//------------------------------// // Chapter six // Story: Kingdom Hearts: The Equestrian Chronicles // by ed2481 //------------------------------// Chapter 6 The train coasted to a stop and the group prepared to depart. Riku and Sora led the way followed by Twilight and Rainbow Dash Fluttershy cam next in the center of the group with Applejack trotting alongside her, Rarity and Pinkie brought up the rear. “So let’s go over this one more time, we’re heading towards the land of a group called the changelings. They can mimic the appearance of anything that has roughly the same body type with illusionary magic. Along the way we’re going to be fighting off waves of heartless and nobodies along with whatever else gets in our way. When we finally make it to the changeling lands we’re going to make a B line for the biggest hive and fight our way to this Chrysalis and interrogate her to see if we can find out where this nobody of Luna is.” Twilight said and Sora nodded. “Yeah, it sounds like this is going to be a fun trip.” Sora said with a chuckle. “I can hardly see anything ‘fun’ about this.” Rarity whispered to Pinkie in annoyance. “Rarity you’re only whining because you got shot down by your own scheme.” Pinkie told her with a giggle. “I am a lady Pinkie and I’ll have you know that we do not whine, we politely discuss the implications of our situations and point out those things which we find lacking.” Rarity said icily. “So whining?” Pinkie asked with a grin and Rarity snorted in disdainful annoyance before turning her head away to look at their surroundings. Up in the front Sora Riku and Twilight were completely unaware of the discussion taking place behind them and instead were talking about history. “So you got corrupted and then Sora had to save you?” Twilight asked. “Yeah, it’s not my proudest moment.” Riku confirmed with a sigh. “It’s alright Riku everypony has done something that their not proud of, what matters is what you do to make things right.” Twilight told him with a compassionate smile. “Thank you Twilight.” Riku replied with a slight grin. “Although the worst part was having to be saved by this guy, it took me a full year to get my dignity back.” Riku said punching Sora lightly in the shoulder. “What’re yall talking about anyways?” Applejack asked from behind them, Rainbow Dash was floating upside down above her (Riku’s left eye twitched slightly as he pondered how she flew like that). “The past.” Sora replied with a shrug and a small chuckle at the annoyed look that crossed the cowpony’s face thanks to his enigmatic answer. “Fine don’t tell us, Twi’ll tell us later anyhow.” AJ said with a shrug. The doors of the train opened and revealed that the train platform was deserted. Not only that but what should’ve been a peaceful village on the fringe of the changelings’ land was instead a burned down hovel. Twilight and her friends let out a collective gasp of shock while Riku and Sora surveyed the wreckage with grim expression as they scanned the area for hostiles. “What was the name of this town?” Sora asked Twilight breaking her out of her shocked silence. “M, Mar, Marehood.” Twilight stuttered as she looked over the wreckage. “It doesn’t look too virginal to me.” Riku said idly as he stepped out of the train car and onto the blackened platform. “Was that supposed to be a joke?” Rainbow asked incredulously before flying in front of Riku face and shouting. “This town is destroyed and you’re making JOKES!” “Have you no sense of respect?” Rarity asked coming closer to Riku with her horn glowing. “I oughta buck you back ta Canterlot!” AJ said dangerously. “Would you like the rest of your world to end up like this?” Riku asked them quietly. “Of course we don’t!” Dash said angrily. “Then I suggest that you let Sora and I prevent it, I’ve seen worlds much more powerful than yours reduced to nothing but shadows in less time then has already passed here. So please stop threatening me because we don’t have the time to argue with each other.” Riku continued turning his back on the ponies and striding into the destroyed town. Sora looked after him with a worried expression on his face and sighed. “Sorry girls Riku and I are used to travelling either alone, or with people who have experienced as many horrors as we have so at this point… well when things get grim the best thing to do is where a grin and try not to become depressed.” Sora told them with a small shrug before he started after Riku. “Twi I don’t like this one bit nopony should make a joke outa this.” AJ said darkly. “I agree that it’s in bad taste, but it’s their copping method.” Twilight said with a sigh. “Alright girls let’s move out, stay together and look for threats.” They all exchanged a worried glance before setting off after the two stallions. “I told you that they’d slow us down.” Riku said with a frown. “Trust me they’ll come in handy, besides having locals along should make things much easier for us.” Sora replied with