My Little Pony: Sora's Misadventures in Equestria

by Codex92


School Daze (Part 2)

It had been a few days since the School of Friendship was shut down by the EEA. Many of the pony students who went there were highly disappointed that it was closed down, even if the classes started to drag on with confusing math and science equations and boring, just as confusing lectures. The ones who took it the hardest were the Elements of Harmony and the Keyblade wielders who helped made the school possible, mostly Twilight since she was a pony who always depended on studying ever since she was a filly.

At the castle, Riku walked through the halls with a mug of hot chocolate held in his wing, reaching his and Twilight's bedroom and knocked gently. "Hey, Twilight? It's me," he called out, but got no response. Pressing an ear up to the door, he heard some somber music playing on a phonograph, which no doubt drowned out her crying fits. Sighing, Riku twisted the doorknob, only to find it locked. Again. "Twilight, you know that no matter how many times you lock this door, I can just unlock it from here, right?"

Again, no response. He couldn't blame her for getting this depressed when learning was a huge part of her life growing up. Summoning his Keyblade, he unlocked the door, then dismissed it before letting himself in. On their bed was a huge fort of pillows covering the alicorn, the phonograph playing the depressing music aimed at the doorway, and lots of used tissues thrown haphazardly around the bed or sitting on the mattress. Taking the needle off the old fashioned record player, Riku walked over to the bed and sat beside the pile of pillows. Moving a couple of them away, she found his lover whining in misery, eyes bloodshot and puffy from nonstop crying as tears continued to shed, a box of tissues resting near her muzzle.

"Hey," he greeted playfully. "I brought some hot chocolate to help cheer you up." He lowered the mug to let her see, even adding in small marshmallows to make into a smiley face. "And look. It's happy to see you." Twilight groaned, snatching away the pillow Riku moved away and covered her face back up. Riku frowned, setting the mug on the side table. "Come on, Twilight. You've been crying and hiding in here for days. We've been trying to cheer you and Aqua up, but neither of you want to even budge." Twilight let out a groan, blowing her nose with a new tissue. "I know that school meant a lot to you, but there's got to be some sort of bright side to all this."

Twilight suddenly shot up, knocking Riku and most of her pillows off the bed while startling her coltfriend. "Bright side!? What bright side!?" she questioned. "I'm supposed to be the Princess of Friendship! And all I did was make enemies with Equestria's allies, upset my friends and you, and got my school...-" Her eye began to twitch, the word she was about to say physically hurting her. "-...unaccredited! There is no bright side!"

Twilight fell back on the mattress and sobbed, covering herself back under her pillow fort while blowing her nose into another tissue. Riku got back up and sat on the bed, removing one of the pillows and lifting the alicorn to sit up with him.

"Twilight, NONE of that was your fault," he reminded her. "You were just following the EEA's rules. And...yeah, I do admit those rules got really irritating to follow, but we stuck with them so we didn't let you down."

"But the yaks, changelings, dragons-" Riku gently pressed a hoof to Twilight's lips, refusing to hear her make anymore excuses.

"Neighsay was the one who sparked that conflict. Not. You," Riku said, reminding her once more that everything that happened wasn't her fault. "Maybe if he wasn't in charge, the school wouldn't have gotten shut down or unaccredited." Twilight winced as her eye twitched at the term. "I can see why Aqua was that ticked off at him. He only sees other creatures as enemies and stuck in an old fashioned world where other races or kingdoms would never make an alliance with their own kind. Believe me. I'm sure all of us wanted to knock him down a peg or two."

"But...I failed," Twilight whimpered.

Riku shook his head, hugging the alicorn tightly and nuzzled her. "No you didn't. You were doing fine," he reassured, gently rubbing her back and slowly rocked back and forth to comfort Twilight.

"The students skipped class because of me enforcing the rules I didn't want us to break," Twilight mumbled. "He blames them for endangering everypony, and it all falls on me as headmare. I failed them. I failed all of you. I even failed Princess Celestia."

Riku's ears drooped, unable to snap his distressed beloved out of her misery. He and the others did try to write to Celestia about what happened, and she did attempt to speak with Chancellor Neighsay about what happened. She got both sides of the story, but the Chancellor refused to admit to the changes Equestria would make by including creatures who were not pegasi, unicorns, or earth ponies to take part in any educational system within the kingdom, nor would he reopen the school and apologize for his discrimination toward the allied nations he had rudely offended and blamed for the accident. Neighsay was just as heartless as the creatures of darkness they slay, and he was too proud to admit he was in the wrong.

Twilight eventually passed out in Riku's hooves after several minutes, tears still rolling down her face even as she slept. He gently laid her back down on the bed, wiped her cheek of the trickling stream of tears matting her face before giving her a light kiss, then covered her body with her emotionally protective pillow fort before exiting the room. Hopefully, when he came back in later, she'll have at least drank the hot chocolate before it got cold. None of the others could cheer her up either earlier in the depression week: a wake up call from Rainbow Dash, Applejack bringing some of Granny Smith's apple mash, Fluttershy bringing Angel to cuddle with, only to make the devious bunny feel just as depressed when he tried to snuggle with her, Rarity creating a new dress for Twilight to wear, which unfortunately made her look like a court jester, and Pinkie Pie failing to bring the right supplies when she didn't bring the ice cream for a pity party. Sighing, Riku wandered to the throne room, where the others were waiting on him to see if he managed to cheer her up some.

"The hot chocolate didn't work?" Spike asked.

"No. She's blaming herself for what happened still," Riku said, leaping up into his throne and sank in his seat in defeat.

"Aww. I thought the marshmallow smiley face would have made her frowny upside-downey," Pinkie said sadly.

"She isn't going to feel better until we reopen the school," Sora said. "Maybe we should just unlock the seal ourselves with our Keyblades. He's not entitled to tearing down a school that's important for everyone to learn."

"If we do that, then he has every right to have the princesses banish us from Equestria," Kairi said. "Aqua wanted to do it to spite him...but...why did she stop?"

"She's shut herself away from me," Terra said with a heavy sigh. "She won't even look at me."

"You don't think that...Torrent is back, do you?" Fluttershy asked.

"I hope not! That crazy monster almost took her away from us the last time!" Rarity said.

"Who the heck is Torrent?" Lea asked, lounging in Twilight's seat since the alicorn was busy moping in her room. Everyone leered at the red stallion, Kairi lowering a memory ornament and showed him the blue unicorn's darkness taking over her body. Grimacing, he giggled sheepishly, letting out an ashamed grunt. "Ok...now I do. Definitely a lot scarier than Aqua when she's mad. Got that memorized..."

Ventus leapt out of his seat and began to leave the throne room. "Hey, Ven, where ya going?" Goofy asked.

"I'm going to try to cheer Aqua up again," he said. "If Torrent really did come back, I'm not going to let Aqua lose herself to that monster again."

As Ventus left the room, Terra brought up the Galactic and Cutie Maps, seeing if he can continue searching for a place for their new Keyblade academy in Aqua's place. Before Terra switched to locating another world, Starlight noticed two different white dots resembling a Keyblade wielder on the map in two different locations. She saw one near the school, but lost track of the other one as Terra began his search.

"Hmm," Starlight hummed curiously. "I'm gonna go for a little walk. I'll be right back."

She had a feeling she knew who would be at the closed school at that moment, heading out to meet the wielder who wandered there. Meanwhile, Ventus reached the door to Aqua and Terra's room, knocking on the door to get her attention.

"Aqua, please open up," Ventus begged, but got no response. He preemptively unlocked the door and entered, shocked to find the bed empty with no sign of the unicorn mare anywhere. Before he could panic, he saw a note on the side table, along with Aqua's communicator. Grabbing the note, he lifted it up and read it to himself. "'Wanted to be alone. Be back later tonight. Don't look for me. Aqua.' ...Why, though?" Ventus' ears drooped, greatly concerned for one of his dearest friends. "Aqua, please don't shut us out again..."


Twilight snuck out of her room after waking up from her small nap. She sat near the entryway of her school, staring at the EEA magic seal keeping its doors closed. It really would be so easy to unlock it with her Keyblade, but if Neighsay was able to know if someone breached it, he'd definitely get her title as a princess and ascension as an alicorn taken away from her, assuming the latter could be possible.

"I was wondering how long it would take before you got tired of pillow-fort pouting." Twilight turned her head, not surprised to see Starlight finding her as she approached the princess. Starlight balked slightly when she saw a chocolate mustache on the alicorn's upper lip, which made her smirk a little. "Helped yourself to Riku's cocoa, finally?"

Twilight glanced down at her muzzle, barely feeling any embarrassment as she rubbed the chocolaty mess off her lips with her hoof. "It didn't cheer me up, if you're that amused," she said. "I couldn't ignore my stomach. If you've come to cheer me up, don't bother."

"Oh, I'm not gonna cheer you up," Starlight corrected. "I'm going to tell you what you did wrong."

"What!?" Twilight exclaimed.

"You gave up too easily," Starlight stated, poking the alicorn's chest lightly. Twilight gave her former student a blank stare, like she had just grown a second head and it spoke in a foreign language. "Hey, you made me and Lea your guidance counselors. He may be lax with his methods, but I go with tough love, baby."

Twilight didn't know where Starlight was going with her "tough love" counseling to her, but it wasn't helping her feel any better. "Neighsay was right. I failed. The school was a disaster."

"So was I when we met. But you and Sora had shown me that when you know something in your heart is right, you stand up for it," Starlight said.

"The shouldn't Sora be telling me this? Not you?" Twilight asked.

"I think he would do something silly and reckless to get a laugh or grin out of you like Pinkie would, but I'd wager that would be the third thing he would think of," Starlight said with a smirk. "The second would probably involve forcing his best friend to sic you, get you out of that bedroom, and trap you in a torture chair and have everypony tickle you until you're ready to stop wallowing in self pity." Twilight pouted and gave the unicorn a blank stare. "Heheh. Maybe not his idea, but he'd definitely think it." The alicorn mumbled something under her breath, then turned away from her former pupil of friendship. "But if you two fought to give me another chance, why not fight to keep your school open?"

Twilight quickly turned back around, giving Starlight an aghast look. "I can't go against the EEA! They're in charge of all the schools in Equestria!"

"And YOU'RE in charge of all the FRIENDSHIP in Equestria," Starlight emphasized. "And just like him denying Aqua about the Keyblade academy, he has no say in how you teach friendship, or other wielders how to defend themselves from the darkness. Would you let somepony who has no idea how to do your jobs and prevent you from doing it?"

Twilight held out the EEA guidebook to Starlight. "But the EEA rule book-!"

Starlight quickly smacked the heavy book out of the alicorn's telekinetic hold, sending it plopping into the lake and watched it sink to the bottom. "Doesn't matter! You can write your own rules! Because you are doing something new. Something important!"

Twilight stared down at the water, letting Starlight's words sink in, along with Riku's encouragement when he attempted to cheer her up earlier. She did give up too soon, and Neighsay apparently doesn't know anything about friendship if he can't find the decency to be friendly toward the other kingdoms beyond Equestria's ruling. He doesn't even know anything about the Keyblade, or how anyone could wield one if they have the potential, especially if they weren't ponies who were chosen by the blades of darkness' bane. She needed the EEA guidelines to run a school, but teaching about friendship was a matter the EEA cannot stick their noses in, no matter how much power they have in the educational system.

"...You're right," Twilight said, smiling for the first time in the last few days. "Why we're doing this is more important than how we're doing this. And we ARE doing this!"

"Now THAT'S the Twilight I know," Starlight said. "How can I help?"

Twilight pulled Starlight into a hug. "You already have."

The two mares made their way back to the castle, Twilight feeling more confident and determined to open her school back up, and it was going to be run her way, the way SHE knows best, not the EEA. Opening the doors wide open, the others were shocked to see the lavender alicorn freed from her depression with a smug Starlight walking beside her, that look expressing no thanks were needed for cheering up their miserable Princess of Friendship.

"Twilight, you finally left your room?" Sora asked.

"Yes, and I have some good news: The School of Friendship is back in business!" she announced.

Instead of hearing cheerful reactions, everyone actually cringed and mumbled to themselves. "Welp, good luck guys," Lea said as he stood up and began to walk out. "I quit."

Starlight quickly wrapped the fire elemental wielder in her aura, dragging him back to the map, but kept him out of Twilight's throne. "Hear her out, guys," she said.

"Hey, no offense, Twilight, but...teaching at that school was the most boring, horrible, awful thing ever," Rainbow said, making a majority of the group facehoof.

"Rainbow, she's obviously going to take offense to that," Riku grumbled.

"No, Rainbow Dash was right. And so was Aqua," Twilight said. "I owe you all an apology. I was so focused on doing things the EEA way, I didn't listen to any of you."

"We did go along with the rules so we could keep the school up," Kairi said.

"But this time, we'll run the school the way friends should; together," Twilight promised.

"So...we'd be allowed to teach however we want?" Rarity asked.

"No more scary pop quizzes?" Fluttershy asked.

"No stuffy suits to wear as a uniform?" Lea asked hopefully.

"Confetti cannons for everycreature?" Pinkie asked.

Then, completely out of nowhere, multiple party cannons popped up beside everyone in the throne room. Aside from Pinkie's each of them had matching colors for everyone's fur and mane colors, even one for Spike matching his purple and green scales. Lea jumped when his popped up, but didn't question it, learning his lesson, and was more intrigued by his with the fiery pattern at the mouth of the barrel. Aqua's had popped up by her throne, even though the mare wasn't present.

"Whatever you all need to teach the Elements of Harmony," Twilight said.

Pinkie cheered, launching every party cannon as confetti and streamers poured all over the group. "Alright! School's back open for session!" Sora cheered with Donald and Goofy agreeing and laughing in joy.

"There's just two small problems," Spike mentioned, ceasing the trio's preemptive celebrating. "The school is still unaccredited-" Twilight's eye twitched at the mention of the most heart-wrenching words she's ever heard in her whole life. "-AND we don't have any students."

"I'll take care of the first part while you guys round up our class," Twilight said.

"Sounds like a plan," Terra said, hopping off his throne. "Lea, Donald, Goofy, and Starlight can gather the pony students while the rest of us split up in groups and bring back our foreign students."

"Great. Let's just hope Aqua will listen to us and help me write our school's own rule book." Twilight was about to leave the room and have Aqua join them, provided she can be awakened from her own depression, but Donald flew over to her and stopped her.

"Uhh, Twilight. Aqua's not in the castle," he said.

"Huh? Why? What happened?" Twilight asked.

Ventus hovered down to the floor, pulling out the note Aqua left from his pocket. "We don't know where she went," he said. "We can't even get in contact with her. She left her communicator behind, too."

"We're hoping that Torrent isn't back and trying to take over her heart again," Sora said. "Even if she said she'll be back, we really shouldn't leave her alone."

Twilight frowned worriedly, then approached the map. "Ok, I'll work on the rules a bit later. I'll look around for Aqua through the maps while you all gather the students."

The others nodded and headed out, splitting up to find their students. Twilight wondered where Aqua could have gone, unsure if she was in another part of Equestria or flew off to another world. If Torrent really was making a comeback, she shouldn't be alone with her own thoughts and her darkness' influence.


The pairs going off to the other regions to collect their students flew off on the wielders' gliders: Pinkie and Terra flying north to Yakyakistan, Riku and Rarity to the far east in the Dragon Lands, Fluttershy and Ventus toward the badlands at the changeling hive, Applejack and Kairi to the far south in Mt. Aris, and Rainbow Dash and Sora to the northeast in Griffonstone. As Pinkie and Terra landed in the village of yaks, the perimeter set up like a fort made from logs while the buildings inside were large huts to fit the large bovine citizens, Terra followed Pinkie to Prince Rutherford's royal hut. She walked through the tarp that served as the door unannounced, the yak leader sitting on his throne with a disgruntled frown when he saw the two ponies.

"Cupcake-gram for Prince Rutherford~!" Pinkie sang.

"Why pink and brown ponies here?" Rutherford questioned. "Yaks mad at ponies!"

"Yes, we understand why you would hate us," Terra said, making sure to choose his words carefully to avoid the yak prince's wrath. "But we're reopening the School of Friendship, and it won't be like how it used to run." He managed to get Rutherford's attention, Pinkie subtly slipping a cupcake in the yak's hoof as he subconsciously munched on the pastry. "However, there's another reason why aside from teaching Yona about friendship to share with your tribe."


"We're really sorry about the misunderstanding," Rarity apologized to Fire Lord Ember, the dragonness hearing her and Riku out despite being told off by Neighsay nearly a week ago. "All creatures will be welcome to the school, of course."

"And we especially need Smolder to return," Riku added. "She's a young dragon with a lot more potential than being willing to learn about the Magic of Friendship. A LOT more," he hinted, emphasizing the Keyblade on his cutie mark to Ember.


"We would be really happy if Ocellus came back to class," Fluttershy said to Thorax and Pharynx, both brothers willing to hear her and Ventus as they wanted to help change every creatures' views on changelings.

"She's a bright student and willing to learn just about anything," Ventus added. "Even much more than JUST friendship. You all know about my friends and I as Keyblade wielders, and while I was here helping handle Pharynx, there was something in her that I felt that was similar to a wielder's."


"It just wouldn't be the same without them," Applejack said to General Seaspray, who was also accompanied by one of his soldiers since Queen Novo had an important meeting to attend to in Seaquestria.

"Silverstream has a good heart, and she's able to do a lot more to help protect Mt. Aris and Seaquestria," Kairi added. "The studies on the Magic of Friendship is just as important as is the training she can take in helping this whole world from much more dangerous threats than a racist unicorn. And we can start teaching-"


"-right now!" Rainbow and Sora said simultaneously, finishing explaining to Grandpa Gruff about the School of Friendship reopening and Gallus' importance to both learning friendship and a destiny lying in wait for him.

The grumpy elder griffon turned his head, barely interested in what the two pegasi hovering near his perch had to say. "What are you waiting for? Get your student and let's go!" Rainbow said.

"Not happening!" Grandpa Gruff squawked.

