My Little Pony: Sora's Misadventures in Equestria

by Codex92

Toy Box (Part 2)

Smolder grumbled, her legs already burning in exhaustion. "Seriously, how big is this stupid neighborhood!?" she exclaimed in irritation. "We've been walking for miles, and I swear we passed the same house over and over again!"

"Oh, trust me, Smolder, you have no idea how long of a walk we took when we went to rescue Woody from a crazy chicken man," Hamm said. "At least there's no one to drive cars around and nearly run us over at intersections or busy roads."

"We should be close to Galaxy Toys," Woody said. "It's gotta be around this corner."

"By walking another mile," Smolder grumbled. Around the next street corner, past the nearby house's picket fence, they found a stretch of road leading out of the neighborhood, and on the other side of the crossroads was a massive parking lot with the Galaxy Toys mall in sight. The building from the outside looked to be like it's own city with different colored walls separating the skyscrapers, all while overlooked by a giant UFO on the top of the mall to make it look interstellar. Dozens of trees were placed around the mall and parking lot to give the place some aesthetic appeal, but with the lack of people existing in this world, Galaxy Toys wouldn't be getting much business. "Yup. We're walking another mile. Ugh, my legs are killing me worse than those laps Master Aqua put us through."

"You want me to carry you the rest of the way?" Sora offered.

Feeling insulted, Smolder snorted, working through the ache in her muscles. "I'd rather have my legs broken than look helpless and embarrass myself."

"Uhh...A simple no would have been fine," Sora uttered. "It's not a bad thing to rely on someone to help you out a little bit. Even for the rest of the walk." Smolder trudged past Sora, wanting to get into the mall and get this world done and over with. Sora quickly caught up with her with the others following. "This is all a new experience for you, Smolder. This world might not be fun for you at first, but you'll have to expect some long trips. Gallus got split up from us and he had it a bit rough on his first outing in Corona."

"So when does it get fun or exciting? When I start playing with a bunch of toys?" Smolder questioned, pointing her thumb at the group of toys joining them. "What about when we get into fights? I'm supposed to stick on the sidelines and watch? Gallus fought a massive Heartless and a bunch of those Nobody things by himself!"

"First of all, what happened to Gallus is not what you're supposed to be getting into as a beginner," Sora explained. "Second, he did the same exact thing you did when we got into a fight: getting too in over his head and not observing how the Heartless fought, but he learned to keep his distance, even when we got split up. So until you learn to stop going in full force without being patient, you're surely going to lose your heart faster than you can say 'oops'."

Smolder rolled her eyes as she was lectured by who she thought would have been the more laid back sort of teacher compared to Aqua. She thought Sora was pretty cool, even when she heard from Dragon Lord Ember how he was when they all thought he was a dragon, but he was being overly strict and hovered over her when she could protect herself just fine. She didn't expect her first wave of Heartless to be so cheap and shoot her with magic or lasers. She's not a dainty little flower who always needed protection; she had to fight for survival during her molt on her own, and she lasted through it all by herself from the itchy scales to the dangerous predators.

The long walk across the road and the lot finally brought them to the entrance to Galaxy Toys. Rex excitedly ran ahead, wanting to get the chance to see any new merchandise from two of his favorite franchises. Inside the mall, Smolder groaned in exasperation as they looked around the main floor, along with the two other floors above them with other shops beyond the balcony railings. The first floor had a dozen different shelves spaced out, most of them filled with different board games, and on top were giant armored toys, which eagerly excited Rex. There were other huge toys like them around the store, each of them in red, blue, or purple, clearly standing out as a promotional deal for something new being sold. And at the other end of the first floor was what appeared to be a massive gumball machine, but it was just for aesthetics, and it had the name "Space Capsule" on the glass case. On top of the structure were rails of yellow, red, and blue, each of them spiraling up to the different floors.

"Yay! Galaxy Toys has the Gigas'!" Rex cheered. "Ooh! I hope one of the stores has any of the new My Little Pony characters!"

Smolder noticed the giant mech-like toys, her jaw dropping at the surprisingly cool toy. "Whoa." She curiously approached one of them on a display set. With this world having toys that come to life, she was a little confused to see it as still as a statue, barely making any subtle movements when she waved her hand at it. "Uhh, are these things...alive?"

"Yeah, I've noticed that, too," Sora added. "How come these 'Gigas' toys aren't moving?"

"I guess they haven't figured it out yet," Woody said.

Woody's simple response baffled the outsiders. "Figured it out?" Goofy asked. "What does that mean?"

"I can make them move for you." Surprised by the mysterious voice, everyone looked around to see where it came from.

"Wait, that voice," Sora uttered.

Above the Space Capsule, a portal of darkness appeared and disappeared, revealing a person veiled in a black coat. Looking up to their foe, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Smolder summoned their weapons. Lifting their hands, they grasped their hood and pulled it down, revealing their face. To Sora's shock, the mysterious Organization XIII member was yet another returning enemy: Young Xehanort. Just like his older counterpart and their Heartless and Nobody, he has dark tan skin, silver hair that's both spiked and falls past his shoulders, and yellow eyes. His hairstyle was almost similar to how Terra's was when Xehanort possessed him in the past, albeit with four bangs framing his face with the back two thicker than the front two.

"That must be one of those Organization guys," Smolder said, scoffing slightly when the young man perched on the dome was barely a few years older than her.

"Worse; that's Xehanort," Sora said.

Smolder had to do a doubletake, glancing back at the smirking youth, then back to Sora. "Wait. THAT'S Xehanort?" she asked. "I thought you guys said he was supposed to be some...old guy."

"That's his younger self," Sora explained. "Riku and I ran into him back in the dream realm during our Mark of Mastery exam."

"I'm honored you remember me, Sora," Young Xehanort said.

The younger Xehanort snapped his fingers, summoning a trio of Toy Troopers, who leapt down as one of them fell toward one of the many Gigas' around the lobby. It landed on a red one's shoulder, causing the helmet of the giant toy to open up, revealing a single-seated cockpit with different controls. The Heartless settled itself in, activating the Gigas like a mech as it controlled the giant robot-like toy.

"Oh no! They CAN move!" Woody exclaimed in surprise.

"Oh, that is cool!" Hamm said, though his excitement quickly died when the Gigas leapt down in front of the piggy bank, rearing its left arm back to punch him.

Thinking quickly, Sora dashed forward, protecting Hamm by blocking the mech's heavy punch with his Keyblade. "Hamm, get back!" Woody exclaimed.

Not needing to be told twice, Hamm made a run for it with Rex, the army men, and the alien trio to hide from the dangerous threat. "I take it back! It's not as cool when they try to attack us!"

Sora grunted, managing to push the Gigas's fist back, though a couple more of them began to move in and surround the group. "Uh oh. We've got more of them!"

"One heart's shadows fill the emptiness of another," Young Xehanort said. "See how they bring them to life? Like Heartless and Nobodies, they fit together."

"What the hay is he talking about?" Smolder asked, having no clue what the young man was saying in his random monologue.

"Xehanort, why are you doing this!?" Sora asked while still struggling to hold back the first Gigas's fist, his feet skidding back slightly from its surprising amount of power.

"There's a darkness we are missing and must reclaim," Young Xehanort answered. "The way hearts connect in this world can provide us with a clue. So we made a copy of the world, and then pulled those hearts apart."

"Y-You did what!?" Sora said. Young Xehanort smirked, creating another portal of darkness behind him, giving a small glance to Smolder, eyeing her Keyblade. "Hey, what did you mean!? What have you done!?"

"Don't disappoint me," the past Xehanort said, though he seemed to say that directly to Smolder before he disappeared.

"Wait!" Sora called out, quickly losing his footing as the Gigas shoved Sora back hard.

Sora quickly flipped back upright before he hit the ground, sliding across the ground with a surprised grunt. Though Woody and Buzz stood their ground, the space ranger seemed greatly conflicted by the mech fighting them having just come to life.

"Woody, what is going on? Is this toy a friend...or foe?" Buzz asked.

To answer Buzz's question, the Gigas aimed its right arm at the group, which had a small gun attached to it, and if it was like Buzz's laser being real, then it was going to blast them with lasers of its own. "I think we got our answer, Buzz."

The barrel began to lit up, then fired a barrage of energy beams at the cowboy, space ranger, and outsiders. "Scatter!" Donald squawked.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy split up in one direction while Smolder was forced to run with Woody and Buzz in the other. As they ran behind the shelves for cover, they ran into more Heartless and another Gigas mech, this one blue, but it had mounted cannons on its shoulders rather than the spiked pauldrons on the red ones.

"Keep running!" Woody advised, avoiding more shots and a volley of energy bombs blasted out of the blue Gigas's cannons while Buzz aimed his arm and fired his laser, which really did shoot a laser beam rather than light up and make shooting sounds from his arm.

