//------------------------------// // Chapter 45: Inspiration and Conundrum // Story: Kingdom Hearts: Harmonic Connections // by Mr Curious Writer //------------------------------// It was only for a brief moment, but Twilight saw it. She used Magic! She saw that familiar aura on her hands and on the coat she was aiming for. It was only for around half a second and she barely managed to move it at all, but that was more than enough to give the scholar a familiar, starry-eyed look on her face. It was proof of concept. “It worked… It works, it works! It actually works!” She exclaimed while bouncing in place. Meanwhile, Pooh and Piglet started clapping for her, though honestly, they weren’t sure what she was talking about. However, they were still happy that it worked… whatever “it” was. “Hurray!” Pooh cheered. Picking up on his cheer Twilight turned around and awkwardly scratched her head, only now remembering that they were still present. “Ahehe, t-thanks.” She then pulled her hand forward and looked at it. “Merlin WAS right, all you need is a focus.” She clenched it a few times. “Though I have to admit, this is trickier than I thought.” She then looked at the coat above. It seemed fortune was on her side, as that brief tugging she applied on it was just enough for the coat to slowly slide off during her excitement, only just now fall off and into the bushes below. She made her way over to it, picking it up to get a closer look. It was weathered, pretty old looking, and she had the feeling that it hadn’t been worn for a long time. She was so engrossed in examining the details that she didn’t notice Pooh walking up to her, making her jump a bit once she noticed his sudden proximity. “Rabbit will be pleased to have his coat back!” He gave an innocent smile as she calmed her heart rate. “Rabbit’s? How do you know that Pooh?” Twilight turned to the bear in curiosity. “Well, that's very simple,” Pooh replied and opened his mouth to continue, but stopped. After a few seconds, he wore a puzzled look and went into his thinking. “Now how do I know that?” Both Twilight and Piglet sighed. They should’ve expected such a response. “Still…” Twilight straightens up. “We do need to meet up with others. For the time being let's head over to Rabbit’s and show them what we’ve found.” She said as she neatly folded the coat and held it under her arm. It seemed Twilight was getting more and more accustomed to having hands instead of hooves. “Oh, wait for me!” Piglet came running after them. He was curious about this as well, but mostly he just didn’t want to be left all alone when there were Heffalumps and Woozles prowling around. ~~~~~~~~~~ Rabbit’s House Approx. 30 minutes later “There, that oughta do it.” Applejack just placed the last Pot of honey in Rabbit’s wheelbarrow before dusting her hands off, only to stop and stare at her hands. She wasn’t sure what compelled her to do that, but it felt like the natural thing to do after finishing up some physical labor. “Huh…” She didn’t linger on the thought for long before giving a whistle. “She’s all yours Pinkie!” She gave a wave and watched the hyper pink girl run up, lift the wheel barrel with ease and dash off with a giggle. Whether it was an earth pony trait, or she was just too bubbly to even feel the weight, she was the quickest one to get the honey where it needed to go. While that was going on, Applejack used the times in between Pinkie’s trips to discuss gardening with Rabbit. This was when Sora, Rainbow, and Rarity came into view along with Tigger and Roo. They narrowly dodged Pinkie as she ran past them. “Hi, guys! Bye guys!” She called out as she whizzed by, kicking up dust behind her. When Sora waved the dust away and looked back Pinkie was already gone. “Ooookay then.” Sora tilted his head. “What do you think that was about?” Rainbow coughed a bit as the dust settled. “Beats me, let’s just ask AJ and that Rabbit guy.” And so they headed over to the garden where they could see the two already deep in conversation. “Ah, I agree, with just a little elbow grease it's actually a pretty hearty vegetable and grows fairly well compared to others-“ Rabbit seemed well engrossed in a topic before Rainbow decided to interrupt. “You guys seem to be hitting it off pretty well.” She said with her hands behind her head. “Well seeing as they both have a similar trade, I can see why.” Rarity said before something rushed past them and