Rainbow and Sora balked with a groan, almost crashing to the ground in exasperation. "Seriously!? Why not!?" Sora exclaimed. "Do we have to explain everything from the beginning again!?"

"You listen here, you equine welps!" Gruff yelled back. "I told ya it ain't happening, because-!"


"The students are gone!?" Celestia and Luna exclaimed in shock.

The pairs of ponies made their way back to Canterlot with the leaders of the kingdoms they visited, just as shocked as the princesses were when they heard the unfortunate news earlier. It didn't help that the leaders had marched up to Celestia and Luna, yelling and shouting while demanding to know where their charges disappeared to. And they blamed Equestria no thanks to Neighsay's discriminatory accusations.

"WHERE YONA!?" Prince Rutherford bellowed. "THIS ALL PONY'S FAULT!"

"You're pretty quick to blame them!" Ember said suspiciously. Rutherford turned and glared at the Dragon Lord, the two creatures butting heads as they growled. "What are you hiding, yak!?"

"Everyone, cut it out!" Sora shouted as he and Terra pushed Ember and Rutherford away from each other. "Let's just take a deep breath and focus on finding the students!"

"This won't help if we're going at each other's throats and blaming the other kingdoms for them going missing!" Terra added. As the Keyblade wielders tried to keep the delegates apart and avoid a physical confrontation between most of them, Thorax feeling a bit reluctant to speak up or try picking a fight with the others, things seemed to slowly calm down, though the tension still hung heavily in the air. "Now, before we point hooves or claws at each other, does anyone know how long they've been gone for?"

"Since yesterday," all the leaders sans the alicorn princesses answered.

"And no one from your homes spotted them leavin' or gettin' kidnapped?" Applejack asked.

"Kinda hard to keep tabs on a young child during a diplomatic outrage," Seaspray said.

"Did they even leave behind any clues to their whereabouts?" Luna asked.

"They each left notes before disappearing," Thorax said. "Ocellus wrote in hers that she blamed herself for breaking part of the school and almost hurting everyone, and it hurt to feel that responsible for ruining our relationship with Equestria and being away from her new friends."

"Skipping pony school, smashing party when not want to smash, and missing friends," Rutherford summarized from Yona's last message.

"Egh, same as what the yak said," Ember grumbled.

General Seaspray nodded, confirming a similar sort of response from Queen Novo's niece. "Bah, who cares about what that little runt thinks!?" Grandpa Gruff exclaimed. "He's missing, and one of you must have taken him hostage! We'll sick our army on all of you!"

"Grandpa Gruff, how can you say that about Gallus!?" Rainbow questioned the elder griffon as everyone was shocked by his lack of caring for the missing young griffon. "Isn't he your grandkid!?"

"He ain't my offspring's offspring!" Gruff corrected irritably. "I'm no griffon's grandfather!"

"I think I know why everyone in Griffonstone calls him 'Grandpa' Gruff now," Riku mumbled to the others.

"So, if all of them had a similar loss, then they all must have run away to stay together," Celestia theorized. "Twilight's school did manage to teach them about friendship, but in the worst way possible if this is going to escalate into a war between six different nations."

"That is highly impossible for them to do on their own," Seaspray said. "If the queen's niece is not found soon, I swear there will be retribution!"

The other leaders began arguing again, this time claiming how their own armies would decimate the others' kingdoms. Thorax, however, wanted to remain neutral, knowing the changelings already had a bad reputation under Chrysalis' rule, and he didn't want his kind branded as enemies again after all the hard work they put into being friendly. Terra had enough, rearing up on his hind legs, then stomped his forehooves to the ground hard, causing a quake that nearly knocked over everyone in the room.

"ENOUGH ARGUING!" Terra shouted. "We are NOT going to have an all-out war over these missing students! No one in this room is at fault for what they did to run away and be with each other! If anyone's to blame, it's Chancellor Neighsay and his harsh comments toward the other races around the world!"

"It's true!" Ventus joined with Terra, trying to keep the peace with him. "You're not the only ones mad at him! We are, too! He offended us as well!"

Even though Thorax and Ember understood what Ventus meant, General Seaspray and Prince Rutherford were confused while Grandpa Gruff still scowled bitterly. "...Uhh, yak confused," Rutherford said. "What smaller, spiky-maned pegasus mean?"

"You all were offended? When you are ponies?" Seaspray added.

Ventus gulped, stammering nervously, nearly blowing their identities. "I think what he means is we were offended that he found us all as teachers completely unreliable," Rarity interjected. "After you all left and Neighsay closed the school, Aqua tried to confront him about his...horrid statements about all of you and us as the School of Friendship's staff."

"Yeah! She kinda magic surged and got all icy and freezy, even threatened to KILL Chancellor Notchbay!" Pinkie added.

"I think his name is 'Neighsay', Pinkie," Fluttershy corrected.

"Whatever!" Pinkie shrieked. "Anywho, he used that medal doodad he wore, used some sort of spell to zap her magic surge away and safely blow it up, then insulted her and our friends about Aqua's own plan to open up her own school one day, and your students would be perfect candidates to be her very first ones!"

"A secondary school?" Seaspray uttered. "That's the first I've heard of this."

"Bah! Both schools are just as lame!" Grandpa Gruff squawked, followed by some hacking wheezes.

"Was what brown pony said about other school Yona Yak would be in?" Rutherford asked Terra.

"Yes, but we'll have to try to explain what it is later," Terra said. "We'll find the missing students. In the meantime, PLEASE don't try to kill each other until we bring them back safe and sound."

The leaders glanced at each other, leering at each other for a moment before they reluctantly nodded, letting the heroes of Equestria find their missing charges. Once the Royal Guard escorted each of the leaders to where they'll be staying in the castle, Celestia let out a heavy groan with a shake of her head once they left the throne room.

"What has the Chancellor gotten us into?" Celestia grumbled. "I've tried to reason with him since I heard the unfortunate news, and all the work I put into making treaties with some of the other kingdoms are going right down the drain due to his old-fashioned ways. From one thousand years ago!"

"Should Sombra and I give him a nightmare in his sleep tonight to teach the lout a lesson, sister?" Luna asked Celestia with a devious smirk.

"As much as I would love to see that, he would call us out in abusing our power to torture our subjects," the white alicorn said in disappointment.

"I'd say he deserves an ass kicking," Riku growled, slamming his hooves together angrily. "Insulting the rulers or ambassadors of other kingdoms wanting to make ties with your own is going to end up destroying Equestria!"

"We can worry about him later. We've got to figure out where those students ran away to," Kairi said.

While everyone tried to think about where the students could have gone, Riku contacted Twilight to let her know what had happened, hoping his hearing wouldn't get blown out with her response. After several minutes of deep thought, Ventus pulled out Aqua's note, reading the short message a few times. Just as he worried about where she was and if she was ok, his eyes widened as a possible outcome could have come from the missing students and Aqua's "depressed wandering".

"...Guys?" the young pegasus spoke up, gathering everyone's attention. Facing the princesses, mares, and other Keyblade wielders, he held up the note. "...What if Aqua 'recruited' the students?"

Shocked gasps rang out in the throne room as they put the pieces together. "No way. She couldn't have," Sora uttered in disbelief. "...Did anyone see her in her room yesterday?"

"She kept the door locked, and even when I tried to unlock it, she kept her room sealed with a barrier," Terra responded. "I just let her be the rest of the day until she was ready to talk."

"She couldn't have just taken the students away without informing the leaders," Kairi said. "Otherwise she wouldn't have sparked the beginning of a huge war between all the kingdoms. Even if she's upset, she would still want to keep the peace in the world, not spiral it into a deadly battle."

"We need to find those students, and Aqua, fast," Riku said. "I'll tell Twilight to pick up the pace in finding her. We'll split up and scour the world for any sign of them-" Riku gestured to himself and the Keyblade wielders, then pointed to Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie. "-while you girls head back to Ponyville and start searching there. With Sandbar as our only pony student with the potential to become a Keyblade wielder, he might have the same idea and run away with the others."

Everyone nodded and quickly ran out of the throne room. Celestia shook her head in shame, disappointed in Neighsay starting this conflict.

"If they don't find those students soon, and the other leaders wage war against us, I'll be sure to take away his position as EEA Chancellor and lecture him about how the differences between races can lead to this much trouble as he sits behind bars," Celestia grumbled. "Did he learn nothing about how Hearth's Warming was founded?"

"Perhaps he was a bit too focused on uniting ponies to focus on that added moral," Luna added in agreement. "...Just one little nightmare?"

"No, Luna," Celestia chided, making the lunar princess frown in disappointment. "I just hope they're alright, and Aqua really didn't do anything reckless to add fuel to the inferno beginning to build..."


Aqua slowly wandered around Ponyville, barely paying attention to where she was walking as her mind drifted constantly through what she did wrong in her life and who she really was. Her body refused to keep her cooped up in her room, but where she wanted to go was left undecided. Her mane hung over her face, disheveled and veiled her from the looks she feared to see on everyone in town, especially her friends. Her aimless wandering led her to locations to distract her, but led with no results or changes.

Her first stop was the Ponyville spa, where the spa twins, Aloe and Lotus, recognized her as a regular like Rarity, and seeing her in such a state surprised them, quickly checking her in for an emergency spa session. From a relaxing soak in the hot tub to a muscle-relaxing massage, they pulled out all the stops to help the unicorn relax and feel refreshed. Sadly, even as she physically looked better, the stress in her muscles said otherwise. Not even Bulk Biceps' giving her the "Extra-strength-hot-stone-deep-tissue-massage" barely loosened her up, the bulky pegasus stallion's strength unable to ease the tension in the depressed mare. She mumbled an apology, paying them for the huge package they offered her to compensate for trying.

She then made her way to Sugarcube Corner to gorge herself on sweets and shakes to comfort eat. Her second choice was drowning her sorrows in alcoholic beverages, but she feared she'd release that monster within her in her drunken stupor. While she slowly munched on dozens of cupcakes and downed her fifth shake, she heard the Cake Twins giggling as they played with their toys in the shop while Cup Cake and Carrot Cake carefully kept an eye on them as they worked. She kept her head down, avoiding making any eye contact with the energetic pegasus and unicorn foals, but when she didn't hear them playing, she felt a pair of tiny hooves pawing at her leg. She glanced down to see the two baby ponies looking up at her with begging pouty faces, wanting to sneak a snack from her stack of goodies from their parents' customers. Part of her gave in to their cute looks, but when she looked over to grab a couple cupcakes, she glanced at the reflection of one of her empty shake glasses, then panicked when she saw Torrent staring back at her. Gasping, she yelled, shoving the table harder than she meant to, flinging her huge order over the floor and sent the table crashing into the opposite end of the store.

Thankfully, none of the other patrons or the Cake Twins were hurt from her outburst, just startled as they all looked at her. The twins began crying, to her distress, afraid she had hurt them when they were just terrified of her reaction to her panic attack. Cup Cake and Carrot Cake quickly ran over to check on their babies while Aqua backed away, tears rolling down her face as she apologized profusely to everyone. The Cakes weren't mad at her, just concerned about the mare after seeing their children were just scared. It didn't help her anxiety as everyone stared at her. She mumbled more apologies, her voice cracking, then bolted out of the bakery and ran as fast and as far away from Ponyville as possible.

She didn't know where to run to, just anywhere away from anyone who she could accidentally hurt again. In her blurred vision, she headed straight for the Everfree Forest, ignoring the path and ran straight through the foliage, undoing all the beauty work the spa gave her. She may have run past Zecora's hut and the zebra herself, but she didn't hear her call out when she spotted her sprinting off like she was being chased by a pack of timberwolves. She just kept running, tears trailing behind her as she weaved around the thick bushes and overgrown trees, panting and sobbing while finding a place to run away to and stay far away from everyone to avoid unleashing her dark side once again. It hurt her heart when she believed that she should have just stayed where she really belonged as a monster; trapped forever in the Realm of Darkness along with the Heartless.

Not paying attention to where she was going, Aqua tripped over a root that stuck out from one of the nearby trees as she ran in the direction of the ruins of the princesses' former castle over a millennia ago. Unable to regain her balance or even think about teleporting away, she stumbled and fell into the chasm, rolled painfully down the cliff, and landed with a painful thud at the bottom. She coughed, getting the wind knocked out of her as she slowly sat up. Her body was covered in dirt, twigs, and leaves, and her groomed mane was back to being completely unkempt and drooped messily over her face.

"Pathetic." Through her tears, Aqua could see Torrent in her blurry vision, her ears wilting as she forced herself to look away from her depressed hallucination, backing herself up against the wall. "Just look at you: a woman who's turned into a sniveling, scared little girl, clinging onto the hope that things will get better. Hah! And you were so confident telling ME that you're able to change back to the old Aqua."

"P-Please...Leave me alone," Aqua whispered, begging her darkness to stop as she was already in enough emotional turmoil.

"Just face the facts, sweetheart. No matter how hard you try, you're going to be just as destructive as the Heartless," Torrent continued to torment. "Like the windigos in the Hearth's Warming stories, that bitter, icy cold heart of yours will continue to hurt and terrify others. But instead of their hatred and disharmony bringing you around, you bring the blizzard with your own emotions running wild and out of control." Aqua tried to cover her ears, her fur standing on end as she could feel Torrent's icy influence as her voice could still be heard inside her head. "I think Neighsay was right. Your Keyblade academy will be a hopeless cause. Do you know why?"

"Stop it...Stop it!" Aqua shouted as Torrent flashed several scenarios through her head, breaking her more as she sobbed while looking back at all the mistakes she's made.

"Because you'd be a terrible teacher to those 'apprentices'," Torrent answered. One scene that broke Aqua the most was seeing Master Eraqus, shaking his head in disappointment after seeing the horrible mistake he made in deciding to make her a Keyblade Master and her teaching methods to faceless apprentices, then walked away and faded from existence. "Oh, the shame you would leave Master Eraqus if he were still alive. Maybe if you had taken Terra back by force, he would still be alive to see how much of a failure YOU were."

Aqua's eyes shot wide open, her pupils shrunk to pinpricks before shutting them again and wailed, summoning her Keyblade and fired a Blizzaza spell at her dark side. The hallucination disappeared as the spell phased through Torrent, the giant ball of ice aimed high above the chasm and exploded in midair. The shockwave of the spell blew the trees back as the ice expanded several stories high, branches of ice extending between the gap of the chasm in sharp spikes from the point of the explosion. Anyone or anything within the wide length and tall height of the powerful ice spell's radius could have frozen or seriously pierced through and killed someone. She dropped her Keyblade after seeing the destructive force of her ice magic, whimpering pitifully as she curled herself into a ball, crying to herself as she laid on the ground.

"M-Master," she uttered, clutching her tail tightly, begging for her late teacher's forgiveness for failing to be the Keyblade Master he expected from her years ago. "I-I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."


"I'm going out, mom!" Sandbar called out as he left his house. He was really excited; his letters reached his friends, and they quickly wrote back to him within a couple days. "Time to get the others some stuff to feel comfy, and maybe get a bit of food so they don't get too hungry."

Sandbar saved up enough of his allowance to get what he needed, though he was hoping to spend most of it on some new comics he'd been dying to read. He headed out and got himself three carts to carry all the supplies he'd need to bring to his friends, to where no sane pony, or creature, would dare to go into without reason: the Everfree Forest. He made sure to at least tell his friends to stay on the path until they reached an old castle deep in the unnatural woods to avoid the predators that lived there.

His first stop was buying as many pillows and blankets he was able to fill up in one cart, knowing Yona was the biggest out of all six of them and would need a lot of soft cushions to rest on. Then came the food. He got about a barrel's worth of apples to fill up in the last cart, then made his way to Sugarcube Corner to pick up an order he made the other day. When he entered the bakery, his jaw dropped in shock at the mess in the middle of the eatery and one of the tables nearly wedged into the wall. Carrot Cake was cleaning up the spilled cupcakes and shake glasses, while Cup Cake tended to the sniffling, scared twins.

"Whoa! What happened in here?" he asked.

"We're not sure ourselves," Carrot said. "Aqua was in here earlier and bought several different shakes and cupcakes to eat. By herself. She seemed to be out of sorts if she felt like comfort eating."

"Miss Aqua was here?" Sandbar asked. "Is she ok?"

"I'm afraid not," Cup Cake answered. "It was all fine until Pound and Pumpkin snuck over to her to take a nibble on her order. I really don't like it when they spoil their dinners by being so sneaky, but I didn't see any harm as long as they didn't ask for too much or bothered the other customers. I saw her reach for some cupcakes, but she suddenly freaked out about something and sent the table she sat out flying, spilling everything and dented the wall."

"Luckily, nopony else got hurt. Our little sugar lumps were ok, too, just a bit startled when she jumped like that," Carrot said. Sandbar blinked in shock, curious and worried about what happened to Aqua that made her react like that. "Not clue what got into her, but she kept mumbling, 'I'm sorry', then ran out of the store."

"Do you know where she went?" Sandbar asked.

"Sorry, no," Cup Cake said. "I just hope she doesn't hurt herself. She looked really upset when she came in, and she even looked like she got out of a session from the spa."

Carrot Cake finished cleaning up the mess, though he was going to have to wait until Pinkie got back to wedge the table out of the wall as he walked around the counter to put away his cleaning supplies. "I'll get your order in just a second, Sandbar," he said as he disappeared into the kitchen.

Sandbar wished he could do something to help Aqua. Even after he and his friends promised to apologize to her for fighting at school, his worries only grew. Maybe he could ask her what's troubling her, be a friend that she seems to need right now. Carrot Cake returned with his order of several dozen cupcakes, all boxed up with an assortment of different icing flavors for his friends to enjoy. Sandbar paid for his order, then headed out to set them in the middle cart. After he was all good and ready, the colt hitched himself up and pulled the connected carts down the road and toward the Everfree Forest.

