After returning to the main entrance of the huge Greek city that was Thebes, Sora, Twilight, Donald, Goofy, and Hercules took care of the last of the Heartless running amok. Most of the fires died down, though it would take quite a while for everything to get rebuilt with all the collateral damage.
"I hope that's all of them," Twilight said. She was reminded of the Sombra timeline, watching Ponyville being overrun with Heartless and seeing someone she knew having their heart literally ripped out of their chest by one. "Please let everyone be saved and we didn't lose the thousands of people in this city."
Meg and Phil flew in on Pegasus's back, the larger equine landing by the heroes. "Heh-hey! You junior heroes didn't actually do all that bad!" Phil complimented. "Although, ya could have tried to keep Thebes less messy than it already was."
"And we got everyone to safety thanks to Twilight," Meg added. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief knowing all of Thebes was saved thanks to their heroics. Before they had any time to celebrate, Pegasus nickered and looked up at the mountain out in the distance. Everyone looked up as well, noticing dark clouds swirling around the peak, veiling it and the sky several miles from the base of the mountain. "Oh, great. More trouble."
"It's Hades," Hercules said.
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Twilight all nodded in agreement. "Time to stop him now," Sora said. "Let's get going."
Hercules nodded as well as the group hurried off to the mountain, Meg and Phil wishing them luck as they stayed behind to look over Thebes. It was a long run to reach the base of the very mountain Sora and his friends wound up on by mistake when they entered this world. Through the grassy fields along the climb up to the tall mountain, there was a river that seemed to flow from higher up, though they seemed to slosh and run like a raging rapid.
"This is odd," Hercules said curiously. "The river's never this full around here. Nor is it this rough."
Being cautious, all but Twilight leapt across the water or tried to carefully wade through the rushing water to reach the natural path. As they reached a small field where they see the waterfall gushing gallons of water down the mountain side, Heartless suddenly splashed out from the river. Sora and Twilight were surprised to see similar aquatic ones Ventus faced just like the Flame Cores back in Thebes, which meant these Heartless might not just be native to the Realm of Darkness if they can pop up like the others they've faced.
"Here they come!" Sora called out, he and his friends summoning their weapons while Hercules lowered himself with his arms spread out.
The Water Cores dashed toward the group in a stream of water, forcing the heroes to split away. Some of them were joined with Air Soldiers or Large Bodies, a select few of the Cores shrouding themselves in a barrier of water. Goofy threw his shield at a "protected" Water Core, only for the Heartless to phase through it like water, then send its barrier at the attacker in a stream of homing projectiles. Goofy managed to dive out of the way, catching his shield on the rebound.
"Uh oh! These Heartless can counter like them fiery ones!" the knight captain noted.
"Then let's try evaporating their water barriers!" Twilight suggested as she flew away from some of the Water Cores and Air Soldiers chasing her.
Flipping around, she aimed her Keyblade and launched a Firaga spell. The fireball struck, stunning the Cores as steam hissed from their bodies, proving the alicorn's theory that fire was their weakness. She fired another at some of the protected Cores sneaking up on Hercules as he easily hefted the Large Body and used it as a weapon against the other Heartless. The explosion of flames brought more steam and quickly evaporated the aquatic barrier in an instant, leaving them open to a flung Large Body, crushing and destroying them. Easily dispatching the Cores with their weakness, they were able to easily slay the ambushing Heartless.
Once the last of the Cores were destroyed, the waterfall slowed down to a gentle stream, calming the water in the river to a smaller, much easier flow. "These elemental Cores are causing all sorts of crazy things to happen!" Donald squawked.
"There were also Earth Cores Ven fought, too," Sora mentioned. He and his friends slowly looked down at the ground at their feet, dreading to feel an earthquake or a sharp stalagmite to shoot up from underneath. "...Yikes. Hope there aren't any hiding traps for us."
They continued up the long trek of climbing the mountain, but it wasn't without a few encounters here and there. Twilight didn't need to worry about carrying Hercules up any high cliffs that Donald and Goofy couldn't climb up, showing off more of his impressive strength by leaping high and grabbing the ledges to help pull himself up. Aside from what they've faced before, they did eventually run into Earth Cores, their spherical bodies covered on rocky, jagged spikes, facing away from their foes to protect their open and defenseless faces. They ran into these near the statue of Zeus Sora and his friends found earlier, along with a huge sand tower version of them. This different version spat out rocks from its maw or flung its head at them to slam them into the ground. They were at least pretty vulnerable with their sandy bodies, but they were much tougher than the smaller Earth Cores that dove toward them with their spiky backsides like drills.
After climbing back up the cliffside, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Twilight found themselves back at the cliff where they were blown off by the Titans. Keeping far from the edge this time, they continued on toward the mountain path with Hercules beside them. They soon felt the ground shake as they passed through the rocky archway above the path, but the visitors of this world recognized the power of the quake.
"Uh oh. The Titans are doing something up there," Twilight uttered. "But what's so important at the top of the mountain?"
"It's getting worse by the minute," Hercules said worriedly. "I hope I'm wrong, but my family needs me." Looking up to the sky, Hercules brought his fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle, calling Pegasus to his side. The white stallion flew down from the sky and landed by his friend. Before the muscular man hopped on his companion's back, he looked back at the others. "I'm going to fly on ahead. You've all been a big help, but...leave the rest to me."
Confused, the wielders, mage, and knight looked at each other. "But we need to find Hades, too," Donald said.
"And you have family living up on this mountain?" Twilight asked.
Hercules climbed onto Pegasus's back, giving the alicorn a nod. "Yeah. Dad's king of the gods."
As Hercules flew off, he left the unfortunate group of four with a huge bombshell. "Whaaaaaaat!?" they exclaimed in shock.
"His dad is a god!?" Twilight shrieked, her mind reeling as she gasped loudly. "Oh my gosh. Hercules's father is Zeus!" She then glanced at Sora, who was just as dumbstruck at the surprise reveal. "Sora, did you even KNOW Hercules was a god, too!?"
"I had no idea!" Sora said. "I thought he was just...incredibly strong!"
"But at least we know he can take care of himself, right?" Goofy asked.
"Well, I guess so, but if Xigbar's here, then others from the Organization are probably here, too," Sora said. "He's gonna need our help."
Donald and Goofy nodded in agreement, though Twilight was still in shock. "Sweet Celestia above, we were talking to a deity all this time, and we never even knew," she mumbled. Suddenly, a much stronger quake shook the mountain, snapping the alicorn out of her daze. Looking up the mountainside, they saw a huge figure looming over the cliff several thousand yards up. They could see the silhouette of a craggy body, its arms moving as it threw a huge boulder down toward them. "LOOK OUT!"
The group scrambled, avoiding getting crushed by the boulder as it broke to pieces. One of the large pieces bounced up and landed behind them, blocking the path beneath the arch. Looking back up, they could see the Titan summoning more boulders to rain down on them.
"Oh great. Rocky's back for another beatdown," Sora said, summoning his Keyblade as he looked up at the Rock Titan's perch. "Twilight, get Donald and Goofy up there and take on the Rock Titan's heads! I'll catch up with you!"
"Wait, heads!? As in plural!?" Twilight shrieked, only to yelp as a boulder headed her way. Using her magic, she blasted a beam through it, calling her Keyblade and activating the Element of Honesty's strength. "Right. Questions later. Fighting now."
"Be careful, Sora!" Donald said before he and Goofy climbed on Twilight's back.
The alicorn flapped her wings and ascended with her two passengers, avoiding the falling rocks forming along the cliffside. She looked back worriedly halfway up the cliff, watching Sora running up the wall while swiftly maneuvering his momentum to run along the cliff to avoid the boulders falling above him. She panicked when part of the mountain crumbled away as Sora reached a "safe" ledge, but the rockslide barely missed him as he continued upward once it fell away.
"Twilight, look out!" Goofy warned.
Looking up, Twilight gasped when she saw the Rock Titan throw a huge boulder as big as itself toward her. With no chance to fly away in time, Twilight charged toward it, her Keyblade gripped in her magic aura tightly. Slashing wildly several times, she thrust her blade and herself through, shattering and slicing the boulder to smaller pieces, continuing her rise to meet with the Rock Titan head on. She got a better look at it despite the clouds above them making the atmosphere darker. It was made of jagged black rock, and to her surprise, it had two heads: one perched on each shoulder blade with a red glow coming from inside its mouths and eyes.
Sora continued running up the mountain, leaping across fallen pieces of earth as the Rock Titan tried to knock Twilight out of the sky. Reaching the ledge safely with a leap, he looked around for a different route to sneak up on the Titan while it was distracted. Finding a path that seemed to lead around the mountain, Sora ran toward it, picking up the pace before the Rock Titan did something drastic. He ran into some Shadows and Air Soldiers, but quickly dealt with them before they could chase him down, even as the clouds around the mountain peak began to shoot lightning and pour down rain.
