Sora needs a new training ground to prepare for his Mark of Mastery exam retake, King Mickey sends him, Donald, and Goofy to a new world for such a task, but will it be another world in danger?
It has been a month since Sora and Donald had returned from Canterlot High, and Sora decides that he needs to train to prepare for retaking the Mark of Mastery exam, but he needs a new stomping ground to train in. King Mickey suggests that he has, "the perfect place for him", so he sends Sora, Donald, and Goofy to the new world that Sora has opened up from the keyhole he unlocked. Will this new world be the perfect place for Sora's training? Or will it be just another world that he needs to save from the dark clutches of the Heartless once again?
New Game (If you haven't read Kingdom Hearts: Equestria Girls, click "New Game".)
Within the Mysterious Tower, Yen Sid, Sora, and King Mickey carefully plan what to do next, now that the recently emerged world, Canterlot High, has been saved from the clutches of the Seekers of Darkness, one of whom has manipulated one of Sora's newest friends to "retrieve him".
I wonder how she's doing, Sora thought, After everything she did to everyone, she may have a hard time getting everyone to forgive her... His thoughts began drifting off to a certain princess. Twilight...
"Sora, ya with us?"
Mickey snapped Sora out of his daydreams, he shook his head forcing a smile, "Yeah, sorry. What were we talking about again?"
"We were discussing your Mark of Mastery retake exam," Yen Sid explained, "To participate in the clash between the Guardians of Light and the Seekers of Darkness, you must become a true Keyblade Master."
"Well, what if I started some kind of training? Would I be ready to retake the Keyblade exam?"
"Hmm..." Yen Sid began stroking his beard, "For that, you must train your body, as well as your heart. The reason you have failed the Mark of Mastery was because your heart led you in the wrong direction, more precisely, into the hands of Xehanort."
"Alright then, so where should I begin my training? I've been to a lot of worlds, but I need one that'll challenge me, really push my limits!"
"Hmm..." Mickey hummed, "I think I know just the place."
"Really? Where?"
"Go get Donald and Goofy, they'll be able to help you. I'll go and insert the coordinates into the Gummi Ship."
"Okay!"
With that, the die was cast, Sora retrieved two of his best friends and met Mickey outside of the tower, who had just finished preparing the ship for takeoff.
"Okay fellas, the Gummi Ship's ready to go when you are!"
"Thanks, Your Majesty!" Sora said.
"Hey, Donald?" Mickey waved him over and began whispering something in his ear, soon Donald grew a mischievous smile upon his face.
"You got it!" Donald chuckled sinisterly.
"Uh, what's so funny, Donald?" Sora asked.
"Oh...you'll see."
Sora didn't know what they had in mind, but he knew it wasn't good, taking note of Donald's scary grin. They all boarded the ship and Sora made sure he was in his seat before they took off. Donald warmed up the engine and hovered above the tower, all while the coordinates Mickey put in calculated their destination. When everything was ready, Donald pointed his finger and shouted, "BLASTOFF!"
WHOOSH!
The gang headed towards their next adventure, the new world that Sora opened up from the recently unlocked keyhole, but of course, he didn't know that.
(stop music)
Inside the tower, Yen Sid was contemplating about the new world, how a world like that was a one in a million possibility of existing.
"A world with little to no hostility...deep within this world, the light of friendship burns strong...but even I can sense the darkness of this world..."
The Gummi Ship zoomed through the cosmos, on its course to our heroes' destination. To past the time, they began to talk amongst each other.
"So, do you guys have any idea where the King is sending us?" Sora asked.
"Oh, I think you'll know it when you see." Donald answered, cryptically.
"Hey guys, look who I found in my hat!" Goofy said as a small dot hopped from said hat to Sora's shoulder.
"Oh, hey, Jiminy!"
"Good day to you, Sora! The King asked to accompany you guys to this new world," Jiminy explained, "Since I couldn't join you last time, he and I thought this would be a good idea. Plus, he wants to chronicle everything about the new world into my journal."
"Wooooow!" The trio spoke in awe.
"Say, is that it right there?"
"Looks like it." Sora said.
"Hang on tight, I'm taking her down!" Donald declared.
Donald guided the Gummi Ship to its descent into the foreign world.
"Hey, Donald, before I forget, what were you and the King talking about?"
"Oh, I'll show you when we get here." Donald was doing his best to hold back a smile of malicious glee.
(stop music)
* * *
After they landed, Donald kept his word and shown Sora what he meant: he used his magic to turn Sora into a Pegasus pony; his coat was the same color as his skin, deep tan, his tail was short but spiky, like his mane, which maintained its original color, all he wore was his shirt and jacket on his upper body, and a gold-colored crown was marked on his flanks, which looked like his silver crown necklace that he loaned to a certain purple princess.
"There you go, Sora!" Donald said.
"Yeah! Now you're sure to blend in with the folks around here!" Goofy agreed.
"But, why aren't you guys in disguise?" Sora asked.
"Well...I guess we look so funny that we don't need to be in disguise."
"That, and this is payback for being turned into a normal duck back in Canterlot High!" Donald laughed uproariously.
"Aww, Donald!"
After a while, Donald finally calmed down to form a coherent sentence, "C'mon, let's go find Princess Twilight."
"I can't wait to meet your new friend!"
"Yeah...I wonder if she'll recognize me."
* * *
At one of the many clearings of Canterlot, Twilight tries to practice using her wings with her Pegasus friend, Rainbow Dash as her teacher and the rest of her friends, Spike, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity as her audience.
"You gotta really flap 'em hard!" Rainbow said.
Twilight nodded and flapped her wings hard...a little too hard. She lost control and ended up somersaulting into a tree with a bird's nest atop her head.
"Eh, maybe not THAT hard."
Twilight tries again, but her flaps are uneven and she sloppily flies downward, screaming, "Whoa-oa-oa! Oof!" as she hits the ground.
Applejack goes to help her up, "Lookin' good up there, Princess Twilight!"
"Applejack, you know you don't have to call me that." Twilight said, modestly.
"Why do you protest so?" Rarity asks, "You've already given up wearing your crown all the time, the least you can do is embrace your new title."
"If other ponies want to address me that way, I suppose it's fine, but...not my friends," Twilight stated, "It just doesn't feel right." She sighed, "And neither does all this flying business. The Summer Sun Celebration is only two days away, and I'm never gonna be ready to perform my part."
"Not if you spend all your time down here, ya won't!" Rainbow exclaimed, "Now get up there and show everypony the big finish!"
Twilight nodded and gave a look of determination as she unfurled her wings. She took off in a flash and flew around the area as her friends watched in awe, saying, ooh's and ahh's. When Twilight unclenched her eyes and saw that she was really flying, she shouted, "Whoo-hoo!" But, unfortunately, she wasn't watching where she was going and flew into three gray clouds, coughing out some of it that got in her mouth. In a swift moment, she forgot that she stopped flying and began plummeting to the ground, furiously flapping her wings to regain her lost altitude, but instead, glided over her friends' heads, screaming as she started to spiral out of control and crashed, leaving a small crater in her wake. The group rushed to the crash site to see if Twilight was alright, but Pinkie wasn't worried as she said, "WOW! That WAS a big finish!"
Twilight just groaned while her muzzle was still in the dirt.
"Hey. You okay?"
Twilight looked up in front of her and saw a deep tan-colored stallion with a brown spiky mane, wearing a black jacket and a gold crown cutie mark on his flanks.
"Um, yes, I'm fine," she said, confused on why this random pony approached her, "Do I know you?"
Sora was a little upset that his new best friend didn't recognize him, but then he thought of a way to surprise her, "I don't know," he said, cryptically, "I was just looking for someone very important to me, she and I made a promise, that no matter what happens, no matter where we are, as long as our hearts are connected..."
Twilight eyes widened by degrees as she spoke simultaneously with him, "We'll always find our way back to each other."
Sora smiled, "See? I found you. Just like I promised I would."
Tears began to form in Twilight's eyes and she couldn't help but give an involuntary smile. The feeling of seeing someone she cared for that she hadn't seen in a long time was almost was too much for her heart to bear, so she did the first thing that to mind: she leapt at him full force in sheer happiness, "SORA!!"
"Whoa!" Sora yelped as he was knocked to the ground while being nuzzled very affectionately.
"IT'S YOU! IT'S REALLY YOU!"
"Well, of course it's me," Sora said, matter-of-factly, "I told you I'd find my way back to you and I did, you didn't doubt me, did you?"
"Never. I knew I'd see you again one day."
"Uh, Twi? You wanna introduce us to your friend here?"
Twilight turned to Rainbow's voice and forgot that her friends were watching them this entire time, blushing, she got off of Sora and cleared her throat, "Everypony, this is the boy I was telling you about: Sora."
"I'm Rainbow Dash! Fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"
"Name's Applejack, proud owner of Sweet Apple Acres!"
"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! Ponyville's party pony!"
"My name is Rarity, or Miss Rarity, if you prefer."
"I'm Fluttershy."
Sora chuckled, "It's nice to meet you all."
"Donald!"
"Spike!"
The dragon and duck rushed up to each other and high-fived.
"Haven't seen you in a while, Mr. Court Wizard!"
"Same to you, Dragon Dog!"
"Dragon...Dog?" Applejack asked, confused.
"It's a long story." Twilight concluded.
"Oh, Twilight, this is my friend I was telling you about, the Captain of the Royal Knights: Goofy!"
Inside the Canterlot Castle, Sora, Twilight, and the rest of the gang gathered into a hallway of stained glass windows, depicting the history of Equestria, especially one new addition; the coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle.
"You look amazing, Darling!" Rarity said to Twilight, admiring the stained glass image of her, "They've really captured your regality."
"You can say that again." Sora added in awe.
"I suppose." Twilight replied.
"Oh, don't so modest," Rarity began, "it's everypony's dream to someday wear a crown and have their coronation ceremony preserved in stained glass for all to see!"
"I don't know if it's everypony's dream." Rainbow commented.
"It certainly ain't mine." Donald agreed.
"Most of my dreams are about frosting!" Pinkie said, licking her lips and moaning at the thought of frosting.
Everyone just stared at her in silence, until Fluttershy broke it, "We better get going, we don't wanna miss our train."
"Fluttershy's right," Applejack began, "Don't know bout y'all, but Ah still got bushels ta do ta git ready, the official celebration may be here in Canterlot, but, hoo-wee, the mayor put us in charge of one heck of a party back home!"
With that said, Twilight's spirits dampened; she was going to stay in Canterlot while her best friends, the ones who always stood by her through thick and thin, were headed back to Ponyville, their home and hers.
"Oh, don't look like that, sugarcube, you git ta be right there with the other princesses when Celestia raises the sun."
"And I'm honored, really I am, it's just that the Summer Sun Celebration is what first brought us all together, it just doesn't feel right not getting to spend such a special day with Ponyville friends." Twilight explained.
"It doesn't feel right to us, either, Darling," Rarity said, "If the mayor wasn't so desperate for our assistance, we most certainly stay here in Canterlot, and, of course, we do understand that your royal duties must come first."
"Well, that doesn't seem fair." Sora said.
"What're YOU gripin' about? You get to stay here with Twilight anyway!" Rainbow retorted.
"Friendship is just as important to me as it is to her."
Twilight smiled at him for his choice of words, but quickly frowned again from remembering the current situation.
"The Summer Sun Celebration may've brought us together, but it's somethin' much bigger that'll always keep us connected," Applejack motioned to a different stained glass and smiled, "Exhibit A!"
It showed an alicorn much bigger than Twilight at the top getting blasted by rays of light from her and her friends, but the weird thing for Sora is that in this image, Twilight doesn't have any wings, which confused him.
Didn't she have wings her whole life? Sora thought.
"Well I'll be! That's a mighty nice picture!" Jiminy complemented.
"The six of us united by the Elements of Harmony, no amount of royal duties is gonna change that. Right, everypony?"
Everyone, including Sora and his friends chimed in their agreement, except for one distracted pink pony.
"Right, Pinkie Pie?"
"Creamy, creamy frosting." Pinkie said, absent-mindedly while drooling and licking her lips.
Fluttershy rushed to her with a napkin and wiped the drool off her face, "You should take that as a 'yes'."
Everyone smiled while Sora couldn't help but chuckle a little.
* * *
The group gathered at the train station to see Twilight's Ponyville friends off, much to her reluctance.
TOOOOOOOOT!
As the train whistle screeched, it signaled that it was preparing to leave.
"We're gonna write you and give you sooo many details it'll be like you're in Ponyville with us!" Pinkie said in one breath, "Right girls?"
They all chanted, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"
"And you will be with us right after the celebration," Rarity said as she levitated a bunch of her fashion tools, "We already have an appointment on the book to discuss the royal upgrades to your loft décor."
TOOOOOOOOT!
"ALLLL ABOARD FOR PONYVILLE!" The conductor shouted.
Twilight and her friends came together into a group hug and then rushed to the train, but then Pinkie surprised Twilight with another hug before bouncing back to the train, leaving just Twilight, Spike, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy at the station. Twilight's friends all waved goodbye for now, until they saw each other again.
Twilight sighed, "I can't help it, guys, they've only been gone a minute and I already feel like I'm missing something."
"Don't worry, Twilight, I promised I'd find you and I did, your friends promised they'd see you again and I bet they'll keep their promise just like I did." Sora said as he smiled, which Twilight found contagious.
"I have no idea how you manage to make ponies happy Sora, but you do."
"Awww!" Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy cooed.
"Blech!" Spike gagged, earning a glare from everyone.
A Pegasus mailpony appeared and handed (or hoofed) a letter to them, "For the princess."
Spike took the letter as he flew off and began to read what was inside,
Dear Twilight, You aren't missing anything.
Your friend, Pinkie Pie
P.S. Sora's right, you know.
"THAT'S MEEEEEE!" Pinkie screamed, making her friends giggle at her antics.
"But I am. I just know it." Twilight said. And I just hope Sora's right.
* * *
Twilight, Sora, and the others returned inside the castle into what seems to be Twilight's temporary living quarters, Sora and his friends were looking around while Spike was going over a checklist and Twilight practicing her flying a little.
"Check, check, check, check, and...check!" Spike said, "Huh, whataya know? We're way ahead of schedule! I credit your extremely competent assistant."
Twilight flew down to the floor and stumbled a little before regaining her balance, "So do I."
"The celebration isn't until the day after tomorrow, we could still fit in a quick trip to Ponyville and be back in plenty of time to finish off these last few things before the main event."
"Sounds like a plan!" Sora agreed.
Twilight sighed, "That would be nice, Spike, but what if something else came up while we were gone? What if we were delayed getting back and I wasn't able to finish everything on that list?" She began to flap her wings subconsciously as she panicked, "What if we lost the list on the way to Ponyville and couldn't remember which things we done and which things we hadn't done and then spent so much time trying to figure out what we hadn't done and had done, and then we ruin the entire celebration by not doing the one really important thing that we supposed to do!?" She slammed her head on the ceiling from her involuntary flying and fell back down, stopping her tangent.
