//------------------------------// // Chapter 51: Taking a Step Back // Story: Kingdom Hearts: Harmonic Connections // by Mr Curious Writer //------------------------------// Sora’s Training Room Struggle matches were always a joy to see in Twilight Town, all able bodies were welcome to be a combatant and the current mayor was always eager to see a match and was on cloud nine when the annual tournament came around. Fans loved seeing the best of the best duke it out, but always eager to see a newcomer see what they’d add to the table. If Spike were in Twilight Town, and of course people got passed the part where he was a dragon, he would definitely spark some interest with his way of battle. “OK!” the little Drake charged right into Sora as the latter went on the defensive, curious to see what the little guy could do. Spike jumped and went straight for the face with an upward diagonal swing which Sora blocked, but before he had a chance to counter, Spike was already bringing his bat down on Sora’s head while he was still rising in the air from his jump, Sora deflected again, but that attack gave the dragon enough momentum to evolve that attack into multi strike as he let the force spin his body in mid-air. Sora had to block four more attacks before gravity pulled Spike back to the ground who barely landed on feet. “Not bad!” Sora commented before going for a low upward swing To which Spike was quick to evade. Spike then tried to get around and for a strike to Sora’s back, but the veteran dodge rolled forward to avoid it before quickly turning around and guarding Spike’s second charge. Because his legs were smaller, he decided rolling was a faster method to Sora, then just a foot away from him, he kicked off the ground with his feet and tail fly right him with another swift strike. Again, blocked by Sora’s bat, but Sora could feel the force to end up leaning back a bit. But still managed to bounce the dragon into the air. “Gotcha!” Sora jumped up to him then unleashed a 5 hit aerial combo strike, orbs scattering all around from Spike before Sora batted him away with a six horizontal slash. He chose not to dunk the little guy like he would with other opponents or heartless. As Spike was sent flying he noticed in his mind that being hit didn’t hurt. Sure he felt the force of every attack and they all felt strong, but he felt no pain. Something he had to ask after this fight. He flailed a bit before managing to get upright and on his feet again. When he did, he already saw the last of his orbs get pulled into Sora. and that got him to focus back on the fight. “Time’s running out and Sora is in the lead. What will you do, Spike?” Merlin had his pocket watch out and using his magic displayed each participant’s orb count. How he was able to keep track of it was Spike’s guess, but again something to ask later. His role model was giving him the “come on” hand gesture with a confident grin. He just hadto meet him in kind, rushed, on foot this time, but he was using that to let his mind think about what to do next. While not as fast as his rolling, he was picking up the pace now with those stubby legs. Sora decided to meet him halfway to see how he would react. He could see the look of not expecting it, but it swiftly changed to one of determination as went in for the strike, but ending up clashing bats with Sora. Still, he wanted to take the initiative hopped back to break the tension before rushing in for a combo strike. Sora would meet his attempt with evasive movements. Spike tried to anticipate how he would dodge, but he would never get a hit. So he had to think of a way to get Sora unaware. Wait… Sora was waiting out the barrage and it seemed like now was the time to get another hit in, so he stepped in and— THWAK! He was momentarily stunned physically and mentally, what hit him? His eyes closed instinctively to the impact but forced open a peek to see It was Spike’s tail that was leaving his face. Sly… With Sora, Spike wasted no time restarting his onslaught. Time was short so he had to get greedy. “Here I go!” He began with a downward overhead swing as gravity brought him back to the ground with his feet. The second he was. He rushed Sora and continued. Left, right, upward diagnosis strike, that bounced him in the air a little over Sora’s head just before he brought down another downward strike that got him into a spin, only this time, he felt and could hear that he was striking something other than Sora. Eventually, his spin slowed he was able to see Sora managed to bring up his bat and guard that last strike. “Uh oh” “Great form, Spike” Sora then pushed the dragon in the air so he wouldn’t be able to grab at any of the orbs he managed to smack out of him. HE crouched down to let himself absorb most of the dropped orbs before leaping up toward Spike, bat wound back. Spike flailing to get himself in a more favorable position while in mid-air, before the sound of a whistle was blown. “TIME!” Merlin somehow had a whistle with him as he raised a hoof in the air. Sora stopped his attack and instead caught Spike before landing on his feet. Then setting the little guy on his own two feet. “Results, Sora: 152 orbs collected” Merlin gestured to a scoreboard he magically conjured up. “Spike: 44 orbs collected. Which makes Sora the winner!” he then gestured to Sora. Spike groaned falling back and panting, for some reason, that short fight with Sora was more tiring than his normal training session. It was only natural though since he was fighting Sora. He had to give it everything he had. “That was awesome! I wanna go next!” a voice coming from behind Merlin toward the doorway. It was Scootaloo, along with Applebloom and Sweetie Belle. They were peering in before Scootaloo’ made an outburst after seeing such