"Ok, I think I get what Sora meant now!" Smolder said. "There's no way we can beat those things!" As they ran behind more cover, Smolder noticed another red Gigas set on a display shelf, but it was empty. "...Or, maybe we fight fire with fire."

"What is she-?" Before Buzz could question Smolder's plan, the young dragoness rushed off to the unmanned Gigas.

Giving herself a bit more height with her plastic wings, she managed to climb up onto the shelf, then climbed into the mech. She sat in the seat, watching it close on her as the viewing window from the closed mask showed a HUD as it lit up. She had no idea what most of this stuff even was with the yellow bar on her left and a multicolored on on the bottom right. By the armrests in her seat, there were two grip handles that seem to connect to the mech's arms, pedals by her feet that moved the legs, and there were some buttons on each of the grips that different things, which seemed more complicated to her than the Gummi ship's controls.

"Ok, uhh, how do I move this thing?" Smolder mumbled to herself. She gripped the handles, startled slightly when she moved the left one, making the arm of the Gigas move along with her motions. "Whoa! Ok, this feels really weird!" Glancing at her feet, she pressed them both down on the pedals, causing her mech to jump slightly and land with a slight thud. "Ahh! Hold on a second! Give me a minute to learn how you work!"

She didn't have much time to give it a test run as she heard Woody and Buzz scramble away from the Heartless and Heartless-controlled Gigas'. Deciding to wing it, Smolder pushed a button on the right grip, making the cannon attached to it fire some energy bolts at the Toy Troopers on the ground. She was at least careful enough to aim at the enemy, otherwise risk getting another lecture about friendly fire from Sora, Donald, or Goofy. Leaping down to the ground, jumping slightly from the motions within her cockpit, she charged toward the blue Gigas. Pressing one of the buttons on the left grip, she yelped when her Gigas suddenly dashed forward into a shoulder charge. The enemy Gigas didn't have time to react when it got tackled by the red mech, slamming it into the shelf and pinning it.

"Wait, one of them is attacking the other!?" Woody asked.

"Oh, one of them is, and I'm in control of the winning one!" Smolder said, then began pummeling the blue Gigas repeatedly with her mech's heavy swings, barely giving it any chance to counter. She eventually beat the Gigas until it was sparking with electricity, forcefully ejecting the Toy Trooper inside as it got banged up from within its cockpit and destroying it, releasing its heart. "Oh, yeah! I take back what I said: this world is awesome!"

Smolder laughed and ran around the lobby, picking off smaller Heartless while punching any Gigas in her path. Through the HUD in her Gigas, she was able to lock onto which foes were considered enemies and which ones were friendly. It was a bit confusing at first when she saw another Gigas beating up the Heartless, this one purple with laser cannons mounted on its shoulders and blasting enemies with powerful laser beams. In that purple Gigas, Sora had the same idea as Smolder while Donald and Goofy followed him, taking out Toy Troopers from a safe distance and using his mech for cover. Even with his impressive strength, he felt outmatched when going up against giant battle robots, despite them being normal toys for a full-sized human, and the barrage of energy bullets, mortars, and cannon-sized beams firing at them.

Inside Sora's Gigas, Sora had an easier time learning the controls, but he also noticed Smolder in one of the Gigas's with his HUD marking her as "friendly", though he had no idea how it could tell when these toy mechs could be controlled by them or Heartless. "Smolder, remember to watch your fire!" Sora reminded the dragoness, though his words didn't get to her when she was too busy smashing Toy Troopers and ramming enemy Gigas' with her mech's shoulder charge.

Around the shelves, Buzz and Woody watched the outside warriors fight the Heartless in awe, including the ones controlling the enemy Gigas'. Even against bigger foes, they can handle it like it was nothing. Eventually, the waves of Heartless began to die down as Smolder took care of the last Gigas. She punched the large toy, making it short circuit and spit out the last Toy Trooper as it was slain. Now that it was safe, Sora and Smolder exited their Gigas'. While Smolder seemed a bit too cocky after experiencing such a fun rush, Buzz was heavily conflicted as he stared at the empty toy mechs.

"They were being controlled? They weren't just switched into battle mode by accident?" Buzz mumbled to himself.

Sora, however, heard the space ranger's mutterings as he looked at him. "You ok, Buzz?"

Buzz glanced at Sora for a moment before turning away. "It's nothing," he uttered.

Woody looked up at the Space Capsule where Young Xehanort stood. "I'm confused. That guy in the black coat; did he say he made a copy of the real world?" he asked. "What's that mean?"

Sora hummed in thought, only to realize how similar this situation felt in this world when he and Riku dealt with Young Xehanort in the dream worlds. "I think he means he split this world in two: your friends in one world, and us in the other," Sora explained. "But only one of the worlds is real, and the other one, which we're probably in, is a really convincing version of the real world."

Woody, Buzz, and Smolder stared at Sora awkwardly, the dragon scratching her head with her muzzle scrunched up in confusion. "How does that make any sense?" Smolder asked. "You're saying...we're here in some fake version of this world, and the real one is actually elsewhere?"

"You can't be serious," Buzz skeptically responded, though with the strange explanation, it WOULD make sense since he looked like a toy based off of Rex's favorite video game. "Oh. Right. You're from a video game. Maybe in your game, that's how things work, but in reality, you can't 'split worlds.'" Sora was taken aback with Buzz's constant shift in trust toward him. He didn't know how to simplify it any further, at least without breaking the world order, but Buzz just waved Sora off as he walked over to Woody. "This is ridiculous. Let's go, Woody."

Woody was just as confused as Buzz was, but he knew Sora seemed to know exactly what he was talking about. "I admit, this all sounds a little far-fetched. But...say we HAVE been taken to some kind of alternate world." Buzz stopped and looked over his shoulder, staring at his friend like he had grown a second head with another pull string attached to his back. "That could explain why your laser's real, Buzz. And is it really that crazy?" Woody approached Buzz, placing his hand on his shoulder and gave him a light shake. "Worse than 'evil emperors' and 'protecting the galaxy'? Any of that ring a bell?"

As Woody smirked while teasing Buzz, he left the space ranger a bit flustered, but Buzz cleared his throat, trying not to be embarrassed by the emphasis in the cowboy's specific quotes. "Point taken. But that just means these strangers are part of the delusion," Buzz said, disappointing Sora, Donald, and Goofy, though Smolder seemed a bit peeved at the remark.

"You really think we're some kind of illusion made up with these split up worlds?" Smolder growled. Sora tried to shush the dragon, but she stomped up to Buzz, who didn't budge an inch, even when she aggressively poked at his chest. "How's this for real!? Without us, you would have gotten crushed or broken into little pieces!"

"Then all the more reason to go back home and part ways," Buzz calmly said.

"After walking all that way from that house!? Is your brain tiny in that thick head of yours!?" Smolder exclaimed irritably.

She went to poke Buzz again, but Buzz had quicker reflexes than the dragoness thought. He grasped her wrist, and with a swift throw over his shoulder, he flung Smolder and sent her slamming down on her back. Before she could retaliate, he aimed his laser-wielding arm at her face, lighting up and letting out a charging sound as a warning.

"Don't underestimate me, dragon," Buzz said. "And do not try my patience."

"Buzz, take it easy!" Woody chided. "These guys have been a big help so far by getting rid of those intruders. They might be able to help us find our other friends." Sora was worried Buzz might actually shoot Smolder. Getting hit by the Toy Troopers' laser shots might be one thing, but a space ranger's laser could do much more. After a few more tense seconds, Buzz moved his arm away, silencing the humming charge as he walked away from the stunned dragoness and toward the empty Gigas'. "Come on, Buzz. Every toy deserves a fair shake. Am I right?"

"Tell that to these toys," Buzz said, pointing to the two Gigas'.

Woody grimaced, clearly proven wrong seeing as the Heartless, Sora, and Smolder took control of the Gigas' without their permission. Before he or Sora could try to come up with an excuse, Sarge and one of the other green army men approached the edge of the nearby shelf.

"Sherriff, sir!" Sarge said, getting everyone's attention. "Rex has just been dino-napped!"

"What!?" Woody quickly looked to where they last saw their other friends, but there was no sign of Rex, Hamm, or the alien triplets.

"My men saw him get hauled up to the second floor, sir!" Sarge added as he pointed up to the second floor's awning. "And Hamm and the aliens are MIA."

"We have to find them," Woody said.

"And we'll help!" Goofy said.

Buzz turned away, not willing to trust the group any further. Woody walked over to his friend to help convince him while Sora walked over to Smolder, who was still on her back, fuming bitterly after getting flipped so easily. Sora held his hand out to her to help her up, which she begrudgingly took and was helped back up on her feet.

"Lucky throw," Smolder grumbled as she brushed her chest.

"No, you were getting a bit pushy and your temper almost got your head blasted by a laser," Sora strictly stated. "Even if we were telling them the truth, how much would they have even believed?"