"Uh...so that's a 'no' then?" Spike asked.
Twilight got in Spike's face, "These are the first royal duties Princess Celestia has given me, I can't risk letting her down."
Everyone turned to face the owner of the new voice; it was a tall female Alicorn, bearing large, feathery wings and an unusually long horn, the crown on her head matched her regalia around her neck and on her hooves, her mane and tail were like a translucent rainbow of blue, green, purple, and pink, her eyes were a deep violet, much similar to Twilight's, and a sun was emblazoned upon her flanks.
"Your highness!" Spike said as he and Twilight rushed before her and bowed.
"No need for that now, Princess Twilight."
"Sorry!" Twilight said.
Celestia giggled, "No need to apologize."
"Sorry!"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy looked at each other and just burst out laughing, earning the attention of the two princesses and baby dragon.
"Oh! I almost forgot! Princess, this is Sora and his friends, Sora, this is Princess Celestia."
Celestia walked over to them, "So, you are Sora."
"That's right, but forgive me for sounding rude, you act like you've heard of me."
"That's because Twilight has told me all about you and all the amazing things you've done for many others in many worlds, I am honored to officially meet you in person." With that, Celestia bowed to Sora.
"Um, thanks." Sora said as he bowed back.
"Also, I am an old friend of your king, whom I met many years ago."
That took the trio by surprise.
"May I add, I'm to believe that you've caught the eye of a certain mare," Celestia shifted her gaze to Twilight, who blushed intensely, "But I digress. I must admit that it is wonderful to actually be looking forward to the Summer Sun Celebration."
"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.
Celestia gazes out the window to see a dark blue Alicorn at an adjacent tower, "For my subjects, it has always been a celebration of my defeat of Nightmare Moon, but for me," She sighs sadly, "it was just a terrible reminder that I had to banish my own sister..."
"I guess I never really thought of it that way."
"I know how you feel, Your Majesty."
Celestia swiftly craned her neck at the owner of the sudden comment: Sora, who had his eyes focused on the floor beneath him.
"If Twilight hadn't told you already, my—"
"—Best friend, Riku, had gone through a similar experience as my sister."
Sora looked at the solar princess in shock, Celestia just continued, "Twilight has already told me. She also explained a being named, 'Xehanort', and how he had controlled your every movements from the very beginning of your journey."
Sora turned to Twilight, who smiled sheepishly, "Is there anything you haven't told her?" He shifted his attention back to Celestia, "I think they should hang out sometime, maybe they can relate to each other and find some common ground."
"Are you certain that you are not trying to have Riku court my sister?"
"Uh, I don't know what means, but yes?" At his comment, Twilight and Spike had panicked expression, which didn't go unnoticed by Sora, "What?"
Celestia giggled, "I was just teasing, Twilight, no need to get worked up."
Twilight and Spike breathed a heavy sigh of relief, but Sora was just even more confused, "Was it something I said?"
"Anyway, the Summer Sun Celebration has now become a wonderful reminder of her transformation back into Princess Luna, and our happy reunion. I am so pleased that you will be playing a role in the festivities. I know must have been difficult to see your friends returned to Ponyville without you."
"Maybe a little." Twilight lied.
"You may no longer be my student, Princess Twilight, but I hope you know that I will always be here if you need me, just as I hope you will always be there when I need you." Celestia nuzzles Twilight, who returns the affection.
"I'll always be there for Twilight, too." Sora says, "I know we've only known each other for a short time, but she's been just as good a friend to me as anyone else I've met, and if she needs me, I won't let her down."
Their tender moment was interrupted by Spike poking at Twilight, saying, "Ahem, I think this guy needs you."
The mailpony from before appeared with another letter, "Uh, um, a message for Princess Twilight."
Twilight took the letter in her magic hue and opened it—
POP!
Twilight smiled when confetti and streamers popped out of the envelope with the sound of applause coming from out of nowhere.
Heh-heh, only Pinkie Pie would send something like that. Sora thought as he smiled as well.
"A letter from Ponyville, I presume?" Celestia asked.
"Never mind," Twilight made the envelope disappear, "it's not important. Spike, where were we?"
"About to call it a night?" Spike asked with a hopeful smile.
"We should probably go over the checklist one more time."
"I knew you were gonna say that," Spike said in a disappointed tone.
"Better safe than sorry, Spike," Sora said.
"Oh! I just remembered! Your necklace!" Twilight begins to levitate the silver crown above, but Sora stops her.
"You know what? Why don't you keep it, at least until after the Summer Sun Celebration?" Sora smiled, "Think of it as a good luck charm."
"O-Okay."
"No wonder you have such deep feelings for him," Celestia whispered, making Twilight blush.
Celestia began to take her leave, "I'll leave you two alone."
"Hey! We're right here, y'know!" Donald yelled.
(stop music)
After Celestia made her into the hall, she began to occupy herself with her thoughts, Sora...I have no idea what you are capable of, but I hope you will be prepared for the dangers that will soon stand before you...please...if something happens to me...keep Twilight safe.
She was so lost in her thought that she failed to noticed the black plant poking out of the floor and creeping up behind her.
"Huh!? AHH!!"
* * *
Twilight, Sora, and the others have fell asleep while going over anything they've done; Twilight and Sora nestled together on her workdesk, Spike was asleep in his basket with Donald next to him, but with his back facing him, and Goofy was sprawled out on the bed, snoring up a storm with Jiminy inside the rim of his hat.
Twilight began to stir and noticed that she was with Sora, she blushed, but she didn't freak out like she almost did back in Canterlot High, she smiled down at him with that content little grin on his face. She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked out the window to see what time it was, only to have a confused, but shocked look plastered on her face, she shook Sora awake and pointed at the sky and almost instantly adopted the same expression. They went to wake up their friends and show them what they saw.
"Spike? Spike!" Twilight whispered.
"Check, check, check, check, check, check, check..." Spike mumbled in his sleep.
"Ugh, Sora, I said you're not flying the ship..." Donald mumbled.
"Creamy, creamy frosting..." Goofy mumbled while licking his lips.
"I'm comin', Pinoke..." Jiminy mumbled while he appeared to be sleep-running in place.
"Spike!" Twilight said louder.
"Guys, wake up!" Sora called.
Spike grunted as he leaned into a sitting position in his basket while Donald put his fingers together and pushed them upwards, cracking his knuckles, Goofy sat up and scratched the bottom of his nose with a single finger, and Jiminy was taken by surprise by the sudden movement of Goofy and instantly woke up, all while Twilight and Sora had equal looks of worry.
"What time is it?" Spike asked.
"It's the middle of the night, but it could be morning, that's just it, I can't tell!" Twilight said.
"Me neither!" Sora added.
Everyone gathered to the window and saw a scary sight: both the sun and the moon were in the sky, causing it to split into both day and night.
"That's...mighty unusual," Jiminy commented.
"You said it," Donald agreed.
"Whoa. That is weird," Spike said.
"C'mon, everypony, we have to find out what's going on," Twilight said.
* * *
Everypony in Canterlot gathered into the castle gardens after seeing the abnormal sight, not doing anything to hide their fear.
"What do you think it means?" An orange maned, yellow coated Unicorn asked.
It was at that moment that Twilight and the gang came outside and saw the mass of worried ponies.
"Princess Twilight will know!" A two-toned blue maned, magenta coated Unicorn called.
All of the Canterlot ponies rushed up to them and bombarded Twilight with questions, which the newly-crowned princess couldn't even answer herself.
"I'm-I'm sure it's just...well, there's certainly a logical exp-"
"Your Highness!" A gray Unicorn Guard in gold armor interrupted, "You must come with us!"
Twilight, Spike, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy followed the Unicorn Guards into castle and they shut the double doors, leaving the crowd even more distraught than before.
"It's Princess Luna and Princess Celestia..." The first guard said.
"They're gone!" The second guard exclaimed.
The princess and her friends gasped in shock.
To Be Continued...
Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 1 - Chapter 3: Helpless In Ponyville
The group was in shock, the princesses, both of the princesses, are missing? This was a nightmare come true for Twilight, she knew that Celestia and Luna were the protectors of Equestria as well as their leaders, without them, how were they going to figure out what was happening to the sun and moon, and find a way to resolve it?
"But I don't understand, where are they?" Twilight asked.
"We don't know, it seems that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have simply...vanished," the first Unicorn Guard said.
"Vanished!?" Spike exclaimed and then fainted.
"Wait, if they vanished, then why aren't you guys doing anything?" Sora asked.
"This is why we have come to you," the first Unicorn Guard answered when Spike recovered.
"We await your command," the second Unicorn Guard said.
"My command?" Twilight asked, skeptically.
"We're officers of the Royal Guard, we take our orders from royalty, with Princess Luna and Princess Celestia gone, and Princess Cadence overseeing the Crystal Empire now, that means we take our orders from you."
"Huh!?" Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy exclaimed, they were surprised that the weight of Equestria is now on Twilight's shoulders, who was completely shocked at this turn of events while Spike just fainted again.
"Princess Twilight, there's no time to waste, we need to know what you want us to do."
Twilight slightly panicked; how could she lead the Royal Guard? Something like this is completely foreign to her, so she has no idea what to do. Sora noticed this and tried to think of a way to help her, then, as if a light bulb appeared above his head, he had an idea.
"Twilight," Sora began as Spike regained consciousness, "if you're gonna lead the Royal Guard, what would be the first thing you have them do? What would be top priority?"
Twilight thought for a minute and gave a face of determination when she figured out what was most important right now.
"I want to continue to search for Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, we have to find them before ponies start to panic, there must be some clue that can tell us what happened to them! If you find something, anything, let me know immediately!"
The two Unicorn Guards saluted before running out of the room, following Twilight's orders to continue the search. Twilight gave a sigh of relief that she could handle being in charge of Equestria at the moment.
"Way to take charge, Twilight," Spike praised while nudging her side.
Twilight smiled and turned to Sora, "I saw what you did there."
He chuckled, "Just helping a friend."
Just then, a Unicorn Guard with a brown coat instead of gray barged in, acting all frantic, "Your Highness! News from Ponyville! The Everfree Forest appears to be...well...invading!"
Everybody gasped, except for Spike, who fainted...again.
* * *
In the humble abode of Fluttershy, her animal friends appeared to be quite skittish, as if something has severely frightened them. Fluttershy was carefully making her way around them, so as not to step on any of them.
"Oh, excuse me, oh, oh, pardon me," Fluttershy said, then picked up a little squirrel, "Are you alright?" the squirrel just hopped out of her hoof and into her mane, shivering with fear, "My goodness, what is it that has caused you all such distress?" A bear covered its eyes and pointed a claw to the door, "Whatever it is, I'm sure it's nothing you really need to worry about."
(stop music)
She opened the front door of her cottage and her iris's shrunk instantly at what she saw; black vines with minds of their own overgrowing all around Fluttershy's and even scarier, black bipedal creatures, both tall and small, with claw-like appendages on their hands and feet, glowing yellow dots for eyes, the tall creatures' antennae being very long while the small creatures' are very short. They stopped for a moment and eerily slowly turned their heads to the sound of a door opening and caught sight of Fluttershy.
"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!" She screamed, swiftly slammed the door, and propped her back against it, "No, you were right! You should be worried! Very, very worried!"
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Much to Fluttershy's and the animals' dismay, the black creatures are slamming themselves into the door, trying to break it down.
"Eep!"
* * *
Unfortunately, a certain family of apple farmers didn't fare any better, several types of strange creatures gathered there as well; blue furred monkeys had claws on their fingers and toes, plants embedded into ground with blue bodies, green stems, and orange and yellow flower petals and spines near their heads, spitting seed at the ponies, big black mushrooms with no legs, stubby arms, and purple tops while giving the appearance of overshadowing their heads, and they all had the same beady yellow eyes and an emblem on their chests: a black heart crossed out in red.
A lime green, elderly mare with a white mane, orange eyes, and a pie on her flank, wearing an apple imprinted scarf was using her mouth to pull out one of the black vines, only to look up at one of the monkeys, who flicked its finger at her nose, knocking her away from the vine.
"C'mon y'all!" Applejack called. "Put yer backs into it!"
Applejack was pulling on one of the vines herself, but got knocked on her flank when a seed came flying towards her and hit her in the snout, making the weird plant who spat the seed laughing at her.
A yellow filly with a red mane, same orange eyes as the elderly mare, and wearing a pink bow on her head was pulling out another of the vines that seemed endless. A black mushroom waddled over to her and released a poisonous gas, making her cough and have to run away to avoid getting severely ill.
A big red stallion with an orange mane, white freckles, green eyes, a half-eaten green apple on his flank, wearing a yoke around his neck was trying to bite at the vines to get a grip on them, but kept disappearing into the ground like, for lack of better term, the game, "Whack-a-mole".
"Eeyup," he said as he bit and missed, "Eenope." He repeated his process a few times, "Eeyup," Bite, miss, "Eenope." Another vine, "Eeyup," but not only did he miss, he got hit in the flank by another flying seed, making him stumble and his upper body ended up on the ground while having a look of annoyance, "Eenope."
Applejack finally gave up on pulling the vine and let go, knowing that it isn't coming loose, "Dagnabbit! We'd never seem to have trouble with weeds or critters before!" She glared at the vine, trying to get a closer look, "Now that Ah think about it, Ah've never seen these kinds a' weeds or critters at all!" She turned her attention to the rest of her family, "Have y'all?"
"Eenope," the stallion answered before getting hit in the flank with a vine and punched in the face by a monkey.
"Where th' heck are these things comin' from!?"
The onslaught of creatures and vines kept coming, no matter what the farmer ponies did.
"An' what in tarnation is goin' on with th' sky!?"
Above them, not only the sun and the moon, but also black clouds that had spikes sticking out of them for some weird reason.
* * *
"Ohhhh, no, you don't!" Rainbow shouted while speeding into the sky after one of the strange clouds, "THIS is Ponyville territory! And we aren't due for rain until AFTER the Summer Sun Celebration! You Everfree cloud should just head on back to where you belong!" She charged into the cloud, only to have it stop her, "Whoa! Urk!" And drop her, but she recovered and returned airborne, "Gonna make me do this the hard way, huh?"
A lightning bolt shot out at her and she narrowly dodged it. From the cloud, three dark auras emerged and took shape into three types of creatures; the first had a humanoid-like body with the same soulless, yellow eyes as the others, navy blue skin that's protected with cyan-colored armor with a single, curly antenna poking out of its helmet, on the ends of its arms were three spikes made to look like three fingered claws, but are made for punching, not swiping, the tips of its legs had a spike where its feet should be, and two large, dark blue, unnaturally curled wings; the second had a glass, bell shaped body with four golden wings, two on each side, held together by a yellow ball joint, resting on a blue spike-like stand, decorated with two pale gold rings, on the top of the body is a gold topper with a long, curly antenna, and had three, not two, of those empty, yellow eyes; and the third had the appearance of a blue bat with the colors of the tips of its wings and ears a navy blue, a pair of tiny, yellow eyes, a jagged mouth, a silver spike protruding near the base of each of its wings, a short silver chain below it with a large, red hook with a yellow base, and all of those creatures had the same emblem on their fronts.
