Kingdom Hearts of Harmony

by steel soul

Surprising Turns

Within the Trottingham Tunnels

A dark and desolate feeling permeated the air as Sora, Rainbow Dash, and Trixie made their way down the dark underbelly of Trotingham's underground. With the latter of the three leading the way down the streetlamp guided path, they would slowly but surely make their way towards the underground entrance of the city's capital building. Despite it being abandoned due to the Heartless attack, Sora once again couldn't help but notice just how amazing it looked. It honestly did remind him, in a way, of Traverstown, the place where he had first landed when his island had fallen to darkness.

The only real difference was while the Heartless had nearly been all over that town, nothing looked as though it had been broken. Almost to the point that it felt as if no one lived there at all.

Unlike here, in Trottingham.

Everywhere he looked, he could see signs of ponies dropping things in panic and broken windows. Even with all the destruction the Heartless caused, there were still remnants that there had been life left in these streets, unlike how it was in Traverstown. Though if it was like this here, he couldn't imagine how devastating it looked up above, Especially with Heartless like that Dragon one he and Rainbow Dash had taken down. With the help of Lightning of course. Encountering such monsters should be avoided at all cost for now, what with Trixie in his care.

"Hey, Hero." Rainbow Dash suddenly exclaimed, the mare coming up and trotting alongside him. " You doing good?"

Startled but quickly getting over it, The keyblade wielder smiled softly at the mare, giving her a nod before responding. "Yeah. I'm good, Dash." With her walking beside him now, the stallion couldn't help but notice that the mare was slightly fidgety, almost as if she had something on her mind. Giving his blue friend a nudge, he asked her, "How about you? Did you need something?"

The cyan mare gave him a look of surprise, blinking for a moment before nodding as well, quickly answering him. "I'm fine, Hero! It's just...ya know...ah...I'm just making sure you are okay is all."

"hehe…Thanks, Dash. But I’m fine. Really." He reiterated. "Never better."

That answer seemed to calm her down for a bit, the rainbow maned mare nodding slowly before frowning a bit. Rubbing the back of her head. “Yeah sure…okay…” She had wanted to let it drop, to keep herself from involving herself between him and Fluttershy as per the latter’s request. Still, her curiosity got the best of her as it always did. She was told it was one of her worst traits.

"Alright so…I mean…Geeze…" She was quiet after that for a long while before speaking up again. She had already gained the stallion’s attention, what with him looking at her with his head tilted questioningly. Deciding to push herself forward and get it out of the way, she spoke again. "Listen...I...I'm not trying to pry or anything, ya know. It just...you looked kinda angry when we first set out."

He blinked, slightly taken aback by that statement. "I…What do you mean, Rainbow?"

"Ya know...I mean...before we left, after Shy got pulled away by that colt. You were kinda...frowning...deeply..."

"Oh." he responded with a hesitant tone. "I...I just..." He tried to put it into words but he couldn't find what he wanted to say. Not that he knew what he wanted to say. Deciding on the most reasonable thing, he spoke again. "I was just...worried?"

"Worried?" Rainbow Dash echoed, this time the mare tilting her head at him. "About what?"

He thought about it for a moment. "For her...with that colt.” he sighed as she looked away from Rainbow rubbing the back of his head, almost as if he was ashamed. I mean...I know this is gonna sound bad…or stupid…or both… but...I didn't just like the way he was talking to her..."

Rainbow blinked. Her gaze would shift every which way as if she was trying to solve some kind of difficult math problem before something hitting her like a ton of bricks. Slowly, a sly grin would form on her lips. "You…Are you saying you were… jealous?"

"Jealous?" he repeated, furrowing his brow as his head snapped in her direction. “What do you mean jealous?”

"You said you didn’t like the way he was talking to her.” She answered, repeating his words back to him. “You got jealous."

