//------------------------------// // Chapter 47: Gray Star // Story: Kingdom Hearts: Harmonic Connections // by Mr Curious Writer //------------------------------// Unknown Location Back here once again. Sora had long since gotten used to this song and dance, but the place always managed to pique his curiosity. Looking down at the stained glass below his feet, he can see that there were only two vacant slots left in the picture, though it was fairly obvious by now what they would be. He then started looking around. Seeing that he was here then no doubt she would be too. Twilight opened her eyes once the flash of light vanished from her vision and was met with complete blackness. “Whoa, just like they said, a black void-“ she made a 360 “all around. This is supposedly what’s inside us, or perhaps it’s just a representation or…” she shook her head “questions for later, Twilight. We have more pressing matters to attend to. Right Sora?” … There was no reply. Twilight looked around again. “S-Sora?” She called out again, and again there was no response that she could hear. Everything was just... silent. “This… This can’t be right. If this is is really it then Sora should be somewhere around here too.” She walked around while looking in all directions, even above and below her, but nothing. No sign of Sora, or the supposed tower that he’d be standing on, she couldn’t even make out what she was standing on, all that was below her was void.”This… this doesn’t make sense at all. What am I supposed to do now?” “Oh stop freaking out, you knew deep down something like this would happen.” That voice, Twilight turned around. “It can’t be…” As she saw another her step out from the void and casually walk over, Twilight took a step back in shock. “You can deny the truth all you want, but in the end, we both know what’s really going on here.” ~~~ Back in the Forest Clearing The Flash dissipates and Sora stands there confused, as do the girls. Not only does he not look any different, Twilight is back in the same spot she was before the light show. “Wait, hold on. What happened? Where’s the fusion?” Rainbow asked in surprise. “Where is the striking new pose and flair?” Rarity asked. “Where’s the cool new keyblade?!” Yelled Pinkie. Twilight was beside herself. “It can’t be... the fusion failed?” Sora then remembered their situation and turned toward the heartless. Taking advantage of their distraction, the heartless had managed to reach its weapon and was lifting it off the ground once more. “Oh no. Guuuys?!” They can’t afford to sit around anymore. “No! NO!” Twilight felt nothing but defeat seeing the heartless grab his weapon, knowing that they’d lost whatever ground they’d managed to gain up till now. She fumbled a hoof into her saddlebag, nearly dropping the ether she pulled out while the rest of the girls were scrambling to back off and think of a new strategy. It was clear by now that the creature was smart, far smarter than the average heartless. The way it looked at Rarity from a distance clearly said the same method to disarm it would not work twice. In fact, it planned to nip everything in the bud as it charged straight for her, blade in tow. “No!” Sora sprinted as fast as he could. Rarity, already having picked up on her unfortunate situation, began to run. This prompted the angry Bull to lunge as far as it could and take a chance with an overhead strike. When Rarity looked back and saw the attack coming, she didn’t know if it would reach her or not, but she was not taking any chances. She sidestepped as quickly as her body was able to. The good news was, she dodged the attack. The bad news was, the force of impact shook the ground beneath her, causing her to lose her footing as the immense air pressure swept her off her hooves and blew her into a tree hard enough to knock her unconscious. “Rarity!” Twilight was in shock, as she saw the creature lifting its blade to try again. “STOP IT!” She screamed and went to cast a Thundaga, only for nothing to happen. “What?!” With the spell failed the creature went to strike again. Thankfully it was staggered slightly when Rainbow rammed it at full speed. “Back off!” This gave Sora an opening to finally get in close and string up a barrage of slashes, knocking the beast’s head around and making it take a step back. This lets Sora take a step forward. “Eat This!” He hopped into the air, lifted his keyblade over and behind his shoulder, both hands gripping tight. For a moment one could see light charge into the blade before he brought it down hard onto the beast. It collided and blew the Heartless away a few yards. However, it landed on its hooves and skidded back a few feet, before narrowing its eyes at Sora. That was when Applejack came charging