1
Space was…well pretty empty. Just staring at it seemed to make melt everything away, making it feel like you were alone here. That’s how he felt right now, alone. Even with his two friends piloting the ship they used to travel between worlds it seemed to make him feel lonelier. He was said to be the one whom hearts were connected to, a bringer of peace, but for some reason all he wanted to do was curl up somewhere by himself.
“Sora.” He didn’t seem to hear his name being called, staring out into space again.
“Sooooora.” Again, he didn’t respond.
“SORA!!” The final yell jerked the boy into an upright position in his chair, gripping the side of the chair fiercely. It took Sora a moment to realize where he was exactly, inside the interior of the Gummi ship with his two friends, Goofy and Donald, giving him a weird look.
“Heh, sorry guys! I got sorta distracted!” Sora said somewhat apologetically, putting a hand behind his head. He, of course, was lying about his other feelings but he didn’t want to further worry his other friends.
“Gawrsh, that’s alrighty Sora.” It was Goofy whom spoke, after Donald had turned around to continue focusing on driving through the open space, “We’re just tellin’ ya we’re almost to the next World. Are ya shure you’re alright?” Sora gave a smile, looking a bit sheepishly knowing he was hiding his own feelings from his friends.
“Yeah, I’m okay! Let’s go kick some Heartless butt…if they have one.” Sora said, pausing in the middle of his sentence to question the fact if the shadow creatures even owned ‘butts’. Goofy seemed satisfied with Sora’s answer, giving a small chuckle to himself before turning around. Sora’s smile slowly slid from his face, sitting down a back onto his chair. He didn’t know why this way, he had two great friends with him especially after all they had been through. Break ups, Make ups, meeting new friends, trying to find old ones, partings… Everything.
"Riku…Kairi.” Sora mumbled to himself, lowering his blue eyes to the edge of the window. He wondered how his friends were, what they were doing. Ever since they had left Destiny Islands, it seemed like they never had any time to see each other. Riku had abandoned him, taking Kairi with him. They were gone, and whenever Sora felt like they were in reach of him he always was just one step behind
.
The Keyblade wielder glanced at his left, black gloved hand, staring into it for a little while. He knew why he had been chosen, the only problem was that he felt like he didn’t earn it. He always felt his friends were in danger because of hi-
BAM!!
“W-what’s going on!?” The ship’s alert sirens began to wail, causing the interior lighting of the ship to begin to flash red in a hasty attempt to warn its passengers. Donald and Goofy were still in their seats, their faces twisted in worry and fear in front of them. The ship tossed wildly from left to right, being rocked by some odd force. Sora instantly leapt into action, jumping out of his seat before immediately crashing into the side of the Gummi ship.
“Smooth.” He groaned to himself, realizing how stupid that was of him to do. Sora got off the floor, gripping to a nearby window edge in the ship. He tried to regain balance, only to become stationary as the ship kept its violent movements.
“D-Donald! What’s going on!?” Sora yelled over the roar of the sirens, which seemed to get louder with every waking second. Donald didn’t answer for a moment, the duck trying to maneuver his own ship. Goofy had taken refuge under his hat, pulling it down over his ears slightly to try and cover his eyes.
“A GIANT RAINBOW VORTEX!” The Duck screeched to the Keyblade wielder, making Sora give a raised eyebrow.
“A WHAT?!”
“A GIANT RAIN-“
The Duck’s sentence was cut off as the interior of the ship jerked forward, being to be sucked into the vortex. Sora tightened his grip on the side, noticing outside the window of the Gummi ship was some sort of rainbow swirling fiercely.
‘So this is what he meant by a rainbow vortex…’ Sora thought to himself, gripping the sill tightly as the Gummi ship began to violently spin in tune with the vortex. Without realizing it, Sora felt himself begin to feel lightheaded as the ship begun to spin faster and deeper towards wherever this thing was going.
“Sora!” He heard Goofy’s voice, “Donald! Hang on!”
“Whadda think I’m doin’!?” Donald’s voice replied, obviously sharp.
