"So a heartless is a creature made of pure darkness?" asked Twilight as they entered Fluttershy's cottage.
"Basically," said Sora. Noticing Fluttershy's couch, he pointed to it as he asked, "Hey, Fluttershy? Can I set Riku down there?"
"I guess," said Fluttershy. Sora walked over and set Riku down before turning back to the two mares.
"Is there a good place for us to talk?" he asked.
"We could use my room," offered Fluttershy. "I'm sure Riku would like to sleep for a while longer."
"Okay," said Sora as Fluttershy and Twilight led the way up the stairs. When they reached the top, they were immediately in Fluttershy's room due to the door being directly at the top of the stairs. Both Fluttershy and Twilight hopped onto Fluttershy's bed and stared at Sora as he stood at the foot.
A few moments passed before Twilight said, "Well? Aren't you going to explain all of this?"
"Oh! Yeah. Sorry," he said. "I thought you might have a question or two before hand."
"I'd like to hear as much as I can," said Twilight. "On the way over, you told us that the heartless come from the darkness in peoples hearts. What does that mean, exactly?"
"I guess I don't understand that very well either," said Sora. "As near as I can tell, they can come from people who are, by nature, bad. Those people seek out or have strong desires to harm others, so maybe those feelings are strong enough to become living creatures; the heartless."
"So the heartless are really evil?" asked Fluttershy nervously.
"Pretty much," responded Sora. "As far as anyone knows, the only goal of the heartless is to travel between worlds and consume more hearts, turning others into heartless and growing their numbers."
"So they're almost like a parasite..." said Twilight to herself.
"Yeah," said Sora. "When heartless find a world, they start looking for the gateway to the heart of that world. It's called the keyhole, and if the heartless get into it, then they'll devour the world from the inside out."
"So what do the heartless have to do with you and Riku? Why did you both crash in our world?" asked Twilight.
"Well, you see..." Sora proceeded to tell both Twilight and Fluttershy what had happened, giving them a quick background on who they were before telling them of their failed battle against Xehanort.
"I'm so sorry," said Twilight after he was finished. "I know if my friends were in danger, I'd be crushed."
"That's the problem," said Sora. "My friends are in danger, but there's nothing Xehanort can do about it. He can't move on with his plans until he gets Riku or I back. We're both warriors of light, so he'll need us to finish the X-Blade." Sora saw Twilight raise a hoof to question him, so he cut her off. "Before you ask, it's a really powerful weapon. With it, Xehanort could have complete control of everything."
"I wish there was something we could do to help you, but we can't just leave Equestria," said Twilight. "My friends and I all have jobs and families. Not to mention the fact that we don't know how to fight the heartless or even how to recognize one. I guess all we can do now is give you and Riku a place to stay while you're here. Maybe you can even find a way to save your friends."
"I'd like that," said Sora with a smile. "But would you really be willing to do that for us?"
"Of course," said Twilight seriously. "You said that the heartless might come to Equestria to find you and Riku. If that's the case, then we'll need you both to protect us."
"Oh," said Sora, crestfallen. "I'm sorry, Twilight, but we can't stay here. As soon as we find a means of transport, we'll have to leave and find a way to reach our friends."
"But you can't just leave Equestria unprotected!" protested Twilight. "What if the heartless come with an army? Our armies won't be able to stop them!"
"I have a solution," he said. "I'll bet if we find the keyhole to this world, then we can stop Equestria from being taken."
"How?" she asked. "You mentioned before that, while you were traveling to find your friends the first time, you sealed keyholes along the way. But how did you do that?"
"With this," said Sora as he summoned his keyblade.
"With a giant key?" asked Fluttershy.
"Yep," he responded. "With the keyblade, I can use light to lock the keyhole. That stops the heartless from getting to the heart of the world and destroying it."
"Then we need to find it right away," said Twilight. "We have to protect Equestria."
"Yeah," agreed Sora. "Why don't we go and wake up Riku? He needs to know what's going on and what our plans are." After a moment, the ponies hopped off the bed and followed Sora as he descended the stairs the main room.
/)*#*(\
Riku slowly opened his eyes and tried to look around, working through his grogginess. It took him about a second to check his surroundings and register where he was.
He was in someone's house on a couch. He sat up and started thinking about what happened, despite a pain in the back of his head that he couldn't explain. He was captured by Xehanort, saved by Sora, and then...what? His memory was blank.
He stood up and looked around the room some more. He took in the location of the stairs and door along with what looked like a collection of birdhouses. He also picked up the distinct smell of many wild animals.
Riku turned toward the door and prepared to leave when he heard footsteps coming down the stairs. When he turned around, he saw Sora standing at the foot of the stairs next to what looked like a yellow pony with wings. If he didn't know any better, he'd say she had come straight out of a cartoon.
"Riku. You're awake," said Sora gladly.
"Hey, Sora. Who's your friend?" asked Riku. "And where are we?"
"This is Fluttershy. It turns out that this whole world is inhabited by ponies." Riku mentally face palmed. Of course. Ponies. "So where were you going?" asked Sora.
"Actually, I was going to start looking for you," said Riku. "I didn't see you or anything else familiar when I woke up, so I just assumed we got separated."
Sora chuckled to himself. "Well, here I am." Before the friends could continue their conversation, a female voice from upstairs called out. It sounded like it was coming downstairs.
Riku saw a purple pony stop next to Sora and Fluttershy. It took him a second to notice her horn. Really? A Unicorn with wings? Okay, now I've seen everything. "Oh, you're awake," she said. "Good. Now we can get down to business..." That last word was slower than the rest. "Lookout!" yelled the alicorn.
