Hearts of Harmony

by Legrio

Chapter 18: Musings of the Dark

“Bad pony!” Boo cried, hiding under Sulley’s arm.

The dark pony laughed as she emerged from an inky black portal. “Yes, my little apprentice, you did quite well indeed, completing my work here and defeating that weak buffoon.” She shook her head with mock sympathy. “Such weak little ones, these peasants, losing themselves to the darkness so. Not like you and I, my apprentice.”

“Who are you and how did you-mmph!” the elderly leader of the CDA started to demand before black chains wrapped themselves around her mouth, effectively silencing her. Her bodyguards rushed forward to subdue this intruder, but more chains erupted from the stone floor, binding them to the ground. As the dark magic from her horn, Nightmare Moon called out, “Come, my pet!”

A shadow detached from a nearby wall and darted forward, rapidly striking each of the bound CDA agents with knockout blows. Its work complete, the darkness shrouded form rushed back to stand beside the armored mare, resolving into a familiar figure. “Randall?!” Twilight exclaimed.

And indeed, the very monster stood there, an extremely sour look on his face. He seemed different now, his skin’s tone darker, as he silently glared at them all with hate.

“Oh, I see you know my new pet?” Nightmare laughed, “Yes, I managed to rescue my new servant from that dreadful situation you left him in. After all, useful pawns should never be sacrificed unnecessarily, isn’t that right, my little apprentice?”

“I’d never sacrifice my friends, no matter what!” Twilight cried as her fellow ponies arrayed themselves around her. “And I’m not your apprentice!” She pointed her keyblade at her foe. “Now where’s Princess Celestia?!”

“It’s always about Celly, isn’t it?!” Nightmare Moon hissed as the shadows grew deeper and little yellow eyes began to peer out, before vanishing as she regained her composure. Shrugging noncommittally, she continued, her voice slightly bitter, “How should I know? I’m sure she’ll show up sooner or later. She always does, after all.”

“She doesn’t know where the princess is?” The younger keyblade wielder’s eyes widened in surprise. Making sure to keep her keyblade trained on the dark mare, she cautiously asked, “Then why are you here? And what did you mean, ‘completing your work here’?”

“Why, fixing this world’s Heart, of course,” Nightmare innocently said, almost looking affronted.

Rainbow Dash snorted from where she was standing near Twilight. “Yeah, right, like you’d do anything like that! You probably broke it in the first place!”

“Silence, foal!” the dark keyblade wielder snarled, darkness beginning to ooze from her horn as the unicorn prepared a shielding spell. “It was your precious princess that did that, recklessly fighting that mad old wizard in the World Heart’s room! She would hush up this too, wouldn’t she?! It took me and my assistants weeks to stabilize the Heart, and even them all we could do was parasitically link it to the Heart of another world!” Realizing she was ranting, the mare slowly began to calm down. “So no, it wasn’t my fault. And such an elegant solution you discovered, my little apprentice. Yes, the laughter of children. Newborn hearts, shining ever so brightly...”

Twilight shook her head, bewildered as she tried to take it all in. “Nightmare Moon tried to fix it? Why would she do that? It doesn’t make any sense! And she said the princess was here too.” After a moment, she repeated, “Why are you here?”

“What, I can’t check on an old experiment and see how my precious apprentice is doing at the same time?” Nightmare Moon said, her voice full of false sadness. “And here I was going to reward your progress too...”

Twilight frowned, thinking of the cursed necklace locked about her neck. “I’ve had enough of your gifts to last me a lifetime, thanks.”

“Oh, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy these ones.” Two items appeared before Twilight in a swirl of darkness, a hairpin with a purple jewel set into it, and a small, rune covered Gummi block that seemed to pulse with energy. The young mare continued to glare at her foe, not even looking at the two objects. “Now, now, no reason to be so suspicious. No tricks this time, simply consider these a reward for a job well done.”

Unwilling to take her eyes off of Nightmare Moon, Twilight warily floated the two trinkets into view. The hairpin practically glowed with enchantments, but she didn’t sense any of the kind of oily darkness she felt from her corrupted element. As for the runed Gummi block, strangely she couldn’t really feel much of anything from it. It was just... there.

“Yes, do make good use of my things, I found them ever so useful in the old days,” the ancient mare continued, reopening the dark portal with a wave of her horn. “And now, I must be going, so many things to do, people to see. Come, servant!” With one last hateful glare back at them, centering on Sulley, the darkened lizard stepped into the portal, vanishing. “Oh, one last thing. I’ve heard you’ve come in contact with a little foal of a keyblade wielder. Do be careful, many eyes are upon him. It wouldn’t do if he were to be led astray, would it, my little apprentice?” With that, a laughing Nightmare Moon stepped into the portal and vanished.