a matching frown as he spotted a dark red bloodstain as they stepped into the destroyed town’s square. “The real question is what caused this.” He added. A sudden roaring filled the air, Riku shot Sora an annoyed glance and both drew their keyblades. “That sounded like a manticore.” Fluttershy said softly. “How much you want to bet that it’s a heartless?” Riku asked Sora. Before Sora could answer a black shape darted out of the shadows and launched itself at him. Sora raised his keyblade up and deflected the shape to the side where it landed perfectly balanced on its feet. It had a lion’s body along with a pair of sinuous black bat wings reared out of its back and a long silvery scorpion’s tail twitched left to right as it looked at them. Dark flowing fur had covered its body and a blood red mane swayed around its head as it snarled at them. Displayed prominently across its chest was the red heartless symbol and glowing yellow eyes took in the heroes with the malevolent gaze of a predator. Two more of the earth pony heartless flanked the beast who began to paw the ground. “Heh and they say I don’t get any pu-” Sora started before Riku hit him in the shoulder. “Sora if you complete that clichéd joke I’m going to throw you into its jaws.” Riku said with a frown. “Do any of you know a manticore’s weaknesses?” Riku asked looking over his shoulder at the mares. Twilight was standing at the ready with her horn glowing, AJ stood beside her preparing to buck, Dash had her hooves up as if she was a boxer. Rarity also had her horn glowing but Sora couldn’t imagine what she was going to do with it. Pinkie had appropriated a small canon… (best not to think about that one) Sora decided. Predictably Fluttershy was cowering behind Pinkie and her canon. “Umm the base of the tail is weak; but please try not to hurt it!” Fluttershy said softly and Riku nodded in acknowledgement. “Sora do you want the cat or the-” Before he could get any farther one of the earth pony heartless charged him forcing Riku to teleport away just before impact, the other three lower level heartless blitzed. Twilight unleashed a wave of force that threw the heartless backwards but it recovered quickly and charged again eager for another attempt. Riku popped out of nowhere and preformed a single downward strike from above the heartless cutting deep into the black fur and mane that ran along its neck before he once again vanished. The heartless let out a voiceless scream of rage and struck out at Twilight who deflected the blow with a magic shield but she was sent reeling by the force of the impact. Sora meanwhile had avoided the deadly blitz and headed straight for the manticore heartless. The massive cat heartless leapt at Sora and unleashed a rapid combo of slashes that Sora managed to block before he responded with a swift keyblade slash that sliced into the manticore’s leg. The heartless’s tail suddenly came swooping down at him and Sora was forced to roll away from it. The tail smashed into the ground where he had been standing and left a foot deep hole before rising up and striking out again forcing Sora to roll again. Applejack met one of the oncoming heartless with a buck that sent it flying into the wreckage of one of the houses but it came running at her again until Pinkie launched a shot of cake towards it. The cake impacted against the heartless’s face rendering it blind, Riku took advantage of this and popped into existence long enough to open up a deep gash that leaked black mist along the beast’s side. It staggered to one side but stayed standing as it glared at AJ. The second oncoming heartless chose Rainbow Dash as its target. Dash took a second to steady her breathing as the black ball of rage charged her, she hovered stock still as it came ever closer. Then just as it was about to ram into her she gave it a wicked uppercut sending its head flying back on its neck. “You call yourself an earth pony? Don’t make me laugh I’ve seen unicorn fillies stronger then you!” Dash shouted at it as she unleashed three rapid blows to the heartless’s cranium. In response the heartless reared up on its reared up on its hind legs and hit Rainbow with a hard strike that sent her tumbling to the ground in front of it. The heartless was about to finish her when Rarity came out of nowhere, a long needle like blade in her magical grasp. She slashed the blade across the heartless’s side drawing a thin black mist. It turned to confront the white unicorn who glared at it. “Leave my friend alone you ruffian!” She shouted at it as her blade slashed at the heartless again drawing more mist, unfortunately her blade wasn’t doing very much damage. On the bright side Rainbow had recovered her wits and charged the heartless from behind delivering a very potent blow… The heartless cried out in pain and turned to confront its assailant. The third and final heartless charged towards Fluttershy and the meek pegasus dived to the side with a terrified