"What the!?"
It wasn't long until four more clouds arrived, each summoning one of each creature, those of which began swooping towards her while the clouds shot more lightning at her.
"Whoa! Whoa! Hey!"
* * *
Just outside of Ponyville, a carousel-like building stands with its occupants unaware of what is happening in town or that the vines are growing closer to the building. Its owner, Rarity, opened the curtains with magic while humming a little tune and looked out through the window.
"Hmm..." Rarity hummed, "Something strange about the sky."
She dismissed her thought with a shrug and walked away from the window, failing to notice two of the vines wrapping around two separate support beams, glowing a sparkling, translucent blue. Just inside, Rarity was levitating a teapot and cup in her ocean blue magic over to her dining table when the translucent glow made its way into her horn, giving its aura the same color. She went to pour her tea and instead of going into the cup, it unnaturally went in several other directions. The teapot then flew away and poured its contents on one of her hats on display.
"What in the name of common chamomile is going on?"
A white cat with the hair on top of its head held up by a purple bow and a purple, pearl-studded collar was just licking its paw, until it had tea grazed just above its head and began running from the teapot as it kept firing its tea at the cat.
"Opalescence, darling, I'm so sorry!" Rarity called to the cat, "I promise I am not doing this on purpose!"
Rarity licked the end of her hoof and pressed it against her horn, putting out her magic like small candle, and in turn, stopping the teapot and making drop to the floor and break.
"It wasn't me, I swear!"
The cat named Opalescence glared and growled at her owner and turned away in a snooty fashion. Rarity rubbed a hoof on her chin in thought and bared her teeth when she figured out only three fillies could cause something so mischievous, one of them being her little sister.
"Ooh, Sweetie Belle, if this is some sort of prank you and your little Crusaders friends are pulling, I find very little humor in it!"
A white filly with a purple and pink mane and light green eyes was bouncing down the stairs upside-down with her horn's aura having the same translucent glow as Rarity's horn once had.
"Rarity! You have to help me! I think something's wrong with my horn!" She said, pointing at said horn for good measure.
The glow floated off of Sweetie's horn, separating into two, and turned black, forming two of the same type of creature; they each had a purple coat with the crossed-out heart on the front worn over their lavender robes, covering its arms and legs, a witch's hat hiding its eyes, holding a wizard's staff with the top having the appearance of a purple bat and a yellow gem in the center. They used their own magic to tear a curtain from the wall.
"My goodness! What are those things!?" Rarity screeched.
Sweetie was so afraid of them that she picked up Rarity's sewing machine and threw it at the one on the left of the curtain, leaving a bruise.
"Yes! I hit it!"
Then, out of nowhere, other creature just popped up; it has a round, black body with the same emblem on its front, a red collar around its unseen neck, its head resembling an eighth note with those same beady yellow eyes, a instrumental horn as its mouth, and wearing blue earmuffs. It bounced a little and began playing its trumpet mouth and a green aura hovered around the bruised creature, healing its injury. Seeing its bruise disappear, it turned to Sweetie and if you look hard enough, you can it furrowing its nonexistence brow in anger.
Sweetie's eyes widened by degrees, "Uh-oh."
The round creature played its music again, but this time, summoned several of the tall black creatures from Fluttershy's cottage. The magic-using creatures nodded to each other, lit the curtain on fire with their magic, and sent it flying towards the two ponies, who ran from it, screaming.
"AHHHHHHH!!"
* * *
Twilight levitated her crown with her as she, Spike, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy rushed outside after hearing the news about Ponyville, especially the reports of strange creatures popping up out of nowhere, and Sora had a good guess about what those creatures were.
"Where are we going!?" Spike asked.
"The Everfree Forest is...invading. Whatever is going on, I'm sure we're going to need our friends and the Elements of Harmony to stop it!" Twilight answered. "I just hope we haven't missed the train."
"Uh, Twilight?" Spike began, "There IS another way for us to get to Ponyville, remember?"
"There is?" Twilight asked.
"There is?" Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy echoed, all while everyone stopped in their tracks at the top of bridge.
"Ugh!" Spike exclaimed when he ran into Twilight and nearly fell into the river, but was caught by her wing and pulled back up, "You can fly!"
"Oh! Right!" Twilight said as she put Spike on her back.
"Hey, uh, Twilight?" Sora begun to ask, "Mind giving me a lift? I don't think I know how to use my wings yet."
She giggled, "Okay, Sora. Hop on!"
He did as he was told and climbed onto her back, making her blush a little.
"Wait! What about Donald and Goofy!?" Jiminy asked, frantic.
"Sorry, Jiminy, but I can't carry them all at once, I'm still learning how to fly as it is."
Sora sighed, knowing how futile it is to bring his friends in this current situation, "Sorry guys, but you're gonna have to find another way down."
With a flap of her wings, Twilight hovered above the bridge before slightly losing her balance, especially with the extra weight, "Whoa!" She quickly recomposed herself and flew off.
"AND HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!?!" Donald screamed into the sky.
"Hmm..." Goofy began to think as he tapped a finger to his temple, "I got it!"
"What!?"
"Follow me!"
Goofy ran off to the edge of the mountain that Canterlot stood upon, seeing the luscious landscape before him.
"So what's the plan?" Donald asked.
Goofy conjured his shield, tossed it to the ground, just next to the edge, and sat on it. Donald's eyes widened when he saw what Goofy had in mind.
"Oh, no! No, no, no, no, no!"
Despite his protests, Goofy picked Donald up and held him close, knowing that this was going to be a bumpy ride. With a push of his hand, they slid down the mountain, Donald squawking and screaming while Goofy did his usual, "YAH-HOO-HOO-HOO-HOOIE!"
* * *
Rainbow Dash was still trying to get rid of the clouds, but got outnumbered by them and the flying creatures. Down below, Ponyville wasn't faring very well, the vines were still growing out of control, the tall black creatures were now running rampant all over town, and now, a couple of new types have appeared; several very thin humanoids with the same soulless, yellow eyes, clad in dark-colored armor with the same emblem marked on their fronts, and each carrying a sword had just begun chasing three different townsponies, who were screaming as they ran; another batch of humanoids clad in silver and gray spiky armor with, not one, but two the crossed-out heart emblem upon their shoulder blades, and the beady, yellow eyes, hunting anypony they saw.
Rarity had narrowly escaped the creatures at her house with very few burn marks and got Sweetie somewhere safe, afterwards, she headed into town to find her friends, "Something very strange is going on and—" A giant vine thrust itself out of the ground, conjuring more of the tall back creatures, making Rarity gasp in surprise and ran away from the vine, under the outer roof of the town hall and continued, "—I, for one, would appreciate an explanation!"
Rainbow swooped down close to Rarity, "All I know is the sky's split in two, and these clouds moving in sure aren't from around here!"
"Neither are all these crazy plants an' even crazier critters!" Applejack called out as she pulled on one of the vines with one of the monkey-like creatures jumping on her back, but she finally had enough and bucked it off of her, "Git off me, ya varmint!" The monkey just slammed its fists into the ground a couple times and ran off, "They're comin' from th' Everfree Forest!" A bigger vine grew and Pinkie Pie just slid from it like a slide in a playground, "An' try as we might, us Earth Ponies can't do anythang to git rid o' them!" Applejack turned to Rarity, "Don't suppose you know any magic that might stop 'em from spreadin'?"
"Alas, this whole raging forest situation seems to have left my horn on the fritz." Rarity flickered her horn to demonstrate.
Fluttershy, who has escaped the creatures near her cottage, hovered next to Rarity, "We have to figure out something, I don't know how much more of this Ponyville can take." A vine snatched onto Fluttershy's hind leg, making her shriek in fright, until Rainbow kicked it off of her, "I don't know how much more I can take!"
"The forest is expandin', y'all," Applejack began, "an' judgin' by how fast it's movin', it doesn't seem content jus' takin' over Ponyville..." She looked on over the town and a little ways past it, "Ah reckon before long, it'll cover half o' Equestria!"
The vines and creatures kept growing and appearing respectively at an alarming rate, and with the only weapon powerful enough to help them beyond their reach, everypony had no idea how right Applejack was...
To Be Continued...
Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 1 - Chapter 4: Who's Behind All of This?
In the sky of Equestria, Twilight, Spike, Sora, and Jiminy quickly make their way to Ponyville to collect the Elements of Harmony and aid their friends. While flying, they narrowly avoid the spiky clouds, a couple Hookbats, and an Air Battler, thus making Spike nauseous and putting on a seat belt that came out of nowhere.
"I'm starting to wish...we'd taken the train." Spike said.
"Almost there!" Twilight said.
"That's good, because it looks like the Heartless are spreading like wildfire!" Sora added.
"C'mon, we need to get the Elements of Harmony and find the others!"
With that, Twilight swooped down and charged towards the library in Ponyville with a determined expression while the boys were panicking.
"INNNCOMING!" Spike screamed.
Twilight began to panic herself when she noticed that she was going to crash. Thinking quickly, she lit up her horn, teleported into the library, and barreled into a pile of book, except for Spike, Sora, and Jiminy, who were about to hit the window.
"Oh, this is gonna hurt." Sora said.
POW!
(stop music)
Just after they hit, they slid down to the ground outside. Twilight stuck her head out of the pile of books in a daze.
"Oh, thank goodness!" Rarity said.
"Oh, I hope you know we wouldn't normally go through your books without permission." Fluttershy said.
Twilight shook off her daze as the boys came crawling in, kissing the floor.
Twilight looked annoyed, "Okay, I get it, I need to work on my flying."
"AHHHHHHH!!"
CRASH!
It was at that moment that Donald and Goofy came bouncing through the open door and crashed into a bookcase, leaving them in a daze as Twilight once was in.
"Oww!" Donald moaned.
"I don't know if you noticed," Pinkie began, "but the Everfree Forest is just a teensy tiny bit out of control!"
For some reason, Pinkie's tail twitched and she ducked when a giant vine forced it's way into the window, knocking Rarity away, as if she knew it was coming.
"Guess it turned out you were missin' somethin' here in Ponyville after all." Applejack said as she closed the window, cutting the vine in the possess. The vine created a Neoshadow, which Sora swiftly dispatched with his Keyblade.
Rarity was in a daze, but shook it off, "But perhaps you already know what's causing all of this calamity, has Princess Celestia sent you to dispel it posthaste?" Everypony looked hopeful when she said that.
"Not exactly," Twilight began, afraid to tell them the bad news, "you see, Princess Celestia is...well, she and Princess Luna are both..."
Sora, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy, and Spike decided to take the initiative on this one, "GONE MISSING!!"
Everypony gasped at hearing the news, with the princesses gone, who would protect Equestria?
"I don't know who has taken them, but I've got a hunch we're going to need the Elements of Harmony to get them back." Twilight levitated the glass case concealing said Elements and attaching them to their respective owners.
"Oh, yeah! Just like old times!" Rainbow declared.
"A-boo-yah!" Pinkie said as she hoofbumped Twilight, who walked over to Applejack.
"Ah told ya we'd always be connected by the Elements," Applejack said to her and sighed, "Now we jus' gotta figure out who to aim these bad boys at, so we can get Celestia and Luna back, and keep th' rest of Equestria from becoming plant and critter food!" As Applejack said that, she held a hind leg on an nearby Shadow's head, making it wipe the air trying to hit her. "Uh, Sora?"
SHING!
Sora dispatched the Shadow as per Applejack's request, "Got 'em."
"Any ideas?" Applejack asked Twilight.
"Hmm..." Twilight began to ponder the events that has happened so far.
"I haven't found squat in any of the books I'm looking through!" Pinkie said as she was playing with a coloring book, "Oopsies! Missed a spot!" She took a crayon and continued to color, making Sora chuckle at her randomness.
"Half day, half night, strange weather patterns, out of control plants, and rampaging Heartless," Twilight listed aloud, making the girls say, "Heartless?" But Twilight ignored them and continued, "I think I'm starting to get a pretty good idea who we're up against."
On their way into the center of town, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy explained to the girls what the Heartless were, what they do to people and ponies, and how they're created. They were shocked that such terrible creatures could possibly exist anywhere. Once they arrive to their destination, Twilight lights her horn, which activates the gem in her crown, making the girls float in the air with the gems in their necklaces shining as well. They link themselves with a rainbow coming from their Elements, which swirls around Twilight and enters into her crown, creating a rainbow tornado that summons...
A creature with several different body parts from certain animals unnaturally attached to his body taking a shower, singing to himself.
"Winter wrap up, winter wrap u-OH!" He chuckles as he wraps a towel around himself, "Now, Twilight, you know Princess Celestia said that you were to give me a heads-up before you summon me, with that little spell she gave you," he tapped on her crown a few times as he said that, "In case you haven't noticed, I was in the middle of a particularly invigorating shower." He concluded while drying his flank with his towel in front of Twilight's face.
She shoved him away and said, "Enough!" She walked towards him, making him back up in surprise, "Release Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and stop the Everfree Forest from invading!"
A vine wrapped itself around Twilight and in a flash of light, the creature appeared in its place with a smug look, "Why, whatever are you talking about?"
"Don'tchu play dumb with us, Discord!" Applejack ordered, "We know yer th' one behind all of this!"
The creature named Discord uncoiled himself from Twilight and popped up on top of one of the houses, taking pictures with a camera that somehow appeared, "Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loooove what you've done with the place," He then made his way over to Fluttershy's side, "But I couldn't possibly take responsibility, I'm reformed, don't you remember?" He nudged Fluttershy, emphasizing that she had something to do with his, "reformation".
Did something happen before I came here? Sora thought.
"Yeah, right!" Rainbow flew to Discord, surprising him, "This has got your cloven hoofprints all over it!"
He regained his composure and put his eagle claw hand to his chest, "I'll have you know that I have only one cloven hoof." For some reason, a disembodied cloven hoof hopped up Discord's body and swung itself behind Rainbow, kicking her in the flank. Discord and the weird hoof disappeared and just Discord reappear in front of the group and walk away, "Such accusations." He stopped and looked back at them with a sad look, "And here I thought we were friends." Then fluttered his eyelashes, giving them a puppy dog face.
"Drop the act, buster!" Pinkie demanded, "We're on to you!"
Discord pressed a finger from his bear hand to shush Pinkie, "Ladies, ladies, I'm innocent! Would I lie to you?"
"YES!" The girls said, except for Fluttershy, who said, "Um, maybe?"
