//------------------------------// // The Strongest Bond // Story: My Little Kingdom: The Key to Harmony // by Mekapix //------------------------------// As Sora regained consciousness, his head pounded like someone was battering it with a hammer. He slowly opened his eyes to find he was back in the castle’s guest bedroom where he found himself before. Marble floor and walls surrounded him with a fashionable rug on the floor, Celestia’s golden sunlight was shining through the curtains, bouncing around the marble room and blinding Sora as he sat up on the bed. He raised a hoof in front of his face to block the light as his eyes adjusted. Once his eyes could take in the light, he hopped out of the bed and opened the door to a familiar room. As he walked across the room, he smiled as the memories of him and his new friends had pretty much started their little adventure in that very room. He looked round to see no one in sight. “Where are they…? Did something happen while I was out?” He mumbled to himself, a terrifying thought then entered his head. “Oh no…Discord didn’t come back did he?!” He began to slightly panic, worried that his friends were in danger until the door to the room opened and a familiar pegasus guard walked into the room. The guard looked at Sora and smiled. “It’s good to see that you’re awake, not surprising after your fight.” He spoke. Sora looked at the stallion for a moment before smiling. “You’re Wingbeat aren’t you?” The guard nodded. “It’s nice to meet you again, how are you feeling after the attack?” Wingbeat raised a hoof to his mouth and chuckled. “Heh, I’m fine thank you but shouldn’t I be asking you that question? You are the one that helped save Equestria from Discord and the heartless.” He stated. Sora just grinned. “Oh I’m fine but I am wondering… Where is everyone?” Sora asked. Wingbeat smiled and walked out of the room, coming back in with a rack with a strange kind of suit on it. “You’ll see them soon but before you do, you have to wear this. Princess’ orders.” He explained through a knowing grin. Sora walked over to the suit and looked it up and down, it seemed to be the top half of a tuxedo. A black blazer with a white, buttoned, long sleeved shirt as well as a black bow tie. “Why do I need to wear this?” He asked. Wingbeat just kept that same grin. “You’ll see. Here, let me help you put it on.” He said as he grabbed the white shirt first. It took a few minutes and a lot of struggling as Wingbeat tried to help Sora into his garments. After the slight ordeal was over, Wingbeat motioned Sora over to a full size mirror. Sora walked over to the mirror and couldn’t help admire himself a little. The suit fit him well, the blazer tails split as it lead down the back of his body, giving his tail room to be free. The arms of the blazer and shirt were held together at the cuffs by two pairs of cufflinks, the blazer cufflinks shaped like the moon and a lovely shade of white while the cufflinks on his shirt that stretched down his hooves only a little more than his blazer were in the shape of the sun, a radiant but not blinding mix of yellow and orange. The bow tie round his neck complimented the suit perfectly, he may have been a pony but Sora felt that he’d never looked more sophisticated. “It fits you well.” Wingbeat said. Sora spun on his hooves and smiled at Wingbeat. “Thanks. So why am I wearing this exactly?” He asked. Wingbeat turned to face the door and motioned his head for Sora to follow. “You’re about to find out.” XXX Sora followed the guard through the hallways of the castle, looking around at the beautiful tapestries that draped them. The light was shining through stain glass windows, releasing a multitude of colours into the corridors. Eventually the two came across a large door that Sora recognised as the door to the room where he beat Discord, just in front of the door were a few friendly faces, all in odd yet amazing dresses. “Good to see you’re awake!” Twilight said with a smile as she spied the colt. “I must say you look very good, a suit really looks good on you.” Rarity said as she looked up and down Sora’s suit, quickly earning a frustrated frown from Rainbow Dash. She just smirked at the pegasus and shrugged it off. “Thanks.” Sora replied. “You all look great too.” “We know!” Pinkie replied excitedly. “We wore these for the Grand Galloping Gala a few years ago, don’t we look awesome?” Sora laughed and nodded. “You sure do.” Fluttershy walked up to Sora and looked around him, walking a full circle round his body with curious eyes before smiling. “Well you don’t seem to have any