Guardians of Magic

by Shire Folk

Travel Plans

        (Insert generic author’s comment about his daily life, current events, Mists of Pandaria, or just a witty joke here)

        Scratch the above statement. I read Jaina Proudmoore: Tides of War by Christie Golden not too long ago (and by that I mean right after I posted the last chapter), and I am now deep into the throes of playing my valiant Night Elf MM/Survival Hunter and Worgen Fury Warrior  for the memory of Theramore and the downfall of Garrosh Hellscream. FOR THE ALLIANCE!!!

        In case anypony wants to add me as a RealID friend, I’m knightsofdolamroth@gmail.com or if you’d like a Scroll of Resurrection or World of Warcraft invite, just send me a PM with your e-mail and I’ll toss you one.

        Disclaimer: Mine is the disclaimer that will pierce the heavens!

        Twilight paced nervously up and down the platform of the Canterlot train station, casting a worried glance towards the entrance every ten seconds exactly. Everypony else was watching the entrance with some apprehension as well, though Rainbow Dash and Spike were both somewhat amused that Twilight’s hooves had already ground a two millimetre groove into the platform.

        Kairi yawned loudly, leaning against her coltfriend’s side. Sora didn’t appear to be too awake and aware either, as he was half-dozing just standing there in Celestia’s sunlight. “Rarity sure is late,” the pink pegasus murmured. “Train leaves in—aaawwww—ten minutes.”

        “Why are you two so tired?” Rainbow asked. “I thought you guys went to bed earlier than the rest of us.”

        Riku snorted. “They had a late night date in the gardens,” he grumbled. He rapped Sora’s head, hard, and the other Keyblade Master jolted.

        “I’m up! I’m up! Oww…” he yelped, rubbing his skull. He shot Riku a dirty look. “What was that for?”

        “Next time you sneak out with your girlfriend for a midnight moonlight meandering in a menagerie, take your key with you!”

        “It was a sculpture garden, not a menagerie,” Sora muttered darkly.

        “What do you suppose is taking Rarity so long?” Rei asked, looking up at all of the grown-ups. “Could she have slept in?”

        “No, Rei,” Applejack answered. “Yer brother and his little fillyfriend over there were the ones who fought getting up this morning.”

        “I resent being called ‘little’,” Kairi retorted with a tired voice.

        Twilight ceased her pacing and turned towards the group of Spike, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, Trixie, Pinkie Pie, Sora, Riku, Kairi, and Rei. It appeared as though everypony except the two in a relationship had gotten a good night’s rest, so a nap on the train was probably in the cards as far as those two pegasi cared. “Rarity wasn’t in her room when we went to wake her up this morning,” Twilight answered the filly, “and there wasn’t time for us to comb the entire castle looking for her.”

        “Wouldn’t she be with Princess Luna?” Fluttershy asked. “She did mention that she was going to try and find her about the dress the Princess took your measurements for.”

        “I hope she’s with Luna,” Twilight replied. “But we haven’t heard a word from her or Rarity, so all we can do is hope that Rarity hasn’t been foalnapped.”

        “Why would somepony try to foalnap Rarity right out of a suite in Canterlot Castle?” Pinkie Pie asked. “She’s not even a foal anymore.”

        Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know. There weren’t any signs of forced entry or a struggle; and no notes or ransom demands. In fact, it didn’t even look as though Rarity had been in—”

        BRRAAAP

        Pinkie and Rainbow both laughed. “Good one, Spike,” Rainbow Dash chortled while the baby dragon picked up the scroll that had emerged from the green fire he’d belched. A moment later the scroll had left his claw in the grasp of Twilight’s magenta levitation spell. She unfurled it and began pacing anew while reading the letter aloud.

        “Dear Twilight,

“I am sorry that this letter is so late, but due to circumstances I will be unable to return to Ponyville with you and the others. My deepest apologies, but Luna and I are working on creating something absolutely marvelous for yourself and Trixie. I would say more, but that would spoil the surprise and the Princess has forbidden me from telling you. Please give my apologies to Sweetie Belle and let her know that I will be home in a few days. Now that I think of it, could you and the others be absolute darlings and look after her and Opalescence for me? I don’t need the shop to burn down while our parents are vacationing in Manehattan.

Yours, Rarity.

P.S. Tell Kairi that I am deeply sorry that I won’t get to show her my shop personally or take her to the spa. She can take anything she wants off the rack as a gift from me, but anymore than three items and I’ll have to charge her half-price for the whole lot else I might not make my monthly expenses.”