Discord was dumbfounded, but spoke anyway, "Well then, it seems we've reached an impasse; I'm telling the truth, but you think I'm lying," he used his bluebird and bat wings to fly over to Twilight, "what do friends like us do in this situation like this," he poked her crown as he continued, "Princess Twilight?" He then put an arm around her, "Congrats, by the way, on the promotion," he used his to stretch the corners of her mouth and let go, "you totally deserve it!" He then proceeded to poke her nose.
"I say we blast him back to stone!" Rainbow suggested.
"Works for me!" Applejack agreed.
"Hear, hear!" Rarity added.
They prepared the Elements to revert Discord back to stone, who braced himself for the blast-
"Wait!" Fluttershy interrupted, "We can't do that! What if he really is telling the truth?"
Discord smiled with renewed hope, "Well, finally! Somepony willing to give me the benefit of the doubt! The rest of you could learn a lot about friendship from my dear friend Shutterfly here." He reached his bear hand and pulled Rainbow close, believing her to be, "Shutterfly", as he puts it.
"Um, it's Fluttershy." She said from his other side.
He tossed Rainbow away and used his eagle claw hand to pull Fluttershy close instead, "Oh, right, whatever."
Sora crossed his forehooves, "You're bizarre..."
Discord took notice of his comment flew over to him and his friends, "Oh! And who do we have here? Some new friends? Hold on, let me guess," He waved his bear hand toward Sora, "Sora, the legendary Keyblade wielder, who saved the universe many times over," then over to Donald, "Donald Duck, the Court Wizard of Disney Castle and one of King Mickey's two best friends," then Goofy, "Goofy, the Captain of the Royal Knights and King Mickey's other best friend," and finally, Jiminy, "and last, but certainly not least, Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio's best friend, conscience, and now currently Sora's notary for all of his grand adventures!"
"Hey! How did you know all that!?" Donald angrily asked.
"I am Discord, I have approximant knowledge of, well, just about anything!"
Twilight interrupted Discord's guessing game and tried to get back at task at hoof, "If you're not the one responsible, then help us figure out who is!"
"I suppose I could, but after all the hoof pointing and besmirching of MY good name, I just don't know if I'm up to it." He pulled out a pair of knitting needles from...somewhere, and began knitting one of the vines.
"Ugh!" Twilight groaned.
"Why don't you ask your zebra friend if she knows anything?" He added while knitting the vine into an arrow pointing at a zebra, wearing gold jewelry with an African-like sun on her flanks, lugging a bag and pulling a cart of tribal goods.
"Zecora!" Twilight said as hers and girls spirits brightened.
The group ran over to her and Twilight used her magic to lift the bag off of her back and Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rainbow pull the cart off of her.
"From my home, I've had to flee, the forest has grown too wild, even for me." Zecora explained in rhyme.
"Any idea why all this is happenin'?" Applejack asked as a vine snatched her hat, but she eventually got it back.
"I am afraid it is a mystery to me as well, but I may have something that if combined with a spell." Zecora went into her cart and pulled out a strange bottle of purple liquid, "I do not dare to use it myself, the results would be tragic, it only responds to Alicorn magic." That said, Twilight looked up at her horn and then her wings. "Princess Twilight, you can turn the potion from purple to white, after a sip, you may see why the sky is day and night."
Twilight used her horn and shot raw Alicorn magic into the bottle, turning the liquid white, just as Zecora said.
"Oooooh!" Pinkie cooed in awe.
Everypony looked uncertain about this, even Sora and the gang. Just when Twilight lifted the potion off the ground, they all heard a clinging sound and turned to see what it was and saw an army of Heartless headed their way; Armored Knights, Dual Blades, and even Shadows and Neoshadows appearing from the ground.
"What the hay!?" Rainbow exclaimed.
"They must've sensed the magic from the potion!" Twilight said.
Sora summoned his Keyblade as Donald and Goofy prepared their own weapons, "Don't worry, Twilight! We've faced way worse than this!"
"Yeah, back in Radiant Garden, when that Heartless army appeared!" Goofy added.
Sora craned his head to face Twilight, "We'll handle things here, you just find out who's behind all this!"
"But Sora!" Twilight's plea was on deaf ears as they ran into battle, yelling a battle cry. Twilight just decided to trust Sora and drank the potion, she licked her lips when nothing happened, "Doesn't seem to be workin-" Her words came to a halt when her eyes glowed white and world around her changed.
(stop music)
* * *
Twilight shook her head and found herself in some kind of throne room with a dark blue throne and a yellow one. She is unfamiliar of this place. "Where am I?"
The mysterious voice came from a dark blue Alicorn with a translucent mane imitating the stars in the night sky, wearing black regalia on her body, sparkling light blue regalia horseshoe on her hooves, and a black tiara with the moon surrounded in darkness adorned her flanks, who came from behind the dark blue throne with a scowl upon her face.
"Princess Luna!" Twilight exclaimed as she walked over to her, "I don't understand, where are we? Why did you and Celestia disappear?"
Princess Luna remained silent for a moment until she spoke, her words containing malice, "Did you really expect me to sit idly by while they all bask in your precious light!?"
"Precious light?" Twilight echoed.
Princess walked to the bridge in the center of the two thrones, "There can only be one princess in Equestria! And that princess...will be ME!!"
She reared up and stomped her forehooves, smashing part of the bridge. a large crack began to form into the wall behind her as a dark shadow loomed over it and shattered the stained glass and its frame, startling Twilight. Luna lit her horn and raised the moon over the sun, causing a solar eclipse. She lost control of herself and became surrounded in darkness, creating a menacing orb of flaming magic, which Twilight stared in horror at the sight. The orb soon turned black, then a translucent blue, and exploded, revealing Princess Luna, who has changed drastically; the pupils of her eyes narrowed, giving them a cat-like appearance, her teeth have gradually sharpened, her wingspan has grown in length, and her regalia have turned into blue armor, adding a helmet.
"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!! HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!" She laughed manically as the eclipse soon turned into the normal glow of the moon.
Twilight was in shock and fear of what stood before her, it was no longer Princess Luna, it was the monster that she and her friends have fought once, the monster she thought was gone for good...
Nightmare Moon.
To Be Continued On Kingdom Hearts: Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2...
* * *
You see the save screen on your TV,
Would you like to save your game? [Yes] [No]
You click "Yes".
Loading…
You come up on your file list.
1. Canterlot High [Play Time] 0:48:12 School Courtyard [Munny] 3500
2. - - -
3. - - -
You then click your previous save file.
This already has a saved file, would you like to overwrite it? [Yes] [No]
You click "Yes".
Saving…
Your game is saved!
"Stinking cliffhangers!" You curse.
"Sweetie, come on! We're going to Golden Corral for lunch!" Your mom called.
"Okay, mom! I'm coming!"
You switch off your TV and game console and head out the door with your family.
Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2 - Chapter 1: Visions and Possible Connections
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic belongs to Hasbro Studios and DHX Media
Kingdom Hearts belongs to Disney and SQUARE ENIX
Kingdom Hearts: Princess Twilight Sparkle
The darkened mare continued to cackle until she bared her fangs in anger, making Twilight began to back away in fear as she blasted the ceiling with the magic from her horn. Large fragments of said ceiling came crashing down, nearing crushing Twilight when she jumped out of the way. She looked up from where she laid to see Princess Celestia, sadness in her features which changed stoic. The dust from the collapsed structure began to clear as the dark Alicorn strode into view with an unreadable expression. Celestia flew into the air as her former sister attempted to blast her out of existence, but narrowly missed and left a gaping hole that revealed the glowing moon. As Celestia landed, Twilight ran in front of her former mentor and tried to reason with her sister.
"Luna! Think of how long you were banished to the moon! You'll give us no choice but to send you back there if you don't stop!"
Celestia then spoke, as if Twilight wasn't there, "Luna, I will not fight you! You MUST lower the moon! It is your duty!"
"Luna?" She began, "I am...Nightmare Moon!" Twilight stared at her in horror when referred herself with her former name, "I have but one royal duty now. TO DESTROY YOU!" She flared her horn to life and fired another beam toward Celestia, who flew out of the hole Nightmare created, she smirked as she spread her wings, like she had some sick thrill from chasing her sister in this type of situation, "And where do you think YOU'RE going!?" With that she took off as Twilight quickly gave chase.
Nightmare Moon attempted to blast Celestia out of the sky with her magic, but nearly every shot missed and hit a piece of the city they were in instead; buildings, bridges, even the ground, until Nightmare finally made a direct hit and sent Celestia falling back through the hole she flew out of, screaming in pain.
"AHHHHHHHHH!!"
"CELESTIA!!" Twilight exclaimed as she flew to help her.
Nightmare Moon cackled in victory, believing she has struck down her sister. Her laugh echoed even in the throne room as Twilight landed and gazed upon her former mentor's body, lifeless and unmoving.
Tears came freely from her eyes as she whispered, "No! Why would Luna do this? Why now?" Twilight began to sob uncontrollably. She noticed movement from Celestia and stopped to see that she was okay, "You're alright...you're alright!" Twilight was happy that she didn't lose Celestia, but frowned when she didn't notice her, like she wasn't even there, "...Princess Celestia?"
"Oh, dear sister, I am sorry, but you have given me no choice but to use...these!" Celestia lit up her horn and opened a hidden door in the floorboard, which a strange mechanism raised an unusual podium that held five gems and a stone sphere at its top.
"Are those...the Elements of Harmony?" Twilight meekly asked, "But that's how they looked in..." Her face had an expression of realization, "the past." Celestia flew up to the podium with determination upon her features. "This is the night you banished her."
Celestia horn came to life once more and levitated the Elements to her, especially one within the sphere, which had the appearance of a six-pointed star, much like Twilight's Cutie Mark. When the six Elements were gathered, they swirled around Celestia, increasing in speed as they gave her power; she gave off a rainbow light as the Elements' magic flowed through her, her light was so bright that even Twilight had to shield her eyes with a hoof. She removed her hoof and gazed at Celestia in awe as she took to the sky to face Nightmare once again. The darkened mare's eyes and horn glowed as she prepared another magic beam. Celestia began to shed tears at what she was about to do; she charged her own horn and combined the Elements' to magnify her magic. The two fired their beams, but this time Nightmare Moon was the one being overpowered, Celestia pushed her magic back as her former sister's cat-like eyes narrowed in horror.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"
Celestia used the power of the Elements of Harmony to banish her to the moon, which with a rainbow shockwave, magically obtained craters that gave off the appearance of a horned pony.
(stop music)
A flash was seen and another vision came to be, only it was an area that nopony, not even Twilight was familiar with.
"What is this place?" She asked.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a certain spiky-haired boy in his human form, running over to two distorted figures in the distance.
"Sora!?"
But he did not respond, he still continued his trek.
"Riku! Kairi! I found you!" He exclaimed as he put his hands on his knees, panting.
"Riku? Kairi?" Twilight questioned.
Sora's friends turned around and stared at him blankly, until they became distorted.
Sora didn't notice it himself, but his appearance had changed, making him look like somebody else.
"Huh?" He said as looked at both of them.
"Roxas!?" Twilight exclaimed, but then took a closer look, "No...it's different."
They held their hands out to him, as if they wanted him to come with them. He was hesitant at first, but then tried to grasp them, only for the two unknowns to distort, making him retract his hands. They turned around and walked away, becoming Riku and Kairi once more. With a determined look, Sora, regaining his normal form tried to chase after them, but somehow becoming super slow.
"What is going on?" Sora asked, his voice slow and echoing.
He kept running, grunting as pushed himself to go faster, but to no avail.
"Sora! Don't! You've gotta wake up! Sora!" A mysterious voice spoke, it was barely audible, but Twilight heard it.
"A voice? Is it one of Sora's friends? And what does it mean by 'wake up'?"
Sora barely paid attention to the voice, he was just focused on getting to his friends, who had turned into the two unknowns again, then they just disappeared and world around Twilight and Sora twisted itself until Sora was running toward a strange skyscraper.
"Wait!" Sora called as he reached his hand out.
He kept running until a small light appeared and shone brightly, engulfing Twilight and Sora. When it died down, Twilight found herself on a beach with the sun setting. She jumped when she saw Sora and Riku as kids running past her.
"What the hay is going here?" She asked no one in particular.
Then the female unknown was walking along a bridge just above the two children and jumped down to them. They conversed with each other, but Twilight couldn't hear a word. The female unknown patted their heads like they were her little brothers and smiled.
"What..." Was all Sora could say.
Then, everything became wavy and the unknown changed into a man with long, silver hair, deep tan skin, and wearing black and silver clothing. When he began to turn around, Sora was forced into the air as white flashed into his and Twilight's eyes.
"AH!"
(stop music)
Twilight found herself on a bridge of broken buildings when she saw a light falling out of the sky and crashed into the bridge just in front of her. The light dimmed to reveal Sora and in front of him, a certain eyepatch-wearing gunslinger.
"YOU!" Twilight shouted, but it went completely unnoticed.
"Oopsy-daisy." He said, sarcastically, "Wasn't easy putting you into a second sleep, and he almost woke you up."
"He? Second sleep?" Twilight then realized something, "This was Sora's adventure in the 'Realm of Sleep' I think he called it."
Sora was now wearing an entirely different outfit as struggled to stand up, "So then, all that stuff I just saw—did you put that in my head?"
"No. That wasn't 'stuff'. It was a dream. The falling asleep part was definitely our bad. But we can't put stuff in your head. Hey, I got an idea. Ask your heart. See if it's got a clue." Braig replied.
"Well...my heart was aching. That's why I kept going."
"Ohh...thank you, Sora's heart, for pushing him right into our clutches. Aren't hearts great? Steer us wrong every time."
Twilight grit her teeth at Braig's words, "You...you jerk!"
"You know, right? Because you all have hearts! Axel and Roxas and Naminé and that other girl!" Sora said.
"Naminé? Other girl?" Twilight inquired.
"I felt what Roxas felt and...they laughed together, got mad, and they grieved. You have to have a heart to cry."
Braig chuckled, "It's about time you noticed."
"Indeed." A voice spoke; a Corridor of Darkness opened behind Sora and out came a man with long, but spiky silver hair and deep tan skin, wearing a familiar black coat, it was Xemnas' voice. "A heart is never lost for good. There may have been variances in our dispositions, but a number of us unquestionably showed signs of a burgeoning replacement." Sora turned to face Xemnas as he continued. "Once born, the heart can also be nurtured. Our experiments creating Heartless were attempts to control the mind. And convince it to renounce its sense of self."
"W-What...!?" Twilight whispered.
"But understand, one can banish the heart from the body, but the body will try to replace it the first chance it gets, for as many times as it takes. And so I knew, even after we divided into Heartless and Nobodies, it was just a temporary separation."
Sora put a hand to his chest, "Why, then?" He asked. "Why did you lie to them and tell them they had no hearts!?"