Even though he'd heard a lot of scary stories about the Everfree Forest, the only thing terrifying that Sandbar ever noticed were the beasts that roamed these woods. He's seen Zecora, the zebra mare who dwells in this forest, several times when she came to town to purchase some ingredients for her many different brews. He even heard about the rumors about her being an evil enchantress, but they were quickly dashed when the whole town realized how silly they overreacted because she was a different race of equine, and all the potions she brews and her decor represented her culture where she's from. And if she could live in this forest without any issues, then she knew the safe paths to take when hunting for some flowers and herbs for her potion making.

Up ahead at the Castle of the Two Sisters, Ocellus, Gallus, Yona, Silverstream, and Smolder explored the ruined castle while waiting for Sandbar to meet up with them. It looked like the perfect hideout for them to stay at: no adults to tell them what to do, no boring school, just them, their friendship, and free from all their troubles. Ocellus was content sitting at the steps of the entrance, reading through some of the books she found in the old library that were still surprisingly intact after being abandoned for centuries. Gallus and Silverstream flew around as they explored while Yona ran around, tripping over her hair and tumbled down the steps, falling over a few inches away from where the changeling rested.

"Man, this place is cooler than I thought it would be," Gallus said.

"Even I'm impressed," Smolder muttered with her mouth full, helping herself to some of the gems left on some ornate battle helmets that still resided in the castle. "What's this place called again?"

"The Castle of the Two Sisters," Ocellus answered. "I remembered it from one of our classes. Princess Twilight's 'History of Pre-Equestrian Friendships'."

"Yona not like new school," Yona said. "But Yona like new friends!"

The yak grabbed the griffon, hippogriff, changeling, and dragon, pulling them all into a bone-crushing group hug. "Smolder...like...breathing!" Smolder gasped, trying to break out of the strong yak's grip.

On the other side of the bridge, Sandbar finally reached the ruins. Little did he realize that the bumpy road he was on caused some of the apples he bought to fall out of the cart, where some furry little paws through the bushes snatched the fallen fruit. As he carefully walked across the rope bridge, Silverstream hovered over the wall of the front gates and spotted him.

"Hey, you guys! Sandbar's here!" she called out.

Yona gasped, running ahead of the others, slamming the wooden gates open and drooled hungrily at the sight of the cupcakes he brought. "Cupcakes are best cakes!" she cheered, then charged toward the colt full speed.

Sandbar balked when he saw Yona running at him. "Whoa, whoa, slow down, Yona!" he called out, but the yak didn't stop. As he braced himself for the impact, Gallus flew after Yona, grabbed her pigtails, and flung them in front of her, making her trip and tumble, stopping her a few yards away from Sandbar. When he looked up, he saw Yona sitting in front of him, panting and wagging her tail like a massive dog waiting for a treat. "Phew. Thanks, Gallus."

"I didn't do it for you," Gallus said, hovering over the cart and snatched a box of cupcakes. "I was saving the cupcakes."

The griffon flew back to the castle, opening the box and ate a cupcake in plain view of Yona, teasing her as he hummed in delight. "Hey! Gallus share cupcakes with everycreature!" she shouted, trying to jump at Gallus while forgetting there were a few more boxes left that she could grab.

Ocellus spotted the cart filled with soft pillows and blankets, diving into the cart and making herself at home in the silky soft cushions. "Ahh, these feel great," she sighed. "The castle's gonna feel much more comfy now."

"And fun!" Smolder snatched one of the pillows, giving Sandbar an impish smirk. "PILLOW FIGHT!"

Smolder threw her pillow at Sandbar, smacking him in the face with a grunt. She grabbed another and flew at the pony, the two laughing as they waged war with their pillows. Ocellus grinned, transforming into a bright and colorful bugbear, grabbing every pillow she could in, then hovered over the pillow fighters. Since Sandbard and Smolder were too distracted smacking each other with pillows, they noticed Ocellus' shadow blocking the sunlight above them. As soon as they looked up, the changeling slammed down on the dragon and pony with her armful of pillows, pinning them down and winning the pillow fight.

"You guys!" Silverstream called out. Ocellus, Smolder, and Sandbar sat up, the changeling returning to her original form, looking over to her while Gallus and Yona did the same, the griffon having his fun teasing the yak and let her have some cupcakes. The excited hippogriff hovered over the small steps leading to the castle gates, waving her arms to the very steps she seemed ecstatic about. "I just found stairs!"

The others glanced at each other, baffled by her exciting discovery when they've known stairs have existed since they were born. "...And we should care, why?" Gallus questioned.

"Stairs are awesome! We don't have anything like them underwater!" Silverstream touched the gem around her pendant, her body transforming into a seapony in a flash of light, landing on the steps with her aquatic lower half. "Because, as seaponies, there's no way to climb them!"

Sandbar, Yona, Smolder, and Ocellus stared in awe, amazed to see Silverstream as a seapony. Gallus, however, was stunned silent, staring at the now aquatic mare with wide eyes and a light blush.

"I didn't know hippogriffs could shapeshift too," Smolder said.

"Well, I don't have any magic to do that myself," Silverstream said with a giggle. She tapped her pendant, changing back into a hippogriff, then held out the gem to show her friends. "Thanks to this, I can be a hippogriff or a seapony. We have this magic pearl that could change our forms, and this is actually a tiny piece of it my aunt, Queen Novo, gave out to those who wanted to live both on Mt. Aris and in Seaquestria."

"The queen's your aunt?" Ocellus asked in awe.

"Yup!" Silverstream said with a nod.

"So...that makes you...a princess?" Gallus uttered, still red-faced after feeling enamored by Silverstream's seapony form.

"Uhh...I think so?" Silverstream shrugged. "I'm gonna have to ask my aunt...But, I guess I can't after we all basically ran away from our homes, so call me the runaway sort-of-princess!"

Sandbar noticed Gallus' flushed cheeks, unable to look away from the hippogriff. "Gallus, you doing ok, dude?"

Snapping out of his lovestruck stupor, Gallus shook his head and grabbed another cupcake. "Y-Yeah! I'm not just dumbly staring at Silverstream! I have low blood sugar!" he exclaimed, stuffing the pastry in his beak.

Yona, Sandbar, Ocellus, and Smolder looked at each other with sly smirks and giggled, although Silverstream tilted her head quizzically. "Sure. Gallus not LIKE like Silverstream," Yona teased, getting her revenge for his own teasing as the griffon nearly choked on his cupcake.

After they all calmed down, the group sat around the front steps and snacked on their food, resting on their new pillows. "This was a great idea, Sandbar," Ocellus said, though her smile turned to a guilty grimace. "...I just wish I didn't get all of us in trouble with that stallion."

"Hey, don't blame yourself," Sandbar assured the changeling. "That pony has no idea how great you guys really are, or your kingdoms."

"I'd like to burn that jerk's tail and claw him to pieces," Smolder growled, snorting out smoke in disgust at Neighsay's comments toward her kind and the others'.

"But if I didn't turn into that insect, I wouldn't have scared everyone on Friends and Family Day, and I almost hurt somepony when I broke that tower!" Ocellus cried, burying her face in her hooves.

"At least no one got hurt," Silverstream said. "Except our feelings."

"If it makes it fair for all of you guys, our professors tried to tell him off before he forced the school to close down," Sandbar said. "Even Miss Aqua blew up on him, and she looked like she was about to kill him. You guys remember how mad she got in the halls when she stopped us from fighting?" The other creatures nodded, unable to forget feeling the temperature dropping to frigid levels and her mane waving and almost turning into solid ice. "Well, let's just be glad we didn't see her completely change. It was terrifying, but so cool."

Silverstream snorted at the unintentional pun Sandbar made, muffling her giggles while everyone stared at her. "Sorry. But...she's 'cool'? Because she makes snow and ice when she's mad?"

"It not funny if Miss Aqua does that when angry," Yona said with a disgusted frown.

Silverstream immediately regretted laughing, feeling terrible for joking about Aqua after learning she's had a rough life, the reasons vague from what Sandbar knows. "Now I owe her two bouquets of flowers," she mumbled.

"You know, if the school did open back up, I'd rather have her teach a class," Gallus said. "As long as there's no boring notes to write down that take up my whole notebook."

"How is everypony doing after we left?" Ocellus asked curiously.

"Well, Princess Twilight was understandably upset," Sandbar said. "But...I think Miss Aqua might be taking it worse, and I don't think it's about the school..."

Everyone grew curious about what Aqua went through, and Sandbar didn't leave anything out after she tried to harm Neighsay during her magic surge. The others were shocked to hear that Aqua was going to go against Neighsay's orders by locking the school down and unlock it with her Keyblade after his medallion drained her surge out of her instead of Twilight, the princess who opened up this school for every creature to learn about friendship. Even though Sandbar couldn't explain exactly what's given Aqua her serious case of PTSD, his friends showed the same concern as he did, especially after telling them what had happened with her earlier at Sugarcube Corner.

"...Jeez," Gallus uttered. "At least she didn't make winter come early."

"Ok, scratch two bouquets! ALL the flowers in the whole world that I can find!" Silverstream exclaimed, waving her arms around as she cried for the unicorn.

"You think we should try to find her?" Ocellus asked.

"I don't even know where we can look for her," Sandbar said. "I just hope she didn't get lost in the Everfree Forest. She can protect herself, but with how upset she was, I'm not sure how well she'll do in the state she's in." Suddenly, they heard a strange noise and a light thud from the road. Looking in that direction, they found a strange-looking creature, small with brown fur covering everywhere but its face and tiny paws. "...What is that?"

Ocellus looked at her friends, letting out an annoyed sigh. "Am I the only one who didn't sleep through Professor Fluttershy's 'Critters of Comfort and Conflict' lesson?" she questioned. Everyone shrugged, making the changeling roll her eyes. "It's a puckwudgie."

"A puck-who?" Smolder questioned with a scratch of her head.

"A puckwudgie," Ocellus repeated. "Maybe I can make friends with it!" Shapeshifting into a puckwudgie, her own fur a light blue with pink skin, then approached the actual creature and let out a few grunts and yips to communicate with it. The puckwudgie glowered at the impostor, letting out a snarl as its soft fur suddenly hardened into spikes and revealed its sharp fangs. It let out a roar, summoning a few dozen more of its pack from the bushes, leaping out while rolled into balls, then popped out snarling as they surrounded the students. Ocellus quickly changed back to normal, giggling sheepishly. "Oops. I...must have said something not so friendly."

"Gee, ya think?" Smolder questioned.

Yona snorted, pawing her front hoof against the ground. "Yak plan better," she said, then bellowed and charged the group of puckwudgies in front of them.

A big mistake as they quickly turned around and fired their quills at the yak. Yona screamed and skid to a halt, quickly shutting her eyes as she was about to get pricked. Silverstream thought quickly, tipping over the cart of apples and used it as a shield to protect Yona. Yona would need to thank the hippogriff later, backing away from a puckwudgie leaping onto the turned over cart. The others did the same with the other carts and hid behind them, ignoring the rest of their food in place of their own safety. Despite the discarded apples rolled along the ground, none of the adorably dangerous creatures went for them as they closed in on the frightened teens. Smolder and Sandbar tried throwing their pillows at them, but they either fired more sharp quills at them or tore them to shreds with their sharp teeth.

"Ok, this is really bad!" Silverstream squawked.

"Think, Ocellus!" Smolder said. "Did Professor Fluttershy or Professor Kairi say anything about how to BEAT these puckwudgies!?"

"I-I'm sorry! I can't remember!" Ocellus said apologetically.

"I'm just gonna take a guess and say it's not pillows, apples-" Gallus grabbed a cupcake and held it over their wooden barricade, hearing the puckwudgies fire their quills at the target. Pulling his claw back down, amazed his arm didn't get shot, the cupcake was covered in different colored quills. "-or cupcakes!"

"They're getting closer!" Sandbar panicked.

None of the friendship lessons they learned could help them befriend the aggressive puckwudgies. They all huddled close together, awaiting their end by a group of fuzzy porcupine beasts. As they waited for them to pounce, a scream that came from the chasm echoed throughout the forest, followed by a loud explosion and a sudden wind chill that rustled the flora around the castle. The puckwudgies looked out to the direction of the explosion, chittering in fear as they all forgot about their prey and fled from the powerful force that created that blast. Looking out beyond the flipped carts, each one littered with sharp needle-like quills, they were glad the puckwudgies fled from whatever that was, though they were now worried about whatever monster caused the explosion and cooled the summer air.

"What...was that?" Smolder asked.

Looking up, they could see something sticking up above the canopy of overgrown trees. Gallus, Silverstream, Smolder, and Ocellus flew up high to get a better look. When they breached through the leaves, they all gawked in awe at the massive, spiked, coral-like structure sitting in the middle of the chasm, which was made completely out of ice.

"Whoa," Gallus uttered.

"What did THAT!?" Silverstream asked.

"What happen!?" Yona called out. "What do friends see that yak and pony can't!?"

The fliers hovered back down after snapping out of their awestruck stupor. "It's some sort of mass of ice in the middle of the chasm!" Ocellus answered.

"It's huge! Maybe as tall as the former Dragon Lord, Torch!" Smolder added.

"I don't think any of the books I've read or any of Professor Fluttershy's lessons taught me about the creatures that live in this forest," Ocellus said.

"Hey, did you guys hear a scream before we heard this giant ice thing appeared and scared the puckwudgies?" Sandbar asked. Surprisingly, all of them nodded their heads. Sandbar pondered where he thought he heard a voice like that, letting out a shocked gasp as a terrifying theory came up. "Wait...When Miss Aqua went into her magic surge against Neighsay, I saw her create a huge wall of ice to keep the others from trying to stop her...Did...Did Miss Aqua create it?"

The others gasped as well, glancing at each other worriedly. "IS she here in the forest?" Silverstream asked.

"Let's hurry and find out!" Gallus said.

The six creatures quickly made their way down the path and reached the chasm. They could see the frozen structure much clearer as it touched the bottom of the empty ravine and reaching as tall as the tallest tower of the Castle of the Two Sisters. They eyed the ice structure, the sharp spikes jutting out from the wild, uncontrollable branches luckily piercing nothing but air, even sparing the trees on both sides of the chasm. They didn't need to search long as they started in the deep pit below, Yona spotting something blue huddled against the wall of a cliff not too far from where the structure was formed.

"There Miss Aqua!" Yona said.

Working together, Gallus helped carry Sandbar down while Smolder, Silverstream, and Ocellus carried Yona. Reaching the bottom, all six students rushed over to the mare, horrified to see the state she was in. Her long hair was matted and tangled with twigs and leaves, her clothes and fur were scuffed and dirty, and behind her draped hair, her face was streaming with tears as she slipped into unconsciousness.

"Oh no. What happened to her?" Silverstream asked.

"Was she chased by the wild creatures that live in these woods?" Ocellus asked.

"Or maybe fought a huge horde of Heartless," Sandbar guessed.

"'Heart-less'?" Yona asked in confusion, Smolder, Gallus, and Silverstream sharing the yak's bewilderment.

"Uhh, kinda hard to explain, but they're creatures that began appearing a few years ago," Sandbar said. "We gotta get Miss Aqua out of here."

"Put Miss Aqua on Yona's back," Yona said. "Yak carry her to castle."

Smolder and Gallus carefully lifted Aqua up, gently laying her down on Yona's back. The two kept the unconscious mare balanced as Yona walked down the chasm, making sure not to move too fast and trip over her own braids. Silverstream flew ahead to find a way climb out of the chasm, locating the natural staircase by the bridge built over it. It took a while to reach the staircase and cross the worn out wooden bridge, but they made it back to the ruins without running into anymore trouble, or anymore puckwudgies. The students brought Aqua inside, Ocellus levitating some of the pillows that survived the puckwudgie attack with them and set them down under a section of the foyer with a stable roof. The dragoness and griffon lifted the unconscious unicorn off Yona's back and set her down gently on the small bed of pillows.

Silverstream flew out to gather some water for Aqua, finding an old chalice that was a bit dusty, but close enough to a decent cup as she could find in the environment. After washing it just in case, the hippogriff returned, her friends keeping an eye on her while worried she might be seriously injured, or worse. Carefully tilting her head back, Silverstream lifted the chalice to the mare's lips and trickled the water into her mouth. Aqua grunted slightly, drinking the water as she squinted her eyes open in confusion. Silverstream stopped when she saw Aqua shifting around, gently laying the mare's head down as she started waking up.

The students gathered around her, glad to see she was still alive. "W-Where...?" Aqua moved her messy mane out of her eyes, confused as she looked up at the ceiling of a crumbled castle ruins roof instead of the sky alone. Sitting up, she glanced down at the mysterious pillows she was on, then up to the relieved students. "...What...? Why are-?"

"Aqua pony alive!" Yona cheered, then leapt toward the unicorn and glomped her, knocking the wind out of her.

Smolder, Gallus, and Sandbar worked together to pull the yak off Aqua. "Not if you crush her with your big, furry body!" Smolder grunted.

They pulled Yona off Aqua as the mare took in a bug gulp of air. She sat back up with a few coughs, brushing off some of the thick yak fur from Yona's light shedding.

"I was in the chasm," she mumbled to herself, then looked back at the students. She got a better look at her surroundings, realizing she was in the Castle of the Two Sisters, and somehow, the other five students were all here after watching them head back home with their leaders. "What are the rest of you doing here? I thought you all went home."

"We did!" Silverstream answered. "But we didn't want to be apart, so we ran away from home." Aqua let out a shocked gasp as she looked at the hippogriff. She saw the others nodding in agreement, though while admitting it to her, they seemed a bit guilty. "B-But we left them all a note telling everyone we ran away."

"What!? And you thought that would make it better!?" Aqua scolded. Silverstream wilted and lowered her head with a frown. "And...you all thought you could live here!? In the middle of the Everfree Forest!? Don't any of you know how dangerous it is to wander through!?"

"We stayed on the path," Sandbar assured.

"But...we kinda ran into a pack of puckwudgies," Ocellus sheepishly said, making Aqua grimace, having read about the furry beasts before. "They must have followed the cart of food Sandbar brought us."

Aqua grumbled and pressed her hooves to her eyes, exasperated and beginning to grow frustrated by how insane these teenagers were. "At least you scared them off when you made that giant spiky ice thing out in the chasm," Gallus mentioned.

