//------------------------------// // Getting Ready // Story: My Little Kingdom: The Key to Harmony // by Mekapix //------------------------------// The wind rustled through Sora’s new wings as they were flared out and ready for use. The dust had settled around him and both his bands had turned into a glimmering red. The scowl that was aimed at the monster in front of him made it get into what seemed like a defensive stance, crouching low and holding its claws on the ground in front of itself. The mares all looked at Sora with bewildered expressions, he turned them and gave them a small grin before leaping forward. He ran forward on his hind hooves, using his wings to propel him towards the beast. The monster yelled and swiped at Sora but with a beat of his wings, he jumped over the monsters claw and towards its stomach. “Sonic End!” He yelled as his Keyblades began shimmering. He unleashed a flurry of attacks, striking upwards with the Kingdom Key then to the left with the Oathkeeper. He followed it up with a downward strike with the Kingdom Key before giving the beast a stab with the other. He placed both hooves onto the monsters stomach and then kicked off, landing on the floor then jumping towards the beast’s stomach once more and swung both his Keyblades in an X shaped slash. The creature screamed out in pain, clutching a claw to its injured stomach before snarling at the colt as he landed on the ground once more. Its eyes started glowing and it shot blasts of light at him only for him to spin round on a hoof and slap the blasts back into its face. It brought its claw up to its face while moaning in pain, bringing round its tail and launching barbs at Sora. He jumped into the air and dodged the barbs, nearly getting caught off as the monster swung its tail round to slam into him. Sora quickly beat his wings a few times and span round, recovering from the hit and swung the Oathkeeper into an uppercut on the monsters tail, cutting it clean off and causing it to fall to the floor and burst into wisps. It grabbed hold of its dismembered tail and gave an ear splitting shriek that echoed throughout the streets. Sora winced a little from the scream as he landed on the ground again. The monster threw itself onto all fours then roared at Sora and charged at him, its mouth wide open and teeth ready to crunch the pegasus. Sora jumped back a little and swung both Keyblades down onto the monsters head, slamming it into the ground. “Brave Shot!” Sora cried as both Keyblades shimmered a light red. He attacked the creatures face, slapping it left, right, up, down then down again. He finished the combo by unleashing a wave of red energy from his weapons and pushed the monster back onto its back legs then ran up to it and jumped, giving an uppercut into the monsters chin. Sora jumped off the tip of the creatures face as it fell onto its back, turning in mid-air to face the monster and his whole body began glowing. “This is the end…Omega Finale!” Sora threw the shining Oathkeeper downwards, the blade piercing through the monsters chest slightly. The monster arched his back and watched as the shining Sora flew down towards it and used the Kingdom Key to hammer the Oathkeeper straight through the beast. It roared and threw up its legs for a few moments before going limp and collapsing on the ground, its body dissipating into dark wisps and vanishing to reveal the pegasus holding his Kingdom Key in one hoof and pulling the Oathkeeper out of the ground with the other. He banished the Keyblades and began approaching the mares who had all gathered together during the fight. The mares could only stand and stare as the former earth pony, now pegasus trotted over to them and tilted his head. “What’s wrong?” He asked them. Twilight just began stammering, trying to push out what she was thinking but all the questions just wanted to escape at once. Rarity was leaning slightly against Fluttershy to stop herself from fainting while Pinkie had a grin growing on her face due to excitement. Applejack kept blinking and gulping, her mouth going dry every few seconds from keeping it open in shock whereas Rainbow Dash had a red blush strewn across her nose. Sora grinned as he saw their faces until they became blurred and his legs felt weak. He wobbled a little and could only just about make out their faces turn from bewilderment to concern as he blacked out. XXX Princess Celestia came back out of a pair of small doors into the guest room where the six girls started approaching her. Twilight gulped nervously. “How is he?” She asked. Celestia smiled softly and nodded her head. “He will be fine, he just needs rest for now.” The mares all let out a simultaneous sigh of relief then smiled to each other. “Thank you Princess, we really appreciate your help…Did you find what we were talking about?” The Princess shook her head. “No Twilight, I didn’t find any signs of wings. No feathers, no cuts, no growths. If anypony else told me that they saw an earth pony transform into a pegasus, I’d call them mad but with you and your friends…” Celestia smiled and gave a small chuckle. “Well trouble seems to have a way of finding you six doesn’t it?” The mares smiled and laughed with their Princess before she nodded “I must be off now, the other royals are leaving and I need to see them off.” With that, the Princess left them in the room. They were back in the same guestroom that they were in before, the door led to a small bedroom where Sora was resting. Pinkie bounced up to Rarity, giddy with excitement. “Did you see it?! Did you see it?! Did you see it?! Did you see him turn into a pegasus?! It was amazing!” Rarity smiled and nodded. “I know dear, it was rather shocking at first but it was a sight…and that dark red was definitely a good colour on him.” Rainbow then burst into the conversation, eager to share her opinion. “Who cares about what colour he was? He grew wings right in front of our faces! Then he used two of those Keyblade things to beat the crap out of that monster, smacking it in every direction and those special moves were incredible! That red energy move and that big combo he used to