated himself, she was hoping the map wouldn't mind getting any outside help from anyone else who wasn't summoned for a friendship problem. "Sora, go with Starlight and Firelight to find who else needs help. I'll go with Sunburst and Stellar Flare."
"So, if I find the problem, should I let you know right away, or wait until tomorrow until you find out for yourself and blow up in my face?" Sora questioned.
Manami was getting fed up with this stubborn streak, hoping Firelight's cute pet names for Starlight would have brightened her son's mood up a little bit. "I get it. You're still upset with me. If you want me to go back home that badly, then help me solve this faster so you can do so!"
"I thought you could figure things out on your own!" Sora argued.
"Stop bringing up what happened yesterday! I did something stupid, but that doesn't mean I can't handle myself!" Manami argued back.
"You have no idea what you're even going up against!" Sora shouted. Both mother and son glared at each other, but Sora growled, no longer bothering arguing with Manami about this anymore. Heartless were one thing, but Nobodies, unlike Kaito and his Swashbucklers, were a lot more clever and far more dangerous. "Forget it. You clearly don't seem to care when you just want to have fun on your vacation."
Appalled, Manami watched as Sora turned and walked away to join Starlight and Firelight. "I do care, Sora! I might know everything you do, but that doesn't mean I'm that oblivious to all the threats you've faced thousands of times!" she exclaimed, but the pegasus stallion didn't acknowledge her. With a huff, Manami turned and hurried after Sunburst and Stellar Flare. "He still acts like a child. What more does he want me to do to apologize? I'm not that ignorant to life-threatening situations. I just didn't want you to worry about me too much when you worry about everyone else."
As she stomped off and passed by one of the buildings, she was unaware of a thin, rubbery silver limb stretching out to grasp the wall, along with a hooded face with sharp teeth inside of an unzipped mouth peeking around the corner before it swiftly slithered and skimmed across the ground like a snake.
Sora caught up with Starlight and Firelight at the unicorns' home. While making himself comfortable to settle his irritation with how neglectful his mother was with her own safety, Firelight went over some of Sire's Hollow's possible problems from history that could result in a friendship problem today with Starlight. Granted, this wasn't going to help them in the slightest when the problem is currently happening at this moment. Sora wandered around Starlight's house, which was quite a quaint family home. Until he walked past what was supposedly Starlight's room. He paused, did a double-take, and backed up to get a better look inside the bedroom.
With how much Firelight treated his daughter like a filly, Sora thought the stallion was exaggerating by leaving Starlight's room exactly how she left it. There weren't any little girl toys or an ounce of pink anywhere; it looked more like a punk rocker teenager's bedroom. There were posters of gothic ponies, some skulls, books about grim or depressing stories scattered on the floor, and there was even a white bull skull-shaped guitar in the corner of the room, just to describe how much of a rebellious and dark room Starlight lived in for a while before moving out and creating an equality cult by forcing ponies to get rid of what makes them special to be the same as everyone else.
"...Wow...Guess being called 'punkie wunk' makes sense if anyone else saw this room," Sora uttered to himself. He was soon distracted by hearing Firelight talking to Starlight, with baby talk, though what he said, it wasn't clear from down the hall. Starlight eventually stormed out in a huff, though she had what looked like an old pale gray blanket with faded purple edges with a picture of a kite in the middle was wrapped around Starlight's head like a bonnet. "...Uhh...what are you wearing?"
"None of your business," Starlight grumbled, quickly untying the blanket off her head and unceremoniously dropping it. "Dad is not helping with anything. Can't pay attention without my blanket. He needs to stop treating me like a baby."
"...That thing was your blanket? When you were a baby?" Sora questioned.
Embarrassed, Starlight stormed past Sora, who was promptly followed by Firelight, carrying a tray of cookies and a glass of milk. "Aren't you hungry for a little snack from listening to our town's history, punkie-wunkin'!?"
Starlight quickly bolted out of the house with a disgruntled yell while her father continued pursuing her. "...Ok...Now it's no longer funny." He looked down at Starlight's old blanket, seeing where she got her fascination and hobby for kite flying, though Firelight still in possession of his daughter's baby blanket made him a bit too clingy with the past. "...Hopefully he's cleaned that if he put it on her head..."
Manami caught up with Stellar Flare and Sunburst heading toward the shops, where the unicorn mare had her handy list out, but with new steps for her new plan for her son. "Now, you've had a little setback, but don't worry. I know exactly what you need to do."
"Make a plan?" Sunburst guessed, already knowing exactly where his mother was going.
"Already got one!" Stellar sang as she waved her scroll in Sunburst's face, annoying him. "Step one: interview the suspects. Step two: use your talents to solve the issue. Step three: get the Princess of Friendship to send you on more missions!"
"Mom, that's not how it works!" Sunburst exclaimed.
"It's a map that calls specific ponies to complete these friendship missions," Manami added while Sunburst struggled to keep his composure. "The princess doesn't assign them when she herself doesn't know where in Equestria the problems are."
"Uh huh," Stellar said, seeming to know exactly what they're trying to say, but she seemed to be only half-listening.
Sunburst's eye twitched as he seethed with inner rage, trying his hardest not to blow up on his mother. Manami sighed at Stellar Flare's obliviousness toward the emotions her son was going through with her planning obsession. Even Firelight was just as oblivious with how humiliated and upset he was making Starlight by treating her like she was still in diapers. Down the road, they spotted the perfume sampler and the bookstore mares together, which was a bit odd to the pegasus and unicorn stallion. Stellar grinned as she deliberately approached them, her silent cue toward them failing as they looked at each other confused before Stellar cleared her throat.
Finally getting the hint, the "essence" mare spoke, though it sounded like she was acting very poorly. "Oh! Thank goodness you are here! These two ponies refuse to use my essences."
"Maybe because we don't like to cover our natural scent!" the bookstore mare wearing glasses exclaimed, and in a disgusting display, lifted up a foreleg and releasing a nasty case of body odor to the perfume sampler, where she gagged and nearly blew chunks at her "natural scent".
Manami's face scrunched in a disgusted, perturbed grimace. "Eww," she shuddered.
Stellar Flare cleared her throat again, though a bit harsher and irritably as they failed to go by the planned out script she made for them. Sunburst was not even amused, nor disgusted by the one mare's lack of hygiene. The two mares groaned, neither willing to go through with this in the first place, but they were willing to help Stellar Flare.
"And she refuses to buy our books," the gross mare said, acting even worse than the perfume mare.
"Surely this must be a friendship problem," all three mares said simultaneously, giving Sunburst nervous, forced grins.
Stellar looked at her son with a genuine grin, but where she believed this would help him, Sunburst only got more frustrated and groaned in annoyance. "It needs to be a REAL friendship problem! You can't just make one up!"
Sunburst stormed off, needing to get away from his mother's persistent planning before he found it in him to create a magic surge. Stellar was a bit taken aback by her son yelling at her, but she glanced back at her terrible actresses with a disappointed and irate scowl.
"This is what happens when we don't rehearse!" Stellar exclaimed, then marched off after her son with some more plans for him to succeed in his friendship mission.
It slowly began to dawn on Manami where the real friendship problem seems to lie. She couldn't believe it took her a while to fully realize it, mostly because they were so focused on searching for the problem around the town; the ponies with the problem were Sunburst and Starlight with their parents. It began to make sense after learning about the strain on their relationship with their respective parents and seeing them getting frustrated by them for their coddling, which was only getting worse the longer they withheld their feelings from their actions. Even Stellar and Firelight's created committees paired up with how they treated their foals: Firelight preserving Sire's Hollow's historical landmarks reflected him refusing to change how he sees Starlight as a foal, and Stellar Flare's planning to better Sire's Hollow's prosperity with modern establishments reflected her forcing Sunburst to have a successful future and career. They're so blinded by their obsessions that they fail to see their babies are grown up and can make their own decisions, and only aggravating them more than any parent should toward their own child, even if it's just to poke a little fun at them.
While thinking about what Stellar and Firelight were doing, her thoughts drifted to her arguments with Sora the whole day. She made one little mistake when confronted by someone from Organization XIII and hoped to keep it to herself for Sora's sake. As useful and nostalgic those baubles hanging from the tree stump chandelier in the Castle of Friendship, just one small thought got her in so much trouble with Sora. He doesn't trust her to be by herself anymore, whether in Equestria or even at home, he doesn't believe she would be fine on her own after living nearly a decade and a half without her husband as she raised Sora by herself, or even the few years he was away saving other worlds from darkness. She even knows how dangerous all these beings created from darkness and nothingness were from all the stories, and thanks to Sora, she was still alive thanks to his protection. It almost sounded like she was having a friendship problem with her own son, but if that's the case, why did her cutie mark glow and not his?
Before she could try to find Sunburst after losing track of him, she was suddenly constricted and gagged by something, then yanked back harshly as she was forcefully dragged away from the town. Her screams and cries for help were muffled, and not a single pony noticed her getting kidnapped by someone. Or some-THING if the huge, thick, and rubbery silver rope wrapped around her gave her a terrifying hint. After a lunge over the wall and dragged another quarter of a mile away, the "rope" freed and unceremoniously dropped her to the ground with a thud. She turned around with a groan to face it, only to quickly back away at the Dusk standing over her. She bumped into someone and slowly looked up, her pupils shrinking as she let out small squeak, wanting to deal with the lesser Nobody more than a familiar stallion she bumped into at Mt. Aris.
"So you really are still here. Good! I was hoping you were." Demyx looked down at Manami with a casual, sarcastically friendly tone. He definitely wasn't in a flirty mood, almost looking a bit stressed, which seemed odd for someone who seemed lackadaisical and aloof. Even his awful mullet was a bit out of place and the heft on top seemed to droop in places. "You know, you are really something. I just can't get my mind off you. Know what I mean?"