injuries, are you alright?” She asked. Sora grinned his usual silly grin. “Yeah I’m fine. Can someone please tell me why we are here and why I had to dress like this?” He asked. They all smiled and motioned towards the door, Sora walked over to it and was about to it before Twilight chimed in. “All you got to do is walk over, kneel, let her speak, say ‘I thank you for this privilege’ then turn around and enjoy the moment.” She said. Sora looked at her confused and Applejack put a hoof on his shoulder, causing him to turn to her. “You’ll get it.” She simply stated. Sora nodded slowly before opening the doors. As he took a few steps into the room, he looked around and dropped his jaw a little in awe. There were guards and citizens on either side of the large room with the two Princesses on the other side of the room by their thrones. The six mares, followed by Wingbeat, walked through the room as he stood there dumbfounded, getting amused stares from all the ponies surrounding him. He eventually snapped out of it and looked over at Twilight, she smiled and moved her head in a motion telling him to move. He remembered her advice and followed, walking over to the Princesses. As he approached the Princesses, the seven ponies guiding him split off to either side as he kept moving forward. He recognised a few of the ponies in the crowd, the siblings of his friends as well as the small dragon. There was also the large bug like pony alongside the white unicorn stallion and pink alicorn that Twilight was with during the meeting. He eventually arrived at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they smiled at him before raising their heads to the crowd. “We are here today to honour this pony. We faced a peril that we had no idea how to battle, it seemed to grow and beat us at every turn, the threat was even able to resurrect Discord. It seemed like our troubles were getting out of hoof when the darkness crept across our lands but then this pony that stands before us right now came out of nowhere and ,without us even asking, began to fight the darkness.” Celestia ended her part of the speech for now and Luna stepped forward. “This brave young colt fought with the elements of harmony and faced down every challenge that came to pass. With abilities and a weapon that we cannot even comprehend, he defeated the darkness as well as Discord, even sealing Discord away so that we need not fear him again.” Whispers could be heard from the crowd as they announced Sora’s deeds but the whispering stopped as Luna looked down to Sora. “Please kneel.” Sora nodded and awkwardly knelt down on one his front hooves while bending the other. He then lowered his head as the Princesses came up either side of him. “Sora.” Celestia started. “We are here to honour you deeds to us. Your bravery and kindness to help us in our time of need shall be remembered through history, your act creates a debt we are not sure we can repay but we shall start with this, please tell us where you are from.” “Destiny Islands.” Sora answered. They lowered their heads in unison and placed a horn on each of his shoulders. “Then by the powers of us, the sun and the moon goddesses, we knight you Sir Sora of Destiny Islands, do you accept?” “I accept this privilege.” Sora replied. The two Princesses smiled and raised their heads. “You may stand Sir Sora.” Luna announced. Sora got back up on all fours and smiled at the two. They smiled back and ushered him to turn round. He turned to face everypony that had gathered and blushed a little while grinning. “Please congratulate our hero, Sir Sora of Destiny Islands!” Celestia stated. The whole room exploded into the stomping of hooves, whistles and messages of congratulations. Sora couldn’t help but feel embarrassed and proud at the same time from all the praise. XXX Sora followed the two Princesses and the six mares into the courtyard. “You really didn’t need to do that, I just did what was right.” Sora said. The blush was still on his face from the ceremony. Luna turned round and smiled at the colt. “But we did, you helped us when we really needed and showed the utmost bravery, even when you faced that giant monster Discord.” Luna explained. Sora chuckled sheepishly before getting a hug from Rainbow Dash. “You were awesome, we had to celebrate it!” She explained. Twilight giggled a little before looking over to Princess Celestia as the tower where the elements were to be stored came into sight. “Princess, did you ever figure out why the elements on harmony turned into those Keyblades?” She asked. Celestia turned her head to view