squeak. The heartless carried on running and smashed through the remnants of the building before charging at the yellow pony again. Twilight appeared in a flash of purple to defend her friend and unleashed a ball of purple fire at it. To her considerable surprise the heartless just charged through unharmed, although now it was on fire! Twilight cursed mentally before teleporting out of the heartless’s way, and right into the gaze of Fluttershy’s staring eyes. The heartless momentarily stopped its charge and returned her stare unable to look away. To Twilight’s surprise Fluttershy looked away first, she’d never seen that happen, ever! The heartless shook its head before it charged again. The first heartless was almost dead thanks to Riku’s constant chipping away at its defenses and with a final swing of the keyblade Riku decapitated the monster which vanished into a puddle of black goo which quickly evaporated. Sora on the other hand was still having significant difficulty defeating the manticore which had proved to be extremely fast and powerful; Sora now had several scars to attest to this all of which ran red with blood. Sora did a backflip away from the manticore before casting a quick cure spell to erase the worst of the damage and let out a slightly relived breath as his wounds closed. Before he could do anything else the cat jumped forward and let out an incredibly strong roar that sent Sora stumbling backwards. Suddenly a light bulb lit up in Sora’s head. What better way to fight a lion then with a lion? With a small effort of will Sora transformed himself into his lion form which had grown significantly larger then when they’d defeated Scar’s ghost. With a great roar of his own Sora leapt forward and grabbed the heartless in a rolling leonine pounce sending the two of them crashing to the ground as they tried to kill each other. The heartless tried to bite and sting him as Sora slashed deep gouges into its hide with his keyblade while they rolled. After a few seconds the roll ended throwing both lions apart. Sora was the first to his paws but the heartless wasn’t far behind and they circled each other growling dangerously. Rarity and Dash had worked out a rhythm and they were now doing some real damage to the earth pony heartless. Rarity darted forward and swept her blade in a diagonal cut across the heartless’s face causing it to roar in pain and sweep a hoof out wildly catching Rarity across the lower jaw. The unicorn’s teeth clacked together audibly and she was sent stumbling backwards. Dash let out a shout of rage and a bolt of lightning smashed into the heartless sending it to the ground where Dash began to wail on it with all four hooves. After a few seconds of this the heartless vanished into black mist. Twilight and Fluttershy were not faring as well, whatever had happened to Fluttershy when she had challenged the heartless to a stare had affected her negatively and she was now curled up in a ball on the ground whimpering slightly. This had forced Twilight to switch to defensive tactics so she could protect her friend from the oncoming heartless, and of course the heartless was still on fire… It charged again and Twilight created a barrier between herself and it. To her surprise the heartless carried on its charge and smashed through the barrier and would’ve trampled her into the ground if not for Riku’s sudden appearance. The white maned unicorn appeared in a flash of black light and swept out his keyblade in a diagonal cut. The keyblade slammed into the flaming heartless’s side and sent it tumbling to the side. Riku darted after it and smashed his blade through the heartless’s throat in a dark spray of black mist causing the heartless to vanish. Pinkie Pie was having a great time she led the heartless after her on a merry chase around the small square where they were fighting as her mind absently noticed the fact that Sora had transformed into a large brownish black lion. Suddenly Pinkie ducked and AJ’s rear hooves slammed into the heartless’s face sending it tumbling backwards howling in pain. Pinkie let out a giggle before she took a cupcake out of her personal pocket dimension and shot forward to jam it into the dazed heartless’s mouth and down its throat. The Pinkie reverse summersaulted away with a smile on her face as the heartless suddenly exploded in a burst of pink light. “Pinkie what in tarnation was that?” AJ asked in shock. “Oh that? That was just a cupcake from my exploding cupcake recipe, it was supposed to make the customers explode with joy and happiness, it didn’t work…” Pinkie said trailing off with a frown but then that was replaced with her usual grin. “But I got better!” “Pinkie you’re so random.” AJ said with a shake of her head. Sora had the enemy manticore in a death grip with his teeth locked firmly around the other beast’s neck. As it died the heartless began to scream a ghastly sounding cry that sent shivers up Sora’s spine causing him to momentarily