Gulping nervously, Manami glanced at the Dusk, but it disappeared, leaving her with an insane musician who's about ready to blow up and probably blow her eardrums with his instrument or something worse. "U-Uhh...I-I'm sorry. Do I...know you?" she asked nervously.
"Oh-ho-ho-ho, don't you dare lie to me, lady," Demyx said. Manami scrambled to her hooves, slowly backing away from Demyx as he kept within a few inches from her muzzle. "I had some really good info to give to the Organization, just so I can get a little bit of credit. I mean, sure, I may be lazy, but come on! Why send me out to do stuff that I'm not capable of doing!? Boring recon, trying to get Roxas back and him refusing to! Although that was with Sora and not Roxas, for...odd reasons, but still, I did something useful, and they don't acknowledge me when I'm put on the freaking bench! Why bring me back if I'm just a backup if someone else who screws up!?"
"I'm not making this up!" Demyx exclaimed, gathering a few other members of the Organization to relay what happened while he was on his mini-vacation: Vexen, Larxene, Marluxia, Luxord, and Xigbar. "I swear, that mare I ran into really is Sora's mom! She admitted it, and you should have seen her face! So much like him with the eyes, hair...especially the eyes. I'm still shocked that she's that good-looking. If she weren't Sora's mom, I would have hooked up with her."
None of his old Organization XIII allies seemed to believe him, only getting more annoyed by his lack of usefulness to the group. "So, you want to hook up with one of those horses in that world? Wow. You really are pathetic, Demyx," Larxene commented snidely.
"I'm serious!" Demyx whined.
"So you admit you're into that sort of thing!" Larxene cackled, frustrating the musician as Larxene was always such a cynical member of the group and insulted everyone, especially Demyx.
"I find the amount of luck you have in finding someone specifically like Sora's mother are very low," Luxord commented while flipping through his card deck. "If anything, she would be located in Sora's home world, Destiny Islands. Not Equestria."
"But she was there! She must have been able to travel with him!" Demyx explained desperately. "She was hanging out at that beach like she was on vacation!"
"That makes little sense if Destiny Islands is a seaside village," Marluxia stated. "You'd want to go somewhere away from your home life for a proper vacation. But you know all about that, seeing how your recon assignments wind up with you finding nothing of value and waste your time 'relaxing'."
Demyx stammered, finally being of use, yet no one was going to lend him an ear. He looked to Vexen, who was more disgruntled and annoyed with him and his "lies", further embarrassing him as the scientist was also considered a backup to the Organization.
"Alright, alright, I think we've heard enough," Xigbar interjected, having been quiet through the whole ordeal while being amused by Demyx's role in the new Organization. "Saïx gave me the scoop on your lack of recon. If you think you're right, do some actual recon and give us a decent report to make your word more credible than it is." Demyx grumbled, especially when Xigbar gave him a sly smirk. "Maybe you can finally make yourself useful if you put the effort into your jobs than that water guitar of yours."
Xigbar turned to walk away, along with Larxene, Marluxia, and Luxord, all four of them getting back to work with their daily assignments. "It's called a sitar, and there's a big difference, you uncultured cyclops!"
"Ooh. Finally, someone's grown up AND grown a pair!" Larxene called out with a laugh.
Demyx growled, getting fed up being the laughingstock of the team as he watched the four Nobodies walk out. He was suddenly smacked upside the head by Vexen, who was glaring intensely at him.
"You are an absolute IMBECILE!" Vexen scolded. "My IQ just drops being around you, and you had to call us here for something like that!? Where is your brain when that boorish music of yours isn't on the forefront of your thought process!?"
"Come on, Vexen, you've gotta believe me!" Demyx pleaded. "Even though she was a pegasus, she had similar fur and hair color, eyes, the same attitude, and even gave me the same skeptical scowl Sora gave me when I first ran into him and saw Roxas within him!"
"Did you forget that the equines of that world all have different or similar color schemes?" Vexen questioned. "Through my research on geniality from Equestria, similar features might not be prevalent from parent to child like it is for humans. Parents could have matching coat colors, but the child could have a completely contrasting color of fur, or even hair, eyes, muzzles, builds, even what race they are. Even if your theory is correct and who you saw really WAS his mother, you lack the proof and other important details to prove you're right! All you're doing is assuming and you have nothing to back up your claims aside from your word of mouth, which means NOTHING with your track record!"
"Fine! You guys want proof!? I'll find her and bring her here to this world!" Demyx exclaimed. "That'll show you all and you'll all give me the respect I deserve if I was chosen to come back to this stupid group!"
Demyx summoned a portal of darkness as he turned and ran inside, angrily determined to prove them all wrong. Vexen just shook his head and sighed heavily.
"I question why Master Xehanort dragged his lazy posterior back when he's been nothing but excuses," he mumbled as he headed back to check on the pony vessel with Ansem the Wise.
"So, through all of last night and today, I've one a whole lot more work than I've ever done, and they didn't force me to do it!" Demyx continued his ranting to Manami, though the mare barely felt any sympathy for the stallion Nobody. She was getting more annoyed as he regaled his horrible day and the "stress" he's been through searching for her. He really was a lazy "villain", but he'd give real villains a bad name if he tried to be dastardly, cunning, or malicious. "You know, I never wanted to be a part of this, but they picked me for some reason, and no one's bothered to explain it! They pick me for the wrong jobs and expect me to do everything when I'm just one guy with only a specific set of skills! But now that I found you, maybe they'll take me seriously when I take you back as my priso-"
Manami gave Demyx a swift punch right in the nose, sending the Nobody musician reeling back with a yell. He clutched his face, a small bit of blood leaking out as Manami managed to break his nose with her own hoof. She needed to vent out her own frustrations toward her son's distrust in her, and with how easily she struck the Organization's punching bag, she felt like she could take him on in a fight, even if he supposedly had strong magic and used that sitar of his as a weapon.
"You think YOU'RE having a stressful day!? No thanks to you, my son can't trust me to be on my own in this world!" Manami exclaimed. "If only I just ignored you and didn't talk back to you, but you're the kind of punk who doesn't take the damn hint and leave a woman well enough alone! I've faced much more dangerous threats than the likes of you, and the worst was from a fat cat/minotaur thing!" Demyx groaned in pain, ignoring Manami as he continued holding his nose. With his back turned, he let out a grunt as he fixed his nose back into place and wiped the blood off the sleeve of his coat. "I don't even see why Sora thinks your dangerous to me when I, a normal woman, can knock your lights out with my bare hands! Maybe if I leave you in a bloody pulp, he'll get off my back and let me continue with my vacation!"
Slowly, Demyx's hunched, pained form slowly straightened, then turned his head to glance at her sideways. "...You think you can face me?" he questioned, his arrogant tone quickly turned menacing. Even the glare in his eye unnerved Manami, which only confused her after seeing how much of a pathetic wreck this Nobody of a man was. Demyx turned to face her, raising a hoof to rub his nose, his eye twitching slightly in a wince from the dull pain of the mare's sucker punch. "Lady, you have no idea what I'm capable of...when push comes to shove."
While Manami stood there, she gasped when she saw streams of water slowly rising up around Demyx, climbing faster and almost creating a large sphere around the Nobody. The water built up above Demyx, where he quickly shot up his left hoof, gathering the water to form a smaller sphere above his hoof, which popped and created his signature sitar. Realizing that his musical instrument was also a magical construct of his element, Manami backed away slightly in shock. Kaito was a water elemental Nobody as well, but from his tale of almost being recruited by Xemnas in the old Organization, Demyx was the one who replaced Kaito after he escaped as their alleged number IX.
"Uh oh," Manami uttered, now regretting punching the Nobody and her stupid bravery went sailing out the window. Demyx grasped the neck of his sitar, and with a quick flick and a twirl, he strummed the strings, sending a volley of water balls toward the mare. Manami gasped and instinctively ducked, avoiding the insanely fast water projectiles. She immediately got back on her hooves and ran toward Sire's Hollow. "Help! Sora! Someone help me!"
Before she could sprint off not even ten yards, Demyx strummed the strings of his sitar hard, creating a wall of water spouts to block her path. Manami didn't see them and struck the water, making her yell as the blockade of magic geysers stung like she ran into painful water pressure.
"Oh no you don't!" Demyx called out, then dashed toward the wincing pegasus mare with water spouts trailing behind him. He blocked her path, then swung his instrument at Manami, striking her side and making her cry out in pain as she fell to the ground. "Don't finish what you can't start! And usually, I try not to, because I know I'll mess it up in the end!" Manami grunted as she stood up, her ears twitching as Demyx began playing different tunes on his musical instrument. Huge water droplets soon began to fall around her, each large sphere popping around them as the mare tried to avoid the magic spells the Nobody cast. Some managed to hit her as she backpedaled away from him, getting further and further away from the safety of town. "That's right, dance to the sound of my music, babe! Let's see if you can land a hit on me now!"
Manami tried flying away, but being in the air only made his raining water bombs that more accurate as they appeared in her path. She couldn't even run to find some other place to hide out to with Demyx dashing around to block and taunt her, making her run into geyser walls to knock her back toward him, all while smacking her around with his instrument or letting his water attacks injure and wear her out. If there were ever a time where she thought back to the dumbest thing she's ever done in her life, it was messing with a musical water caster with a temper she shouldn't have provoked.
After another barrage of water spheres, Manami was struck by them all and fell onto the ground with a painful thud. Drenched and in excruciating pain, she weakly began to crawl away from Demyx as he slowly approached her, his sitar now resting on his back. He stepped a hoof down on her back, keeping her from fleeing while she grunted. Feeling absolutely terrified, even more so than facing Sora's Anti-Form directly within breathing distance, Manami trembled, silently pleading for her husband's Nobody or her son to save her.