Ignoring how drenched he was, Sora continued sprinting along the trail, hearing Twilight, Donald, and Goofy fighting the Titan from the air through the loud thunderclaps. He was hoping some of the lightning strikes came from Twilight or Donald, otherwise mother nature might decide to be against them in this stormy battle weather. Sora spotted another cliff, the Rock Titan now moved there while trying to swat at Twilight. It seemed to know that Sora was heading down this route as it continued to launch rocks and boulders to keep him pinned down, but he was too quick to let that happen. Running up this cliff, avoiding more boulders again, he switched his Kingdom Key with the Keyblade of Honesty and made a quick Formchange. With blade turning into a massive hammer, Sora leapt up as he reached the ledge, then slammed it down against the back of one of the Rock Titan's short legs.
The Rock Titan roared, losing its balance as it fell on its behind from its buckled leg. Sora backed away before the Titan landed on him, leaping up its body while giving its torso a good few whacks with his hammer. Hopping onto the Titan's wide chest, Sora tossed his weapon in the air, making it transform as he cracked his knuckles while giving the Titan a smirk.
"What's up, Rocky? Miss me?" Sora asked. He raised his hands up, his hammer now transformed into his brawling gear as the gauntlets fell back and latched around his wrists. Slamming his fists together, he made sparks of orange fly out with a metal clang. "Let's see if I can break both your teeth."
He charged forward as the greaves fell down toward each head. Sora started with the head on his left, jumping up and roundhouse kicking with his right. His right greave landed and attached itself to his leg right halfway through his motion, landing a hard kick in the head's left cheek, which made a painful crack that left that head reeling in agony. Spinning around, Sora pushed off the dazed head and aimed for the other with a dive kick, the other greave attaching just in time like the other. The dive kick struck the second head's jaw, making its rocky neck tilt back as it roared in pain. The head slammed its neck down on Sora while he was underneath it in retaliation. Sora quickly brought his arms up, blocking the rocky neck from crushing him as he pushed back against it.
Twilight flew down, letting Donald and Goofy off to join Sora and strike the heads up close. She was about to help Sora, but his enhanced strength through his Honesty Formchange helped him hold back the Titan's conscious head with one arm while the other made quick jabs at its tough throat. The other head woke up, glaring at Twilight before it swung its head at her. The alicorn noticed and blocked the Titan's head with her Keyblade, sliding back across its neck before coming to a stop.
"Oh, I don't think so!" she said, the crown on her Keyblade's chain began glowing, followed by the Element of Loyalty. She pushed the head back, then zipped off, dashing through the head at every angle, before reappearing above it. "Haste Arcana!"
Diving down like a lightning bolt, she phased through the TItan's other head with a slash, standing on its body in a crouching position. Behind her, she heard a series of slashes she made before at lightning speed finally connecting, followed by the swift strike downward that slammed its head down hard against its chest mere inches away from her. With it dazed, Twilight was exhilarated and shocked by the move she just pulled off. She looked at her Keyblade's chain, still amazed by how much she's able to do when combining all of her friends' unique traits, even when combining them with Sora's.
Sadly, she was snapped out of the different possible power combinations she could make when she heard the head behind her let out a groan. Letting her guard down, the Titan's waking head quickly chomped down on the alicorn's tail, then swung its neck up hard. Twilight screamed as she was flung, letting out a grunt as she slammed into the mountain. Sora, Donald, and Goofy heard her as they backed away from the head they were beating up, nearly losing their balance as the Titan stood back up, then slammed its fist into the mountain. A rockslide fell on top of them, bringing Twilight down as well as she shook awake from her daze. Some of the rocks fell on the Rock Titan's body, far too many for Sora to punch through as he, Twilight, Donald, and Goofy were sent falling down the mountain.
"Not again!" Donald screeched.
Twilight tried to flap her wings, but the impact on her back made her wince as she tried to stretch her wings. She couldn't focus her magic to teleport them to safety with how far apart she was from the others. She panicked as she tried to figure out a plan, but time around her slowed as she felt her Keyblade pulse. Her chain began to glow a mysterious, colorful light, which surged up through the rest of her Keyblade until it surrounded the upper half of her blade. Sora noticed and felt the same pulse coming from within him. Switching out of his Formchange to wield his Kingdom Keyblade, the same colorful light energy surged around his blade as well.
Having no idea what was happening, both wielders decided to unleash its power. The beams of light shot out in the distance, connecting with each other, and from the flash of light came a trail of what appeared to be train tracks made of solid light. From those tracks, a train pulling what appeared to be roller coaster cars came flying down the tracks, the locomotive and its cars surrounded in bright and colorful neon lights. The train was a mix of red and blue, both sides marked with both a crown and a six-pointed star, and the lights around the cars were each a different color: silver, purple, blue, pink, red, orange, and fuchsia, matching the colors of the Elements and crown on Twilight's keychain.
The coaster dove underneath the falling group, catching them in a car with a grunt from all of them before rising back up the mountain. Getting up in their seats, they stared in awe at the magic coaster appearing out of nowhere.
"Wow. Pretty," Goofy admired.
"Uhh, Sora, what...happened?" Twilight asked.
"I don't know, but whatever that was..." Sora stood up from his seat in the car closest to the train. Holding his Keyblade out, he aimed it at the Rock Titan, sensing something from within the locomotive's smokestack aiming at the Titan. He unleashed what was inside, the train firing a firework at the Titan, which blew up right in its face. "This is so awesome!"
Sora continued firing a barrage of fireworks at the Rock Titan, disorienting it with colorful explosions and making it stumble around in place. The coaster swerved around like it was an actual ride, Sora still able to launch fireworks even with the stomach lurching dips, turns, and climbs along the magical rails of light. The strange thing was neither of them felt any motion sickness, like gravity wasn't affecting them in the slightest despite all the harsh movements any coaster would normally give. Even as the Rock Titan tried to retaliate, Sora kept firing at its face and arms, breaking whatever rocks it tried to smash them with.
"Hey, this is actually kind of fun!" Donald cheered. The coaster began to circle around the Titan, but it was about to swing its left arm to knock the riders out of their seats. The fun for the mage was over as he screamed, everyone quickly jumping up high as the coaster made a quick bump up to give them some extra height. They missed the Rock Titan's arm by mere inches, safely landing back in the coaster as it made another trip around toward the Titan. "Uhh, ok, maybe not so fun anymore."
"That was really close!" Twilight exclaimed. "Can we please get rid of this monster now!?"
"Alright! Let's give Rocky here everything this train's got!" Sora held up his Keyblade, creating a flash of light that made the train blow its whistle.
The smokestack unleashed every salvos of fireworks it had inside, blowing the Titan up from its feet to its two heads. The last few explosions around the Rock Titan's heads formed the shapes of the Elements of Harmony, starting with Kindness, then Laughter, Honesty, Generosity, Loyalty, Magic, and finally ending with a huge heart of white sparks. The final explosion pushed the Titan back, making it lose its footing and fall right off the edge of the cliff, slowly tumbling down the mountain with heavy thuds on each of the ledges far below. As they watched the Titan tumble back to the earth, the coaster slowed down and pulled to a stop near the ledge where the Titan once stood.
"Last stop! Everybody off!" Goofy said with a chuckle.
Once they got out of the cars, the coaster rolled off down the tracks of light and faded away into the sky. "What did we just do?" Twilight asked again.
"Something new, I guess," Sora said. "I'm not even sure if Aqua or the others knew about that." He hummed in thought, then snapped his fingers. "If there's anymore of those we can do, let's call those Attraction Summons."
"I'd say they're more like spells if summoning with a Keyblade involves an enchanted charm," Twilight said with mild annoyance. She then shook her head, remembering the harsh storm around the mountain they were still in. "Let's hurry and keep moving. I'm getting soaked, and I do not want to catch a cold right now."
"Right. Herc's still gonna need our help. At least we brought down one Titan," Sora said.
"And only three more to go," Twilight reminded Sora. He giggled sheepishly, almost forgetting about the other remaining Titans they've yet to face. They continued on their way to the summit, running down the path to avoid the rain and the possible thunder strikes that could strike them. Luckily, there was a cave at the end of the path, getting them out of the pouring rain. Twilight shook herself dry, drenching Sora, Donald, and Goofy with the water drenching her fur and mane as they let out startled grunts. "Oops. Sorry."
"No, that's fine, Twi. Act like Winona after giving her a bath," Sora said, his tone seething with sarcasm. "At least you didn't roll around in a pig pen. I still have no idea how Winona got in there that day."
"Maybe the little fillies snuck her in on a very hot day," Goofy pondered.
