//------------------------------// // Chapter 38: Discord's Rat Race // Story: Kingdom Hearts: Harmonic Connections // by Mr Curious Writer //------------------------------// (As Always Green Text means "click me" to play theme music to go with what you're reading. Red text means to stop the music. Any words with [color=#afa4cc26]This coloring to their text means to click on it for a sound effect. If there is music playing, then let it keep playing, the sound effect is brief Completely optional: You’re free to ignore this) Floating Town Hall         The girls were now staring down the newcomer as Sora was taken aback. “Whoa! Who’s that guy?” He trotted past the girls. “He’s like a jigsaw puzzle of animals or something, it’s pretty cool!”         “Oh, you flatter me, sir.” Discord bashfully waved a paw in response.         Twilight immediately called out to him. “Sora, get back! He’s trouble!”         “Hm?” Sora looked back at the girls. “Why? I’ve seen weirder stuff, even if it’s not by much.” He raised an eyebrow.         Meanwhile, Discord stroked his goatee and mumbled to himself. “Hmm, I must be slipping in my old age.”         Twilight shook her head. “Sora this is different! He’s the reason Ponyville looks like this, why the mayor looks like that!” She pointed her hoof toward the creature Discord had in his lap, causing Sora to finally notice it was Mayor Mare’s head on a cat’s body.         “Mrweow- A little help, please! Nyaaa- I feel a hairball coming! This is such a strange experience!         Twilight continued. “See? He alters the fabric of reality on a whim!”         “Him too?” Sora looked back surprised.         “.........What?” The girls and the Mayor asked in unison.         Sora just shrugged. “It’s a big universe out there, you know? I’m friends with a guy who can do that.”         “Is that a challenge?” Discord scowled a little.         Twilight shook her head. “You know what? We’ll talk about this later.” She rushed past him. “Come on girls!” Now the girls stood between Sora and Discord, their gems already aglow. “We need to stop him right now before things get too crazy.”         “I surrender.” Discord replied.         Twilight stomped her hoof. “Your mind games won’t work on- Wait what?” Only to get thrown completely off once his words finally registered in her mind.         “You win, I concede.” Discord said simply as he continued to stroke the mayor’s back.         The Mayor purred. “Mmm, this is so humiliating but I can’t Stop! Purrrrr...”         “What do you mean we win?” Sora asked tilting his head.         “Well since you're new here I’m gonna give you a quick little summary.” He then stopped scratching the Mayor’s back and let her scurry off in fear before he stood up from the chair. This got the girls all tensed up and readying themselves. “So, as my name should probably clue you in, I am the lord of chaos. I take immeasurable pleasure from shaking up the established order and keeping things from getting mind numbingly boring and stagnant. However, it would seem the ponies don’t take to kindly to me enlightening them on such beauty.”         Twilight interrupted. “Beauty? How could you call breaking the laws of physics beautiful? It’s just-”         “I can see that,” Sora replied rubbing a hoof under his chin.         “Oh-ho, I like this one.” Discord smirked while folding his arms.         “Sora, you’re not helping.” Twilight turned to the stallion.         “Anyways, back to my explanation.” Discord said as he suddenly disappeared from his spot and reappeared in front of them. “The truth is I have no reason to fight any of you this time.”         “What do you mean?” Sora asked curiously. At this Discord patted Sora on the head.         “I don’t exactly know who you are boy, but it seems you’ve caught the eye of a rather calculated individual. Then again, I suppose that was bound to happen sooner or later, now that your true identity has been revealed to Equestria.”         Sora was taken aback. “Huh? How did you-”         Discord interrupted. “Let’s leave that answer for later, shall we. For now, I must give my terms of surrender.”         “Unless it’s getting turned to stone again, fat chance.” Rainbow crossed her forelegs and stuck her tongue out at him.         Discord simply shrugged. “Well, you could’ve at least let me ask before shooting me down.” Seeing the girls weren’t budging on it, he sighed. “Then allow me to continue. Before you stone me again, there are some things that I was told to do.”         “Told to? Since when have you taken orders from anyone?” Applejack questioned.         Discord shook his head and sighed. “I can hardly get a word in edgewise with all these interruptions, do you mind?” And just like that everyone’s mouths disappeared, as if they were simply erased from their bodies. This, of course, caused quite a stir for them. “There we go, now I can actually speak.” While some like Twilight were struggling to say something only for muffled grunting to be heard, others like Sora and Pinkie seemed to be tapping at where their mouths once were in astonishment. “Now then, I’ll keep it brief for miss sour puss over here.” Discord gestured to a very livid looking Twilight. “Mmrmmrrmuuum!” She grunted in anger. “I’ll get to that, just stop interrupting. Now then, normally I would’ve loved to go round two with you all, but unfortunately, the one that freed me is a crafty one. For reasons I would rather not go into, I’m afraid I’m being forced to comply with his demands for now. And right now, he has sent me on a rather bothersome errand.” Discord sighed, conjuring up a bowl of cereal before scooping up some of the bowl with a fork as he mumbled during his chewing. “Unbelievable. Me, The Lord of Chaos, reduced to a simple errand boy.” He shook his head. “But I‘m trailing off topic, I’ll just get to the point since it won’t be long til it wears off.” This part got everyone curious. “So here's what I was told. It seems my “client” wants to test you, spiky hair.” Discord turned to Sora. “And the girls too of course, but he seemed a bit more focused on you. Makes me sort of curious about what you did to him…” after another shrug he gave up on that question. “From here, you must make your way to