Aqua's eyes immediately shot open, her eyes darting to each student as her pupils shrunk in terror. "...Y-You...You saw...?"

The students began to grow concerned as her expected anger toward their "brilliant" idea of staying together turned into abject horror and fear. Aqua tried to scoot herself away from them, her ears pressing down against her head as she began to panic.

"Miss Aqua? Are you ok?" Sandbar asked worriedly. The unicorn bumped her back against a wall, feeling cornered while forgetting she could teleport away. Tears began welling up in her eyes as her mind began playing tricks on her. Her ice magic gone completely haywire, scaring the six creatures before her as they ran as ice pillars and spikes jutted all around them, hurting them as they fled from her magic surge. Her last line of defense to avoid their "terrified" gazes was levitating one of the pillows she was resting on and covered her face as her body trembled, hiding like a scared little girl would by pretending if she can't see them, they can't see her. "Miss Aqua?"

"I'm sorry..." The mare sobbed into her pillow. "Please...J-Just leave before...before I..."

The students had no idea what to do. It was obvious she was in a lot of pain, and they wanted to help her and understand what's scared her so badly. Silverstream silently approached the unicorn, and being as gentle as she could, she wrapped her arms around the mare's waist into a comforting hug. The contact made Aqua jump and let out a small scream, clutching the pillow tightly against her face. The others followed Silverstream's lead, each jolt lessening to tensing and whimpering as she felt each different pair of arms or forelegs hugging her along with the hippogriff's. Slowly, Aqua lowered her pillow, seeing the faces of all six teens giving her a comforting smile, some of them tearing up as they couldn't bear to see her so miserable as they surrounded her in a group hug. Their eyes didn't show fear like her depressed, overly stressed mind and weakened, broken heart that had been shattered and mended so many times to the point it could never be properly repaired.

Her tears flowed as the floodgates opened up. She couldn't hold back her emotions and cried as hard as she ever did, dropping her pillow and tried to wrap her forelegs around all the young creatures. They stayed like that for some time, the students letting Aqua bawl her eyes out as they held her tightly, helping her let out her pain while struggling not to cry along with her. After what felt like hours, Aqua exhausted all her tears, holding and nuzzling the teens, part of her relieved to see that they don't fear her, even if not all of them witnessed what she could turn into when her anger gets the worst out of her. The students backed away when she was calm enough, Silverstream offering the mare the rest of the water in the chalice, which she gratefully took as her voice felt hoarse from crying so hard.

"Miss Aqua better?" Yona asked.

Aqua lowered the chalice, glancing at the worried faces of the six teens. She couldn't just say she was feeling better when her messy hair and clothes told another story, and if they heard her scream when they were attacked by the puckwudgies, they could tell she was far more upset than she would claim. They've been dying to know why she was so unhinged and stressed out, and despite blowing up on them, they were grateful for her intervention during their confrontation in the School of Friendship and were so patient with her while they wanted to help her in her time of need. Just like the others did for her. Along with that, she contemplated letting them know about their destinies as Keyblade wielders while explaining the exact reason why she changed from a young woman filled with so much confidence to an anxious, stressed, and highly emotional one.

Sighing, she decided to tell them, not knowing when she might end up losing her future apprentices again. "...Not really," she admitted. They felt disappointed, each of them using what little knowledge they learned from the School of Friendship and thought they did what was the best thing to do for someone as distraught as her. "I'm sorry. It's not all of you. I really did need that...I'm just a...broken mess of a woman." Holding both hooves to her chest, over her heart, Aqua never would have imagined how fragile her heart became when she lost everything, her hope of returning to the realm of light dwindling as the years passed, and feeling so ashamed of herself in becoming emotionally detached from her isolation and seeking revenge on the man who took everything away from her. Fresh tears trickled down her cheeks as she clutched her chest tightly. "...I used to be so calm...focused...so much nicer than I am today...I don't want to be this monster that came out from all of my pain, suffering, and self doubt."

"You? A monster?" Smolder questioned. Aqua looked up at the dragoness, confused by her disbelief. "To other creatures, dragons are basically the WORST kind of monster they'd ever want to run into. Huge, breathing fire, stealing treasures without so much as a hint of remorse because of our greed. We can get a bit more aggressive than just making the temperature drop and shoot ice everywhere."

"Changelings were even worse before we changed," Ocellus countered. "We disguise ourselves and pretend to be other ponies, pretending to be like them while being around their friends or family and suck away their love for food. You wouldn't even know it was a fake unless you knew more about them than we did. That's how Princess Twilight found out our former queen, Chrysalis, didn't know everything about Princess Cadence to perfectly match her true personality." Ocellus looked down at the ground in shame. "We can turn into monsters, but we've always been born monsters."

"Try living like a greedy hawk and trying to swindle other griffons of their bits to hoard as much money as they can," Gallus interjected. "We griffons used to have a lot of pride when we had the Idol of Boreas, even though I hated hearing that story from Grandpa Gruff over and over since that's all he ever squawked about. We snap at each other and act like jerks to other creatures because we're so selfish...I'm actually glad I left Griffonstone. It just reminds me of how horrible we are around each other when we had some expensive idol, and when the Arimaspi stole it and fell into the Abysmal Abyss, our kingdom went downhill as a society."

"Yak much worse than dragon, changeling, or griffon," Yona said. "Yak live in Frozen North, far from ponies or creatures. Yaks like to smash and stomp, but it bad when we always seem aggressive and scary. Yaks aren't scary, but Prince Rutherford try to wage war with ponies when visiting Ponyville and not treated like guests by making yaks like they back in Yakyakistan."

"At least you guys could go anywhere you wanted," Silverstream said. "When the Storm King began taking over every kingdom, my aunt decided to force all of us hippogriffs to live in Seaquestria as seaponies so we could stay safe. I think we're even WORSE monsters by hiding and only looking after ourselves. When Princess Twilight, Sora, and the others came all that way to look for us to find help, my aunt refused to lift a claw to help, even when she and Princess Celestia were close friends before. We may have an army of our own, but we're monsters by being cowards."

"No way, we ponies are way worse!" Sandbar exclaimed.

"Like that unicorn who insulted all of us and our kinds?" Smolder grumbled with a deadpanned leer.

"Well, he's actually the worst, but we can be just as bad," the colt said. "The story of a winter holiday we have, Hearth's Warming, it involved all three pony tribes living separately and hating each other for no reason. Then, these awful magic spirits called Windigos arrived, attracted by the fighting and bickering to destroy the land with their freezing blizzards. Our founders from all three tribes left to find new land, ran into the other leaders with their assistants, and they brought the Windigos to them with their bickering and hatred toward each other. Their assistants were the ones who banded together, and through the friendship they made, they drove the Windigos off by being together, singing songs, and laughing with each other. We ponies hated EACH OTHER before we finally got along. We were even scared of this zebra mare who lives in this forest, named Zecora, when we had no idea what she was like until Princess Twilight and her friends met her."

"Dude, zebras ARE ponies, right?" Gallus questioned skeptically.

"From another country outside of Equestria," Ocellus said as she looked through one of the books she found in the castle. "But technically, yes, they are sort of like ponies."

"So ponies really ARE worst creature ever," Yona said.

The students all looked at each other, staring at each other in silence. Aqua thought they were going to start fighting with each other, but the silence was broken when snorts from Gallus, Smolder, and Silverstream slipped out, followed by all six of them grinning and bursting out laughing. They all expressed how awful each of their kinds were, and they all tried to one up each other over Aqua's views over herself as a monster in a playful argument. A small smile grew on Aqua's lips, amazed to see these six teenagers, each from a different kingdom and race, being this close despite their differences and admittance to their own kind's faults.

"We're all SO terrible!" Silverstream exclaimed, the students' laughter slowly dying down.

"I still find it hard to believe that Miss Aqua is really as dangerous as she thinks when all of us seem to be just as worse," Smolder said.

"...Do you all want to see?" Aqua asked the students. All of them quickly looked at her, curious and bewildered. Digging around in her pockets, Aqua pulled out an enchanted memory ornament she kept with her, holding it out for them to see. "When Twilight got her castle, we tried to make her feel like it was home when she lost the Golden Oak Library during Tirek's attack. I helped enchant some of these ornaments that hang in the throne room to look back on memories from anyone present, all of them from what they recollect or what's treasured deep in their hearts." The six teens let out sounds in awe, but as they tried to huddle closer to squint inside, she held her other hoof up to keep them seated. "There's...a lot to show if you're all curious about what happened to me...Most of the events you see will confuse you, but I'll explain everything and answer any questions until the end."

Sandbar, Ocellus, Yona, Smolder, Gallus, and Silverstream looked at each other, wondering what they would see while also a bit apprehensive about viewing the worst of Aqua's life. They looked back at her and gave her a small nod, promising to withhold their questions until there was nothing else left to see. Taking in a deep breath, Aqua braced herself as she enhanced the view of the ornament for them all to see without scrunching up together to look into the small orb.

The first wave of memories Aqua showed was her time as a more confident and strong-willed Keyblade wielder in the Land of Departure. She wasn't surprised seeing all but Ocellus' reactions to her real form, since the changeling had seen them before during Chrysalis' second attack. The bipedal creature they saw had similar colored hair and clothes like the pony before them, though her hair was much shorter and the Aqua in theses memories seemed much more carefree and determined. They even saw creatures like Aqua who looked similar to Ventus and Terra, making them question who exactly they were, and if Sora, Riku, and Kairi were just like them and not normal ponies, too. They remained quiet and continued watching, seeing the younger Aqua training with Ventus and Terra and seeing her skills as a Keyblade wielder. They were moments Aqua cherished, and missed quite often.

Sadly, the happy moments came to an end as the next several memories showed her exploring the worlds when the Unversed began appearing. The students saw the many different worlds she went to while searching for Terra and Ventus to bring them back to their home by Eraqus' orders. Even though they saw the full extent of her prowess as a Keyblade wielder, their excitement faded when they saw Aqua return to the Land of Departure after some time, only it wasn't as bright and majestic as it once was, now surrounded by darkness as the sun seemed to disappear in the thick clouds over the mountainous world. Then came the clash in the Keyblade Graveyard, where the trio reunited to stop Xehanort and Vanitas, and the students took in the intense, dangerous war that took place so long ago. From Aqua's perspective, she was split up from Terra and Ventus, donned in their Keyblade armor, which the students thought looked really cool. They saw her catch Ventus when he was frozen by Xehanort, fought Braig as he jumped in to distract her long enough to not only give Xehanort enough time to trick Terra, but also get slashed and knocked unconscious by Vanitas, then waking back up some time later and fought Ventus-Vanitas alongside King Mickey, winning the fight while Ventus fell into a heartless coma after he destroyed Vanitas while they both clashed in his heart.

After Aqua left Ventus in the Land of Departure, taking her master's Keyblade, Master's Defender, which was left in the courtyard when Eraqus was slain by Xehanort, she used the Keyblade to change the world into Castle Oblivion, keeping Ventus safe along with the secrets of the Keyblade. Then came the worst part of this moment; the biggest, regretful decision that started her downward spiral into the distressed, high-strung mess she is today. The teens didn't understand why Aqua looked so forlorn and upset when they saw her in the past fly off to Radiant Garden and found Terra, until they watched him reach his hand out to her, grasp her throat, and hoist her up while choking her. They didn't even realize the physical changes from Terra-Xehanort to the real earth pony stallion back in Ponyville. After the fight, witnessing Aqua showing off more of her skills in the most epic way possible against her possessed friend, when Terra fell into a void of darkness upon his defeat, Aqua dove in after him, pulling off a last ditch effort to save him from being swallowed up. She had no choice but to do a noble sacrifice when the portal back to the light was fading faster than her glider could go. Transferring her armor, she gave the unconscious Terra-Xehanort Rainfell, promising him she'll be with him, then sent her armor to fly up to the light, sparing him while she fell and remained stranded in the Realm of Darkness.

Aqua kept the memories playing, even as she forced herself to look away from herself as a fresh wave of tears fell. This was where the start of her descent into depression began. The students could see the changes as her time in the Realm of Darkness physically and mentally taxed her. The endless droves of Heartless popping up and attacking her as she wandered through endless pathways or broken sections of worlds that were lost to the darkness, getting lost in the different locations she wandered into, it was a shock to see her still clinging onto the hope of finding a way out, but the students had no idea just how long she'd been stuck in there. The worst moments came from the Dark Hide, constantly hunting Aqua no matter how many times she killed the feral beast, entering a lost world with three different mirrors as she faced her reflection multiple times, though they weren't as sadistic as Torrent, and reuniting with King Mickey after almost a decade, only to have her freedom dashed by a massive group of Shadows forming into the Demon Tide, attempting to destroy the Keyblade wielders, and try to harm Riku as he and Sora closed the Door to Darkness after Sora defeated Ansem. She had to make another sacrifice and give up her freedom from the cursed realm, stopping the Demon Tide and getting dragged off, saving Riku and Mickey, but left her back to wandering the Realm of Darkness find a new way to escape.

That hope she had clung onto once faded before reuniting with Mickey for a brief moment, but remaining stuck in there began to crack the youthful confidence in Aqua. Being alone for so long caused her to see things, think back on the regrets and failures she's made since given the title of Keyblade Master, and start to get more aggressive and angry as Heartless constantly appeared in her path, especially the Dark Hide. One particular duel against the eternally reviving Heartless beast had frustrated her to the point of shattering her calm and collected fighting style, turning her into a reckless berserker, filled with blind fury over the Heartless, Xehanort, and her failures. Her magic spells were filled with rage, managing to blast the swift and powerful behemoth into staggering, and she charged headfirst instead of waiting for opportunities to strike when dodging its claws and agile lunges. Even when struck, her clothes getting torn up by the Dark Hide's claws, she never relented and kept fighting. That's when she fired a Firaga spell at its face, sending it flying onto its back, then, before it had a chance to roll back on its feet, Aqua jumped on its chest, using Blizzaga spells to freeze its limbs down to the ground, and proceeded to thrust the Master's Defender, using that Keyblade after giving up Rainfell to save Terra, several times in the chest in a rage while screeching in both hatred and sorrow. The scary thing was that she didn't stop, even with enough piercing stabs into where a Heartless' heart would be if they had one to kill it, until the Dark Hide disappeared in a cloud of mist. If the teens thought that Aqua was scarier before, they had no idea she snapped far worse than she did just a few days ago. Aqua choked back a sob, hating herself as she watched her breaking point, the woman in the memory panting heavily on her knees, angry tears rolling down her face before looking up to the dark abyss that was the realm's sky and let out a wailing screech, expressing her frustrations from the beast's hunting, swearing revenge on Xehanort for doing this to her, and failing her promise to return home and bring Terra and Ventus back safely and live happily together.

The last few memories were a lot less dark, but still concerning to the students, even feeling pity for her. Aqua had finally found her freedom thanks to Kairi's letter she had written to Sora after he and Riku defeated Xemnas on the shores. The woman was a visible mess, still fighting despite her resolves hanging by a thread and her heart shattered from losing any hope. Using the letter, feeling a trace of light inside it, she combined it with her magic to create a portal back to the realm of light, finally freed from her isolated torment. Then came the events that led her to her start living in Equestria: rescuing Twilight from the Neo Shadows while donned in a new set of Keyblade armor, using the special potion Zecora made to figure out what happened to Terra and Ventus in the Keyblade Graveyard, meeting the gang, her moments when she got enraged and subconsciously shifted into a magic surge, Torrent appearing and taking over her heart, reuniting with Ventus after discovering his heart was resting in Sora's after all this time, finding Terra again when the stallion had regained his heart and body and was living in Equestria for the last few years in hiding, snapping at Starlight when she was convinced to stop changing the flow of time and still distrusting her without giving her a proper chance to redeem herself from a moment in her past that made her so bitter toward friends, and even yelling at Luna and Celestia for hiding information on another Keyblade wielder they never even knew was one without understanding their side on the pony who they looked up to as an uncle.

Aqua stopped playing back every moment she could muster, dispelling the expansive view. She wiped her eyes, trying in vain to dry her tears after taking a look back at how horrible she became she returned to the realm of light. Aqua waited for the barrage of questions from the six teenagers as she tried to compose herself.

"...Your mane used to be shorter?" Silverstream spoke up.

The first question was NOT what Aqua expected, even as her friends balked in exasperation from a minute detail that wasn't as important as everything else they saw. "Seriously, Silverstream!?" Smolder exclaimed. "THAT'S the first thing you ask!?"

"But she looked so much prettier with shorter hair!" Silverstream reasoned, making the dragoness facepalm.

Aqua couldn't help herself and laughed a little, Silverstream's ditsy observation helping alleviate her from her self-loathing. "Well, that is a question," she said. "I used to keep it short. I tried keeping it that way, but Keyblades aren't a suitable replacement for a proper salon's tools. So I just let it grow..." Looking at her frazzled mane, she slowly picked out some of the leaves or branches that clung to the knotted strands after blinding running through the Everfree Forest. "...Maybe I do need a haircut..."

"Ok, with that being a waste of time, how about the REAL questions we want to know?" Gallus asked, getting everyone, mostly Silverstream, back on topic.

"Yona confused," Yona said. "Aqua pony...NOT really pony?"

"And...are Sora, Riku, Kairi, Ventus, and Terra really the same creature you were in those memories?" Sandbar asked.

Aqua slowly nodded. "Yes. We're not really ponies," she said. "In fact, we're not really from this world; your world. We all came from different worlds far beyond what Equestria, or your own kingdoms, could even comprehend. What you saw when I traveled through different locations were all different worlds." Holding her hoof out, she summoned her Keyblade in a flash of light. "As Keyblade wielders, our role is to protect those worlds from Heartless. Without us, every world would fall into the realm I've been stranded in for years: the Realm of Darkness."

"Wait, years!?" Sandbar exclaimed, he and his friends staring at the mare in shock.

"But...you look like you barely aged at all," Ocellus pointed out. "How old ARE you?"