a heated match that they all tumbled into the room. “Yo, can we do that with our bats too?” Scootaloo managed to pull out her struggle club. Mogson was floating into view from behind the doorway, taking notice of the fillies. Applebloom was up again and bouncing pulling out her Struggle bat with the guard on it. “I’m up fer a round or two.” Sweetie Belle also pulling out her struggle wand. And that’s when a thought crossed the moogles head that had him rub his paws. “This is could be big munny…” and just like that, the Moogle was off. ~~~ Golden Oaks Library The door opened and entered Fluttershy. “Hello? Twilight?” She was looking all around the library and spotted Twilight lost in thought while looking over a book. From the looks of things, it seemed her friend didn’t hear her so she approached her and tried again. “Umm… Twilight?” She tapped her side and it was like she flipped an “on” switch as Twilight straightened up as if lightning struck her and gasped rather vocally. This made the pegasus squeak and backstep a bit and fire off an “I’m sorry” before she could even think of what just happened. Apparently Twilight was so deep in thought as she almost forgot to breathe. So when Fluttershy tapped her instead of looking up and replying to her like a normal pony would her body was screaming at her to breathe. This was a kind of concentration that even she never knew she could achieve. “W-w-what brings you here this morning?” After a moment of calming down Fluttershy’s element was in scarf form as the butterfly ornaments at each end start fluttering and hovering off the ground all around Twilight. “Well, I felt like I could spend some time working on my magic here... If that's ok with you, I mean.” Twilight looked at the butterflies hovering around her. Lifting up a hoof to touch one only for it to fly just out of her reach but still circle her. “it's no trouble at all Fluttershy, it's a library after also it's still technically open to the public… um, what are they doing?” She had to ask. Fluttershy just giggled “They say they are examining you. For injuries” “They speak to you?” Twilight’s curiosity once again distracting her from her previous thoughts. Fluttershy tilted her head to the side and thought about it. “Sort of, it's not so much they are speaking to me, but more like, I know what they are thinking, and they know what I’m thinking… I guess.” She shrugged as she joined her on the couch as the butterflies returned to her to rest, completely motionless ornaments as if they never moved at all. “Fascinating..” Twilight’s eyes never left the butterflies until they went inert. “What other capabilities do they have. I think I recall that they helped us find Sora and Rainbow, right?” Fluttershy nodded “Yes, they even give you a boost.” “A boost?” Twilight asked. “Yes, you see, earlier this morning they fluttered around the animals sprinkling pink light all around and everyone was up and completely energized. Even Angel who was still napping on my back at the time. I have never seen him get up so fast.” Fluttershy giggled at the memory or a suddenly peppy rabbit. “So they can heal, track, and stimulate others?” Twilight making a mental note of this as she mumbled. “I feel like they can do more, but I’m not sure what. So I came here thinking I can find that out with you as well.” Twilight wasn’t expecting this but she was more than welcome to it. It would keep her mind form “other matters” she had been thinking about. She got her magic back and for now, that's what mattered. “Sure, Fluttershy, I’d be happy to help.” ~~~~~ High Above Ponyville Rainbow didn’t get much sleep last night. How could she, she got to fuse, that only meant one thing. She had to break in her new element weapon as much as she could. “Take that!” A cloud shaped like a heartless is cut in two by a rainbow blur. “You’re gone!” another one was sliced in an X form while another was dispersed from collision it appeared quite a few clouds were used as training dummies as Rainbow zipped about cutting them down, but with what? Shooting from the left, then to the right, practicing a high-speed serpentine maneuver before shooting up a few yards and winding and staring down at her next cloud foe. Forearms at each side of her and away just before she went for the kill, her forelegs were encased in a gold substance, much like how a stocking would for a pony. They then morphed and expanded out into long blades in the shape of gold lightning bolts. A big cocky grin on her face as she dove in quicker than a flash then did a quick spin before contact and just like that, a group of “cloudless” were destroyed in the blink of an eye. After the attack, the blades reverted back to the black “stocking”-like design on her front legs as she then gave a fist pump. “Yeah, baby, these are awesome!” She looked at her hooves with a big grin on her muzzle. Rainbow couldn’t have been more ecstatic about her element. Already thoughts and fantasies ran through her mind of being cheered on by the country for her awesome display. Not to mention the wonderbolts announcing that she would be their newest member. But first… she should probably get back to her job and reform those clouds to place them over Ponyville… like she was told to do… after a few more minutes of “testing” her new weapons. Just like the other girls, she knew they could do more than just turn into blades…. right? ~~~ Town Hall Later that day After Sparring with Spike, and teaching the Crusaders the rules of Struggle, Sora decided to leave the rest to Merlin and Mogson since they seemed oddly interested in teaching the girls the ropes. He decided to use this opportunity to take on some odd jobs and made his way over to the TOwn hall to the job board. Because he was away for so long some of