Sora. Something orange. Rabbit was quick to notice it and his ears drooped. “Oh no, no no no-“ Immediately before it pounced on him and he tumbled onto his back. “Hey there, Long Ears!” Rabbit could only sigh as he looked up at his attacker. “Hello, Tigger…” He did not share the tiger’s enthusiasm. Rainbow snorted while trying not to laugh, Sora simply smiled and rolled his eyes, Applejack was just a little confused and Rarity seemed more interested in straightening out her outfit from when Tigger ran, or rather, bounced passed them. As for Roo, he just smiled and waved. “Hey Rabbit!” He said. “Hello, Roo…” Rabbit answered in a monotone voice as Tigger finally got off of him. “So whatcha got goin on here?” Tigger asked, looking around before he started bouncing on his tail in a circle around Applejack. “And who’s the lady in the big hat?” “Uh, the name’s Applejack.” She answered. “I’m guessing you’re another friend of Sora’s then?” “Right you are, Hoo hoo hoo hooooo!” He answered as he spun 360 degrees during a, particularly high bounce. Sora decided to speed things along. “Applejack, this is Tigger-“ “With a T-I-Double Guh-ER!” Sora just continued. “He also lives in the 100-acre wood.” “And I’m Roo!” Says the little kangaroo who simply copied Tigger by bouncing around and waving at Applejack. “He and Tigger are kind of a pair.” Sora smiled and shrugged. “You certainly have interesting friends here, Sora.” Rarity said before something came to mind. “By the way, we saw Pinkie Pie, but where is Fluttershy?” “Yeah, I’m kind of wondering that too,” Sora asked as he looked around. “Ah, she’s inside. She said she wanted to make something for everyone.” Applejack answered. “Yes, she asked to use my kitchen. Of course, I was so engrossed in moving the honey and tidying up around here afterward that it never occurred to me to check on what she was up to.” Rabbit replied. “Same on my end too. Not sure about Pinkie Pie but it seemed like she was just as distracted by us.” Applejack then tapped her chin. “Now that I think about it we didn’t really do much in the investigation either.” She then sighed. ”What with the honeypots and all.” “Well it certainly helped me, so I am very grateful.” Rabbit replied with a nod. “Yeah, it needed to be done anyway, so better sooner rather than later.” Sora just shrugged. “All Done!” Pinkie called out right behind Sora and Rainbow, making them both jump and startling Rarity as well. Looking back, they could see Pinkie standing right behind them with a now empty wheelbarrow, wiping some sweat form her forehead. “Whew, you can make a lot of honey cake with all those jars.” That begged the question for Sora, where did she even put all that honey? Before he could answer however, he happened to notice three more figures he recognized entering the clearing. “Did somebody say Honey?” It was Pooh, along with Twilight and Piglet. They seemed to have just arrived and Twilight seemed to be excited about something. ~~~ “There!” Fluttershy seemed to have made herself at home in rabbit’s home, despite the roofing being a bit lower than her height. With Pinkie helping to set things up, the group all sat together in a circle on a picnic blanket enjoying tea and cupcakes, save for Pooh and piglet, one having already having tea from earlier, the other already digging in a pot of honey rabbit oh so graciously “gave” to him. Rabbit was wondering how Fluttershy and Pinkie even made cupcakes, since he didn’t recall having all the ingredients needed, but Sora directed him away from thinking on it any further. The poor fellow didn’t need any more stress right now. As expected, when Fluttershy finally met Tigger and Roo, her eagerness to hug them bubbled up rapidly. However, she tried her best to compose herself this time in order to be polite. ...That lasted about ten seconds before Tigger and Roo were suddenly in her arms being snuggled to death while she let out a high pitch “squee”. Roo seemed fine with it, it wasn’t too different from when his mom would hug him. Though it was odd that a random person would do that with him. Tigger, because of his greater size was hanging off Fluttershy’s arms with his legs dangling in the air under her. During this time, Sora and Twilight had been sharing what they discovered with the group. Upon presenting the items they had found, Rabbit was quick to declare their origins. “These are part of my scarecrow!” He picked up the