"...I'm supposed to be in my mid-thirties," Aqua said. "During my time there, I had lost track of how many days passed while wandering the endless realm. Everything around me seemed to have grounded to a halt, which sort of explains how I didn't age all that much, or even went hungry or thirsty...I don't think I ever slept much either unless I was physically tired. I found out how long it had been after I returned and met with the others; fifteen years." Jaws dropped in disbelief. They couldn't imagine being left alone for that long, and all of them were either infants or barely conceived when she first dove into the Realm of Darkness to save Terra. "From the start, I clung onto the hope of escaping and getting my friends back, but as I continued surviving, it began to fade, and the darkness was going to eat away at my heart.

"For years, I searched, and felt more hopeless while wandering through lost worlds, corridors created by illusions, all while fighting for my life. I lost my home, a man who was not only my mentor, but was like a father to me, and I had just lost two of my best friends...My resolve began to crack, and...you all saw how much that place changed me after I failed Terra and Ven..." Aqua began to tear up again, letting out how much disdain she's had within herself over what she's become. "I used to be so much nicer. I was kind, loving, generous, and I was calm and collected while in combat. Now I just snap at the drop of a hat, become skeptical of everyone who did one thing wrong, and I sought revenge on those who've wronged me and the ones I love by being just as heartless and sadistic as they were." Her tears streamed down her face again as she continued expressing how she's felt about herself to the teens. "I've been so afraid of failing and losing everyone again, even when I just got Terra and Ven back into my life. I think I'm doing what's best for everyone, but I keep making so many mistakes, keep getting angry and frustrated, losing myself and going into magic surges, and even when my friends try to help me, I think they're all against me and think I've lost my mind! But I have, and I feel like a disappointment to everyone! Even myself!"

As Aqua tried not to break down crying again, Silverstream quickly sat beside her and hugged her. "Need another shoulder to cry on again?" she asked.

Aqua was grateful for the hippogriff's offer, but she felt a bit better telling someone how she felt, even through her tears. "Thanks, Silverstream," she said, wiping her face with her sleeve. "Thank you all. I was scared all of you would have hated me after seeing me like that. And none of you have to give me flowers to apologize or show your appreciation for intervening when you were about to fight in the school halls."

Silverstream balked and looked at Aqua in shocked confusion. "Uhh, what?"

"Ugh. Did Sandbar, Miss Aqua's 'biggest fan', spoil our surprise before that unicorn jerk forced us to leave?" Gallus asked, he and Smolder giving the colt a dirty look.

"I didn't tell her about it," Sandbar said.

"No one spoiled the surprise gift," Aqua assured the students. "I was there at the lake when you all decided to skip your classes on Friends and Family Day."

Shocked grimaces quickly appeared on the students' faces, Silverstream quickly taking back her hug and backing away with a sheepish grin. "Miss Aqua watched us?" Yona asked nervously.

"Yes, but I was at the lake early that morning. I was trying to find a state a peace by floating in the water after the day before...but it didn't really help much." Even though Aqua mentioned her stress finding the perfect location to train her future apprentices, the teens all winced, thinking she was talking about their fight and disrespecting the unicorn mare at the School of Friendship. "I heard you all laughing and hanging out at the other end of the lake. I made myself invisible and stood behind you, overhearing your conversation while you suddenly went from bickering with each other one day to simply hanging out as friends the next."

"...So, we were busted from the start of our 'mental health break'," Silverstream said.

"Why didn't you bust us if you were spying on us?" Smolder asked curiously.

"I actually was, but seeing you having fun with each other without the stress of school tearing you six apart, and feeling terrible for what you did and appreciating me stopping you, I was going to let you off the hook and pretend I didn't see you," Aqua said. "And the prospect of flowers as an apology and sign of appreciation was a nice sentiment."

"Does that mean you DO want those flowers?" Silverstream asked, which made Aqua laugh a little, but she shook her head in response.

"But...everything that you showed us, what you do and all these worlds," Ocellus noted. "W-Why did you want to tell us about all this?"

Looking down at her Keyblade, holding it in both hooves, she was ready to reveal a shocking revelation to the six teenage creatures. "Twilight wasn't the only one who wanted to open a school; I wanted to open one, too. To train future Keyblade wielders for the next generation." She then pulled out the enrollment papers of each of the students, showing them the copied signatures and their headshots in the corner created by her magic. Confused, Sandbar, Yona, Ocellus, Gallus, Smolder, and Silverstream stared at their School of Friendship sign in sheets, then back at Aqua in bewilderment. "When we find potential apprentices, sometimes, we can feel a light within their hearts that feels similar to our own." Aqua let that information sink in. The teens' confusion slowly turned into shock, jaws hanging open. Aqua nodded her head with a smile, Sandbar's open mouth slowly turning into an excited grin. "All six of you have the potential to being the next generation of Keyblade wielders."

"Whoa! No way!" Sandbar laughed and cheered as he danced in place, then froze when he glanced at the Keyblade Master. "Wait. So...what you told me earlier when I signed into the School of Friendship...Was that hinting at...?"

He waved his hoof to Aqua's Keyblade, too excited to properly speak. He let out a joyful squeak with the biggest grin on his face when the unicorn nodded.

"All SIX of us have this...light thing you can feel?" Gallus asked, surprised, though a bit skeptical. "...This just...feels like some big coincidence..."

"Yeah," Ocellus agreed. "All of us enrolling in Princess Twilight's School of Friendship, meeting each other and just becoming friends, and...all of us being Keyblade wielders at the same time?"

"Fate can surprise you when you least expect it," Aqua said, but she could see how worried the changeling was. Ventus told her that she was pretty shy and timid, but very intellectual, and when push comes to shove, she can find that inner courage inside her and help protect her friends, family, and her kingdom. "I just want you all to know, before any of you agree to this. As a wielder, it won't be an easy task. You'll face foes that can really hurt you if you're not prepared, whether it be the Heartless or someone quite skilled in combat. My friends and I will train you, and these sessions can be physically taxing, but if you keep pushing yourselves, you'll unlock the potential deep within you. Proper combat skills, magic spells to learn as an added line of offense or defense, everything we can show you while you find your own style. It can even be scary, but none of you are obligated to join if you're not ready or don't want to. We need all the help we can get now, despite our years of experience."

She let her words sink in, letting them know that they aren't forced to be Keyblade wielders and understand if they said no. The students looked at each other, some seriously thinking hard about this decision while Ocellus drew small circles on the ground in front of her nervously. After a long moment of silence, Sandbar stood up and held a hoof over his chest.

"I'm in," he said. "I want to help keep my family safe. And all of Equestria."

"Yak join, too!" Yona exclaimed. "Yona be bestest yak wielder ever!"

"Me too! Me too!" Silverstream cheered. "It sounds so much fun: the danger, the exploring, and the learning will probably be a whole lot more interesting!"

"Uhh, I don't know," Gallus mumbled while rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"What's the matter, chicken boy?" Smolder taunted with a smirk. "Afraid of a few little shadow monsters? Because I'm not."

Gallus leered at Smolder. "What did you call me?" he growled.

"Chi-cken boy," the dragoness emphasized, then began letting out clucking noises while bringing her arms to her side and flapped them like wings, mocking the griffon just to tease him.

"I am NOT scared of those things, lizard breath!" Gallus exclaimed.

"Then are you gonna join us? I'm definitely in, and I could beat more of those things than you ever could," Smolder laughed, poking a claw at Gallus' beak.

Huffing, he pointed his own claw at the dragoness' chest. "Oh, I'm definitely gonna join, AND I'll beat twice as many of those Heartless things than you can!"

Aqua let out a sigh, unable to wipe the grin off her face as she was already seeing a pair of rivals ready to one-up each other before they even began. The last one who didn't respond was Ocellus as everyone glanced her way. They could tell part of her wanted to say yes, but it was out of being included with her friends, not by her own will to help protect the realm of light alongside them.

"Ocellus, it's ok," Aqua assured the nervous changeling. "I know it's a lot to take in, and taking on a role like this is-"

"B-But I want to help, too," she interrupted. "...I-I...I want to be stronger. I want to be...braver. And I want to help change everypony's views on changelings...I messed up horribly the other day, and...I don't want to be responsible for driving every creature away from us after we made such a big change."

"It's all up to you, Ocellus," Aqua reassured. "You get to decide what you want to do." Ocellus bit her lip, contemplating her decision, then looked Aqua in the eyes and nodded. Aqua nodded back, then looked at the other students, holding out her Keyblade to them with the guard and hilt facing them. "If you're all ready, then we'll begin a special ritual passed down from generations of masters to their pupils: the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. Everyone, grab my Keyblade so we can begin."

"Haha! Awesome!" Sandbar giggled, being the first to approach Aqua and touch the Keyblade with his hoof, grasping the hilt.

The others followed suit and surrounded Aqua, each of them touching a part of her Keyblade with their respective hooves and claws. Aqua glanced at Ocellus once more, making sure she was truly ready to take on such an important role for the realm of light. The changeling took in a deep, anxious breath, but still kept her hoof on Rainfell, willing to go through with the ceremony and accept her destiny as a Keyblade apprentice. With them all ready to proceed, Aqua closed her eyes and began the ceremony.

"In your hand, take this Key," she recited calmly. "So long as you have the makings, then through this simple act of taking, its wielder you shall one day be. And you will find me, friends - no ocean will contain you then. No more borders around, or below, or above, so long as you champion the ones you love."

After Aqua finished the ceremony, she opened her eyes, seeing the bit of excitement slowly fade to confusion after a minute of silent anticipation. The students slowly let go of Aqua's Keyblade, staring at their limbs, having no idea what they were expecting.

"...Uhh...is that it?" Gallus asked first.

"Yes. You're all Keyblade wielders now," Aqua said.

"Yona no feel different," Yona said.

"Yeah! I thought there'd be some bright, flashy lights, and Keyblades would blind us and appear in our claws!" Silverstream added while flailing her claws for emphasis.

"It's not much of a flashy ceremony, but believe me when I say it was a success," Aqua reassured them. "And your Keyblades will appear to you when needed...Although, it could take hours, days, months........years?"

"YEARS!?" the teens exclaimed in shock, making Aqua wince despite knowing how poorly they would react.

"It could take years for a Keyblade to show up?" Ocellus asked nervously.

"I think we just got ripped off," Smolder grumbled, crossing her arms with a huff.

"I know you're all disappointed, but the Keyblades are still a huge mystery, even with all the knowledge I've obtained from when I was under my master's tutelage," Aqua explained. "My Keyblade appeared about a year or two after I was brought in. Riku was given the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony by Terra when he was five or six, and he didn't get his until he was around your age. Sora and Kairi, too, but they were never given the ceremony, and Sora has his because he had let Ven's heart inside his when Kairi grasped my hand and my Keyblade when I rescued her from the Unversed." Her long explanation for the length of time a wielder's Keyblade will come to them didn't help, mostly confusing them with what happened to Sora, Riku, and Kairi when they were "chosen". "I know. There's still so much to take in, but please have patience. Maybe when they do appear before you, I'll finally find the right place for you all to train safely, and we'll all teach you everything we know about the Keyblade."

"Well, isn't this a stroke of luck." Everyone gasped as they heard the mysterious voice echo around them.

"GHOST!!!!!" Silverstream shrieked in panic. Suddenly appearing in the center of the foyer ruins was a portal of darkness. Everyone turned to stare at the dark void, and in its place was a hooded pony in the Organization's black coat. "AHH! HOODED GHOST!!!!"

"That's no ghost," Aqua growled, quickly getting up and jumping in front of the frightened teens, getting into her battle stance to protect them. "Stay behind me."

"W-Who is that?" Sandbar asked nervously. "Is it that...Marluxia stallion?"

"No. That's a different voice," Aqua said. "Who the hell are you?"

"Ah, I guess it is rude for a man not to address himself to a woman." The stallion raised a hoof and lowered his hood to reveal his identity. His face revealed gray fur, a unicorn horn, and short platinum-blond hair in a Ceaser style cut with a similar colored goatee. He had piercings in his ears: four helix piercings, two of the hoops on each ear, and one shaped like the Nobody symbol in his left near the base of his ear, all of them a silver color. And his eyes were the same yellow like the rest of the New Organization XIII members the wielders have encountered so far. "You may call me Luxord. And you must be Aqua."

"Great. Is the Organization after me this time?" Aqua questioned with a growl. "Because I'm in no mood to deal with you."

"Far from it," Luxord said. "I was just minding my own business in these woods, practicing my unique abilities as an equine. And as luck would have it, I happen to be a unicorn within this world." Sitting on his haunches, Luxord waved his forehooves, summoning his strange choice of weapon: gray playing cards with five Nobody symbols on their backs. The students watched from behind Aqua as the stallion played around with his "weapon" as he talked: making them appear and disappear with a flick of his hooves, flicking the cards from one hoof to the other over his head, behind him, or let them float around him with his silver magic aura, and performing all sorts of various magic tricks with a sleight of hand. "Quite an astounding creature, unicorns. Powerful spells, even enhancing their own parlor tricks to make them more mystical and realistic. Some of us exploring this world you all now seem to inhabit take a bit of time to practice who are are as the inhabitants of this world, including strengthening our own power.

"It wasn't hard to figure out the strange...magical imbalance I could sense, despite these woods being considered 'unnatural', where it feels right at home for us outsiders. And then I saw the source of the magical essence not too far from this location, which just so happens to be the large, towering 'tree' made out of enchanted ice." Aqua grimaced, looking out through the broken ceiling of the castle to see her incredible burst of Blizzard magic still sitting out in the gorge. "I may be a novice around the magic of this world, but I'm pretty sure you're not mentally well if what you crafted was meant to be a thing of beauty."

"Hey, back off, dude!" Gallus exclaimed. "Miss Aqua's strong enough to beat a lame magician like you!"

"Magician?" Luxord questioned, then startled the griffon with a chuckle, ceasing his random tricks to hold a hand of cards in his hoof. "Child, I don't play with parlor tricks. I'm a gambling man."

"But...wasn't he just...doing all sorts of tricks earlier?" Ocellus uttered in confusion.

"Oh, I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve, but I'm not going to let such an opportunity go to waste," Luxord said. "Master Xehanort will be thrilled to hear that our foes are searching for some new wielders to join their ranks. Backups for our seeds of light if something were to happen to any of you, perchance?"

"If you, the Organization, or Xehanort ever comes near these kids, I'll make sure to kill all of you myself!" Aqua angrily exclaimed.

Luxord smirked, eyeing the disheveled shape the Keyblade Master was in, along with her shifting emotional states. "...Well, then, how about a wager instead?" he asked, confusing the mare, but she heard him out, wondering what was up his sleeves. "You and I play a little game. If you can beat me, then I will leave and refrain from telling my comrades about the new wielders."

"And if you win?" Aqua asked.

"Then to help assist in gathering the last remaining seeds of darkness, I will choose one of them as my prize." The students gasped as Luxord pointed his hoof at them.

"Not on your life!" Aqua exclaimed.

"If not them, then what shall I bring back if my victory is assured?" Luxord asked.

Aqua grunted bitterly. She wasn't going to let her new apprentices be taken away by Xehanort. It would be just as bad as any of them taking Sora. There was another offer she could give the stallion, but if she did lose, then she'd have no choice but to go through with it. Luxord may have been the enemy, but the demeanor he exudes makes him feel oddly trustworthy.

"...Then...I will be your prize instead," Aqua said after a moment of deliberation.

Luxord raised a brow curiously while the students behind her yelled out in terror. "No, Miss Aqua! You can't!" Sandbar exclaimed.

"And why should I take you prisoner?" Luxord asked.

"I clearly have more experience...and I'm emotionally unstable, making it easy for any of you to conform me against my will," the mare reasoned. "I might not be as strong as Sora, but if neither of you can best him at the strength he's at now, I would make a much more suitable replacement."

Luxord hummed in thought, his hoof lazily shifting around as he toyed with his cards, as if deciding which one to play against her. "...It is true that Sora has gotten much stronger now, and the discovery of his new battle forms can catch us off guard..." After a moment of silent contemplation, Luxord grinned, combining his cards into one. "Very well. I believe we have a deal."

"Nuh uh! No deal!" Smolder snarled, spreading her wings as she was about to fly off to fight Luxord herself.

Aqua quickly shoved the dragoness back with her magic, not wanting any of them to get hurt. "Just stay back. I'll beat him," she promised. "As your new master, I order you all to keep your distance from us."

"B-But Yona and friends no want to lose Miss Aqua!" Yona exclaimed.

"You're not really going through with this crazy deal with that guy, are you!?" Gallus asked.

"Don't argue with me on this!" Aqua teleported the students onto the second floor, keeping them out of harm's way. "I'm losing anyone else again," she mumbled to herself, then glared at Luxord. "Let's play your silly game so I can get rid of you!"

"Excellent," Luxord said. Flicking his hoof, he unfurled his hand of cards again. "Let the game begin!"

Using his unicorn magic, Luxord teleported around Aqua, flinging his cards at the wielder, each one shooting off one by one toward the mare. Aqua anticipated their strange movements with each throw, some of the cards curving at an arc to throw her off. She blocked a few while cartwheeling and flipping over the ones she couldn't deflect. The ones that narrowly avoided her hit the ground, growing in size and stayed face down. She looked around to find any sign of the Nobody, only to find two red cards appear beside her and pulsate with a dangerous energy. She quickly dove out of the way, barely avoiding them crashing into her, following the same pattern a couple more times as they moved faster after each set. Luxord appeared in front of Aqua with a smirk, but just as she was about to blast him with magic, the stallion turned himself into a card, an illustration of himself in a smug thinking pose, then went face down with the other cards scattered around the ground.

"He...turned INTO a card!?" Silverstream exclaimed. "Can playing cards do that!?"

"Or move on their own?" Ocellus pointed out.

Beneath Aqua, the cards she dodged instead of blocked earlier began to slide along the ground with the one Luxord became, basically "shuffling" the small deck. They finally rose up, but the backs faced Aqua, keeping whatever was hidden behind them hidden from her, especially Luxord's.

"Think you can figure out the rules of this game?" Luxord asked, his voice somehow coming from all over the castle ruins, making it hard to locate which card was the actual source.