        “That’s nice of her,” Kairi purred, still leaning against Sora’s side. “I’ll have to thank her in person when we see her again.”

        “And that explains where she is,” Trixie said brightly. She flinched at the snort Rainbow Dash sent in her direction. “What? Trixie was only expressing her relief.”

        “Look pal,” Rainbow growled, “Twilight may have forgiven you, and Sora and his band may think you’re alright, but that stunt you pulled in Ponyville isn’t water under the bridge just yet as far as I’m concerned. You want a spot on this team you’re going to have to earn it.”

        “Actually,” Riku said firmly as he took a few paces to stand between the azure unicorn and cyan pegasus, “Trixie here has a Keyblade and is one of the Guardians, so she’s already got a spot on the team whether she wants it or not. You’re just our escort, Rainbow Dash.”

        Rainbow Dash gazed at the unicorn in total bewilderment for a few seconds, her mind unable to grasp the concept that somepony was defending Trixie of all ponies against her. Riku took the opportunity to glance at the mare he’d come to the defence of, and was surprised to find that she immediately looked away. A tinge of red appeared on Trixie’s cheeks, and it looked like she was finding it hard to meet his gaze.

        “Th—thank you, for standing up for Trixie,” she whispered, her eyes darting back and forth between his and the ground.

        “You’re a Keyblade Wielder now,” Riku answered with a smile, “and we look after each other.” He looked over at Sora, Kairi, and Rei, and then back at Trixie. “Yep, we look after each other,” he repeated, “we’re just one big old family, us and Mickey; and now you, Twilight, and Zelda are part of it too.”

        “Well,” Spike spoke up before anypony else could say anything. He grabbed Twilight’s tail and gave it a small yank, enough to attract her attention. “Now that we know where Rarity is, don’t you think we should board the train before it leaves without us?”

        “You’re right, Spike,” Twilight said, slowly easing out of her earlier anxiety. She rubbed his head affectionately for a moment, and then looked at her friends. “Come on everypony, you heard the dragon.”

        “That sounds like a good idea,” Kairi mumbled in agreement. She flapped her wings, once, and thrust herself off the ground towards the train. “C’mon, Sora,” she said, idly stroking up and down to keep her body aloft. He nodded, and similarly took off with a quick angled downstroke and small hop into the air.

        While the two pegasi fluttered towards the train, everypony else was simply floored. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had to get Applejack to physically push their jaws back up into place. Twilight pointed a trembling hoof out towards the pair, her mind firing blanks as she tried to form a coherent question. “My—buh—but—flying—how—not possible?”

        Sora dropped to the ground right outside one of the cars first and glanced back at the group, none of them having moved a muscle to join him and Kairi in boarding the train. “Eh? What’s the matter?”

        “HOW ARE YOU FLYING!?” Rainbow Dash screamed before she could stop herself. “You couldn’t even get off the ground to hover yesterday, and this morning you’re up in the air like it’s nothing at all!” She stomped down on the platform, and several there swore internally that they heard the wooden boards cracking beneath her hoof.

        “I dunno,” Kairi answered sincerely, her eyes going wide and blinking rapidly as the realization of their feat suddenly dawn upon her. “When I woke up this morning, my wings just felt a lot better and stronger, I suppose.”

        “Same here,” Sora answered, though he didn’t sound very unsure or perturbed by it. “No biggie. If it means I can fly, then I’ll take it.”

        Spike watched Rainbow’s face with fascination as Sora and Kairi boarded the train. The muscles governing her eyes appeared out of control, like somepony was striking a drum for them to move, but the drummer had no sense of rhythm whatsoever. “You look a little…upset,” Spike said.

        “Upset?” Dash gasped. “I’m way more than upset! I’m angry!”

        “Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy whispered, “maybe we should board the train?”

        “I mean, I spend years training, busting my wings off for hours of flight practice every. Single. Day. And then here they are, showing up with utterly useless wings one day, and then they’re flying like they’ve been doing it their entire lives the next. It’s! Not! Fair!”

        Everypony backed away from Rainbow Dash as she glared at the train, snorting loudly. Her stance reminded her friends of the buffalo preparing to charge Appleloosa, with all the trampling of delectable apple pies included. Quietly, cautiously, the others tread around her and boarded the train with Trixie in the lead. It wasn’t until everypony else was aboard that Rainbow realized she’d been left behind. “Hey! Wait up!”

