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Arrival1,922 words
Rebirth3,262 words
Explanation3,195 words
Heading Out3,689 words
Meeting3,328 words
Dusk2,557 words
Return3,782 words
Getting Ready3,432 words
Heading out2,832 words
A dark reunion3,543 words
Discorded3,061 words
Return2,797 words
Beginning of the End3,892 words
Faith3,737 words
The Strongest Bond3,392 words

Beginning of the End

“Where is it!?” Sora heard a voice yell as he ran down the hallway with the two mares. The voice sounded like Discords but he seemed panicked, furious even. He ran as fast as his hooves could carry him down the royal hallway. A few heartless that were lurking just up a head, the three ponies called out their Keyblades and quickly dispatched them. A few more were running around frantically just before they were taken out by the ponies weapons, Rainbow looked far ahead before tilting her head.

“Why aren’t they reacting? We attacked a few but they don’t seem to care at all, like they’re distracted.” She stated. Sora looked back and gave her a quick nod before turning back, banishing his Keyblade to speak.

“You’re right, I have no idea what’s going on with them.” Sora replied. They kept running through the hallway, lifting their heads up when they could hear another shout from further on.

“Come on you little ingrates! I know it’s close by so hurry up and find it! You’re all absolutely useless!” The voice yelled again.

“That’s definitely Discord’s voice, he must have found out the Keyhole is nearby, would explain why the heartless are running around distracted. They just don’t want him to keep yelling at them.” Twilight explained. Sora furrowed his brow and kept looking ahead.

“That can’t be it. The heartless are more animalistic, they don’t have emotions so they wouldn’t be scared of his yelling.” He explained back, Twilight gathered her thoughts and came up with another idea.

“Maybe they just really, really want to get to the Keyhole and don’t care about us?” She suggested.

“I don’t think so.” Sora answered. “They feed on the hearts of others, the stronger the heart then the stronger the desire to want it.”

“Then why wouldn't they want our hearts if we so close to them?” Rainbow asked. Sora thought for a few moments before an idea came to him.

“It can’t be… Remember what I said before when we were back in the Everfree forest and no heartless were around?” He asked, the mares just looked at him puzzled. “The only reason they wouldn’t want us… is because they found something they want more… and we have two Princesses up ahead.” Twilight gasped as the realization hit her and Rainbow put a hoof over her muzzle at the thought. “Come one, we got to hurry!” Sora said and with that, they took off as fast as they could towards the throne room.

XXX

The heartless had herded the worn out Princesses into the corner of the room with only a couple of guards protecting them. The little monsters had surrounded them and were just standing there, barring the ponies from getting away. Discord had torn off a few of the beautiful paintings and strewn them across the floor in his search, remaining heartless hopping around the room to find their precious worldly meal. Discord gritted his teeth with each passing minute, letting out an exhausted and infuriated groan as well as giving the occasional passing heartless a kick up the backside.

“For a hoard of evil, darkness spreading, world possessing monsters, you’re all so useless! We’ve been here for hours and not a single clue as to where this Keyhole is, how is it possible that you were able to outnumber and overpower the Princesses of the sun and the moon yet you can’t find the one thing you search worlds for.” He yelled at the shadows, as if expecting an acceptable reply but getting nothing. He knew the heartless couldn’t talk back but the fact he got no answers angered him further, to the point where he summoned a dark aura around his talon and fired it at an unsuspecting heartless, bursting it into wisps instantly.

He yelped and fell to one knee, clutching his chest with his talon and paw, growling as a larger pain than before started up for a few moments before dying down again. He panted heavily for a few moments and lifted his head, seeing some of the heartless just standing there looking at him. He felt his heartbeat grow as he felt them staring into his eyes, into his soul. He quickly stood back up and snarled at them, charging a dark aura into his talon once more.

“Get back to work!” He yelled as he threw another blast of dark energy towards them. They quickly dodged out of the way and moved off to continue searching.

“Not able to control your minions well Discord?” Celestia asked him. He looked over at the scowling alicorn and huffed.

“I have perfect control of them, not my fault they can’t follow the orders they are given.” He replied. Celestia just stared at him, a constant frown on her face that only made him angrier with every second he saw it. “Oh don’t act all high and mighty, this is MY KINGDOM!” He pointed at the throne. “That is MY THRONE!” He then threw his arms up in the air. “And this is MY CASTLE! It used to all be MINE!” His voice cracked a little as his whole body started growing with a dark aura. “AND THIS WILL ALL BELONG TO ME ONCE MORE!” The aura dissipated as quickly as it came up as he winced in pain, feeling the pain from his chest shoot throughout his entire body.