While Aqua didn't know what was behind the cards, the students watching from the railing could see where Luxord was, along with some cards holding a black X and a red O. "Hey, there's the coward!" Smolder called out to Aqua, pointing to the card behind the mare.

Aqua spotted the card, happy for the assistance. She leapt toward it and slashed through the card, only for it to quickly flip around, showing an X instead. The instant her blade touched the card, it blew up and sent the mare flying back, startling her and upsetting the students.

"W-What the hay!? It blew up!?" Sandbar exclaimed.

"Ah ah ah," Luxord chided. "No help from the audience. That's cheating."

Aqua growled, getting back up on her hooves, looking at the other cards hovering around her. "How is this even fair if I can't even see your cards!?" she questioned, trying to run around them to get a look at what was behind them, but they kept facing her and prevent her from finding out. "You're worse than Discord with his cryptic games!"

"I know nothing of this Discord, but I assure you I play fair. You have to uncover what the rules are in MY games," Luxord taunted.

Getting fed up with searching, Aqua used magic to brute force her way into winning to avoid having a card blow up in her face is she picked the wrong one. She hit every last one, some blowing up with the X's while the O's let out a small chime, though it didn't do much to help her "win" the small game. Luxord appeared from the last card, giving the mare a toothy grin.

"Afraid to fight me like a real man!?" Aqua exclaimed and charged forward.

"Fighting is all about strategy, after all," Luxord answered. Analyzing the angry unicorn's hooves and her Keyblade, the stallion backed away while effortlessly dodging her swings, making him far more agile than he seemed with his card tricks. He could see the mare getting frustrated, losing her nerve as Aqua continued to swing wildly. Even with a point blank blast of a Blizzaga spell, Luxord flipped and shifted into a card as he leapt over Aqua, turning back to normal with a graceful landing. "And you seem to be lacking it in a desperation to save those kids while your calm in the fight is already broken just from one little game."

"Don't mess with me! You have no idea how powerful I am!" Aqua shouted.

Waving his forelegs, Luxord telekinetically floated five cards around him. As Aqua tried to attack him again, he enlarged the cards he summoned, which began to quickly orbit around him and activate a barrier around him. Aqua struck the shield and bounced back, avoiding the cards circling the unicorn. She was at least able to see the faces of the cards this time from the other end of the barrier, seeing four X's and one O.

"Maybe this game will be to your liking?" Luxord teased, continuing his motions to make the cards spin faster around him.

"More like you gave me a pointless handicap," Aqua grumbled under her breath.

She watched the red O carefully, making sure to time her swing so she hits it. While waiting for another pass to gauge Luxord's speed for the cards' orbit, Aqua was about to hit the card with the red O, only to flinch when the card passing her revealed Torrent in Luxord's place. She froze in place, time slowing as she saw her darkness within that barrier, giving her a sadistic smirk. The next card passed, bringing Luxord back and the quick speed of the orbiting cards, but the sudden illusion her mental state caused screwed up her timing. Luxord noticed the odd shift in behavior for a brief second, watching Aqua hit the wrong card, which blew up on her and sent her staggering back.

Seeing she lost that game, he flicked his hoof, dispelling his barrier, and sent the remaining cards after her. The other four blew up in a combined explosion, sending Aqua flying back and tumble on the ground. She quickly got up, but the determined anger he saw was quickly replaced with fear and uncertainty, though it wasn't directed toward him.

"What is the matter?" Luxord questioned curiously. "I figured someone like you wouldn't lose their focus in combat."

"S-Shut up," Aqua grumbled.

Her ears folded against her head, hearing Torrent continuously taunt her from within her mind. The other students could see she was losing control of her own emotions. Wanting to get angry, but not too much to let her darkness out. Struggling to fight, yet fearing she'll fail and let everyone down. Be the leader her mentor saw in her, only to make poor decisions that led to many lives to be lost or thrust in the situations they were in now without meaning them to. Even Luxord could see the turmoil from her eyes; a heart fractured by mistakes, failure, revenge, hatred, and self-loathing. His smile had long since vanished, replaced with a stoic frown in pity.

"...You are a broken woman..." Luxord sighed, then materialized his sleight in his hoof. "It wouldn't do to make someone like yourself be forced to join us...but, we did strike a deal in this duel, after all." Thrusting his hoof forward, he flung far more than just a few cards at the mare, almost like the whole deck in his arsenal flew off from his hoof. Each card struck Aqua, even as she tried to deflect them with her Keyblade. She was flung back hard across the ruins, smacking into the stairs beneath where the students were watching, her blade bouncing across the floor before clattering to a stop and disappearing in a flash of light. The teens panicked, helplessly watching the mare weakly climb to her hooves, only to grunt and collapse on her side. They looked at Luxord as the stallion walked over to her, toying around with his cards in his magic as he stared at the fallen wielder. "Seems like you cannot handle the game anymore. Would have been best for you to retire until you are mentally well for the great war to come." Bringing his cards together into one, Luxord made it grow bigger, at least as tall as him, rearing his hoof back to swing it down on Aqua. "Game over."

Just as he was about to swing his card and knock Aqua out, a stream of fire came directly toward him. Quickly reacting, Luxord teleported away, retracting his giant card back to his sleight as he looked up at the six students. Smolder's nostrils snorted smoke, being the one who tried to burn him with her fire breath, and all of them quickly flew down or climbed down the steps, standing in front of Aqua to protect her, much to the wielder's shock.

"If you want to take Miss Aqua away, then you're going to have to take one of us first!" Smolder exclaimed.

"You're a mean cheater, and she's already had it rough, so quit picking on her!" Silverstream shrieked.

"Yona no like other unicorn stallion, but card pony make Yona mad!" Yona snorted, stomping her hooves down hard in anger, the small quake almost startling Luxord as he stumbled slightly.

"We might not have our Keyblades yet, but that doesn't mean we're just gonna watch her get hurt trying to protect us!" Ocellus said.

"And you don't scare us with your dumb card tricks!" Gallus added.

"You're not taking away our teacher!" Sandbar said, only to quickly shake his head. "No, not just our teacher; our master! And if she wants to protect us, then we'll do the same for her when she needs us, which is right now!"

The others agreed with Sandbar and jeered the Nobody. Luxord wasn't impressed by their bravado, though he grinned at their enthusiasm.

"N-No. Guys, g-get...back," Aqua weakly ordered, trying to stand again, but the crash against the stairs did a number on her body along with the painful card attacks.

"You've been hurt enough, Master Aqua," Sandbar said. "We'll protect you now."

"I do admire your courage, children, but it is a futile effort when you cannot protect yourselves properly," Luxord said. Tossing some of his cards at the ground, he let them rise up as bigger cards, making them spin rapidly in place like saw blades. "Seeing as you are young Keyblade wielders, with no Keyblades to your names, let me give you a demonstration of the hurdles you'll have to face. If you'll survive this."

Swinging both hooves forward, Luxord sent the cards hurtling toward the students. Their bravery quickly turned to fright, quickly shutting their eyes and braced themselves for a much more painful sort of paper cut. Aqua reached her hoof out, watching with dread as her recently inducted apprentices were about to get seriously injured or killed by Luxord. Suddenly, a bright light shone from the six teenagers' chests, which lit up brighter and blinded Aqua as she shielded her eyes with her hoof. Luxord grunted as he was blinded too, his ears twitching as he heard his cards getting deflected off the combined light brightening the ruins. Feeling his cards fly back to him, he yelled out in pain and slid back, covering his eyes while waiting for the light to die down.

As the light began to fade, stray sparkles shimmered off the six creatures, their eyes still clenched shut in anticipation for the pain that was deflected away from them. "...Are we dead?" Silverstream asked. "Can we open our eyes and see the heavens?"

"If we can all hear you, then I think we're still alive," Gallus commented dryly.

They slowly opened their eyes, confused by the sparkles floating away from them. When Luxord and Aqua could see again, they looked at the students, who were indeed still alive, but gawked in shock when they saw something else they were all carrying: in the claws of Gallus, Smolder, and Silverstream, and in the mouths of Sandbar, Ocellus, and Yona. They all looked down at where they felt these strange objects, and they gasped: their Keyblades had revealed themselves to save them.

Sandbar dropped his in his hoof, staring at his Keyblade in awe. It was an emerald green with the teeth shaped similarly to a three-pointed crown, the guard around the hilt shaped like a sea turtle like his cutie mark, and the token at the end of the chain had a pony hoof print. The young stallion trailed his eyes along his new blade, shock turning to excitement as he finally got his Keyblade, and sooner than Aqua had thought, too.

Gallus held his in both claws. His blade was a sky blue with the guard shaped like a yellow lion's paw, the teeth a sharp, triangular point with an indent down the middle, made to look like the closed beak of a griffon, and the token at the end of the chain, to his surprise, looked like the golden Idol of Boreas. As strange of a Keyblade as the griffon's was, he actually liked it, almost like this was the kind of weapon he'd be proud of wielding.

Ocellus levitated her Keyblade in her magic and examined it curiously. Her blade was a pure white and slightly curved, much like her own horn, the teeth like Sandbar's with its crown shape, though there were holes near the base, a small reminder of who the changelings used to be with the holes they formerly had in their legs. The guard was a transparent pair of insect wings, but were as solid as steel and not as fragile as actual wings, and the token at the end of the chain was a white butterfly. She was a bit confused by the lack of color that her other friends' blades had, but she could feel a power within her Keyblade that was similar to her own changeling magic.

Yona spat out the Keyblade in her mouth, her curious eyes roaming over her wooden-colored blade. It was the longest compared to the others, though it was fitting with her bigger size as a yak, broad in width, and even looked heavy. The teeth at the far end were curved inward yak horns, the huge guard to fit around her muzzle comfortably seemingly made of wood, but the surface was as durable as steel. And the token hanging at the end of the wooden chain was a tree trunk split down the middle. Yona had no idea what her own Keyblade would have looked like, but she felt that this was definitely something made for a Yak.

Smolder lazily held hers out with a quizzical stare, usually more content to use her own strength and fire breath in a physical competition than use something like a Keyblade. She did like how it looked, though: blended with a mix of red and orange to look like flames, the end of the blade shaped like a dragon head with a stream of fire out of the opened maw as the teeth, dragon wings taking the form of the hilt's guard with some small gems embedded in the wings' membrane, and the token had a staff that looked just like the bloodstone scepter, which was the staff depicting the Dragon Lord of their species. Even though the token might not be the real scepter, seeing it did bolster a huge bit of confidence in her to maybe be the next Dragon Lord.

Silverstream curiously looked at her Keyblade, staring in awe as her eyes flicked over each detail. Her blade was a mix of ocean and sky blue, and its look even mixed both her heritages as a hippogriff and a seapony. The teeth were in the shape of hippogriff feathers, the guard shaped like a white seashell around the sandy-grained hilt, and the token was a mermaid tail. The conjoined sections of the blade and token connecting with the earthly guard was a weird combination, but it showed her connection to the sky, the earth, and the water, and she squealed in joy.

"T-Their...Keyblades?" Aqua uttered, still in shock: both from their designs, and how quickly their Keyblades came to them.

"I believe I may have bet on the wrong side," Luxord mumbled to himself.

The new wielders were clearly excited, but with Luxord still around, they have to restrain from any celebrating for the time being. The group faced the card-wielding Nobody, gripping their Keyblades with a leer toward the stallion, though their stances were awkward or unbalanced since this was the first time ANY of them have ever held something like a sword.

"Now it's six against one!" Sandbar said. "Think you can take down all of us!?"

Luxord smirked, letting out a small laugh as he shuffled his cards. "Don't get an ego just because you now have such powerful weapons," he warned the students. "You six are new to this game, but the rules won't change, even for beginners." Ceasing his shuffling, he hid his deck between the sleeves of his coat, then pulled out his hoof to hold six cards, taking one and held its back out to the young wielders. "Are you willing to leap that giant hurdle and risk crashing until you break every bone in your bodies?"

"Yona show card pony what breaks more!" Yona exclaimed, then yelled and charged forward first.

"Wait, Yona! Your braids!" Sandbar called out.

Yona's flailing head made her braids flap around, getting in front of her front legs once more, causing her to trip. Again. She yelped and tumbled toward Luxord, the stallion merely stepping aside as he watched the yak roll into the wall at the other end of the foyer. The other students groaned, wishing the yak paid attention to her long braids when she went on a wild stampede.

"We really need to do something with that hair of hers," Smolder grumbled.

"Maybe later," Gallus said. "Let's get this guy!"

Smolder, Sandbar, and Silverstream let out a battle cry in agreement as the four charged forward with their Keyblades, Ocellus lingering behind, still a bit nervous and hesitant to use her new Keyblade. "No, get back here!" Aqua exclaimed, only to grunt as she tried to stand, wincing in pain. She looked up at Ocellus, learning from Ventus that the studious changeling mare had also learned a little bit of their Keyblade magic. Even if her time sneaking a peek at Twilight's notes during her visits to the hive were brief, Aqua could see that Ocellus has a lot of magic potential as a wielder. "Ocellus, you need to use Cure on me! Neither of you can take someone like Luxord on, even as a team!"

"B-But I don't know how it works!" Ocellus said.

"Then consider this your first lesson from me," Aqua said, trying to reassure the timid changeling. "It's a little different, but a similar principal to your changeling magic. Focus on healing, protecting everyone you cherish, and keeping them safe."

Ocellus glanced over at the fight, where Luxord was easily dodging the others' clumsy and obvious tells as they swung wildly with their Keyblades. Yona tried to charge Luxord again, who avoided her and accidentally bowled over Sandbar, then Silverstream and Gallus tried to pincer attack him, only to crash into each other without any coordination as he leapt to the side. And Smolder was a bit too aggressive with her swings, even trying to breathe fire at the unicorn stallion, getting her blade stuck in the ground at one point as she struggled to pull it out to keep fighting. The changeling looked back at Aqua, who was desperately worried about their safety. Ocellus shook in anxiety, holding out her Keyblade, remembering what the Cure spell did and how it was supposed to look. Before she could try to calm down, her focus was lost as an explosion rang out, along with cries from all five of her friends. Luxord threw his cards at the young wielders, causing them to blow up on Sandbar, Yona, Gallus, Smolder, and Silverstream, sending them flying and tumbling back toward the changeling and unicorn mare.

"I admire all of your spirits, but you should have tried to practice swordplay first before jumping into the middle of a match," Luxord said, giving the students some advice, even after beating most of them. "But, I think I should finally put an end to this game." Summoning his cards, he tossed them to the ground. Jutting out around the students and Luxord, several cards towered over them and boxed them in, leaving Aqua to panic outside as he trapped them. Four cards appeared in front of the teens as the fallen ones struggled to sit up, leaving Ocellus the only one left to challenge Luxord. "Do you know the rules, child?"

Ocellus whimpered as she watched the cards in front of her rapidly change between X's and O's. Luxord waited patiently as she watched Ocellus try to figure out what to do. The changeling's eyes shifted between each card, slowly figuring out how to win this small game of Luxord's. From his mini-games with Aqua, the X's were clearly bad, and if she got all the O's, she just might win this random game against him. She got the patterns down, focusing intensely and raised her Keyblade in her magic aura. One by one, she struck each circle with perfect timing, even when the last one kept feinting her out by switching its speed. After hitting the last card, Ocellus felt all the cards surrounding her, her friends, and Luxord fly toward her, gathering themselves in her hoof.

Mimicking the stallion, Ocellus fanned out the sleight in her hoof, glaring at the shocked Nobody, Aqua and the other new wielders staring at the changeling in awe. "How about a new game? Fifty-two pick up!"

With a flick of her hoof, Ocellus sent all the built up cards back at Luxord. He grunted and staggered backward, his body shaking from each painful impact of his own attack thrown right back at him. After the last card struck, it sent him flying back, crashing him into a pillar with a painful grunt. Luxord slid to the ground, groaning a bit as he hunched over, looking up to the new wielder with an amused smile.

"Clever girl," he said, impressed by her quick reflexes. Standing back up, Luxord chuckled in amusement. "Quite the intelligent one, you are. It is a shame that you all are just starting out. I would have liked a challenge similar in worth to that of Sora's." The other students began to stand up, slightly injured, but not down and out. Despite having more of an advantage in skill and strategy, Luxord dismissed his weapons, and held his hooves up in mock surrender. "I forfeit the match."

"Huh? You're...giving up?" Silverstream asked.

"It's gotta be some sort of trick," Gallus growled.

"No tricks. No traps. I concede wholeheartedly," Luxord assured. "And as promised, for giving up, your secrets stay safe with me."

"You're lying," Aqua growled.

"You still doubt I can keep my word?" Luxord asked. The silent glares from the Keyblade wielders told him they didn't really believe him. "Very well. To ensure your new apprentices will not be revealed, until the others find out for themselves, I shall leave you some information about what the Organization is searching for besides gathering Sora and the last of our numbers." Summoning a card, he flicked it at the students. They panicked, thinking it was going to explode, but Aqua managed to catch it in her magic aura before it touched them. She struggled to stand once more, her apprentices quickly coming to her and helped her back on her hooves. Hovering the card closer to them, they saw what was on the front of his unique card: a black chest. "We're searching for something called 'The Black Box'. It was said to hold something powerful inside, but its contents are unknown, and it has existed for millennia, or even longer."

"Just...a box? That's supposed to be a big secret?" Smolder questioned.

"...Before the Keyblade War many years ago?" Aqua asked, dumbfounded, and started to worry.

"So we were told," Luxord said. "It's been hidden for centuries, and no one knows where it's been hidden, nor what secret it holds. And, as luck shines favorably for you, I was the one tasked with finding it. I've searched far and wide throughout the cosmos, and my latest search brought me here in this world, where you and your friends have been inhabiting for quite some time. You may consider this meeting a coincidence, since I had recently started my search here in this 'unnatural' forest."

"And if you give Xehanort that box...he's going to use that power for his own benefit?" Aqua questioned.