The Keyblade Wielder just stared at her in disbelief, unable to comprehend what she was saying. "No...no...that's not what I meant...I...I was just worried about her and..." He blushed deeply. "I just...I was worried for her...as a friend!"

"Hey no need to get all defensive, Hero." She said, shaking her head. "It's no big deal. I was just teasing you."

"Well…that wasn’t very funny, Dash." he grumbled, looking away from her. Still his cheeks would be a nice shade of red, and Rainbow couldn’t help but notice it.

The rainbow maned mare snickered, not passing up a chance to tease the Keyblade Wielder. "Still...I gotta say, from an outside point of view, the two of you did look rather comfy sleeping together under that tree last night."

"Huh! You saw that…Wait…We weren't sleeping together!" he protested. "I mean...we were..." The stallion tried to think of a reason why there had been up there like that, but nothing he could think of sounded reasonable…at least not to him.

"Like I said, no need to get defensive about it." She asked. "You two seemed to be enjoying it, after all."

"We weren't! We were just...we were..." he tried to say but he trailed off. Just…what were they doing? It had seemed so natural back then. Just like the time back at her cottage…before she ran away at his touch. But it was nothing! They were just…doing what friends do. “We..were…” He repeated, his tone a little more shaky.

"Just friends?" Rainbow Dash finished for him. "Then why did you get so upset when she left with the colt?"

Sora closed his eyes, trying to calm himself down. "Look...can we please just…It can’t be anything like you think it is…"

The rainbow maned mare couldn’t help but see that the stallion was slightly distressed. “Hey Sora…I didn’t…”

"You two! Over here!"

The voice of Trixie pulled the stallion and mare away from their discussion, even as quite as it was. The stallion of the pair quickly rushed towards the showmare’s side, leaving Rainbow before she could even blink. "Trixie. You okay. What's going on?"

"Yes. Trixie is fine." she said, motioning him to sit with her. She had pressed herself against a corner, her gaze shifting from Sora and back down the large walkway that was around said corner. "Though as of right now, Trixie has good news and she has bad news."

"Is the bad news that you have terrible timing?" Rainbow Dash asked with an annoyed huff.

"No." The blue unicorn replied, raising an eyebrow questioningly at her. "The bad news is that there are a lot of those black monsters that had been chasing Trixie and the boys back when you found us, down this path.”He motioned towards the pathway she had been looking down prior. “Too many to count, if Trixie is being honest."

Sora blinked before slowly inching his way to look down where Trixie had been pointing. His eyes would widen at the sight. They were Shadows. he remembered them as some of the first Heartless he had ever seen. They were weak by themselves but what they lacked in strength, they made up for it in numbers.

Rainbow couldn't help but whistle as she too gazed down the path. "Geeze...Where the hey did they even come from?"

Sora would have to agree with that question. The trio had not seen hide or hair of any Heartless up until now. It couldn't have just been a coincidence that they are all here now of all places. Pulling away from the corner, he turned back towards the showmare. "You said you had good news too?"

"Indeed. Trixie is not without news that is of the utmost importance after all." She spoke in a lavish flare. "Trixie knows that they are blocking the underground entrance to City Hall, the very place that you need to go, is it not?"

Sora frowned. Okay...definitely not a coincidence. He spoke inwardly to himself, tapping a hoof under his chin thoughtfully.

"So we found the place..." the rainbow maned mare stated. "Now what, what do we do?"

"That's...a good question..." Sora exclaimed softly, letting his back rest agaitns the wall. I've fought greater numbers then this, but I didn't have to worry about somebody else when i did so… but now... His gaze fell towards the unicorn showmare and the blue pegasus. He was sure Rainbow could hold her own but Trixie was another matter. Getting her caught up in the fight would be the worst thing possible. He didn’t want to put her in more danger then she already was.

The three were silent for a long while, not quite knowing what to do now that they were at their destination.

It didn’t last long however as one of the three finally spoke up.