"Yeah, that makes sense," Sora said with a shake of his head. "And even after getting their cutie marks, they still like to cause trouble."
Continuing through the cave, they came to a stop as they reached a dead end. "Oh great. Now where are we supposed to go?" Donald asked. "There's no other safe way through, and that storm's sounding like it's getting worse."
Looking around the cave, Twilight noticed a light seeping through the cracks of the caved in wall that barred their path. "Wait, why is there light on the other side?" she questioned curiously. "It's dark and raining the other way. There's no way sunlight can shine down on a storm surrounding the summit."
"Let's break through and see what's on the other side," Sora suggested. Twilight nodded, seeing no other options and was just as curious to see what was on the other side. With both wielders gripping their Keyblades, they slashed through the rocks to break them down. After breaching through, the bright light blinded everyone as they quickly covered their eyes. When their eyes adjusted, they saw what was on the other side, and their jaws dropped at what was at the end of this cave. "Whoa..."
The light they saw didn't come from the sun. At least, not outside the mountain's "summit". Beyond the cavern was what looked like a stairway leading to the gates of a heavenly realm, a large cloud walkway splitting that realm and the earth they stood on. Twilight walked forward first as she stared at the gate in awe, able to freely walk on clouds thanks to her being an alicorn.
"What...is this place?" Twilight uttered.
Sora, Donald, and Goofy worried their feet would slip through the clouds, but after taking a cautious test with one foot, the cloud floor was soft, but solid enough for them to step on. They didn't see any sign of the other Titans out here, which means they must have gotten inside whatever lies beyond those golden gates. The four heroes ran up the long, long stairway up to the gates, which opened up to them, allowing them entry into the realm. They reached another checkpoint made of stone that had solid golden doors that opened for them as well, letting the group enter and get a first look inside. Their breaths were taken in awe, seeing many structures made out of cloud and marble, looking almost similar to Cloudsdale aside from the stone floors and buildings, marble pillars, and floating platforms able to set on the cloudy landscape.
"Is this place...Olympus?" Sora wondered in awe. "I thought that the world we've been in the whole time was Olympus."
"It's so beautiful," Twilight uttered. Before she could marvel the Greek pantheon's world any further, Heartless appeared in their path. Startled, Twilight leapt back to Sora, Donald, and Goofy, their weapons at the ready as they faced a new variety of Heartless. Standing in a five-by-five formation were 25 Heartless in the forms of armored minotaur, the Heartless emblem on the chest of their dark purple armor, sharp, curved horns on their heads, and a twisted, lightning-bolt shaped "goatee" hanging from their mouthless chins. "This definitely isn't."
"Of course there had to be Heartless that look like minotaurs in a world like this," Sora said. The Heartless simultaneously had their helmets lower over their faces, the horns shifting along with their helms to point at them, and their arms covered their emblem protectively. "Uhh, I don't like what they're doing."
The Heartless suddenly charged forward, running in sync as they lowered their heads. "They're stampeding!" Goofy shouted.
The group quickly scattered from the minotaur Heartless, some of them breaking out of their formation as they each tried to turn to ram into their foes. Many of them crashed through the pillars, causing them to topple and crumble onto the ground. They turned and went into another wild charge, but even as Sora stood his ground and slashed at them, they bowled the Keyblade wielder over, knocking him in the air as each row smacked and juggled him before passing him, letting him fall to the ground with a painful thud.
"Agh. Damn it," Sora groaned. "They're worse than a herd of normal stampeding bulls." They came back around for another pass as Sora tried to get up. Twilight quickly flew down, firing a Blizzaga spell at them, but even though the large chunk of ice connected and blew up to hit all of them, none of the Heartless froze as they kept on charging. Yelping, she fired and Aeroga spell beneath her and Sora, launching them up and avoiding the next round of stampeding. "Thanks for the save."
The duo landed, hearing Donald and Goofy screaming as the herd of Heartless went after them. "None of them seemed to even flinch after getting blasted with ice," Twilight said. "They're like in some sort of hive mind while being practically invincible! Can we even beat them!?"
While watching the minotaur Heartless, Sora recalled the giant Heartless that appeared at Rockhoof's island home and what it did with the giant axe it carried. He broke through the makeshift face armor it made out of it, but breaking it didn't kill it. Whatever protection it granted, it was like the Heartless had something protecting their bodies from harm, and until it broke or they willingly got rid of it, assuming they aren't that brainless to do that against a Keyblade wielder, they would then be vulnerable to any attack or spell. The helms over their faces must have been the minotaur Heartless's specific "armor", and with how in sync they all were, they must all be connected by that very same "armor".
"No. We can beat them. We just need to break through their defenses," Sora said.
Donald and Goofy scrambled to get away, heading straight for Sora and Twilight. His friends ran past him, but Sora stood his ground, widening his stance with he Keyblade at the ready. Twilight looked at Sora nervously, ready to dive away if he got trampled by the Heartless. Before they ran him down, Sora quickly flicked his wrist and blocked one of the minotaurs horns, and with their collective hive mind, all of them staggered back from defensive parry.
"They all stopped!?" Twilight exclaimed in shock.
"Let's break their defenses while we have the chance!" Sora called out.
The alicorn nodded, flying to the right of the stunned herd while Sora went left. The crown on her Keyblade's chain began glowing, able to sense what Sora had in mind to breach through the Heartless's defenses. Poising their blades over their shoulders, they crouched low before speeding off.
"Double Sonic Blade!" they both shouted.
Both wielders dashed at blinding speed through the Heartless herd, running through each row and column in multiple patterns. Though the minotaurs didn't flinch with each impact, their helms were starting to crack as their defenses grew weaker. They slid out of the herd on opposite ends, then dashed right back in for one more strike, meeting together and clashed their Keyblades, creating an explosive shockwave of light that shattered the Heartless's defense and scattered them all over the main entrance of Olympus. Seeing the herd now broken and strewn about the battlefield, Donald and Goofy quickly made short work of the stunned Heartless near them while Sora and Twilight eradicated the rest with a flurry of Thundaga spells.
Once the last of the minotaur Heartless were destroyed, the group took a bit of a breather, Twilight especially as she had no idea how she became so synchronized with Sora and the dual combo they pulled off without even saying anything. "Everybody ok?" Donald asked.
"I think so," Sora said. "Nice work, Twi."
"How in Equestria did we manage to do that without running into each other until the last strike?" Twilight questioned in astonishment. "We were...so in sync, and...it was like I knew what you had going on in your head. Just like that weird...Limit thing we did in the Sombra timeline. I had no control over myself, but part of me went along with it like I knew what to do."
"Really? Did you read my mind with some kind of spell?" Sora asked.
"No. I was too focused fighting to even think about a spell like that," Twilight said. "And what's even stranger is my reflexes seem to be just as good as yours, even when I was still learning how to fight with my Keyblade and before this crown representing you...appeared...?" Twilight trailed off, slowly looking down at her Keyblade's chain. Looking back at the other Elements on her chain that activated subconsciously, she had a small personality swap, acting like each of her friends from their respective Element. But with Sora, she didn't act as confident or silly as him, but she knew of his skills without any practice, and just like earlier, she matched his strikes from the other end of the minotaur herd, stances, and speed. She and her friends had a connection, including Sora, but with him, their connection through her abilities as a Keyblade wielder seemed to exceed the abilities from Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie's connections. "...Is it...because of how close I tried to get to you? Is our bond...much stronger than I think?"
Sora brought a hand to his chin in thought, wondering if that might be true himself. "Well...I guess that's...possible," he said. "My connections with everyone I meet is pretty strong. But with your abilities with the Keyblade, it's kind of hard to know how your Harmony Links truly work."
"Right...So many questions, but not enough answers," Twilight mumbled. "I guess I'll have to keep experimenting with these links. Especially with yours since it loves to activate itself without my say so."
Sora chuckled at the alicorn's playful ire. After resting long enough, the group continued through the heavenly realm of Olympus to help Hercules stop the other three Titans. Though with how huge this realm was, it was hard to tell where the Titans were despite how tall they were. Their search was always halted when Heartless barred they way, appearing in some of the wide open spots along the long and winding pathway. It seemed like the gods of Olympus weren't even safe from a Heartless invasion, but they seemed capable of protecting themselves if Titans weren't the least of their concerns. It was a shame that Twilight couldn't observe the physical architecture and the vast sea of clouds beyond the structures of this realm for long, but this would definitely intrigue her friends when they returned home.
Passing through the buildings and climbing up winding paths and staircases, they eventually reached what appeared to be the peak of Olympus. They could hear something going on at the top, catching a glimpse of what appeared to be splashes of magma and freezing mist in the air. The top was several hundred yards away from where they were looking up, and the way that would help them get up there seemed to be broken by some strange gravity field. Bits of debris floated around, though whether it was part of a lift or a magic stairway was beyond them.