where he is waiting for you. Of course, as a test, it naturally won’t be so straightforward as that. It’s why your beloved Ponyville is as it is now. You have until sundown to find him.” It was at this moment that everyone’s mouths suddenly returned just in time for Sora to go. “What?! That’s it?!” “Chop chop, time's a wastin’ fella!” He chuckled “Oh! That’s right, one last thing.” He smiled and snapped his fingers. In a puff of smoke, Sora and the girls were back on the ground beneath the floating Town Hall. “Jeez, doesn’t even give us time to think does he?” Sora scratched his head, but then stopped when he noticed something different about his leg. “We can’t play his games. I don’t who he’s talking about but right now, using the elements on him again is top priority!” Twilight replied as she waited for the smoke to dissipate then turned around. “Rainbow, you and Fluttershy- Wha?” What she saw immediately halted her train of thought, and it would seem the other girls had caught on as well. No longer were they ponies, in their place stood simple rats. The only concession being that they kept their respective fur color and mane styles. “Aaugh! W-w-w-we’re RATS?!” Rarity sat back and lifted her forelimbs, her once beautifully manicured hooves were now dirty looking paws. “Ugh! So filthy!” She immediately attempted to clean them off but wasn’t expecting her body to react instinctively and try to clean them as a rat would. “Augh! Oh-Pptth-Bleh! The dirt and grime is in my mouth! Ppth!” “Omigosh! You all look soooo cute!” Fluttershy was on cloud nine admiring her now adorable looking friends. “Wow! We’re so tiny! Ooh ooh, I can eat a cupcake that’s larger than me now!” Pinkie said as she bounced happily. “My wings! Where are my wings?!” Rainbow was circling herself in a futile effort. “Dash, give it up. When's the last time ya seen a flyin’ rat?” Applejack shook her head as she watched Rainbow’s antics. “Ok, everyone just calm down-” Sora tried to mediate but was then grabbed and shaken violently. “Sora, I can’t use my magic! I can’t cast any spells without my horn! How are we gonna fix this?!” Yelled a panicking Twilight. “T-T-Twilight! Relax!” He tried to reply before finally grabbing her and making her stop. “Relax?! Who could relax at a time like this?! We’re rats, have no way to fly or use magic! We’re useless as we are now-” Twilight was interrupted due to getting slapped across the face by a pink paw. “Thanks, Pinkie.” “Anytime, she was becoming a real downer there.” She giggled. Sora then returned his attention to Twilight. “You ok now? Can I speak?” “Y-yeah, sorry about that… Not sure what came over me there.” He patted her head. “Happens to the best of us. Now, if we’re all done freaking out?” “Oh wait!” Pinkie raised her paw, then fell onto her back flailing. “Aaaaaaugh we’re raaaaaats! We’re doooomed!...” Then she immediately got back up with a smile on her face as if that didn’t happen. “Ok! You may proceed.”  “Right...” Sora just nodded to her. However, he was apparently getting used to her antics and ended up smiling a moment later. “Thank you for breaking the tension there, Pinkie.” To which the pink rat with the familiar poofy hair style just bounced and giggled. “Alright now everyone, let’s learn something from Pinkie here and relax for a moment… Ok, so we’re rats now, Rainbow and Flutters can’t fly while Twilight and Rarity can’t use their unicorn magic either… how about our weapons?” Applejack was the first to summon hers, surprisingly her gauntlets not only appeared but now even had finger guard parts for her new digits. “Well, if that don’t beat all.” She lifted one up and examined it. Pinkie was next. Looking to her back she watched as her beloved pink metal pack appeared, as well as her goggles on her forehead. “Hee hee hee, Teeny tiny turret on my back.” she gave it a playful wiggle. Rarity summoned her fedora and was thankful it appeared at the just the right spot to look fashionable on her. Finally, there was Fluttershy. On cue, her scarf with the hovering butterflies reappeared matched her tiny size. “Yay..” She cheered softly holding her paw up to let one of the “butterflies” land on it. She was more happy about seeing the cute little butterflies again than she was about having a weapon. Seeing their success Sora summoned the keyblade, thankful that when it did appear the size had shrunk down to match his current form. He gave it a few swings in the air then nodded. “Right, this can still work.” He immediately dispelled it and went down on all fours. “Ok, like it or not we’re just gonna have go with what that Discord guy says until we can turn back to normal.” “Are you serious? This has to be a trap or something.” Rainbow interrupted. “We should just go back up there and stone’em! That should break the spell.” “And how are we going to do that?” Rarity replied. “Simple, Flutters and I can just fly right-THUD ...Oh, right.” Rainbow’s enthusiasm vanished as she fell face first into the dirt after attempting a takeoff. “And the last pony crosses the finish line.” Applejack shook her head. “Hey!” “Alright, alright, let's settle down now. It can’t be helped.” Sora regained everyone’s attention. “None of us wants to do what a bad guy says, but right now it’s pretty much our only option.” He looked around. “Now the real question is… where do we go?” They all took a good look around and realized Discord sure wasn’t going to make it easy. Discord had jumbled up the town and threw in all sorts of things to confuse them. They couldn’t even tell exactly where they were at the moment. After a few moments of this Rainbow spoke up. “Well, now what? He said we have til sundown to find his this guy right? They could be anywhere in this mess… Should we split up?” Twilight immediately interjected. “If we were our normal selves then yes, but right now we’re small rodents. Without our natural abilities and size, it would be much more dangerous with the town as it is now.” “Right, so we’re sticking together then?” Sora was already scurrying off. “Let’s get moving, it’s already past lunch time.” “W-wait Sora! We haven’t even decided where… Ugh, that stallion.” Twilight groaned before running after him, followed by everyone else. And so this