        Steam rose from a mug, filling the immediate area with the aroma of hot coffee that already permeated the room from the large pot beside the mug. Energized green eyes with spiral pupils left the screen they had been staring at to settle on the mug filled with the life-giving, sleep-warding nectar of the gods. Two tiny gloved hands grasped the mug from the sides, appearing as though their owner was attempting to hug the mug, and they lifted and tilted the cup down so that one small mouth could take a sip. Honey-brown liquid with inexplicable reddish tones poured past minuscule teeth and into a tiny throat with alarming pace, but the liquid flowed down smoothly.

        The coffee mug returned to its spot beside the console with a clink as it was put back down with half the liquid gone, revealing the chipper face of a young girl with long untamed blonde hair in a thick blue headband. A red scarf wrapped around her neck, transitioning to orange and yellow along its length and unfolding like the wings of a phoenix. A simple yellow sleeveless top that bared her midriff accompanied the scarf, along with detached white sleeves running from her wrist to just past her elbow. A cute orange miniskirt with yellow bows, white thigh-high socks, and overlarge white and blue platform boots completed her ensemble.

        “Ah,” the girl sighed, stretching her arms behind her head as she took a couple of steps back from the coffee cup, “that hits the spot!” She turned away from the cup that was barely her height, and lied down in front of the screen, humming a little ditty she made up on the spot. She waved her tiny legs and feet in the air behind her. “Okay now, where oh where are you guys? You can’t hide from us forever, Sora, even if you do want to sneak off with Kairi when nobody’s looking.”

        She continued to hum idly to herself and popped up into the air a few seconds later. The fairy tiptoed on keys with the toes of her platform boots as she fluttered around the keyboard, and finished with a pronounced touchdown on the ‘Enter’ key. The screen in front of her expanded its view to reveal a large grid, and suddenly highlighted a section of the grid and zoomed in. A progress bar appeared in the centre of the screen.

        “Now scanning sector Beta Tango Fifty-One,” a feminine voice announced, its source the computer itself. “Here’s hoping it’s this one.”

        “Hopefully,” the fairy agreed, dropping back from the keyboard to seat her tushy on a yellow pillow (sized just for her) at the edge of the console while she watched the progress bar fill. She grabbed her mug of coffee again.

        A whoosh noise entered her ears but did nothing to get her to cease her drinking. She put down the mug a few seconds later, now only a quarter of the cup remaining (just where she was packing away all that coffee when the cup was bigger than her was anybody’s guess), and looked up. “Morning everyone!”

        “Morning Rikku,” another fairy, this one with short mocha hair—except for the long tail of it bound by a red elastic tube with a winged golden cap—and mismatched eyes of green and blue wearing an outfit of white and blue, greeted. “Found them yet?”

        Rikku shook her head. “Not yet, Yuna. We’ve been scanning all night and no dice so far, but I know we’re close! I can feel it!”

        “You said that when you were on the fifth sector yesterday,” the final fairy of the trio, a silver-haired gothic-styled one with a black bat-wing protruding from her back and sporting sharp red eyes, reminded her.

        “So what, Paine?” Rikku asked. “I still haven’t lost my spirit! I know we’re close!”

        A large duck in a zippered blue jacket walked over to the console Rikku was sitting at. There were only three consoles in the room, which was actually the bridge of the Highwind, the very same Gummi ship Sora had travelled in on his adventures. Donald looked at the coffee Rikku had been drinking. “Are you sure it’s not the coffee?” he asked.

        “Pretty sure,” Rikku chirped. “It’s just my spunk and youthful vitality!”

        Mickey came next to Donald and peered into the mug, then the pot, and then the mug again. “Rikku, why does the coffee look a little…red?”

        The female voice that had earlier emanated from the computer answered. “It’s probably that bottle of Bordeaux she’s been cutting the coffee with all night.”

        The King’s eyes widened. “You drank the Bordeaux!?” he gasped. “I’d been saving that to give to Minnie for our anniversary present this year!”

        “Ahyuk, I told you that you shouldn’t have hidden it on the Highwind, King Mickey,” Goofy chortled. “Something like that was bound to happen, considerin’ everybody we’ve been picking up.”

        “And just what is that supposed to mean?” Paine asked coolly, glancing at Goofy.

        “Well, Riku’s old enough to drink now, I’m sure Princess Zelda wouldn’t mind a glass of wine now and again, and without their parents around Sora and Kairi might try to sneak something here and there too. I figured it would be obvious.”