"I-I...I thought...you were going...to take me prisoner," she whimpered.
"Oh, I am," Demyx said. He looked down at her with a sadistic grin. "I just wanted to show you just how 'pathetic' I was. Got anything smart to say now, lady?"
Just as Demyx was about to raise a hoof to summon a portal of darkness, he was suddenly struck by an arrow made of pure electricity. The stallion squealed like a girl as it struck his side, followed by jittered and babbled yelling as his body convulsed from the painful volts running through his body. Once it stopped, he didn't have time to sigh in relief as he turned to face where the arrow came from, only to be met with an incredibly enraged Sora, who had shifted into his Keyblade of Magic's Formchange, and smacked hard in the face by the half star-shaped limbs of the compound bow. Demyx was sent spiraling across the field, then landed and tumbled hard before sliding to a complete stop with a dazed groan.
Aiming his bow at the downed Nobody musician, Sora pulled the string and created an arrow flickering with fire magic. "This is exactly what I was talking about," Sora growled.
"Sora," Manami uttered in relief, but her smile quickly faded when Sora gave her a harsh glare.
Demyx regained consciousness as he stood up, rubbing his sore cheek in pain. "Ugh. Who got the number of that truck?" he questioned. Quickly shaking his head and snapping from his daze, Demyx turned to see who blindsided him, but when he saw Sora aiming a fire arrow at him, all of his serious, pent up rage disappeared faster than he could run. "Oh, crud," he mumbled, swallowing the terrified lump in his throat as he tried to play off his attempted kidnapping of his enemy's mother like nothing happened. "H-Hey! B-Been a while!" Demyx giggled nervously, but Sora was definitely in no mood for a conversation with him. "...Uhh...So, h-how...how did you know your mom and I were-?"
"I saw a Dusk mindlessly floating around Sire's Hollow, but it wasn't attacking or terrorizing anyone," Sora said. "It was almost like it wanted me to follow it, and I'm glad I followed it before I thought about killing it."
Demyx's jaw dropped, betrayed by the Dusk who helped him search for Manami and kidnapped her for him. "D-Did...That Dusk didn't believe me either???" the Nobody squeaked.
"Too bad it disappeared before I had the chance. And you chose the worst possible time to drag me out here," Sora continued. "Sunburst and Starlight just snapped at their parents for how they embarrassed them, but because the map didn't choose me, I had to deal with a threat invading the town, and lo and behold, I see my mom getting attacked by you, and you think you can just play this off like you're roughhousing!?"
"...So, that really IS your mom!" Demyx exclaimed from Sora's admission.
His cheers were quickly quieted with a startled yelp as Sora fired his arrow, narrowly missing Demyx's head and exploding in a blast of flames a couple yards behind him. "That's your only warning!" Sora pulled the string back again, this time materializing five fire arrows. "I suggest you shut up, leave, forget about running into my mom or even THINK about kidnapping her, or I'll make absolutely sure you don't come back to life!"
Wincing, Demyx fearfully backed away as he created a portal behind him. "Screw this. This isn't worth getting my butt whooped and dying again."
He quickly turned tail and fled through the portal. Sora watched it close, making sure Demyx wasn't going to pull another stunt before dismissing his elemental magic arrows and lowered his bow. Releasing his Magic Formchange, Sora summoned his Kingdom Keyblade, looked down at his mother, then raised his Keyblade up in the air, casting Cure around her. The magical healing bellflowers sprinkled rejuvenating powder on Manami, healing any injuries Demyx inflicted on her and making the pain feel nonexistent. She stood up, amazed by the Keyblade's healing magic, then looked at Sora.
"Thank goodness," she genuinely said to Sora. "I actually thought he was going to drag me off to who knows where. I've never been so scared in all my-" Sora suddenly grabbed her foreleg, then began to drag her along behind him. "S-Sora!?"
"I'm taking you back home right now!" he said. "I don't care if you didn't complete whatever friendship mission the map sent you on! You're in more now more than ever!"
"S-Sora, hold on a minute!" Manami tried to calm her son down, but he was only getting more overbearing and overprotective.
"You're not leaving the house, and I'll make sure Kaito keeps you at home with his Nobodies!" Sora added. "No more vacations, no more hanging out with your own friends back at home, not even trips to the grocery store!"
Finally having enough, Manami yanked her leg out of Sora's tight grip, forcing him to turn around and face her frustrated scowl. "That is it! You're getting even more hysterical!" she scolded. "I'm appalled how you're more worried about me getting kidnapped by that wannabe punk than him HURTING me and nearly leaving me motionless with that freaky water magic of his! You don't care about your mother getting hurt, or worse, getting KILLED!?"
"The Organization wouldn't kill anyone if they knew they were close to me!" Sora rebutted angrily. "They took Kairi before and they used her to blackmail me: slaying Heartless for them while they gathered the hearts that floated from whatever Heartless I did kill, left with no choice when it came to defending myself, and even if I begged them to take me and free her, they denied my pleas and kept her prisoner while taunting me! They'd do the same thing with you if Demyx had another few seconds to take you away rather than gloat like the idiot he is!"
"So it's fine if you watched your mother getting bodily harmed and left nearly to death than dreading what they'd do to me if they held me prisoner?" Manami questioned skeptically and sarcastically, letting out a disappointed grunt with a shake of her head. "You've completely lost it, Sora! You're overreacting, and clearly, you still can't trust me to handle myself!"
"Because you painted a target on yourself yesterday, and that bullseye just got bigger now that Demyx has proof that you actually are my mother!" Sora corrected.
"I handled him fine, but I didn't even expect him to have water powers just like your father's Nobody!" Sora yelled in frustration, which only bothered Manami more as her own son, who's an adult now, is complaining and about to throw a tantrum like he was a three-year-old. "I made a huge mistake, and I'm owning it so many times it's turning into an old song and dance! Why are you still so mad at me!?"
"Because you don't understand!" Sora shouted.
"What don't I understand!? I know well enough what's happening when it does, but only half of what you've been through and this career of yours!" Manami exclaimed. "Tell me instead of treating me like a child!"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT TO LOSE YOU AGAIN!!!!" Sora grabbed his mother's shoulders as he practically screamed his response.
Startled, Manami's complaints fell silent. The anger on Sora's face completely changed to pain and sorrowful, blurting out his reason why he was so dead set on taking her back home. He was even on the verge of tears as he stared at her with a look of fear, not hatred. After several minutes of silence, Sora slowly lowered his head and let go of Manami's shoulders, backing away slightly as he seemed ashamed.
"...What?" Manami uttered, trying to process what her son said. "...You don't...want to lose me again?" Sora didn't respond. His silence only confused her after he kept scolding her and getting frustrated with the unfortunate timing for being called by the map once again. "...Sora, you saved me twice. I didn't go anywhere far from you or the others."
"No...Not that," he said with a solemn shake of his head. Manami tilted her head, getting no straight answer from Sora. She was going to ask him to just spell it out to her, but he looked up at her morosely, tears beginning to well in his eyes. "...Do you know what happened when our home was swallowed by darkness?"
"...You told me you, Riku, and Kairi were scattered to different-" Sora quickly shook his head, interrupting his mother.
"No. Not about me; about you," he reiterated. "When that storm hit our home...What do you remember?"
"After the storm...?" Manami tried to recall the incident years ago with one of the worst storms she's ever seen in her life, and it was worse than any tropical storm she's ever heard of.
Manami hummed to herself as she finished setting plates and silverware down at the table to eat dinner with her son. "There we go," she said, observing her handiwork and relishing the smell of her homemade cooking. "Sora, dinner's ready! Come on down!" She waited to hear the rushed thumping of a hungry teenage boy coming downstairs, but there was nothing coming from upstairs. "Sora?" she called out again. No response. "I could have sworn he was just in his room. Unless he snuck out again."
Rolling her eyes with a sigh, Manami climbed up the staircase and headed to Sora's bedroom. She knocked on the door, left with no response again before opening the door to check on him. As soon as she looked into his messy room, she noticed the opened window, a lack of Sora on his bed or elsewhere in his room, and to her shock, a dark and very dangerous-looking storm looming over the mainland and island out at sea.
"Where did this storm come from? Did the forecast mess up with the weather tonight?" Manami gasped, growing concerned that her son snuck out in this terrible weather, and with it, there could be dangerous tidal waves that could destroy the town. She quickly ran downstairs, fearing for her teenage son's safety as dread of losing Sora would lead to the same fate her husband faced nearly a decade ago. "Of all the worse times he had to sneak out. If he's worried about that silly raft those three are building, I'm going to ground him until he-!"
The ground suddenly shook, making the woman yelp and topple over. Confused by the mysterious earthquake, she was questioning what kind of apocalyptic nightmare was happening at this moment. She quickly got up, but when she looked outside a nearby window, she gasped when she saw a massive ball of darkness in the sky, and most of the earth around her house was torn apart, floating high into the sky, and the rest of the town was being destroyed by this randomly catastrophic event. Terrified, she began to cry; she was going to die all alone as the world seemed to be breaking apart, and she has no idea where Sora was and if he didn't suffer horribly like she might. She heard something snap and gasped, then let out a scream as the wall she was near began to break apart and get sucked up into the deadly void in the distance.
She scrambled back into the next room fruitlessly, watching everything being slowly torn up and sucked out to what she thought was a black hole. Manami yelped as she felt her feet getting dragged off the floor, getting sucked out as well, which scared her more. Quickly, she grasped the wall of the hall connecting her kitchen to her slowly decimated living room, but her grip couldn't hold out with how powerful the vortex of darkness was sucking everything inside its endless depths. Try as she might, she slipped and fell, her screams quickly silenced as a piece of debris from her home knocked her out, sparing her from feeling the searing, endless pain of being swallowed up by the darkness.