Moments later, the black chains binding Roz and the CDA agents crumbled away. Coughing, she asked, “Who, who was that?”

“A very powerful keyblade wielder,” Twilight quickly explained, poking at the two objects hovering in her magical field. “She defeated my keyblade master and scattered us all across the worlds.”

Roz hummed. “Then why did she call you her apprentice?”

“Because she’s crazy!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Twilight sighed as she put the enchanted hairpin and the gummi block in her saddlebags. “I’m not so sure anymore.”

“Twi?” Applejack questioned.

“What if Nightmare Moon is telling the truth? What if the Princess really did hide everything to do with her sister?” the unicorn asked, a pained look on her face.

“Twilight-” Spike began, before he was interrupted.

“I hate to break into this thrilling discussion,” Roz sarcastically said, “But I have a lot to do and little time to do it in.” She pointed at Sulley. “Come over here, we have some things to discuss.”

“Me?” he asked, pointing to himself. The slug monster impatiently nodded. “Er, do you ladies mind holding on to Boo? I think this is going to take a while.”

“Pony!” the little girl exclaimed as she was handed over to the yellow pegasus.

“Oh yes, we don’t mind.” Fluttershy quickly said before realizing she’d spoken for everyone. “Er, um, if that’s okay.”

Twilight shrugged and began leading her friends back up the stairs. “It’s fine, we don’t really have anything we need to do right now.”

“Good. Um, we’re going to be leaving soon, to look for our friends, right?” Fluttershy asked.

“‘course we are!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Good. I do hope we have time to stop at my apartment, I’d hate to leave without telling anyone, that would be very rude. Oh, and there’s a couple of things I’d like to pack too...”

As her friends began to talk, a single thought ran through Twilight’s mind, over and over again.

“What if I never really knew Celestia at all?”

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A short trip later, the ponies were finishing packing the few belongings Fluttershy had bought since she’d appeared in this world into a small bag, which Spike deftly tied shut. “Ya know, Ah’ve been thinkin’,” Applejack began, slinging the little pack across her back.

“About what?” Rainbow Dash asked. She’d been tasked with cleaning the apartment out, a task with which she’d quickly grown bored.

“Well, about when Nightmare Moon appeared,” she replied. Twilight looked up at this, the mention of the dark pony’s name having caught her attention. “She didn’t use her keyblade at all.”

“You’re right!” the keyblade wielder said, thinking back. “She didn’t even use it when I had mine pointed right at her.” She shook her head. “I got so caught up in what she was saying that I didn’t think. But did Nightmare Moon not use her keyblade because she didn’t want to, or because she couldn’t?”

Silence fell on the group as they thought on this. Just then, Fluttershy opened the door and stepped inside, Boo perched on her back and babbling happily. “Okay, I talked to the manager and let him know I’d be leaving, so I’m all ready to go.” She looked around at the quiet ponies. “Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not interrupting, am I?”

A soft laugh escaped the unicorn’s lips. “No, we were just thinking about some things. Besides, it’s your apartment, you don’t have to apologize for just coming inside.”

Blushing lightly, Fluttershy continued in a small voice, “Well, I just don’t want to be rude.”

“Aw, it’s fine, ‘shy,” Applejack said, walking over to the door. “Are ya’ll ready to go?”

Her friends nodded and followed her outside, where an unexpected sight greeted them, Sulley and a yellow suited member of the CDA, passerby giving them a wide berth. Twilight noticed the big blue furred monster was wearing a tie and looked a bit nervous. “Uh, hey everyone.”

“Er, hi,” Twilight replied. “What’re you doing here?”

“And what’s with the CDA goon?!” Rainbow Dash demanded, waving her hoof threateningly at the stoic monster.

“Well, Ro-” Here the yellow-suited monster shook its head furiously and Sulley corrected himself, “I mean Agent 001 explained some more things after you left. Apparently, Mr. Waternoose left the entire scream factory to me in his will. She wants me to take over and change our entire system from harvesting screams to high energy laughter instead.”

“I think that’s a great idea!” the unicorn replied, a smile crossing her face as the others made noises of approval. “But you don’t look too thrilled by the idea.”

“It’s not that, it’s just,” he let out a sigh. “It’s a lot of responsibility to take on at once.”

“I’ve had to take on a lot recently myself,” Twilight replied, remembering her adventures so far, “I think, I think you just have to stop worrying and do it.”

Sulley let out a laugh. “Well, that’s simple enough!” He took on a more serious tone as he continued. “I wish I could come with you to stop Randall, but I’m needed here.”

“Heh, Ah don’t think ya’d fit in our ship anyways, big guy!” Applejack teased.

Sensing that it was time to go, Fluttershy kneeled and let Boo get off. “Pony?” the little girl questioningly asked.