        “Sora’d better think twice about piloting me manually if he’s had a few!” the voice coming from the computer snapped. “And that goes double for Riku! Scan of sector Beta Tango Fifty-One complete, negative trace.”

        A young woman with pale skin, pointed ears, and braids of long brown hair sighed. “Still nothing then,” said Princess Zelda of Hyrule even as Rikku started dancing out the sequence of keys to begin scanning the next sector. She glanced at her companion, a young man who appeared the same age as her (roughly at twenty), garbed in a green tunic and hat as opposed to her regal gown. “Do you think they’re alright, Link?”

        “Now scanning sector Beta Tango Fifty-Two.”

        Link opened his mouth to speak, but another answered. “I’m sure they’re fine,” Midna interrupted, the Twilight imp of black, white, and electric blue casually petting Kairi’s pet Tonkinese kitten, Orville, while leaning against Link’s head from her resting perch on his shoulder. “They’re a lot tougher than they look.” Orville leaned his head back, stretching out his neck while Midna curled a finger underneath his platinum mink-furred chin. He purred, and Midna’s face melted underneath the massive Fused Shadow she used as a partial helmet. “D’aww, who’s a good kitty? You are, Orville. Yes you are.”

        “I sure hope we find them soon,” Donald said, looking forlornly at his king.

        Mickey placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t worry Donald,” he assured him, “we’ll find them. That portal may have sent them anywhere, but you know Sora. He’ll be fine no matter where he is. Just you wait. When we find him, Riku, Kairi, and Rei, they’ll have made a bunch of new friends and be perfectly—”

        “Loooveshack!” crowed the female voice coming from the computer. “You’re coming back to the little old place where we can get together, Riku! I’ve found you! Daddy always told me Beta Fifty-Two was my lucky number.”

        Goofy gave the console a look of pleasant surprise. “Gawrsh, Dawn, I didn’t know Tron gave you a lucky number.”

        “Well it is now,” the artificial intelligence program, Dawn, giggled.

        “So where are they?” Yuna asked, zipping up to hover near Rikku and look at the screen. The blonde fairy took another swig of her coffee, almost finishing the cup while she was at it.

        “Let me take a look,” she said. Rikku made a belly flop onto a mouse and started dragging it around so she could double-click on the bleeping dot pulsing within the target sector. “Hmm, says here that they’re on a backwater world in the middle of Nowheresville called ‘Equestria’.”

        “Equestria?” King Mickey asked. He shook his head when everybody looked at him. “I’ve never heard of it before. Dawn, do you know anything about it?”

        “The files my father gave me offer no data on Equestria,” Dawn replied, “however, the data we acquired from the Chaser Librum on Milanus does have a little information on it.”

        “What’s it say?” Donald asked.

        “Alright, here it goes. I’ll warn you, though, this is the most recent information the Chasers had on Equestria before they collapsed, and it’s dated eleven hundred years ago. Looks like nobody felt like the place was worth going to after that.” She made a show of clearing her ‘throat’ for a few seconds, and Donald rolled his eyes. Obviously she was even fonder of Users than Tron was. “Equestria: a large world diverse in its regions and inhabitants. Of the three continents, there appears to only be one truly unified and powerful country: Equestria. Ruled by the Royal Sisters, Her Royal Highnesses Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Equestria the country is easily the dominant power in the world due in no small part to their rulers. These immortal beings raise and lower their world’s Sun and Moon daily through usage of their great magical power while ruling over their subjects. Their great power alone seems to be enough of a deterrent to keep external threats at bay. The world is, as of yet, insufficiently studied, but also appears to be remote and peaceful enough that inter-world troubles should leave it unharmed. Undue attention to Equestria should be avoided so as to preserve its peace. That’s all there is.”

        “Sounds like they took that suggestion to heart,” Paine noted. King Mickey nodded.

        “Donald, set a course for Equestria. Rikku, do you think you can get a message to them?”

        She shrugged. “Beats me, Your Majesty. Oop!” She suddenly crossed her legs. “Uh, I just realized I haven’t been to the bathroom all night and I’ve had three pots of coffee. Gottagopeereallybadbye!”

        Mickey laughed while Rikku zipped off. “Dawn? Can you?”

        “Not unless someone wants to go outside and replace that transmitter gummi block Donald overloaded the moment you guys got back after the others went missing.”

        “That wasn’t my fault!” Donald quacked. “That part was faulty!”