sack head with the derpy looking face that might have passed as an angry glare if you squinted hard enough. “Where did you find these?” “Well, we found the coat in a tree near Piglet’s house,” Twilight answered. “And Tigger was somehow riding on the sack face in the air, trying to wrestle it.” Sora gave a shrug. “Wait, what?” Twilight turned to Sora only to see Rainbow and Rarity nodding to that statement. “I sure showed it a thing or two,” Tigger replied as he started shadow boxing at nothing. Sora rolled his eyes at this, yet continued. “It was strange since it wasn’t particularly windy when it happened.” “That is peculiar.” Twilight tapped her chin in thought. “The coat was found high in a tree as well, so it's likely that whatever force that pushed the sack, may have done the same for the coat and what’s left of Rabbit’s scarecrow.” She looked over at rabbit who was already trying to put the sack and coat back on his temporary scarecrow. But without the original “skeleton” part of it, he could only give up with a sigh and neatly put them away for now. “I have a thought, but I have to ask. When the sack and Tigger were um, flying I suppose, was there anything odd about what you saw? Sora, Rainbow, and Rarity just stared at her awkwardly before she sighed facepalmed “Aside from the fact that Tigger and the sack flying around, I mean. Like anything else you noticed?” Sora raised an eyebrow but Rarity answered “Well, I do recall something that was amiss. I dismissed it at first, but I felt something familiar when the scene occurred, however, I could not place my hoof on WHAT it was that felt so familiar. “Hoof?” Piglet tilted his head. “You felt that too?” Rainbow turned to Rarity, much to the latter’s dismay since Rainbow still had a cupcake in her mouth, sending crumbs flying in her direction. Nevertheless, she nodded at Rainbow’s question. Twilight started thinking. “So whatever this is, is seems to give off something familiar to the girls and I. What about you, Sora? Did you feel it as well?” Sora folded his arms and closed his eyes, taking his familiar thinking pose. After a few seconds, he shook his head. “Well I did feel something, but I wouldn’t call it familiar… it’s sorta like when I experience someone else's magic, I guess... Sorry, that's the best I can come up with as an answer.” He shrugged as he took a sip of tea. “No, that actually helps a lot!” Twilight had that starry eyed look again. “How so?” Applejack asked. “I’ve been talking to Merlin about magic, and after some time I developed a theory that I placed on the back burner until I had more proof, and you three might have actually given this theory some foothold in becoming a fact. It’s actually a revolutionary concept that could make scholars and even Merlin himself-” “Twilight, you’re rambling!” Rainbow groaned. “What’s your egghead theory have to do with the scarecrow?” Twilight was like a deer caught in the headlights before immediately feeling embarrassed and clearing her throat. “R-right, sorry… What I’ve been trying to get at is that there is a possibility that this is Equestrian magic in affect.” The group was silent as they all looked at each other before turning back to Twilight. Where Sora and the girls were confused, the residents of the hundred acre wood were utterly lost on what was even going on. Fluttershy asked the one question that was on Sora and the girls’ minds, “So you’re saying magic is the cause of all this?” “Yes, but not just any magic, Our magic.” Twilight’s hands started making gestures while curled up like hooves. “I still can’t fully explain it, but somehow our world’s magic is affecting the book in some way. Whether it’s from us entering the book world or just from the book itself being in Equestria, our magic is… Leaking? Seeping? Erm, in any case, it’s entering the book and having an effect here.” She pointed at the ground. It seemed she wasn’t even aware at the moment how articulate she was being with her hands, given she‘d lived the majority of her life with only hooves. “Ooooh, that sounds awesome!” Pinkie clapped her hands excitedly then stopped to look at them. “Oh, I like that!” She started clapping some more until Applejack had to stop her from going overboard. “Okay, so our magic is making everything here all haywire. What do we do about it?” Twilight opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out, she then took a moment to think… And gave a