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// Nobody: Castle of Light 
// Story: Kingdom Hearts: The World's Reluctant Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Sombra found that Fluttershy was quite pleased with herself when they returned to their ship, as she had acquired two new creatures to add to their private realm and they were quite powerful, meaning she had more animals to tend to, though it seemed like Hades' former pets approved of this change. Other than that there wasn't a lot of changes for them to worry about, rather everything seemed to be normal in the grand scheme of things, at least inside their ship, meaning everyone was able to do exactly what they did in the past during their time traveling between worlds. This time around Sora found something that was quite odd and Sombra agreed with him, there was an icon that indicated that there was a source of Light that was beckoning them to come closer, causing him to tell Sora to follow it. She was sure this was coming from someone on their side, someone attuned to the Light, and if that was the case the World had likely seen they were in danger, or will be in the near future, and was sending them to that person's aid.

Such a thing made her curious as to what was going on, since this was the first time such a thing had happened, though she did discover that the path in question was shorter than they were expecting, almost as if they had moved through a Warp Gate, like they used back in their first adventure, as the ship passed by Hollow Bastion before reaching a new world not even two hours later.

"Is that... another castle?" Sora asked, though at the same time he made sure to call the others up so they could see what he was seeing, allowing Sombra to see that Donald and Goofy recognized this place, which meant it was a world they had been to before they found Traverse Town, and Sora, or it was their home.

"Not just any castle, Sora. That's Disney Castle, our home." Goofy replied, confirming Sombra's thoughts, though at the same time she could tell that something was terribly wrong, as this was Mickey's home world and it seemed like the Light Barrier that was supposed to be protecting it was gone, at least from what she could see right now.

"The World brought us here for a reason. We had best go down and see what's going on." Seras said, something that caused everyone to nod their heads as Donald pointed out another command on the console for Sora to use this time around, one that allowed them to move down into a passage that was on the outskirts of the castle.

It was a Gummi Hanger, the very place that Donald and Goofy had launched from at the start of their mission, and once the ship was docked the group found a door opening while a platform extended, allowing them to walk down onto a path that seemed to lead out of the workshop and would likely bring them out into the castle itself. As they walked Sombra was able to confirm that the Light Barrier was far too weak to do anything to her, she could barely feel it, as Mickey had told her there was a fair chance that the magic protecting this world would either reject her outright, cripple her during her visit, or even wipe her out. It made sense, as she was a being of Darkness and her only true weakness was Light, much like the Crystal Heart and what it had done to her, so her being able to walk around freely like this just confirmed that the barrier was far too weak to stop someone like her from entering this world. Her thoughts were interrupted when they reached a winding staircase, an odd choice in her mind, but Donald showed them that there was a magical rune that teleported them up to the entrance of this area, allowing the group to head out into what appeared to be the royal garden.

As Sombra admitted that Disney Castle was an impressive place, even for a castle, they were assaulted by a number of foes, Heartless to be exact, which was the final nail in the coffin for Sombra, where the group found that it was mostly Shadows, Soldiers, and a new one that was an egg with a visible dark body inside them that detonated after getting close to whatever foe they were fighting. Sombra decided to call them 'Egg Bombs', as it was a straightforward name in her mind, though they were easy to take down as well, a few hits with a weapon or magic were enough to take them out, though they refrained from using fire magic on them since that might make them explode faster. While they did that a pair of chipmunks, which had to be Chip and Dale, noticed their arrival and informed the group that the Queen wanted to see them, and that she was in the library, which Donald and Goofy could easily lead them to. With that in mind Sora beckoned for those two to lead the way to where Queen Minnie was waiting for them, even though it seemed like she had called for aid and the World had done all it could to bring them here as fast as they could.

While they moved, however, Sombra stopped and glanced at a rather large and imposing door that seemed far too large, as no one in the castle, from what she had seen so far, was as tall as it, something she figured she could ask the Queen once the situation was under control. Fortunately it didn't take them too long to reach their destination, despite the length of the hallway that Donald and Goofy went down, and when they finally entered the library Sombra could see that there were all sorts of shelves around them, with all sorts of books resting on them. She and Fluttershy glanced at each other, as both of them knew that Twilight Sparkle would have had a field day in this place, before they turned their attention to the figure that was standing in front of some of the shelves, no doubt looking for information on what was going on. It was a mouse, exactly the same height as Mickey, wearing a dress that was pink and red, with a golden tiara on her head, confirming that this was, in fact, Queen Minnie, not that Sombra needed further confirmation after Donald and Goofy stood and saluted her once she knew they were there.

"Donald, Goofy, I am glad that you two are back. I am also happy to have all of your friends here as well." Minnie said, which made sense when Sombra thought about it, as Mickey had likely come by during his latest mission and told his wife about all of them, since she didn't seem even remotely surprised by Sombra and the others appearances.

"Queen Minnie, why are there Heartless in the castle?" Donald asked, as all of them assumed that this was why they found the way to this world, instead of any of the others that could have been thrown at the group, so by cutting to the heart of the matter they should be able to deal with whatever was plaguing his and Goofy's home world.

"I... have something that I need to show you, but there are still servants that are in danger." Minnie replied, something that caused the pair from her world to instantly offer to track down those who were out there and bring them to safety, which she accepted without delay, causing her to turn towards the ones who carried Keyblades, "I need the rest of you to escort me back to the throne room, which is the large sealed door down the hallway."