release his hold on the manticore which used the opportunity to slice into Sora’s stomach repeatedly with its sharp claws. Sora sprang backwards bleeding heavily and standing with a slight limp. The manticore heartless pounced at him but when its claws swept down to burry themselves in Sora’s back it found that the keyblade master was no longer there. The manticore looked around in confusion its soulless yellow eyes darting around the square searching for its quarry. Sora leapt silently out of a group of shadows once again in pony form and buried his blade deep in the heartless’s neck. The cat let out a loud cry of rage before it vanished into black mist and disappeared. Sora slumped to the ground in slight exhaustion and was met by the unbelieving eyes of six ponies. “You can turn into a lion.” Twilight said flatly. “Yeah, it’s great; except for the hairballs and the desire to play with mice.” Sora replied with a comical grin. Despite herself Twilight burst into laughter and she was soon joined by the rest of her friends except Fluttershy who was still shivering with fear. One look at Fluttershy and they all sobered up. “What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Dash asked softly as she placed a comforting hoof on her friend’s shoulder. “I saw its soul.” Fluttershy said softly. “What?” Dash asked in confusion. “I saw the pony’s soul trapped within that monster screaming and kicking for release, it begged me to help it, to save it, but I couldn’t.” Fluttershy said with a sob before she broke down weeping. Dash rushed forward and grabbed the other Pegasus in a close hug. “It’s okay Flutters it’s okay.” Dash whispered softly as she tried to comfort the other pony. Riku and Sora exchanged glances and the elder keyblade master sighed but closed his eyes resignedly knowing that they wouldn’t move any farther until the situation had been resolved. The rest of the friends joined the hug and together they helped Fluttershy ride out her grief. When she’d dried her eyes Fluttershy turned to Sora and Riku, her eyes were red and puffy from crying but there was a new hardness and determination in them. “We’re making whoever did this pay for it.” She said softly catching her friends off guard; that kind of statement just didn’t match up with the Fluttershy they knew. A small understanding smile touched Riku’s lips and he nodded. “Yes, yes we will Fluttershy you have my word on that.” Riku replied softly. *** “Are you kidding me? They killed them all!” The hole covered figure of Queen Chrysalis raged as she unleashed a wall of green flame that impacted harmlessly off of the wall behind her. “Calm yourself Insect, they cannot comprehend the forces that they are dealing with, and once we’ve eliminated the Key Wielders they will make excellent members of our counsel.” A second voice said. Chrysalis turned to confront the other being in the room. Standing before her was a mare whose fur seemed as black empty as the area beyond the stars. Silvery eyes looked out from behind a lean and noble face while a mane of ethereal white hair flowed down her neck. The mane was not white, instead it was an absence of any real color and the very air around it took on a bleached look. A long sharp horn reared up out of her forehead and her pointed ears twitched slightly as the air flow in the room took on a slightly heavier quality. She was taller than Chrysalis and much more heavily built, almost as big as Celestia but not quite. A pair of black wings speckled with silver rose up out of her back but they were currently at rest tucked carefully against her back. Chrysalis snorted in annoyance at being called an insect but she subsided, she knew that her partner (really master at this point) was far more powerful then she could ever hope to be. Instead Chrysalis sighed and placed a gentle peck on the side of the mare’s muzzle. The mare regarded her with those soul entrapping silvery eyes and gave Chrysalis a small smile. Chrysalis still wasn’t sure when the hugely powerful mare was actually happy but had already decided that she would do anything to stay in her favor. “Thank you my little insect.” The mare crooned and Chrysalis was suddenly swept up in a symphony of joy that almost outweighed how much she despised the fact that she’d been forced into mental servitude; almost, but not quite. “Thank you mistress, I have to go watch my children.” Chrysalis said with a tiny bow to the mare before she walked out of the room. “Hmm… my my my are you actually showing emotion on me now?” Discord mentally asked the mare who laughed lightly. “Discord what a surprise; I suppose that you’re here to offer me advice?” The mare asked with a small smirk. “Why yes I am actually, be careful with Chrysalis she’s chafing against the edges of your spell and she knows very well that it is there. Honestly I’d suggest releasing her, it’ll mean less heartache on your part” Discord replied with a mental shrug. “I’d need a heart first.”