sheepish grin. “That, I don’t know. This is entirely new, so I’m not sure what we can do about it.” “Really, egghead? All that hype and you got nothing?” Rainbow groaned. Twilight pouted. “What do you expect? This is all new territory, it’s not so easy coming up with a solution when the situation has so many unknowns, and when what we do know is based on a barely established theory.” Fluttershy seemed to be giving it some thought as she picked up a cupcake. “Well, if we’re able to feel our magic here, why don’t we just follow the feeling to where it came from?” She wasn’t being serious, more like spitballing an idea expecting no one to listen or wave it off. But when she noticed that everyone was quiet she looked up only to see them all starting at her. “Um… Was it something I said?” She started to shrink into herself from all the stares pointed at her. “That’s actually a good idea Fluttershy.” Sora then stood up after finishing his tea and cupcake. “Any objections Twilight?” “N-no, when I think about it, it’s actually so obvious that I’m surprised I didn’t come up with it myself.” “Well, you do have a tendency to overthink things. People tend to miss the simple solutions when they’re always looking for complicated ones.” Sora shrugged. “Simple problem, simple solution, I like it. Nice work Fluttershy.” Applejack patted her friend on the back, Fluttershy herself getting embarrassed from all the praise. “O-oh, it’s nothing, anyway I can help.” “Okay, so we’re gonna find where the magic is coming from by using our senses? Sounds like fun! Like game of who’s the best water dowsing rod, but with magic!” Piped up the peppy pink party pony person. “Oh, I’m game!” Rainbow shot up already looking pumped up for the competition. Twilight was about to stop them. “Whoa, we’re on the same team here, we don’t have to-“ “Readysetgo!” Pinkie yelled before she shot off with Rainbow not too far behind. “Hey no fair, I wasn’t ready!” Twilight sighed. “We haven’t even decided what to do when we find it…” She face palmed. Sora and Applejack nodded to each other before turning to Twilight. “We’ll go after them. I guess once we find it we’ll all head back here and figure things out from there.” “I’m on board with that idea.” Rarity said. She then turned to Fluttershy and Twilight. “Us three will head in the opposite direction then.” “Oh, ok.” Fluttershy agreed as she was cleaning everything up. “R-right after I take care of this. It would be rude to leave a mess in Mr. Rabbit’s front yard.” Twilight sighed. “Right, you have a point.” She turned to Rabbit. “Thank you for letting us discuss things and rest here, Rabbit.” “O-oh, it’s not a problem, really. Honestly, I have no idea what you all were even going on about.” He turned to Pooh and Piglet. Piglet seemed to be just as perplexed, Tigger and Roo seemed to have given up on trying to figure out what was going on and were bouncing around Rabbit’s garden to pass the time, something he’ll immediately have to reprimand them for. And Pooh… had his face stuck in a honey jar again. “Sorry we can’t help clean up guys, we might lose the other two.” Sora waved at them before he and Applejack set off as well. ~~~ Sora and Applejack had to split up when they noticed Rainbow and Pinkie going different directions in the distance. Applejack chose to go after Pinkie Pie, leaving Sora to catch up with Rainbow Dash. He had to hand it to the girl, she was getting a better grasp on what her human body could do as he actually had to put a bit of effort into catching up. “Hey!” He called out causing her to finally stop to look back. “Any luck?” Rainbow shook her head. “No, I’m not feeling anything over here.” She took a moment to look around. “And I have no idea where we are…” Sora chuckled. “Ah don’t worry about it, we can always return to Rabbit’s house by going back to The Pages anyway, it's why taught you guys how to in case we’re all separated for some reason.” “Yeah I know, but then how are we gonna show the others whatever is causing all this if we do manage to find it? We can’t backtrack to it if we have to warp or whatever to find our way back, we need to know where we’re going.” Rainbow added. Sora paused for a moment. “Hmmm, I guess you have a point…” He started thinking. It wasn’t long before they were both walking deeper into the forest. “Well, I’m sure we’ll figure something out.” He shrugged. Rainbow just narrowed her eyes. “Seriously, we’re