quirky day ensued for our heroes as they scurried down the street as fast as their tiny legs could carry them. As they ran off Discord appeared in front of the floating Town Hall while stroking his beard. “Now then, let's see how they fare with these challenges.” Looking on ahead he could see their first trial before them. ~~~ It was clear that making it anywhere in this town took more effort and energy than it usually did for the group. More so for the… less athletic ones as they made their way to the marketplace. “Haah… haaa… haaah… Sweet Celestia... I am not built for this.” Twilight exclaimed as she was struggling behind and stumbling a bit to join up with the group. In her pony form, such a trip would’ve been a simple trot, or a somewhat brief gallop to get to their destination. Unfortunately, her new tiny stature greatly expanded the apparent distance. “This is why you need to get out more egghead.” A blue rat with a multichromatic tuft of fur on its head spoke in Rainbow’s voice as it scurried past her. “Don’t even…. start… Rainbow. Knowledge... is... important!” She exclaimed as she tried to regain her composure. Internally though she was recalling her earlier considerations of adding a fitness regimen to her training schedule. “Meow meow meow!” Next to her Pinkie was hopping along looking like she didn’t have a care in the world. Twilight sighed. “Pinkie, you’re not a cat, you’re a rat.” “Well duuuh, Twilight, everypony knows that.” Pinkie replied without missing a beat. “So then why are you meowin’ so much?” Applejack turned back to look at Pinkie but noticed something tailing behind them. “Well, I thought if meowed maybe the kitty over there would be my friend!” She gestured to the same thing Applejack was now staring at. A big stray cat in the distance now chasing after them. Then she saw another before a few more immediately popped out from who knows where as they locked their eyes on the potential “fast food” scurrying past them. “Oh, you have got to be kiddin’ me…” Applejack gulped then turned to the others. “Fellas, we got company! The hungry kind.” This garnered everyone’s attention, causing them all to look behind them. Aside From Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, this got the others VERY motivated to kick it into high gear, squeaking away since they couldn’t quite scream in terror in their current state. Fluttershy meanwhile had to be dragged away with the group by Rainbow and Sora. She may be an expert caretaker, but they weren't gonna risk seeing if she could tame the cats when she looks like lunch to them. She protested of course, but thankfully it was still Fluttershy so it was a rather quiet protest. As the group was chased all around what was once the market, they realized it had been transformed into a special haven for all things feline. Scratching posts replacing street lamps, yarn balls strewn about all over the place and another group of cats chasing down a school of flying fish off in the distance. There were even cups filled with various liquids sitting on the edge of tables and counters, perfectly positioned for the cats to jump up and push them off with their paws or tails. “This way!” Twilight said from her new position at the head of the group. Running for your life in terror tends to bring out the athlete in all of us. However, it was, unfortunately, a wrong turn as it had led them down a path that had a few cats lying in wait. When it was time they pounced toward the heroes causing them all to grind to a skidding halt to avoid being pinned down by feline paws. Now they were surrounded, forced to huddle together as their furry doom closed in on them. “Oh no! We’re trapped! What now?!” Things were looking bleak, they were all watching the cats warily for any sudden movements as they looked for a way to escape and-”Oh wait” Sora perked up… then face palmed. “Duuuh, I’m so stupid!” When he pulled his paw away his look of annoyance turned to a rather cocky looking smirk as he whipped that same paw out to his side and summoned his keyblade. “We have powers.” “...Oh yeah.” Said the rest of the group sans Rainbow and Twilight as they all just summoned their element weapons. Sure they were tiny versions to fit with their current size, but the power within them was apparently retained. This was proven when an overzealous cat tried to pounce onto the group only for Sora to jump up and smack the creature yards away, meowing loudly in defeat. This caught the other cat’s attention real quick. “Oh, Sora, please don’t hurt them too much. They’re just following their instincts.” Fluttershy called out as she ran up to his side when he landed. He nodded. “No worries, that was just a love tap… Hmmm, I guess our actual strength remained the same… only our size changed.” “You can say that again.” Rainbow had managed to grab one of the cats by the tail and was easily swinging it around in circles before letting it go and watching the poor pussycat fly off in a random direction. “Rainbow!” Fluttershy said sternly to her friend. “What? It’ll be fine! Cats like, land on their feet right?” From the same direction, the cat was thrown, they heard the sound of a glass window being broken into. “...That could’ve been anything.” Her eyes were all shifty as she tried to avoid looking at Flutters. Now knowing that they still possessed their usual strength and abilities, it was short work scaring the rest of the cats off with some well-placed explosions going off nearby and having earth pillars move toward them like how a crowd in a stadium would perform the wave. “Alright… uuuh, good work everypony.” Twilight called out. Not wanted to feel left out she walked over to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, since you have your own element weapon, do you think I can borrow your wand for now?” “Hm? Oh, I would gladly lend you my wand if that is what you want… only, um…” Fluttershy looked at her backside and they were immediately reminded of their rodent state. While they were able to maintain their regular physical attributes as well as their elements and keyblade, their outfits and saddlebags were nowhere to be seen. Twilight’s hopes were dashed. No horn and no wand? She was even less useful than Rainbow