        “And we don’t know how to fix it anyway,” Goofy reasoned. “Sora’s the one who read the manual on making fixes to the ship.” King Mickey sighed.

        “Then I guess we’ll just have to surprise them when we arrive in…” he looked at Donald.

        “Course set. Engines ahead full. With the warp gummi out of commission too, we should be there in six days, seven hours, and eight minutes.” Mickey nodded at Donald’s words.

        “Donald, take the helm. I’ll come by to relieve you in four hours. Dawn, please take over radar scanning for Rikku. I’m sure she’ll want to sleep when the buzz from the coffee wears off. The rest of us should probably relax for a while. We’ve got almost a week before we see them again, but at least we know where they are and, knowin’ them, they’re probably a-okay!”

        Midna laughed and craned her neck so she could peer at Link with her one visible eye. She cracked a knowing grin. “See, I told you they’d be fine.” Hopping off of his shoulder, Midna floated away through the air, laughing as Orville climbed up her arm to proudly perch atop her orange hair. Nearly everyone else began leaving the bridge as well, but Princess Zelda stopped King Mickey before the two royals could descend the steps that led to the remainder of the ship.

        “Your Majesty? May I speak with you for a moment?”

        “Sure! What can I do for ya, Zelda?”

        “I was actually wondering if I might be able to continue my training while we waited to arrive in Equestria, Your Majesty.”

        King Mickey smiled and nodded. “Sure thing; let’s go to the practice area. But ya know, training at being a Keyblade Wielder never stops, Zelda, even when you don’t think you’re training.”

        As they descended, Mickey was sure he heard Paine whisper to Yuna, “Sora read a manual? Maybe there’s hope for him yet.”

        The train gently rocked back and forth as it made its way through the mountains from Canterlot to the valley where Ponyville lay. Sora and Kairi had already been lulled into slumberland from the train’s movement, while the ponies asked Riku and Rei more detailed questions about other worlds and the Heartless. Riku, in turn, asked Twilight and her friends more about Equestria, while Rei played with Spike and Peewee.

        Surprisingly, though, Twilight was silent for most of the ride, and every so often she would stare at the sleeping pegasi for a time with a slight frown on her face.

        “Hey, Twilight, is something wrong?” Spike asked, looking up from where he was rubbing a certain baby phoenix’s chin.

        “I just can’t wrap my head around it,” she answered, not moving her eyes at all from their position. “It’s just not possible for pegasus wings to become so strong so quickly.”

        “Tell me about it,” Rainbow snorted, throwing the two slumbering pegasi a jealous glare.

        “Do yah think magic coulda done it?” asked Applejack.

        Trixie shook her head quickly. “Magic does have many uses, Applejack, but there is no known spell to enhance physical attributes so much. However, Trixie would not have expected you to know that.” She sent a somewhat smug look the way of the orange earth pony, and Applejack looked like she was right ready to retort.

        “Why of all the—”

        “Wait Trixie,” Twilight said, still peering at Kairi’s wings, “magic could be the cause of it.”

        “Twilight Sparkle, there is no such magic that could cause this,” Trixie firmly declared.

        “There could be,” Twilight pressed calmly, “I’ve seen something like it before.” Trixie gasped but said nothing, her eyes darting back and forth between Twilight and the wings of the sleeping pegasi. “Riku,” Twilight began again, “they said that they were in the sculpture garden, right?”

        He nodded his head. “Yeah.”

        “Did they say anything when they came into the suite Princess Celestia lent you all last night? Anything about meeting anypony or something?”

        “Apart from apologizing for waking me, no,” Riku said with a shake of his head. He paused. Revulsion struck his visage as a realization had just hit him with the subtlety of being slapped in the face with a rancid and wet sockeye salmon. “Wait, they forgot their key…” the unicorn suddenly growled. “Those morons, we have Keyblades! They could have unlocked the door themselves.”

        “So they didn’t say they met anypony?” Twilight clarified. Riku continued to growl but nodded his head anyway.

        “Twilight, what are you thinking?” Fluttershy asked.

        “I’m not certain,” Twilight began, “but I’m beginning to suspect that whatever’s affected their wings has to be some sort of chaos magic.”

        “Chaos magic?” Applejack asked, confused. Her eyes suddenly widened. “You don’t mean…?”

        Rei looked away from Peewee towards the older ponies, concern now evident on her face. “What is it? Is something wrong with my brother?”