"Gawrsh. How are we supposed to get up there?" Goofy asked.
"I could fly us up there, but if the other Titans are already up there, I don't know if they'll try to shoot us all down," Twilight said.
Sora glanced around for anyplace he can run or jump up to. There was a ledge up on the mountainous spire, but with the clouds all over the lower half of it, he doubted he could run up it without losing his footing. Above, there was a floating isle, which had to have some purpose with traversing from the level they were at up to it. He had an idea to get up there with all the debris floating around.
"I think I can get up there fine on my own," Sora said. "Race ya to the top!"
Twilight was about to ask what he meant, only to watch the wielder jumped high, bounding off of the debris at lightning speed to the nearest ledge. "Oh. I see," Twilight mumbled. "Sometimes, I forget just how athletic he is when he's not a pony."
"Or he's showing off," Donald said.
Donald and Goofy hopped back on Twilight's back, given a lift as the alicorn flew on ahead. She reached the top, and as she waited for Sora to catch up, she, Donald, and Goofy gasped at what they saw. Behind the gold gates, inside the huge circular "room", they saw Hades watching the remaining three Titans defeating the gods. The Greek gods had a bit of a glow to them, emphasizing their godly might, though most of them were chained up and watched helplessly as the Ice and Lava Titan released their respective element's breaths to encase one god in hardened molten rock while the Wind Titan silently watched its brethren work. That very god was none other than Zeus, the leader of the Greek pantheon and Hercules's father.
If the Rock Titan was scary enough on its own by its appearance, the other three Titans were even more foreboding in Twilight's eyes. The Ice Titan was almost humanoid like the Rock Titan, although its was much skinnier with its ice body, sharper, jagged spikes of ice along its limbs, back, and head, and her fur was already standing on end with chills from the below freezing temperatures of its icy breath. Aqua's magical surge had nothing on a Titan embodying the power of ice. The Lava Titan was an amorphous blob of liquid hot magma, its head and upper torso hardened with lava rock while its lower half was a dangerously hot gelatinous liquid as it moves by slithering its body much like the Smooze Discord invited to the Gala a couple years ago. And the Wind Titan was just a massive black tornado with glowing red eyes, but with how dangerous something like a tornado was, the one hundred plus miles per hour winds it must create naturally can pull a mountain a fraction of the size of the one the group climbed to reach Olympus.
Zeus grunted as he struggled to break free from the rising molten pillar he was trapped in, but he was helpless as it kept rising over his contained body. "I swear to you, Hades, when I get out of th-" Zeus said, only for the last of his words to be muffled as his head was finally engulfed in quickly cooled magma.
Hades created a throne with his powers as it appeared in a shroud of dark smoke, letting out a grunt as he sat down in it with a satisfied grin. "Nope. I'm the one giving orders now, bolt boy," he said as he admired the prison he set Zeus in.
Sora reached the top, just barely witnessing the aftermath of Zeus's imprisonment. "Damn. Come on, guys!"
As the group of four rushed into the gate, Hercules arrived in the nick of time as well, riding in on Pegasus's back as his loyal steed and friend reached the apex of Olympus. "Don't get too comfortable, Hades!"
The god of the Underworld blanched, leaning forward in his seat as he turned to where Hercules's voice came from. He snarled in fury as the muscular wonder boy was about to interfere with his plans once more.
"We're gonna stop you!" Grunting, Hades quickly looked to the gates, growing even more furious seeing someone far worse than Hercules here to foil his plans, along with his meddling friends and their plus one.
Hercules had Pegasus swoop them down, pulling out his sword from its sheath attached to his hip, then slashed through the chains keeping the other gods bound. They quickly escaped to grab their weapons to help fend off the three Titans, praising Hercules for his rescue. Hades was not happy in the slightest, his growls turning into frustrated shouting as his fiery blue hair and gray skin turned into a raging red of an inferno.
"Don't just stand there!" Hades yelled at the Titans, then pointed to the heroes intruding on his triumph. "Get them, you idiots!"
The three Titans slowly stomped closer, or hovered closer in the Wind Titan's case. Twilight glanced at the Titans nervously, unsure which one would strike first and wondering how they lucked out defeating the Rock Titan.
"Ok, this is starting to not seem like a good idea," she said. "Which other Titan did you recall fighting again?"
"Just Frosty," Sora said, mentioning the Ice Titan in between the other two.
"Oh, great. So how are we supposed to fight a giant blob made out of molten magma and a giant tornado from Tarterus!?" Twilight exclaimed.
Hercules landed next to the group after jumping off Pegasus, then slowly rose back on his feet with a crack of his knuckles. "We take them on together," he said confidently.
Twilight didn't doubt the hero's godlike strength, but she doubted his fists would make any dents to a whirling tornado creature and not get burned from frostbite on the Ice Titan or the thousands of degrees of heat from the Lava Titan. The Wind Titan stayed in the background, creating a massive barrier of dangerous winds to keep them trapped on the peak of the realm. Luckily, Pegasus managed to break away from the harsh twister that appeared before he got sucked in. That only left the Ice and Lava Titans as they towered over the heroes, with the pillar of quickly cooled magma Zeus was trapped in just being tall enough to climb and reach their heights.
Both Titans roared as they unleashed an ice beam and a surge of lava from their respective mouths in a line toward them. The group jumped away and split up, Sora and Hercules dodging to the right while Twilight, Donald, and Goofy went left. Twilight kept her wings curled against her sides, not wanting to get caught in the winds keeping them trapped if she attempted to fly. Sora and Hercules charged first, heading straight for the Lava Titan while Twilight, Donald and Goofy ran toward the Ice Titan. Sora exchanged his Keyblade with the Keyblade of Generosity, firing Blizzaga spells right in his Titan's face. The explosion of ice shards made the Titan roar in pain and retaliate by slamming its lava-dripping fist down on the wielder. With the Titans as big as they are, they were just as slow, the Lava Titan missing Sora despite releasing a puddle of lava upon impact. Hercules lifted a huge chunk of the ground beneath him and chucked it at the Titan while it was distracted by Sora. It struck the Titan's face, making it reel back and focus on the mortal god.
Twilight and Donald combined their Firaga spells at the Ice Titan, making it shriek from its elemental weakness. Swiping its hand, the Ice Titan retaliated by launching icicles down on the trio. Goofy quickly stood in front of the two mages, his shield held up to block the icy projectiles. They scattered as another beam of ice came straight for them, but Twilight continued charging forward, heading for the pillar of molten rock. It seemed impossible for someone like her to climb on hoof, but if Sora was able to run up solid rock walls, she was willing to give it a try. She leapt up and continued running as her hooves touched the hardened rock, her momentum never slowing as she continued galloping and ascending up the pillar without issue. As soon as she reached the top, she leapt away from the Ice Titan's hands trying to slam her into the magma stalagmite, jumping toward its face, coated her Keyblade in Fire magic, and began slashing away. Each fiery smack made the Ice Titan roar in pain as its head flicked in the direction of each blow.
The Wind Titan didn't just stand idly by while keeping its whirlwind barricade up. Two whirlwind-like arms extended from its body, blowing strong winds on the battlefield that knocked the two wielders out of the air, pushing them back against the gate. The others were pushed back and struggled against the powerful gust of wind, Sora and Twilight landing on their feet and joining their friends to fight back against the wind. The Wind Titan stopped and the Ice and Lava Titans attacked again from a distance. Sora and Twilight glanced at each other and gave a small nod before charging forward again.
They avoided the ice beam and spewing lava, crossing over to face the other Titan while activating their respective abilities of the Element of Generosity. Sora's Keyblade transformed into a rapier while the diamond on Twilight's chain glowed, both wielders fluidly dancing and weaving past the two Titans' ice and fire projectiles. The diamond shards around Sora sparked with flames as he twirled around the icicles flying toward him, retaliating by firing Fire spells with each swing and thrust he made at the air with his blade while flaming shockwaves melted nearby ice shards about to strike him. The Ice Titan brought its hand up to block the magic spells, only to roar as the small fireballs exploded and singed its hand, making it flinch as the other Fire spells struck its jaw. Twilight made elegant slashes while firing a flurry of Blizzard spells at the Lava Titan, prancing away from lava rocks and surging lava aimed at her. While jumping away from another salvo of lava with a twirl, she spotted Hercules ready to hurl another boulder. As soon as the demigod threw the boulder after giving it a few spins, Twilight cast her Keyblade in a veil of ice, leapt up to it, and gave the rock a small tap with the tip of her blade. Ice quickly enshrouded the boulder, turning it into a massive ice ball. The Lava Titan was too slow to react, surprised by how quick the ice surrounded the boulder, getting smacked in the face with a roar as the boulder exploded into a small hailstorm, steam pouring from its body from the chilly ice rocks raining over its body.
