//------------------------------//
// Heading Out 
// Story: My Little Kingdom: The Key to Harmony 
// by Mekapix 
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Dawn broke through the curtains in Rarity’s guest bedroom and streamed along Sora’s eyelids as he hung of the edge of the bed, tossing and turning in his bed was probably one of his worst habits. As he opened his eyes to see the morning light, he saw a bit too much for his liking and was blinded by the sunshine. He yelped and brought his hooves to his eyes while recoiling, the motion he made to get out of the sunlight caused him to tumble off of the bed and land with a thud. He rubbed the back of his head while having his back hooves wrapped in the blanket slightly. “Sora? Are you ok?” He heard Rarity yell to him. “Yeah I’m fine thanks Rarity, just slipped a little.” He picked himself up and tried to shake his hooves out of the blanket that just refused to leave him. Rarity came in with a beauty facial mask on herself. “Are you sure you’re ok?” she asked as she came in. Sora nodded and then turned to her slowly from looking at the persistent blanket. “Yeah I’m sure I’m-whoa!” he yelped as the facemask took him by surprise. He reared back in a little shock then the blanket decided to remove itself finally but tripping him in the process. Rarity rolled her eyes at the clumsy colt and removed herself from the room. “We are meeting everypony outside the library in half an hour so please get yourself stable and then come out here, I’ve got some breakfast ready for you.” 

Sora laughed to himself and grinned, scratching the back of his head as he picked himself up again. He adjusted his chain to make sure the crown was hanging round his neck and skipped out of the room, taking a seat at the table at the edge of the room. “What’s this?” he asked Rarity while inspecting the sandwich in front of him. “Well it’s a dandelion sandwich of course Sora, what else would it be?” Sora gulped and gingerly picked up the sandwich. “Of course it is, my favourite.” He lied of course but he didn’t want to hurt Rarity’s feeling as she sipped her tea next to him. He opened his mouth and put some of the sandwich inside before chomping on it, he braced himself for a gag but it never came, in fact he rather liked the taste. ‘Huh? This tastes nice. How does that work?’ He thought to himself as he kept munching the sandwich and got a reply in his head from the spirit in his bands. “Maybe it has something to do with the transforming?” Goofy suggested, Sora tilted his head to think about it. ‘Is that possible?’ he wondered, only to receive a quacking from Donald. “You have been turned into a lion cub, a mermaid and now a pony and you’re wondering if the magic can change your taste buds? I am a great and powerful mage, you shouldn’t doubt me.” Donald exclaimed, Sora could pretty much feel the duck puffing his chest as he spoke, well, he could if the duck actually had a chest which he didn’t right now. The thought made Sora giggle and his laughter only increased as Donald went off on a tangent about his magic had saved them many times and that Sora should be grateful.

Sora stopped though when he felt the gaze of confusion fall on him, Rarity had looked over and raised an eyebrow to his laughter, he gulped and turned to her. “Heh, I just remembered something funny is all.” Rarity nodded slowly, taking the last sip of her tea with her eyebrow still floating above the other. She put the tea down and made her way to the door, using her magic to lift her saddlebags onto her back and turned back to face Sora. “You ready dear? It’s time to go meet the girls.” She informed him, he quickly gulped down the last of his sandwich and trotted up beside her wearing his usual playful grin. “Yup, I’m ready.” They walked out of the door and Rarity locked the door behind her before leading Sora back to the library. It was a lot busier now than it had been last night for obvious reasons, Sora looked round at all the ponies going around their daily lives. Some were buying goods, some were selling goods and others were just meeting up with their friends. The sight of such peace brought Sora’s promise from the night before back to his head, he would make sure that the heartless would not take this world. Rarity kept looking round with what was a scowl, a condescending look or a face of confusion. It seemed to give off a ‘what do you think you are doing?’ vibe but what confused the colt more was that it wasn’t meant for him but some mares that kept looking their way. Rarity obviously caught on that there were some mares admiring the new colt in town but Sora remained rather oblivious to it. A few minutes passed before they ended up with the other five mares in front of the library, Sora waved them as he approached and received three sheepish waves, one wild pink wave and a giggle from the purple unicorn. As they all gathered together, Twilight looked round at the six ponies with a smile. “Ready everypony?” she got a group ‘yeah’ and turned around, trotting off in Canterlots direction with the six ponies in tow. What they didn’t notice were the carriages high in the sky flying towards the castle. 