"I...Think I have a plan." Rainbow spoke slowly, her gaze falling towards that of the wielder of the keyblade. "And I’m pretty sure you aren’t gonna like it, Sora..."

Giving the mare a frown, he asked, "What? What are you talking about, Rainbow? “What plan won’t I like?"

Standing up on her hooves as she spoke, she gave him the answer to his question."I'm gonna lead them away." she explained. "Then the two of you can go in without too much trouble."

Trixie stared at the mare as if she had grown a second head. "A...Are you a crazy mare?! Do you not see what Trixie is looking at!? Those beast will tear you limb from limb!"

"As if they will even touch me." the rainbow mare stated, giving the mare a smug smirk. "And while they will chasing me, It will give you a chance to get in there and kick the badguys butt, Hero. Just like in my Daring Do books."

“You’re risking your life for a stupid book!” near screamed.

“Hey! It worded for her, it will work for me.” Rainbow Dash defended with a huff. “And Daring Do isn’t stupid.”

Interrupting the two mare’s little spat, the stallion made his own concerns known "Dash…I…I don’t know about this. Maybe I should face them headon…I can take them out and then…”

"No way, Hero" Rainbow Dash shot down. "By the time you are done, whatever they are doing in there will be done and over with, which won’t be good for anypony…whatever it is. My plan has the best shot of success. I can lead these bozos away and you take out the head honcho. You said it yourself. The leader of the Heartless controls them and without then they are just mindless beasts right? So just go in there and kick his butt."

"That's twice you’ve said butt now.” Trixie couldn’t help but respond.

“That's twice you counted me saying it.” Rainbow shot back as her eyes narrowed at the mare. “Whos the weirder one now, huh?”

“Trixie still thinks you are.”

"Rainbow...are you sure about this?" Sora asked, pulling his friend from her argument with the unicorn. "You might end up getting captured…or worse…your heart taken away."

"Oh ye of little faith." She replied. "They won't take Rainbow "Danger" Dash down that easily...trust me, Hero."

The stallion fought within himself for a moment before sighing softly, giving her a slow nod. "Fine...But don't stop running…or Flying. Try and lose them if they are giving you too much trouble." He paused. "And stay safe. I wouldn't know what I would tell the girls if you got hurt on my watch."

Rainbow scoffed. "Could say the same to you, Hero." She smirked. "I got this...don't worry." Before the mare could turn to leave, Sora grabbed the hem of her jacket, causing her to turn to face him with a deadpanned look on her face. "Gah! What, Spiky?! I gotta go do my thing so you can do your thing!"

"I know Rainbow Dash but..." He paused, trying to say something. Instead he just gave the mare a nod. "Just...be careful okay, Rainbow?"

Rainbow blinked before smiling at the stallion, with a roll of her eyes she turned to face what she was about to do. "Don't worry, Sora. The Dash never goes down easily."

Now ready to enact the plan, the rainbow maned mare ran out into the middle of the road cupping her forehooves around her mouth before bellowing out in a booming and scratchy voice. "HEY YOU BIG JERKS! WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT WHAT'S OVER THERE!? I'M WAY MORE AWESOMER THAT WHATEVER YOU BOZOS ARE CROWDING AROUND!"

Trixie deadpanned as she looked over towards the Keyblade Wielder. "Awesomer? Really?"

Despite Trixie snide remark, Rainbow's plan seemed to have worked, all things considered. The Heartless turned to face the mare, their beady yellow eyes honing in on the lone pegasus. As if as one, they all ran at her at once, flowing down the passageway as if they were an ocean's wave.

"That's Right you losers! Follow the Rainbow!" The mare turned tail and flew the opposite direction of where Sora and Trixie were, a large group of the Heartless right on her heels as she did so.

Now alone with only himself and the showmare, stood up on his hooves, frowning. "Darnit...You better stay safe Dash..." Turning towards the mare beside him, he offered her a hoof up. "Come on Trixie. No time to lose. Whatever those Heartless wanted in there must be important so we can't let this chance slip by us."