"Well, they're obviously in danger with Heartless around," Smolder said. "And why does Buzz even care about those giant Gigas toys? They're not talking or moving around on their own. They're practically dead weight."

"You're forgetting that the world we're in has toys that are very much alive and have feelings," Sora reminded the dragon. "They have no idea what's really out there, and in this whole mall, there could be plenty of other toys in the shops that could be alive and roaming about as we speak."

"Well, I don't hear anything besides us," Smolder argued.

Sora let out a sigh, feeling like he was picking a verbal argument with Garble, and it would always be one-sided with the dragon teen thinking he's always right and fails to prove his argument wins. "Smolder, right now, that little stunt you pulled with Buzz is going to make him trust us even less. Xehanort's here in this world, and he must be up to something with what he mentioned. He also knows that you're a Keyblade wielder and tell the rest of the Organization about you. Do NOT go off on your own and stay close to us; you're in about as much danger as Gallus was."

"Psh. Whatever," Smolder scoffed. "I can handle that silver-banged twig."

Smolder began to walk past Sora, but the wielder grabbed her shoulder, quickly turning her around and gave her a serious gaze. "No. DO NOT try to fight Young Xehanort," Sora warned. "Riku mentioned how he fought when he confronted him during our Mark of Mastery exam. He's just as dangerous as the actual Xehanort."

"Ugh. Fine, I won't," Smolder groaned in annoyance. "Happy now?"

Sora just silently shook his head in exasperation. He sometimes wondered how Aqua managed to keep Smolder behaved during their training. He didn't know if this was just her dragon pride, or if she was miffed about Aqua's mentioning her aggression and try to show her feminine side, but if she didn't control her temper, they were going to have serious issues if she went to other worlds on her own in the future. And if she went to face the younger Xehanort, she would most likely lose in mere seconds.

Buzz and Woody walked back to Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Smolder after a few more minutes. "Woody has made plenty of valid points, and we're going to need the extra help locating our missing friends and the ones we just lost track of," Buzz said. "But just so we're clear: I remain skeptical about this. I'll work with you all till we find your friends. And Smolder-" The dragoness sneered at the space ranger when he went to address her. "-don't push your luck. Rex talks highly about the cartoon you come from, and the dragons from your show are not exactly the friendliest sort of species. Your reckless aggression is going to cause trouble, and when you finally realize how dangerous you can be, or at the very least try, you're going to regret it if you lose your temper around me or my friends."

"...Fine," Smolder grumbled. "As if I wasn't just scolded about that already."

"Smolder," Sora chided, making the dragon grumble more with her arms crossed, growing more frustrated as she was being treated like a baby. "We'll try to keep her in control."

Buzz hoped Sora would keep his promise, giving him and Smolder a warning glance before walking on ahead toward the Space Capsule. "I appreciate the help, you guys," Woody sincerely said, giving the group an apologetic grin.

"My troops will return to the field, sir!" Sarge said, giving the group a salute before marching off to do more reconnaissance with the other army men toys already traversing through the mall.

"Ya think they'll be ok?" Donald asked curiously.

"Sarge and his troops are experts in their field," Woody assured. "I know they'll be fine on their own."

Woody, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Smolder headed for the Space Capsule to catch up with Buzz. They looked up at the massive centerpiece, wondering how they could get to the upper floors if they can't reach the elevators or stairways with their small size. As Woody walked up behind Buzz, the space ranger pressed a red button on his chest, expanding his flight wings, nearly knocking the cowboy over from the popped up plastic wings.

"This ascent is gonna be rather tricky," Buzz said aloud.

"Too bad we're not strapped to a rocket," Woody said to his friend, partially joking while mentioning a crazy scenario in the past they both got involved in.

Buzz ignored the jab, retracting his wings while looking around for a solution to ascension from the first floor to the second. "Hey, maybe we can get up there using those spiral tracks," Sora mentioned as he pointed to the yellow, blue, and green rails swirling up and toward the different floors.

"It's perfect. Let's get moving, gang!" Woody said.

They entered the Space Capsule, climbing up the chute where the prizes would pop out from the dome. Inside, with the lack of prizes inside, they hopped up onto a cymbal in the center of the glass dome, using it like a trampoline to bounce up to the top. The rails connecting to the capsule had colored numbers marking their entrances: yellow had a red two, blue had a three of a similar color, and green had a symbol of the shopping mall with its name around the border. Their destination was on floor two, so they approached the yellow rail.

Smolder was about to ask how they're supposed to climb up this long slope, but Sora showed her a quicker, and surprisingly fun way. He ran onto the rail, and even with the slight bit of momentum in his speed, Smolder's jaw dropped when she watched Sora grinding up and around the rail to the end, landing him on the other side of the balcony's guard rail. Donald, Goofy, Buzz, and Woody followed suit, matching Sora's grinding speed as they climbed to the second floor. She had no clue how that was possible, even without a lot of knowledge in basic subjects like science explaining how impossible it seems, she was eager to try it along with wall running. She took a running start, jumped, and planted her feet on the rail, nearly losing her balance as she grinded up the rail instantly, along with the slightly disorienting spiral upward. When she reached the end, she missed her chance to jump, letting out a startled yell as she fell and hit the ground on her stomach.

Sora helped the dazed dragoness back on her feet. "Not bad for your first Flowmotion grind," he commented. "Just gotta work on the landing."

"'Flowmotion'?" Smolder questioned. "That's a dumb thing to call grinding up a rail."

"Oh, you can do a lot more than just grind any rails," Sora said.

Smolder just shrugged as they continued on their way. They saw some more empty Gigas' on display, though the only shops on this floor was a small recreational spot with some vending machines dispensing drinks or snacks and a toy store titled "Action+". This was the store Sarge had pointed out back on the first floor. Inside this store was a large number of action figures, with more Gigas' on display around the store and boxes with all sorts of different fantasy creatures from other video games or shows on shelves or sitting on platforms. As they looked around, Woody glanced to his left, spotting a tail that just disappeared around a corner in an aisle.

"Rex!" Woody called out, running over toward the aisle to catch up with their dinosaur friend, only to find no sign of him. "Where'd he go?"

"You sure you saw him?" Buzz asked.

"Yes, he just-" Suddenly, a low growling sound could be heard.

Quietly, they listened to where the source came from, the empty store feeling a lot more like a haunted building with the lack of living beings in the whole mall. Looking around, Smolder noticed something moving behind an open space in the boxes on the display in front of them. There were weird pillars that shifted slightly, looking similar to what was on the backs of these dragon toys that were called "Supreme Smashers", and she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she thought she saw some dark aura radiating around those pillars.

"Uhh, what's that?" Smolder asked, pointing to shifting pillars between the boxes.

"Something feels wrong," Buzz uttered.

Within seconds, the thing behind the boxes made itself known. Letting out a roar and slashing at the boxes was one of the Supreme Smasher dragons, knocking them all over as it displayed its dominance. Startled, Donald try to run out of the store, but the security shutters slid down shut, trapping everyone inside Action+ with a rampaging dragon toy. As it let out another roar, Sora was shocked to see a Heartless emblem on the Supreme Smasher's neck.

"Another toy's being controlled!" he said as he summoned his Keyblade.

Again, Buzz was left conflicted by having to fight yet another toy that was being controlled by something he didn't understand. He quickly shook off his worries, aiming his laser at the beast, knowing that these toys shouldn't put any of his friends in danger, especially when Rex could be trapped in here as well. Smolder summoned her Keyblade, but just as she took a step forward, she flinched when she saw a couple more Supreme Smashers make their presence known. Their steps were like the army men's as they waddled on their stiff legs, and they had more than just their strong claws to strike their opponents. The Smasher on the display let out a roar, then fired a laser from its mouth in a straight line, once again splitting them up in the same group of threes.

"Can there be one thing in this world that doesn't shoot anything!?" Smolder exclaimed. She, Woody, and Buzz ran down an aisle with the one Supreme Smasher chasing after them while Sora, Donald, and Goofy handled the other two. As it rounded the corner, the Supreme Smasher swung its arm into more boxes, sending them flying at its fleeing victims. One of them managed to hit Smolder and sending her crashing to the ground, which angered the dragoness as she got back on her feet. "Ok, that's it! I'm gonna tear this stupid wannabe dragon apart!"

She turned and stared down the approaching behemoth of a toy, which startled Buzz and Woody when they looked back. "Smolder, those toys are too tough!" Woody tried to explain, but nothing was getting through to her.

Smolder roared herself and charged forward, dodging another laser beam the Supreme Smasher launched. She got up close to its feet, aimed her Keyblade, and cast Blizzard at point blank range. She managed to freeze up part of its left leg, but in her anger, she forgot that this toy shuffles in order to move, easily shaking off the chilling magic spell. She was then struck by its claw, sending her crashing through more boxes with a grunt and knocked for a loop. Before the Heartless-controlled toy could go after her, Buzz fired his laser at the dragon toy, distracting it and getting it far away from the dazed dragoness.