"Sounds easy enough." Sombra said, where she and the others turned around and headed back the way they came, while at the same time Donald and Goofy headed off to do as their Queen had asked, but as she and the others readied each of their weapons they noticed that there weren't a lot of Heartless in the hallway.

There were Shadows and Egg Bombs, that was about it based on what Sombra was seeing right now, so they were able to cut their way through the enemies blocking the way and approach the door without delay, where Minnie held her hand up for a moment, where she undid the barrier and revealed a smaller door that opened for them. Such a thing allowed them to see that the throne room was massive, even though the throne itself was big enough for Mickey to sit on and seemed to be raised slightly, and there were a massive number of tower-like Heartless descending down towards the ground. They had an interesting power to call upon lightning to try and shock their enemies, causing Sombra to go with 'Bolt Towers' for them, all while she nodded to the others as they launched themselves at the new type of Heartless, allowing her to capture one of their hearts and absorb it, just to get a taste of their power. Sombra found that these ones weren't very strong, hence why they came at the group with a group of what seemed to be a hundred, a testament to the size of the throne room, a fact that was unnecessary in her eyes, though she happily captured the hearts before they escaped, to prevent the Organization from claiming them.

Minnie followed along, keeping herself out of the way so the others could do their work, though when she reached the area the throne was in she found a button and pressed it, where the entire throne pedestal started to shift, revealing a blinding light that caused Sombra to shroud herself in several layers of shadows, while the Heartless were evaporated in an instant before the light vanished.

"A little warning would have been nice!" Sombra remarked, though as she emerged from the shadowy barrier she noticed just how damaged the barrier actually was, the light had ripped through several of the layers like they were nothing, which meant that whatever was down in the depths of the castle was on par with the Crystal Heart, causing her to sweat as she wondered how much it would have hurt if she took the full force of the reveal.

"Sombra, why did you do that?" Sora asked, as that was something he wasn't expecting, the smartest member of their group, and even the strongest in certain aspects, to summon a barrier to protect herself and it made him wonder why she would do such a thing in the first place.

"She's an Umbrum, a Shadow Pony... light as powerful as that would have crippled her, if not shatter her form." Radiant said, as she remembered what happened in the past, before Sombra was sealed away and they both suffered a thousand years in different areas, while Fluttershy and Seras knew what had happened during her attempted takeover of the empire after her escape, so they knew why Sombra had done this.

Minnie apologized instantly, she had no idea that Sombra's weakness was the light, but she had a good reason for this as she lead them down into the basement, where they discovered a large room with a large sphere of concentrated Light energy, which was currently being blocked by all of the dark thorns that were wrapped around it, shrouding the area in pure darkness.

"This is the Cornerstone of Light, our protection against the Heartless and worlds that have fallen to darkness." Minnie said, which confirmed Sombra's earlier suspicions, there was something here that was protecting the world and it had fallen in some manner, hence why she and the Heartless were able to cross into this world with ease, before she gestured to the sea of thorns that were around them, while Sombra noted that there was something hidden in this chamber, "We have no idea where the thorns came from, they just sprang up overnight, but they're blocking the Cornerstone's power from exiting this chamber... what you experienced above was all it could muster to open the way for us to come down here and aid it."

"Thorns that sprung up overnight... reminds me of the plunder vines. We need Merlin." Sombra remarked, to which she just focused her magic for a moment and locked onto Merlin's magical signature, where she tapped out a message in a way that was like morse code, though it wasn't long before a surge of magic appeared nearby as Merlin teleported into the area, much to the surprise of the others, "I wish we could stop and chat, but we require some assistance."

"Indeed. It is a good thing you called on me, because this is most serious." Merlin stated, as he instantly understood what he was seeing, which had to be due to his insane mastery over time magic, where he held his hands out and moved them as he cast a spell, causing a silver, almost crystalline, door to appear nearby with a whitish frame around it, "Whatever is causing the problem is on the other side of that door... now, while you are on the other side of that door you might be tempted to do something foolish, so I must ask that you resist the urge when it reveals itself. In addition to that there should be an identical door to this one somewhere in the world I'm opening the way to, so once you have dealt with whoever behind this disaster you need to lock that door and secure this castle from our enemies."

"But, if we go back to when the Cornerstone is unbound, Sombra won't be able to come with us." Fluttershy said, though in the following moment a wave of dark energy washed over the figure in question, leaving behind a small gray fox with the same eye color as Sombra, whose tail seemed to be made out of pure darkness, causing them to look at the figure for a few seconds as they thought about what happened.

"Honestly, never thought I'd have to do this: shapeshift into a smaller form and use Tenfold Shadow Barrier... should keep me safe for an hour, maybe two." Sombra remarked, to which she sighed for a moment as she rushed over to the group and came to a stop on Radiant's shoulder, while her focus was on the door that was in front of them, since she knew what was on the other side and was as prepared as she could be, "Shall we get moving?"

Sora nodded as he braced the door's handles and opened it, revealing a white and black portal to whatever world Merlin had detected the problem in, causing him and the others to step forward as they prepared themselves to face whatever dangers might be on the other side.