in. “My Turn!” She galloped as fast as she could, got in close, ducked under the minotaurs right hook, then jumped up with all her might giving the strongest hoofed uppercut she had ever given in her life. This knocked the minotaur into the air with her, where she twisted her body until she was facing away from the beast, giving it her signature buck back to the ground. Sora had to take a hand off his keyblade and shake it back and forth. “Jeez, he’s solid.” Rainbow hovered by him. “No kidding, it’s like punching a brick wall.” “Firaga!” Twilight calls out, but nothing. “Blizzaga!” Again, nothing, “Aeroga, Reflega, Magnega!!!” No matter how hard she would try, the spells she learned would not come. She slumped with her head held low. “Why?” She mumbled to herself. Pinkie meanwhile met up with Fluttershy. “Hey, Fluttershy! I need healing!” Fluttershy was already at Rarity’s side using curaga on her. Hearing Pinkie’s plea she whipped back, wand at the ready. “How bad is it? Where does it hurt?” “What? No, I’m fine! I need you to heal my gem!” Pinkie held up her necklace to Fluttershy. “It’s being all weird and not doing the thing I want it to do!” Fluttershy blinked, staring at the gem. Sure, it looked different and that was concerning, but… “Pinkie... I’m not sure if I can fix that.” Back at the frontline Applejack, Sora and Rainbow were taking turns attacking the beast. However, the minotaur was catching on as it would take a hit from Rainbow, but then block Sora’s attacks before side hopping AJ’s Gauntlet strikes. “What the hay, I thought Heartless were dumb. This one knows how to fight back!” There was no mistaking it. To Sora, this reminded him too much of Heartless Ansem. Maybe not so much the combat, but the fact that it could think for itself. Thankfully, by this point Rarity was taken far out of range of the blade by their other friends, letting Sora focus more on the fight. Applejack’s gauntlets proved to be pretty sturdy when she instinctively lifted one up to guard herself against a strike. She was pushed back a few yards each time but was never blown away by the attack so long as she had her footing. It was almost like the earth below her were trying to lock her hooves in place. For Rainbow, dodging wasn’t an issue due to her speed and maneuverability. At the very least they were keeping it busy, letting Fluttershy and Pinkie carry the unconscious Rarity over to Twilight. “Twilight, are you ok? You’ve been standing there muttering for a while now.” Fluttershy asked. “Yeah! How come you and sora didn't fuse and stuff?” Pinkie asked, having opted to carry Rarity on her back so Fluttershy could work on healing their friend and checking for anything wrong. Twilight just stood there for what felt like ages until she finally looked up. “I don’t know... What went wrong… I…” She looked utterly distraught. She was feeling useless again. ~~~ Earlier She couldn’t believe it, that doppelgänger was back. It came from out of nothingness and strolled right up to her, a confident know-it-all look on her face. Everything she was told about this process wasn’t happening at all, and now she was face to face with this. “Why are you here? What have you done? Where’s Sora?!” Twilight decided to stand her ground and try to look intimidating. “As if I would know. I only know what you know.” The fake replied then looked around. “And it looks like this place already has your answer.” “Stop lying! You must have done something. This isn’t anything like I was told.” Twilight gestured to the void. “The only thing here that was confirmed is all this... this nothingness.” The fake just smiled and took a seat. “Couldn’t have said it better myself… or could I have? I am a part of you after all.” “Nonsense, you’re just another trick of Discord’s!” Twilight made her rebuttal. The fake made a buzzer sound. “Wrong. Discord is back to stone again, you and your friends saw to that if memory serves.” That one Twilight couldn’t deny. Just when she about spoke up with another possibility the fake beat her to it. “Let me guess, now you’re gonna accuse me of being some Heartless trick as well?” This got Twilight to take a step back. The fake just shook her head. “Now you’re just grasping. As far as we know, the majority are just mindless beings of darkness. Sure, there is that Ansem heartless Sora told you about when he explained his past, and this particular heartless you are fighting definitely shows some signs of intelligence. But one isn’t even here and knows nothing about you, and the other… let's be frank. It seems about as smart as an angry Minotaur looking for a fight. I think we can assume its not capable of mind games.” “Well, that… that is true, but this isn’t the mind, it’s the heart. And we know heartless