"Woody, help her! I'll hold him off!" Buzz said.

Woody rushed over to the mess of boxes, hearing Buzz's laser firing and the annoyed roars of the possessed dragon toy. Luckily, none of the toys that were inside the boxes were awake or broken, and pushing away some of the unopened boxes away, he found Smolder on her back, still stunned from the hit.

"Did anyone get the number of that dragon?" she slurred, her eyes rolling in her head from the impact.

"Come on, Smolder, don't pass out now!" Woody said as he helped the dragoness back up on her feet.

Shaking her head, Smolder was fuming now. "That's it! I'm pummeling that thing!" Finding a nearby Gigas, another red one, Smolder sprinted off to the toy mech. Woody tried to stop her, but she wasn't in the mood to listen to all reason until she got her revenge. Getting herself settled into her battle mech, she stomped through the aisles to find her opponent. She spotted the Supreme Smasher cornering Buzz, even as the space ranger continued shooting his laser at it. "There you are!"

Her stomps got the dragon toy's attention, ignoring the smaller toy as it hopped around to face its bigger foe. Smolder wasn't going to give it an inch, immediately clocking the Smasher hard in the jaw, slamming it to the ground. She didn't let up and repeatedly punched the downed toy, feeling powerful in her mech and showing the possessed action figure that she wasn't a dragon it shouldn't have messed with. Even with Buzz watching her take control of another Gigas something he didn't approve of, watching her use it to smash and brutalize another toy, despite it being possessed, made him wonder if she was just as capable of tearing him apart if she wasn't so green around the gills.

After nearly a minute of endless blows, Smolder grasped the Supreme Smasher's face, and with a yell, flung it across the aisle. The toy clattered to the ground, letting out a weak roar before it finally laid still, the dark aura around it fading away. Satisfied after taking down her prey, she prepared to gloat, only to momentarily forget there were a couple more possessed toys still running amok. One hopped out from the side of another aisle and fired a laser at the mech. Smolder's Gigas took the hit, sending her stumbling back as flashing red lights and sirens blared inside the cockpit. Fearing her mech might explode, even if it seemed impossible for a toy with these special abilities to do so, Smolder ejected herself out of the damaged Gigas.

Just as she was about to turn to face the Supreme Smasher that blindsided her, a pull string wrapped around her waist, secured tightly, then yanked her away from another laser beam. Smolder let out a surprised yelp as she was pulled to safety by Woody. She didn't even know where the mysteriously thin rope came from until she saw him untie it from her and it retracted into his back.

"That was a close one," Woody said. "You alright?"

"...Y-Yeah," Smolder said. "But...I could have taken that."

The dragon toy stomped its way over to the fleeing dragoness, but as it rounded the corner, it was suddenly hit by a barrage of colorful bubbles. It staggered away from the projectiles, turning to face the shooter, meeting Sora in his Laughter Formchange point blank as he unleashed an endless fire of popping bubbles in its face. Leaping onto its head, Sora remained perfectly balanced on it while the toy tried to shake him off. Sora grabbed the Laughter dual bubble guns and blew them up like balloons, twisting them together with loud rubber squeaking sounds to change its form into the cupcake rocket launcher. Flipping off the Supreme Smasher, Sora held the explosive cupcake launcher like a bat and swung.

"FORE!" Sora shouted, smacking the dragon, which let out an explosive force and sent the possessed toy flying across the store, smashing into the last Supreme Smasher being handled by Donald and Goofy. "And that's a touchdown! Better give our contestants an honorary prize for the show!"

Easily flipping the massive artillery launcher, ironically looked like it was made of balloons, Sora crouched down on one knee, held his weapon over his shoulder, and took aim. Smolder, Woody, and Buzz as he appeared around the shelves watched Sora's rocket launcher's barrel suddenly began to bulge out, thinking it might implode on him. A large cupcake rocket popped out from the end of the barrel, immediately launched as he pressed the trigger, flying in an arc toward the stunned Smashers. Donald and Goofy saw the rocket and quickly ran away, screaming in terror. The cupcake missile blew into a burst of confetti over the possessed toys, covering them head to foot in colorful bits of paper.

"...What? Was that it?" Smolder questioned.

"Wait for it," Sora said as he stood up. He turned and gave the confused dragoness, cowboy, and space ranger a victory pose with his launcher aimed upward. The moment he got in his stance, the confetti hissed and let off a series of explosions of cake batter, splattering the store in vanilla-scented cake mix. The toys were frozen stiff, covered in the weaponized batter with no sign of darkness or the Heartless emblems on their necks. His baffled audience blinked in astonishment. Buzz and Woody had no idea how strong Sora really was and with no clue how Yozora in his game was, but Smolder was in awe witnessing a strange, but powerful attack from one of her strongest superiors. Sora's launcher returned to its Keyblade form as well as his clothes, switching back to his Kingdom Key with a cocky smirk. "Well, that takes care of them!" Their relief was short-lived when another Supreme Smasher dropped down behind Sora out of nowhere. As the two toys and Smolder backed away, Sora sneered bitterly, hearing the dragon toy breathing over him. "Curse you, irony!"

Sora leapt back, avoiding the last Supreme Smasher's claw. As they inched away from the menacing dragon toy, Smolder heard someone yelling at the other end of the store. Glancing to where the yelling came from, she saw a dragon-shaped glider spinning around rapidly around the hook it was hanging on from the ceiling, and riding it was Rex. The glider spun too fast, unhooking itself, sending it and the screaming dino toy hurtling toward them. It rammed into the Supreme Smasher as it was about to swipe at Sora again, knocking it over and smacking something that was inside the toy out of it and into a wall, followed by Rex. The mysterious creature fell to the ground, began to get up, only to have Rex land on it and smack it down to the ground again.

"O-Oh goodness! That was a horrible idea!" Rex said. He looked down at what he landed on, which looked like a puppet on strings that was controlled by a gear. Inside the gear was a dark cloud that had a face on it, and the puppet looked like it was made of felt. It's body was tan with red overalls and yellow buttons on its wrists and ankles and even for its eyes, and it wore a red cap with a green and blue triangle pattern around it. The puppet turned its head, leering at the toy menacingly with its button eyes, revealing the Heartless emblem on the forehead of its hat. "Oh no! What did I do wrong!?"

Rex ran away from the angry Heartless toy, but Sora and Smolder didn't need to see the emblem to know it was a Heartless when the dark cloud with yellow eyes and a red, jagged mouth was enough to know this marionette was dangerous. Smolder decided to handle the runty Heartless, knowing these were the things that controlled the Supreme Smashers. Before the Heartless could retaliate, Smolder spewed flames at the highly flammable monster. She let out a yell and slashed her Keyblade down, slaying it as it released a heart and disappeared in a puff of dark mist. She snorted, disappointed that this Heartless relied on controlling other toys to be stronger.

"Thank goodness," Woody sighed, glad to have one of his friends safe and unharmed. Donald and Goofy regrouped after hiding from Sora's confectionary explosion while Rex was still startled by his heroics. "Nice moves, Rex."

"Yeah! You were great!" Goofy complimented the dino toy.

"Great? Really?" Rex asked. "Would you say I was impressive?"

"Very impressive, Rex," Buzz added. "We couldn't look away.

"Hurray! Oh, that makes me so happy!" Rex excitedly cheered. He got a bit too excited, unable to stop hopping around and distracted by the heroic praise from everyone. Woody couldn't even get a word in to get Rex to focus. "Did you guys see what I did!? I was kinda going for fearsome, but I think I might've achieved something close to terrifying!"

Smolder rolled her eyes before approaching the ranting dinosaur toy. She grabbed Rex, quickly turned him around to face her, immediately silencing his excited rambles.

"We get it, you feel really powerful taking out that big dragon," Smolder said. "You just got a lucky shot and knocked the pipsqueak controlling it. Don't get too excited."

Sora was about to scold Smolder for dampening Rex's mood, but Rex wasn't offended or upset; he gasped with glee, startling Smolder as he grabbed one of her claws with his tiny ones. "I WAS lucky, wasn't I!?" he asked. "That was an Equestrian dragon compliment, right!? That's so amazing!"

"Oh, by Dragon Lord Ember's scales, I just made it worse," Smolder grumbled, swiping her hand away from Rex's excitedly shaking ones.

"Hey, Rex! Earth to Rex!" Woody called out, finally getting the green T-rex toy to calm down and listen to them. "Do you know where the others are?"

"What do you mean?" Rex asked. "Did something happen to them?"

Baffled, everyone stared at Rex from his confused response. "...Are you kidding me?" Smolder questioned. "Dude, you got kidnapped! You were with the others! How did you NOT see where they disappeared to!?"