XXX


A griffon with a long red cloak flowing down his back sat on a griffon drawn carriage seat as it flew through the air. He grumbled to himself as he looked out of the window then turned to his guard captain who was sitting opposite him, wearing an iron collar that went round the back of her neck then lead down to her chest from her shoulders. The griffon emblem of a pair of golden wings emblazoned on the point that rested on her breast. “Who does that princess think she is, summoning us out of the blue. She wants to talk about the attacks so she draws us away from our kingdom where we can’t defend them? For all we know she could be the one causing this.” The female griffon nodded. “You could be right sir, we all know those ponies can’t be trusted, their magic is far too unpredictable.” The griffon lord nodded at his captain. “Indeed, they could be summoning these things and just holding them back, waiting for such an occasion as this.” “I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them, they are traitorous losers and should be exposed as such.” The lord tilted his head at the guard captain. “You sound as if you have a personal problem with them.” She remained silent for a few moments before the lord started again. “Well I don’t mind if you do, just make sure that we don’t cause trouble unless they strike first guard captain Gilda.” The female griffon nodded. “Of course sir.”

A carriage being flown by two of Celestia’s guards followed a little bit behind the griffon’s transport. Three grey skinned creatures inside were tapping their claws together as the got closer. The short, stocky dog, wearing a ring with a purple jewel on it and jet black trousers was the first to pipe up. “Grrrr, I hate not having the ground below my paws. Being in the sky makes me feel sooo uncomfortable.” He moaned, each syllable was grating on the nerves of the tall, overweight diamond dog who bore a black band round his wrist and a tan, long sleeved jacket. “You’re right but your complaining is just as irritating, you’re not making it any easier to deal with it!” He yelled, the stocky little dog growled at him. “Well there’s nothing to take my mind off of it, what do you expect me to do Durge?” Durge growled back. “Well personally Skid, I expect you to shut up!” Skid scowled before Durge turned to the medium sized diamond dog sitting in the seat opposite them, he was looking out of the window while playing with the yellow jewel on his collar and was coated in a dark red, sleeveless jacket. “Hey Grit, tell him to keep his trap shut will you?” Grit let out a sigh but kept his gaze pointed out of the window. “You two should just think about the possibilities that this could mean, if we help the prissy princess ponies” he gagged a little on the thought of actually helping them “then we could be rewarded with great jewels or, if we have to, we could just steal them when they aren’t looking.” He chuckled to himself at his idea. The other two looked at each other before Skid started again. “But all this waiting is-“ Grit practically flew from his seat. “Shut up will you!” He quickly snapped. It was enough to make the other two diamond dogs jump a little. Grit sat down again and stared out of the window recalling memories of a certain marshmallow pony. “I hate whining…”

The next carriage was drawn by changelings flying through the air. The carriage itself was dark with green rims, inside was a large black mare with an oddly shaped horn and large fly-like wings. She had holes in all four of her hooves and looked out of the window as she stared out the window. A confused look sat upon her face as she pondered why she was invited to the pony kingdom. It had only been a year since the attempted invasion and she was completely sure that she wouldn’t be welcomed. She looked over the letter that had been sent to her, it clearly said that she had been summoned to Canterlot to discuss an issue that involved all the kingdoms. Princess Chrysalis had no idea how she was going to present herself to her hosts but what she did know was that she would be treated with hostility no matter what face she put on. She noted that in the distance, coming from another direction but still headed for the same destination, there was a bright pink carriage with yellow rims and flowers in the corners, such a transport would most likely be owned by Princess Cadence.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was sitting in her bright pink transport, looking over the invitation that her husband had sent her. As much as she wanted him to live with her, he had royal guard duties to Celestia for the time being. The alicorn just had to deal with it for now and make do with the occasional visit. The letter stated that she needed to join the audience with royals from all over world, she had adorned her golden crown and broach with matching horseshoes so that she looked her best for such a rare and important meeting. However it didn’t stop her daydreaming every few moments of skipping through the Canterlot gardens with her beloved, a small grin accompanying each little fantasy spawning in her love struck mind. She peered out of the carriage window to resume her imaginings of her and her husband when a dark, green rimmed, changeling drawn transport make a fire burn inside her. The mare who tried to take her Shining Armor and feed off of him had been invited to the meeting as well, it didn’t matter that it made sense for her to come, it burned Cadence’s insides so much that she had crushed the letter in her hooves without noticing. She quickly turned her head towards Canterlot and huffed as all happy thoughts where in the same condition as her letter, she had to remember this was all for the entire world and that she had to be professional, even if she didn’t like it.