As the two Titans staggered from their elemental weaknesses, Sora and Twilight ran toward the pillar, Sora shifting his rapier into his diamond arm blades and skates. They both fired a Blizzard spell, creating a spiral rail of ice around the pillar as they twisted the magic ice around it, then leapt on their rails and grinded upward. The two Titans recovered, watching the two wielders grinding up their crafted spiral rails, but each of their trails' ends weren't who they expected to encounter. Sora and Twilight nodded as they circled around each other, then leapt off and dove toward the Titans: Sora at the Lava Titan, and Twilight at the Ice Titan. They rapidly spun the moment they jumped off their rails, the crown on Twilight's keychain glowing as she mimicked Sora along with the magical energy that he radiated from the diamond shards circling him. Ice magic built up around Sora, but Fire magic came from Twilight. They both slashed their Titans in quick succession with shockwaves of elemental energy blasting the Titans' faces along with their blades connections. After several pulses, they released one final shockwave of pure light, the force pushing the Ice and Lava Titans back farther than even Hercules could manage to if he were alone.
Sora and Twilight flew back from the explosive force, performing an elegant, backwards dive back toward the hardened lava rock pillar and each other. Just as they were about to pass each other, they hooked their arm/foreleg together, stopping midair and twirling together as they fell, then released each other as they reached the icy spiral rails they rode on, slowly grinding back to the ground in time with the two Titans' falling over from the powerful blast of magic. Both Titans were dazed and down for the count, Sora and Twilight hopping off the rails with a finishing pose like they performed an aerial duet for an audience. Hercules, Donald, and Goofy were highly impressed, but Hades just stared blankly after witnessing the display.
"What is this, a dinner theater?" Hades questioned. "This kid just keeps getting more aggravating by the minute."
"That's two down," Sora said as he shifted back to normal, then faced the Wind Titan along with Twilight. "One more to go."
The Wind Titan hovered forward, creating a storm of clouds that covered the arena up to the dazed Ice and Lava Titans' heads. Sora, Donald, Goofy, Twilight, and Hercules jumped up through a small hole in the clouds before it closed up, now standing on the clouds in the middle of the intense storm created by the last Titan. The Wind Titan twisted around until it was upside down, its funnel spewing out smoke while launching out huge pieces of marble buildings and pillars at the group. Yelping in surprise, everyone scattered to avoid getting rammed into the speeding pieces of heavy debris.
"Ok, anypony have any ideas to try and hurt a massive tornado!?" Twilight screeched, letting out a yelp as she ducked under a piece of what seemed to have been part of a stone archway. "I mean, pegasi can create a small cyclone alone with a strong amount of wing power, but reversing this Titan's wind speed would take every single pegasus in Equestria to cancel it out! Maybe even more!"
"We'll figure something out!" Hercules said.
They didn't have much time to figure out a plan when the Wind Titan formed two large funnels and began sucking the group inside. With nothing to grasp onto, the Titan sucked Sora and Twilight inside its body, then shot them both up high into the air, higher than any other point in all of Olympus. The two flailed about thanks to the spiraling winds within the Titan, only finally righting themselves as they began to fall back down. While their friends and Hercules were spared, they were far from safe as the Wind Titan tilted back, staring up at them, and using its lower funnel, attached it to the dazed Ice and Lava Titans, gathering fire and ice magic from its fellow Titans and unleashed waves of icicles, fireballs, and debris with two arm-like funnels. Sora and Twilight weaved around as they freefell, dodging the onslaught of projectiles, seeing that they were a much bigger threat to the Wind Titan than the demigod down on the cloudy ground he, Donald, and Goofy were still standing on.
"Sora, we're gonna get sucked inside it again at this rate!" Twilight shouted, avoiding getting singed by a barrage of fireballs heading their way.
"Then let's just bash the wind out of it!" Sora said, diving down and picking up speed.
Flabbergasted by Sora's plan, she watched him fall faster, then slammed his Keyblade down between the Wind Titan's eyes. To the alicorn's surprise, she saw Sora actually strike the Titan made of pure wind, stunning it as the impact on its face left a small shockwave in his wake. Letting out a howling roar, the Titan's tornado body spun rapidly, shifting the very gravity around the two Keyblade wielder, causing them to float around the height where the Titan's eyes were. The Titan shook its body, then bloated out his body, shoving Sora back across the enormous battlefield of clouds. More debris appeared as it spun the chunks of Greek architecture around with its might, creating unintentional footholds for the two wielders.
Sora and Twilight landed on a piece of debris, stuck floating high above the ground. The Wind Titan began firing more debris at the two, causing them both to hop across the floating pieces to avoid getting struck. Sora made a dash for the Titan, moving at the same quick speed Twilight saw when he leapt across the debris back down below the peak earlier. He got up in the Titan's face and began slashing away, making it stagger and wince in pain. Snapping out of her daze, Twilight helped by aiming herself on one side of the debris she stopped on, giving it a harsh kick to send it flying at the Wind Titan.
"Sora, heads up!" she called out, getting his attention to warn him. Sora pushed off the cyclone giant, flipping backward and watched a piece of a column struck and broke on the TItan's face. Irritated, the Wind Titan began to shrink and disappeared into the clouds, creating a whirlwind that spun the debris around them. Twilight regrouped with Sora as they hovered back to back, searching around for the Titan. "Where'd it go!?"
"I don't know, but I know that blowhard didn't just run away!" Sora said. The Wind Titan finally reappeared, hovering over the Lava Titan out in the distance. Its cyclone body began glowing red, raising its two funnel arms up and sucked up the lava from its fallen brethren, launching fireballs up in the air to rain down on Sora and Twilight. "Raining fire! Move!"
They pushed off each other to avoid the raining fireballs heading straight for them. As soon as they reached a piece of debris to get their bearings, the Wind Titan shrank back down and reappeared over the Ice Titan, its body now glowing a faint blue and began firing icicles at the wielders. Sora and Twilight quickly ducked behind their floating footholds to avoid the ice projectiles.
"I think I'd rather fight the other three Titans over this one again," Twilight mumbled to herself.
The Wind Titan finally ceased its elemental firing, reappearing in the center of the field, then sent the debris orbiting in its wind at blinding speed, knocking Sora and Twilight off their temporary perches and almost smacking them away like gnats. Having enough of getting caught in the storm, Sora summoned the Keyblade of Loyalty and decided to fight this stormy Titan with a storm of his own. Formchanging the blade into a spear, he quickly zipped off at lightning speed, surprising the Wind Titan. Before it could even blink, Sora was already in its face and began thrusting the lightning spear between its eyes, discharging electric shocks throughout the Wind Titan. It tried to push the wielder back, but his enhanced speed helped him charge back in seconds with a swift flurry of shocking stabs.
The Wind Titan couldn't even escape when ducking into the clouds to move over the Ice and Lava Titans. Sora dashed off toward it, even faster in this Formchange, before it could try to shoot any fireballs or icicles at him. A trail of electric sparks were left in his wake as he chased after the Titan. Hades's eye twitched as he watched the Keyblade wielder who he thought was a pushover upon first meeting him making short work out of all the Titans he set free to take over Olympus as his domain to rule. Sora unleashed a powerful Thundaja spell down in the Wind Titan's funnel, making it shudder and jolt erratically with a shocked expression in its eyes. The Titan let out a low groan, losing control of its storm and the windy gravity field it created, allowing Sora and Twilight to fall back down to the ground.
The weather was cleared, leaving Hades fuming mad with a yell. "How strong is this kid!? This little interfering yutz just keeps giving me a worse migraine than Wonder Boy!"
Donald, Goofy, and Hercules ran up to Sora and Twilight after they touched down. "Way to go, you two!" Goofy praised.
"Well, Sora kind of did all the work," Twilight admitted.
The celebration didn't last long when they heard groans coming from the Titans. "I don't think we're done yet, guys," Hercules said.
The Ice and Lava Titans woke back up, shaking away the cobwebs as they got back up while the Wind Titan did the same from the electric shocks that dazed it. The group readied themselves for another round, only to hear another familiar roar come from their left. From the clouds came the Rock Titan, somehow managing to climb back up after its fall and landing on the peak with an earth-shuddering thud.
"Uh oh. All four of them are together," Donald said. "This is bad."
Hades calmed down slightly, letting out a sinister chuckle. "What was I even worried about? There's no chance all of them can fight all four of the Titans together."
"Uhh, I think we can take them all?" Sora said sheepishly.
"Just because we 'outnumber' them doesn't mean they still can't crush us!" Twilight exclaimed.
As the Titans surrounded them, looming over the heroes, Hercules glanced at the pillar where his father was imprisoned. "Then we'll just add one more to our numbers."