"Xemnas and Xehanort formed the Organization for a specific reason—round up a bunch of empty husks, hook them up to Kingdom Hearts, then fill them with the exact same heart and mind." Braig answered. "Translation—they were gonna turn ALL the members into Xehanort."
"Make more Xehanorts?"
"N-No...! That's not possible!" Twilight denied.
"You tricked your friends to..." Sora shook his head, "but you—aren't you scared of just turning into someone else?"
Braig sneered, "Me? I'm already half Xehanort."
Twilight took a closer look and saw Braig only eye; it was a sickly yellow. Maybe Xehanort had the same eye color. A swift chill ran down Twilight's body when she thought of that possibility.
"That's nuts..." Sora uttered.
"However—" Xemnas spoke, "through weakness of body...weakness of will...or weakness of trust—most of the original members we had chosen for the Organization were inadequate. Thus, naturally, they never had a chance to attain their goal. Yet, even this was to be expected."
Sora gasped, then grit his teeth as he slightly growled.
"We have learned of the heart's folly, and we have achieved our other goals. This last excursion has proven to be a worthy closing assignment for the Organization."
"Monsters..." Twilight muttered, then raised her voice threateningly, "YOU'RE MONSTERS!! EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!!"
Still no response.
"Just stop it!" Sora said to Xemnas, "You treat people's hearts like bottles on a shelf, but they're not!" Sora summoned his Keyblade as he entered his battle stance, Xemnas just stared at him, "Hearts are made of the people we meet, and how we feel about them—they're what ties us together even when we're apart! They're what...make me strong."
Twilight looked at Sora, "The rules of Sora's world are similar to ours; the power of the heart AND the Magic of Friendship."
Braig stared at him for a moment, then he had an idea to weaken Sora's spirits, "Duh! You're strong because of the ties you have with other people. As if the Keyblade would choose a wimp like you." Sora turned to face him as he finished.
"W-What...!? The Keyblade didn't...?" Twilight couldn't find her voice.
"But no pouting. We see much bigger and better things in your future...once you side with us." Braig held his hand out to Sora.
Sora looked back at his Keyblade and gripped it tighter, "I know the Keyblade didn't choose me, and I don't care. I'm proud to be a small part of something bigger—" Sora looked back at Braig, "the people it did choose." Braig gasped in shock at his words. "My friends. They are my power!" Then out of nowhere, a bunch of people appeared beside Sora, Twilight recognized some of them as Donald, Goofy, Roxas, and King Mickey, but he's wearing black clothing instead of his usual attire and wielding a star-based Keyblade. There are also some people she doesn't recognize; the three unknowns, two girls, one in pink and one in a familiar black coat, and a boy with silver hair.
Xemnas stood undeterred by Sora's words, as if they meant nothing to him, but Braig on the other hand is completely surprised.
"Those are just are words. You've lost." He says, then grits his teeth and growls before speaking again, "Fine. See where your power gets you here." Braig turns his attention to the man behind Sora, "Xemnas! He's all yours!" Then disappears in darkness.
Sora turns around to face Xemnas, who raises his arms and two pieces of the abnormal bridge, which look like buildings split in half, hover into the air and by his side as he hovers with them. Both he and Sora get into their battle stances as a bright light over takes Twilight.
"SORA!" She shouted.
(stop music)
The light in Twilight's eyes began to fade as she came back to reality, she looked around and saw her friends, as well as Zecora, gazing at her worriedly.
"Why are you all looking at me like that?" Twilight asked with a quizzical expression.
"It's jus'...you were mumblin' to yerself..." Applejack began.
"Oh! And don't forget the uncontrollable sobbing!" Pinkie added.
"We were really worried about you." Fluttershy said.
Discord popped on top of one of the plants laying down on his belly, "I, for one, found it dee-lightful! Sort of a one-pony theater piece, if you will." He moved next to Twilight and unraveled a poster of Twilight bawling her eyes out with sounds of a crying baby, "You should really consider taking it on the road."
"Did you find who's rump we need to kick, and where we can find 'em?" Rainbow asks while striking a karate pose.
Twilight was about to speak, but Sora interrupted her as he, Donald, and Goofy returned from their battle, "No worries for now, guys, we took out the Heartless. So, what did we miss?" Twilight furrowed her brow and stomped over to Sora, "Twilight? What wro—" she slapped his muzzle before he could finish. "Ow! What was that for?"
Her anger didn't falter, "The Keyblade didn't really choose you, did it?" She asked, bluntly.
A collective gasp came from the entire group, even Discord, except his sounded more exaggerated.
Sora went wide-eyed and was at a loss for words, with his demeanor changed, Twilight took it as her chance to continue, "When I drank the potion, I saw two visions, one of them being you in the Realm of Sleep; Braig said the Keyblade didn't choose you and you even admitted it."
Sora became sad and lowered his head.
Twilight used her magic to pull his ear toward her, "Tell me the truth and stop lying to me." She growled.
Sora sighed, but complied and told her what he knew about his reason to wield the Keyblade, despite the fact that it didn't choose him. Twilight was surprised, but retained her angered expression.
Sora looked Twilight in her eyes, "Twilight...I'm sorry. I should've told you the truth from the beginning. I feel like the worst friend in the world for lying to you."
Twilight sighed as she softened her gaze, "Just...promise you'll never lie to me again, and you'll tell me the truth about anything else you're hiding from me."
"I promise."
They smiled as they looked into each other eyes, anger and betrayal forgotten. Until a certain cyan Pegasus clears her throat in annoyance.
"Can we stop with the mushy stuff and get back to what's important?"
(stop music)
"Oh! Right, sorry." Sora said.
Twilight turned her attention back to the group, "About the other vision, I saw something from a long time ago, but it didn't explain what's happening now."
Zecora and Spike walked up to her as the former spoke, "Perhaps farther back still are the answers you seek," she held out her hoof holding the vial to Twilight, "another sip of the potion will give you a peek."
Twilight levitated the potion as Spike voiced his question, "Are you sure about this?"
She looked at everyone else for their take on the matter, but they were as unsure as Spike was. Throwing caution to the wind, she proceeded to take a sip of the white liquid once again. Discord appeared out of nowhere wearing an old-timey director's outfit with a beret on his head, a long, thin moustache adorning his upper lip, and using an old film camera.
"Oh, I do hope she breaks into a song this time!" He says.
Sora turns to the girls with a confused look on his face, "Guy's a broken record."
Twilight's eyes flash brightly as she enters another vision.
The light in her eyes dim down as she comes face to face with another vision; for some reason, a school of fish were swimming in midair instead of water, the ground's appearance had all kinds of multicolor checkerboard patterns, the sky was purple, and several homes sat atop floating islands. In the distance, Celestia and Luna of the past were walking towards a strange throne at the top of a hill, but they weren't alone: a boy in his teens with black, spiky hair and wearing white and silver robes walked beside them.
"Who is that?" Twilight asked aloud.
They stopped in front of the hill as the throne's back was turned to them, Celestia craned her head down to briefly talk to the boy, "Be ready, young Eraqus." He nodded and summoned his Keyblade. Then the throne spun around to reveal Discord of the past.
"Oh, ho, ho, ho," he chuckled, "this is SO much fun! How about a game of 'Pin The Tail On The Pony'?" He emphasized his point by pulling a ethereal tail out of thin air, which turned out to be Celestia's tail, seeing it made her turn around and gasp when she found that her tail was actually gone.
"Playtime is over for you, Discord!" Celestia declared as she returned her attention to him.
Discord brought a bag of black seeds and started spreading them around while had a bored expression, "Oh, I doubt that." He plucked one of the seeds as they fell out of the bag and shuddered in the delight when he ate one, "Hungry?" He offered. One seed bounced off each of the three's heads as they maintained their serious demeanor. Discord shrugged, "Suit yourselves." And he kept eating and spreading the little specks.
Celestia and Luna focused their magic and levitated the Elements out of their saddlebags while Young Eraqus readied his battle stance.
Discord took notice and dropped the bag, "Ohh, what have you got there?"
"The Elements of Harmony." Celestia answered as said Elements swirled around them and formed a pink barrier.
"With them, we shall defeat you!" Luna added.
"And bring harmony back to this world!" Young Eraqus declared.
Twilight walked a little closer to the scene, "This must be when they turned Discord into stone. But who is that boy? And what part does he play in this? Celestia never mentioned him before."
Discord laughed uproariously as he slumped in his throne, then sat himself upright, "You should see yourselves right now! The expressions on your faces! So tense! So sure of yourselves!" They narrowed their eyes as Celestia and Luna put their horns together and Young Eraqus crossed his Keyblade with them and created a giant rainbow headed toward Discord as he continued laughing.
"Hilarious!" Was the last thing he said before he laughed one last time as he morphed into a stone statue in a flash of light.
Twilight's eyes glowed again and shook it out of her head as she came to yet another vision and gasped at what she saw; a lit up cavern with a massive crystalline tree within, which held the Elements in its branches. Celestia, Luna, and Young Eraqus, who was riding on Celestia's back, made their way into the cavern.
Luna gasped, "The Tree of Harmony!"
Twilight appeared confused, "The Tree of Harmony?"
She took a closer look and noticed the markings on the tree, a moon, a sun, and a six pointed star in its center.
"My Cutie Mark!" She quietly exclaimed.
Celestia flew up to the tree with Young Eraqus in tow and used her magic on the tree.
Luna looked a little shocked, "Are you sure?" And flew up with Celestia and Eraqus.
"We have managed to discover the only means by which we can defeat Discord, and free the citizens of Equestria," Celestia levitated the Elements from their branches, "even without these Elements, the Tree of Harmony will possess a powerful magic," the center of the tree opened to reveal the Element of Magic, altogether the mystical gems circled them as they float in Celestia's magic, "as long as that magic remains, it will continue to control and contain all that grows here."
"Does this mean we can purge the darkness from this world, your highness?" Young Eraqus asked.
Celestia giggled, "Oh, Eraqus, you have a lot to learn about being a Keyblade Master."
Twilight stared at them until the light shone once more in her eyes to signal the end of the vision.
Twilight shook her head as she returned to reality once again, Spike ran up to her and asked, "So what did you find out?"
"I still don't what's happened to Princess Luna and Princess Celestia," everyone looked worried, except for Discord, who was sitting in a floating recliner with movie theater popcorn, a drink, and wearing a pair of 3-D glasses, "but I think I know why the Everfree Forest is acting this way," Discord lowered his glasses with interest, "something's happened to the Tree of Harmony!"
Now, they all looked confused at the mention of a new Equestrian artifact while Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy just responded by saying, "Huh?" simultaneously.
"The Tree of What-now?" Rainbow asked.
"It's where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna found the Elements, I think it's in danger!"
"Well, all right, then!" Applejack declared, "Let's go save a...tree. Uh, where is it, exactly?"
Twilight pointed in the direction past Applejack, "I think it's in...there!" Which was the Everfree Forest, and within, the Heartless stared them down as the plants kept growing.
Everyone was shocked that they had to go into a monstrous forest to save all of Equestria, including Sora and his friends.
Well, except for Discord, who chuckled at the scene, held out his bear claw, and lightly shook his container, "I'm going to need more popcorn!"
Donald deadpanned, "You're even more goofier than Goofy. And that's saying a lot."
Goofy looked confused, "Uh, it does?"
To Be Continued...
Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2 - Chapter 2: Dangers of the Everfree Forest
Just outside the entrance to the Everfree Forest, Twilight, Sora, all their friends walked in silence to their greatest challenge yet.
Rarity was the first to break the quietude, "Seems like only yesterday we were heading into these woods to find the Elements of Harmony."
"Seems like only yesterday I was foolish enough to think I should go after them on my own." Twilight added, beginning the trek into the forest, "I don't know what we're going to face in there, but whatever it is...I know we need to face it together."
"Yeah! Let's do it!" Sora declared.
Everyone else voice their agreement as they pushed forward, ready for the trials that lie before them.
After an undetermined amount of time, they found themselves at a swamp within the creepy woods. Searching for a way to press on, Twilight noticed a line of stones just above the murky water.
"We can use those to cross," she said, then hopped on one of them, only to lose her balance as they wobbled.
Rarity gasped in fear, "A cragadile! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!"
Everyone ran in different directions, leaving Twilight and Spike cornered at a stray tree as the cragadile stalked them. Twilight tried to fly, but it was no use. The rocky reptilian roared as it got close enough to clamp its jaw on the princess and her baby dragon, only to have its meal denied by her friends wrapping one of the black vines around its tail and pulling it away from her. Applejack launched a bunch of lassos made from the vines around its limbs with Twilight using her magic to tie them to the trees, restraining the beast of burden.
(stop music)
"That...was close." Twilight said.
"A little too close, if ya ask me," Applejack added, "You sure yer alright?"
"I'm fine, I just can't seem to get these new wings to do what I want them to do when I want them to do it."
"Uh, you'll figure it out eventually." Rainbow said.
"Yeah! Then you'll be a great flyer," Goofy agreed.
"You have been havin' an awful lot of trouble with those thangs," Applejack began, "and, well...who knows what else is gonna come after us? Y'know...maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea for Twilight to back to Ponyville and let us look for the Tree of Harmony without her."
"What? Why?" Twilight asked, offended.
"I second that; what!? Why!?" Sora asked.
"For starters, you jus' about got eaten by a cragadilly." Applejack said.
"We all did," Twilight corrected, "he wasn't after just me."
"Sure, but...well...the rest of us aren't princesses."
"What's THAT got to do with anything?"
"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are gone; if somethin' happened ta you, A-Ah jus' don't think Equestria can risk losin' another princess."
"Applejack does make a valid point," Rarity jumped in, "even if we managed to save the Tree of Harmony, it won't necessarily mean that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna will return. Equestria will somepony to lead in their absence."
"But the Tree of Harmony!" Twilight tried to argue, "I'm the only one who has seen it and knows what it looks like!"
"Yeah!" Donald agreed, "We need her to help us!"
Rainbow flew down to eye level with Twilight, "Huge tree, Cutie Marks on the trunk, probably being attacked by something hideously awful, plus the Heartless? Yeah, I'm pretty sure we'll know it when we see it."
Twilight looked down with tears in her eyes, "All of you feel this way? Feel like I shouldn't be here?"
Everyone except Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy shifted their gaze away from Twilight, not baring to meet her eyes.
"It is probably for the best." Fluttershy says.
Twilight held a disheartened expression as she went back towards Ponyville.
"Twilight..."
She whipped her head back around to see Sora with his brow furrowed.
Twilight lightly gasped, while the others screamed, "WHAT!?"
Rainbow flew towards him with a scowl, "Are you outta your mind, dude!? What if we come across a massive Heartless!?"
"Hey, if she's not going with you, then I'm not either!" Sora shot back, making Rainbow recoil.
"Sora...don't." Twilight said.
"Twilight?"
She looked sorrowful as she gazed into his ocean blue orbs, "They need you more than I do right now; the Heartless are a threat that we can't fight on our own, and I doubt Donald and Goofy can help them without being overwhelmed."