are all about taking them. So why not-“ Twilight was interrupted again by her doppelgänger’s laughter. “Oh come on, even you don’t believe that nonsense. The “heart” as it’s considered-” the fake made air quotes with her hooves. “is nothing more than our brain creating emotions or memories, or feelings of affection and blah blah blah. You learned this, we just use hearts with stuff like this cuz it sounds and looks better, and your heartbeat speeds up when you get the hots for that special somepony. Don’t lie to yourself.” She rolled her eyes. “The smart ones like us just don’t bring it up because it's common knowledge to our peers and something that sound nice to the regular ponies.” “Why would you say such awful things?” Twilight was taken aback. “And why use my voice to say it?” “Well, I see you're not denying it.” The fake replied. Twilight just now realized that as well. “I…” She tried to argue back but hesitated. “Go on, tell me I’m wrong. It’s just that easy.” The fake simply smiled. “Tell you what, you can even lie to me and say it if it helps. Applejack won’t be able to tell from in here.” Twilight gritted her teeth. She didn’t like that faker’s attitude, and yet for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to say those two words. “Yeah... I thought so. You can’t deny it because it’s only logical.” The fake stepped forward again making Twilight back up. “Right or wrong, your mind has already accepted that as the ACTUAL answer to all this heart nonsense.” She gestured to herself. “I’m just the mental construct you created so you won’t feel bad and have someone to blame, right? Only, oh no! It appears I look just like you. Guess that means you can’t lie to yourself, huh?” Twilight had nothing to say as the world around her turned white. (Stop Music) A connection could not be established... ~~~ Present Twilight was fumbling her words trying to respond. “I’m sorry. I just don’t know, perhaps I didn’t meet the conditions for the spell to work, or… I’m just not sure.” This made Fluttershy and Pinkie confused, unclear as to what she was going on about. Conditions? Spell? Did she and Sora fail in some way? It was impossible to tell without actually being there. “And now it's gotten even worse,” Twilight said before looking at them. “I can’t seem to use my magic!” “What?! But you were just using them a minute ago. Are you outta mana? Use an ether!” Pinkie said. Twilight shook her head. “It’s not that, I just can’t seem to access my magic for some reason. I don’t know why.” “You can’t make that bubble spell like you used to?” Twilight sighed. “I doubt it Pinkie.” She said as she tried to demonstrate subconsciously. “If I can’t use magic then-“ Without a second thought she conjured up the bubble shield. “I… can use it.” This made no sense to her. “But then, why?” She tried firing a magic dart and as she did before going under Merlin’s tutelage, and sure enough, she could fire one out. She couldn’t understand why this was possible. What could she do with this? Far less than she could before the fusion failure, that much was for sure. Meanwhile, Sora, Applejack, and Rainbow were still going at it. Sora’s amulet ran out and he was reverted to pony form once again. Regrettably, this form wasn’t going to help any of them since this particular heartless required them at their best. So he needed to use one of his Ethers just to charge up the amulet once more, which was easier said than done when there’s a super powerful Heartless trying to cut you in half. Duck, dodge, bob, and weave. Every chance he could he would take a shot or string up a brief combo of attacks on the creature. It was the best he could do for the moment. Applejack would come in at times to block blows or deflect swings with her gauntlet and Earth powers, while Rainbow had to take a moment to catch her breath after rushing the minotaur so much. She wasn’t the only one winded though, Sora and AJ were panting as well. This fight was dragging on longer than it should. They needed to end it soon before exhaustion set in because it seemed clear that the minotaur didn’t have to think about such a “trivial” issue. Once Rainbow caught her breath she was ready to go. Her first goal was to distract it from Sora, and she managed to accomplish that with her usual consecutive sweep and punch. Sora, not wasting the moment back stepped a bit and reached into his saddlebag, tossing an ether to replenish his magic before channeling it all into the amulet. This took longer than expected, so Applejack and Rainbow took turns punching and bucking it. Applejack was able to cause more damage, but that ended quickly when she noticed it was going to swing its sword again. She stepped in and placed both gauntlets on the flat of the