the jobs on the board were long taken care of, and the tasks that were available were relatively quick to handle. Mainly delivery runs from one place to another. A few times for Sugarcube Corner that for customers that had forgotten something, or were unable to make the trip for an order. This was no problem for someone that mastered the art of flowmotion. It was quite a spectacle for the bystander that happened to be at the right place at the right time to see a young stallion dashing down the streets and alleys, leaping sliding off railings, ropes, and wires, bouncing off walls, and swinging off light posts and poles. Now he was looking up his next job for some bits. “Hmm, not much left on the board…” He started reading one of them when suddenly he heard a familiar voice “Ah! There you are Sora!” It was Rarity, she looked like she was in a rush. “I’ve been looking for you at your home, but then told that you would be out working.” “Well, yeah, figured I’d kill some time and-” “Well, that’s, just perfect, dear! If you are looking to kill time, do I have the job for you.” Rarity interrupted as she trotted behind him and started nudging him in the direction of her boutique. Sora was getting a strange feeling about this, “Uh, what is the job exactly?” ~~~ Carousel Boutique Things had been a bit busy for Rarity’s store nowadays. Her Adventure Chic was gaining more and more attention by the townsfolk, and she was getting requests from places like Canterlot and Manehatten since ponies saw their outfits as they went to fight deadly horses, and of course part of the fame was also given by small moments of self-advertisement whenever she had the chance, this ended turning into word of mouth that spread like wildfire. The requests were a welcomed surprise and making custom orders was what she lived for, but as more and more ponies showed. Their interest and sent in order requests. She had to rethink her strategy. For starters, customers that actually entered the store get first priority, to an extent. If there was a mail order, she’d deal with the customers that arrived at her boutique first before taking on the order. That said, the mail order would be completed before she opened the store the next day. Finding time to sleep or rest was increasingly becoming an issue. So far she could manage it since the brand name was still growing, but she had to face the facts, this wouldn’t last much longer with this kind of popularity. She might need extra hooves. She thought about this as she measuring a stallion that said he wanted a hoodie similar to Sora’s. And that’s where she thought of the perfect pony to help her out. He had more than free time after all. Thus Sora’s reason to be here. “Sora! I need you to measure this stallion for me!” Rarity called out as she was working on a Mare. “On it!” Sora had just finished writing out the measurements of one customer before grabbing the spare measuring tape and running over to the next customer. ... “Sora! We’re running low on blue satin, can you run into the back and bring out some from storage, dear?” Rarity was working on her next piece Sora was busy at the register getting a customer’s payment “Uh blue satin… uuuh” “It’ll be labeled, of course” “Oh, Right then!” As he put the money in the register, he was off … Sora was carrying a mannequin to the front. “These things… are heavier than they look…” he had to drag it to the front window since Rarity wanted to place another outfit on display to attract window shoppers. “Oh good, place it right at the end there!” Rarity was sewing part of another outfit, making sure to respect the customer’s request for extra pockets to enchant later. “I placed the outfit there so you know where to put it. Do be careful when putting the outfit on the mannequin if you would. It’s durable, but can never be too careful.” Sora set down the Mannequin and picked up the outfit. This one wasn’t part of the Adventure Chic line. That much he could tell. It was a rather big dress encrusted with gems…. He wasn’t entirely sure how to go about it. The outfit came in three parts and they all looked rather similar to each other “Wait, is this the top, or the bottom?” Sora held a part in one hoof while staring at the other in his other hoof. In the end, it took a couple of tries after he noticed one of the parts was a jacket and he placed on the hind end. At least he knew where to put the saddlebags on the first try. ... Sora was beat, never before did he had to run around so much in one building, without fighting something at the same time. Things were slowing down finally to the point where he could finally collapse on the sofa. As Rarity floated a glass of lemonade in his hoof, to which he graciously accepted. “Is this every day for you?” he asked before he started downing the whole glass. Rarity kept walking over to a mannequin she had that held an outfit she was currently working on. “This is actually new for me. I had a feeling the new fashion would attract ponies, but never did I imagine to this extent, I’m afraid.” She stared intensely at the outfit before pulling off the belt. “This is a bit much” she pulled out a darker colored one to replace it and started examining it. “Despite the hectic atmosphere today, my heart couldn’t help but leap with joy with how popular this new fashion line had become. Though, it might be best if I reach out to other designers in Equestria about it. “Huh? What for?” Sora asked. As he finished his glass. “Well, I feel as though “Adventure Chic” should be shared with other designers, for the sake of its growth.” She nodded at the belt and decided to leave it on the mannequin and started circling it to examine every inch. “This ensemble could definitely use some shoes…” she went to her sketch pad and started