"But...But..." Sora began to cry. This isn't fair, he thought, it doesn't matter what dangers there are, friends should stick together, even when things are at their darkest.
Twilight, noticing Sora's anguish, walked up and pulled him into a tender hug, which he recuperated. Once they separated, Twilight turned around and heading for the forest's exit with Spike following closely behind her. Until she was out of sight, Sora didn't budge or even averted his eyes from her retreating form, and when he did, he gave the group of ponies a brief glare and continued on the path.
"Oh, just give him some time, he'll cool off." Donald said.
With that said, the others continued on with Sora and, knowing his present anger toward the mares, keeping their distance from him.
(stop music)
Back in Ponyville, Discord was reclined on one of the vines, sharpening his eagle claw on a floating baby alligator, ignoring the cries of help from two of the townsponies.
Twilight and Spike arrived and scowled at Discord for his ignorance, "Discord!" She chastised.
At the sound of her voice, Discord made the alligator disappear and snapped the fingers on his bear claw, making the vine the ponies were trapped in vanish and them fall to the ground, then they ran away from him, making Discord call out, "You're welcome!" He huffed, then turned to the princess, "No luck finding your tree?"
"We, ran into some trouble," she turned and sat down as Discord floated down to her with his full attention, "and my friends decided it would be best if I returned to Ponyville while they continue the search. Equestria will need me if Princess Celestia and Princess Luna don't return."
"I'm just surprised that you agreed to their plan, I never you'd be the kind of pony who'd think she was better than everypony else."
"I don't think I'm better than anypony!" Twilight quickly defended.
Discord appeared above her and Spike, "Oh, well, how silly of me to assume that you would think that," then, out of nowhere, a purple cape with a white trim and black spots and a gold scepter with a ruby at the hilt and Twilight's head with a goofy smile on top, "all you did was choose to keep your precious 'princess self' out of harm's way while your friends thrust themselves right into it." Twilight tossed the scepter and the cape aside as Discord continued his monologue, instantly appearing in a shrunken form poking out of Twilight's ear, "I'm sure you'll all be the best of pals again when they return from their terrifying, yet deeply bonding experience that they're having without you." He concluded with a chuckle.
Twilight looked unsure for a moment, but then shifted into determination as she rushed back towards the forest with the mini Discord falling out of her ear and Spike following behind her.
"I never should've agreed to come back here." Twilight said.
"C'mon, Twilight," Spike began, "Discord may be reformed, but he's not THAT reformed, he's just trying to get under your skin."
"Well, it's working!" Twilight replied as she levitated Spike onto her back and continued galloping into the woods while Discord teleported in front of the entrance, waving them off with a smirk.
Deep within the Everfree Forest, Sora, who is still at the front, and the rest of the gang are still searching for the Tree of Harmony. Even now, Sora's mood still hasn't improved after what happened with Twilight.
"Anypony else starting to think this is a lost cause?" Rainbow asked. "We're almost at Celestia and Luna's old castle. Maybe whatever Twilight saw when she took that crazy potion wasn't real, maybe there is no Tree of Harmony, maybe—"
"Maybe it's right down there!" Applejack interrupted, pointing at a ravine just outside a ruined, old castle.
"It can't be!"
They all noticed a cave below the end of the ravine, the inside glowing a blue light as the black vines had already made their way in.
"How are WE supposed to get to it?" Rarity asked.
Pinkie grunted in pain as she stumbled down the ravine from something they didn't notice before until she made it clear, "Take the stairs, silly!"
"I had faith in Twilight when she said the Tree of Harmony would be here..." Sora began as turned to the mares and glared, "...which is more than I can say for you girls."
With that angrily said, he went down the stairs Pinkie mentioned. Rainbow scowled and was about to charge at him, but Applejack held hoof in front of her, with a sad look, she shook her head, and they all went down the steps just behind Sora and Pinkie.
Twilight and Spike followed the path into the forest, beginning to lose hope when they couldn't hide nor hair of their friends.
"Are we there yet?" Spike asked.
"I don't know where we are, we're lost!" She sat down as her forehoof reached for Sora's necklace and clutched it tightly, "I never should've left my friends."
Spike hopped off her back, "We can't just give up," he said as he looked up at one of the trees, "maybe if I get up there, I'll be able to spot 'em," he climbed the tree and made his way across one of the branches, he pulled a brush of leaves away and found the others heading down to the ravine, "well, whataya know?" he went back the way he came to tell his caretaker what he found, "Twilight?" He called, but then his eyes went wide at what he saw.
Twilight was surrounded by a bunch of moving black vines, but these were different; they had clamping maws that sprayed blue-green gas at her, making her cough as they prevent her from getting any fresh air to breathe. The sight made Spike gasp in panic.
When they all made it into the cavern, they saw the Tree of Harmony, but in a weakened state; it's turned completely gray and the black vines wrapped around it every which way and strangling it, causing a bunch of green goop to ooze from it.
Fluttershy gasps, "I think it's dying!"
"So let's save it already!" Applejack declares as she bites down on a vine and pulls it, only for it to snap her off, sending her back toward the group.
"Nice try," Rainbow comments as she flies up and tries to karate kick the vines, but was whipped out of the air by another one of the vines.
(stop music)
"Valiant efforts on both your parts, but the tree remains in jeopardy," Rarity says.
"An' Ah suppose you got ah better idea?" Applejack asks, making Rarity look unsure, she is pulled to her hooves by Fluttershy, "That's wut Ah thought."
Before they knew it, Sora had already dispatched three Shadow Heartless that sprang up from the vines and dismissing his Keyblade when he was sure they wouldn't come back for now.
"I know who would know what to do," Fluttershy said, then came somber as she continued, "but we sent her home."
Everyone looked down in sorrow and hopelessness, knowing that they sent away their best chance at saving Equestria, except for Donald, who was chuckling at the irony of the situation.
"Not very bright on your parts, huh?"
They all glared in his direction, including Sora, Goofy, and Jiminy.
"...What? Was it something I said?"
To Be Continued...
Princess Twilight Sparkle Part 2 - Chapter 3: Take Back the Tree of Harmony!
As if things couldn't get any worse for Sora and his friends, it did; they found the Tree of Harmony from Twilight's vision, but they couldn't find a way to save it. And the only pony who even had a ghost of a chance to save it was sent back to town by her companions. Because of this, Ponyville's most competitive ponies plus Sora were now in a heated argument over the current situation and the foolishness of their choice.
"It was YOUR idea, Applejack!" Rainbow accused.
"We all agreed it was th' best thing, Rainbow Dash!" Applejack shot back. "We were tryin' to protect her!"
"Well, in case you forgot, I hardly agreed to any of it!" Sora added in anger.
It was then the sounds from grunts of pain came from the steps as Spike unceremoniously stumbled down with scuff marks on him that most of them weren't from the stairs. The group rushed over to see if he was okay, Applejack held him in hooves as the other gathered around.
"Twilight! Trouble! Help!" Spike managed to get out before he fainted.
With newfound vigor, Sora flapped his wings and took to the skies without realizing what he's doing, "That's all I needed to hear!"
Meanwhile, back at the clearing, Twilight has passed out from the lack of fresh oxygen and breathing the noxious gases from the snapping plants. One of them screeched and prepared swallow her whole, until a lasso made from the black vines wrapped its maw and pulled back, slamming it into the ground. The one responsible, Applejack, tightened the lasso to prevent it from escaping and spat it out, glaring at the remaining opponents as the rest of the gang gathers.
"Listen here, you rabid rhododendrons!" Applejack proclaims, "Ya mess with one of us, ya mess with all of us!" Pinkie proceeds to blow from a party noise blower at the end of Applejack's speech for some reason.
The plants to screech louder than ever when something was sprouting from each of their stems; they were miniature vines coiling around themselves, shaping into small, bipedal creatures with makeshift claws on their hands and feet and mossy antennae, then in front of their heads, two glowing yellow dots appeared like they were the creatures' eyeballs.
Sora's own eyes widen in horror, "Oh no..."
"What is going on!?" Rarity asked.
"I don't know how, but...these plants...are using themselves to create copies of Heartless!"
"But that's impossible!" Donald argued.
"No sense in whinin' about it, let's jus' do what we do best and stomp these critters!" Applejack said.
"YEAH!" They all declared.
The snapping plants screeched once more as they and the Heartless-hybrids advanced on them.
Rainbow flew up into the sky and taunted, "Up Heeere!" then flew past the snapping plant as they spewed their gas, but they were caught in a spiral from Rainbow's speed and fell to the ground in a heap.
"YOO-HOO! COME AND GET ME!" Pinkie singsonged as she bounced away from one of the snappers and a few Hybrids.
"Don't forget about me!" Rarity chirped as she did the same.
Fluttershy flew away from another snapper as it followed her, causing it to wrap itself around a stray tree as Sora destroyed any Hybrids that came near her while Donald and Goofy spread out to deal with the rest of the Hybrids. It tried to bite her, but got caught in her trap as she flew to safety, giving Applejack the chance to hop over the part of the stem near its maw and used gravity and inertia to slide on the ground under the part of the stem that was stuck as the snapper charged at her instead of the yellow pegasus, but it couldn't reach her as it was now stuck in a massive knot that somehow formed from other snapping plants with some of the Hybrids trapped with them.
Out of nowhere, Pinkie appeared in front of the knot and threw a bunch of confetti in the air, declaring, "TA-DA!" But failed to notice one more snapper was about to chomp her, until she ducked from an incoming beam of magic that exploded its pony-muncher.
(stop music)
Everyone turned to see a now conscious Twilight with her horn alit, indicating that she was the one who fired that beam. Spike rushed to her side as she struggled to stand up and eventually did, all of her friends gathered around her with smiles as Sora walked up and gave her a one armed hug.
"Ah sure am glad ya came lookin' fer us." Applejack said.
"Me too." Sora agreed.
"Not as glad as I am that you found me!" Twilight added.
"The truth of it is, Twilight...we're simply lost without you." Rarity said.
"Yeah," Rainbow begins, "Equestria may need its princess..."
"...But we need our friend." Fluttershy finishes.
The gang came together in a big group hug, including Sora and his own friends.
"Aww, isn't this sweet?" Jiminy asked.
"You said it." Donald answered.
With the entire gang reunited, they all returned to the cave where the Tree of Harmony continues to rot from vines strangling it. Twilight starts walk over to it, then hops and flaps her wings to get closer to it. She gets near the center of the tree, where the replica of her Cutie Mark is, but gasps in surprise when a stray vine wraps itself around her forehoof, forcing her fly away from it and disconnect it with a magic beam. When she finally keeps her distance, the magically cut vine retreats and more coil around the tree, nearly covering its center. Suddenly, the ground began to shake and crack, revealing even more vines, but these were different, they seemed more like pinching claws. Then a large, sinister looking coffin with latched onto it in an 'X' formation dug itself out of the ground right behind the tree, it had a flower bulb with a creepy face atop its mass of vines, and on its front was a familiar black, crossed out heart mark.
"HEARTLESS!" Sora shouted as he summoned his Keyblade and charged into battle.
He went for the four claw-like vines first to make sure they wouldn't get to his friends, but at that moment, the Heartless staggers and slumps over itself. Sora saw his opening and went in to attack, and after three combos, the Heartless stood once more with four more of the claw vines popping out of the ground and opened its casket to swipe its hidden class at Sora, but with a quick flap of his wings, he jumped away from the attack at the last second.
"Sora!" Twilight called, "those claw things are its weakness! Attack them first!"
Sora nodded to her and charged at one of them, swiftly dispatching it, then made his way to strike at another one, only for it to reach out and swallow him.
"SORA!" Everyone screamed.
Before they knew it, Sora was spat out from the bulb on top of the Heartless, tossing him back toward his friends.
"Sora! Are you okay!?" Twilight asked, frantically.
Sora grunted in pain, "I'm fine, it's just a few scr—LOOK OUT!" Sora hopped up to push Twilight out of the way of a pellet with the speed of a bullet headed at them, the others saw it and jumped out of its flight path, exploding once it hit the ground. "Heal!" Sora called, casting his Curaga spell.
Once he was healed up, he returned to battle, his teeth gritting on the Keyblade's handle. Donald and Goofy decided that they stayed in the sidelines long enough and joined Sora with their own weapons. Donald destroyed one of the remaining claw vines, then Goofy dispatched another, and just before Sora finish off the last one, the Heartless spewed some sort of purple pollen and it spread around the battlefield, making the traveling heroes all wobbly.
"What's...going on? I feel...kinda funny..." Sora muttered as he put a hoof to his head.
"Wait a second..." Applejack mumbled as had her hoof to her chin, then her eyes widened in horror as she remembered the same purple stuff that nearly got her little sister. "That there pollen is poisonous! Git outta there!"
Sora and his friends heeded her words and retreated back to rest the group, as soon as they did, Donald got to work healing them, casting his own Curaga spell several times to make sure they were rid of the poison.
"What do we do? We can't fight like this!" Twilight pondered, believing the situation to be hopeless, but then her former mentor's words rang in her head,
(stop music)
"Even without these Elements, the Tree of Harmony will possess a powerful magic, as long as that magic remains, it will continue to control and contain all that grows here."
With a determined scowl, she turned to her friends with a goal set in her mind, "I know how we can save the tree...we have to give it the Elements of Harmony."
There was a moment of silence among the group from Twilight's sudden revelation. Then Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy decided to break it.
"WHAAAAAAT!?" They shouted.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rainbow interjected as she flew to the ground, standing in front of Twilight, "how are we supposed to protect Equestria!?"
Rarity stepped up next to Rainbow, "How are we meant to reign Discord in if we can't use the Elements to turn him back to stone!?"
"Twilight..." Applejack began as she walked up in front of her, "the Elements of Harmony..." she put a hoof on the gem of her necklace, "they're what keep us connected no matter what."
"You're right about one thing, Applejack; the Elements of Harmony DID bring us together," Twilight smiled, "but it isn't the Elements that will keep us connected, it's our friendship, and it's more important and more powerful than any magic. My new role in Equestria may mean I have to take on new responsibilities, and our friendships may be tested, but it will never, EVER be broken."
Everyone smiled at Twilight's heartfelt speech.
"She's right," Sora said, "take it from someone who's connected several worlds together with the friendships my heart's made a home for."
Twilight smiled at Sora, but became serious again as she flew up again, "There's no time to lose, everypony ready?"
"Ready!" They all cheered.
Twilight lit up her horn and levitated the Element gems from her pony friends' necklaces and swirled them around her form as she removed her own gem from her crown and added it with the others. Unfortunately, a bunch of vines reached out and snatched Twilight, as if they knew what she was planning. Everyone gasped in shock as Sora with Keyblade at the ready charged in to free Twilight, but more of the claw vines popped up, preventing him from getting any closer.