Silence. Stillness. Floating in an endless void. Manami had no idea how long she was out for, but she couldn't move if she tried. It felt like hours. Days. A month? Her empty thoughts were disturbed while listlessly floating when a small speck of light shimmered in the distance. She was able to squint her eyes open, only to be blinded by that tiny speck as it expanded and engulfed her and the void. The blinding light quickly faded as quickly as it had appeared, leaving her in darkness once more, but she didn't feel as weightless as she had been for however long she was there.
Stirring, Manami moved her hand over her face, shielding her eyes as she squinted them open again. The familiar light of the morning sun shone through her blinds in her bedroom, waking her and greeting the day. Trying to recall what happened, she felt her head, thinking she must have gotten struck by something. A strange vision of a distant dream with her world crumbling around her and Sora possibly killed by the deadly storm snapped her fully awake as she sat up. Tossing the covers off her, she ran to her bedroom window, rolled up her blinds, and opened the window. The sky was clear, the ocean waters were calm, and she could hear seagulls cawing as they flew about in the sunny sky. Confused, she rubbed the spot on her head where she could swear she got smacked by something.
"Was...Was I dreaming?" she mumbled to herself. Slowly, she closed her window, then headed to the bathroom, checking her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was a mess, but she was more concerned about the mark in her dream when she was knocked out. Not a scratch, bruise, or scar. "Why...did that feel so real? Everything was getting...destroyed..."
After a moment contemplating her dream while staring at her reflection, Manami let out an exhausted sigh, then fixed up her messy bedhead. Once she was all ready for the day, she headed downstairs to the kitchen to cook a little breakfast. She decided on just a small portion of scrambled eggs, but when she went to grab the eggs, some of the ingredients she swore she used for dinner in her bizarre dream were still in the fridge, like she didn't even cook anything that night. She didn't even remember falling asleep, or passing out. She wasn't that tired last night, nor did she take anything to help her sleep. Humming in confusion, she brushed the thought from her mind, grabbed a couple eggs, then began to cook her small meal.
After her eggs were cooked, seasoned, and served, she cleaned her pan while her breakfast cooled down a little. Glancing up through the kitchen window, she quickly looked up when she saw Kairi out by the small dock where the kids rowed out on their boats to the island across the sea. She slowly walked down the road, and was passing by her house. Turning off her faucet, Manami hurried over to her door and opened it, catching the young girl just in time.
"Kairi!" Manami called out, snapping the teen out of her daze as she looked to see Sora's mother waving to her. She waved back and approached the house to properly greet her. "You seemed to be at the island a bit early this morning. Or...did you, Sora, and Riku have a weird slumber party planned in that treehouse?"
"Uhh...Sort of?" Kairi mumbled.
"Just make sure Sora's not causing too many problems. Especially when Riku keeps teasing him," Manami joked. She didn't notice the slightly solemn look on Kairi's face after mentioning Sora. "Speaking of problems, was I going crazy, or was the weather last night a bit...monsoony?"
"Huh? What do you mean, Miss Manami?" Kairi asked.
"Uhh...I don't know. I had a really weird dream last night," Manami tried to explain, though a bit sheepish. "I made dinner for me and Sora, but when I went upstairs to check on him, his window was open. I thought he snuck out, but there was also this horrible storm that came out of nowhere: the skies were dark, lightning shot through the clouds, and...well, a strange...black hole appeared in the sky and destroyed the whole planet without any warning. It was so horrifying, a-and it all felt so real." Manami laughed at the ridiculous dream, though Kairi was shocked, knowing full well that "storm" was no ordinary weather condition. "It's...kinda bizarre, don't you think?"
"Uhh, y-yeah," Kairi said with a nervous giggle. "That's...really weird."
"Oh, speaking of weird, was Sora on the island with you?" Manami asked curiously. "I actually have no idea what I did last night before falling asleep, and I don't know if he snuck out last night."
"...W-Well...kind of," Kairi said. It was a blatant lie, but she didn't want Manami to know that Sora was off in some other world trying to find Riku. "But...Sora and Riku...left this morning. On the raft we built."
Manami groaned, looking irritated as she shook her head with a small facepalm. "You've got to be kidding me. Those two actually went through with their crazy scheme of 'exploring the world' on a handmade raft." Manami just sighed and crossed her arms as she looked out at the ocean. "I'll give them a couple days before I ground that boy for life." When she looked back at Kairi, she was also looking out toward the sea as well. A sad smile was on her face, along with a stray tear that rolled down the teen's cheek. Manami knew how close Sora and Kairi were to each other, but that look of longing in the distance reminded the woman of herself; staring out at sea, waiting for her love to come back home from work and be back in his arms. But that tear hinted that Sora might be gone for far longer than a couple days. She only hoped that wasn't the meaning behind it, even as Kairi wiped it away with the back of her hand. "Kairi, are you ok?"
"...I am," Kairi said as she looked back at Manami. "I...I already miss him, that's all."
Knowing how she feels, Manami pulled Kairi in for a comforting embrace. "I'm sure he'll be back home before you know it," she assured the teen. "And for my sake, he'd better, otherwise I'm going to make sure he's staying in this house until you can keep the reigns on him long enough to find his common sense."
Kairi nodded with a small laugh, but she knew Sora could handle himself. Wherever he may be. Manami finally let go of Kairi, watching her continue down the road and back to her home. As soon as Kairi disappeared in the town, Manami walked back inside her house and sat down at her table where her eggs have long since cooled down. She stared at her breakfast, already losing her appetite as she began to worry about how far Sora and Riku were at sea on their wooden raft. She sincerely hoped he wasn't lost, or worse, even as the nightmare she had was some sort of sign that her baby was in serious trouble.
After explaining to Sora about the strange nightmare she had and what she remembered after that, Manami slowly began to realize why he was this overly worried about her. "...That...That night...My dream wasn't a dream at all," she uttered.
Sora nodded his head. "Heartless appeared that night. They attacked the island, and Riku, Kairi, and I were sucked away and transported to other worlds," he said. "...Everything else on Destiny Islands was gone. Taken by the darkness..."
"...So...did that mean that...I was...in the darkness? And...in a way...I died?" Sora didn't give an answer, but the pained look on his face was all the answer Manami needed. She didn't know if she was a Heartless, or if she was just floating aimlessly in the Realm of Darkness until the world came back along with every living thing that was also lost to that storm. That dream really did happen, and the memory of it was so vague, almost like Destiny Islands returning wanted to erase any memory of that darkness storm to keep the world order or prevent any PTSD from the traumatizing moment before they were swallowed by darkness. "...Oh...That's why you didn't..."
Sora solemnly nodded, his shoulders slumped over as he hung his head. "You know what's even worse than the thought of losing you?" he asked, his voice cracking slightly as his tears began to trickle down his cheeks. He kept his head down as his body shook with stifled sobs, then turned himself around, ashamed to look at his own mother. Manami wondered what he thought was worse, but before she could gently ask him why, he finally answered. "...I-I...I never thought about what happened to you...after Pete tried to kidnap you. And I never worried about you ever since that storm took away everything until you were in trouble." He expected his mother to be hurt by his words, but Manami was more shocked he would ever think that. "I cared more about finding Riku and Kairi more than my own mother.
"How selfish of a son am I that I didn't even care about what happened to you while I was off on some adventure with a destiny to save the worlds from the Heartless? I lost both my parents, and the thought never even crossed my mind when my friends seemed more important than the only family I had left was gone and I would never see again!" Sora's shoulders trembled as he berated himself. Manami heard him choke back a sob, feeling her own tears creep up as her son expressed his guilt over his adventures distracting him from mourning her loss. She didn't blame him for all of that, but with how much he's been through, she was amazed by how optimistic he was in the bleakest of moments. "...I don't want to lose anyone else...I promised Luna I'd rescue Sombra, but his heart was too far gone and the Crystal Heart's light destroyed his heart and body. I tried to save dad, but even when I went back in time, he still died at sea, and he became a Heartless with his friends...You have no idea how scared I was when you ran into Demyx...and he almost took you away...I really thought he was...h-he was..."
Even though Demyx was the worst when it comes to being menacing, just the thought of someone in the Organization or any of his enemies taking anyone he loves terrified him. It's one of the most helpless feelings Manami's read in stories for a heroic protagonist caught between stopping the villain and stopping himself while their loved one is being threatened, and despite their strengths, especially Sora's, all their power, skills, and determination wavers immensely, unable to bear losing their loved one if they made one wrong move. Sora may have found ways to help others who were in trouble, but he fell victim to such predicaments several times and hesitates before pleading to the heavens for their safety in exchange for his own life or imprisonment. It hurt Manami seeing her son putting himself down over something he couldn't control and tried his best to do what his heart believed was the right thing to do in that moment. She now saw why she was so upset with her; deep down, he was scared, far more worried than she ever thought he could be if he failed to protect everyone he held dear to his heart.
"...Oh, Sora..." Manami approached her beloved baby boy and immediately wrapped her forelegs around him. Sora flinched slightly as his mother gave him a warm, comforting embrace from behind, feeling her chin resting against his shoulder as her cheek nuzzled against his, along with her own tears running down her face along with his. "...I'm so sorry, honey...I didn't know..." Sora wanted to retort, part of his stubbornness wanting to tell her she really didn't know, but the lump in his throat made him choke back another sob. "If only I'd known so much sooner...You wear your heart on your sleeve, but you tend to hide how you really feel when you're so upset...I'm so, so sorry."