The demigod ran toward the hardened magma pillar, leaping up to the top, to Hades's shock. Hercules dug his fingers in the tough rock, using his strength to crack through it until he ripped it open wide enough to free Zeus. Zeus let out a gasp, shaking off the bits of lava rock off his body. Hades regretted staying on the sidelines while Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Twilight cheered for the king of the Greek god pantheon's freedom.
"Thank you, my boy," Zeus said to Hercules, placing his hands on his son's shoulders with a look of pride. The Titans looked terrified seeing the lightning bolt hurler freed, even more so when the god pulled out several lightning bolts from his prison. "Now, watch your old man work!"
"Is he...actually holding REAL lightning bolts in his hands?" Twilight asked. She got her answer when Zeus gave a few hard overhand throws with his bolts at the Titans. The javelin lightning bolts struck each Titan, causing them to stagger as the impact exploded and brought them more pain than what the wielders managed to do. Twilight's jaw dropped from the amount of power Zeus's bolts had compared to lightning that's made in the weather factory back in Equestria. "...Yup. Those are definitely real."
The Titans slowly began to retreat, trying to cover their bodies from anymore lightning bolts with their limbs. The Wind Titan lagged behind, unable to weave away without any proper limbs to protect itself. Hercules had an idea to get rid of them once and for all, running after the Titans, and surprising the alicorn more than how they managed to best all four Titans, he managed to grab the Wind Titan's "feet", tightening his hold, and used the Titan like a whip toward the other fleeing Titans. The Wind Titan began to suck up the other three Titans into its funnel, unable to stop itself as it trapped its brethren inside itself, even all the liquid magma that made up the Lava Titan's lower body. Once they were all contained inside the wind Titan, Hercules spun around, gaining momentum until finally letting go, hurling all four Titans out of Olympus and into the stratosphere until they suddenly blew up in a massive explosion in the stars.
Zeus let out a laugh, giving Hercules a high five for the incredible throw and destroying the Titans. Hades grit his teeth, scowling bitterly at his most hated enemy and brother, then glanced at Sora and his friends as they celebrated their victory as well.
"All these years, planning for this day, and you yutzes just had to prove the Fates right!" Hades exclaimed as he marched toward the visitors. "Pain and Panic failed to make Wonder Boy mortal enough to kill, and any attempt I made to destroy Greece with my monsters, you three had to show up and save the day, and you bring the little blueberry horse with you to foil my two decades long plan! I did not get this far to get ridiculed by Zeusy high and mighty, his little sunspot, a trio of clowns, and a midget equine abomination dreamed up by a little girl!"
Hades burst into furious red flames after shouting the last of his tirade, glaring intensely at them. "Just give it up, Hades. You'll never win with Herc around," Sora said.
"Or us!" Donald added.
Hades growled, creating fireballs in his hands. "You know what? I'm just going to kill the whole lot of you! If I can't kill Hercules, I can sure as all of Tarterus end your mortal-!"
Twilight teleported behind Hades, then used Waterga to drench the lord of the Underworld, putting out his fire as he sputtered in surprise. "We're done playing games with you, Hades!" Twilight said. The god turned around, but as he tried to light himself back on fire, the alicorn froze his body in a block of ice with Blizzaga, leaving his head exposed as his soaked body helped him freeze faster. "We just came here to ask you something important, but freeing those Titans and wreaking havoc on this world became our top priority! Now, you are going to answer our question, then you're heading straight back to the pits of Tarterus - er, the Underworld, where you belong!"
Hades huffed bitterly, unable to move his limbs while his body tried to warm up enough to ignite his fiery hair. "Fine. Go ahead. Interrogate me, then leave me with whatever shred of dignity I have left."
"Good. Now tell us: Do you know anything about the Black Box?" Twilight questioned.
"A black b-?" Hades let out an annoyed grunt, rolling his eyes before giving the alicorn a blank stare. "You've gotta be kidding me. You're trying to find it, too?"
"Uhh, what does that mean?" Goofy asked.
"You told someone else about it?" Sora questioned as he walked around the partially frozen god. "Who did you-? Hey, hold on a second. Back in Thebes, I ran into Maleficent and Pete." He then gasped and pointed at Hades, putting the pieces together. "You told them about the Black Box!"
Donald squawked in shock while Goofy let out a gasp. "Yeah, I told them about it. It's not like they'll be able to find it down there," Hades said nonchalantly.
"That chest has something to do with the Keyblade wielders and the Keyblade War in the past!" Twilight exclaimed. "If you didn't knock us off the mountain, we could have found out about its location sooner!"
"What's this about a box you're looking for?" Zeus asked as he and Hercules stepped closer in curiosity.
"Oh great," Hades grumbled.
Zeus eyed Hades, looking at him like he was disappointed in the god of the Underworld after almost being forcible trapped in magma rock. "Hades, are you trying to get mortals to find that box we don't want ANYONE to find and open?" he questioned. "Is this another scheme you've got 'planned' to try to overthrow me and destroy Olympus?"
"...Do I look like I care about who finds it?" Hades questioned back. "The mortals down below always get themselves killed, and I'd rather not have to deal with their souls backing up my 'realm' if they release all the curses trapped inside Pandora's Box. At least I got sweet ol' Maleficent and her minion to go on a wild goose chase searching for it."
Confused, Sora and Twilight looked at each other. "'Pandora's Box'?" Twilight asked.
"'Curses'?" Sora asked as well, then looked back at Hades. "That...doesn't sound like what we're searching for. The Black Box we're looking for has something to do with the Keyblade War a thousand years ago."
"Did you say 'Keyblade War'?" Zeus asked. Both wielders turned to the king of Olympus, even Hercules seemed curious about his father's question. Zeus then began to chuckle and shake his head in amusement. "It's been so long since I've last heard that war being mentioned. No wonder those swords of yours looked familiar."
Startled, Sora, Donald, Goofy, Twilight, and even Hercules balked in surprise. "Huh!? Y-You know about the Keyblade War!?" Sora exclaimed.
"Sure have. We gods have been around for eons," Zeus said, then laughed as he draped an arm over Hercules, giving his son a tight, one-armed hug. "Except for Hercules. He's still a baby compared to us, but give him a few millennia and he'll be as tall as his old man!"
"You mean you've WITNESSED the Keyblade War AND know about the Black Box!?" Twilight asked, flying up to the tall god and grasped his shoulders in her hooves, smooshing her snout against his nose. In her eagerness to find answers, she realized she was up close and personal to the lightning throwing god, someone who's much more powerful than herself, or even Celestia and Luna combined. Giggling sheepishly, Twilight backed away nervously with an awkward grin. "Sorry."
Instead of being offended, Zeus laughed and pinched Twilight's cheek, making her squeak in surprise. "Isn't she adorable?" Zeus asked with another laugh, flustering Twilight as she was called adorable by a god. "Hey, Hades, are these really the equine creatures you mentioned in beyond the other side of the Underworld you watch over? How can you hate them!? Look at those big eyes!"
Hades rolled his eyes again with another annoyed grunt. "Please, someone throw me back in the River of Styx. I'd rather drown in that than hear my brother gush over Miss Bubblegum Princess," he mumbled.
As hilarious as it was seeing Zeus admiring Twilight like she was a pet, they needed some more answers from Zeus about the Keyblade War. "Uhh, Zeus, sir? I know Twilight's cute and all, but can we get back to why we're here?" he asked.
"Hmm? Oh! Right. The war." Zeus cleared his throat as he got back on topic. "Well, we've seen just about everything here and beyond this world, but that war didn't happen a thousand years ago; it happened when I was just a lad eons ago."
Twilight's wings stopped flapping as she had cringed in shock, dropping to the ground with a thud. "W-W-What!? D-Did you say...'eons'!? As in, MORE than a millennia!?"
Sora, Donald, and Goofy were just as startled as Zeus nodded in confirmation. "Yup. Eons. Many, many years back. And it was a tragedy of a war," Zeus said. "Olympus wasn't even a simple thought when it happened. Many young children a bit younger than you-" He pointed to Sora. "-with those strange key swords got into such a huge scuffle, which resulted in a disastrous war that left no survivors and destroying the war grounds to the point where no life exists anymore."
"The Keyblade Graveyard," Sora mumbled, but continued listening to Zeus's tale.
"There were some other worlds beyond where we built Olympus, but we focused more on what we would call our home," the god continued. "I'm not even sure if there was anyone who survived, but I doubted that with so much damage inflicted upon it. Over what, I'm not really sure, but it must have been something really important to them all if the war was that deadly. I wouldn't even allow Ares to start up a war that caused such a genocide that would kill off every single creature and plant on the face of the whole planet." He sighed and gazed upward, looking up at the stars that could be visible in the bright landscape of Olympus. "I really hope some of them are out there just like we were."