leaving it up to luck now?” After some time she could only sigh. “Whatever. It's not like I have any ideas either.” “Let's just focus on finding it, for now, we’ll figure out the details once we do.” And with that Sora marched on, leaving Rainbow to stare in amazement. “You’ve almost got enough optimism to rival Pinkie Pie.” Rainbow then took a moment to think about what she said. “Well… around half as much anyway.” “Nothing wrong with that right?” Sora stated. “She can definitely cheer anyone up.” Rainbow smiled and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, it’s like she has no off switch sometimes.” They both laughed as they kept walking. After a few minutes, Rainbow started talking again. “Hey, Sora?” “Yeah?” He kept looking forward. “How come we haven’t done it yet?” She asked. He finally looked at her. “Done what?” “You know… that whole element fusing thing you do with the others. I can’t figure out what I’m doing wrong for it not to work.” Sora laughed. “Right, you're still dead set on getting that to work.” In truth though, that’s not what she really wanted to ask. It was actually a split second decision on her part to ask a different question. For some reason, her mind and emotions really weren’t ready to ask the one she wanted to. “I can’t actually explain it if that’s what you’re asking, I don’t even really know how it works. I just know how to activate it when one you girls send me a gem. I think it’d probably be best to ask one of them instead since its starts with the element first.” Rainbow made a mental note to do just that later. “I guess that’s true. I dunno, it's just kind of frustrating. At this rate, I wouldn’t be surprised if I really am the last one.” “I think you’re just trying too hard, you know?” Sora tried to comfort her. “When the time comes, I’m sure you’ll know what to do.” “I guess... but like, don’t you have anything that can help? I’ll even accept vague hints at this point.” Rainbow drooped. Hearing her talk about hints did remind him of something, it would be a good distraction at the very least. He figured it’d be best to get her mind off of it for now. “Well, for now, it would help if you thought about what your element represents.” “What it represents? Well, that's obvious, Loyalty.” Sora shook his head. “Right but I meant does loyalty also mean something else or… Hmm, I guess it really is hard to explain when I don’t have an answer for it.” He folded his arms and looked to the side. She didn’t quite understand what he was getting at, and was about to ask more questions when she suddenly stopped. She had the strangest sense of home… Wait! “I think I sense it!” “You do?” Sora turned to her only to see her running off again. “Again?!” So he followed suit. They were already deep in the woods, now that they’ve run even deeper into it Sora just gave up on the notion of trying to figure out where they were. Yet as luck would have it, the place where Rainbow stopped was all too familiar to him. When he broke into the clearing he got a good look around and recognized it as Tigger’s play area. “What? But, weren’t we just here earlier?” “Yeah but… I’m getting a feeling… somewhere here…” Rainbow was looking around trying to pinpoint where the sensation was coming from. She then grabbed her head and started groaning while rubbing her fingers against her scalp. “Uuugh, this would be so much easier if we knew what we were looking for!” She rubbed her head. “Is it a gem, some kind of magic ball or something like that?” Sora took a look around. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but now he was starting to feel something odd as well. As if the atmosphere wasn’t the same as it usually was. “Aww man, you beat us!” Hearing that bubbly tone Sora immediately recognized it to be Pinkie. When he turned to look he saw her and Applejack come out of the brush not far from him and Rainbow. “You guys got drawn here too?” He asked. “Uuh, looks like they’re not the only ones,” Rainbow said, pointing to the other side of the clearing where Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy stepped into view. Looking at everyone in surprise, Sora shook his head and sighed. “Why bother splitting up if we just end up together anyway?” However, he ended up laughing about it after a few seconds. When the group gathered together it seemed that only Sora and the girls were present. This raised a question. “Where’s Pooh and the