Their voices were beginning to come out fuzzier and fuzzier. Sora felt his eyes closing as the ship further and further plummeted towards wherever it was going. The last thing he remembered was the sound of someone’s voice.
“And that’s how you do a Sonic Rainboom!”
xxx
“And that’s how you do a Sonic Rainboom!” The spectacular sight in the air was amazing; every pony that was any pony was outside that day to witness the sight. A cyan Pegasus grinned as she pranced airborne before gracefully gliding towards the two ponies who sat on the grassy knoll below her. A purple unicorn mare, giving a somewhat unimpressed smile, sat there with a small orange Pegasus filly, which stared in awe of the cyan Pegasus. Her eyes were wide and impressed, while her mouth was curled up into a smile so big that she probably could have burst right then and there.
“WOOOOOWW RAINBOW!” The orange filly sprung up, flapping her wings to bring her upward, “THAT WAS AMAZING!” The little pony began to do loop-de-loops and barrel rolls into the air, mimicking the sound effect of a jet plane.
“Didja see her Twilight!? She was all ZOOOMM and VRRRR!” The orange filly proceeded to make more noises before diving towards the ground. However, she had forgotten to pull herself up before smashing straight into the grass below. The cyan Pegasus and purple unicorn looked worriedly at the little filly, but she soon sprung back up to her normal self, still bursting with energy.
“Heh, maybe someday you can do it too Scootaloo.” The cyan Pegasus said, ruffling up the orange filly’s purple hair. Scootaloo’s eyes widened before grinning fiercely.
“Maybe I’ll out do you and get my Cutiemark!” Scootaloo grinned, flapping her small wings for a little before facing the sky, “I should start practicing now! Bye Twilight, bye Rainbow Dash!”
And with that the orange filly was off into the sky, flying as fast as her little wings could take her. The purple unicorn mare smiled slightly, looking towards Rainbow Dash, her friend, as the cyan Pegasus looked up at her work. Twilight Sparkle had known this pony since she had moved into Ponyville, helping her stop a pony named Nightmare Moon from taking over Equestria, their homeland. She had been to the Gala with her and her five other friends, fought other foes and even themselves at a point.
They had been together through and through, while Twilight sent letters to her teacher, Princess Celestia, about all of their encounters. All was well in Equestria now, and Twilight sparkle was enjoying that little fact. However, her thoughts were tussled as Rainbow Dash suddenly flew into the sky, giving a glare as her Sonic Rainboom suddenly turned into something no pony was expecting.
A giant swirling vortex of colors.
“W-what!?” Twilight was immediately on her hooves, staring at the tornado like spectrum of colors. Rainbow Dash gave a horrified glance at it then a serious look towards her friend Twilight.
“Twilight! We’ve gotta stop it! I-I don’t know what went wrong! We need to st-“
“Say no more! Hurry and get the others!” Twilight said, looking towards the rainbow maned pony. Rainbow Dash nodded, giving a quick salute before all that was left of her was a trail of rainbows she left behind. Twilight turned towards the spiraling vortex, glaring at it slightly. Her mind rushed with numerous spells she had learned over the past year that she had been studying in her Library, focusing her thoughts on one that would stop the massive thing. It was a mile away at least, but still she had to get her friends to help. Twilight took a deep breath, focusing her being onto the horn protruding from her head.
‘The least I can do is slow it down…hurry Rainbow!’ Twilight thought to herself as sparkles slowly developed around her horn. She began to gallop towards the rainbow vortex, her head burning as she gathered her magic together in her horn. She was nearing the vortex, but still far enough away from it to not get sucked inside of it. She then released a beam of purple light from her horn, causing her face to screw up in concentration. The vortex was enveloped in the light, causing its rotation speed to slow down slightly, but not by much.
‘Who are you?’
Twilight blinked, her purple orbs searching around for the voice she had heard. There was nopony around her, or near her, just the slower-spinning rainbow vortex. The magician ignored the voice, focusing herself on coming up with another spell. Suddenly she heard the wind blow over her, causing her mane to be pushed forward by the wind. The vortex was enveloped by another rainbow vortex, though spinning in the opposite direction. It took Twilight a minute to realize that Rainbow Dash had returned, which caused her to sigh in relief.