"I...don't know what happened," Rex genuinely answered. "One moment, I was hiding from the strangers, and when I blinked, I wound up here in this store. It's like I teleported, just like Twilight Sparkle does."

Smolder facepalmed, struck with disbelief with Rex's mysterious disappearance winding him here and that Hamm and the alien triplets were elsewhere in this massive mall. There was a clicking sound of plastic on metal that disrupted the awkward silence in the now enemy free store. Up above on an air vent, Sarge climbed down the vent flaps, surprising the outsiders how swiftly the little army man got around this mall faster than they did.

"Sarge!" Woody greeted. "Have you got a status report?"

Sarge gave Woody a salute before he spoke. "Sir! One of my men just located Hamm forward of our position, in Babies and Toddlers."

"What kind of store has THAT name?" Smolder asked, feeling a twinge of dread at what it might have compared to Action+'s shelves full of action figures.

"That's some good news, at least," Goofy said.

"The corporal was debriefing him, but something must have gone wrong," Sarge continued. "All radio contact has been lost."

Everyone let out a sigh. "That's not good news," Donald grumbled.

"Anything more specific we can go on?" Buzz asked.

"Right before I lost contact, I heard music with some sort of sonic interference," Sarge said, making the group wonder what it could possibly be, hopefully not being another Heartless.

"Let's find out what it is," Sora said.

Woody and Buzz nodded in agreement, but while the others began to head to the stack of toy boxes leading to the vent on the other side of the store, Rex lingered behind sheepishly. "Uhh, you know, I think I'll had back to the entrance," he said. "I'm sure those vents are gonna be much too narrow for my big dinosaur tail."

Smolder glanced back at Rex as he emphasized his plastic tail, then looked back up at the open ventilation shaft, which looked several times bigger than all of them. "You can fit in-"

Buzz quickly interjected, stepping in front of Smolder. "Rex is right. Besides, we need a lookout at the entrance," Buzz said. "It's an important mission. Can you handle it, Rex?"

"Yes, sir!" Rex cheered, relieved to take this order as he gave the group as best of a salute as he can with his tiny arms barely able to reach the base of his neck.

Smolder leered at the back of Buzz's head while Rex hurried off to find an exit out of Action+. Sora placed a hand on the dragoness's shoulder, distracting her from the space ranger cutting her off.

"It's probably best he stays out of the fights," he said. "Whatever happened in Babies and Toddlers, we need to expect more Heartless. And Rex doesn't seem like the aggressive type."

"Ironic since he's a tyrannosaurus rex toy," Goofy said with a chuckle.

"Hmph. I guess," Smolder grumbled. "Kinda dumb how he seems as excitable as Silverstream, but just as scared as Ocellus gets."

"He is your biggest fan," Donald snickered, reminding Smolder how eager he was to meet a new character toy from a show closely based around Equestria's world almost to a T.

Smolder rolled her eyes at the unwanted praise. Continuing on their way, the group headed over to the boxes leading up to the open vent shaft with Sarge. Smolder glanced at the other toys on display, surprised by the amount of different dragon toys the store had. One specific dragon model in a section labeled "Dissidia Final Fantasy NT" caught the teenager's eye: it was dark black with large wings, a long tail, sharp claws, and menacing red eyes. This dragon screamed menacing and powerful, probably able to take out the former Dragon Lord with a single fire blast. Smolder grimaced at the thought, partially glad that the Supreme Smashers were the only possessed dragons they fought earlier.

They climbed up the boxes and into the vent, with Sarge picked up by Woody to help the small toy climb back up to regroup with his soldiers. The trek through the wide-open ventilation system seemed pretty straightforward. Some of the grates showed the rest of the mall, but Sarge informed them that the store Hamm was trapped in was up on the third floor. It wasn't a dull walk getting up to the third floor's vents when Heartless appeared to slow them down. Smolder tried to take on a Large Body from the front, but its armored belly only made her strikes bounce off, no matter how hard she struck it. Sora tried to instruct her to slip around them, but she decided to just roast the large Heartless with her fire breath. Though this world got rid of her ability to fly, she at least had one thing about her that wasn't taken.

They reached an air duct with a fan blowing air upward, giving them enough lift to the higher section of the system, but not all the way up to the third floor. In a wider room, there was a much large air duct with the fan in front of them periodically blowing them back. And to make it harder to traverse even with it going on and off, new Heartless appeared, sticking out of the floor, walls, and ceiling, shaped like turrets with eyes and the Heartless emblem while the poles attached to their platforms each extended to different lengths. They fired lasers at the group as they approached, unaffected by the pushback of air created by the spinning fan blade. Buzz sniped some of the Heartless with his laser, Goofy flung his shield, making it bounce and ricochet off a few of them close together, and Sora, Donald, and Smolder blasted the rest with Fire spells. After dealing with the Pole Cannons, as Sora decided to name them, they rushed toward the fan, pushing back against the air current when it was active, and dashed between the blade when it stopped spinning.

Another duct blowing air upward at the end of the second floor ventilation system shot them up to the third floor. There was a passage that led back down into the vents, but their destination was in plain sight. Walking into the store through the already opened vent, the group could see this definitely felt like the type of store that was aptly named "Babies and Toddlers", to Smolder's unfortunate dismay. This store felt more like it was for little girls with all the different animal plushies, dolls, dresses for said dolls, dollhouses, and plenty of other toys that would be fun playthings for a young girl.

"Ugh. This store just burns my eyes," Smolder grumbled. "And there are no Gigas' in here to even make it seem better."

"Well, this is Babies and Toddlers," Woody said. "There wouldn't be any action figures in stores like these."

Smolder groaned, wanting to find Hamm as soon as possible and get out of this place. "Sarge mentioned music. So let's find some toys that make noise," Sora said.

"That's good thinking for you!" Donald said, snickering teasingly at the Keyblade wielder.

"Huh? Hey! What's that mean!?" Sora exclaimed.

Donald laughed some more, quickly bolting as Sora chased after him for the remark. Smolder just blankly stared at the trio while Donald avoided Sora, Goofy wedging himself between the two as the bickering duo had another of their playful spats.

"I don't want to stay here any longer than I should," Smolder said. "I'm going on ahead."

Without given permission to wander off, Smolder hopped down to the ground. She figured they were high enough on the shelves where the vent was to watch her, and there were no sign of Heartless around. Sadly, the area in the store they were at had a lot of different dolls and many dresses, outfits, and accessories. Scrunching her muzzle in disgust, Smolder ignored the dolls and began searching for anything that made noise or music. Just being around these little girls toys reminded her of Rarity's last lesson and the makeup kit she gave to the girls in her classes. She never got the appeal of any female species wearing pretty outfits or applying makeup to look prettier. Ponies never wore clothes to begin with, and dragons usually just take jewels to eat or horde, not wear on their body.

Her steps slowed until she came to a stop at some boxes that had different clothing for the toys on the shelves. Aqua's words proposing to show a bit of her feminine side and the "fun" Silverstream, Ocellus, and Yona had trying out their makeup kits bugged her. Her dragon pride was insistent that doing anything girly was going to make her feel weak, but she mulled over her acts of aggression and stubbornness when her pride was challenged by someone making a simple suggestion to give it a try. She turned to a box that had three different princess dresses inside, along with some fake jewelry to add a royal flair to the outfits, puffing her cheeks in frustration with herself before letting out a long huff.

"Hey, Smolder!" The dragon nearly jumped out of her scales, quickly turning to see Sora calling out to her as the rest of her comrades finally dropped down. "Don't wander too far, remember!?"

"Y-Yeah! I know that!" Smolder exclaimed nervously, her eyes shifting about while blushing in embarrassment at her situation. "I got...bored and wanted to search ahead!"

"Young Xehanort's still out there somewhere. I'm just concerned about your safety," Sora said as he approached the worried teenage dragon. Sora glanced around the shelves, wondering what Smolder was doing around this part of the store. "Lots of girl toys. I wonder if Pumpkin Cake would like to play with one of these. But I doubt anything on the shelves would make music."

"O-Obviously!" Smolder exclaimed. "These dolls could come to life and attack us if those weird Heartless in those dragon toys possessed them! I'm watching them to make sure they don't do anything funny! Is that a problem!?"

"...I...didn't even say anything was wrong," Sora said, taken aback by the sudden accusation.

"Exactly!" the dragon shouted, a bit too loudly than she wanted.

Sora held his hands up, seeing the agitation building up in Smolder's beet red face. "Ok, ok...I'll just...leave you to take watch for danger."

Smolder grunted, biting her lower lip to shut herself up before she blurted out something else. Sora let her be and hurried after the others to continue looking for the strange interference Sarge heard. Left alone, Smolder sighed heavily, her heart racing in anxiety.

"What the hay am I doing?" she grumbled to herself, grasping her horns and tugging them in exasperation. Looking at the box of clothes she was eyeing earlier, she released her horns and slumped over, feeling deeply ashamed of herself. "I'm just going to see what these things look like on me, then I'm burning them if I hate them, which I do."