right now and all she can do at the moment is swing cats around. “It would seem our garments and tools are either gone or hidden when we’re like this.” She sighed. “Well then, we just gotta get back on track, right? Then, poof, we’re back to-” Before Sora could finish that sentence a cloud of white smoke covered the entire area. When the smoke cleared the girls were looking at familiar brown coated pony again. “Whoa…” “Yay! Sora’s back to normal!” Pinkie cheered. “Yeah, but what about us?!” Rainbow commented. The other girls looked around and saw that they were still rats. “No fair! I want my wings back!” Sora examined himself, his clothes were still on his body where they were before, good. He reached up to feel his spiky hair, good. All in all everything seemed to be in order. He gave a nod and smiled. “Oh dear, I suppose that was the extent of my powers.” A voice from behind caused all of them to jump. When they turned to the source it was none other than Discord, chilling in mid-air with a sigh of defeat coming from him. Everyone tensed up and got into a fighting stance save for Sora. “Discord! Change us back right now!” Twilight demanded. “Oh certainly your highness, I’ll do that right away just cuz you told me to.” Discord rolled his eyes. “Well, then what gives? How come Sora is back to normal?” Rainbow yelled. “Hey cut me some slack, this was the best I could do with my limited power.” Discord gestured to everything around him. Mainly at the weird and out of place buildings and objects. “You try changing an alien, let alone a keybearer when you’re running on fumes.” “Limited?” Both Sora and Twilight asked at the same time. …….Discord tapped his chin “Oops… guess I kind of let that one slip.” Twilight couldn’t comprehend it. Discord’s power was limited? Was it from being sealed again by the elements? If they sealed him again, then would the next time make him utterly powerless? “I don’t like that look in your eye Twilight. If you're thinking it was the elements doing you’d be mistaken… It was my client’s doing.” Now, this just got the girls even more intrigued, what being could possibly be powerful enough to limit Discord to this state, and have him do his bidding? “In any case, I’ll just have to change up the trial. I’m actually surprised that you managed to head in the right direction. You ponies have some kind of super intuition or something?” “Nope, we just followed Sora as he went a random direction.” The pink rat stated. “PINKIE!” Everyone yelled before groaning. “Ah, I see, it was just pure luck. Well, I wonder how much that luck will fair from this point on.” “What do you mean?” Rarity asked. “Well, since I can no longer hold golden boy’s rodent form anymore, I had to… alter the trial a bit to fit with this new circumstance.”     “Alter? What do you mean?” Twilight asked but the Lord of Chaos immediately poofed out of existence. However, his voice remained. “Hahaha, now why would I spoil the fun by telling you? You're already headed in the right direction, you’ll just have to for yourselves.” His laugh continued until it slowly faded away as if he was flying off into the distance.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Sora and the girls looked around but found no trace of him. Twilight managed to scurry up onto Sora’s back as she searched. “Well, that’s just perfect. Sora’s back to normal, but the rest of us are still rats… We should’ve sealed him back at the town hall when we had the chance.” Sora, on the other hand, seemed to be pondering about that, but kept his thoughts to himself this time and changed the subject. “Well, for now, let’s just keep going.” He knelt down and looked at the other girls. “Climb on, we should be able to get there quicker now that I’m me again.” “Please don’t rub it in.” Rainbow griped as she and the girls climbed onto his back before he got back up and went into a gallop. “Let's just hurry up and get this done already so I can go to sleep and forget this whole thing ever happened.” The farther the group continued, the more strange happenings and obstacles that stood in their way. ~~~ “What the hay is this?!” After traveling a bit further down the path they found that it came to an abrupt halt… right at the edge of a large, dark chasm. “Where’d this pit come from?!” Rainbow exclaimed as she was riding shotgun in Sora’s spiky mane.   “Discord obviously.” Rarity replied as she peeked over to the side from her position on Sora’s back “Yeah Dashie, weren’t you paying attention?” Pinkie laughed as she appeared right behind Rainbow, bouncing over her and sliding down Sora’s muzzle until she was on his nose. She then peered down and said. “Ooooooh, you can’t even see the ground it’s so dark… ECHOOOO!” She shouted into the deep dark abyss only for it to return the same word back to her a moment later. “What do we do now?” Fluttershy asked. “Sora can’t fly, and it’s far too large a jump for anypony to make.” “Well actually-” Sora began but was interrupted by Twilight. “You have a point, perhaps we should find a way around-” “Actually you guys, I can-” “No wait, look at those things.” Rainbow pointed out to some very long street poles sticking out from the pit in random locations, as well as some crooked looking towers and floating hoops. “That stuff looks perfect for that “flowy-motion” thing Sora’s been showing me.” “And judgin’ from the looks of things, this a really big hole with those strange lookin’ houses walling things off…. It might take an even longer time going around it.” “Well that’s true, but actually-” “I gotta say that makes me feel a little uneasy,” Twilight responded while she looked on ahead. “It looks like he would have to be pretty precise with how far apart each one of those things is from each other and-” Now it was her turn to be interrupted as Sora just sighed and took them all off his back and head. “Sora?” Once the girls were off he then rummaged through his bag and pulled out a bead. He then bit into it, reverting to his true form. “There we go” He then proceeded to kneel and pick the girls up. “OH! I get it, you changed to your real form since you're more used to using Flowmotion with it. Good thinking Sora!” Twilight complimented as he made sure all the girls were