She looked around for her other friends, finding that the other four of her other friends had managed to arrive. Fluttershy, carrying Rarity in her hooves, was flying near her putting down the white unicorn gently. Applejack and Pinkie Pie looked nearly out of breath, but it was more Applejack than Pinkie Pie.
“WOOWIEEE!” Pinkie Pie was the first to speak of the four, bouncing on her hooves at the sight of the vortex, “Dashie really out did herself this time! It’s all spinny whinny and crazy! It TOTALLY reminds me of the time when I was on this MERRY-GO-ROUND and it was all-“
“PINKIE! Now’s not the time!” Twilight had interrupted the pink pony, but Pinkie didn’t look sad about being interrupted by the purple unicorn. Rarity turned towards Twilight, the wind increasing around the ponies as vortex grew closer.
“Twilight! What do you want us to do? And please, do hurry darling my mane is getting tangled in this dreadful wind.” Rarity said, brushing her curly mane a little with her hoof. Applejack rolled her eyes while Fluttershy gave a glance towards Rarity then towards the spinning vortex.
“Girls I need you to help Rainbow Dash. Applejack, get ready to lasso in Rainbow Dash, she’s starting to get carried away. You other girls, help catch her and cover me. I need to prepare a spell.” Twilight spoke loudly over the roaring wind. All four fillies nodded, Fluttershy and Rarity bracing themselves against Twilight to help her hold her position while she prepared the spell. Applejack and Pinkie Pie situated themselves a little ways away from the trio of ponies.
“Rainbow!” Applejack yelled up to her pony friend who was trying to station the spinning vortex, “We’re a’comin’!” The earth pony grabbed a rope from the saddlebags she had grabbed before she had left home with the cyan Pegasus. The rope soon formed a lasso easily, in which the earth pony had begun to twirl the rope with ease. Pinkie Pie bounced around the earth pony, watching her with excitement as she began to aim for the cyan Pegasus.
“Get her Applejack! You can do it! Keep focused and try to remember how you play Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Pony! Also try not to blink, cause sometimes that causes bad things, like that time I was trying to stick a cupcake in my eye and I accidentally blinked and I was all ‘Phooey!’ and so I had to-“ Applejack ignored the rambling pony, launching the lasso at the perfect time the cyan Pegasus was circling the corner of the vortex. Rainbow Dash was caught by the lasso, causing her to forcefully stop in mid-air. She protested by trying to wrestle her way free, but to no avail as Pinkie Pie and Applejack slowly pulled on the rope to pull the pegasi to the ground. Applejack gave a flick of her tail as a signal to the trio of ponies, as the vortex grew closer to the yellow pegasi and the two unicorns.
“Twilight, dear, they’ve caught Rainbow Dash.” Rarity spoke softly in the unicorn’s ear. While Applejack and Pinkie Pie had been trying to capture Rainbow Dash, Twilight had been preparing her spell. She nodded, focusing all her strength onto her horn. The horn began to glow with a bright purple and pink magic, encasing it into three different layers of colors. Twilight stepped back from Fluttershy and Rarity and charged forward with her horn without even thinking of what she was doing.
"T-Twilight!” Fluttershy yelled, flapping her wings to go after her purple friend, only to be stopped by the white unicorn.
“No Fluttershy! She knows what she’s doing!” Rarity comforted the yellow pegasi who looked at her friend in the pony’s hooves. Twilight didn’t even hear her friends, only race blindly into the vortex. The spell called for her to be directly into the center of the vortex, as the point of origin would be too high up to connect with from where she was standing. If she made a shot from directly inside the vortex, she could pinpoint where the vortex had started and fire her cancel spell. Twilight felt the wind whipping her mane against her face, but she simply tightened her eyes and race full force into the vortex.
“TWILIGHT!!”
Twilight didn’t know what happened next. She felt herself be lifted off her hooves and be sucked into the vortex by a powerful force.