others?” Applejack asked after looking around a bit. Rarity shook her head. “We thought it was best if they just stayed at Rabbit’s.” Twilight nodded and continued where her friend left off. “Correct, we weren’t sure what we’d find. It could be dangerous for all we know.” Sora looked to the side, he never really experienced anything particularly dangerous in Pooh’s book. The worst he’s had were bee swarms attacking him. However, caution was expected when encountering something new, and this was definitely new. “Ok, so what now?” “For now… I suppose we all just keep following the source.” Twilight shrugged. With no other options, the girls followed the sensation. It was strong here, Rainbow and Rarity were wondering why they never felt this much of it when they were here before. It also seemed like it was spread all over the place but with some patience, which was surprising for Rainbow’s standards, all 6 girls seemed to end up staring at one spot. “There!” They all said at the same time before looked at one another in astonishment. Their surprise turned into utter shock, however, when the spot they pointed at started glowing and forming a ring. Then swirling orbs of light begin to float out of it and drift all around them. Individually some would pop like bubbles leaving dazzling sparkles of wonder while others would duplicate only to burst later one as well. Everyone looked around in amazement, it was quite the sight to behold. “Ok… so now what?” Sora asked. The girls looked at each other. They hadn’t thought about that. They turned back to the “Magic circle” before them. It took a moment before Twilight seemed to come to a conclusion. “Let’s ask Merlin.” ~~~ Golden Oaks Library 10 minutes later The book flashed and pages turned until Sora and girls flew right out of the book. Sora having done this many times before landed on his feet, or rather hooves. Twilight barely managed to do the same as she was returned to her original self. The other girls ended up in a heap on the floor as this was their first time. “Pinkie, why were Rabbit’s honey jars in The Pages?” Sora asked. When the group had warped to said hub there was a pyramid of them just lying next to the “portal” to Rabbit’s house. Pinkie popped out of the mare pile and gave a salute. “Sir, it was the best place to hide them from the Heffalumps and Woozles, sir!” She then giggled at her play acting. Sora smiled and rolled his eyes. “I don’t think we have to worry about those anymore.” “Ah, you’re back! Just in time too.” Merlin said as he stepped into the library. “Merlin! There you are.” Sora ran up to him, Twilight not too far behind. “Listen, we have a problem that we’d like your help within Pooh’s world,” Sora said. However, Merlin lifted up a hoof to stop him from saying more. “As much as it pains me to say it, I’m afraid that will have to wait.” Twilight was confused. “W-what? Why?” She was swiftly answered by the sound of a loud roar that shook the very ground beneath them. “Ahem.” Once everything settled down for the time being Merlin pointed out the door. “That would be why.” Sora and Twilight turned to each other with concern than to the girls who were all finally back on their hooves. They all ran out to get a look, nothing nearby seemed out of the ordinary. Looking over at the town everything was in order there too, save for the panicking citizens. “Other way, everyone.” They all turned around and far off in the forest they could see a very large, horned creature. It seemed to be duking it out with some other rather large animal. “What are those… Are they heartless?” Sora asked. “Wait, isn’t that an Ursa Major?!” Twilight yelled out in shock. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Rainbow groaned. “Can’t we for once have a whole day off?! Why is everything always on the brink of disaster?!” “Cuz the author has been bottling up his desire to write fight scenes for a while now, he could barely it back anymore.” Pinkie said, dabbing a hanky she got from who knows where against her eyes to wipe away the tears. “You did your best, sir…” Everyone in the room just turned to her and went silent for a few moments “...What?” But just then another roar came that caused them all to put it out of their minds and chalk it up to “Pinkie being Pinkie”. Turning back to the giant battle before them, they all had a sense of ominous foreboding. It was gonna be another long day for Sora and the girls.