Using her claws, Smolder sliced through the plastic package showing the outfits. She dug out the dresses, followed by a tiny mirror that was among the accessories. She tied to eat one of the pieces of plastic jewelry, but spat it out when it wasn't really made with gems. Confused by the kind of insane creature to promise royal jewelry packed with these clothes with plastic, she left the box and moved around the shelf to avoid getting seen by the others. It was embarrassing just being near these kinds of toys, it would be humiliating if they found her trying on these clothes.

Feeling satisfied being as far out of sight as possible, Smolder leaned the small mirror against the shelf to try to get as much of a full body view as she can. The first dress she picked to try was a frilly pink one, as frilly as it can be for a doll's clothing. Scrunching her face at the color, Smolder put the dress on, minding her curved horns to avoid tearing it despite not caring if she ripped any of them before burning them to ashes. But like her plastic toy form, her horns were barely sharp enough to cut paper. She managed to slip her head and horns through the neck, forcing her wings to fold around her body since there weren't holes meant for such appendages on the back on a human dress. One look at her reflection, and she already looked ridiculous in pink.

Quickly stripping out of that dress, she tried on the yellow one next. It wasn't as girly as the pink one, but there was a flowery design around the dress that didn't feel right for the dragoness to wear. She hummed, partially out of slight annoyance at what she was doing to herself, turning herself around to get a better view from front to back. Even though the yellow seemed to match close to her scales, she still felt weird forcing her wings to tuck awkwardly for the clothing to even fit her. And with her tail sticking out from the bottom, it only left her feeling more constrained, which made her wonder why other creatures think it's fun to wear clothes over their fur or skin.

Taking off the yellow dress, she observed the last one from the box, which was a light blue color. Out of all the dresses, she tilted her head in curiosity. Slipping into the dress, she glanced at the mirror once she was settled into it. It may have been cheap fabric, but when she looked at her reflection, her eyes widened slightly; oddly enough, she kind of liked this dress. She liked the color, it was a bit more roomy for her wings, though not by much, and it was like she was looking at a different dragon. Growing more curious, she walked over to the box she tore open, looking back through the fake jewel accessories, finding herself a tiara, a fake silver with a pink piece of plastic to look like a heart-shaped jewel in the center. Walking back to the mirror, she looked down at the headpiece, then to her reflection. Slowly, she lifted the tiara up, placing it on her head.

Now she was looking at a completely different dragoness. The Dragon Lands' form of royalty came from the Dragon Lord with the only heir being the one who obtains the Bloodstone Scepter. If they did wear clothes, then what Smolder was wearing right now might have been fit for a dragon princess. She placed her hands together in front of her, slowly approaching the mirror as if she was walking through a corridor, acting like a proper lady amongst her subjects. A hint of a small smile formed on her lips as her imagination took in the scenario in her thoughts. She may have hated some of Rarity's lessons in proper etiquette when around specific ponies of higher authority, but she took it in stride in her fantasy, greeting an invisible guest with a curtsy and a small nod. She twirled about, swishing the dress, pretending to take part in a dance in the middle of a ballroom, a feeling of catharsis washing over her when she had no one around to judge her for doing or wearing anything that doesn't fit with who she is.

After finishing her little dance, when she opened her eyes to look at herself in the mirror again, only to yelp and stumble back in surprise when she was face to face with a random cat plushie. Her tiara fell off her head in the fall with a clatter, ignoring it as she sat up and stared at the mysterious plush with her heart racing in shock. She quickly looked around, thinking someone must have spied on her while she was distracted by her own make-believe princess daze and set that big, squishy cat toy in front of her to spook her. She practically tore the dress off of her, tossed it in the pile of clothes, and lit them up with her fire breath, her cheeks burning in embarrassment with an angry scowl.

"Alright, who saw me!?" she questioned. "It's not what it looks like! A Heartless...hypnotized me!" Smolder leered back at the cat plushie, which had a silly-looking face with its tongue sticking out. Sneering at the plushie, the cat's eyes suddenly glowed yellow, making the dragon blink. "...What the...?" The plush suddenly leapt forward, billowing an aura of darkness as it lunged at her. Yelping, she dove out of the way, barely avoiding a shockwave at a surprisingly heavy slam from a toy that seemed soft enough to squeeze and make a meowing sound. "More possessed toys!? You little freaky puppets will take over anything!"

Calling forth Dragon's Fury, Smolder watched the toy slide over to her. She smacked it back hard with her Keyblade, making it squeak from the impact, then blasted it with a Fire spell. The explosion destroyed the toy and revealed the same puppet Heartless that was inside the Supreme Smasher. She didn't give it a chance to escape, take over another toy, or attack her as she rushed it. She ran her blade through the puppet's chest, then slammed it down to the ground. Her power in that slam killed the Heartless, looking around the area for others that might have been lying in wait for an ambush. Realizing she was alone, she dismissed her Keyblade, then glanced at the pile of ashes that were the dresses she tried on.

She couldn't believe she actually liked wearing a dress, and began pretending she was a princess. At least it was just a Heartless that saw her, and she could thrash them without any repercussions. Shaking her head, Smolder smacked her cheeks, forgetting she ever did that as she turned and made her way to the other end of Babies and Toddlers. She was unaware of someone watching her from the high shelf near the vent, Young Xehanort smirking in amusement before he warped away.

Smolder walked past the other shelves and displays of the other toys in the store. She was wary of the plushies around one display shelf, watching for any signs of yellow eyes on the silly, adorable animal toys. In the corner of the store, she found Sora, Donald, Goofy, Woody, Buzz, and Sarge over by a section labeled "Musical Toads". There were some amphibious musicians set up like an orchestra, one of the toads a conductor while the toads carried instruments or stood at the ends with their mouths open to sing. There was even a record player on the side of the little toy orchestra set.

"There ya are, Smolder," Goofy greeted. "What were you-?"

"None of your business," Smolder interrupted. "I can't just look at things by myself?"

Goofy glanced at Sora, who was warned earlier about Smolder's odd behavior back by the doll section. "Well...ok, then?"

"Did you guys find the weird sound thing yet?" Smolder asked. "I want to smash more Heartless in a Gigas."

"Not yet, but we might be close around here," Woody said, pointing to the toy toad orchestra.

Sora hopped up onto the platform, observing the record player. "I don't see a vinyl on this," he said. "Doesn't look like one could even be set on this kind of record player." Curious, Sora climbed onto the turntable of the record player. His movements caused it to move slightly, which made the toads move slightly, abruptly playing a half-made note in the music they would be playing. "Huh. Seems like those toys are connected to this thing."

"Give it a run, Sora," Donald suggested.

Nodding, Sora began to walk forward, remaining in place as the momentum in his feet turned the turntable. The toads lit up as they came to life and began to play, following the tempo of Sora's slow walk. He picked up the pace, letting the symphony play normally as he ran, bringing some noise to the eerily empty mall. While listening to the orchestra, the music was ruined when they heard one of the instruments playing false notes on their beat.

"Wait, something sounded off," Buzz noted.

"One of the toads might be broken," Goofy said.

"Let's see which one's off tune," Woody suggested.

Smolder, Goofy, Donald, Buzz, and Woody climbed up to join the symphony and looked around while listening to the off-key instrument. Smolder winced when she heard it near a toad playing the tuba, never hearing how this instrument worked, but she could tell from the blaring noise that it was off.

"I think it's coming from this one," the dragoness said.

The others gathered around the tuba player, all while Sora continued his run on the turntable. "Sounds like something's stuck inside the tuba," Goofy said as he peered into the funnel.

"Let me see." Smolder looked inside, then reached her arm inside. She felt around the plastic brass instrument's smooth interior until she felt something odd lodged inside. "Hey, I think I found what's stuck in this thing." Smolder grasped it with her claws, grimacing slightly when she felt it moving. "Ugh. I think it's alive."

"Alive? But there aren't even any insects around, just like the missing people," Sarge said. "...Unless..." Smolder grunted as she grasped onto the mysterious clog tightly, then began to pull. It came out with a pop after a hard enough tug, nearly making the dragon topple over backwards. She opened her hand to reveal what was backing up the tuba, which happened to be the corporal Sarge lost contact with a moment ago. "Corporal!" Sarge climbed down Woody, rushing over to Smolder as she carefully lowered the green army man down. "Are you alright, son?"

"Yes, sir," Corporal said.

Sarge helped the injured corporal on his feet, moving his soldier's arm over his shoulder and keeping him held up. "Did you find Hamm?"

"Yes. But...while I was radioing in, a giant hand grabbed me, and it stuffed me in there," Corporal said. That seemed to worry the others. There were no signs of people around the neighborhood or the mall, but if a giant hand snatched the army man out of the blue, then something was definitely wrong. Corporal struggled to stay standing, even with Sarge holding him up, looking desperate. "They must have taken Hamm to another location. We have to hurry!"