"Perhaps. Or, maybe one of you will be lucky enough to find it before I do?" Luxord smirked, summoning a portal of darkness behind him. "May fortune guide you all to your endeavors."

He turned away and walked through the dark void as it disappeared behind him. Aqua couldn't believe that someone for the Organization gave them such a dark secret. And if it was THAT important, than there was no way he'd back down on his word. She and her new pupils stared at the card, all of them wondering what was hidden in this "Black Box's" contents, and why Luxord would be willing to let something so important to the Organization get "leaked" out to his enemies.

"Aqua!" Aqua's ears perked up as she heard Terra's voice. Flying over the Everfree Forest, they spotted Terra and Ventus on their gliders. The two wielders dove down toward the ruins, dismissing their gliders as they landed, and were relieved to find her and the missing students. "There you are!"

"Terra? Ven?" Ventus suddenly flew into Aqua, tackling the poor mare and gave her a bone-crushing hug.

"Don't ever do that again, Aqua!" Ventus scolded. "We were all so worried about you!"

Terra ran over to help his beloved, only to slow down halfway when he saw the students' Keyblades. "What the...?" He gawked at their Keyblades before looking back at Aqua, who was grimacing in pain from getting tackled and death hugged by Ventus. Terra peeled Ventus off of Aqua after he had his moment, then used Cure on Aqua to heal whatever injuries she had gotten while staring at her messy hair and dirty clothes. "...What...happened to you?"

Aqua bit her lower lip, failing to brush off the dust and mud she had clinging to her shirt. "I...had a pretty bad day?" she explained.

"By gathering the students from their homes and make them Keyblade wielders?" Terra questioned nervously.

"Uhh, actually, Mr. Terra, we ran away from home," Ocellus spoke up. "It was Sandbar's idea."

Terra and Ventus blanched as they stared at the lime green teen, who giggled sheepishly and rubbed his neck bashfully. "You guys really ran away?" Ventus asked.

"We all became such really good friends before we made the school shut down by wrecking it and Friends and Family Day," Silverstream said.

"Yona not want to lose new friends Yona just made!" Yona exclaimed. "Miss Aqua not take us! Not her fault!"

"Sandbar suggested hiding here so we could stay together, but it wasn't much of a safe place when we ran into some puckwudgies and some other stallion named Luxord," Smolder said.

Ventus and Terra were shocked to hear that name, the former recalling the encounter with the card-wielding Nobody in the Caribbean and The World That Never Was while the latter knew of him in the old Organization XIII's ranks through Xemnas' memories. "And she made us Keyblade wielders, so we're her students now," Gallus added, he and the other new wielders showing the two stallions their new blades.

"But...Aqua, where did you go?" Ventus asked. "We looked all over for you."

"...I was in Ponyville," she admitted. "I needed some air, but I couldn't clear my head after...after what I did last week." Aqua moved a strand of her mane out of her face with a depressed sigh. "I don't think I'll ever be able to recover from the emotional and psychological trauma I've undergone these last ten years. I'm afraid of who I turned into, and...I've been seeing...'her' again."

"She's not trying to take over again, is she?" Ventus growled. "Because if she is, I'll jump right into your heart and-"

"I think I was just seeing her while I was so horribly lost in my depression," Aqua reassured, even if that lingering feeling of her darkness would really come back out again. "I was so scared of her coming out and going back to losing control of my emotions. I even got so enraged that I tried to keep you away from stopping me, and I hated the way I became so aggressive that I maybe didn't belong in the realm of light anymore." She looked over at the new Keyblade wielders, the six students who had not only used the friendship lessons they learned and became friends, but also helped her like the others tried to before when she was doubting herself as a Keyblade Master, and as a person. Smiling, she approached them, then, one by one, gave each of them an affectionate head rub. The students were a little confused by the gesture as Aqua remained silent, almost cherishing the moment, much like she did when she rubbed Ventus' head at times, or even Sora and Riku when they were younger. "After telling these six everything about myself: who I am, who I used to be, how my behavior changed, even showed the good and bad memories I've experienced, I feel like...some of the weight in my heart's been lifted. It's not much, but...maybe this was the start I needed to begin my recovery."

"Really?" Sandbar asked in awe. "Needing us will...help you be back to who you used to be?"

"I think so," Aqua said, ruffling Sandbar's mane once more. "But, next time, you all need to learn the basics in fighting before you even so much as THINK about facing an opponent that strong. Understand?"

"Yeah, that would definitely help in the future," Gallus admitted.

"But that card thing Ocellus gave back at that pony was pretty cool," Smolder said, making the changeling blush a little.

"W-Well, I don't know how I did that, though," the changeling admitted sheepishly. "It was simple beating his game, but the timing getting all the O's was the key to winning those strange challenges."

While the other students wondered what other awesome moves they could do, Terra and Ventus could definitely see Aqua was feeling a little bit better, even when chiding the students for thinking about doing more reckless stunts in combat. Maybe training some new students will help steer her focus away from the past and her time in the Realm of Darkness, and with time, and more help, she'll improve and be back to her old self.

Terra reached a hoof to his ear, contacting Twilight through his enchanted crystal earpiece. "Twilight, we found Aqua and the missing students," he said.

"Oh, thank goodness! I'll let the others know, and I'll inform Princess Celestia and gather everyone at the school," Twilight said. "And did you and Ven check out the strange glowing light I saw in the Everfree Forest on the map? Because I'm seeing...nine different white dots around where the princesses' old castle used to be instead of three."

"Yeah, we know what happened," he said. "Seems like we've got ourselves some new wielders of the Keyblade." Terra cut off the connection before he heard Twilight threw an excited fit at the discovery, knowing the others will be just as shocked as they are. But they had to get back to the dire situation at hand: the leaders of the other kingdoms, or those representing their kingdom's leaders, about to go to war with Equestria for the misconception of the students being kidnapped. "Ok, everyone. Let's get out of this forest. We're taking the students back to the school."

The new wielders cringed, neither of them wanting to return. "We're going back to school?" Silverstream asked. "But...isn't it closed?"

"It's gonna open back up," Ventus said.

"Yona no like pony school! Rules boring and make Yona sleep!" Yona said.

"There's going to be some much better changes, thankfully," Terra reassured. "But we do need to let the leaders of your kingdoms know you're safe and sound. They all were about to wage a world war with Equestria and each other if all of you were kidnapped or harmed."

The foreign teens' jaws dropped, neither of them realizing how serious their running away would have caused. "Wait, what's happening?" Sandbar asked, confused.

"I think you're running away to be together was going to cause more harm than good," Aqua said. "We all understand why you didn't want to be apart, which seemed innocent enough for you guys. But after what happened last week with Neighsay, the nations' leaders think Equestria enacted the start of a war, even if you told your families you were running away."

"Oh no! What have we done!?" Silverstream cried out.

"We'll get this misunderstanding settled, and see if we can get you back to learning at the School of Friendship. Without the EEA rules," Terra said.

The students were reluctant to go back home if their leaders refused to let them stay, but they didn't want to be apart from their new friends permanently if there was a war between the six kingdoms. They followed Aqua, Terra, and Ventus out of the ruins and down the safe path through the forest. Aqua paused on the bridge, looking out to the gorge where her unstable ice magic still stood. She could see some of the massive, spiked structure was melting away, some of the branched icicles jutting out eroding away from the sun's heat. She looked back when someone gently nudged her, Sandbar, Gallus, Smolder, Ocellus, Silverstream, and Yona giving her concerned looks. Aqua reassured them with a smile, letting them know she was fine, and continued after Terra and Ventus back to the safety of town.


After regrouping with everyone at the front of the school, Aqua explained to her friends and allies what happened to her and why she was such a wreck. Though she was ok now, she understood the others' concerns after being so emotionally unhinged for the last few years. Then came the reveal of the new students as Keyblade wielders. It took a moment for them to figure out how to summon and dismiss their Keyblades, but it was quite a shock to the other wielders, and they'll be able to teach the next generation everything they've learned and more.

Princess Celestia had arrived with Prince Rutherford, General Seaspray, Fire Lord Ember, King Thorax, and Grandpa Gruff a moment later, the visiting delegates relieved to see their charges were safe. All except the old, crotchety griffon, barely grateful toward seeing Gallus was unharmed as long as there wasn't a single griffon in Griffonstone attacked by another nation.

"Twilight! I was so relieved we got your letter!" Celestia said.

"Well, I'm not," Gruff grumbled, then pointed to Gallus. "Don't expect a welcome home party from me, sonny! It's time you got home!"

Grandpa Gruff snagged Gallus' ear in his beak, but couldn't drag him off before Gallus smacked his beak away. "I'm not leaving," Gallus said.

"WHAAAAAAAAAT!?" Gruff shrieked.

"None of us are," Ocellus said, then looked over at Thorax. "Sorry, Thorax."

"Yak not understand. This pony joke?" Rutherford asked.

"It's not a joke, Prince Rutherford," Aqua said. "The students are all going back to school."

"But how? You can't even get inside!" Ember said, reminding everyone of the magic seal Neighsay placed on the building.

"Oh, we'll be getting inside." Aqua walked over the edge of the bridge, facing the sealed entrance from across the pond. She reared her hoof back to summon her Keyblade, but froze before she could call it. She glanced over at Twilight, slowly lowering her hoof before turning to face her. "Twilight, you unlock the seal."

"Huh? Me?" the alicorn asked.

"This is your school, after all," Aqua said. "You wanted to spread friendship to every creature throughout the world. As the princess revolving around friendship, you should do the honors."

Grinning, Twilight nodded, and took Aqua's place while the unicorn stepped back. Twilight summoned her Keyblade, aiming it at the lock on the seal. The other creatures watched in fascination at the kind of spell the Princess of Friendship would use, but her Keyblade had all the power it needed to unlock any lock, enchanted or physical. Light built up around the end of her blade, then fired a beam of light across the bridge and into the magic seal. A loud click rang out, followed by the seal shattering to pieces as the chains around the school disappeared into the ether. The students stared in awe, eager to try doing that with their own Keyblades one day.

"School is back in session!" Twilight announced, making the friendship students cheer.

The celebration didn't last long as a magic portal appeared in front of the entrance of the school. And walking out with his distasteful sneer was none other than Chancellor Neighsay himself, the stallion picking up the broken pieces of his seal with disdain.

"Who dared to remove my seal?" he questioned as he looked out to the group crossing the bridge. He sneered at the creatures he shunned out of Equestria as they had the gall to come back, completely ignorant of Celestia's presence among them. His focused more on Aqua, ignoring her appearance as he had expected her to be the culprit after their confrontation. "Is this your idea, Miss Aqua? Breaking the seal and reopening the school to spite me?"

"You're talking to the wrong mare," Aqua said. "Ask the Princess of Friendship."

Neighsay glanced at the lavender alicorn, shocked to know that it was Twilight who broke the seal. "She's right, Chancellor Neighsay! Now, please stand aside, or else classes will start late today!"

"Classes will not start at all!" Neighsay exclaimed. "The EEA has spoken, and none shall pass!" Neighsay stomped his hoof, releasing a magic shockwave that made everyone flinch, even shoving them back slightly. Yona growled, about to charge through Neighsay to show him no one's allowed to pass him, but Sandbar stopped her before she sparked another international incident to start the world war and prove Neighsay right. "This is for the greater good! The school was disorganized, the teachers and staff unqualified! And those dangerous and unpredictable 'students' put ponies' lives in danger!"

The delegates fumed angrily as Neighsay talked down to them yet again. Even Celestia couldn't stand hearing the stallion disrespecting the rulers or important figures representing their respective kingdom when she's been making ties with them for the last few years. Before Celestia tried to calm them down, Aqua halted the angry creatures from charging the unicorn stallion into the front door of the school with her magic.

"I am getting really sick of this guy," Lea grumbled. "Can we just turn him into a Heartless and get it over with?"

"Now, Lea, calm down," Aqua said with a surprisingly chilling calmness. "I think Twilight has a reason why this school should reopen."

"I do," Twilight agreed. "Even though it is true that my school is EEA-unaccredited."

"Huh. Her eye didn't twitch that time," Riku mumbled. "Maybe she is feeling a lot more confident after today."

"Then it is NOT a school!" Neighsay argued.

"It's not an EEA school," Twilight corrected. "It's a friendship school with its own rules. I should know; I wrote the book!" Twilight pulled out a book, far bigger than the "averagely" thick tome the EEA guidebook was, slamming it down in front of the shocked Chancellor. He didn't bother reading through it, glaring spitefully at the smug looks on Twilight and some of her friends. Twilight looked out to the different species of sentient creatures, especially the young students who did what was the most reckless, but incredibly brave thing they did to stay together, regardless of their differences. "These students reminded me that every friendship is special. Each one is unique in their own way-" She then looked at her friends who were not native to Equestria, especially the first stallion who helped introduce her to friendship: Sora. "-which means the way we teach has to be unique as well. My school is going to run things differently."

"Allowing all of these creatures to attend your school, changing the rules for THEM!?" Neighsay questioned bitterly, making everyone glare at the stallion once more. "It simply won't work!"

Having enough of Chancellor Neighsay's racist remarks, Aqua approached the stallion, ready to give him the shock of the century. "What won't work, exactly? Teaching someone to make friends and strengthen bonds and relationships?" she questioned. "I think all of us are getting sick of you talking down on others who aren't even ponies. You're speaking out of turn in front of one of your own kingdom's princesses, and you're not even that concerned about starting a war between the other nations by denouncing yaks, changelings, griffons, hippogriffs, and dragons as inferior beings?"

"These friendship lessons are going to be used against us if those creatures fully utilize it one day, and you, Princess Twilight, and your friends will doom us all!" Neighsay exclaimed. Celestia growled, but Aqua glanced back at the solar princess, silently assuring her that she's got this handled. "And your own academy would do FAR worse! As 'heroes' of Equestria, your main priority is to PROTECT ponies from threats like them!" Aqua took in a deep breath, giving the Chancellor a scowl. Neighsay scowled right back, lifting a hoof to prepare his medallion to absorb the mare's magic surge. "Do you wish to try to unleash your wrath on me yet again, Miss Aqua?"

"Oh, no. I AM angry, Chancellor Neighsay, but I have a new resolve after the rough week I've had," Aqua said, emphasizing her dirty clothes and frazzled mane. "But, I just need to clarify one thing you've been spouting since we first met. Friendship should only be learned by ponies, right?"

"Yes; only ponies should learn about friendship," Neighsay stated.

"And...by extension, protecting Equestria from the Heartless. From threats who could doom this WORLD in darkness...I suppose you obviously believe that only ponies should wield the Keyblade? No other creature?" Aqua questioned skeptically.

Neighsay's brow quirked, puzzled by her specific statements in her questioning. "...Yes...?" Aqua looked over her shoulder, giving her fellow wielders a smirk. They had no idea what she had planned, feeling just as confused as Neighsay was. "Where are you going with this?"

Aqua chuckled, facing the Chancellor again. "I don't think you really did your homework, Neighsay. Because you have no idea who my friends and I really are." Aqua raised her hoof, summoning her Keyblade, then stepped back to give herself some room. Understanding the consequences, but damning the rules, the mare gave her blade a swirl, creating sparkles of white light, then pointed it up to the sky. The light danced around her, completely surrounding her in a silhouette, and to her friends, the present leaders, and Neighsay, Aqua's body slowly transformed from a quadrupedal pony to a tall, bipedal creature. The wielders, Donald, Goofy, the Mane Six, and Spike all gaped in shock as they realized that Aqua was revealing herself to Neighsay and the leaders sans Celestia. As the light faded, she stood nearly as tall as Celestia, her hair and clothes still a mess even as she changed into her true form. Aqua opened her eyes, gazing at the dumbfounded, open-mouthed shock expressed on the Chancellor's face, then lowered her Keyblade to her side. "My name...is Master Aqua. I am not a unicorn born in your world of Equestria; I am a human with the powers of a Keyblade wielder, one of the protectors of the realm of light, and vanquisher of darkness from many other worlds across the cosmos. So, by your own words, Neighsay, I'm one of the creatures you wish to turn away from your kingdom, and leave Equestria to be overrun by Heartless. Is that right?"

Neighsay stammered, pointing at the Keyblade Master in befuddled shock. Even Ruthorford, Seaspray, and Gruff were stunned speechless by Aqua's true form. Ember stared quizzically at the first ever human she's witnessing, though she didn't expect Aqua or the other Keyblade wielders to look that way after learning they weren't really ponies.

"...Did...Did Aqua just...do that!?" Sora exclaimed in shock.

"I...think she just did," Terra uttered.

"She knows Master Yen Sid's going to hear about this, right?" Donald whispered to Goofy, the diamond dog only shrugging in response.

Neighsay finally managed to sputter out his words, far more outraged than ever before. "Y-Y-You are...W-WHAT!?" he shouted. "You...You tricked us!?" He then looked over to the other non-native Equestrians. "And...And they-they're not...! THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE!"

"Does this guy accept anything anymore?" Lea questioned under his breath.

"How dare you fool the entire kingdom by pretending to be us!?" Neighsay exclaimed. "You're no worse than the changelings!"

"Says the stallion who's so stuck in the old days of Equestria, when earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi despised each other for being different 'species'," Aqua retorted. "Your racist remarks are going to repeat history one day, and when a war breaks out, there's plenty of witnesses here who will say the name of the pony who initiated that war because he lingered in Equestria's past and refuses to look forward to the brighter future, where EVERY creature will live in friendship and harmony! Even us humans!"

"You don't belong here at all!" Neighsay continued to spout. "There is no chance Equestria will accept you giant, monstrous creatures, nor will Princess Celestia accept your residence here!"

"Actually, Chancellor, I have known who Sora, Aqua, and their friends really were for several years," Celestia interjected. Her answer shocked the unicorn stallion as she stepped forward, giving Neighsay a harsh, judgmental leer. "In fact, I have requested the wielders' aid to help rescue my sister, Luna, from her own darkness, Nightmare Moon. Without Sora being here all these years ago, our whole world would have fallen in much dire peril, not just Equestria. And his friends have done so much to save our world, and they are as much a part of our kingdom as other ponies, and other creatures, are. Regardless of what you approve through educational studies, you have NO say in turning away which species from other kingdoms are allowed to stay, and even LEARN about our culture and what we have to offer!"