        Twilight gave Rei a smile she hoped was reassuring. The last thing that Twilight wanted was to have her new friends influenced by Discord in any way, but even with the Elements of Harmony having turned him into stone she wasn’t going to take any chances. “I’m not sure, Rei, but I’m going to find out if Discord’s behind this or not.”

        “Discord?” Pinkie asked. “But, he can’t do anything. We hit him with the rainbow and turned him into a statue.”

        “Can you think of any other reason for their wings to suddenly be as strong as they are?”

        “Cupcakes, duh,” Pinkie Pie answered as if it were obvious, holding one up in her hoof. “Everypony knows that a cupcake a day helps ponies grow.”

        “Where’d she get the cupcake from?” Riku asked, startled, as Pinkie devoured the cupcake that had appeared in her hooves.

        “Eh, it’s Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow Dash answered with a shrug, “just ignore it.”

        Twilight shook her head at the pink earth pony and prepared to cast a detection spell over Sora and Kairi, her horn beginning to glow with magenta light. The magenta glow covered the two pegasi, and Twilight closed her eyes as she felt the information from the spell entering her brain. There was obviously some form of magical tampering with their wings, that much was clear from the preliminary examination. She focused, and the light dimmed from the majority of their bodies and grew more intense around their wings.

        There’s definitely something here. But…what is this? It doesn’t feel like Discord’s magic at all, and since when has he ever been helpful in the first place? Wait, no, it does feel familiar, but…no, that can’t be right!

        She snapped her eyes open and cancelled the spell staring in shock at the slumbering pegasi. “What is it?” Riku asked.

        “Is it Discord’s doin’?” Applejack added.

        Twilight slowly shook her head, rubbing it with a hoof. She knew what she’d felt, but it didn’t make any sense either, and it was infuriating! Something like this shouldn’t be possible at all. “No, it’s not him. I don’t know how I’m going to say this, girls, but it’s some form of harmonious magic that’s developed their wings overnight.”

        “Harmonious magic?” Rainbow Dash asked, thoroughly confused.

        “Do you suppose that it has something to do with the Elements of Harmony?” Fluttershy posed, looking down at the necklace she was wearing.

        “That’s what it feels like,” Twilight answered slowly, “but I know that we haven’t used the Elements since Discord, and I don’t think that simply being around their physical forms is something that would trigger a physical change.”

        “Do you suppose it could be Princess Celestia?” Trixie asked. Again, Twilight shook her head.

        “No, it didn’t feel like Princess Celestia’s magic, though there were a couple of similarities to it, in a way.” She gritted her teeth, forcing back the frustrated scream her belly was dying to release. The magic wrapped so lovingly around their wings—well, Sora’s anyway, Kairi’s not as much—had several degrees of familiarity to her, but she’d never seen them used in such a way or in perfect synchronization before. And there was still another, larger, element within the entire spell matrix that she’d never, ever, felt or even knew existed before. It was foreign, alien, and wonderfully exciting and vexing her to no end! “Riku, do you know of anything that could cause this?”

        “Your guess is as good as mine, Twilight,” he answered, completely oblivious to the inner scholar raging within the Element of Magic. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.” He raised a hoof and struck Sora on the back of the head with it. Sora jolted awake immediately.

        “Oww…” he hissed, instantly rushing his hooves to the top of his head both to protect it and to rub the spot in an attempt to make it feel better. “What happened?”

        “You moron,” Riku snorted. “You guys get back from your date late and you choose to wake me up instead of summoning your own Keyblades to unlock the door?”

        Sora stared at him before laughing sheepishly. “Oops, that was our bad. Sorry Riku. OW!” The brown pegasus had barely finished his latest exclamation of pain before he found a certain lavender unicorn’s muzzle uncomfortably close to his own, extremely wide violet eyes attempting to rival the largest pancakes he’d ever seen as they gazed into his soul.

        “Your wings have the most interesting magic surrounding them,” Twilight murmured, her voice deceptively quiet with how it reverberated around the car. Her horn became sheathed in magenta, and Sora gulped as he felt the blanket of fear wrap around his being. “I must study them; tell me what you know.”

        “I don’t know anything, I swear!” he yelped, pushing Twilight Sparkle back. He scrambled to his hooves and leaped into the air, beating his magically strengthened wings for all they were worth as Twilight gave chase with manic intent in her eyes.

        “You will tell me your secrets!”

        “I have many secrets, none of which you or my mother will ever hear about!”

Shire Folk