brainstorming. “As great as these designs I have made, they come from one mind, my own. Which has been inspired by a lot, mostly by you, Sora.” She looked up at the stallion who was watching her intently. When they locked eyes, Rarity couldn’t help but blush slightly and look back at her sketch pad. The way she said that it could be taken in more than one way. However, she pressed on. “However, if I share this with other ponies. Like-minded designers ... then who knows what will come from that, and doesn’t that just grabs my curiosity and wonder all the more. “You’re really into your passion if you would even share with competition.” Sora smiled, he liked that genuine smile on her face. “The greatest innovations often are created from a little competition.” Rarity stated as she gave a nod and stepped back to view the outfit in whole again. “And healthy competition would be a breath of fresh air what with us always galavanting about saving the world and all.” She then paused and looked back at him. “Of Course I’m not saying I am tired of being a heroine either. It has its perks after all.” She gave off a knowing smirk. “Perks?” Sora had to ask. “Why of course, you wouldn’t believe the discounts and freebies, now that I'm known as one of the heroines fighting back against the heartless.” Now that he thought about it, they had been doing a lot of “saving the day” than anything else. And seeing Rarity so hard at work… instead of looking exhausted she seems eager. Sora wasn’t sure, but it seemed that working with fashion was just relaxing for her. Well… as long as she was happy about it, he guessed. “Ah, I do believe break time is over. The day is almost done. Come along now.” Rarity was on the move once again. “F-for what?” he asked with a raised eyebrow. Rarity “Simple, dear. We wait for any last-minute customers as we tidy the place and move the displays around if needed for the new designs I’ve set up, then package up all the mail orders.” “Mail orders?” he followed her around the corner and noticed. “Oh, you would not believe how many orders I’ve gotten ever since that Manehtten trip. Ditzy, the poor dear, looked like she was straining with her bag when she delivered them all.” Rarity went behind the counter and pulled out.a huge stack of letters and placed it on the counter… and then another, and then another. Sora looked at the stacks wide-eyed. “Now can you do me a favor and get packaging supplies for me from the back?” “Packaging? A little early to start sending them out when you just got those letters.” “Early? Sora, I’m almost done.” Rarity trotted off. “Almost done?” he blinked and followed her to where she had outfits neatly placed with names on them… A LOT of them. “Whoooa…” “Yes, I know, I’m behind, but I’m sure if I can make the last few by tonight. Now when you get back with the packaging, all you have to do after that is gift wrap the clothes.” she made her way to her sewing machine. “Oh and make sure you don’t mix up the address tags, Sora. or we’ll have to recheck them all.” Sora looked at all the outfits… then at his hooves. “R-right…” he sagged at the potential workload before flipping his amulet to revert to human form. Better with hands then hooves in his opinion. Though he was still plenty drained already. ~~~~~~~~~~ Changeling Hive There was commotion going on in one of the far larger subterranean chambers of the HIve. a large group of Changelings was struggling to keep a heartless chained down. And not just any heartless. It was the minotaur heartless from earlier. And they were losing this battle. At one end stood Maleficent and Pete watching the struggle. “A feisty one.” Maleficent watched with an amused look. “It only proves to show a hint of who the owner of its heart used to be.” “And he was strong enough to cut down mountains, right?” Pete gulped “Sure glad he’s gone now.” “Well, he and his prison mates sure didn’t make it easy for us.” A voice from behind, Maleficent. “So why are my soldiers having to fight this thing. “I thought you had full control of heartless.” “If I wanted to control it I would’ve done so your majesty, however, I’m afraid I’ll be too busy to babysit our guest,” Maleficent responded before turning to Chrysalis and giving a slight bow. “So what, you’re just going to leave it like this? I can’t have this running amok and tearing up my hive.” Chrysalis glared at the witch who simply smiled. “Oh perish the thought. On the contrary, you will be thanking me before long.” Maleficent’s grin grew even larger. This got the Queen’s attention, to which Maleficent just stepped forward looking at the beast. “You’ve controlled heartless before, you know the idea and how the process works. Heartless will listen to a strong heart and obey, to an extent, always keeping in mind that controlling them is generally similar to holding your heart out like a carrot on a stick.” Maleficent then looked Chrysalis in the eyes, in a way to get the queen's attention. “If mastered fully, your army increases indefinitely, but minor heartless are simple to control for people like us. The more powerful ones, however… well… If you don’t show control, you might as well forfeit your heart now. Chrysalis tensed up staring at the large heartless. “The fact of the matter is, your highness, I must seek out the other ones before our would-be hero and his irksome pony friends find them first. And I can’t be in two places at once.” “So your telling me to put this thing under a leash. One that I have control of.” Chrysalis glared. Maleficent turned and gestured to the beast once more as it then roared so loudly that anyone in the hive could hear it as it yanked on its chained arm dragging the group of changelings holding it across the floor. “The question is; Do you think you can handle that?”