hit the things stomach, not forgetting that finishing move! He just jumped high into the air then hammered one of the Keyblades into another and it went straight through!” Rarity had tuned out a little in the middle of the pegasi’s rant then came back as it ended. “Yes Rainbow, I know. We were there too remember?” Rainbow just huffed and pouted until Applejack came up behind her. “Oh Rarity, be nice. She just wants to talk about the colt she’s fallen for.” She said with a grin and a giggle. Rainbow became flustered and shot her head round. “I have not fallen for him!” She exclaimed. Applejack just smirked in response. “But you love to talk about him don’t ya sugarcube?” Rainbow blushed more and frowned. “I just think he looked really cool, that’s all.” Rarity smirked at her denial and spawned an idea. “Oh but you can’t deny that he isn’t a bad looking colt is he? I saw your face as you watched him fight.” Rainbow span her head back around and frowned at the unicorn but failed to realise that her face had gone beet red. “I-I was not, well I was but only because I couldn’t take my eyes off of him…because he was fighting that monster, not because he looks hot.” Rarity and Applejack looked behind Rainbow and sniggered. “So you do think he looks ‘hot’?” Rainbow ran her sentence through her mind and her face became so hot that she was worried she’d start letting out steam. “You must really like him Rainbow, look at your back.” Pinkie said. Rarity and Applejack smirked at the flustered pegasus as she slowly turned her head round. Rainbow Dash blushed furiously and threw her head into her hooves as she noticed that her wings had become fully flared out during the conversation. As the three mares giggled at their friend’s embarrassment, Twilight had wondered to the guest room’s balcony. She was looking out at the town as guards and work ponies were repairing shop windows, carts and anything else that were damaged in the fight. There was large tarps and scaffolding set up where the once was a café and bowling alley. Twilight sighed as she looked over the damage caused by the battle and received a light pat on the back, she turned slightly and saw Fluttershy come up beside her and give her a warm smile. “What’s wrong Twilight?” The unicorn sighed as she turned back to the town. “I don’t know what’s bugging me more Fluttershy, the fact that he transformed into a pegasus or the fact that we were barely any help in that battle.” Fluttershy patted Twilight softly on the back and looked to the town with her. “It is strange that he become a pegasus all of a sudden.” Fluttershy said softly, only to see her friend shake her head. “Not strange Fluttershy, it’s impossible…he’s an earth pony that can turn into a pegasus and use magic. In two days he has broken the physics of Equestria. I may have given Rarity wings before but you saw it too, those were real wings not magical ones.” Twilight sighed and rested her head on the balcony railing. “And in that fight…we may have made a few scratches on that monster but let’s face it, we were barely any help.” Fluttershy stroked down the back of Twilight’s neck to try and comfort her. “Maybe there is something we can do Twilight.” Fluttershy spoke softly. Twilight looked at her friend with a confused look. “He may be super strong now but Discord is still Discord, maybe the Elements of Harmony can still help us beat him.” Twilight’s face seemed to light up at the idea. “You’re right, the Elements of Harmony helped us beat Discord last time, maybe they can help us again now.” Fluttershy nodded with a smile as Twilight made her way out of the room. “I’ll be back in a little bit.” XXX Thanks to her knowledge of the castles layout, it wasn’t long before Twilight found her way back to the entrance of the castle to find the Princess. She was waving goodbye to the Diamond Dogs and Griffons before turning round to see Twilight. “My dear Twilight Sparkle, is something wrong?” She asked. Twilight shook her head and looked up at the Princess. “No Princess Celestia, I was actually wondering if we could get the Elements of Harmony? We thought that even though Discord has gained all this power, the elements might still be able to help beat him.” Princess Celestia smiled and nodded, starting to make her way to the courtyard. “A very good idea Twilight but don’t you think that your friend can beat him? He did stop that monster after all.” Twilight nodded and looked down at her hooves as she followed the Princess. “It’s not that I don’t think he can. It’s just that we want to help him but in the fight with that monster, we would have lost if he hadn’t saved us. It also bothers me that he is fine with fighting Discord and all those monsters even though he only just got here and doesn’t even know what he is trying to save, as if it’s all just another day for him.” Twilight couldn’t tell what she was feeling as she spoke. Was it sorrow because she didn’t seem to be able to save her own world? Was it guilt that someone else had taken up the role as protector even though he didn’t even know much about where he was? Maybe it was concern that he was getting hurt from helping them and they couldn’t do much to help him back. It wasn’t long before they were out in the courtyard, making their way towards the tower where the elements were kept. The courtyard was very large and filled with many different varieties of flowers, all the grass was a beautiful shade of emerald green and the garden was bordered by a large iron fence painted a clean white colour. Twilight turned to her mentor as a thought crossed her mind. “Princess, what have the royals decided to do about the heartless?” Twilight asked. Celestia seemed to sigh a little in disappointment. “Well because your friend said he would beat them and proved he could do it by defeating that monster, they thought it best to protect their own cities and let him do it, we took a vote and we won but that Lord Julian threw a fit and accused us of letting Discord out on purpose.” “Why would he think that?” Celestia shook her head. “He said that we had probably made a deal with Discord to let him rule whatever we