“Th-that’s impossible! I should have slowed it down enough for it not to suck me into its center!” Twilight gasped her hooves flailing inside as she begun to spin around inside of the colorful vortex. The world around her zoned out, only turning into a mash of colors and her own hair flying into her face as well as her own thoughts rushing.
“What do I do, what do I do!?” Twilight yelled to nopony in particular, screaming at the top of her lungs. She was helpless, not amount of magic could help her now even if she could cast a spell it wouldn’t help very much. Twilight was so wrapped up in thinking; she felt her body being slammed into something, something hard. She felt the wind blow out of her lungs, causing her to wince over in pain as she grasped the edge of whatever it was with her hooves.
“Sora! Hang in there!” She heard a voice coming from inside the object, causing her ears to flatten against the wind. Was somepony else stuck here? It was worse than she thought! Twilight looked at the thing she was grasping to, something that looked like a cannon attached to a larger object. Twilight turned her head to inspect more, only to accidentally loosen her grip with her hooves when she had lifted one to turn her body. Letting go, the pony flew into the air, managing to hit her head against one of the fin’s protruding from the object. She felt her world go hazy, colors a blur as she lost control of her consciousness.
xxx
“Hey…hey…wake up…c’mon…” Twilight felt a voice in her ear, as well as somepony poking her in the side. Her head throbbed as her world came into view, it was dark and only a bit of light was showing inside of the room. She wanted to jump up immediately and investigate, but her body screamed for her to lie just a bit longer.
“Oh good…you’re awake.” Twilight realized she was not alone in this mysterious room. Her purple orbs immediately flashed to her side, looking for the other pony in the room. She didn’t see anything, making her sigh as she slowly got to her hooves. She wobbled a bit when she stood up, but she was fine after a minute to catch her breath. Now, somewhat awake, she could fully see where she was, inside some sort of weird room or what looked like a room.
It was dark all around her, except for the floor emitting an array of colorful lights. There was also a faint light streaming down from the abyss above her, which made Twilight more confused to where she was. She soon realized she had to look for the pony that had awakened her, causing her to turn around slightly. Nopony was there…
“S-show yourself! In the name of Celestia!” Twilight yelled, looking around with a lowered head to look intimidating with her horn. She immediately let a fire spell surface into her brain, hopefully if she cast it would startle the pony and show her how powerful she was.
“H-hey, relax…” The voice was there, causing her to turn around behind her. And there he was. A stallion pony, no bigger than herself and looked more like a filly than a stallion the harder she looked, with a brown coloring for a body. His mane was a lighter brown, spiked up more than anypony she’d ever seen. He wore a chain necklace, a crown as a pendant, as well as hoof-covers that looked more like some sort of sock. He wore belt loops on his hind legs, which she thought was odd, up to his cutiemark which was a crown with a key in the background of it.
The stallion pony tilted his head slightly, looking at the purple mare. Twilight felt her face flush slightly, realizing she had been staring at him for awhile.
“I-I’m sorry, thank you for waking me up.” She smiled, “C-can you tell me where we are?” The stallion pony blinked his brilliant blue eyes, giving a somewhat confused look. He glanced around, as if he hadn’t even realized his surroundings as well before giving a large smile.
“Nope!” Twilight’s face fell when he spoke, sighing as she clopped a hoof over her forehead. Wonderful! She was stuck in some weird place with a brown pony that couldn’t be of any use.
‘Oh Celestia, what I wouldn’t give for a sign.’ She sighed, lowering her head as she looked around the room. There seemed to be nothing, until she peered down at the ground before it. It was a stained glass floor, by the looks of it, as well as emitting a brilliant array of color from each of its panes. The mare couldn’t make out what the shape was exactly, but proceeded to study the patterns on the floor. She tentatively placed her hooves on the glass, fearing her weight might shatter the object. The brown pony watched her, raising an eyebrow at her odd behavior.
“Whatcha’ doin’?” He asked, leaning his head over the purple unicorns. Twilight sighed, obviously not wanting to explain to this pony what exactly she was doing.