"Wait, Corporal, you're not fit for action," Sarge stated. Even though the injured army man tried to argue with his superior, Sarge shook his head, knowing he was too hurt to even move, let alone help their other comrades. "Your tour is over, son. And it's alright. Our trusted allies will take over." Corporal lowered his head, feeling ashamed for his injured state to have his mission end so soon, but he know Sarge was right and completely understood the situation. They did have more soldiers in their toy army, but after being split from the rest of the toys from Andy's room, their numbers were slimmer, and as army toys, they don't leave any of their own no matter what. "I will move the corporal to a safer location. Good luck, soldiers."

Buzz and Woody gave Sarge a nod, ensuring the soldiers they'll finish their mission for them. Sora hopped off the turntable, regrouped with the others.

"Is there an actual person who's still around the mall, then?" Sora asked, able to overhear what happened to the corporal.

"As long as it's not someone like this horrible little boy named Sid," Woody said. "Used to be the neighbor kid a couple years ago before Andy's family decided to move. He breaks, tortures, and disfigured toys for his own amusement."

Sora, Donald, and Goofy grimaced at that, even Smolder was a bit unnerved learning about this destructive child. "Gawrsh! What a horrible little boy!" Goofy exclaimed.

"We were almost victims when we...got separated from Andy," Buzz added, hesitating slightly with his response.

Buzz and Woody glanced at each other awkwardly with a small, just as awkward laugh. "Yeah. It was...unfortunate with our situation," Woody said. "Sid's toys were actually innocent, despite how his way of having 'fun' with his toys made them out to be. The good news is he's hopefully changed his ways after scaring him into playing nice with his toys."

"Uhh, how?" Smolder asked. "You guys are toys. Do other humans think it's normal for you guys to be moving around on your own?"

"Technically, no, otherwise they would have actually destroyed us," Buzz said. "If a human is approaching, we either hide, or try to return to the spot where they last saw us. Woody has a very intricate system when keeping Andy's other toys from being 'moved around' suspiciously."

"Well, if you don't count how we got lost and wound up with Sid before reuniting with Andy," Woody said.

"Or Big Al, the Chicken Man, after stealing you to take you, Jessie, Bullseye, and Stinky Pete to Japan with him, along with every single collectible product from the old show you were in to be displayed in a museum," Buzz added, eyeing Woody with a smirk.

"There's giant chicken humans, too?" Smolder questioned, already getting lost with what goes on in this world, or who these other three people were that Buzz and Woody know. Before she stopped their reminiscing to call out how crazy they live their lives around humans, her eye caught some shifting coming from a dollhouse near the window of the store. "Uhh, guys? That house is moving strangely."

She pointed to the dollhouse, prompting the toys, Keyblade wielder, mage, and knight to look at the dollhouse. They noticed the slight movements as well, which could be housing something dangerous.

"Let's check it out," Sora said, summoning his Keyblade as he took point. "Could be a Marionette hiding inside."

"A marry-who?" Smolder questioned quizzically.

"A Marionette. The puppet Heartless that controlled those dragon toys," Sora explained.

"Sounds fitting since they look like real marionettes," Donald said.

Smolder rolled her eyes, summoning Dragon's Fury in her hand as the group closed in on the dollhouse. Approaching the ledge with the moving dollhouse, they climbed up, preparing themselves for what lies inside. Lining up, Woody grasped one side of the house that opens up with everyone else grasping each other, then pulled hard. They unlatched the dollhouse, falling over from the effort, and inside was Hamm, who was relieved to see them.

"Talk about cabin fever. Thanks for the save," Hamm said.

"Hamm, are you ok?" Woody asked.

"Yeah. Aside from being locked in, the accommodations were fine," Hamm said.

Inside the dollhouse were several rooms with two floors, holding the usual necessities like a kitchen, a living room, a bedroom, and a bathroom, each room with little furniture pieces in their respective spaces. Smolder scowled, getting sick and tired of being around this store's young, cutesy, and girly products. She wasn't going to admit to anyone she tried on some dresses, and she needed some more action.

"Can we finally get out of this stupid place now!?" Smolder exclaimed. "All we need to find are those three green alien things and finally leave!"

"It's not all that bad, is it?" Hamm asked, then looked at the others. "What's wrong with her?"

"I just want to leave this stupid, boring store already!" Smolder shouted. "I'm bored from fighting nothing but another one of those puppet 'mari-nator' Heartless back in that doll area, I don't like being around all this baby stuff, and there's no cool Gigas' anywhere for me to ride around in to smash enemies!" Sora winced and was about to scold Smolder for being alone and running into a Heartless for fear of there being more around, but his words failed him when he, Donald, Goofy, Woody, Buzz, and Hamm saw a hand grasp the dollhouse, surrounded in a dark aura. Smolder was too distracted, her back turned to the human-like hand pulling itself closer. Floating in sight was a big doll, towering the toys by about three times their height. It wore dark gray and black maid's outfit, had long blue hair, its big eyes were glowing an yellow-orange, and it wore a headband with bunny ears, though it was far from cute with the Heartless symbol glowing on the left ear. It looked down at Smolder, who stared at her friends in confusion from their dazed, shocked silence. "What?"

"Oh no! That's the same doll that pig-penned me in that dollhouse!" Hamm exclaimed in terror.

Smolder blew a raspberry in disbelief, still unaware of the possessed doll behind her. "Really? A frilly doll threw you in a-?" The doll thrust its hands forward, grabbing Smolder. Smolder yelped as she was lifted and turned around, gasping in surprise at the huge doll billowing with darkness. "AHH! What the hay!?"

The doll shot up from the ground, flying off with Smolder. "Smolder!" Sora called out as he, Donald, and Goofy jumped down to the ground to chase after the possessed doll.

"Not another possessed toy," Buzz muttered begrudgingly.

"Hamm, take cover," Woody ordered the piggy bank.

"Uh, copy that. One stay in the dread-and-breakfast is enough for me!" Hamm quickly high-tailed it to safety, avoiding being spotted by that doll again.

"Come on, Buzz! We gotta help Smolder!" Woody said.

Buzz didn't want to do this again, but left with no choice from yet another toy taken over by darkness, he nodded. Both toys hopped down and joined the chase, all while Marionettes appeared to try to cut them off, possessing some of the animal plushies in the middle of the store. Smolder grunted, struggling to break free from the giant doll's hands as it floated toward the other end of the store.

"Let go of me!" Smolder demanded. Getting sick of being dragon-handled, Smolder faced the doll and blew fire in its face. Surprised, the doll let go of the dragon teen and reared back from the burning flames. Smolder yelled as she was dropped, landing hard on her abdomen with a thud. "Ugh! Ow." She got on her knees, clutching her belly. "Was that how it felt to be kidnapped by an adult dragon to ponies?" Smolder looked up, gasping in shock as the doll began to drop down on her. She quickly scrambled away, crying out as the doll landed and released a shockwave that sent her flying and tumbling toward the ground. Getting back to her feet, Smolder faced the doll as it creepily hovered toward her. "Ok, you want to play rough!? I'll play rough!"

Smolder yelled as she charged forward with her Keyblade in hand. The doll's movement caught her off guard when it closed the gap faster to her liking, then performed a pirouette spin, unleashing a dark shockwave that felt like a powerful spin kick. Smolder got smacked, sent flying back again until she hit the nearby shelf. Before Smolder could recover, the doll came flying toward her like a spinning missile, snatching her again and flew her around the store. Smolder began to get disoriented from the spiraling flight, unable to tell where the ceiling and floor were as she clawed at the doll's hands.

"Firaja!" From the ground, a massive fireball from the ground homed in on the doll. It made contact and blew up in a massive explosion of flames. The practically flung Smolder from its momentum, spiraling and spinning wildly as she began to fall. Sora shifted into his Keyblade of Magic's Formchange, blasting the Marionettes out of his way with magic spells to shoot down the doll. Using Aeroga, he used the wind to launch himself toward where Smolder was going to painfully land. He dove for her, quickly catching her with a roll and slid to a stop, hearing the dragon groan dizzily. "Smolder, are you alright?"

Quickly shaking her head, Smolder looked at Sora for a moment, then sneered and smacked away his arms, only to flop onto the ground. "No! I'm being abused like I'm that doll's toy!" she exclaimed. "How do you think I'm feeling!?"

"We'll handle this," Sora said. Holding his wand out, he shifted it into its bow form. He took aim with a lightning arrow, watching the doll emerge from the fading embers in the air, parts of its body scorched and bits of its outfit and hair were burnt away. "Just stay back and-"

"Screw that! I'm not going to run away from this thing!" Smolder exclaimed as she ran forward, startling Sora.

