Hearts of Harmony

by Legrio

Chapter 3: The Everfree and a Party

“So, what’s next Spike?” Twilight asked her assistant, who was still unresponsive. With a sigh, she conjured a small orb of water. The cold liquid floated over the little dragon’s head for a moment before splashing all over him.

“Huh?!” Spike shouted, coming out of his stupor. “What was that for?!” He cried, shaking like a dog as he splattered water all over.

“Oh, nothing!” Twilight replied with a slight smirk on her face, before getting serious. “Now come on Spike, we don’t have all day and it’s getting late. What’s next on the list?”

Her assistant grumbled a bit before pulling a slightly damp scrap of paper out of his pouch. “Says here we have just one more thing to check, the music. Somepony named ‘Fluttershy’ should be in charge.”

“Alright, where is she?” Twilight asked, already beginning to trot down the road.

“Let’s see,” Spike looked over his list once more before announcing, “Ah, it says her cottage is on the edge of the Everfree Forest.”

The unicorn stopped dead in her tracks. “The... Everfree Forest?” she asked, a note of trepidation in her voice.

The little dragon looked up at Twilight, cocking his head in confusion. “Yeah? Is something wrong?”

“Something wrong?” She repeated, a conversation running through her mind.

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It was the night before she’d left. Just after she’d put Spike to bed, Princess Celestia swept into the room. “Twilight Sparkle, I need you to promise me something,” she said, her voice stern.

“Anything, princess!” she happily replied, making sure to keep her voice down so as not to wake up her sleeping assistant.

“While you’re in Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration, do not go into the Everfree Forest,” the princess commanded.

“Um, I didn’t exactly plan to,” she replied, slightly confused. “But why? I thought it was just a part of Equestria that was different, not under our control.”

Celestia shook her head. “Perhaps it was, once, long ago. But because of...” Her expression softened and for a moment, to Twilight’s shock it almost looked like she was going to cry before she regained control. “Suffice to say, the forest is one of the few places where my light can’t reach. It has become not just wild, but a dark, dangerous place. Remember your last encounter with the darkness.” A shudder ran through the mare as she was momentarily lost in memory, before Celestia continued, “Now, promise me you will not enter.”

“Alright, princess,” Twilight said, nodding seriously. “I promise I will not go in the Everfree Forest.”

“Good.” A light smile graced the princess’s face. “Now, I will let you get your rest. Good night, my most faithful student.”

“Good night,” Twilight echoed, as the alicorn left the room.

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The young keyblade wielder shook herself out of the memory. “No, nothing’s wrong,” she finally replied, continuing down the path.

“Alright, Twi’, if you say so,” her assistant shrugged, running to keep up.

Soon, they were on the outer edges of the Everfree forest. The shade under the trees looked dark... unnaturally so. “It should be fine so long as we don’t actually go inside, right?” Twilight thought to herself. Eager to be done as quickly as possible, she set Spike on her back and began racing down the path, small trees blurring by. Suddenly, a strange clatter of metal on metal reached her ears, accompanied by the angry screeches of birds. A clearing opened up just ahead, revealing a yellow pegasus cowering behind a rabbit brandishing a carrot of all things like it was a sword, as birds of all shapes and sizes shrieked angrily above. Around them danced a group of strange creatures. Each looked as though it was clad in a dark blue bodysuit and wore a silvery helmet with a little plume. Wickedly sharp crimson claws tipped its arms and their black shoes ended with strange little curls. Twilight’s keyblade flashed into being beside her, tightly gripped in her magic. At this, each of the creatures turned to her, their unblinking yellow eyes glowing. “More Heartless!” the unicorn thought, noticing the little emblem on each of the monsters’ chests. “It’s exactly the same as the one on that big Heartless from the farm!”

As one, the monsters jumped away from the cowering pegasus, charging at the keyblade wielder. The little dragon clung to her back in fright as she quickly conjured a barrier, blocking a series of kicks and punches from the foremost of the Heartless. “Ugh, there’s no time to get him to safety,” she thought, shocking the offending creature with a yellow bolt of lightning the moment her barrier spell faded. It vanished into wisps of darkness, freeing the captive heart within. “I’ll just have to do my best!” she thought, before raising her keyblade with a shout of, “Slow!”