Sora startled her as he broke away from her hooves, only to quickly turn around and hug her tightly, where she just as quickly held her son back in her embrace. "I should be the one who's sorry," Sora said as he buried his face in Manami's shoulder. "I-I overreacted and...and I yelled at you...I panicked and...I didn't mean to, but...b-but I-"
"It's ok, sweetie," Manami gently shushed. "It's ok." Sora gently shook his head, refusing to believe her, but she continued holding him, assuring him with her loving embrace that she wasn't mad at him. "I completely understand now. It's ok." Neither pegasus wanted to let the other go, even when the moment seemed to last for an eternity. Still holding each other, they only moved apart a couple inches, staring at each other's tear-stricken faces with Manami giving her distressed son a gentle, reassuring smile. "You had every right to scold me for being reckless. I was afraid you didn't trust me to handle myself, but he proved me wrong, and I was frightened when he showed off his power. Part of me thought he was going to kill me with all that water magic, but, whether he dragged me away or not, I knew you'd come save me...even if you couldn't trust me being on my own."
"But what if I didn't!?" Sora exclaimed. "If I didn't see that Dusk and followed it, you would have-!"
Manami gently shushed Sora again, bringing a hoof to his lips to stifle his complaints. "I believed you would, no matter where we are, or if you didn't love me anymore." Sora's ears drooped at the latter example. He could NEVER hate his own mother, the only family he had who raised him after his father died, even if she made a mistake. He was about to look down, but Manami tilted his head back up, kissed him on the forehead, and cupped his cheeks in her hooves so he could focus on her gentle gaze. "I know you're not the kind of person to leave anyone in trouble. You're special, even before all this Keyblade stuff. I'll always love you and be proud of you for being the hero you always pretended to play as when you were little." Manami pulled Sora close to her again, resting his head against her chest and gave another kiss to the top of his head. Sora hugged her again, feeling guilty for giving his mother the cold shoulder like that today. "I should have told you last night, but you have so many responsibilities and so much stress from your work and yours and Kairi's wedding, I didn't want you to worry about me as much as your other friends or other worlds. I have no idea how you manage to stay so optimistic with so many people depending on you."
"...Me either," Sora mumbled. "I always worry about you, even when you're not in danger. How can I not?"
"How do you think I feel when you face something big and nasty, and there's a horrible chance that you won't make it out alive?" Manami asked with a small laugh. Sora knew his mother was joking. Only slightly, though, even when he's told her he sacrificed his heart to wake Kairi, faced several huge Heartless in other worlds, and faced many different versions of the man responsible for causing all this trouble to gain the ultimate power in all the worlds in the cosmos. "Sometimes, I lie awake wondering if you're still alive and didn't get your heart ripped out by a Heartless. But, you know exactly what you're doing...And what and who you're up against. I should have just ignored that guy or played it off like I was a resident of this world."
"I feel like I got you involved by telling you everything I've been up to," Sora mumbled. "I really can't help myself by breaking the world order everywhere I go."
Manami released Sora from her hug, getting him to look up at her. "Well, it can't be helped now. You always do get excited and could never keep things a secret for long." She giggled slightly, rubbing her son's shoulders to reassure him that his constant world order breaking wasn't always a bad thing, even though the worst was letting someone with evil intentions learn about the outside worlds and what powers they can try to take for their own gains. "If it wasn't for Pinkie Pie stowing away when you came home a couple years ago, I didn't think I'd have a chance of seeing the world she's from, or even be like one of them while staying in it for a few moments. I shouldn't have learned about anything beyond our world, but sometimes, secrets like this can't always hide forever."
Sora hesitated a bit, but he nodded his head slightly. "...I'm sorry for...everything I said, mom," he apologized. "I didn't mean to-"
"Sora, you have nothing to apologize for," Manami interrupted, giving Sora one more kiss to his head. "You're very overprotective, but I know you mean well. I just want you to forgive me and hope I never do anything that stupid again." She then rustled her son's spiky hair with a small grin. "You're father wasn't the only one who acts like a total dolt and screws up now and then." That got Sora to chuckle a little, but seeing him grin was all she needed to see to know that he, of course, forgives her for her mistake. She was about to hug him again, however, a strange tingling sensation at her flanks ruined the moment. Glancing down, her cutie mark was glowing, which dumbfounded her as the pulsing and glowing palm tree cutie mark signaled her friendship mission was complete. Even Sora noticed from his peripherals, and even he was astonished. "...Uhhh, I...solved the problem? But...I thought it was supposed to be in Sire's Hollow...and it was with Firelight and Stellar Flare."
"...Well...this doesn't feel like the first time this happened," Sora said, surprising Manami. "Sunburst and Starlight told off their parents after how they were treated by them came to a head. I don't think they resolved their mission, and I think it's between them and their parents...just like...us."
"You mean the map sent me here, even though...my friendship problem was with you?" Manami questioned. "I don't understand."
"It happened to me and Kairi when we went to Las Pegasus with Applejack and Fluttershy to solve a friendship problem." Sora bit his lip anxiously with a small, nervous giggle. "...We...had a little fight...I didn't want her to know about running into Kaito the first time, she thought I was lying about something, and...we were kind of at each other's throats, even when we found out who needed their friendships resolved." Manami stared at Sora, a shocked frown on her face, only to quickly turn skeptical. She then tapped her hoof against her son's forehead, not enough to cause pain, but it did annoy him slightly. "Uhh, mom? What are you doing?"
"Trying to find your personality inside your hollow head," Manami answered, making Sora grunt and stare blankly at her before gently batting her tapping hoof away from his skull. "I'm sorry, I find that hard to believe. You and Kairi, getting into a verbal argument with each other??? Maybe silly romantic banter in a lover's quarrel, but never full-blown, spiteful arguing!"
Sora flinched, giggling sheepishly as he scratched his cheek bashfully. "W-Well...we made up in the end, and that was the same day I bought her engagement ring," he reasoned. Manami only sighed and shook her head, waving her hoof to him to continue explaining the mysterious cutie mark success glowing he and Kairi had before. "So, we found the problem and solved it, as much as I didn't want those FlimFlam Brothers getting back together, but Applejack and Fluttershy's cutie marks glowed while ours didn't. We talked later that night, I admitted running into Kaito in Disney Town with my friends the day before, and we made up. After we did, our cutie marks glowed, signaling our friendship problem was found and resolved."
"...Huh. So, the map calls you, drags you along with others to someplace in Equestria, but misleads you into helping the actual problem there while you have a different problem to solve specifically for you," Manami summarized, though her own explanation led to more baffling questions. "But you AND Kairi we called to fix your relationship. Mine was the only one that glowed, but you came along with us and you weren't called by that map. That doesn't make sense."
"...Maybe it was like how Spike got called by the map for creating a problem when he invited Dragon Lord Ember and Thorax," Sora pondered.
Manami was about to ask who Ember and Thorax were, but Sora quickly answered her question with his enchanted ornament, showing the aggressive young dragoness and the timid changeling king. Aside from Spike, Manami never saw any other dragons, nor any changelings since she's been here the last few days. Sora then showed off the near disastrous event Spike planned by inviting both Ember and Thorax to Ponyville, mistaking when he wanted to bring them over to be the pony ambassador for their visit and strengthen their ties between their kingdoms, only to keep them split apart and think that them running into each other could cause a war between the dragons and changelings. Thankfully, Ember and Thorax became friends, giving each other leadership advice that also applied to their friendship advice, all without Spike's help. As ironic as Spike's first friendship problem was, Manami felt hurt that the map called her to resolve her relationship with Sora because it made it seem like SHE was the one who started it. And in a strange way, it sounded like that was the case.
"So...My friendship problem was with you...and I caused it by putting myself in danger?" she asked.
Sora winced, seeing his mom look so downtrodden that she believes she was responsible for almost ruining their relationship. "B-But I overreacted and kept putting you down!" he quickly reassured. "It was just a terrible coincidence that you bumped into Demyx yesterday! You found the problem, even though we both sort of caused it, and we talked and made up!"
Sora gave her a wide grin, hoping to steer the negative back to the positive and avoid having another emotional talk involving his mother being at fault when she was already forgiven for her bravado yesterday. Manami stared at her son, seeing how desperate he looked to change the topic. Part of her still felt responsible for worrying Sora more and putting herself at risk, but she wanted to move on with their day and put on a smile.
"...Right. Problem solved," she said, then looked down at her cutie mark, the glowing finally stopping. "Now all that's left is to help Starlight and Sunburst with their issues with their parents."
"Right. I think they need to reconcile with their folks, too," Sora said. Manami agreed, but before she spread her wings to fly back to Sire's Hollow, Sora stopped her with a worried expression. "Uhh...Are you still hurt? I saw a little of what Demyx did to you before I knocked him away from you."
"I'm fine thanks to that healing spell," Manami assured Sora. "Maybe a little sore, but not that bad to the point I should be hospitalized."
"Ok. Just...making sure you're alright," Sora said.
Both pegasi flapped their wings and flew back to town, Sora sticking close to his mother just in case she was attacked again.
Once they arrived back in Sire's Hollow, both Sora and Manami split up to find Starlight and Sunburst. As Manami touched down in the small shopping district, she spotted Stellar Flare at a table with a few of the perfume shop's different "essences". It was hard to tell, but clearly the mare's eyes were a bit red from crying, probably hurt when Sunburst yelled at her and told her how her planning for his future was constantly bugging her. She was distracting her pain with her work, which Manami experienced all too well when she lost her husband and had to focus more on Sora and raising him right. She watched the unicorn spray one of the bottles in her face, only to gag and cough at the strong aroma.
"So, how's that one smell?" Manami asked, somewhat curious, but not wanting to get a whiff if it smelled like something bitter.
After Stellar Flare caught her breath, she rubbed her snout and crossed off the name of the scent she willingly spritzed herself with. "A bit...too pungent," she stated. "Where did you disappear to, Ocean Breeze? Were you exploring Sire's Hollow on your own or something?"