Despite wanting to protest about how stupid this all ways, the mare would only shake her head before grasping his hoof, allowing him to help her stand. With the way now clear, both stallion and mare made their way down the now empty roadway leading to the entrance of City Hall. Reaching the doorway, the stallion couldn't help but notice how pristine the wooden doors would look.

"Geeze...The Heartless couldn't get past these?" He asked, more to himself then to the other one beside him.

"Trixie is confused as well...Hang on…" The mare's horn began to glow, her magic reaching out towards the still intact doors. "Trixie can...She can feel magic...a locking spell? Trixie knows only low level ones so she is not sure that she can crack this code with her magic alone."

"Don't worry...when it comes to unlocking," Sora held out his hoof, his Keyblade forming within his grasp with a glow of white magic. "I'm the master of it."

Trixie gasped. Somehow, this was the first time she had actually seen him summon his Keyblade outright. "H-How did you...Trixie means...she knew you had a weird weapon but she didn't know you summoned it with magic! That's a high level spell only taught to a few unicorns! And you are a pegasus! How can you do magic anyway?!"

Sora chuckled at the showmare's question. "It's not really summoning…it's more like i’m calling out to it." He paused as he tapped a hoof to his chin. Though...I really could summon other heroes to help me in battle back in the day. I do hope I get my powers back. Not being able to do what I could before really is annoying. Turning back to the matter at hand, he pointed his keyblade at the doors. "Stand back Trixie. Something could pop out soon as I unlock it."

The mare, heeding his warming, would move behind him, though her gaze never left the key or the door.

With his way clear, the stallion focused on the task at hand. It didn't take long for a beam of light suddenly shoot out of the tip of his weapon,hitting the lock of the door just right. With a simple click, the door would glow with a brilliant light before some kind of coating dissipated from it. Slowly, it would open, revealing the darkness within.

"Easy." The stallion mused, flipping the keyblade within his hoof.

"That magic...had to have been the highest of caliber..." The show mare whispered. Turning around, she glared at the stallion. "Trixie demands to know how you were able to do magic without being a unicorn!"

"Well...I guess you could say it's because of this." He lifted his keyblade up, showing it to her in all of its splendor, before she could touch it, the blade would dissipate in a glow of light. "Much as I would love to show you, there's no time. We need to get in there and do what we need to do." He responded, motioning towards the inside of the building. "We better hurry. Stopping them and saving Rainbow Dash is the top priority." His gaze fell back to the mare beside him. "If you want to stay out here I understand."

"Trixie...would rather take her changes next to you if it is all the same." She said in a deadpanned tone.

Sora chuckled. "Okay then. Lets go." He walked into the building, Trixie following closely behind. After both ponies crossed the threshold, the door would slam shut.

"Okay Rainbow Dash...you asked for this. You wanted this...and it seems that you got what you wanted...now what?"

The cyan mare's wings would beat faster as she picked up her speed once again, keeping just out of reach of the nasty looking wave of darkness behind her. Deciding to look back for only a second, she could see that the flowing wave of Heartless were right on her trail, leaving a path of destruction in its wake as it chased her throughout the underground pathway. She knew that even with one nasty slip up, the Heartless would overtake her and...she didn't even want to know what would happen next. More importantly, she didn't want to make that idiot hero worry over her after talking such a big game before. focusing back to what was in front of her, she only had a split second to yelp before narrowing dodging a low hanging sign that had been in her path.

"Dang it! Pay attention girl!" She cursed to herself. "Would have been the Appleloosen desert all over again!"

Dodging every which way and avoiding where she needed to, the mare kept the Heartless a good pace away from her as the chase continued. She knew that she could outrun them if needed, but that's not what she had to do now. She had to keep these Heartless busy enough so that Sora could do what he needed to do and take down whoever it was that was in charge of these monsters. Sticking to that, the mare would keep herself at a steady speed, just fast enough to keep out of the monsters claws but slow enough so that they never back down from her.