blade, using as much strength as she could to slow down if not stop the swing. Even the earth that was attempting to lock her hind legs in place was breaking off after giving away, but she at least succeeded in delaying the attack. Sora didn’t hesitate to use his amulet and just like that he was back to his human self. Rainbow came through for Applejack by diving on the minotaurs snout, letting the farmer push and alter the swing upward just above everyone. Sora ran past her, his hand out. Without missing a beat, AJ shot out her gem into his hand. In the under two seconds, he made the pose “Connect” A flash, and their fusion appeared just in time to hold their keyblade over them to block a downward fist from the beasts free arm. Then push it off and jump over the creature’s low blade sweep. Sora flipped and used the momentum to slam down and launch an overhead strike on its head. The sound of metal and bone making contact, and by the time Sora landed on the ground, they saw the creature stagger back clutching its head, its left horn having been severed. “Well, that's progress,” Sora said, now feeling the fatigue for both of them, the same could be said for Applejack. Surprising everyone, the creature then started to glare at Sora. “Uuuh…” it then puffed up its chest, held its arms out and Roared so loud and powerfully, Sora wasn’t prepared and was pushed back by the force of it all, along with Rainbow. Yeah that’s progress alright. NOW it's just mad. AJ replied. “Unfortunately I don’t think we have the luxury of waiting it out, let's go!” Keyblade out, Sora runs in. If one thing he can trust, this heartless was rather single-minded, focusing on either the strongest or whatever ticks it off the most. Which in this case, was him. As they expected, the beast charged right for them. What was unexpected was that it dropped it’s blade this time, and its speed seemed to have doubled as it continued on like the angry bull it is. Another test of power was established as it rammed its head straight at Sora as he defended with his keyblade. In this form and fusion, he was able to stop it in its tracks after being pushed back a few yards. However this time, this seems to frustrate the beast and it then gave Sora a sucker punch, staggering him and leaving him open to another swing of its other arm, However, the memory of the last time he was punched rushed to his mind and he stumbled back just to narrowly avoid it. He remembered. One hit from that knocked both himself and AJ out of the fusion. Whether it was out of shock or the strength of its punch he wasn’t going to risk another hit from it. Besides, it was also very painful. The bull was unrelenting as it continued to attack Sora. Back with Twilight, she recognized she didn’t have the time to figure out what went wrong, she would have to make do with what she had. Thankfully taking ethers and potions still worked for her as well. She had come up with a game plan. Fluttershy still had to tend to Rarity and Pinkie’s gem still wouldn’t let her call out her turret, but at least there was one thing that the happy Pink mare had to help. Whatever it was she stuffed in her hair and her party cannon. “Never leave home without it.” Pinkie said as she patted her weapon of mass festivity. “So what are we putting in it.” She asked Twilight. “Me.” Twilight pointed at herself. “But this cannon will need to fire me out faster than it ever has before. Is that possible Pinkie?” Pinkie’s eyes seemed to sparkle. “Oooooh, I always figured Dash would be the one to ask. Never in a kajillion years did I think it’d be you, Twilight!” She then pulled out a wrench and hammer. “Just leave it to me.” And just like that she opened up a panel on the back of the cannon that no one even knew existed and started tinkering away. Sora and Applejack were faring better than the last time they fused but it didn’t change that they were on the defensive as the hulking beast continued to swing at them maliciously or charge at them carelessly. Rainbow Dash started noticing her attacks were becoming less and less effective the angrier it got to the point where it mostly would shrug off her strikes. “Ugh, Come on! Why can’t heartless ever be exhausted, it's not fair!” She complained, but still, she kept at it, despite how much her body wanted to take another break. It seemed like their foe was just an undefeatable juggernaut, but Sora knew that was further from the truth. The moment they broke its horn, for the first time ever, it got mad. If Sora had to go by what he typically expected from a heartless then all this would seem impossible. But if he entertained the idea that this particular heartless was more than a mindless monster, then they definitely made progress from how it