"Uhh, long story," Manami vaguely answered. "But, my son told me he saw the outburst between you and Sunburst and Firelight and Starlight." Stellar Flare frowned as she looked down, the reminder too strong for her to distract herself with her plans for slightly modernizing Sire's Hollow. "Yeah...You're not alone. Sora and I had a bit of a spat, but I finally found out why he's been so moody toward me, and we managed to make up."
"Well, lucky you," Stellar mumbled miserably. "What did you do to annoy him? Scolding him for his messy mane? His clothing choice? Being a soldier when he could be anything else?"
Manami sighed, knowing one way or another, she was going to explain what happened to her in some detail. "...One of Sora's 'enemies' found out who I was, and the reason why I was gone was because he tried to kidnap me." Stellar quickly shot her head up, giving the pegasus mare a bewildered look of horror. And all of that happened when no one in town even noticed her getting taken away not even half an hour ago. "I told you it was a long story."
"Goodness. I think maybe adding a security booth at the gate with some royal guards should have been at the top of my list." As Stellar wrote the idea down for a future planning project, Manami grumbled and approached the table.
Manami grabbed the clipboard and yanked it out of Stellar's magical hold, startling the unicorn. "Maybe stop focusing on planning everything for the future and focus on what's happening in the present?" she suggested.
"You were just kidnapped, and you're taking it very likely!" Stellar argued. "Think of how much mortal peril Sire's Hollow will be if there's thieves and mare or foal kidnappers lurking outside our walls, ready to snatch up anypony at a moment's notice!"
"Sora already came to my rescue, and I doubt anyone would want to ruin this peaceful town!" Manami shot back, then grabbed one of the perfume bottles off the table. "In fact, just spraying any of these at some evildoer will subdue them when they're choking on a non-lethal fruity mace! These aren't essences; they're gas bombs!" Stellar Flare pouted, insulted that her fragrances were that terrible, even though she didn't deny that they were terrible. Manami calmed down a little, placing the bottle down with a sigh. "I'm fine. No worse for wear. Just a bit shaken up, even after I realized I scare the daylights out of Sora if something bad were to happen to me.
"But enough about me; this is about you and Firelight with your relationship with your kids about to be torn apart." Manami held up Stellar's clipboard, pointing to the long list of future plans for the town. "It's clearly obvious you two are babying Starlight and Sunburst, but neither of you seemed to realize until that bubble burst and they had to flat-out tell you when it became too much."
"Gee, thanks for reminding me how much my own son doesn't want my help anymore," Stellar said as tears began to well in her eyes. "Or...he doesn't love me anymore."
"Ok, that is definitely not true," Manami said. "Sunburst loves you, but he's just sick of being treated like a little colt and getting unnecessary help from his mom about his career when he's content with the one he has." While Manami tried to reason with Stellar Flare, neither mare noticed Sunburst as he rounded a corner of one of the nearby shops, only to backpedal when he spotted them chatting. He poked his head around, overhearing them even as he planned to apologize to his mother for blowing up on her like that. "Maybe that was fine for him when he was younger, but sometimes, our babies grow up, and they need to...spread their own wings and go out on their own."
"But I had everything planned so perfectly for his life when he got his cutie mark," Stellar explained. "Ever since he told me how he used his magic to catch all those books he and Starlight stacked and back on the shelf in an organized way, I thought he had an excellent career with magic and be one of the many great unicorn wizards of the past! But...when I saw his report cards, he excelled in other subjects, except for spellcasting, and that is important when you have a foal enrolled in Princess Celestia's School for Magically Gifted Unicorns...He tried, but after so many failing grades with casting all types of powerful spells, he felt so disappointed. I felt like I failed at giving him such a successful career, so I had to come up with other plans for him to be successful if magic wasn't his true calling."
"I see your point, Stellar, but do you see how all your constant plans for his future got on Sunburst's nerves?" Manami asked. "You might be looking toward the future for him, but you're dwelling too much in the past over that one fault in your first plan for him that you keep treating him like foal, not an adult." Stellar Flare was about to argue, but Manami quickly pressed her hoof against her muzzle. "And you never give him the chance to say or explain anything like he's a toddler trying to learn how to speak. You didn't even listen to me, a full-grown and older wo- er, mare, after explaining how these friendship problems happen and who a magical crystal map sends to help solve these problems." Sunburst was a bit shocked by how Manami showed his mother how she'd been treating him, interjecting any complaints she had while laying out her issues before her. He did feel a bit guilty that he flunked out of magic school due to the lack of magical prowess, but Stellar Flare really believed he had some latent magical power within him despite it only being a small magic burst to save Starlight when she toppled that tall stack of books. Manami removed her hoof from Stellar's lips, seeing her point come across as the mare listened. "Did you ever wonder why he never wrote back to you, or even told you what he's been doing after he moved out?"
"...N-No," Stellar mumbled. "But, I wrote to him so many times, and he never seemed to answer back."
"Because you pestered him with your constant plans for his future to the point where he feels his opinions and what he wishes to share with you are going to be brushed aside," Manami explained. "He's unable to talk to you because you don't listen to him, and your obsession with planning has been drifting your relationship apart that he didn't even want to come back home, even when the map called him to resolve the problem between the both of you. If you keep this up, he's going to ignore you, or toss you out of his life just like his father when he left you because of all your fretful plans for a future he doesn't want." Manami grimaced when she realized what she let slip out. She quickly slapped her hooves over her muzzle and stared at Stellar Flare apologetically. Instead of being yelled at for bringing up her divorce, the unicorn mare only seemed saddened, a repressed part of her thoughts knowing that her breakup with her ex was due to her constant worries about Sunburst's future and dealing with it in this way. "...I-I'm sorry. S-Sunburst brought it up on the train ride here...I can't really shut up when I ramble, can I?"
"...No...you're right," Stellar uttered. "...I've let all these plans of mine go a bit too far." She sighed as a tear rolled down her cheek. "I felt so sorry for Sunburst. He was so upset when we saw his grades, even more so when he flunked out. I felt like I failed as a mother, so...my only way of coping was by making more plans for his future to hide my biggest disappointing failure to set his future properly...I was obsessed by making things right, I drove my ex-husband away, and I never realized how distant Sunburst was getting..." Stellar Flare choked back a sob. "...No wonder he wants nothing to do with me...I'm already losing him..."
"Well, I wouldn't say that." Manami and Stellar Flare were startled as they looked at Sunburst, who snuck out of his hiding spot and approached the two mares.
"...How...How much did you hear?" Stellar asked.
"I heard a lot, and Miss Ocean Breeze said a whole lot more than what I would have," Sunburst said. "I also wanted to apologize for snapping at you, mom, but...you did need to hear that."
Stellar Flare blinked quizzically at Sunburst. "This sounds like a terrible apology. You're apologizing, but I needed to be told off?"
"Sometimes, the truth can hurt, but it can't be held back forever," Manami reiterated.
"Let's meet up with Starlight and Firelight and I can give you a much better apology," Sunburst said to his mom.
Stellar Flare was still skeptical that she was going to be given a sincere apology, but she just sighed, rubbing her eyes of her tears before she and Manami followed Sunburst. "I can't believe I'm still part of this friendship problem you're all searching for. And with my own son?"
"Technically, he's also part of the problem for avoiding you for so long to tell you how he felt," Manami corrected. "So is Starlight with her father. He's probably just as obsessed with his own past mistakes as well, but he's afraid of seeing Starlight growing up too fast for his liking."
"If you figured it out so quickly on your own, you should have been the only one to resolve the issue, not be involved in it," Stellar mumbled.
"Oh, my mission was actually accomplished," Manami said, causing Sunburst to freeze and glance back at the pegasus.
"Wait, you said you finished yours?" Sunburst asked in astonishment. "I thought we had the same problem to solve."
"I'll explain more on the train ride back to Ponyville," Manami said.
Sunburst hummed curiously, puzzled, but if she wanted to tell him after their business was done, that meant it involves something his mother shouldn't hear. They continued on until they reached the fountain in the center of town, where Sora, Starlight, and Firelight were heading toward at the exact same time. It seemed like Firelight was just as nervous as Stellar Flare was, probably given a similar discussion with Sora about how he's treated Starlight. Sora and Manami stepped back, letting the parents and their kids have their talk and express their issues without a third party butting in to add more input to a familial problem.
"So, usually, Twilight or one of our other friends gets called to a place with a friendship problem," Starlight started.
"And the map sent us to a friendship problem we already had," Sunburst added.
Firelight and Stellar glanced at each other, their own issues toward each other long since resolved, but after getting told from Sora and Manami the real problem, they were afraid of hearing it from their own foals. Starlight approached her father to apologize and explain the issues she's had with him.
"I'm sorry I've been avoiding coming home, dad," Starlight said. "But I don't want to be constantly treated like a little filly."
Firelight sighed, his feelings still a little hurt from being yelled at earlier, but he did realize how awkward and embarrassed he made his daughter feel and kept her so distant from her. "I'm sorry, sugarbun. I knew how hard things were for you before you left home. You were so upset when Sunburst left, and your outlook on life changed so drastically, I guess I just wanted you to feel safe, like when you were young."
"Heh. Yeah. I've made...quite a lot of mistakes," Starlight admitted sheepishly. "And...I'm sure Sora's told you about my village of equality I forced ponies to join and trying to change history while making apocalyptic alternate timelines when he chatted with you." While Firelight nodded, Stellar was shocked to hear Starlight, Sunburst's first and bestest friend as a colt, turned into a villain at one point. She glanced at Sunburst, who nodded slightly, confirming her admittance after she told him. "But that's a part of growing up, dad. I'll probably be making more mistakes, but I can learn from them and be much better than I was before."