“T-These damn pains! Maleficent! What is going on?!” He yelled out into the air, confusing the ponies watching him.

‘It’s nothing you need to worry about, just your body adjusting to the darkness so you can use it easier. It will ease in time as long as you keep using the darkness, your body will eventually get used to it.’ She explained. Discord gave a small huff but smiled a little, looking back at the two Princesses and grinning.

“It seems I will only get stronger, I hope you and all your precious ponies are ready for my return.” He gloated. He began to snicker to himself, the snicker turned into a cackle and the cackle turned into a full blown laugh, echoing throughout the hallways.

“For somepony who has a tendency to fail over and over again, you seem to be having a good time Discord.” The brown colt at the door exclaimed. Discord turned to see Sora, Twilight and Rainbow at the doorway of the room. He gave a disgusted look before sighing.

“Why…Why are you still alive…?” He growled. Sora gave a shrug and grinned.

“Good friends, Keyblade and being a stubborn as a mule I suppose.” He chuckled. Twilight gave him a slight nudge and frowned.

“Hey, that’s racist you know.” She said. He gave an apologetic nod and turned back to the angry lord of chaos.

“You must know you can’t win by now. Why don’t you give up?” He asked. Discord gritted his teeth before shrugging off the comment.

“I won’t lose now, I know I’m close to the Keyhole and once I get to it then I’ll be able to control the entire world!” He boasted.

“You know… I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. How did you know about the Keyhole and my anti-form? Also who told you that finding the Keyhole would lead to you gaining control over the world?” Sora asked. Discord giggled and looked down at the colt with a cocky grin.

“Our mutual friend… Maleficent.” Sora scowled as soon as he heard the name.

“That explains everything…” He said. Twilight leaned forward a little with Rainbow just behind.

“Who’s Maleficent?” She asked.

“Oh she’s wonderful!” Discord started. “She has amazing powers and allowed me control of the heartless. She recognised me as her equal and decided to give me Equestria as long as I allow the heartless into the heart of the world. She’s intelligent, strategic, informative and-”

“She’s a witch…” Sora interrupted. All eyes were now on him except the heartless who had just stopped in their places as soldiers without command. “She uses others to get what she wants then casts them aside when she doesn’t want or need them anymore. She takes advantage of something that someone wants to use them for her purposes. She even ended up getting a dear friend of mine to succumb to the darkness then possessed by a madman!” He yelled to Discord. “I’ll gladly bet that she’s using you too, if the heart of the world is taken by the heartless then that world doesn’t fall into chaos, it gets destroyed!”

“Blah blah blah, nice try but I won’t fall for it. She gave me the power to do all I have done and even more power will be on its way soon, I’ll be stronger than both goddesses combined and nopony will be able to stop me!” Discord cackled. Sora gritted his teeth for a few moments then looked up at Discord with a stern expression.

“We will stop you. You won’t get away with this!” He called his Keyblade to him and grabbed hold of it in his mouth, the two mares behind him felt the oncoming battle and called their Keyblades to them as well. Discord shrugged and motioned his claw forward.

“Heartless! Attack!” All the heartless except the ones guarding the Princesses quickly sprang into action and charged towards the trio. Shadows and Neo-Shadows held the front of the force, jumping towards the three ponies only to be quickly cut down. Sora jumped ahead of the other two and swung his weapon round, slamming it into two Neo-Shadows and sending them flying into a third, quickly finishing them off with a blast of fire. Twilight swung the Keyblade wildly, trying to keep anything from getting too close. She spotted one of them jump into the air above her and just held her Keyblade up straight, the heartless landing and impaling itself onto it before bursting. She then turned her attention to the heartless to either side of her and threw her Keyblade upwards once more, calling forth a barrage of lightning bolts to annihilate her foes.

Rainbow was dealing with a strange, gliding type of heartless. They donned leathery wings that connected from their arms to their sides with a leather cap on their heads, a small propeller attached to the tips of the hats. They quickly span towards her, nearly scratching her across her sides but they were no match for the fastest flyer in Equestria. She barrel rolled out of the way and flew up behind them, running her Keyblade in the backs of two of the gliders before spinning and slapping it across the face of another that shot towards her.

It wasn’t long before all the shadows and Neo-Shadows were dispatched. The gliding heartless quickly followed in their defeat. Discord growled as he placed his paw on the ground, his paw glowing with dark energy before a dark portal appeared out of the floor. Out of the portal emerged a black, three eyed dog head with a metal plate surrounding the back of its head. A suit of armour with large arms and hands emerged behind it, carrying the dog faced shield. The dark portal vanished behind it and Discord panted heavily.