Easier said then done… the mare thought to herself, her wings beating hard within the dimly lit halls of the underground, keeping her ahead of the deadly darkness just behind her.

The mare knew that she just had to get to the open skies above. It was her plan to do so after all. Once she was able to do so, she knew that it would be a cake walk to lose her pursuers. Though she knew it would be a tough thing to do, what with her not knowing where she had to go to do so. She kicked herself for not asking Trixie in advance.

Looking from left to right, Rainbow couldn’t help but feel like Underground Trottingham was like a maze. She had only seen the island connected by train from the top once or twice when she was younger. Cloudsale would float above it from time to time during her youth. Never would she have expected such a labyrinth to be beneath the city. Maneuvering in such a tight place was both time consuming and exhausting for the blue pegasus, but still, she had to do it. She had no other choice at this point.

The cyan mare grunted as she turned a particularly tight corner, landing upon the side of the wall itself before kicking herself off of it, the Heartless ramming right where she had been just moments ago. Looking back, Rainbow couldn't stop herself from laughing as more then a few of the creatures dissipated after impacting the hard surface of the wall.

"Take that ya losers! Ah yeah!" Couldn't stop herself from celebrating as she pumped her hoof in excitement. She didn't have much time to do so before picking her speed back up, the wave of the dark monsters once again flowing down the path after her. "Keep this up and I'll be the one to take down these monsters before you even have a chance to beat the bad dude, Sora."

Focusing her gaze back in front of her, the mare wouldn’t believe her luck as soon as she did so. A proper set of stairs could be seen in the distance. Ones that looked as though they led back up towards the ground level proper. She nearly chuckled like a mad mare, knowing that she was within the home stretch now. Such a feeling was short lived however as Rainbow found herself reeling at the sight of another wave of darkness rushing down her escape root, heading right towards her. She barely had time to yelp as she made a sharp turn down another path haphazardly, her body ramming into a nearby wall as she did so. She was dazed for only a moment before she quickly picked up her pace once again, narrowly missing the waves crashing down the hall after her.

"Where in the flying feather did they come from!?" The mare cried out, almost screaming as she watched the Heartless flow into the pathway she had to suddenly choose. They…weren’t trying to cut me off…right? She wondered to herself, her inner voice a mix of confusion and fear. There wasn't any answer that she would have been happy to hear and she couldn't afford to ponder it for too long. She had to keep moving forward or else the Heartless might catch up to her again. So she continued to fly, her wings beating faster and faster as she did so. She had to keep them away.

Still…The mare knew that long distance wasn't her forte. She was a sprinter after all. Adding these sharp turns, dodging obstacles in her way, and the heartless seemingly trying to cut off her escape routes every time she found another set of stairs, it wasn't surprising that exhaustion was slowly catching up to her. She simply couldn't keep flying at these short bursts of speeds while keeping herself a safe distance from these seemingly triedless beings.

Quick as she could, the mare turned another conner, her body nearly hitting the wall when she did so. The heartless in turn had no issues in allowing some of their numbers to vanish. There was always more to replace them after all.

G-Getting tried…Can’t stop!

Slowly but surely the Heartless were closing in, just a few wing beats away from her. The mare couldn’t help but feel it. She dare not turn to see, though her sharp ears were more then enough to clue her in on how close they were. It wasn't long before the mare felt something grab at her hind hoof. She yelped at the feeling and began to flap her wings faster than before, slipping out of the loose grasp.

The burst of speed was short lived however, as the mare's breathing began to become more labored with each wing flap. She was losing speed. And she was scared.

"Come on Dash you Feather Brain!" She muttered to herself, knowing that she had to do something before it was all over with. "You've got to think about something! Think!"