started to breathe more heavily and the fact that not only did it not take losing its horn well, but it had a look of pain as well. He could only assume it would be enough as he was going to take a chance at the most opportune moment. For now, he dodged, deflected, and blocked, though his blocks were failing him as it was basically his and AJ’s strength and fatigue, against its insanely powerful punches. Every block sapping more and more of their ability to fight. “All Done!” Pinkie exclaimed as she wiped the sweat off her brow with her foreleg. “Woo! She’s gonna be a doozy in the next party.” she giggled “Ok Twilight, hop in!” “Uh, R-right.” Twilight stared at the business end of the party cannon. It was her idea, but NOW she decided to get nervous about it. She shakily lifted her hoof toward it. “I’ll just uuh… Hop in and-” She then felt two hooves on her backside lift her off the ground and into the cannon. “Don’t be such a slowpoke! We’re on a tight schedule!” Pinkie said eagerly as she did the deed then casually bounced over to the other side of the cannon with a smile on her face. “W-wait! I-I’m facing the wrong way!” Twilight’s tail and back legs dangled outside of the Cannon’s mouth. Her hooves frantically kicking in the air. “Pinkie? PINKIE?!” She could feel the cannon move. Pinkie was taking aim. “Just gotta aim you at the big scary monster guy aaaand there.” She gave a nod before pressing the fire button. “Fly, Twilight! Flyyyyy!” Twilight’s screams could be heard by all as she was flying tail first toward the bull. Who fortunately seemed to be too distracted with trying to pummel Sora and break his guard. “Ah ok, ok, ok, I can do this!” and just before she collided with the beast’s head, she manages to compose herself enough to continue with her initial plan and erect a small bubble shield around herself. At the speed she was going, she slammed into it, bounced off its head like a pinball skyward, went into a daze from the force of impact, lost her shield bubble in the process, then face planted into the dirt. Just before the Minotaur slumped over trying to keep itself together.” “Now!” Sora said with Applejack’s echoing from it. He then lunged straight for it. The Minotaur managed to at least see this coming and blindly swing at his direction despite it’s dazed state. However it was fruitless when another flash of light appeared in Sora’s place when the beast realized it was just punching at air, it was too late. Sora was now above him already making a flip, Applejack sliding just under the beast crouched low. The two of them yelled a battle cry as Applejack went for a gauntlet uppercut to its jaw, and Sora going for another overhead strike, giving it his all now that he and AJ weren’t fused. It was a pincer attack that rung throughout the battlefield. (Stop Music) There was a moment of pause as Sora landed next to Applejack, both staring up at the Minotaur weapons ready. Then finally the beast toppled over and fell to the ground. Both of them narrowly having enough time to back off to avoid being crushed by the body. The two of them were panting as they continued to stare at it for a few moments more before looking at each other. “I think we got it,” Sora said before he took a more casual stance. “... Yeah, I think so too” Applejack responded, doing the same. Everyone was starting to relax, Pinkie patted her cannon “Twilight! You ok?!” Calling out her name got everyone’s attention and they all turned to Twilight who was shakily trying to get back on her own hooves again. “Did we win?” she asked as she was still trying to clear her head. Sora had to stifle a laugh at the sight before shaking his head and joining AJ and Rainbow to check on Twilight. “We sure did, sugarcube. That move ya just did gave us the opening we needed.” Applejack patted the librarian on the back. Rainbow flew in and tapped Twilight on the forehead. “Man that thing you just was crazy, even for you, egghead.” “I helped!” Pinkie came in rolling the cannon with her. “Shot her at the big meanie with this!” “Yeah, we all heard that part,” Sora said with a nod. “C-could you all give me a moment. The w-world is still spinning… ugh….” “How’s Rarity?” Rainbow asked. “She hit that tree pretty hard from what I saw.” “She’s fine thankfully.” Fluttershy flew over to them. “And awake it would seem…” Rarity slowly made her approach behind Fluttershy, holding her head. “You might feel sore for a while,” Fluttershy said sheepishly. “I’m already feeling it now, darling.” Rarity replied. Sora shrugged. “Well, the spell was meant for getting you back in the fight really. I suppose it only focuses on what's necessary. “ “Like if you broke your spine upon impact,” Fluttershy said as she was in medic mode. “Or perhaps