Twilight, her horn glowing as the carried the box with the elements inside, back to their usual shape. “I’m afraid I didn’t Twilight but the elements are ancient, nopony knows their true power.” She explained. “The Keyblade is the same.” Sora continued. “Even the Keyblade masters don’t know everything about it…but I do have one idea why.” Twilight turned to Sora, obviously waiting. “Well the Keyblade can only be used by someone who has a lot of light in their heart as I’ve said before. Maybe the light in your hearts changed it.” Celestia turned to look at Sora. “The elements of harmony are old, magical items that unify the friendship that connects its wearers. The stronger the friendship between the elements then the stronger the power that is created from them.” “Then that could mean that the friendship between us, along with the light that we all have inside our hearts, were channelled into the elements and reacted with your Keyblade?” Twilight suggested. Sora put a hoof to his chin before shrugging. “Something like that I suppose but for whatever reason it happened, it allowed us to beat Discord and save Equestria, that’s the important thing.” They all nodded in response. They entered the chamber and saw the safe just up ahead. Sora looked round at all the stain glass windows, each one showing the elements of harmony saving Equestria but there was one window in particular that caught his eye. “Hey…is that…?” He asked. They all looked over at the window and smiled. The window had a multitude of colours. Near the top of the window was a black cloud with claw-like shapes emerging from it, it could easily be seen that Discord was hanging out of the bottom of the cloud. Below it however were seven ponies, six of them around one in the centre. There was a pink earth pony with a poofy pink mane in front of a blue balloon, a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane in front of a red lightning bolt, a white unicorn with a purple mane in front of a blue diamond, an orange earth pony with a blond mane and a Stetson on top of it in front of a red apple, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane in front of a pink butterfly and a purple unicorn with a dark purple mane with a pink streak in front of a magenta star. All six of them, as well as the symbols behind them, were inside a gold ring. The gold rings all had a gold string that lead to the pony in the centre, a brown pony with a dark brown mane pointing a key upwards, two rainbows leading out of the key and into the Discord and the cloud. “T-That’s us isn’t it?” Sora asked. “That’s right, it marks the triumph over the darkness.” Celestia stated. Sora just stood there for a moment before he was ushered towards the safe. “So Sora, will you be staying with us?” Rarity asked him. He shook his head in response as Celestia placed her horn into the hole in the safe. “I’d love to but I can’t, the heartless is still out there and I need to fight it.” Sora explained. They all looked to their hooves in disappointment. A certain pink pony walked over to Sora with her mane deflated. “You can still stay for your party though, can’t you?” She asked. Celestia and Luna were putting the elements back into the safe, just starting to close it. “I think I mi-” Sora was cut off as a light starting shining from the lock on the safe. “W-What’s going on?” Twilight asked. Sora knew the feeling and called out his Keyblade. They all watched as Sora jumped back and grabbed his Keyblade in his mouth, pointing the tip towards the safe’s lock as a keyhole shape made of light surrounded the hole. Small stars floated around the tip of the Keyblade before closing in on it, a burst of light flew from the Keyblade and into the hole as the stars hit the tip and the sound of a lock echoed throughout the room, the keyhole shape then vanished and Sora dismissed his Keyblade. “What just happened? What was that?” Fluttershy asked. Sora sighed with a smile before looking at Pinkie. “Sorry Pinkie but looks like I won’t be able to have that party after all, not for now at least.” “What do you mean?” She asked. “Well that little light show is the Keyblade’s way of saying that I need to go somewhere else and I need to go now I’m afraid.” A sad look grew on everyone’s faces. “S-So you’re just gonna leave? Now?” Rainbow asked. Sora only nodded in response. “But what about that thing you came in, your gummi ship? It wasn’t there when the guards went to retrieve it while you were asleep.” Twilight stated. “It probably up in the sky now, ready and waiting for me to go.” Sora replied. He looked down at his