able to fit in his hood. “Ok, everyone hold onto the cloth. And Rainbow, don’t stick your head out so much just because you want front row seats to this.” “Party pooper.” Rainbow groaned as she huddled with the rest of the girls. “What party?” Pinkie asked excitedly. “You better not be having a party without me!” “There are no parties here Pinkie.” Twilight groaned as Sora was taking a few steps back. “Ok, from my calculations if you swing off that pole then go left at a forty-five-degree angle you’ll reach that wall side and jump off it toward the other wall side 25 feet ahead of it. That's when you-AAH!” Once again she was interrupted by Sora, who had already started sprinting toward the ledge. “W-wait, I haven’t explained the whole course! You can’t just go through something like this without a plan!” “I already have one, you guys just won’t let me speak,” Sora said as he jumped off straight forward, nowhere near the direction of the pole Twilight mentioned. The girls started panicking and screaming. “Sora! What are you doing?!” Twilight yelled before the impossible happened right before her eyes. He seemed to jump once more in midair before he started flying towards the other side. “What the-! What is this!” “Sora, you can fly?!” Rainbow exclaimed, looked back to make sure he had no wings, which he didn’t. “Uuuh, Gliding actually, the ledge on the other side is close enough for me to reach like this.” “How?!” Twilight couldn’t wrap her head around this blatant disregard for the laws of physics. “How can you glide?!” “I learned it.” “This isn’t something you can just LEARN!” Both Twilight and Rainbow shouted at the same time, causing Sora to laugh the whole way until he landed to the other side. “Ok! Let's get moving.” He said as he started running on ahead with the girls riding on his hood, head, and shoulders now that he was upright again. “Don’t just dodge the question!” Twilight and Rainbow spoke in unison again. However, Sora wasn’t going to have time to answer as suddenly toy building blocks started shooting out of the ground in various areas like geysers. “Whoa!” Sora halted at the display and even back stepped when he felt the ground beneath him start to rumble, narrowly missing getting caught in another block eruption. “What’s going on?” “It’s Discord, whatever he wants is “what’s going on”... No rhyme, no reason, just chaos and a big mess.” Twilight replied as the geysers stopped one by one before the blocks started to converge on their origin points and start stacking together to take form. “I rest my case. Get ready for… whatever…” Sora took her advice and summoned the keyblade and took a fighting stance. As the blocks finally finished coming together their shape resembled bulky bipedal beings with horns. “Block Minotaurs?” Applejack peeked over Sora’s shoulder to get a look. Then the left over blocks started forming various weapons in their hands.  Some of the weapons, however, strongly reminded him of things wielded by people in his past, though at the moment he didn’t have the time to think of who. One being had what looked like an absurdly long katana, another seemed to be holding a giant buster sword that was just as absurdly long. There was one with a large shuriken, another held a blade with a gun’s grip for a hilt. If he wasn’t so focused on the fight right now he could probably figure it out in a snap, however, the creatures weren't gonna give him the luxury as they charged at him, each attacking with their own fighting style. It took Sora everything he had to dodge and back away from the group. “No good, they're too aggressive.” He said as he sidestepped then jumped out of the way of the one with the buster sword as it crashed its blocky blade down on where Sora once was, cracking the ground and getting the blade stuck in the dirt for a short moment before yanking it out and charging at him once more. Sora deflected the attack, but could not counter as two more of the constructs had managed to catch up and were already trying to swing at him. Once again Sora had to go on the defensive and back out, then immediately side roll out of the way of a giant flying shuriken thrown by the enemy that was hanging back. “I need some breathing room.” He said casting a few firaga blasts at the creatures to make them back off. “Leave it to me, Sora!” Pinkie yelled out cheerfully as she scurried up his neck and onto his head. She then summoned her element and activated its turret form. It appeared like it always did but once it made contact with Sora’s head, it’s bottom part seemed to alter and expand. Before Sora knew it, he was wearing a rather pinkish metallic army helmet as straps wrapped around both sides of his head and connected just under the chin. “Ooooh! That’s new! I like new!” Pinkie admired the new transformation as she herself was strapped in her seat as well. “Safety first, dear readers! Always buckle up!” ……… “...What?” Said everyone but Pinkie, even the Creatures seemed to pause as if they were confused by her words as well. However, that was short-lived as the creatures started charging in again. “Less talky more blasty!” And just like that she got to work firing a barrage of mini rockets and bombs at the katana one since it was closest. She managed to halt its approach and do some decent damage before it backed off. This gave Sora ample time to deflect the Buster Sword that came at him from the side and string up a combo as a counter before he batted the thing away with a heavy finish. During this whole time, the turret was adjusted like a chicken’s head. AND NOW FOR SOME PINKIE FACTS CUE THE CLASS MUSIC!! ( Image by January3rd on Deviantart ) ( Wait, what? What’s going on? ) ”Ok class settle down! It’s time for a brief moment to gain some knowledge from your wonderful pink teacher! Ms. Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie nudges the fake glasses she is wearing with a silly smile on her face. ( I did not approve of this… What are you doing? ) “Teaching my students!” Pinkie gestures to you. ( They’re not your students! Furthermore why and what are you trying to “Teach” them? ) “Tsk, tsk, tsk, Mr. Writer, you should be more prepared than that.” Pinkie shakes her head disapprovingly at the author. ( ...Huh? ) ”You good sir have written a metaphor that some readers might not quite understand, therefore I have taken it upon myself to quell such confusion! ( Confu-... You mean the chicken head part? I’m sure most of them know about it! ) ”But probably not all!” ( THEY CAN GOOGLE IT! ) “Now, now, don’t be rude. You are the writer, it is your duty to make sure what you write is understandable, isn’t that true? It’s one of your self-made promises you make yourself keep is it not?” Pinkie waggles a pointer stick at the author. ( I…. uh……. Huh…… Dang it, you’re right. ) ”Which is why I shall take the liberty of teaching the readers that are unaware of the amazing chicken head!” ( What? Are you an expert on chickens now? ) ”No. But she is!” Pinkie pulls out Fluttershy. Fluttershy shrieks, a wholly appropriate response to all this, and bolts behind Pinkie. “Um, W-w-w-what’s going on? ( Oh My God, you did not just do that Pinkie. ) Quiet you! You’re obviously not helping so I brought her here instead. ”W-what? P-pinkie, w-who’s that?” ( I’M NOBODY! You’re just daydreaming, hahahahaaaaaa…. Just get this over with. )  ”Now then, Fluttershy! Let’s ignore that red-winged stick in the mud and get straight to the question. ”Oh, um…. Ok?” Fluttershy seems utterly confused. Pinkie suddenly pulled out a chalkboard on wheels and drew a pretty good likeness of a chicken. “Ahem, now then Ms. Fluttershy.” She then tapped the pointer stick at the head of the chicken drawing. “Can you please explain how a chicken’s head would remain in place no matter how much you move its body?” “Oh, is that all?” Fluttershy immediately perked up smiling at the picture, instantly forgetting her current situation. “Oh, it’s rather cute.” She giggles. “Actually many birds can’t move their eyes, so instead of a vestibulo-ocular reflex, which targets the muscles around the eyes, chickens have a reflex that triggers the muscles of the neck. So where their eyes cannot move, their heads will compensate. It’s so cute to watch.” Pinkie is demonstrating Fluttershy’s explanation with a real hen in her hooves and moving it around as it’s head remains in one spot. She is sticking her tongue out and making a silly grin as Fluttershy continues. ”I sometimes end up playing with that ability when I tend to my chickens… O-of course, I ask first. It’d be rude to just grab them like that.” ”.....” Pinkie’s eyes start shifting from left to right after hearing that last part and she immediately sets the chicken down as it huffs and angrily clucks at her before walking away ”Hm?” ”Ahem, uuuh, that about does it for this installment of Pinkie facts! Thank you Fluttershy, you were a great help.” Before Fluttershy could say another word she is pushed off to the side out of the readers’ view. ( Ok, you had your moment. We’re not doing this again. ) ”Only if what you explain isn’t vague. Do you really trust yourself well enough to not make an analogy or statement that might go over some readers’ heads?” (......Fine, but no more “Guest appearances”, I’ll pull up the facts if need be. This little space here is just meant for us and THAT’S THAT, got it? That was the deal! ) ”Okie dokie lokie, Mr. Writer! Ahem-” Pinkie turns to you. “Now then. Back to the story!” ( My apologies to you all…. ) “Whoa! I like this feature!” Pinkie exclaimed, happy that despite Sora moving about as he fought, she had a relatively steady aim to keep on blasting more rockets and bombs at any enemy she wished. The other girls couldn’t help but be amazed at how Pinkie’s turret became wearable for Sora. “Fascinating, do the elements adapt to their current situation in some way?” Said Twilight as she rubbed her chin with one of her paws. This gave Rarity an idea as her fedora and needles were summoned. She looked out from the back of Sora’s hood, flipped down her gem targeting reticule and started firing piercing and precise light beams at any of those block beings that managed to get behind Sora. “I shall cover the rear!” She called out. “Well then, if that’s how it is… Can’t let those two show me up now, can I?” Applejack was now feeling a lot more confident since there was an opportunity for her to help and not be dead weight. She crawled up to Sora’s shoulder just as he brought down one of the beings, shattering it into a pile of blocks. She then crawled onto his hand. “Ok, let’s see what ah’ can do!” She summoned her gauntlets, but this time they suddenly changed and expanded around her in a sphere. Now she was in an orange metallic Hamster Ball like object. “What in the?” Sora took a moment to look at AJ in the ball and bounced it a few times on his palm. “Huh.” “Whoa! Hey, knock that off!” Applejack replied as she stumbled a bit from the bouncing. “Oh, uh, sorry, but what can we do with… !” He grinned. “Ah’m not likin’ that look on yer face, Sugarcube.” Applejack started to get a nervous feeling inside her when she picked up that look in his eyes. “Come on...” He asked before dodging a flying shuriken. “No.” “Your weapon is basically screaming it!” He pleaded before deflecting a few strikes from the katana one, before stepping out of it’s range. “Ain’t happenin’ Sora.” Applejack stomped her hoof from inside her ball. “Well, it’s either that o-Whoa!” He ducked and sidestepped another swing before Pinkie pelted the creature with rockets, making it back off. “Well it’s either that or back in the hood, I kinda need both my arms for this!” Applejack couldn’t respond to that right away. Now she really WAS acting as dead weight with her stubbornness… “F-fine, but ya better come get me when you do!” At that, he simply grinned and pulled his arm back. “Alright! Apple Fastball!” “Stop makin’ names for theeEEEEEEEEEEEE-” Sora made an overhand throw as hard as he could with his left hand, sending her flying towards the shuriken one. “Woohohooo nelly.” Applejack was getting more the nervous and tense the closer she got toward her target. However, within the span of a second, she noticed it preparing to dodge. Out of pure instinct and fear of failure, Applejack ran. She ran in that little hamster ball as fast as she could… and the ball steered in the direction she was running, which just so happened to be right back in line with the