Her eyes darted around the pathways, trying to figure out where she could go to get away from the Heartless, but each way she looked, there were Heartless. It seemed as though they were done playing around. They really were trying to trap her. And she fell right into it.

Rainbow took a deep breath, trying to calm herself and her nerves. She had to be smart, she had to be quick, and she had to...she had to...

She turned another corner.

It was a dead end.

With a cry, Rainbow whipped her head back, looking to the left and right of her, hoping that the Heartless had missed her, turning towards a dead end.

Much to her dismay, they had not.

The mare couldn’t stop her body from shaking at the sight of Heartless flowing down after her like a black wave, thier beedy yellow eyes glimmering in the pale light of the underground.

“Think, Dash, think!” The mar yelled at her self, looking left and right and behind her for some kind of an escape route. Everywhere she looked though, it was nothing but solid wall. Finally she would cast her gaze upwards, spotting something she was ever so glad to see. A way out.

“Bucking awesome! A Pony-Hole cover!”

Quickly making a dash for it, she shot upwards to where the hole covering was and began pushing at it with all her might. It was moving for her. She knew that she could escape. Flapping her wings harder and harder, the mare pushed at the heavy lead covering, doing her best to move it. With most of her stamina drained however it was a slow and agonizing process.

And the Heartless weren't nice enough to wait for her to escape.

Rainbow felt her hind hooves grabbed once again, a single claw digging into her leg. She yelped and kicked back, but the monster held fast, trying to pull her towards the others. She struggled to get free of its grasp but it was useless. She was just too tired from before.

Still, that didn’t stop her from trying.

"Darn it! Let go! Let go of me ya jerks!" She screamed as she struggled against the Heartless that had grasped her limb. She attempted to to use her free leg to lash out at it in a last ditch effort to force it to release her but each strike she gave was weaker than the last. She knew that she had used up most of her energy from before. She barely had enough to keep herself aloft as she is.

Still she struggled. She didn't want to accept her fate. She didn't want to die.

Just as the mare thought it was all over, the street cover she had been trying to remove would lift from her grasp. Before she could fall back into the sea of Heartless, a yellow claw would catch her foreleg.

"I should have known that it was your stupid voice I heard, Dash!"

Despite the fact that she had just nearly died, the mare couldn't help but reel at the sight of the one above her. "G-Gilda?"

"Sure is dweeb! Now shut up and flap your wings! Or do you want to be monster chow?!" The griffin yelled as she struggled at holding the rainbow maned mare's hoof.

After a quick shake of her head to shake off the sudden sight of her old best friend helping her, the mare would indeed do as the griffin commanded, her wings once again flapping with all of their might as her free hind leg once again lashed out at the Heartless who had ahold of her. Finally, after one last desperate kick, the claw that had a hold of her finally released, the cyan mare slipping through the hole just as it did so.

Gilda, still having a hold of her, helped her though the opening, throwing the mare onto the ground behind her before pushing the pony hole cover back where it was once before, the lion bird jumping on top of the cap to keep it in place, in case the Heartless decided to follow after them. She would look down at the cover before letting her gaze fall to Rainbow Dash, both mare and griffion holding baited breath as the seconds ticked by. Neither would make a sound as they waited for...something.

But nothing would happen, not even the sound of movement below.

Rainbow, having finally had time to catch her breath, allowed her body to give out due to exhaustion. She was tired and she was hurt. But she was alive. She was alive thanks to Gilda.

Her gaze flew to her old friend from the past, who had the smuggest look upon her beak.

"Well well well...Looks like Rainbow Dweep owes me one." The griffin said with a snicker, she held out a claw to the pony.

Rainbow eyed the offered appendage curiously. She was still a little confused at this point, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. "Yeah yeah...Whatever." The mare's hoof grasped the griffin’s. "Never thought I'd say this again...but...good ta see ya Gil."

The griffin scoffed. "Dang straight it is."