“It’s a defender, just get behind it and attack.” Sora said. The two nodded. Rainbow flew behind the armour and struck. It yelped slightly and the three eyes on the dog head began glowing red, it opened its mouth and shot out a fire ball towards the pegasus. She lead it round for a few moments to get some distance then span round in the air, whacking the fire ball with her Keyblade and sent it into the side of the armours head. It screamed in pain and was about to retaliate but stopped and looked down at the pain in its chest. Two Keyblades had pierced through the monster as it was distracted, it dropped the shield before bursting into wisps, its shield following suit. Sora looked at Discord and grinned, grabbing his Keyblade in his hoof to speak.

“That all you got Discord? You must be able to see that no heartless can beat us.” Discord growled at the statement before both his arms began glowing with a dark aura, the whites of his eyes turning into a dark purple tinge as he gathered power.

“These stupid creatures, I should have done this from the start…” His two wings unfurled and shot out behind him, his body lifting into the air slightly. “Enough relying on these idiots to stop you, if you want something done right then do it yourself!” Discord threw his head back and shrieked before looking back down at the thorns in his side, throwing out his talon and firing a blast of dark energy towards them. They gasped and threw themselves to the side, just dodging the attack.

“I’ve had enough of you spoiling my plans, this time I will be your opponent. Enjoy your last moments!” He yelled, following up his statement with another blast of dark energy. The blast shot towards Sora first, he quickly rolled out of the way as the blast cracked the ground where he was a moment ago. He grabbed his Keyblade in his mouth and faced towards Discord, Twilight quickly returning to his side while Rainbow Dash hovered just above him. Discord smirked and put the palms of his talon and claw together, he pulled them apart to reveal a black swirling ball and threw it at the three.

Rainbow held her Keyblade outwards and called forth a reflect spell, a transparent shield covering them all as Discord began to bombard the shell with attacks.

“How are we going to beat him?” Twilight asked as Rainbow kept the barrier going.

“It’s not hard, we just got to beat him up until he admits defeat.” Sora said with a smile. Twilight looked at him with her mouth agape and an eyebrow raised.

“B-But…he won’t just surrender, he never will.” She explained. Sora just shrugged.

“Then we attack him until he can’t attack anymore.” He said simply. Rainbow looked down at him and smirked.

“I like the sound of that, how do we get him on the ground?” She asked. The colt looked up at her confused.

“We have a pony that is great at flying, a pony that is great at magic and a pony that knows how to throw a Keyblade. Where’s the problem?” He asked her back. She giggled to herself slightly before facing forward, determination on her face. “Ready?” He asked. Rainbow nodded and Twilight put a hoof to her face before nodded herself. “Ok, go!” He yelled.

Rainbow let down the barrier and Twilight followed up by firing a blast of ice towards Discord, he quickly moved out of the way and watched the shot barely miss him. He looked back just in time to see a flash of the light spectrum before he felt her Keyblade run into his side. He groaned and fired a small trio of dark energy balls at the mare, she lead them round the room until they were close to each other then slapped them back at him. Unlike the last result of the manoeuvre, Discord grabbed the dark energy and pushed them all into one another, creating a large ball of energy and throwing it towards Twilight. She ran to the side but the orb just followed behind.

The unicorn began to panic slightly which caused the chaotic deity to grin, he fired another ball of dark energy towards the unicorn. She saw the second ball of energy and ran towards it. As she got close, she spun on her hooves and ran towards the first ball, jumping over it and causing the energy orbs to collide and explode. Discord shielded his eyes and growled.

“Enough of this…” He muttered. He quickly sped up towards Twilight and grabbed her by the throat, throwing her into the wall behind and knocking her to the borders of unconciouness.

“Twilight!” The remaining ponies yelled. Rainbow turned to face Discord but couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Rainbow! Above you!” Sora yelled. Rainbow looked back at him confused until she felt a hoof collide with her back. She yelped as she was pushed into the ground and panted heavily, unable to move.

“Now it’s just you and me colt!” Discord growled, darkness spreading over his entire body.

“You won’t get away with this!” Sora yelled. Both his hoof bands began glowing as a golden aura enveloped Sora’s body. The light seemed to penetrate the colt’s body, his coat turning from brown into a dirty blonde. His stood on his back hooves and held out his front hooves as a light expanded from his body, causing Discord to shield his eyes. As Discord opened them, his eyes laid upon a dirty blonde earth pony, standing upright on his back hooves with his usual Keyblade in one hoof but in his other was an black Keyblade, a chain pattern reaching up the shaft from a purple gem at the top of the handle that had bat like wings sprouting from it and reaching down, forming a hoof guard.