didn’t want if he helped us. It really upsets me that in this time of crisis there is still one who can be so selfish, the diamond dogs wanted to get back to their camps due to the fact that they don’t have any defences, only themselves.” Twilight nodded, understanding that they must be in trouble given the situation. A thought then spurred in her mind that confused her deeply. “Wait, you said you won the vote and there were five of you, if the two who voted against you were the diamond dogs and Lord Julian then that would mean…” Celestia saw where Twilight was getting and nodded. “Yes, Queen Chrysalis had voted with us in helping to stop the monsters.” Twilight looked up at Celestia with a deeply confused look on her face. “You see Twilight, Queen Chrysalis and Luna and me have been sending messages for the past few months. She is trying to get back in good standing with us since the incident a year ago but it hasn’t been easy, many ponies are wary of changelings and for good reason. But with this incident now, we need to band together and I believe we may be able to establish a connection with the changelings.” Twilight thought hard about it for a few moments, she didn’t trust the Queen but she did trust the princess to know what she was doing. The tower they was approaching wasn’t extremely high, it was about as big as a normal house but it was big considering the whole thing was only one room. It had a golden cone for a roof and the door had a lovely golden pattern round the arch. As they entered the room the light flooded in through the stain glass windows, each window had a memorial to key events in their history. The two Princesses rising the sun and moon, the rise of Nightmare Moon, the six mares defeating Nightmare Moon and the six mares sealing away Discord. They were lined out chronologically as if telling a story in four short scenes. Twilight and the Princess made their way towards a large door on the other side of the room and Celestia pointed her horn towards the lock on the front of the door, she inserted her horn into the lock and it began to glow. There was a click as Celestia pulled her horn out of the lock and the door opened, revealing the box with the elements of harmony inside. Princess Celestia took out the box with her magic and opened it, slightly worried to see that Discord pulled the same trick as last time but she let out a sigh of relief as all six elements were still inside. She gently floated them to Twilight and she gripped the box with her magic, a smile of gratitude appearing on her face. “Thank you Princess, I assure you that we won’t fail you.” The Princess smiled and nodded. “I know, now I hope this will help you find him. Discord announced where he was going next while you were fighting that monster but it wasn’t very clear.” Twilight nodded and began to listen as Princess Celestia relayed the message. XXX The eyes of the five mares all shot to the bedroom door as Sora slowly made his way out of it. He was limping a little whilst wobbling with each step, he then started to fall to his side but Rainbow made sure she was there to catch him. “Careful, you look like you should rest a little more.” She told him. He only shook his head in response and got back onto his hooves. “Nahh, I’ll be fine, just a little dizzy is all.” He looked round the room. “Where are we?” “We’re back in the castle, you passed out after the fight with that monster.” Sora nodded and kept looking round the room. “Oh ok. Where’s Twilight?” He asked. Fluttershy stepped forward a little. “She went to get the Elements of Harmony.” Sora looked at her confused, the expression asked the question for him. “The Elements of Harmony are five necklaces and one tiara, they are what we used to beat Discord when he got free last time.” Rarity explained. “Twi’ thought they might be helpful this time too.” Applejack added. Sora smiled at the five and they smiled back. “Well it’s good to see that I’ll have a lot of help beating him, I know we can do it now.” He said confidently. The door opened and Twilight entered the room with a case. “Hey Twilight, are those the elements?” Pinkie asked quickly. They all seemed to notice that Twilight had a troubled look on her face. “Twi’? What’s wrong?” The cowpony asked. Twilight let out a sigh and looked up at her friends. “Princess Celestia just told me where Discord is headed next.” All of them looked to her in anticipation. “He said to the royals while we were fighting that he plans to bring back the dark side of the moon…It’s pretty clear who he means.” “Nightmare Moon…” Rainbow muttered. All the mares looked down at the ground while Sora watched them. “Nightmare Moon?” He asked. Twilight looked up at him. “When Princess Luna became jealous of her sister one thousand years ago, her anger, jealousy and hate turned her evil. We call this evil version Nightmare Moon, she came back a few years ago but we managed to beat her…it was how we all met. I don’t know how or where he plans to do it though.” She said with a defeated look. “If she was the Princess’ dark side then he may use the powers of the darkness to bring her back as a heartless.” The mares all looked at him. “He can do that? How?” Rarity asked. Sora shrugged a little. “I don’t know how it works but to make a being as strong as a Princess, he’d need to go to where the darkness left the body. In other words, we need to go to where you beat Nightmare Moon.” The mares looked around and smiled a little. “Then we know where we need to go now. Girls, take these.” Twilight said. She took out the pendants and gave one to each of the mares, keeping the tiara for herself. “We ready?” She asked. Sora summoned his Keyblade and smiled. Suddenly his Keyblade and the elements began shining brightly, everypony looked at them all confused. The light from the Keyblade burst out from the tip and flew into the crystals in each element, there was a flash of light and everypony quickly closed their eyes. When their eyes opened again, in front of each mare floated a different Keyblade. Sora looked at each Keyblade and then his own, tilting his head. “Well…I wasn’t expecting that.”