creature's head. She then lunged at it inside the ball and pulled her hoof back before thrusting it forward as if she was punching through it. This caused spikes to shoot out from the sphere’s exterior and collided with the creature, making it’s head explode into many separate toy blocks which scattered in all directions as she flew past. “Boom. Headshot.” Pinkie said in an Australian accent while she pulled her goggles down to her eyes as she watched the scene. She then proceeded to pelt the rest of the body into pieces. “Wow, a manual curve ball…” Sora blinked as he watched Applejack slam against the wall, shattering it into pieces. “That could be useful.” Sora stared at the new hole in the wall before he had to dodge yet another katana strike. “Ok, let’s bail! Pinkie, Rarity, cover fire!” Sora said as he started sprinting. “As you wish, dear.” Rarity said as she started sniping at the beings that were now chasing them, slowing their movements. “You got it!” Pinkie meanwhile staggered them to a halt with her rocket barrage. “Please, let me help,” Fluttershy said eagerly as she summoned her scarf, the gem butterflies on each end of them fluttered before landing on the back of Sora’s neck. “Hm?” He could feel the sensation on his neck and it made him tense for some reason. That was when the butterflies started flapping their wings, dispersing what looked like some sort of bluish light particles from the scales of their wings. Sora started to feel somethin well up inside him once the particles landed onto him. His body felt lighter, and he could feel that he was running even faster. “I-it worked!” Fluttershy cheered quietly as she, Rainbow, and Twilight watched Sora cover a huge distance a little over half the normal time. “Whoa… that was wild...” Applejack, now finally upright and out of the crater, her crash landing made was now sitting on the other side of the broken wall peering through the hole her passing had made. “Now, where are those-” She blinked as the next thing she saw was a large yet familiar looking hand, open and looking like it was reaching out for her. She then felt a bit of whiplash as she was “grabbed” by it and immediately lifted up to Sora’s chest level. “Whaa!… Wuh? Huh?” She sat there a bit dazed. “Sorry AJ, but we’re making a swift exit out of here.” He carefully lifted farmer over his shoulder so Twilight and Rainbow could drag her back into the hood to recover. “Ugh, feels like ah’ got hit by a runaway cart.” Applejack groaned. Fluttershy then had one of her butterflies flutter away from Sora’s neck and hover over Applejack, dispersing green particles over her limp form. Her mind started to clear relatively quickly. “Amazing Fluttershy, you’re weapon is so versatile. One-half is boosting Sora while the other is healing Applejack.” Twilight couldn’t help but admire Fluttershy's scarf and butterflies “O-oh, um, thank you.” Flutters blushed at the compliment. “I don’t think my element is that effective as a weapon, but I seem to… well, know what these little guys can do.” “You mean like their abilities?” Rainbow asked as she looked out the back with Rarity, however, those enemies were long gone by now. Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, I um, I believe I can help trap enemies too.” Sora’s eyes widened as he noticed something. “Hey guys, didn’t that discord guy say we have till sundown to get to his client?” He said as he continued running. Twilight turned to face him. “Uh, yes, but we should still have-WHAT?!” Already the sky was changing from blue to orange. “That’s impossible, it was JUST after 12, we should still have 4 more hours before the sky even starts to change color…” “Perhaps we just lost track of time, darling?” Rarity suggested. “That can’t be, If we had been running for that long, we’d be outside of Ponyville right now. Even changed around like this, the town still isn’t that big.” After a moment of thinking the rest of the girls had to agree on that fact regarding their hometown. “So then what could it be?” Sora asked. “Did Celestia decided to shorten the day today?” “That can’t be it. The princesses are far more responsible than to mess with the day and night cycles like that.” Twilight adamantly denied such a notion. “Sooo is it’s Discord’s doing? Can he mess with the Sun?” Sora suggested. Twilight was about to refuse but stopped herself and really thought about it. “Could he… I mean he did last time...” She pondered for a moment before shaking her head. “No, last time he was at full strength, but this time his powers have apparently been limited. Judging from what he’s been able to do so far, there’s no way he has enough power to wrest control of the sun away from Princess Celestia in his current state.” “Then how about casting an illusion of it? To make us think the sun is setting.” “That sounds strange in itself, why would he do something so random and nonsensical as fake the time of day?” Rarity asked. Seeing as they were no longer being chased she recalled her fedora and needles before ducking back into the hood to tend to her hair, which had been thrown about by the wind as they were moving. Rainbow tapped at Rarity’s head “Equestria to Rarity, He thrives off random nonsense, remember?” For a moment no one said anything. That was when something clicked for Twilight. “What if he did have a reason?” Twilight mumbled. “Hm? How so?” Sora asked. “The reasons I can think of are either that we’re walking right into a trap and the sunset is to make us sloppy in our haste, or that we’re getting close and the illusion is so we’d lose hope and either slow down or stop altogether.” Twilight kept wracking her brain for any other reasons. “Or he could just be Discord and enjoy messing with us,” Rainbow added nonchalantly.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     After hearing that, Twilight was starting to feel frustrated. “I knew we should’ve just turned him back to stone when we first saw him.” The other girls seemed to share the same mood when looking back at that opportune chance from earlier. Of course, then came Pinkie once she reverted her element and hopped back into the hood with the others. “What’s with all the frowny faces? We ain’t got no time to mope, we need to give Ponyville some hope!” She said as she tried to make a smile on Twilight’s face with her paws.  “I’m with Pinkie here, this boat runs on happy faces.” Sora smiled as he kept his pace. “That sounded a little corny.” Rainbow pointed out. “GASP! HOW DARE YOU?!” Sora gave a gruff posh voice and faked being hurt. This got some of the girls laughing, and soon the others joined too once Sora started laughing himself. Then he spoke with his normal voice. “Well now that we got rid of that foul mood, how about we go save the day again?” “How? Sora, do you have an idea?” “Well… It’s more of a hunch really. This whole time it’s been nagging at the back of my mind, but I think I might have a clue as to what’s going on. But that won’t matter unless we hurry up and get there.” “What kind of hunch are ya talkin’ about?” Applejack asked as she tried to peek over his shoulder and look on ahead, it seemed she had finally recovered. “...That weird guy is back… We’re in for a fight…” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Is thing on?.... Ah, there we go. HELLO, LOVELY READERS! How's your day been, I hope it's been absolutely chaotic for you. It is I Discord, taking a moment to mess with the Author's story and add in something random... Well, I Suppose not QUITE as random since it involves this very episode sooooo... Ah well, seems like I'd get a good laugh out of it. I have a list of suggestions from the readers that placed their ideas in hopes it could be seen today. For fun, let's go about reading each one of them and why the author chose or DID NOT choose them, shall we? Oh and just for the record, I would've approved all of them. NOW THEN:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  By AdrianTHonest: An interesting idea for me to summon a keyblade and all, though it more than likely would be a fake in every. Those things are.... abit more complicated for my case I'm afraid... Mr. Curious Writer decided to place a bookmark on the idea for the probable future, so who knows, we might be able to see it for real. By RP422: The writer liked the idea of using such weapons like CLoud's and Sephiroths, So he approved and added onto it with some other familiar weapons as well as mixed it with That QuartzScale fellow's idea. Congratulations. By Moongaze14: Seeing your proposal for glide and double jumping definitely inspired the writer to add it in, though altered the story abit to have him bypass my perfectly laid out trial. sigh, how cruel, He could've at least tried it once but nooo, Sora just had to glide his way through. I bet he'd do it if there was a rare treasure after completing it. By Voltaje: HAHAHAHAAAA, My my, you've certainly had quite the request here Volt. It would appear throughout writing this whole story the writer was constantly sent that gender change idea from many others... He didn't take it well. Actually to be honest he almost considered this time, however, those "special conditions" you added to it just gave it an immediate vetoed..... Volt... do you just want to see lady Sora replace the male versions role for the rest of the story? It certainly seemed like that when we all read it during the Chapter's construction. I don't know and I won't judge. Nothing personal about it, your request was just a little too late and had a demanding feature to it that the author couldn't adhere to. Though they do admit the initial first day of it happening would be quite humorous and he would be lying if he didn't take a moment to think of such a scene in his mind. I know I did, haha. By QuartzScale: Some parts of your idea was accepted and mixed with RP422's idea. Because of the pylon, heartless was a no go, and to be perfectly honest with you Quartz I wouldn't be caught dead with those dreadful things. Yes, they cause chaos, but not the chaos I WANT. They just chase after the nearest heart they can see, sure you can bark orders to them but it's a bit of a double-edged sword. I personally preferred my idea of creating enemies with some blocks I found lying around. By GameAssassin: A good idea and I could've done that, however, everything was already PERFECTLY set up before Sora even arrived, it be like shoehorning in something just for the sake of it. Chaos is artistic and well planned-pppth HAH! Sorry, couldn't say that with a straight face haha. All in all a good idea, but the author didn't see a need for it. By Timer Reaper:  .... I'll tell you straight up what the author and his editors thought of your Roxas/Ventus idea... That is a can of worms that should not be open, or at the very least shouldn't be open so willy nilly as to just to add chaos. The moment that happens, it would alter the Story immensely even after this chapter. So no surprise it was vetoed. By AlenNoir: The writer definitely used your suggestion as inspiration and a point of reference to help him think of things that I would have created in the story. He is grateful to you for that, as am I. The poor guy was having enough trouble as it was with his little writer's Block "Episode" earlier. By SoraHearts: I'll refer you to read the next one for the answer to your suggestion By Cyber Phazon GotDM: This one was denied as Mr. Curious writer had no clue how to even go about your ideas, Again he was having a little writer's block episode so he couldn't think of a way to use it nor did he think he should. He'd fear he'd just make a mess. and not the mess I would've wanted either I'm afraid. By ikarosfan: Apologies, ikarosfan. As much as I love the idea. I'm afraid messing with one of those things is simply taboo. all sorts complicated magic and connections that I don't even want to touch. I can mess with the user no problem. but the keyblade itself is a different story. Well that about does it everyone!, for those that made suggestions and didn't find it here, I'm afraid byt he time the author did read them, the story was too far written in to fina way to add them. So don't think of them as denied, Just hold onto them.... for a future chapter... heheh. Well I better wrap this up before Mr. Writer catches wind of me messing with his story. He's still grumpy about the Pinkie thing after all. With that, I bid you all, ado. Here's hoping your day is orderless and exciting.