An image of the face of a clock appeared over the group of Heartless for a moment, as they began to move in slow motion. Caught in her magical field, Twilight’s keyblade flashed into motion, decimating the monsters’ ranks as it would sweep through the tight group before vanishing and reappearing beside Twilight to do so again and again. Suddenly, a cry of pain rang out as one of the armored Heartless raked its claws over Twilight’s side, having snuck around while she was distracted. She stumbled for a moment, nearly dropping her weapon as her magic faltered in the pain. “Get away from us!” She heard Spike shout, before feeling a burst of heat as the little dragon blew a ball of flame right in the dark monster’s face. It flailed around on fire for a moment, just long enough for Twilight destroy it with a great downward slash of her mystical weapon.

Carefully making sure there were no more of the beasts around, the young keyblade wielder finally let her weapon disappear in a flash of light. “Thanks, Spike,” she softly said to the little dragon hugging her back tightly. Trying to ignore the pain in her side, she slowly walked over to the pegasus shuddering on the ground. The rabbit considered her for a moment before letting her pass.

“Hey, are you alright?” she said, carefully prodding the mare with a hoof. A little shriek of fear answered her. “It’s alright now, I got rid of those monsters,” Twilight said.

The pegasus slowly peeked out from under hooves. Seeing no more of the clattering monsters, she softly spoke,, “Oh, thank you, those monsters came out of the forest and started threatening all of the animals, and, oh my, you’re bleeding!” Twilight turned to look where three red lines showed through her coat, slowly dripping blood down her side. Before she could reply, the pegasus quickly produced a bottle from a pouch on her flank. “Now, just one moment,” she said, pulling the stopper off and pouring some of the clear liquid on the cuts. It felt cool and soothing, and under Twilight’s eyes the wounds faded away, leaving no trace that they were ever there. “There, how’s that?” The pegasus asked, putting away the bottle.

“Much better, thank you!” Twilight happily announced, twisting her side without pain. “That was some high quality healing potion, you didn’t have to waste it on some little cuts like that.”

“Oh, I have plenty,” the yellow mare softly replied, “I make it myself at home to use whenever the little animals get hurt.” She let out a little gasp. “I forgot to introduce myself, I’m Fluttershy.” The rabbit poked her with his carrot. “And this is my little friend, Angel! Isn’t he adorable?”

“Uh, sure,” Twilight said, noticing the irate little bunny. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. The princess sent me here to make sure everything goes smoothly for the Summer Sun Celebration. You’re in charge of the music, right?”

“Yes!” Fluttershy replied, a note of excitement entering her voice. “I was out practicing with my little bird chorus when those monsters came out of the forest and attacked! Thank you so much for rescuing me!”

“You’re welcome. Are you going to be ready for the celebration in time?” the keyblade wielder asked.

“Um,” Fluttershy looked to the birds sitting on branches above her, who trilled happily and nodded. “Yes! Oh, I should get back my cottage to get ready,” she softly said, already getting up and beginning to walk away.

Twilight looked around, seeing little yellow eyes peering out of the shadows of nearby trees. “Hey, wait!” she found herself saying on impulse. “Um, why don’t you stay with me in town? The princess set me up a place to stay in the Ponyville library and I’m sure we have plenty of room to spare!”

The yellow mare shook her head. “Oh, I couldn’t impose like that...” The little rabbit poked her in the leg and shook his head vigorously. “But I guess I should. It is rather dangerous out here at the moment.”

As they quickly began trotting back towards Ponyville, Fluttershy’s voice rang out, “Oh my, a baby dragon!”

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“And that’s my whole life up until today!” Spike announced as they walked the streets of Ponyville. The sun had set but a few minutes ago and stars were already beginning to shine in the clear night’s sky. “Do you want to hear about what I did today?”

“I’d love to!” the yellow mare breathlessly said, completely enthralled by the little dragon’s tale.

Spike cleared his throat before continuing, “Well, first we-”

“Ah, here we are!” Twilight quickly cut in, gesturing to the huge tree before them. She did not need to hear about their crazy day all over again. “Golden Oaks Library!”

“Thank you again for letting me stay here,” Fluttershy said, “I don’t know what would have happened if I had tried to sleep in my cottage tonight.”

“It’s no trouble at all!” Twilight replied, walking over to open the door. Strange, all the lights were off and she could hear some scuffling, like things moving around! Motioning for Fluttershy and Spike to wait quietly, the young keyblade wielder carefully crept inside, her weapon materializing beside her in small flash of light. “Whoever’s in here, come out where I can see you!”