Zeus's story puzzled Sora as he and the others sans Hades looked up at the stars in the sky. As he looked up at the stars, his mind flashed back to where he had that strange out of body experience several years ago, where he saw what he believed was a repressed memory from Kairi when her heart was still united with his.
A younger teenage Sora floated in the library of the castle in what was then known as Hollow Bastion. He had no idea what was going on when his vision suddenly went white, but down below, he saw two people near the staircase leading to the upper floor: and elderly woman sitting in a chair, and a very young Kairi who was only a few years old. The woman, who must have been Kairi's grandmother, smiled at her granddaughter, knowing what she was about to ask and began telling her a story.
"Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light," she began. "Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people’s hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived...in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It’s the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That’s why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return. So, listen, child. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away. Do you understand, Kairi?
As Sora thought back to that story, which stuck with him like it must have with Kairi, if she still remembered it. That story was more than just a fairytale: it had to have been the result of the Keyblade War. Wielders fought against each other for Kingdom Hearts, spreading darkness to what the Keyblade Graveyard used to be, and with no survivors. But after learning Zeus knew about this when he was a child, the light within the hearts of children back then rebuilt the world, only for every world that they know now to be scattered throughout the galaxy. It was possible that Zeus might have been one of those children, possibly not a god before Olympus was created, but that still left a lot of questions for the god as to what else he might have known before the Keyblade War began.
He was snapped out of his thoughts when he and the others heard sizzling nearby. Hades heated himself back up, his flaming hair returning as he turned red and grunted as he created a fiery explosion in his hands. He shattered the icy block, grumbling in irritation as he calmed back down to his normal ashy gray skin tone and blue hair, but still fuming in anger.
"Why can I never win?" Hades mumbled. "Well, you all got your answers. I'm gonna just sulk in my 'lair', see if I can find another way of making short work of Wonder Boy and my overly energetic brother."
Just before he could slink off past the gates, Hercules called out to him. "Oh, Hades, one more thing." The god of the Underworld let out a heavy sigh and turned his head, only to be met with a hard sucker punch in the face. Hades grunted as he fell on his back, rubbing his sore jaw as he glared at Hercules. The demigod smirked at him with his hands at his hips, mocking him. "That one's for trying to wreck Thebes."
Hades slowly got back up while still rubbing his sore face, glaring spitefully at Hercules. "You'll pay for this! All of you!" he shouted, creating a veil of clouds to teleport himself back to the Underworld. "I have a very, VERY long memory!" Zeus rolled his eyes, pulling out another lightning bolt, then gave it a light toss at Hades while he still ranted and before he transported away completely. "I can still dunk your little Nut-Meg in a river of de-AAAAH!"
Everyone heard the zap as Hades screamed in pain, making the visitors wince at the shocking sound. "Ouch. That's got to hurt worse than a punch in the face," Twilight grimaced.
"Ah, Hades has taken much worse from me," Zeus said. "I'll have to keep a close eye on him if he acts like a spoiled brat."
"That's an understatement after all he's done back in Thebes," Donald said.
"Let's just hope he stays in the Underworld and not cause anymore trouble," Goofy added.
"I think my son can handle him just fine on his own," Zeus said. He then looked down at his son, feeling pride well in his heart. "Hercules, my son, I am so proud of you. I expected the worse when Hades had his minions kidnap you and left you among the mortals, but you've accomplished so much and worked hard to get to where you are now. Your mother and I want to make up for all those years we've missed as we had no choice but to watch you grow up down below."
Hercules seemed like he wanted that very much, but his gaze drifted off to the entry gates to Olympus far below where they stood. "...That does sound great, father," he said. He looked back at Zeus, but his father noticed the troubled look on his son's face. "But...Everyone needs me down there...Even..."
Zeus was a bit disappointed, but he smiled, patting his son's shoulder. "Oh, don't worry, son. I understand," he said. "You're a man now. You go and be the hero Greece needs." Both father and son hugged each other, Hercules thankful for his father's approval to let him stay on Earth. "Just promise you'll come and visit often. You're welcome to come and go as you please."
"I will," Hercules said as the two parted. "As soon as Thebes is rebuilt, I'll come back for a visit."
"I'll hold you to that promise, or I'll throw a bolt down to remind you!" Zeus warned with a playful laugh.
Hercules nodded, then hurried to make his way back to the entrance of Olympus. "So, he's going to be leaving his home?" Goofy asked.
"I think I know why he's going back," Sora said with a grin, leaning back slightly with his arms behind his head. "He can see his family anytime he wants, but I don't think his life would be the same without Meg by his side."
"Ah. Just like you are with Kairi," Donald teased with a snicker.
Sora sighed, but he didn't deny it. "Yeah, I guess," he said. Glancing back at Zeus, they almost forgot to know if the god knew anything about the Black Box. "So, Zeus, if you knew about the Keyblade War, do you know anything about the Black Box we're searching for?"
"Hmmm...I don't know of any other boxes. Sorry," Zeus apologized. "Unless it's Pandora's Box, I highly suggest you not find it. And I hope Hades's friends don't find it either. Who knows what'll happen if that box is opened up."
The group sighed dejectedly. "Well, we might have hit a dead end on the Black Box, but at least someone who has existed long enough to know how long ago the Keyblade War actually happened," Twilight said, still reeling from how much of a huge time frame there was from when they thought it had been for so long. "Aqua's not going to like hearing this."
"Let's just head back and tell everyone what news we did manage to get," Sora said. "Good luck with Olympus, Zeus."
"Thanks for all your help, 'junior heroes'," Zeus said with a wave.
He made Sora, Donald, and Goofy flinch, making the trio look back at the god. Zeus grinned and pointed up with his thumb, getting them all to look up at the sky. In the stars, they saw the outlines of three constellations forming, creating images of Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Twilight looked up, her jaw dropping as she finally sees the constellations of the trio that Sora mentioned before. She looked back at her friends, who were ecstatic to be recognized by the king of the Olympian gods, and that their stars are up in their world's sky. Shaking her head with an annoyed sigh, she walked on ahead, using her magic to drag Sora, Donald, and Goofy out of Olympus and back to the Gummi ship.
Back in Thebes, Maleficent waited impatiently while Pete dug into the ground up in a garden somewhere up in the large city. Pete had already dug up a few holes, searching for the box Hades pointed them out to, and finding nothing so far.
"Are you sure this box with the Book of Prophecies is for reals?" Pete questioned while panting heavily, his arms pulling apart dirt and moving around stone walkways as he continued digging for their prize. "I think that dingbat in black was pulling your leg."
"Be quiet and dig, you imbecile," Maleficent scolded, tapping her fingers against her staff. "I must find the Book of Prophecies and make it my own. "His was the only clue we have. We cannot afford to dismiss it without a thorough investigation."
Pete shook his head, but kept digging to avoid Maleficent's wrath. "I'm just sayin', a shot in the dark ain't gonna get us any closer to-"
Pete's hand bumped into something hard, interrupting himself as he looked down. "What is it? Have you found something?" Maleficent asked, leaning closer to see what Pete found. "Show it to me at once, fool."
Pete dug what he found out of the dirt and pulled it out, then showed it to Maleficent. Unfortunately, the box wasn't black, but it was purple with black edges, and the latch keeping it closed was in the shape of a skull. "Well, this must be that Pandora's Box Hades mentioned."
Sneering, Maleficent turned away from the box, clearly not the one she was after. "Leave it."
"What? After all that digging?" Pete whined.
"That is not the box which I desire," Maleficent said. "We are finished with this world. Come."
"B-But, w-what about-?" Pete stammered, only to give up with an exhausted sigh. Dropping Pandora's Box back in the hole he was in, Pete climbed out and slumped after Maleficent. "This was a huge waste of time. And now and I need a shower..."
As the duo left, they were unaware that they were being watched by someone standing on a rocky cliff edge overlooking the garden. Xigbar eyed the two disappearing through a portal of darkness, knowing that their search was fruitless.
"...May your heart-"
"Eons!?" Aqua exclaimed. After Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Twilight returned to Equestria, they gathered everyone back in the throne room and relayed what happened to them in Olympus. The news that the Keyblade War happened eons ago rather than only a thousand left so many questions to find the answers to, especially when it involved their unknown ally/enemy from the past, M. "The first Keyblade War happened much further in the past than one thousand!?"
"Jeeze. I guess Keyblade wielders have been around for much longer than all of us thought," Rainbow said.
"No wonder M was vague with his answers for Star Swirl," Terra said. "I'm surprised he's able to see that far in the future."
"And he seems to be traveling back and forth through time between Equestria and...wherever he used to live," Ventus added.