“Looking at the floor. It’s in some sort of pattern.” Twilight explained as the brown pony looked further at the glass. He frowned before raising his head, as if he had remembered something. He trotted over to the edge of the glass, though he tripped in mid-trot at least four or five times, before looking out into the abyss. Twilight raised her head, looking at the odd stallion as he stumbled.
“Excuse me…” Twilight couldn’t help but speak up, “but is something wrong with your legs?” The pony seemed to freeze, not answering Twilight’s question. Now she got suspicious, she could obviously tell this pony had something up his sleeves…if he had any.
“N-no. I’m okay!” He answered, smiling slightly as he turned his head towards her. He flattened his ears and looked back up at the black sky. Twilight raised an eyebrow but sat down on the glass, feeling it was secure. She’d wanted to figure out what the pattern was of the glass but now her suspicions turned to the brown pony before her.
“What’s your name?” She asked quietly, looking towards the stallion.
“Sora.” He answered simply, not moving away from the spot he was in.
“I see…well I’m Twilight Sparkle, apprentice of the great Princess Celestia!” She said proudly, speaking her mentor’s name. The pony didn’t seem to move, causing her to get a little cross with him. At least he could say something about Celestia! Maybe even a word about how they could get out of this place or something. Twilight’s ears twitched, noticing she could hear faint words coming from the distance. She looked towards the brown stallion, who was still staring at the sky. She quietly got to her hooves, walking forward towards the stallion, and as she drew closer she heard faint words coming from him.
“Leave her alone. She has nothing to do with the situation…” She heard him say, while responding to some unknown force. Twilight thought he was mad for a second, until she heard a reply.
‘Oh brave Keyblade wielder. There’s nothing you cannot undo. Their world was doomed the moment you stepped on their world.’
“I don’t have what!?” Twilight said, scaring the lights out of the brown pony. He nearly jumped, turning around to the purple mare.
“Jeez! Don’t do that!” He said, scratching the back of his neck with a hoof. He paused, looking at his hoof for a minute before placing it back down onto the glass while Twilight glared at him
“I don’t understand. What don’t I have to do with the ‘situation’?” Twilight pressed, anger rising in her chest. She didn’t want to be talked about by some strange pony she didn’t even know! It was downright absurd, especially when she didn’t know what the situation was. Sora seemed at a loss for words, looking down at the glowing floor. He raised his head slightly, taking in a deep breath. He opened his mouth, as if to speak before closing it suddenly. His eyes went wide as he looked at some unknown force behind her.
“Well?” Twilight asked, glaring towards the brown pony, “What is-“
“Behind you!”
Twilight whipped around, horn barred as she saw what had been behind her. A monster, black as the deepest cave in Equestria with round, yellow orbs for eyes. Its shape was that of a monster as well, hard to make out to a pony that had never seen a human before, nor knew what it was. She squeaked, jumping back beside Sora as she readied her horn.
“Don’t worry I’ll just come up with a-“ Twilight found herself cut off as the pony rushed into action beside her, leaping upwards. What a foolish move! He couldn’t even walk straight any less fight an enemy she had never seen before! Twilight opened her mouth to yell at the stupid stallion but then she saw something she’d never seen before. A large key-like object, the base colored yellow instead of a normal key that was only one color, with a chain protruding off the back of it in a shape with one circle with two smaller circles on top.
The pony held it in his mouth, by the handle piece, and slashed at the monster with ease as he came to the ground. With one hit of the blade, it dissolved into the air above it as if it hadn’t been there at all. Sora landed a little wobbly, causing his hooves to dance a little as he landed. Twilight was speechless as she stared at the pony, her eyes wide with her mouth open. Sora looked back, suddenly seeing her expression before sheepishly looking away and kicking a hoof lightly on the glass.
“So, uh...shall we?” He said, pointing to a door that had suddenly appeared behind the mare and stallion. Twilight shook her head to free herself from her sudden shock. She nodded, causing the brown pony to walk forward into the door by himself. Twilight paused, looking at the door slightly.