hooves for a moment before feeling something squeeze him, he turned and saw Pinkie hugging him. “Y-You’ll come back…won’t you?” She asked, her voice cracking as if she was about to cry. He smiled and hugged her back. “Of course I will, you’re all my friends and friends never say goodbye.” He said softly. She smiled and hugged him a little tighter, it only took a few seconds before he felt the hooves of his six new friends wrap round him and hug him tightly. “We’ll miss you.” He heard Applejack say as they let go. He took a couple of steps away. “Thanks, I’ll miss you too.” “Take care of yourself ok?” Fluttershy said. Sora smiled at her. “I will.” “If you’re going to save the world, make sure you look good doing it too.” Rarity stated. Sora giggled a little. “I’ll make sure I do.” “Make sure you come back again, I still need to throw you that party.” Pinkie said with a wave. Sora grinned and nodded. “I look forward to it.” “Give those bad guys a good beating from me!” Rainbow ordered through a slightly forced smile. Sora laughed a little. “You can count on it.” “Please… don’t forget us…” Twilight asked. Sora smiled and nodded slowly. “I promise, I never will.” He stood back and waved towards his new friends, all of them waving back as a light appeared around him, enveloped him then disappeared, Sora gone with it. A few tears stained their cheeks as they waved goodbye to their strange new friend. Silence took over the room for a few minutes as they all just stood in their place. Eventually Rainbow wiped the tears from her cheek and let out a sigh before walking towards the door. “Where are you going Rainbow?” Applejack asked. The cyan pegasus turned round and grinned. “I’m going to go train.” They all looked at her dumbfounded. “You heard him! He said he’ll be back and I bet that when he does come back, he’ll be even stronger than he is now. I gotta go train so I can keep up when I see him again. See you guys later!” With that, Rainbow Dash took off into the skies. They all smiled as they saw Rainbow go, Pinkie’s mane quickly returned to its poofy state as she gasped. “Wait! This gives me more time to throw him a party! I can throw him a ‘welcome to Ponyville’ party, a ‘saving the world’ party, a ‘congratulations on being knighted’ party and a ‘welcome back’ party all in one! It’ll be the biggest party EVER! I gotta plan it right away!” Before anypony could say a word, Pinkie was replaced by a pink blur that lead as far as the eye could see. They all laughed to each other before Fluttershy headed towards the door with a smile. “I should really go check on all the animals, I left Angel Bunny in charge of everyone else. Oh I do hope he’s ok.” Fluttershy waved to her friends as she flew off towards her cottage. Rarity quickly gasped and turned to Applejack. “Applejack, do you realise what we’ve done?!” She asked. The cowpony looked at her confused. “What do you mean…?” She replied. “We’ve done the one thing we never should have done! It’s the MOST! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!!” Applejack just shook her head. “What are you talkin’ about Rarity?” The orange cowpony’s shoulders were quickly grabbed by a pair of marshmallow hooves. “We left Sweetie Belle and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders alone! In Canterlot Castle!” Rarity yelled. Applejack chuckled back at her. “Awww shucks, is that all? Even they couldn’t have…” A short flashback played in Applejack's head where the terrible trio had had an unfortunate incident inside her home where they tried to be Cutie Mark Crusader Cleaners… she didn’t enjoy washing all that three day old rubbish out of her mane. “Let’s go!” Applejack and Rarity waved to Twilight as they shot off back to the castle. Twilight walked over to the door before an idea formed in her head, she quickly turned and looked up at her mentor. “Princess? Would you mind if I gave you my friendship report now?” The alicorn smiled and shook her head. “Of course not my dear Twilight, go right ahead.” Twilight smiled and cleared her throat. “Dear Princess Celestia. Today I learned that sometimes, your friends can come from the strangest of backgrounds. Although they may seem odd and sometimes you may not even be able to understand what they mean, say or do, they will always be a friend that you know you can rely on and even if they leave you, which they may have to, they have only left your sight, they will never leave your heart.” Twilight looked up at the ceiling, remembering something the strange, smiling colt said just before he left. “After all… friends never say goodbye…” End