a ruptured organ or-” “Alright, alright, I think we get it. I’d rather not think of what could have been if you don’t mind.” Rarity wanted to change the subject. “Well, it all worked out in the end, right?” Pinkie cheered. “Good job everypony!” “Yeah, jobs done. Now we just head on home, be celebrated as heroes again, and get some grub.” Rainbow stated with confidence. “I could really go for a hayburger!” “Surprisingly, me too.” Sora chuckled, the other girls weren’t sure what he meant by that. Twilight just shrugged at it, there was still another issue still on her mind. She looked over at Sora. “Well, I’ll flag down the guards then. Despite the fusion failure, so long as we got results that's all that matters, right?” “Yeah, what was that about, I’ve never seen a fusion not work before, what happened? Rainbow asked. That’s right, Sora was so distracted with the minotaur after the failure, he forgot about confronting Twilight about it. “Twilight, about that fusion-huh?” That was when he finally noticed something off. “Sora?” Twilight turned to the boy in question then noticed it as well. “Wait... It's still there?” “What is?” Applejack turned to look as well, along with the others. “The heartless… It’s still here.” Sora answered. The creature laid unconscious but was not disappearing. In their rush to finish the fight, they made the mistake of assuming it was over when the Minotaur was knocked out when they already knew from experience. No heart? No peace. That was when the beast decided to open its eyes once more. “MOVE!” He barely managed to say as the beast scrambled up swiftly and already was lunging toward the group. It made everyone’s hair and fur stand on end just to see it move so tenaciously toward them. Everyone tried to back away Twilight tripped on herself “AH!” She quickly righted herself ready to run but the moment she looked back she could tell she wouldn’t make it. A dark fist already was coming straight for her. In response, she threw up her shield bubble and it barely managed to hold from the attack. Her mind was in pain and her bubble cracked all over before shattering when the beast pulled its fist back. So much power in that one attack. Is this… what those three faced the whole time? Twilight asked herself as she recalled how Sora, AJ, and Rainbow were fighting the creature. She collapsed under her own weight. The strain on her magic was too great. She looked up. Already, the beast was going for another strike. Please… Not here… However, someone suddenly stood in front of her. Of course… what was she thinking, No way her friends would let that happen. She felt relief as Fluttershy and Rarity were already at her side, Sora, Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie leaping past her to meet the attack. On Sora’s end, he immediately met the attack head on. There was no way he was gonna let this heartless have its way. Not with Twilight, or any of his friends. Fist met blade, Applejack Rainbow, and Pinkie right behind him pushing the fist back with him. “Applejack…. one more time…” He took a step forward. Applejack picked up on what he meant and nodded. “Right…” When the attack was finally pushed back. Sora didn’t hesitate to step in deep into the beasts personal space, hand out. The moment he felt that gem in his hands he whipped it forward and made the pose. “Connect!” He used the flash to temporarily blind the beast. It helped stall it form making another angry swing. However, this creature seemed to at least remember where Sora was standing and blindly swing in that direction. When the flash of light vanished, Sora’s head was just about to meet the beast’s punch when suddenly The Minotaur ended up punching nothing at all. “Gotta be a little quicker than that!” the beast turned to his left only to met with a barrage of swift speedy strikes to its face, it couldn’t even see. It had to back off and get a better look so it jumped far back. When it gazed at its foes, his view was already being blocked by Sora’s face, and the cockiest grin he could ever sport on his face. “Where do you think you're going?” And just like that, it was getting pummeled by another string of attacks before finally, Sora kicked off its chest into a backflip to avoid its desperate attempt to counterattack. When Sora was about to land on the ground he instead stopped in mid-air. The fusion was complete, but Applejack was with the other girls in awe. Sora sported a new keyblade this time, and many strands of his hair were different colors of the rainbow. And the tell all. The Gem of Loyalty on his back, along with a pair of long, almost ethereal like wings coming out of his back. Rainbow’s wish comes true, She and Sora fused. “Oh yeah, my time to shine!” And she is loving it.