She grunted as she struggled in the vines' grasp, they tried to take the Elements, but with the magic, Twilight allowed them to slip out and place them into their proper slots on the branches and her own in the center of the tree just before the vines wrapped her into a cocoon, making her black out.
(stop music)
Twilight soon found herself in a familiar area; she felt like she was both falling and floating at the same time. She tensed up when she remember this place, she was once again in Sora’s heart. Knowing this, she craned her head to face a very familiar stained glass platform. She decided to let this take its course and slowly descend until she place all four hooves on the glass. Twilight looked around for anyone or anything that may help her figure out her reason for being here.
“That’s what you really look like?”
Twilight turned around to find Roxas standing there in confusion, “Yes.”
“I knew you were from another world, but I didn’t think you’d be a horse—”
“—Pony.”
“Same difference,” Roxas countered.
“Look,” Twilight began, “is there a reason that I’m here again?”
“Yeah, Xion wants to see you.”
“Xion?”
“Follow me,” Roxas waved her over.
At that moment, a weird stained glass bridge formed on the edge of platform, leading to another one, but the image is too far to make out.
“Hey! You coming, or what?” Roxas called in the distance.
“Sorry!” Twilight ran over to Roxas, who about halfway across the bridge.
As soon they made it, Twilight took in the platform’s appearance; in the smaller circles at the top both familiar and unfamiliar faces: Sora, Roxas, in his coat and in what appears to be his usual clothing, Lea, the boy and girl she saw in her vision, and a blonde girl that Twilight has never seen before, especially in the center of the platform, a girl with black hair wearing the same coat as Roxas.
“Who is this?”
“Me,” a familiar feminine voice spoke.
Twilight looked in front of her to see the same black haired girl, “Are you—”
“—Xion? Yes.”
“Who exactly are you? Sora’s never mentioned you.”
“That’s because he doesn’t know me.”
“But that’s makes no sense! If you’ve never been involved with Sora, then why are you here!?”
“Allow me to explain…”
Xion took her time to explain the events that took place two years ago, from the day of her creation, becoming friends with Roxas and Axel, who Twilight informed them that he was reborn as his old self, Lea, her hardships in the Organization, and all the way to when her body was destroyed, but her memories of her and Roxas remains inside Sora. At the end, Twilight was shocked, he promised her no more lies and no more lying about anything he was hiding. Roxas noticed Twilight slowly getting mad and tried to intervene.
“I know about Sora’s promise,” he began, “but go easy on him, there’s a reason he didn’t tell you.”
“And what reason is that!?” Twilight all but screamed in his face.
Behind them, they heard crying, Roxas turned to see it was coming from Xion. He made his way over to her and trying to comfort her. Twilight calmed down and felt a little guilty for making Roxas’ friend cry. And that’s when it hit her; Xion was crafted from Sora’s lost memories, in a way, he was connected to her, so he feels what she feels, remembering what Roxas told her the last time they spoke. The reason Sora didn’t tell Twilight about this…
"...Because something like this is too painful for him to talk about." Twilight muttered.
Xion sniffled, “...Yes.”
“That’s also the reason why you were brought here,” Roxas added.
“Huh?” Twilight was confused now.
“Xion and I wanted to talk to you about that some things are just too hard for Sora to talk about and we wanted you to understand and respect that. I know you two made a promise, but even Sora can feel hurt talking about stuff like this, so try and be patient with him, okay?”
Twilight cleared her throat to avoid crying while clutching Sora’s crown necklace, “Okay. I will.” A familiar feeling of tiredness overtook her. “What...the…”
Roxas and Xion came up to either side of her and held her up, the former spoke to her, “It’s time to wake up, Twilight.”
“Yes, your friends need you,” Xion agreed.
Twilight could barely make out what Xion said as she once again lost consciousness in Sora’s heart...
Back in reality, the Elements were put in place and a bright rainbow light shined from the tree and the vines began to dissipate. The Heartless roared in pain as the light engulfed it, destroying it and releasing the crystalline heart within. Throughout the forest, all the way to Ponyville, the vines vanished into thin air, including the Discord was laying on, who was dressed in a tropical shirt and sunglasses, drinking out of a coconut, making him fall on his butt.
"Oh, poo." The now downtrodden Discord cursed.
The light began to dim as Twilight, now fully awake, flew back to her friends and saw the last of the vines disappearing, revealing the two princesses that went missing. They all smiled at the rulers, glad that they were unharmed as they trotted over to them while rushed to her former teacher.
"We know how difficult it must've been for you to give up the Elements. It took great courage to relinquish them." She said as everyone looked joyful.
Then tree began to glow once more as the light from the Elements merged together and trailed down the base, lighting up the sun and moon symbols and stop at one of the roots. A plant began to sprout and grow a flower bulb, when Twilight got near it, it bloomed to reveal a three-dimensional, hexagonal chest with a keyhole on each side of the top half.
"What's inside it? How am I supposed to open it?" Twilight asked the two princesses.
Sora summoned his Keyblade and tapped the chest...but nothing happened.
"What the—my Keyblade! It's not working!" Sora exclaimed.
"But then...how can we get it open?" Twilight asked no one in particular.
"Six locks, six keys..." Luna pondered.
Twilight, Sora, and Luna turned to Celestia, who said, "Do not know where they are..." With a smile, she moved aside to reveal her friends, "but I DO know that it is a mystery you will not be solving alone."
They all smiled as Twilight smiled back while she and Sora tenderly embraced each other.
(stop music)
CLAP...CLAP...CLAP…
Everyone jumped at the sound of slow-clapping and turned to its source: the cavern's exit. There, they saw a bald old man with the only sign of hair upon his chin in the shape of a goatee, he is dressed in silver, black, and white clothing, and has upper body arched.
"Well done, Sora, you've saved the day once again." He spoke in a raspy voice.
"Xehanort!" Sora exclaimed.
"Wait! That's—!?" Twilight said.
"I see," Celestia interrupted as she and Luna stepped forward, both with furrowed brows, "So YOU are Xehanort."
"Yes, my dear princess, I see Sora has told you about me," He briefly shifted his gaze to Sora and then back to the princesses, "everything has gone completely according to plan."
"What do you mean!?" Sora asked.
"Why Sora shouldn't it be obvious by now? Then allow me to enlighten you, since there is no point in lying..." He hummed in his rasping voice as he recalled what he's been up to, "I had sensed a powerful magic radiating from this world and decided to take reconnaissance in secret. It was here that I had found this, ‘Tree of Harmony’ as you call it, from what my associate has told me, I had deduced that the ‘Elements of Harmony’ had originated from this very tree.”
Braig. Sora thought.
“I couldn’t go up against you or the Bearers of the Elements without a plan, and that’s when I felt it…” Xehanort sneered, “The Plundervines that have once overgrown in this area, they were trying to steal the magic from the tree, but its magic was far too strong. So, I used my dark power to weaken it, because I foresaw this very situation; the Plundervines growing out of control, you equines sacrificing your Elements to save the tree and Equestria as a whole, and rendering yourself weak to my darkness. I even left behind that powerful Heartless you vanquished.”
Everypony kept their eyes on Xehanort, preparing themselves for an attack of any sort.
“After the deed was done, I had done some research and discovered that there were and are dark entities here, entities that I could bend to my will. Even a nearly peaceful world such as this has a dark side; light and darkness go hand in hand, you cannot have one without the other.”
Princess Luna narrowed her eyes at his last sentence, slightly angering her with his philosophy.
“This world, like many others, shall become what I will it to be, after the second Keyblade War.”
“Keyblade War?” Celestia inquired.
“Yes. There is a world far beyond your own, known as ‘The Keyblade Graveyard’.”
“K-Keyblade G-G-Graveyard?” Fluttershy stuttered.
Xehanort nodded, “There, you would behold many lifeless keys that used to be full of power, united with their youthful masters, locked in combat…” He swung his arms outward, “As a great Keyblade War raged!”
Everypony was ready to pounce, except for Fluttershy who was trembling behind Rainbow.
“Countless Keyblade wielders lost their lives...all in search of one, ultimate key…” Xehanort held his left hand behind his back as his right formed a fist in front of him, “And this time, it will soon belong to me…” He raised a finger from his right hand a pointed at a certain tan Pegasus, “...X-blade!”
Twilight and Sora bared their teeth at the evil Keyblade Master, who conjured an orb of darkness while laughing to himself and shot it through the cavern ceiling. Once the orb reached the sky, clouds began to form and push themselves aside to reveal something that shocked everypony to their core…
Kingdom Hearts.
Xehanort curled the fingers on his right hand in and out several times and swung his right arm out towards Sora, enveloping him in darkness and shocking the others, but before anyone could say or do anything, the darkness dissipated, and revealed Sora's true form.
"What did you do!?" Sora barked.
Xehanort chuckled, "I merely dispelled the duck's disguise," his right hand flashed a sinister light that summoned his Keyblade, "now you can fight me at your full strength."
Sora picked himself off the ground and summoned his own Keyblade and charged forward.
"Sora, wait!" Twilight called, but he didn't listen.
Sora jumped and delivered an overhead slash, which was easily blocked by Xehanort, raising his Keyblade in front of him and pushing back with tremendous force, making Sora stumble for a moment.
"Freeze!" Xehanort declared as volleys of black and white ice flew towards Sora.
"Defense!" Sora shouted, casting his Reflega spell that absorbed Xehanort's attack and shot beams of light back at him, only to teleport away from them.
Xehanort slowly walked toward Sora in an intimidating fashion. "Concede!" He yelled as he let loose a chunk of earth to rise from below him, but Sora was able to dodge in the nick of time. Sora ran to Xehanort and conducted a three-hit combo on him before he teleported away again.
"Fire!" Sora declared as he shot a Firaga spell at Xehanort, but swatted away with his Keyblade as if it were nothing but a fly.
"Thunder!" Xehanort shouted, casting a dark-colored lightning bolt at Sora, who dodge rolled out of the way.
The two stared each other down, neither ready to give the other an inch in this battle as the ponies from the sidelines could just watch.
"Is that really all the strength you can muster?" Xehanort asked.
"SORA!!"
Sora turned to Twilight's voice and saw a sight that made his heart stop; Heartless such as Darkballs, Soldiers, and Air Soldiers surrounding her and the others, Donald and Goofy could barely hold their hold against them, especially after fighting the giant Heartless from before. Sora rushed to their aid, only to stopped by an unbreakable, hexagonal barrier. Sora put his free hand on it as Twilight raised her hoof to where Sora's hand was, unable to even touch each other.
"You see how powerless you are to save them?" Xehanort began as Sora turned to face him with gritted teeth. "Savor that rage and despair. Let it empower you!" He swung his arms out as he declared.
Suddenly, a dark aura appeared around Sora as he clutched his Keyblade tighter than ever before, "Why, Xehanort...was messing with Riku and Kairi not enough for you or Xemnas or Ansem!? LEAVE MY FRIENDS ALONE!!!"
"Sora! No!" Twilight pleaded, but once again it fell on deaf ears.
"Yes, boy, that's it! More!" Xehanort readied his Keyblade. "Let your whole heart blacken with anger!"
All everyone could do was watch in horror as Sora slowly, but surely, gives in to the darkness...
SHING!
(stop music)
...Only to be put to sleep by a familiar face with a familiar Keyblade.
"Not today, Xehanort." The new newcomer said.
"Riku!?" Xehanort said in surprise.
He turned his head to Twilight and the others, who were now beginning to dwindle the Heartless's numbers, "Don't worry, I casted Sleep on him, he'll be fine." Riku returned his focus to Xehanort, "Game's over, Xehanort."
Xehanort scowled, "...For now, anyway."
The Corridor of Darkness appeared behind him and slowly walked backwards inside it, disappearing from the face of Equestria.
Riku turned and shouted, "Thunder!" using his Thundaga spell to destroy the remaining Heartless. Breathing a sigh of relief, he expelled his Keyblade and sat next to Sora's sleeping form. "You guys okay?" he asked.
"I...think so." Twilight says, reluctantly.
"Who are you?" Princess Celestia asked.
"Riku. Sora's friend."
"Wait! You're Riku!?" Twilight exclaimed.
Riku smirked, "I see Sora's told you about me." He shook his head, "But now's not the time for that. Which one of you is Celestia?"
"That would be me." Celestia said.
Riku pulled an envelope out of his jacket, "This is for you. From King Mickey."
Celestia's eyes widen as she gasped, "The King!?" She took the letter in her magic, opened it, and it read:
Dear Princess Celestia, Gee, it's been a while, hasn't it? I wanted to inform you that a dangerous evil from the past has risen once again, the same evil that I believe brought the Unversed to your world all those years ago. But there's more to this letter than just that. We're trying to gather seven Keyblade wielders of pure light to take place in a battle that will decide the fate of all worlds, including your own. I wish for you to train Sora to prepare him to retake the Mark of Mastery exam, he must pass in order for him to become a true Keyblade Master. Also, I would like you to meet Master Riku, he will aid Sora in his training. I await your reply, Your Majesty. M.M. P.S. Tell Princess Luna I said, "Hi"
After Celestia finished reading Mickey's letter, she smiled and returned her attention to Riku, "I see. It is truly an honor to meet you..." She bowed, "...Keyblade Master Riku."
"Huh!?" Everyone said in shock.
"Oh, yeah!" Everyone shifted their focus to Twilight, "Sora told me that you were the only one out of the both of you who passed the Keyblade exam!"
Riku chuckled as he went to pick up the unconscious Sora, "Is anything you haven't told her?"
Sora began to stir and opened his eyes, "Ugh...what happened...?" His eyes swiftly widened when he remembered the situation, "Twilight!"
"It's okay, Sora, we're fine!" Twilight said.
Sora relaxed after seeing Twilight and her friends are okay, he then turned to see his best friend, "Riku!?"
"Hey there, 'lazy bum'." Riku joked.
"Alright," Celestia interjected, "I think we all had enough excitement for one day, let's return and deliver the good news, then we shall get the Summer Sun Celebration back on track."
"But first," Sora began, "Donald, turn me back into a pony, just so we don't have ponies thinking something else is going on."
"Right!" Donald said, returning Sora's pony form.
Afterwards, the group left the cavern and made their way back through the forest to return to town.
(stop music)
On the way back to Ponyville through the forest, Twilight hung her head low and eyes downcast, thinking about her recent visit within Sora’s heart. Xion... Twilight couldn’t understand how beings like the Organization can be so cruel. Sora noticed her upset demeanor and put his hoof on her shoulder, stopping them both midtrot.
“Hey...what’s wrong?” He asked.
She shifted her eyes to his and gazed deeply into them as she spoke, “Sora...who’s Roxas and Xion?”
The question caught everyone’s attention as Sora’s eyes widened in shock, “H-How did you—”
“I don’t know how, but I’m able to see inside your heart.”
Sora sighs deeply, knowing that this is something he can’t avoid, especially since he promised no more lies after Twilight had that vision of him facing the Seekers in the Dream Worlds.