“I’m sorry, Boo, but it’s time for me to go with my friends now,” the yellow unicorn gently explained, hugging her ward closely before letting go.

Sulley gently scooped the girl up. “Don’t worry, we’ve got her door all set up back at the factory. We’ll have her home safely before you know it.” He shifted the still-disguised girl around to rest comfortably in his arms. “I guess this is goodbye.”

“Well, maybe we’ll come back to visit one day,” Fluttershy said, looking back to Twilight, who nodded. “And thank you so much, for everything.”

“It was my pleasure!” Sulley exclaimed, waving goodbye with his free hand.

With a chorus of “Bye!”s Twilight and her friends began walking away, leaving Monstropolis behind...

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Letting out a gasp, Fluttershy asked, “This is your ship?”

“Uh huh,” Twilight replied, tapping a button on the gummi ship’s hull. A panel opened, revealing the entrance. “Come on in, I’ll introduce you to our engineer, Gadget,” she continued, leading the way as her friends followed her inside the fairly small ship. The aforementioned mouse was working on the ship’s console as they stepped inside the cockpit. “Fluttershy, meet-” the unicorn began before the yellow pegasus bowled her over.

“Oh, you’re so cute!” she exclaimed, scooping the surprised mouse girl up and stroking her hair.

“H-hey!” Gadget squeaked, “I’m not that kind of girl!”

Eyes wide, Fluttershy nearly dropped the little diminutive engineer. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said, quickly setting her back on the console before backing away. “Um, I’ll just, um, sit here in the corner, quietly mortified.”

Twilight got to her hooves with Spike’s help, rubbing a slight bump on her head. “...okay?” She shook the last stars from her eyes. “Well, anyways, Fluttershy, Gadget. Gadget, Fluttershy. Now that we’re all... acquainted, there’s something I need to show you.”

The little mouse girl straightened her jumpsuit and smoothed out her hair. “Oh? Did you find some nifty new tech?”

“Not quite,” Twilight replied, floating out the rune covered gummi block Nightmare Moon had given her and setting it on the console. “What can you tell me about this?”

For a moment, Gadget just stared at the artifact. “I... I wouldn’t even know where to begin!” she exclaimed, getting out a small instrument and examining the softly glowing block. “Where did you find this?”

“Remember that dark pony we told ya about, Nightmare Moon?” Applejack asked, and Gadget nodded. “She just appeared before us and gave Twi’ that thing and some glowing hairpin before leavin’.”

Gadget hummed to herself and examined the block for a few moments more before speaking. “We need to go back to Traverse Town and show this to Cid, I just don’t have the equipment here to examine this properly, and even if I did, he’s the real expert.”

“We’re going back to Traverse Town? That’s great!” Spike exclaimed. “Maybe I can help Marie out in her cafe some more!”

“Well, we could use some more saddlebags for Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, plus more supplies,” Applejack chimed in.

“A whole new city to explore? Awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

“Um, if we could get some more ingredients, I could make some potions and ethers,” Fluttershy put in, having recovered slightly from her embarrassment.

Twilight thought about it before nodding. “Right! Plotting a course for Traverse Town!” She exclaimed, her horn glowing as she manipulated she ship’s controls...

Comments

[Aki_Iokua]

Hmm, the plot thickens. Shame Mike Wazowski didn't play a part, but no biggie.

World Heart's Room...do you mean the heart of Monstropolis, or something more along the lines of the World Terminus in End of the World? If it's something you don't plan on revealing yet, that's fine. I was just curious.

And is the hairpin just something like an accessory reward for defeating a boss, or is it something more?

Anyway, nice job, and I'm eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

P.S. might want to add a "with" in this sentence: What if the Princess really did hide everything to do her sister?

EDIT:

Okay, so I've read up on what the hairpin does. I'm still curious as to wether or not it's something like the accessories you recieve for beating bosses in KHI; like the "Brave Warrior" accessory Guard Armor dropped, or the "White Fang" from Sabor, etc...

[BronyPonyMan]

still love this story!

[Rainbow Dash the Awesome]

Why do I get the feeling the hairpin is a summon item? It sounds like something Rarity would own...

[Legrio]

2390927

Thanks for catching that slight error. As for what exactly I meant by the World Heart's room, I just meant the room where Monstropolis's Heart resided... or did I?! But seriously though, unless I happen to change my mind down the line, that's what I meant.

As for Luna's Hairpin, it's not an accessory ala the White Fang or Brave Warrior, being instead more akin to Sora's Drive Forms, Riku's Dark Mode (you'll note that Twilight is able to enter something similar when overwhelmed by rage and darkness), or the Birth by Sleep trio's Command Styles.

But I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I?

2392632

Sorry, but no. An interesting guess though...