"S-Smolder!" he called out. He was about to fire, only for another Marionette to pop in his line of sight. He sent his arrow flying too late, striking the Heartless as it took the magic arrow with convulsing twitches before it died. The doll dove down again and slammed down near Smolder, but she at least leapt back before the shockwave hit her. As Sora readied another elemental arrow, he noticed how the doll seemed to be more focused on Smolder than the rest of them, which baffled and worried him. "What is going on with this Heartless? It's going after Smolder and ignoring me, even after that Fire spell."

Smolder launched several spells at the doll, alternating between Fire and Blizzard, keeping far away from the doll's outstretched hands trying to "play" with her. "Why! Won't! You! Just! Drop! Dead!?" she roared. Sora pulled back his arrow, fueled with ice cold energy, sending it flying into the doll. The arrow struck its chest, quickly encasing its whole body in ice. She didn't care if she managed to freeze it in a block of ice or not; she wanted to destroy this toy. "Let's see how you like being knocked around!"

Smolder charged forward, but just as she was about to leap, a Marionette tackled her and held her down. Grunting, struggling to break free and getting more enraged, the giant doll managed to break out of its icy prison with a spin. It looked down at Smolder, ignoring the arrows Sora fired repeatedly to get its attention away from the dragon. Even Buzz's laser wasn't enough to shift its focus elsewhere while Woody was able to use his own fists and pull string like a lasso to cover his friend.

"It just won't stop!" Buzz said.

"Darn it! Xehanort must be trying to take Smolder, and he's using Heartless to do it!" Sora exclaimed.

Sora had to destroy this doll, despite Buzz's view on these toys being alive or not before their possession from the Heartless. He was about to use a Magneja arrow and use Magic's finishing attack, hoping the gravitational pull wouldn't suck Smolder in with the Marionette clutching her. Beneath the Heartless, Smolder growled, having had enough of these Heartless and the doll treating her like a plaything. Her eyes shot open, her pupils shrinking with a look of rage. Her free hand grasped the puppet Heartless's head, her claws digging deep into the felt doll's skull. She pulled at its head, making it flail as she almost ripped its head right off its neck, forcing it to release her. Smolder flipped the Heartless off of her, got up, and while still clutching the Heartless, she yelled and flung it away from her, then glared at the doll looming over her, baring her fangs with a look of fury burning in her cyan eyes.

Ignoring her Keyblade, she flung her weapon aside, clattering to the ground as it disappeared in a flash of light, then released a loud, furious dragon roar with a massive stream of flames from her maw. The doll was concealed in the fire, backing away and flailing about as it was getting burned. Even when Smolder stopped and the possessed toy was still on fire, Smolder charged forward in a blind fury, leaping up and ramming the doll's torso and sent it crashing to the ground. She clawed at the doll, tearing up its clothes and leaving claw marks on any exposed skin on its plastic body, and still spewing flames, continuing to burn it alive. It tried to grab the dragoness to push her away, but Smolder's rage overpowered its bigger appendages, biting down hard and snarling like a rabid dog possessed by a demon as she managed to rip the doll's hands off.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Buzz, Woody, and even Hamm as he peeked around a curtain watched in terror. They never expected Smolder to be THIS aggressive, and the toys thought her character was from a cartoon show that was meant for kids with all of Rex's praising. She was like a wild animal that was cornered and finally lashed out at the predator that towered it, and Buzz was somewhat lucky that he didn't push Smolder's buttons that hard. He didn't appreciate what she was doing to that poor doll, but he was too startled to worry about that when the teenage dragon unleashed her pent up wrath on her possessed victim.

After clawing at the doll for about ten minutes, Smolder stood over it, panting heavily while leering at the charred, mauled, disfigured toy. The flames slowly died down, revealing the damage she did: the clothes were completely torn and shredded to the point where it barely concealed the doll's body, deep scratches and teeth marks all over its torso and arms with one of its hands missing and the other missing a couple fingers, the blue hair had embers that slowly burned away while there was only a couple of inches of it remaining on its head, and the ear on the headpiece without the Heartless emblem was snapped off. The life in the doll began to wane when the eyes began to change from yellow-orange to a similar cyan to Smolder's. Popping out of its chest was another Marionette Heartless, but it didn't have a chance to escape when Smolder grabbed its face with her bare claws, snarled angrily at the pint-sized creature of darkness. She couldn't tell if it was able to feel fear, but she didn't care as she removed one of her claws from its head, and with one swift thrust, she impaled the puppet's torso, her arm sticking out of its body from her elbow.

The Heartless disappeared, releasing a heart from the dark mist it faded into, and after an unsettling minute of Smolder's heavy breathing, she turned around, glaring at the stunned warriors and toys. "Can we finally get out of this stupid store now?"

Comments

[DeathRider2021]

I get the feeling that this is going to lead to a fight between Smolder and Buzz.

[GrimmWolfDragon]

Good chapter can't wait for the next one.

[shining paladin]

awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter

[Postwarmonkey50]

Yeesh, Smolder needs to learn how to control her anger and take a chill pill, otherwise it's going to get her killed.

[Kreotre]

Whoa, I've never seen Smolder THAT mad before 😨😱

[gfr091702]

Nice chapter. Can't wait for the next one. By the way, the first 5 chapters of My Little Paper Mario are posted on www.fanfiction.net. The only thing that isn't there are the music links because it wouldn't save them.

[Gambling_Sam]

Looks like Smolder has a worse learning curve than Gallus.

And don't think I didn't notice that whole "Smolder hates dresses fear" you referenced halfway through the chapter.

[JesusG0987]

Awesome, new chapter and boy Smolder and Buzz, I get her feeling those two are going into a fight when Buzz become control, and then exploring the mall is great with them fighting the heartless and Smolder knowing the world and getting her dragon tail kicked, while also hiding her girly side, and it looks like Young Xenanort knows Smolder secret feminine side I think that secret will speak out from YX to Sora, Donald and Goofy while Sora tells Smolder that it’s okay to like girly things, and Smolder need to learn to control her anger and learn not to let her dragon pride get the better of hear, other wise it will get her in deep trouble or killed

And wow Smolder actually killed someone, that’s a shock even as a toy there’s no two ways on how it goes, I’m surprise and glad that no dark aura surrounded her, I guess it just her dragon side.

Anyway, awesome job, keep up the great work. I can’t wait for the next chapter.

[Moonlight_Mist]

11135270
Were the pink and yellow dresses the ones the mares from her fear scenario in What Lies Beneath were wearing?

[Moonlight_Mist]

Welp, Smolder just killed someone. No two ways about it, given the nature of this world. I'm surprised Smolder wasn't surrounded by an aura of darkness at the height of her rage. Maybe have her eyes flash a lime green as she voices her complaint in the last line of the chapter; lime green being a sort of transitory color between her natural eye color and 'dark eye yellow', while also tying into how Young Xehanort's eyes briefly flashed a brighter yellow when he lost his composure right before the fight against him in DDD.

Some might think it odd of me to think a palpable darkness could come out of nowhere in her, but Terra only started having problems with his darkness after Xehanort tempered it in secret during the Mark of Mastery. Young Xehanort was noted to be watching Smolder in amusement as she ranted about the whole feminine thing, and afterward sent Angelic Amber after her. Considering the context, would it really be so out there to think YX tempered the darkness in Smolder, and then manipulated circumstances to let it bloom?

Regardless, I think it would be best if Terra, more than any of the other experienced keybladers had a talk with Smolder when they get back. Or maybe Riku? Both of them have had their inner darkness tempted and tempered, and then overcame it. I can only imagine that at the present time, Terra's in a similar state with his darkness and light as Riku, though Riku might be farther along since he's isolated his darkness in a place where he can call upon it as needed without letting it run amok. I feel like Smolder's the most likely of this next generation to go through what Terra and later Riku did. On that note, in the absence of Terranort, will one of the Young Six make up the difference? Or will Xehanort just bench one less darkness that he already has on hand?

[Gambling_Sam]

11135391
I remember Smolder wearing a blue one, but either way it's a funny fear to make surface during her time in that world

[Codex92]

11135391
I didn't even realize the colors I chose during that scene! I looked back at that episode when you mentioned it, and I picked pink and yellow as the other two random colors out of the three! I completely forgot what those mares in her test were even wearing! I'm dying laughing at the irony, and I had looked back while writing to see the kind of dress Smolder wore in that episode.

[BenictheHedgehog]

From how it is going, I am starting to wonder if Xehanort after hearing the news is more interested in testing the six young Keyblade wielders when they go to other worlds to see how they do. After all, I would not put it passed him if he wanted the next gen Keyblade users to either be ready after the clash his thirteen seekers have with the guardians of light. Or he surveying to see of which one would make a good vessel if he can’t get Terra & Xion back as his vessels.

[Master of Ice]

Wow smolder is going to be interesting in the next chapter and also i hate that doll so much its so creepy as heartsless

[BurningLance]

yikes dont piss of a dragon

[SoraFan23]

Smolder really has Anger issues.