XXX


The sun was bright in the sky, as if to tell everypony that the day would be perfect while it beat down on Equestria. ‘So why do I have a bad feeling?’ Sora thought to himself as he trotted behind the six mares. His face was looking down at the ground, he had a feeling that he just couldn’t shake, one that told him that the happy, shining atmosphere was nothing more than the calm before a storm. The mares that led the way were all in conversation about what they might spend the rest of their day doing in Canterlot, forgetting the urgency of their original objective. At the head of the pack were Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash. “Twilight, what do you think of our guest?” Rarity asked, flicking her mane to the side a little to keep the sun out of her eyes. “Well he’s pretty strange but seems like a good pony.” Twilight replied. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “Yeah and that key thing was so cool.” Rarity shook her head and lowered her voice slightly so that there wasn’t a chance of the colt hearing her next sentence. “Yes, yes but I meant something else. What do you think of him look-wise?” Twilight looked back at him and then to Rarity again, he didn’t notice as he was too lost in his thoughts while still eyeing the ground. “I guess he’s ok, not really my type to be honest.” Rainbow looked back too and a slight red flush surfaced from her cheeks, she kept looking but snapped back when Rarity giggled. “Appears he is your type though, is that right Dash?” Rainbow shook her head and tried to pull together a sentence to deny her but failed miserably while Rarity and Twilight giggled at her.

Behind them were Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, bouncing along beside them. Their conversation had a slightly more serious tone. “Ah hope that keeping those heartless critters will go as smoothly as we hope.” Fluttershy nodded along with a concerned frown lining her lips. “I hope so too…It’s hard to believe that such small animals could be that mean.” “Well I’m sure that the princesses will help us! So there’s no need to worry.” Pinkie exclaimed in her usual happy attitude, her attitude managed to rub off on the butter yellow pegasus and brought a smile to her face. Applejack smiled at her friend then saw Sora look around out of the corner of her eye, she stopped and turned round to face him. “Uhh Sora, you alright? You don’t look a little agitated.” Sora darted his head round rapidly, as if he was trying to look everywhere at once. He quickly ran to the head of the group and stopped them all in their tracks. “What’s wrong Sora?” Pinkie asked as she tilted her head with a raised eyebrow. “The shadows…” Twilight looked around and saw shadows moving along the ground back and forth. “Huh, the pegasi must be working really hard today.” She responded but was shaken with Fluttershy’s next statement. “There aren’t any pegasi in the sky right now Twilight…” All the ponies looked up at the clear skies then back down at the shadows. The shadows then began rising off of the ground and showed their small statured but big headed forms.