Firelight nodded, a sad smile on his face, but he understood that his little filly was a grown mare and needed to treat her as such. Sunburst turned to his mother, now his turn to give his more heartfelt apology to her.
"I'm sorry I never told you how much you plans bothered me, and I know you just wanted me to succeed," he said. "But I need to do that on my own, and I believe I have. I live in the Crystal Empire to study the newly returned kingdom's history, then became the royal Crystaller to Princess Flurry Heart, and I managed to rekindle my friendship with Starlight after you had us move to Canterlot."
Stellar Flare was taken aback, finally hearing how successful Sunburst already was without her numerous plans. He might not have had magical potential, but he made up for it with academic knowledge far above his peers AND earning an important role in the Crystal Empire's royal family. Now she felt guilty for nearly driving her little colt away by pestering him with her ideas to make him feel successful, and he managed to do it on his own without her knowledge.
"...I'm sorry I bothered you so much about how your life should go," Stellar apologized. "You looked so lost when you flunked out of magic school. I thought as long as you had a plan, you wouldn't feel that way again." She let out a sigh and stared at the ground. "I eventually made too many to hide my own insecurities as a good parent, which...drove your father away from me, and you kept growing more distant from me."
Firelight seemed despondent, looking back at his own parental insecurities that led to his own ex to leave him. He always worried about Starlight's emotional state and was so focused on making a safe environment for her, he kept treating her like a baby and drove Starlight away while his former wife couldn't handle being the worst example of a father doting on his little girl too much. Starlight noticed his expression, gently rubbing his shoulder with a reassuring smile, letting him know she still loves him, but needed some personal space and to be treated a bit more like an adult as she got older.
"Well, I never had any thoughts of kicking you out of my life forever," Sunburst said. "I needed to find my own way, and now, I don't feel as lost as I was years ago. In a way, your plans helped me discover my own. And I mean that in a good way."
Sunburst reached his hoof out and held his mother's, his words making her tear up at the sentiment. Then, the telltale glow of both Sunburst and Starlight's cutie marks lit up their flanks, reconciling with their parents signalling their success. Both families hugged each other, the older unicorns happy to hear their foals out and still have them in their lives while the younger two finally got the weights off their chests and felt so much closer to their parents than they had in their adolescent years. Sora and Manami glanced at each other and hugged each other as well. They heard sniffling beside them, neither of the six ponies aware that they had an audience with all the locals of Sire's Hollow witnessing a heartwarming moment.
Now that the problem was solved, Sora, Manami, Starlight, and Sunburst headed to the train station with Firelight and Stellar Flare in tow to see them off. "Well, this was quite a wild rollercoaster of emotions," Manami said.
"You're telling me," Sora uttered.
Stellar Flare stared at Sunburst's glowing cutie mark, using her magic to keep his cloak raised to watch it pulse and radiate light. "The glowing cutie mark seems like a symbol of accomplishmet. I don't suppose there's a way for you to get it to glow all the time."
"I don't think it works that way, mom," Sunburst said, feeling self-conscious with his robe exposing his lower body and his mother constantly eyeing his cutie mark's glow.
"Not unless we solved a friendship problem every few seconds," Starlight said. "And I kinda hope this one will be it for a while."
"You know, it seems to me your map is saying we're not just your parents," Firelight pondered aloud, then let out a small laugh as he glanced at Starlight. "We're your friends, too."
As strange of a thought it was, neither family can deny that claim was far from the truth. "He's technically right; your family are the first friends you ever make," Sora said.
"Whether you like it or not," Manami added as she gently nudged her son's side, making him giggle and bear that happy-go-lucky grin she loves to see on his face.
"So, if I promise to treat you less like a filly and more like a friend, will you visit more?" Firelight asked Starlight.
"Absolutely," Starlight agreed as she hugged her father.
"And if you start to drive me crazy again, I'll tell you instead of never coming home," Sunburst promised to Stellar Flare.
"That's lovely of you to say, dear," Stellar said. "But you know, I can always visit you."
"Stellar, you're a genius!" Firelight cheered, letting go of his daughter and approached the older unicorn mare. "How do you feel about a road trip?"
"I might have a few plans for that," Stellar said as she pulled out some pre-made plans between the two parents.
Starlight and Sunburst grimaced nervously, already dreading an early surprise visit from their parents and getting embarrassed by them again after just fixing their relationships. "Here they go again," Sora mumbled. "Wait until they eventually find them on a date."
"What date?" Firelight asked, hearing Sora's uttered statement, which only made Starlight and Sunburst grimace harder, their cheeks blushing as they quickly glanced at each other and just as quickly looked away.
"Oh, Starlight and Sunburst had a bit of crush on each other when they were foals, and they're kind of working on stemming that relationship after getting back together as friends," Sora elaborated, then suddenly yelping as Starlight yanked his jacket's hood tightly over his head, sending him crashing to the ground with a grunt.
"Really!?" Stellar exclaimed in excitement while Firelight let out a happy squeal. "I knew you two were so close, but-"
"You two are madly in love with each other!?" Firelight asked, though a bit too eagerly for Starlight's liking. "Awwww, sugarplum, you have a coltfriend!"
"N-No! I-I mean, y-yeah, I like Sunburst a lot, but-" Starlight stammered as she and Sunburst tried to explain to their now overly excited parents about their current relationship.
"W-We still feel...like we just made up as friends, a-and with how busy we've been, w-we haven't even-" Sunburst was cut off as his mother dragged him toward her with her magic with a hairbrush in her magic aura.
"Honey, if you want to be around your marefriend, can you at least keep your hair presentable and not look like a slob?" Stellar brushed down her son's messy mane, much to his annoyance and chalking up another nuisance of his mother's that's bugging him.
"Mom, Starlight and I aren't-!" His whining was interrupted by a yelp when Stellar tugged at a knot in his mane.
"Now, honeybun, I'd like you to be honest with me," Firelight said to Starlight. "Did you two kiss on the first date?"
"Dad, we haven't even started dating yet!" Starlight exclaimed, her cheeks bright red in embarrassment and anger toward Sora blurting out hers and Sunburst's crush with one another. "It wasn't that long ago where we just got back together as friends, and we're taking it slow. Building up to when we eventual do go out on a date."
"Oh, I know some perfect romantic spots you two can spend around Sire's Hollow for your first ever date!" Firelight cheered.
While he listed all the spots he partook in with his ex, Manami let out a sigh when she heard Sora snickering as he stood back up. As funny as it is embarrassing her own son with his romance with Kairi, she could tell Stellar Flare and Firelight were just teasing them while also being excited for their eventual budding romance. Luckily, Starlight and Sunburst were saved by the sound of the train's whistle as it chugged along toward the station and came to a stop at the platform.
"Well, there's our ride back to Ponyville!" Starlight quickly said, snatching Sunburst, Manami, and Sora in her aura and rushing them inside the closest passenger car. "We'llvisityousoonloveyoudad!" She quickly slammed the door, thankful that no other ponies were leaving the train to visit Sire's Hollow. After an agonizing few minutes of waiting, the train finally set off to its next destination. Stellar Flare and Firelight waved to them as the train left, promising to visit them and check in on their future love life. Once the four ponies settled into their seats, Starlight leered at Sora, who was wearing a cheeky grin. "Did you really have to say that to our parents?"
"Hey, I just thought there were some other things they should know about you that they didn't know...chipmunk cheeks." Sora's grin widened as he teased Starlight with one of Firelight's many nicknames, even bringing a hoof to squeeze one of her cheeks to add to his playful teasing. Starlight stared icy daggers at Sora, trying her hardest to kill him with her gaze alone, even as he continued toying with her face. "You know, you did have pigtails when you were a filly. Were you also a little piggie if you had some chubby cheeks?"
"...You have three seconds," Starlight warned, her horn quickly lit up with her turquoise aura. Sora grimaced and leapt out of his seat before Starlight jumped after him. "THREE!"
Sora yelped and ran away, dodging Starlight's magic beams, whether to stun him or do anything to get back at his friendly bullying. "And there's my goofball of a son back to his old self," Manami said with a shake of her head. They heard Sora crying for help as Starlight managed to hit him, then a whole bunch of poofing and zapping sounds that seemed to torment the Keyblade wielder. "Play nice, kids! No roughhousing on the train!"
Sunburst snickered, even as Sora tried to crawl away, only to be dragged off by Starlight into the next empty car. "To be fair, Sora isn't wrong," he said to Manami. "She did like to stuff her face with snacks and look just like a chipmunk stuffing acorns in its cheeks." Manami laughed as she imagined a filly Starlight munching on sweets with her cheeks stuffed full. "So, what exactly happened before? You had solved a different problem that made your cutie mark glow?"
"Right..." Manami sighed and rubbed the back of her neck. "...Well, the problem I had to fix was obviously between me and Sora. I'm not sure what you know between the others and Starlight, but our home was once taken by darkness a few years ago."
Sunburst's glasses drooped over his muzzle as he listened with shocked awe, slowly fixing his glasses back in position as Manami told the stallion what happened to her, running into Demyx after getting kidnapped by a Dusk, and the emotional talk between her and Sora and his deep-seated fears of losing the ones he loves, whether it was once, twice, or many more times after. He was definitely learning a lot more about the outside world and the bigger threat Organization XIII poses compared to the likes of Equestria's well-known villains and monsters. Sunburst knew Sora was quite popular in the Crystal Empire alongside Spike, but where he saw a determined, strong-willed hero, there was a lot of emotional turmoil inside him when the lives of those very close to his heart were threatened.
Once Manami finished telling Sunburst what happened, he sat in silence, taking it all in. Starlight finally came back with a satisfied sigh, seating herself beside her friend, and possible coltfriend after a bit more time to see where their feelings go from there.
"That should shut him up on the rest of the ride," Starlight said.