The lights suddenly came on, blinding the unicorn for a moment as she heard a great shout of “Surprise!” Blinking away the momentary blindness, a whole herd of ponies packed into the library slowly came into view. She recognized several of the ponies she’d met that day, grinning at her.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! I set this party up just for you! Did we surprise you?!” A bright pink earth pony popped up right in front of Twilight, a huge grin on her face. The unicorn yelped and fell onto her hindquarters, her keyblade vanishing. “Wow, guess we did!” The hyperactive mare exclaimed happily. “Remember, I was there when you first got here! You were all like, ‘Hi!’ and I was all like, ‘GASP!’, and then I ran off to get your welcome party ready, because you were obviously new since I know everypony in Ponyville and I don’t know you! Well, what do you think? Isn’t it great?!”

Twilight looked around. There were lots of ponies milling about, eating, drinking, and having fun. “I guess it is,” she finally said. “I was just kinda hoping for a quiet night before the Summer Sun Celebration tomorrow though.”

“Aw, that’s boring! You’ll way more fun now and meet all these ponies and be their friends!” A thought seemed to occur to the pink motormouth. “I’ll be right back, you’re gonna love my cupcakes!” She yelled, running off into the crowd.

A group of her... acquaintances walked up to Twilight after Pinkie was gone. “Heh, Ah see you’ve met our resident party pony,” Applejack said, “What do you think?”

Twilight watched as the pink pony slipped and jumped her way through the crowd. “...is she always like this?”

“Oh yes,” Fluttershy said, her voice barely audible over the murmur of the gathered ponies. Apparently she and Spike had made their way inside after it was clear it was safe. “Pinkie’s very nice, though. She helped me get started when I first came to Ponyville.”

“Yes, even I must admit that Pinkie is a good friend, though she is rather...” Rarity searched for the right word. “Excitable.”

“Well, she’s not quite as awesome as I am,” Rainbow Dash claimed, earning an eyeroll from the elegant unicorn, “But her parties are the best!”

“Aren’t they though?!” the pony in question happily exclaimed. She had a tray with drinks and cupcakes balanced on one hoof. “Here you go!” She cried, stuffing one into Twilight’s mouth. The keyblade wielder reflexively bit down, before her eyes widened comically. It felt like her mouth was on fire!

“Water!” she shouted, quickly floating over one of the glasses of punch and gulping it down.

“Aw, you don’t like my special jalapeno frosting?” Pinkie asked, happily eating a whole cupcake in one bite. “Mmm, delicious!”

“I think they’re great!” Spike munched his way through one of the pastries, reaching for another. A purple glow enveloped the tray, lifting it just out of his reach.

“That’s enough for now, Spike,” Twilight wheezed, “And sorry, Pinkie, but I just don’t like spicy food that much. I think I’m just gonna go lay down upstairs for a while.” She turned around to find Pinkie somehow already there!

“Aw, don’t leave!” she pleaded, “I made this party just for you! I’ve got games planned, and not-spicy-I-promise food, and drinks, and everypony’s already here!” Pinkie waved her hooves around.

“Well...” Twilight murmured. She looked around at the other four mares, who clearly wanted her to stay and have fun.

“Please, Twilight? For me?” Spike asked, breaking out his puppy dog eyes again.

After a moment, the purple pony sighed. “Alright, I’ll stay,” she relented.

“Yay!” Pinkie cried, jumping up excitedly. “Let introduce you to everypony! This is the mayor, and here’s...”

As the pink pony showed her around, Twilight thought, “Maybe having friends isn’t so bad after all.”

Comments

[Rocket0007]

Allow me to be the first to comment this chapter:
A very interesting take/re-telling of the story. So Twilight gets to know the girls early, makes more sense to be on better terms then sooner then wave to wait and kinda coerce her into accepting their friendship on pain-of-death (figure of speech; none of the villains seem like they'ed kill, that's just over-active imagination)

What doesn't quite make sense (since I've played Kingdom Hearts): Sora getting the keyblade was due to purity of heart and (here's speculation) that he had friends/his innate ability to become friends with almost any sentient being. While Twilight may be pure of heart, she didn't previously have the friends to back up the point (unless you're counting family.)

It's also important to note that, as Sora said: "My friends are my power!" the wielder of the keyblade grows more powerful proportionally to the number of friends they have/make.

if (tl;dr)
{
"I like this so far, keep up the good work"
}

[DarthPony]

2292914 IF you played/watched a LP or WT of Birth By Sleep you'll figure out that Sora was a special case. Geting a keyblade has nothing to do with having friends or having the power to make lots of friends.