“Heartless!” Sora yelled as he summoned his Keyblade to his mouth and charged towards a few of the heartless that were running towards them. He quickly swatted them to the side with his weapon and ran to the next few. The mares just stood there in shock until Applejack heard a twig snap behind them, there were some of the heartless behind them and one had made a jump for her. She yelped and lifted herself onto her forehooves and bucked the little creature away with her strong back hooves, it flew back and dispersed into wisps as it hit the floor. Applejack smirked as she saw it burst and turned to her friends. “Come on everypony, we can’t just let Sora do all the work by himself!” She called as she ran to Sora’s side and bucked one the heartless behind him. Rainbow Dash quickly followed suit and flew into the air only to slam all four hooves onto an unsuspecting heartless, taking off again and repeating the process as Twilight lowered her head and charged her horn with a lavender aura before firing bolts of magic at the little monsters around them. Fluttershy backed away from an approaching heartless that suddenly jumped at her, she let out a scared squeal but was saved by a blast from the miniature party cannon followed by a stomp delivered by Pinkie Pie. Rarity made sure she had a few of the heartless near each other before using her magic to pull out some tape, wrapping them together and then lowering her hoof down onto them. As Sora batted the last few remaining heartless into wisps, he was happy to see that his new friends were more than capable of taking care of themselves. After all the heartless were taken out, the regrouped and went on their way while Sora banished his Keyblade. “That was easy!” Pinkie spoke out through a smile. The group nodded but Sora still wasn’t happy.
“What’s up Sora? Wishing you had more of them to fight?” Rainbow asked, she expected one of his smiles to break through but instead he sat down and started looking round again. “That wasn’t enough…” He muttered, Fluttershy shook her head in response. “I think that was more than enough.” She answered, Sora got up and waved his hoof at her. “No I mean that heartless travel in groups like what we just saw but it feels like there wasn’t as many as a common group would have.” He walked to the head of the group while in thought. Suddenly Pinkie felt an uncontrollable shiver in her tail. “Everypony watch your heads!” She yelled, getting the attention of all. “What does she mean?” Sora asked, Twilight turned back to face him.

“Whenever Pinkie’s tail twitches, it means something is going to fall from the-” Sora heard a bang come from behind him. “Sky…” Twilight and the others backed away from the colt, causing him to gulp. “There’s something right behind me isn’t there?” Pinkie gave him a nod and he slowly turned round, looking up at a large, fat heartless on two stubby legs and two long arms with fat hands on the end. It peered down at him with its yellow eyes between its fat, spherical body and a small metal plate on top of its head, the plate as well as what seemed to be an outstretched breast plate covering it’s chest seemed to be the only armor it was wearing. “A big body…that seems about right now…” Sora muttered, he paced back a few steps before spinning round and running. “Quick! Get away from it!” He yelled as the big body jumped into the air a few metres and then slammed into the ground, causing the fleeing ponies to fall over themselves and roll along the ground.
“What is that thing?!” Twilight shouted, they all got up onto their hooves and Sora kept his eyes on it as he got back to the mares. “It’s a heartless called a big body, the little ones we fought were called shadows. This one is stronger than those shadows so spread out!” Sora recalled his Keyblade to his mouth as the ponies moved away in different directions. Sora ran round the fat heartless and attacked its side, he bounced off and didn’t deal any damage to the beast but at least he had its attention now. As it was turning, Applejack ran up to it and spun round on her front hooves, causing her back hooves to collide with the big body’s back. It raised one leg and quickly turned, slamming its fist into the orange mare and sent her tumbling to one side. “Applejack!” cried out all the ponies, Fluttershy and Rarity ran to her side to help her up. “Ah’m fine girls, just a little bruised is all.” Applejack explained as she winced while getting up. Twilight yelled to Rainbow Dash and Sora “We got to keep it away from the girls while they help Applejack!” They nodded in response but were too late to notice the heartless had slapped its stomach and become veiled in a dark violet aura. It charged at Twilight and knocked here away, the cyan pegasus quickly flew to her side. “Twilight! Are you ok?” Twilight got back up and nodded to her friend while Sora ran behind the heartless “I’m ending this before anypony else gets hurt.” He stood on his back hooves and put the Keyblade into his hooves, aiming the tip at the heartless’ back. The tip started glowing red and the shaft shined white as both his band started shimmering, the big body approached the unicorn and pegasus, the latter of which was growling and grinding her teeth at the beast, trying to intimidate it but in truth she was scared deep down. The blue and red symbols on Sora’s bands shined brightly as he lowered his weapon by his side, he charged rapidly behind the heartless just as it was about to strike and sent it flying into the air. He pointed the Keyblade upwards, aiming at the big body’s back. The light around the Keyblade’s shaft disappeared with his uppercut but the red tip began to shine even brighter. “Fire!” he yelled, a ball of flame flew from the tip and soared towards the heartless, blowing it into wisps on contact.