"What did you do to Sora?" Manami asked curiously.
"Oh, nothing painful," the unicorn mare said innocently. They soon heard pitter-pattering footsteps on the wooden floor of the train car, then something leapt on the armrest of Manami's seat. She and Sunburst looked at what seemed to be a chipmunk, though the short, spiky brown hair and big blue eyes looked a lot like Sora's. "I thought he'd like to know how it feels to have chipmunk cheeks is all."
"After you zapped me so many times before turning me into Chip and Dale's long-distant cousin," Sora said, though his voice was much higher-pitched and squeaky. "Can you change me back now?"
"Hmmm...Nah. Until we get back to the castle, I'll think about it," Starlight said with a smirk.
"Oh, come on!" Sora whined.
Manami laughed, adding insult to injury by scratching Sora's chin, where he tried to bat her hoof away with his tiny paws. "You kind of deserved it for calling Starlight that," she said. "Even if it was cute, if she hates it, you zip your lips, mister."
Sora huffed and crossed his arms with a pout. For the rest of the train ride back to Ponyville, he stayed as a chipmunk, forced to ride on his mother's back as they disembarked and said their goodbyes to Sunburst. After getting back to the castle, Starlight refused to change Sora back to spite him, forcing him to chase after the unicorn until she teleported to her room, leaving him to scurry around and find Twilight, Kairi, or Aqua to change him back to normal. Manami felt exhausted and headed for her bedroom to relax, whether it was from the talk with Sora or getting smacked around by Demyx and his sitar and water magic, she needed a nap regardless.
Manami plopped onto the bed, but sleep didn't come to her. Lying on her back, she stared at the ceiling, contemplating the last couple days. Twice, she ran into Demyx. Twice, she's almost gotten kidnapped. And twice, she was saved by her son. She didn't expect to have such a dangerously exciting adventure when she left Destiny Islands to see Equestria. Unlike the other wielders or any of the ponies in this world, she has no way of defending herself if she was ever alone. She would need a bodyguard from any of the other Keyblade wielders just to enjoy the rest of her vacation time in this world, if Sora was still considering taking her back home for her own safety.
"What a great vacation this is turning out to be," she mumbled sarcastically to herself. She shifted onto her side, letting out a small sigh. "I don't want to leave so soon...but, if they decide to come after me to get to Sora..."
Vexen examined the pony vessel on the table in the little lab he and Ansem the Wise used. "It's almost perfect. Much easier than a human vessel," he mumbled to himself. Ansem the Wise silently sat at the desk, staring into space while taking a breather from his forced experiments. Vexen rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "It is a shame that not a single trace of the dark unicorn king of the Crystal Empire ceases to exist. We will have to find a decent enough substitute with King Sombra's memories to implant inside this equine vessel. But the Crystal Heart is also worthy of study, filled with light that can eradicate and repel the darkness with ease."
Ansem the Wise wanted nothing to do with bringing back Sombra after reading through the copied records of the Crystal Empire. Bringing back something with that much darkness inside that rivals the likes of Xehanort's power would be a grave mistake, and he's made many in the past he regrets. He should have perished in The World That Never Was after using his machine to partially destroy the Kingdom Hearts the old Organization XIII had been created for over a year with all the hearts they had Roxas gather. And more guilt weighs heavily on him as his research on the heart harmed not just people in other worlds, but the peaceful world of Equestria.
The door to the lab opened, alerting both scientists as Demyx barged in unannounced. He was an absolute mess from his deflated and disheveled hair to the scuffs on his coat and some bruises on his face. They noticed his nose was slightly askew, which was evident to the broken nose he received.
"Where have you been?" Vexen questioned. "You've been gone all day. Lounging like a loaf somewhere again? Or did you find the 'imaginary mother' in Equestria?"
"...Dude...not even...worth it anymore," Demyx growled. He grabbed his nose, letting out a pained grunt as he tried to straighten it. "I'm taking another vacation...I'm so not worth being brought back anymore..."
Demyx took his leave before Vexen could insult his intelligence or rub it in his face. "...What was he doing?" Ansem asked curiously, unaware of what the rest of the Organization is up to while he's slaving away for them.
"Oh, Demyx was trying to search for Sora's mother, who he somehow believed turned into a pegasus and was currently in Equestria," Vexen explained, brushing off Demyx's misadventure like it didn't matter. "Just ignore that buffoon. He has less brain cells than a single-celled organism. And I'm surprised he's able to function and play that drivel of a stringed instrument with how clueless and useless he can be." Vexen scoffed as he left the vessel and scoured through one of the many books for some added research to use the vessel to bring back the dark unicorn king. "She lives back in his home world. Who would be stupid enough to believe some random mare who heard of Sora's heroics in Equestria and claim to be his mother? And even if we kept her prisoner, what benefit would she have? Unlike Kairi, a Princess of Heart, that woman has no power, no greater cause for anything worthwhile for Master Xehanort. Not even as a means to blackmail Sora with her life in our hands. Just chasing a pointless idea to feel important."
Ansem was a bit surprised by the strange news. He may have only done some research on Sora's heart while he was comatose for a year, but there was little he knew about his personal life outside of the adventures he's been on. With how much the young wielder had been in other worlds, he's broken the world order a few times, even if his heart tells him to protect the innocent from Heartless or denizens of that world with evil intentions. Bringing his mother to Equestria sounded farfetched, but if Demyx was telling the truth, he was a bit relieved that no one believed him. Sora would fight for his friends. He would fight for Kairi, the princess he loves with all his heart. And he would most definitely fight for his family.
"...I see," Ansem responded after a moment of thought. He began to stand up, rubbing his sore neck, then approached a terminal with some of the research he and Vexen conducted while creating their first pony vessel. Focusing on his work, he looked over something that was crucial for the equine puppet should they find something connected to Sombra to bring him back to life in a new body. With his darkness strengthened by over a thousand years while he and the Crystal Empire were cast in the shadows, there had to be a failsafe should the unicorn king try to defect and attack the Organization. He may not like working for them, but he wasn't that crazy to leave a pony who was basically a Heartless with all of his power upon his return. "Sometimes, you never know when the clueless might have a case of brilliance once in their lives, and a blind eye from their accomplices can lose the advantage they could need."
Vexen snorted in amusement at the bit of advice his mentor gave him. "The day Demyx becomes a genius is when I learn how to play a song on that infernal instrument of his."
Ansem the Wise only answered with a small hum while going over the important piece of this vessel to inhibit enough of Sombra's darkness to leave him strong enough for the Organization's enemies and not decimate this world they reside in. After checking the algorithm, making sure every character and equation in the coding was absolutely perfect, Ansem glanced at the puppet, hoping it would work when the time came.
Stats
Page generated in 0.069 seconds
Total duration
1,009 users online
1,746,767 hits today, 2,244,100 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter im glad sora and his mom reconnected
Great chapter. And the parent map really put Sora and his mother connection to each other is healed, and a little funny to sunburst and starlight, and the ending was funny and more action along the way. Keep up the great work
I always did wonder what happened to Sora's Mother as we only get a small part of her near the beginning of KH1. They also never mentioned her again or alluded to her in the future games; especially the fact that her son may as well be dead with how he faded away like that.
I hope that each member of the young six will end up going with Sora to each one of the other worlds he went to in Kingdom hearts 3.
(Smolder) Toy Box.
(Silver stream) Kingdom of Corona.
(Yona) Arendelle.
(Gallus) Monstropolis
(Ocellus) San Francisco
(Sandbar) the Caribbean
10807278
Hmm... Gallus in Monstropolis...? Would he fit in if he was magically changed into the form of Garuda from Final Fantasy? Or would such a form be too outlandish?
10807278
Well, will say this: for which of the Young Six would be joining Sora in each world, you got two out of six matching my decisions for those chapters. But I'm not telling which ones were right.
I enjoyed this episode in the season, and it's really awesome to have it presented like this. But I will admit, seeing as it took so long, it does make me worry that you'll be overworked or stressed from the many things you have on your plate
Well, this was certainly fitting to be released around Mother’s Day.
I'm genuinely surprised to see Manami again! She's not one of my favorite original characters, but it's always fun to see the interpretation of Sora's mom, a character we never saw mentioned again since the first game. This was a very fitting role for her and more development for the relationship between her and her son.
Overall, I really liked her in this chapter. I especially love when she puts her hoof down against Sora, and both of them apologizing for their behavior. It's really satisfying seeing both sides apologizing for their mistakes and their behavior.
What I did not expect was seeing what happened to her in the aftermath of the destruction of Destiny Islands.
I love this interpretation. The idea that she seemingly died, or become one with the realm of darkness, only get brought back is really fascinating, and it's something that hasn't been explored yet if worlds are destroyed, where do they go, and what happens to the people.
As mentioned in my previous analysis, Demyx is definitely a mystery, considering the implication that he's a descendant of ancient key blade wielders. I'm not expecting this to be explored in this fic unless you do have something interesting planned. But I do theorize that Demyx will be a reluctant ally of the heroes later on in the story. Since KH3's plot seems to be stretched out a bit to fit within seasons 8-9 of MLP, I can definitely see this happen.
Also, I love Ansem's comment here and with Vexen finding it funny, despite him coming towards Demyx to help later in the story. Demyx is a whole mystery, alongside Luxord, Marxulia, and Larxene.
I can't wait for your interpretation of them further on.
And that's pretty much it.
I mentioned in my hopes for Season 8 if we were to get the Sunset being Sunburt's sister headcanon, but it seems that went nowhere, lol. Also, I really like the idea of them being friends first and taking a romantic relationship slowly, it's very realistic and I really like it.
Overall, pretty alright chapter, and sorry for being late on my analysis, and I see you have a new chapter already published, I'll be sure to get that new analysis ready.