Aqua groaned, smacking her head against the back of her throne in frustration. "Everything in the Land of Departure's library only has mentions of the war, but never an exact time period nor exact details. And Zeus seemed to be pretty vague with how he knew about the Keyblade War as well. He only knew it happened, but he was never a part of it, he wasn't a Keyblade wielder, and has only little knowledge of the worlds behind the world he 'created'."
"So, does that mean...we're all back to square one?" Ocellus asked. Aqua let out a loud, frustrated groan as she slid out of her throne, dropping near the map, then slammed her head against the Cutie Map. "...I'll take that as a yes."
"Ok, so this box wasn't in that world. Why don't we just search every world out there?" Smolder suggested.
"Did you not see how big the Galactic Map is?" Sandbar asked the dragoness. Curious, he lifted his hooves, surprising himself as he can control it just like Aqua had. He expanded the map to show Smolder all the other worlds that were out there. "It'll take forever if all of us go out to each world alone to find the Black Box."
"And did you see how HUGE our world is compared to what it looks like out in space!?" Silverstream added, quickly joining in messing with the Galactic Map and pointed to Equestria. "There's so much more to our world we can't even see from out there! Where's Mt. Aris!?"
"That also means our enemies, the Organization group in those black coats, will have a hard time finding it, too," Gallus said. "So let's just forget about this random box that's been forgotten for thousands and thousands of years and just focus on fighting them."
"You guys aren't ready to even come close to the Organization, let alone fight them," Riku chided. "You six are going to focus on your training. And we need to find that box. If anyone finds it, we have no idea what lies inside and what it could do to everyone throughout the worlds."
While everyone discussed the issues at hand, Sora couldn't help but feel bothered by that story Kairi was told as a child. He looked over at her, the pink alicorn asking Twilight about the Titans she and Sora fought against and all the powerful combinations she performed with Sora. Ever since the two met, he always wondered where she came from, and it was upsetting knowing she was from a whole other, transported away from her family and her real home. Sora knew most of her life in Radiant Garden was a blur, but from that story, he could tell she adored her grandmother and enjoyed all the stories the older woman had to tell her. And that story happened to sound just like the Keyblade War and the result of the worlds being scattered throughout the universe.
"Kairi?" Sora called out, getting his lover's attention. "...Do you remember your grandma?"
His question silenced everyone from the strange change in discussion. "My grandma?" Kairi asked. Sora nodded his head, fearing it might be a touchy subject, but the Princess of Heart nodded. "Yeah. A little...Why do you ask?"
"Do you remember that story she told you?" he asked.
Kairi looked down for a moment in deep thought. "I do...It's still fuzzy trying to remember everything else before I wound up on Destiny Islands, but my grandma and her stories I hold dearly."
"What was story, Master Kairi?" Yona asked.
"Ooh! Storytime!" Silverstream squealed excitedly.
Everyone was now staring at Kairi, eager to hear this story aside from Aqua, who was still faceplanted into the table in utter frustration. The story was probably the last fond memory she's had with the only family she could ever remember, but thanks to her adoptive parents in Destiny Islands and Sora and Riku, she wasn't without a family. Taking a deep breath, she began to retell the story she's heard, and enjoyed, multiple times over.
"Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light. Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness spread, swallowing the light and many people’s hearts. It covered everything, and the world disappeared." As Kairi told her favorite story, Aqua's ears perked up, then lifted her head up. She vaguely recalled hearing that story before, when she saved Kairi from the Unversed years ago and an elderly woman guided her back inside the castle. "But small fragments of light survived, in the hearts of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world. It’s the world we live in now. But the true light sleeps, deep within the darkness. That’s why the worlds are still scattered, divided from each other. But someday, a door to the innermost darkness will open. And the true light will return. So, listen well. Even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide you. Believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you. Your heart will shine with its power and push the darkness away."
The throne room was silent for a moment after Kairi finished the story. "...Wow. So, the world was peaceful until everypony began fighting over the light," Sandbar summarized. "And...the light in the hearts of foals brought everything back?"
"I'm...not really sure what the last half of that story means, but the first part sounds a lot like the Keyblade War," Aqua mumbled. "The Keyblade War was a deadly battle between light and darkness, and the Keyblade Graveyard was the ending result of that...Xehanort wanted to reenact the Keyblade War, but he did so to gain the powers of Kingdom Hearts and obtain the X-blade..." After much thinking, Aqua's confusion slowly turned into deep concern and utter horror. Looking up at the map, her hooves shakily reaching up and moving the map to the Keyblade Graveyard. The world itself mortified the Young Six as they saw the Keyblades of the fallen wielders in that war long ago, but the revelation Aqua had made her go pale. "...No...Xehanort wouldn't..."
"Uhh, Aqua? What's wrong?" Applejack asked nervously.
"...Xehanort wants to reenact the Keyblade War," she repeated. She glanced at Terra and Ventus, memories of that painful battle and the reveal of Kingdom Hearts hovering over the Keyblade Graveyard and Ventus-Vanitas wielding the X-blade still haunting her. But what was worse was what the Keyblade War left behind, and how Kairi's grandmother's story seemed to be much more than a fairytale, but an ancient legend that depicted the Keyblade War, and if Zeus WAS a survivor of the war, the only way they all still existed was because of the small fragments of light within the children who survived, thus explaining the hundreds upon thousands of different worlds scattered throughout the cosmos. "...He wants to destroy everything with the X-blade and the power of Kingdom Hearts."
Sharp gasps rang out from everyone. "He wants to WHAT!?" Pinkie shrieked.
"Why in Equestria would he be crazy enough to do that!?" Rainbow exclaimed. "He'd get himself killed, too!"
"Didn't seem to matter to him when he took his own heart to possess my body," Terra growled.
"He's definitely gone senile if that's why he's after Kingdom Hearts," Riku added. "All the more reason to put a stop to him and the Organization."
Aqua slowly came back to her senses, her fear changing to ire toward the heartless old man even more. "I need to tell Master Yen Sid," she said, getting everyone's attention. "We still have an advantage: Xehanort's still looking for more members in his New Organization XIII to complete his thirteen seeds of darkness. He needs them, along with seven seeds of light, one from any of us in this very room, in order to completely forge the X-blade."
"But...I think they have thirteen members already, doesn't he?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't think Vexen and Demyx count," Lea chimed in. "He's probably brought them along to put in the reserves. Demyx is lazy and a coward, and Vexen was one of the traitors in Castle Oblivion. So he's still looking for two more potential suckers for his scheme."
"...I hate to say it, but Lea is right," Aqua said. The red unicorn grinned and leaned back against one of the many thrones as Aqua finally praised him for his insight. "For once." And his grin faded into an annoyed scowl, all praise tossed out the window. "We may have some time, but we need to be prepared, and find that chest as soon as possible." Aqua looked at her apprentices. They were definitely not ready for this war, nor an actual fight against a wave of Heartless. She was going to have to hasten their training regiment to at least get them ready to be their replacements should anything happen to all of the more experienced wielders when the next Keyblade War would begin. "I'll inform Master Yen Sid. We'll figure out what to do next when I come back."
Aqua made her leave, her mind reeling from everything they all heard. Before she could head through the portal to the Land of Departure in the castle's library, the Young Six had followed after her.
"Wait, Master Aqua!" Sandbar called out. Surprised, she turned around, wondering why her apprentices wanted to follow her. "What can we do to help?"
"Yeah! We gotta protect our homes from that horrible evil guy!" Silverstream said. "Give us some more stuff to teach us!"
"I'm not letting you six be a part of this," Aqua scolded. "You're all far from ready, and you haven't even started on learning magic spells yet." She could see that they were eager to help, but they were still practicing the basics and working on their stamina and techniques. Sighing, she gave them a soft smile. "I do appreciate you for joining us, but until I believe you're all truly ready, you're going to stick to your training."
"Then we'll start training in the Land of Departure until you're ready for our next lesson," Gallus said.
"Yona want to learn magic soon!" Yona shouted. "So Yona keep training to help Master Aqua!"
"Me too! Magic training! Magic training!" Silverstream chanted.
The other three agreed as well, though Ocellus was still a bit timid with her mumbled response. They all seemed really eager to learn magic so soon, making the blue unicorn shake her head, amused by their energy and excitement.
"We'll get to learning magic spells soon," Aqua promised. "But only when I see some progress in your fighting techniques, then we'll begin magic training."
The group cheered, then ran past Aqua, nearly bowling the mare over as sprinted through the portal. Aqua seemed to regret her decision, because if they did perfect their fighting styles, or at least managed to keep their stances decent and their attacks swift and accurate, then magic training would come sooner than she wished. Far too many questions popped up after today, and they hoped to get some answers without unearthing more questions about the wielders of the past. Even with what Xehanort had to gain if he plans to destroy every single world in his ultimate goal and how long he's actually planned all this.