Neighsay growled, standing defiant against Princess Celestia of all princesses, which made Twilight quiver in fear of seeing the stallion face her wrath. "You are a fool, Celestia!" he barked, making everyone gasp as he dropped the alicorn's royal title. He then pointed at Aqua, pulling out the EEA guidebook. "These creatures have been using friendship against us from the start! Even if she were to get her own academy up and running, the EEA will make sure it stays permanently-!"

Aqua quickly dashed toward Neighsay, making him yell in surprise and flinch. Instead of her attacking him, she snatched away the rule book, then dashed back to Celestia's side. "Keyblade wielders don't need to follow Equestria's Educational Association's rules like the school of friendship should, either," Aqua said. "We have our own rules we follow, but after this week, everything you said about our students-" She then tossed the book high into the air, then jumped up after it, giving it a few swift slashes before landing back down. When the guidebook fell back down, she gave it a hard smack, sending thousands of pieces of the tome flying and scattering right at Neighsay, smacking him and nearly pushing him back through his magic portal. "-screw your rules!"

Neighsay groaned and sputtered, glaring angrily. "How dare you!? This is an offense against ponykind!" he shouted, but Aqua shook her head in disappointment. "You creatures will bring our kingdom to ruin!"

"We've been saving 'your' kingdom for the last several years!" Sora shouted, earning more agreements from the other wielders, and even the Mane Six and Spike.

"And do you recall what you asked me the other day?" Aqua asked Neighsay. "That if any other creature who wasn't a pony has a Keyblade? I told you I'd accept them in a heartbeat." Turning around, she faced her new apprentices in the crowd. "Students, line up!" she ordered. Sandbar, Gallus, Yona, Ocellus, Smolder, and Silverstream grinned and obeyed, approaching their master and stood at attention before her. "Present your Keyblades!" The students held a limb up high, summoning their blades in six bright flashes of light. The other leaders were highly shocked seeing their charges with their new weapons, Rutherford, Seaspray, Ember, Thorax, and Gruff getting the gist of what this "secondary school" was that was mentioned back in Canterlot. Aqua turned around and faced the Chancellor once more, grinning at the abject horror on his face. "These six students who caused trouble last week are now MY pupils to train in the ways of the Keyblade. But I think you should be fine knowing there is one pony in the group at least, right?"

"I, for one, am perfectly fine with knowing there are new warriors to help protect OUR world," Celestia agreed in spite of Neighsay.

The stallion ground his teeth in fury, glaring at Aqua, the other wielders, both old and young, the other leaders, and the two alicorn princesses, all of them standing against him and Equestria's safety. "We promise you, Chancellor. Both our schools WILL help protect Equestria, our world, and many others," Twilight assured.

"Or destroy everything!" Neighsay growled, then turned and leapt back through his portal, giving up arguing his point and letting them eventually realize how wrong they were when the tables turn against them.

Aqua huffed after the portal disappeared, then the realization of her revealing herself made her panic. Slowly, she turned around, facing her friends and the other kingdom's delegates, Rutherford and Seaspray still processing what she looked like while Grandpa Gruff quickly lost interest.

"...Umm...Did I...go a bit too overboard?" Aqua asked.

"Maybe not enough," Celestia chuckled.

"...Yak...thinks he got it," Rutherford said, then looked at the six other Keyblade wielders. "Other ponies...NOT ponies, too?"

"It's...really a long story," Kairi giggled sheepishly.

"So...does this mean that Silverstream and the other students will have to enroll in two different schools?" General Seaspray questioned. "And...the queen's niece? A warrior? I doubt she would approve of this if it were Princess Skystar."

"We can send a letter to all of you when we're ready to officially open up our training academy," Terra said. "But, seeing as they've all committed to the responsibilities of a wielder, there won't be a lot of permission slips to allow them to travel to different places, face dangerous threats, and so on. Just being wielders is dangerous enough now when Heartless attract to us like flies to honey."

"I think we can handle these Heartless," Smolder said with confidence, along with vocal agreements from the other students. "And with the school opened back up..."

Smolder gave Ember a pleading look, making the Dragon Lord roll her eyes. "Alright, Smolder can stay. But if there's any singing involved, I'm out of here," Ember said.

Smolder cheered and ran over to Aqua, who used her magic to transform back into a pony, avoiding revealing to EVERY being in this world about the wielders' true identities. "Uh, if dragon stay, yak stay," Rutherford said, making Yona grin despite the yak prince still trying to prove that yaks were best at everything, especially with Yona as a wielder.

Thorax was still a bit shocked to know that Ocellus was a chosen wielder, and he worried about her safety now more than ever. "Ocellus, are you really sure you want to do something like this?" he asked the teenage changeling.

"I made up my mind when Miss Aqua gave me a choice to back out," Ocellus said. "I want to help change everyone's perspective on who we are as changelings. And learning friendship and fighting back the darkness might help boost my self-esteem."

Thorax could see a little bit of confidence in the young changeling, even when she ran away just to stay with the new friends she made. "Ok, if you think you can do this," he said, then rubbed Ocellus's head. "I know you'll make the changelings proud. And after you learn how to fight a bit better, you can teach Pharynx a thing or two if he gets a bit too rough with me."

General Seaspray was still reluctant to let Silverstream stay, though mostly in part to her being a Keyblade wielder. "Silverstream, are you sure you can manage the balance of learning from two different schools?" he asked. "Wielding a sword, no matter the design, is a very serious responsibility and quite dangerous if you ever need to use it."

"It's more like a giant key," Silverstream corrected, showing the hippogriff general her Keyblade. "I can learn how to use this really quickly, and I can help Miss Aqua when I'm properly trained. She's been through so much on her own. And I still need to get some flowers for her to show we appreciate and care about her as a master, pony, and a hoo-man."

Though Seaspray worried about the royal family, he couldn't help but chuckle at the hyperactive enthusiasm that came from Princess Skystar and her cousin, something the hippogriffs needed when they hid under the ocean from the Storm King. "I'm not sure how Queen Novo will take the news, but we will see. Until then, though, Silverstream, you do belong here."

Silverstream squealed and pulled the general into a tight death hug. Gallus was hoping for Grandpa Gruff to give him some praise, or even allow him to stay, but the old griffon was already thinking of flying off.

"What? You belong at home!" Gruff said. "You think I care if you've made friends, or got some dumb sword to fight with!?"

"Please, Grandpa Gruff?" Gruff was about to yell at the young griffon for trying to beg, but when he turned to look at his charge, he grimaced at the sad, puppy-dog face Gallus made.

"Agh! Alright, alright! Stop doing that!" Grandpa Gruff said, giving in so he didn't need to see that face on the griffon teen.

"Yes!" Gallus cheered, then flew over to join his new friends and master.

With the school reopened, and Neighsay having no say in placing rules on other creatures learning and spreading friendship and protecting the realm of light with the Keyblade, Twilight opened the doors, letting the young students inside to begin classes once again. The rest of the group filed inside while the leaders began making their way back to their kingdoms, entrusting the Princess of Friendship with their charges and dismissing any thoughts of starting a war with Equestria.

[Twilight Sparkle]
This brand new school of friendship
Is home to everyone

[Ocellus]
We're learning how to trust

[Gallus]
We're here to all have fun

[Rarity]
With friendship ties that bind us

[Applejack]
Tighter than the strongest bonds

[Fluttershy]
We're hoof-in-hoof

[All]
In hand in hoof in wing or even claw

The reopening was a bit slow the first day, mostly everyone just getting the classes tidied up after Neighsay forcefully shut it down. It picked back up as the days passed, pony students returning after hearing it was back up, and even other creatures from the neighboring kingdoms enrolled as well. The Young Six, as the staff nicknamed the group of teens who ran from their homes to be with each other, were quite popular around the school, and were quite attentive during their lessons. And during that time, Rarity helped Yona with her tendency to trip over her own braids when she excitedly ran. The yak's braids were now done up loops, keeping her hooves from stepping on them, accidentally smacking passersby if she flicks her head around, and tied up with pink ribbons in a bow. And in the classes, the Mane Six were able to teach the students about their Elements their own way, making the classes fun for everyone, with no EEA rules to hinder that fun.

Aqua might not have her academy up and running just yet, but she's still willing to train the Young Six with their Keyblades whenever she can, and without overly stressing them with the friendship lessons they're working on. The other wielders, Donald, and Goofy did their part assisting at the school, and helped teach the Young Six the basics of swordplay in the safety of the fields far from Ponyville. They asked if they could start learning magic right away, but Aqua insisted they learn how to wield their Keyblades, in their own style that feels comfortable for them, before learning any other advanced techniques or basic magic spells. She was improving, slowly coming back to being her old self, but she still has those lingering doubts in her heart. With teaching the next generation and trusting in her friends to bring her back down to earth, it was a wonderful distraction from the hardships she faced and a goal to not let the same mistakes she made fall to her pupils.

As everyone went about their day at the school, some wandered the halls, taught some new students a few lessons, all while eagerly awaiting the time to take the school photo outside the front of the castle. The tower that was broken was also repaired, looking as good as new. No one held the accident against the Young Six since no one got hurt. Only Neighsay and his bigoted outlook on the other kingdoms outside of Equestria.

[Twilight Sparkle]
There's a griffon in the garden

[Sora]
Hippogriffs hang in the hall

[Spike]
And the door will be open
To all creatures great and small

[Pinkie Pie]
And a yak or two or three

[Yaks]
Sing in perfect harmony

[Starlight Glimmer]
That might have been a changeling

[Fluttershy]
But it kind of looks like me

[All]
This school of friendship is for all of us
A place where we belong
Where we all learn to share and trust
The only rule here is to find your way
And friendship always wins at the end of the day

In one of the classes, Twilight was teaching in her own classroom, where the Young Six were all present along with several other new students. Aqua was there assisting her, looking much more presentable than her "stroll" through the Everfree a few days ago.

[Aqua]
Some things you just can't teach with books

[Twilight Sparkle]
Some things you only know

[Aqua and Twilight Sparkle]
So trust your heart and let us lead
And your friendship's sure to grow

[Students]
And once we master kindness
We will spread it 'cross this land

[All]
And give the gift that's ours to share
So others understand

This school of friendship is for all of us
A place where we belong
Where we all learn to share and trust
The only rule here is to find your way
And friendship always wins at the end of the day!


In Aqua and Terra's room, sitting on their dresser were a few new picture frames from the day of the photo shoot, taken by the photography "genius", Photo Finish. One had the picture taken outside the front of the School of Friendship, showing the students lined up on the upper benches, and the Mane Six, Spike, and Starlight Glimmer at the bottom. Another had the Young Six posing with the Keyblade wielders, Donald, and Goofy: the latter two were on each end of the benches, the students between the midget griffon and diamond dog with their Keyblades pointed up and crossing together, and Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aqua, Terra, Ventus, and Lea behind them with their Keyblades held up in the photo. The last one was a private photo made later that day, without Photo Finish around: this picture had the Young Six together with Aqua, as a human, all six apprentices huddled around the Keyblade wielder while she held a bouquet of various blue flowers that they got for her. She had those very flowers in a vase beside that photo, making sure they were kept hydrated and got enough sunlight through their window.

There were snipping sounds, coming from a pair of scissors in the bathroom. Inside, Aqua looked at her reflection in the mirror, strands of her blue mane scattered around her hooves as she gave herself a haircut. As much as she enjoyed literally letting her hair down, it would eventually become a hindrance in a fight if she kept growing it out. After a few more snips, she examined herself, her hair now back to being the older, shorter style she had back then. After giving it a once over, running her magic through her mane to get rid of the lingering clippings, she levitated her cut hair into the small bin, then let out a sigh as she looked at herself.

"An older look, but a new start to my recovery," she said to herself. "Maybe that's why Starlight changed her hairstyle after she changed."

Throughout the past few days, she didn't have anymore hallucinations of Torrent, nor hear her voice taunting her and send her spiraling back deeper into her sorrows. Despite the lack in her presence, there was still the memories of her trauma that still remained that she needed to cope with, and the affection from her new pupils, looking past the darker side of her to see and understand the troubled woman before them, helped distract her and focus on training the next generation of wielders. With a nod, Aqua left her room and made her way to the throne room. As soon as she walked inside, only seeing her fellow warriors sans Terra while the Mane Six, Spike, and Starlight were busy at the school, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Ventus, Donald, Goofy, and Lea were surprised to see Aqua with her old, but new look.

"Whoa. Aqua, your hair," Sora uttered in awe.

"Just did a bit of a trim," Aqua said.

"I think you forgot what the word 'trim' means when that long hair's cut down to a few centimeters from your shoulder," Lea commented.

"I like it," Ventus said with a grin. "Just how it used to be back then."

"Gawrsh, now that her hair's cut, she and Kairi really do look a lot alike," Goofy said.

"Yeah! Maybe they really are long lost sisters!" Donald added.

That got a laugh out of everyone, even Aqua as she wholeheartedly agreed at the possibility. "Is there some sort of special occasion?" Riku asked curiously.

"Just a new start to get me back to being the old Aqua," Aqua said. "I will need some more help, though. But, since there's a school nearby, and Starlight's got a way with words when it comes to counseling, even if it's not friendship related, I think I feel a lot better letting out my problems instead of keeping them bottled up and let them fester before it blows up."

Sora, Riku, and Ventus grimaced, reminded of something literally similar to what Starlight did when it involved Trixie's nuisance, especially when the magician teleported the Cutie Map to the Ponyville Spa and completely forgot WHERE she teleported it after nearly hours of searching. "...Yeah! Let's not have something like THAT happen!" Ventus said, chuckling nervously before it droned into a worried grumble.

"Hey, why just Starlight Glimmer for some counseling?" Lea asked skeptically. "I'm a counselor, too. I can be a very good listener."

"Thanks, but no thanks," Aqua said. "I'd rather speak to someone who will take me seriously rather than make the clients feel better by joking around and distract them from their problems." Lea pouted and sighed, though he understood her point. After all the teasing and poking fun at her since they first met, he wouldn't help her much when she was already looking much better than before. "Where'd Terra go?"

"He said he was going for a walk," Kairi said. "No idea where, though."

"At least he kept his communicator on," Sora teased, making the unicorn mare roll her eyes.

"Ok, I get it. I won't do that again," she promised, even ensuring her friends with a Pinkie Promise. Now that things had settled down, Aqua wondered about what Luxord mentioned in the Castle of the Two Sisters after he gave up fighting against the Young Six. She pulled out the card he gave them, bearing the special chest from before the Keyblade War that Xehanort seems to be looking for. With everything that had happened with the school getting back on track, telling off Neighsay, even though they were disappointed to hear he's still the head of the EEA after he continued spouting racist comments toward the other species and the humans "disguised" as ponies, and beginning the Young Six's training as Keyblade wielders, she wasn't able to tell everyone about the unfortunate news. Whether it was a false lead, or Luxord really did give them actual information, this sounded incredibly important. "Back in the forest, when Luxord attacked us, he told me and the students about something the Organization is searching for." She lowered the card onto the Cutie Map, letting the others see The Black Box. "I've never heard of anything like this, but he called it 'The Black Box'..."


Terra wandered through the Everfree Forest, walking down the path leading toward the ruins of the castle residing deep in the unnatural woods. As soon as he reached the bridge, he avoided crossing it and instead walked down the natural staircase into the gorge, making his way to the cave where the Tree of Harmony lies. The stallion approached the trunk of the crystal tree, the Elements of Harmony glowing slightly as a white light began to shine at the trunk of the Tree of Harmony.

"You are one of the bearers from beyond our world," a faint voice called out from the light. "But...I sense...another presence within you."

"Yes," Terra said, though as his eyes focused on the light, they were slightly faded, as if the stallion was in a trance. "And you are speaking with the presence within this pony."

"Friend or foe?" the voice questioned, the Elements on the trunk and branches glowing menacingly to retaliate to any creature filled with disharmony and darkness.

"A friend," "Terra" assured the voice. The Elements' glows dampened, but still shined from the appearance of the glowing light he spoke to. "I never knew there was much else about you than a mystical tree filled with light, but knowing you were created by a Keyblade wielder many years ago along with the Pillars of this world, there must have been some form of sentience within you."

"Indeed. My purpose was to protect this world from the threats of darkness and keep harmony throughout the land," the voice said. "But it was not a permanent solution. The draconequus, Discord, had pulled a wicked scheme with his plunder seeds, my power keeping the vines from taking root when the Elements created by my being were used to stop him. I offered these gifts to the ponies who were worthy of wielding them. And from those six bearers, when I sensed this otherworldly youth's presence, I allowed my power to be bestowed to him from the Elements through the hearts of the mares. His heart is powerful, filled with such kindness and selflessness the likes I've never felt before."

"Mhmm. I agree," "Terra" said. "Sora is quite the strong-willed wielder. Now there are six new youths with the Keyblade, a new generation to continue protecting all worlds, including yours."

"I, too, sensed the six youths not long ago up above, along with the light from within their hearts," the voice said. "I have also sensed something else within them; something similar to the current bearers of the Elements. Another, as you say, new generation of bearers in keeping harmony in the world." "Terra" hummed in thought, rubbing his chin with his hoof. "Who are you?"

"Are you asking who I am, or who I am inhabiting?" "Terra" asked.

"The one whom I speak to; within this stallion's heart," the voice clarified.

"Terra" grinned slightly in amusement, a small flash of light appearing beside the entranced stallion as the silhouette of another stood beside Terra. Through the sparkling glow, this stallion was wearing a white haori that trailed over the lighter silver hakama around his lower half, a navy blue shirt under the haori with a large X pattern on his chest, and a pair of gold and black armored boots on his hind legs. The stallion's black mane was tied in a short topknot, one bang hanging over the right side of the unicorn horn protruding from his forehead, his face bearing a couple jagged scars over his right eye and left cheek, and had a mustache and a short, triangular soul patch.

"My name is...Master Eraqus."