Without muttering a word, Sora quickly threw the Keyblades up in the air towards Discord. He watched it carefully, waiting for whatever trick Sora had planned but didn’t notice as the colt ran up to him, land and spin round on his front hooves and thrust his back legs into Discord’s stomach. Discord winced and recoiled a few steps, looking up to see Sora catch his Keyblades in his hooves before bringing them next to each other and using them to deliver an uppercut into Discords chin. Discord flew back a little before spreading out his wings, spinning and recovering in mid-air before flying back at Sora. He waited for Discord to get close then ran towards him, sliding under the flying beast at the last moment and placing the ends of the Keyblades into Discord’s chest and simultaneously firing a blast of fire and ice into him.

Discord screamed in pain and flew upwards into the air, wisps of smoke coming from his chest as he went up and landed on the ground, a sickening crack could be heard as Discord’s back collided with the marble floor. He groaned in pain and rolled over onto his front, staring up at the colt ahead of him before slamming his talon into the floor. His ears twitched as he heard sounds coming from behind him, he looked behind him for a moment to see the four ponies that had been guarding the front of the castle charge into the room and run to their friends. They helped the two barely conscious ponies get together and began healing them before staring at the blonde colt and the dejected Discord strewn across the floor. Discord growled, feeling the pain grow again in his body but ignoring it, trying to get back up.

“WHY!? WHY WON’T YOU LOSE NO MATTER WHAT I DO?!” He bellowed. Sora just looked at him with a pitiful expression.

“It’s because you fight for your own selfish reasons. I won’t lose because I’m fighting to protect my precious friends.” He said simply. Discord scowled and rose to his hoof and claw, clutching his chest with his talon as it throbbed in agony.

“DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH! Friendship?! How could I be losing to friendship again?!” He shouted. Sora just kept staring at him, the pain growing more and more. “MALEFICENT!” He bellowed. “WHERE IS THIS POWER YOU SAID I’D GET?!” He heard a loud cackle in his mind.

‘You think I’d waste giving more power to you? You’re a pathetic fool, I always thought of you as such and I still do now.’ She said simply. Discord looked up in the air, a sorrowful expression on his face.

“What…?” He asked quietly.

‘You couldn’t even beat a bunch of pathetic, pastel ponies and you expect me to give you more power? It’s truly laughable.’ She began laughing to herself inside his mind. Discord snarled as he heard her remark before an expression of defeat replaced it, he fell to the ground and felt the pain grow now more than ever.

“AAAAAAAAARGH!” He yelled. Heartless sprouted from the ground and began closing in on him. “W-What are you doing?! Get away from me!” He cried but to no avail. Looks of horror spread all around as even the heartless that had been guarding the Princesses and their guards were now advancing towards him.

“Maleficent! What are they doing?!” He yelled out, only hearing her cackling grow louder in his mind.

“They are doing as they always have been…” Sora stated, Discord looked up at him confused. “Those who control the heartless must have a lot of darkness in their hearts. They only stay in control as long as they remain strong but if they begin showing weakness then they just become another meal for the heartless they control…” Sora explained sadly. Discord looked up in horror and then tried to push the creatures away.

“Get away from me!” He yelled to no avail. “No…NO…NOOOOOOO!” He screamed as the heartless covered his body, a dark mass replacing it. A few seconds of the act passed before a loud, low growl could be heard emanating from the mass.

‘I told you at our first meeting that you were my minion and you always have been, you just couldn’t see it. Now you are under the control of the darkness, find that Keyhole and destroy that wretched world!’ She commanded. Another growl came from the mass as it took form. A large hand with five, clawed fingers grew from the mass, another hand that matched the first came from the other side. Large hooves grew out from the back of the forming monstrosity as it began to stand up. A long neck came up from it’s large, dark body and it’s face was long, much like the face of the creature it was possessing. Two misshapen horns protruded from the top of it’s head. A long, curled tail with spines sticking out from it came from behind the monsters body and at the sides of it’s mouth were two tusks that slightly curved out, leading and finishing next to its cheek. A look of sheer terror formed on everypony’s face as the beast opened it’s eyes to reveal a purple shade replacing the corneas and blood red iris’ around slitted pupils. It let out a roar that echoed through the soul of everypony present, Sora gulped before putting on a determined expression and readying his weapons.

“Are you really going to try and fight that thing?!” One of the guards asked him. Sora shrugged and stared into those dreadful, soul crushing eyes.

“It’s what I do.”

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