‘That creature and the door to this place must be connected…and that object he was holding...was it…a Keyblade?’ Twilight pondered to herself, remembering the other voice had spoken of a ‘Keyblade’. The name enough made sense with the object, making her wonder as well what exactly it meant. She sighed, not really having much of a choice but to follow the strange pony through the door. She braced herself, and then trotted into the light spewing door while her eyes were closed.
When she felt she was safe, Twilight opened her eyes to see they were on a different stained glass pillar now. She looked down from the other side, noticing the door that she had walked through had now vanished into thin air. As she peered into the abyss, she could now see the stained glass pillar they had been standing of now perfectly and the pattern it held, it was of Celestia…but it wasn’t Celestia. It was her former self, wearing a pink mane instead of the green, blue and pink that she now wore. Confused, Twilight gazed harder at it while trying not to fall off the pillars edge. Was it really Celestia? Or just some other pony whom was there…?
“Look alive Sparkle!” A voice shook her from her thoughts, turning around to see the ‘Sora’ character fighting more of the black monsters. She gasped, readying her spell that she had prepared before. She shot a few bursts of magic with her horn, causing the creatures to shriek and dissolve immediately.
“Nice!” Sora called, though the Keyblade in his mouth muffled the volume of his words. He continued to slash at the creatures, though clumsily at best. He had fallen down once during the fight, causing a monster to leap into the air to slash at him. Twilight had managed to shoot a magic burst at the monster, causing it to dissolve easily.
“Thanks!” He said, as he got to his hooves as quickly as possible. After a few more minutes of fighting the creatures, Twilight felt her body begin to drain. She had used up too much magic energy, causing her to weaken. It felt like the creatures onslaught was endless, causing her to start to droop. Sora noticed this, still slashing away at the monsters. He, too, was feeling drowsy with all the monsters, but kept fighting.
“Don’t give up! We’re not beat yet!” Sora said to her, slashing a monster away from her, “You can’t lose!”
“I can’t!” Twilight finally said, looking towards the stallion with hard glare, “I’ve used up too much magic!” She felt her body protest, especially the pain in her horn from processing so much magic in a matter of a few minutes. Sora looked at her then towards the creatures, still keeping them away as the mare stopped firing her own magic at them.
“You gotta! Just believe! You can’t give your heart up!” Twilight blinked, letting his words sink into her mind. Her…heart? What was that supposed to mean? Twilight looked at her hooves, looking towards the monsters he was fighting off. For some reason, he was fighting them, especially able to keep going. How? Why? It was irrational. If she kept going she’d waste her energy, it was easier just to give up…but then she remembered her friends…Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike. They were waiting for her back home, out of this strange abyss.
Twilight felt a sudden spark ignited inside of her; almost like the spark she had felt when she and her friends had found they were the Elements of Harmony. She was the Element of Magic…the Spark, Twilight Sparkle. She felt an energy rush through her, causing her to reignite her magic skills, ignoring her body’s protests.
The two continued on and slowly but surely the onslaught of creatures ceased. Sora panted once the creatures had disappeared, sitting down on his haunches. Twilight joined him, each of them tired from their tough battle. After a moment each looked up at each other, and then Sora began to laugh. Twilight gave him an odd look before she herself began to laugh as well, until the two of them burst into a fit of laughter. After a minute or two, their laughing died down causing a somewhat awkward silence between the two ponies.
“You were pretty good back there…” Sora spoke up, sitting with his front legs behind him much similar to Lyra, Twilight noticed. She blushed slightly, sitting forward a little on her haunches.
“Thanks…your skills were pretty impressive as well…” Twilight commented, noticing the weapon he once wielded had disappeared, “I’m assuming you don’t know what those creatures were?” Sora became silent at the question, as if something wracked his brain to tell him to be quiet. Twilight raised a brow after a longer silence, waiting for the pony to say something. After a minute or two, he finally spoke.
“I was ordered not to interfere with worlds…” Sora said, a little downcast from his previous self, “But, if you don’t tell anyone…those creatures…are called Heartless.”