“Something you’re not telling us?” Luna asked him.
Sora looked at everyone around him, the looks in their eyes pleading for answers.
“Okay...it’s like this…” Sora began.
He told them about when he met Roxas in the Dream Worlds, how he had transferred his memories into Sora, seeing and experiencing Roxas’ long, forgotten pain; the Organization’s deception, their cruelty towards Xion, referring to her as an “it”, Axel concealing the truth about Xion, the battle with Xion’s alternate forms, her eradication, and Riku stopping Roxas from storming the castle. Everything from start to finish. The group’s reactions varied from shock to sadness to fear and to anger. Luna looked at her sister, whose face held a concentrated expression.
“Is something wrong, sister?”
“Xion…” Celestia said, wistfully, “that name feels familiar to me, but I cannot remember where I heard it.”
“Princess…?” Twilight looked worriedly at her former mentor, who shook her head.
“I’ll have to ponder on it later, right now, we must leave the Everfree Forest, the plants and Heartless may have been stopped, but this place is still dangerous.”
They all nodded and continued on the path back to town.
"I'm sorry for opening up old wounds Sora, but I had to know." Twilight said, "Oh, by the way, Princess Celestia?"
"Yes Twilight?"
"Um...who's Eraqus?"
Celestia was shocked that Twilight knew her old friend's name, how did she know?
"I saw it in a vision from a potion I drank, it's also how I was able to find the Tree of Harmony."
Celestia hesitated, "He's...a long forgotten friend, Twilight. But that's a story for another time."
Twilight nodded, realizing that she opened up another old wound by accident. The rest of the trip continued in silence.
The group was just exiting the forest when Discord appeared with falling confetti, banners, and "#1" signs while waving a multicolored flag in his bird claw and a foam finger on his bear claw.
"Bravo, ladies and gentlecolts, BRA-VO!" he declared, then got in Rainbow's face, "How ever did you save the day this time? Blast the beastie with magic necklaces, I presume?" he teleported on Applejack's back, wearing a cowboy outfit, "Where are those little trinkets of yours? You know, the ones you used to send me back to my extremely uncomfortable stone prison?"
Applejack sighed, "Gone."
With a flash, Discord popped back to normal with a gleeful expression, "Gone?" then he looked deviously ponderous, "Gone...?"
"But our friendship remains," Fluttershy interjected, beginning to scold him as he shrinks, "and if YOU want to remain friends, you'll stop thinking whatever it is you're thinking and help us clean up."
Discord disappeared and reappeared again, but back to normal size, wearing a maid outfit, complete with a feather duster, "Fine. But I don't do windows."
With that quip, they all resumed their walk back to Ponyville when Applejack spoke up, "One thing Ah don't get: why'd all this happen NOW?"
"I have NO idea," Discord began, "those seeds I planted should've sprouted up ages ago."
"Oh, why should I try to explain it when you can see for yourself?" Discord asked, conjuring the potion in his bird claw.
Twilight levitated the bottle to her muzzle and drank from it, causing her eyes to glow white and see another vision.
"Playtime is over for you, Discord!" Past Celestia declared.
Past Discord brought a bag of black seeds and started spreading them around while had a bored expression, "Oh, I doubt that." He plucked one of the seeds as they fell out of the bag and shuddered in the delight when he ate one, "Hungry?" He offered. One seed bounced off each of the three's heads as they maintained their serious demeanor.
Present Discord began to explain, "Well, obviously, things didn't go according to my original plan; my Plunderseeds should've stolen the magic from the Tree of Harmony, and captured Princess Celestia and Princess Luna thousands of moons ago, alas, it seems the Tree had a enough magic to keep the seeds from growing up big and strong...until now, that is."
Twilight shook herself out of the vision while Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy looked like they were trying to put the pieces together, and when they did, they shared a cacophonous, "WHAAAAT!?"
"Tch. Figures." Riku scoffed.
"You realize this is information we could've used HOURS ago!?" Twilight asked.
"And rob you of a valuable lesson about being a princess? What kind of friend do you think I am?" Discord asked, rhetorically, then pinched Twilight, stretched it like elastic, and let go, snapping her skin back into place while she bore an annoyed expression.
Sora suddenly looked mischievous and whispered in Donald's ear, who chuckled sinisterly as they turned to face Riku. Donald cast the same spell on Riku and turned him into a pony, much to his shock; he was a pure white Unicorn with a silver mane and his usual cyan eyes, his Cutie Mark was the same as his Keyblade's token; a black heart with a red outline.
The girls blushed at his new look, Rarity more so, as she uttered, "Oh my..."
Riku went wide-eyed at the girls' reactions "Sora... change me back now."
"But Riku, you look so cute as a pony!" Sora cooed.
Riku became angry at Sora tease, "I'm serious, Sora, change me back now!"
Sora put a hoof to his muzzle, "Hmm, nah."
"SORRRAAAAAA!" Riku roared, barreling towards him.
"Run, Donald!"
The entire group laughed at the display of childishness, even Discord. After the chase finally wore Riku down, Twilight walks up to Sora and says, "Sora...when it comes to things like Roxas and Xion...you don't have to tell me unless you want to. I understand that some things are hard to talk about, even for you."
Sora smiled, "Thanks Twilight."
The two tenderly embraced each other while the girls, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy said, "Awww!" but Discord said, "Bleech!" and Riku responded with, "Oh, get a room, you two."
After the sun and the moon were situated, the group returned to Canterlot for the Summer Sun Celebration. The princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Twilight, who got a new crown, of course, stood before the crowd as the Royal Guard played their fanfare. Among the crowd were Twilight's friends, Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy, who sat on Sora's shoulder.
"Citizens of Equestria," Celestia began, "it is no longer with a heavy heart, but with great joy that I raise the summer sun, for this celebration now represents, not the defeat of Nightmare Moon, but the return of my sister, Princess Luna!"
The crowd cheered loudly at the princess's speech, especially Sora and the others. Luna flew into the air with her horn lit, telekinetically lowering the moon as Celestia did the same, but using her telekinesis to raise the sun, then when the sun and moon were next to each other, Twilight flew up, lighting her horn and creating a flash of magic as the sun rose, making a spectacular display and leaving the crowd in sheer awe. The three princesses returned to the ground Celestia and Luna smiled at Twilight, who smiled back and to the crowd.
After the sun was risen, Twilight, Sora, and their friends were invited into the castle to celebrate the defeat of the Plundervines and the Leechgrave. After the party, Sora began to wander the castle grounds, curious about the landscape. He eventually found the throne room and took a look around; the room was breathtaking, the stained glass windows glinted brightly, the marble floor shimmered in the sunlight, and the red carpet gave off a hint of royalty in the air.
"Sora."
He turned around to see Celestia, Luna, Twilight, and her friends standing in the doorframe of the throne room.
Celestia walked up to Sora, "We must talk about Xehanort. I've sensed a powerful dark magic within him, one that my sister and I are all too familiar with."
Sora frowned, "I... I can't—”
"You have to. Please."
Sora looked at everyone with great uncertainty, but he knew they weren't going to let him go without an explanation. He took a deep breath and explained everything he knew about Xehanort; the Keyblade Exam, the 13 Seekers of Darkness, and his plan to create the X-blade, including what the X-blade is and does.
Everyone in the room was aghast at the entire thing, never have they heard of an evil willing to destroy all worlds and recreate them in their image.
"I see..." Celestia turned to face the other ponies in the room, "I fear we are in more danger than we originally thought, my little ponies."
"I am. You're not."
"Huh?" Everyone said.
"This is my fight, not yours. If you stay here, you'll be safe when me and my friends defeat Xehanort."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Rainbow interjected, "If you're going, then we're all going with you! Right, girls?"
"You can't!"
"And why not?! And don't say it isn't our fight!"
"BECAUSE I DON'T WANT YOU TO GET HURT!!"
The room was silent, everyone was completely speechless.
"Don't you get it?! This is bigger than you! Bigger than me! Bigger than all of us! This battle will decide the fate of many worlds, my friends back at the Tower are already putting their lives at risk to stop Xehanort, and I don't need anyone else getting hurt because of me!"
Tears began to form and drip freely from Sora's eyes. Twilight, seeing him like this, walked over and put her wing around him to comfort him.
"I came here to train...so I could be ready to retake the Keyblade Exam...and fight along side my friends as a Keyblade Master..."
"Then that's what we'll do." Celestia said.
(stop music)
"Huh?" Everyone repeated.
"Twilight, you and your friends will help Sora train for his exam, and we will respect his wishes and assist him in our world. Nowhere else. I do not wish to see my subjects be harmed."
"You've gotta be kidding me!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"I'm sorry, Rainbow, but it's for the best." Twilight and her friends were completely disappointed, but Rainbow perked up when she had an idea.
"In that case, we got just enough time for me to whip those wings into shape, Private!"
"Hey, I'm no Private!"
"I beg to differ." Riku walked in with Donald and Goofy behind him, "I kicked your butt in more ways than one back on the island."
"Say that again!"
Everyone shared a hearty laughter at their rivalry. Celestia and Luna were glad that their subjects could find the positive in a negative situation like this. Xehanort will be a problem to deal with later, right now, a certain Keyblade wielder has training to undergo.
But for now, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Riku returned to the Gummi Ship to inform their King and Master the events that took place here.
(stop music)
King Mickey and Master Yen Sid, I believe… Celestia thought, It's been a while since I've last seen them.
Celestia's thoughts were interrupted when she heard the ship blasting off.
To Be Continued on Kingdom Hearts: Castle Mane-ia...
You see the save screen on your TV,
Would you like to save your game? [Yes] [No]
You click "Yes".
Loading…
You come up on your file list.
1. Canterlot High [Play Time] 0:48:12 School Courtyard [Munny] 3500
You then click your previous save file.
This already has a saved file, would you like to overwrite it? [Yes] [No]
You click "Yes".
Saving…
Your game is saved!
Your TV screen goes black and you turn off your game. You walk into the kitchen and make yourself a snack for a job well done. You return afterwards and turn your game back on, you use your Clear File to open up the Secret Ending. You set your controller down, kick back, and relax as you watch the scene play.
After the debriefing, Yen Sid dismissed Sora, Riku, Donald, Goofy, and Jiminy, so he could be alone with his thoughts as he stroked his beard.
"This greatly disturbs me..." Yen Sid spoke, "Xehanort has made his move faster than any of us had anticipated..."
Mickey walked in and made sure he firmly closed the door, "Is something troubling you, Master Yen Sid?"
Yen Sid hummed, "...Yes. From now on, we must be on high alert; Xehanort could strike at any time now, if what I heard from Sora is correct... speaking of whom, watch over him during his training..."
"Why?"
"Call it a hunch...Xehanort could still be after Sora."
Twilight lay awake in her bed, wondering how Sora's doing, especially after she returned his necklace to him.
Sora...after what happened with Xehanort today...are you in danger just being here? And what about the Mysterious Chest? Why wouldn't Sora's Keyblade work on it? she sighed deeply, I'll have to think about it in the morning, it's been a long day.
Letting her eyes flutter shut, she finally fell asleep.
Xehanort sat atop his chair within The Castle That Never Was in the room called Where Nothing Gathers, sneering as he was relishing in his latest victory.
"I may not have acquired Sora, but I believe I found something of near equal value...now it is only a matter of time for us to act...with the research I've gathered, should I fail to retrieve Sora, I have found several other candidates for the job...hehehehehe..." he chuckled darkly.
You returned to the title screen and turn off your game. You lay on your bed and relax, knowing you may need to buy another "Kingdom Hearts: The Heart of Friendship" game.
A Corridor of Darkness opened up within a hidden cavern just below the Castle of the Two Sisters, the person stepping out of it was none other than the Keyblade Master of Darkness, Xehanort.
"Hmm...what have we here?" he asked no one in particular as he gazed at the crystalline tree, which was slowly losing its glow, "This is without a doubt the artifact that prevented my arrival..." he opened his right palm and hovered it in front of the tree, "let us fix that, shall we?"
Darkness flowed from his fingertips into the tree, causing its glow to die out instantly. Just then, black, thorny vines sprouted from the ground, snaring the tree and strangling it. They went after Xehanort as well, but with a wave of his hand, he countered with a vast aura of darkness, making the vines back away, fearful of his power.
"Hmph. I don't recall coming here to become plant fertilizer." he stated as he exited the cave and entered a ravine. He turned around and looked up at the Castle of the Two Sisters, decrepit and in near ruins. He sneered, "Oh...I do believe I am getting some where now."
After wandering around the ruined castle for some time, Xehanort finally found the once royal library, but like the rest of the castle, it was in near ruins; parts of the ceiling were crumbled onto the floor, book littered in large piles, and the vines from before growing all throughout the castle goes without saying. Xehanort began searching the shelves for anything of interest, but found nothing. Just before he gave up, he came across a tome labeled, "Dangerous Threats To Equestria", and with a sneer, he plucked it off the shelf and began researching.
"Hmm...'Discord'...'King Sombra'...'Tirek'...'Changelings'...'Nightmare Moon'..." he read off the names he found, the latter's backstory reminding him of Riku when he gave in to darkness and a certain feckless youth who became his new vessel, then he saw a subject within that piqued his curiosity, "...'Tartarus; a prison for the worst criminals in Equestrian history'..." he sneered once again, and his eyes then laid upon an open book with blank pages inside it, "Hmm...perhaps I should chronicle my findings..." he looked back at the tome in his hand, "I suppose even a utopian world like this has its dark corners..." he chuckled darkly at thought of having multiple candidates for his Seekers of Darkness.
With quill in hand, he began jotting down information from a new book he found about the Elements of Harmony after finishing his research on the dark entities that reside in Equestria.
"...'The Elements possess a powerful magic that can seal away dark entities...example #1: Discord was turned into a stone statue after Princesses Celestia and Luna used the Elements on him...example #2: After Luna's descent into darkness and becoming Nightmare Moon, Princess Celestia used the Elements to seal Nightmare away in the moon, giving her the nickname, The Mare in the Moon'...Interesting."
After Xehanort feels he has collected enough info, he took his newly-found journal and begins to leave, only to find a secret room that contains another journal on a pedestal. With a few curls of his fingers, his darkness conjures another pedestal and places his upon it, closing the secret room back up afterwards.
"Should Sora or any of his friends find this, it should give them a few clues as to what my next move will be...if I am betting on luck to help me, they may get the wrong idea and chase after a wild goose, as the saying goes."
Xehanort began to take his leave from the decrepit castle and proceed with the next part of his plan.
After Xehanort witnessed the vines disappearing in several rainbow lights, he sneered as he felt everything has gone according to plan; Sora came to Equestria and saved the day, just as he always did for every other world.
"And now, the stage is set...all I need to do at this point...is simply retrieve my 13th Darkness."
Xehanort walked down the stairs back into the ravine and made his way to the cavern with its current inhabitants unaware of what's coming before them...