Riku followed Twilight's gaze which seemed to be aimed behind him. He also saw Sora with an expression of surprise. He spun around and summoned his keyblade just in time to guard an attack from a Soldier heartless. The monster pushed off of his keyblade and launched itself through the window, effectively shattering it.
Riku turned back around and said, "Sora?"
"Right." he responded. They both went for the door as Sora summoned his keyblade. Riku left and Sora stopped before adding to the ponies, "Stay inside." The two frightened mares nodded their heads and Sora bolted through the door.
Sora rushed outside, keyblade in hand. He saw the soldier heartless that had attacked Riku, but it was by itself. Riku stood nearby, his keyblade held at the ready.
Both keyblade wielders looked at it with puzzled expressions. Heartless almost never attack alone unless they're one of the more powerful breeds, and even those usually summon allies. So what was going on?
Dismissing the thought, Sora held up his keyblade and shouted, "Thundaga!" Instead of the massive strike that Sora was used to, a much smaller, weaker bolt of lightning struck the soldier. It fell anyway, but the outcome still confused Sora.
Just then, his instincts kicked in and he dodge-rolled to the side, just in time to see and hear the crash of a guard armor heartless land where he stood only moments before. Sora righted himself and went into his combat stance. He was soon joined by Riku who handed him three potions and two ethers. Sora nodded to him and together, they rushed towards the huge metal heartless.
Riku sprinted forward ahead of Sora and slid under the heartless. He then leapt into the air and delivered a powerful blow to the creature's disembodied metal head. The heartless stumbled forward and was met with a barrage of hits from Sora, who dodge-rolled backwards to avoid a swipe from one of the heartless' hands.
Riku noticed the swing and cast Thunder on the offending hand, shocking it out of existence. The remaining hand swept behind the Guard Armor and clawed Riku, knocking him back and dealing considerable damage. The creature turned around and focused its attention on the now injured Riku. It pulled one massive, armored boot back and kicked Riku up into the air. Its remaining hand left its body and followed Riku, striking him over and over again before slamming him back into the ground.
When Riku struck the ground, his eyes snapped open before slowly shutting again. His body went limp as smoke and stars began swirling around his head. "Riku!" yelled Sora. That caught the attention of the guard armor.
The heartless turned back around to Sora and began flailing all of its limbs at him. It was all he could do to block the Guard Armor's attacks. Finally, Sora found an opening. The heartless launched its hand at him which Sora knocked aside, destroying it. With its upper body now exposed, Sora jumped at the Guard Armor and stuck his keyblade into its heartless emblem. He turned his keyblade and in a flash of light, the heartless exploded, releasing a heart into the sky.
Sora rushed to Riku's side, opened up a potion, and threw it on him. The green liquid soaked into Riku's body and he awoke with a start. "Did we beat it?" he asked as he sat up. Sora nodded his head, helped Riku up, and the two went back into Fluttershy's house.
/)*#*(\
Riku stepped through Fluttershy's door and into the main room. To his surprise, there was no sign of Twilight or Fluttershy. "Where are they?" asked Sora who was now right next to him.
A high pitched scream came from up the stairs, and Sora wasted no time in running up to the top floor, Riku close behind.
When they arrived in Fluttershy's room, they knew why and where the scream had come from. In the center of the room were Fluttershy and Twilight, surrounded by Neoshadows. They were holding each other out of fear as the heartless inched closer and closer.
Normally, Riku and Sora would have dived in to help and could have easily killed the heartless. However, due to the enclosed space, they didn't have enough room to fight without damaging their surroundings or injuring their new friends.
Sora started thinking for a few seconds before coming up with a plan. "I got it!" he exclaimed. He pulled back his arm and threw his keyblade yelling, "Take that!" The heartless that would've been hit sidestepped, leaving Twilight in the keyblade's arcing path. Twilight turned her head toward the sound and was met with the handle of Sora's keyblade striking her face and bouncing off, knocking her out cold. Riku shot a small glare at Sora who shrugged his shoulders saying, "Oops."
Riku shook his head and summoned his own keyblade. He began to concentrate, building spatial energy around his keyblade. He then pointed it at the heartless and fired a teleport spell. Before the ball of spatial magic could make contact, a large body appeared and guarded it with its armored front.
Riku kept thinking of other solutions. As he discarded the different thoughts, a single one hit him. Why not teleport the keyblade instead? Harnessing the remaining spatial energy around his keyblade, he teleported it past the heartless and into Fluttershy's outstretched hoof. It was as if her hoof moved on its own, ready to receive Riku's keyblade.
Fluttershy released an, "Eep!" when the keyblade materialized in her hoof.
"Use the keyblade!" yelled Sora. A neoshadow jumped at Fluttershy and she instinctively held up Riku's keyblade in defence as she cowered. When she opened her eyes, the heartless was gone, replaced by disappearing fragments of darkness.
Sora heard a heartless fall apart and summoned his own keyblade back in response. He reached out his hand to Riku, who took hold of it. In a flash of light, Riku disappeared. Sora was then lifted slightly into the air as a hexagonal barrier formed around him. It exploded away in a flash, destroying the first line of heartless. When Fluttershy looked through the gap, she saw Sora's clothes had changed from black to red and he was holding an extra keyblade. This one had a blue blade with a yellow star in the end.
Now dual-wielding his Kingdom Key and Starseeker keyblades, Sora charged through the gap before another heartless appeared to block his and Fluttershy's exit. As soon as the ring of heartless had reformed, they began splitting apart, shrouding the entire area in a haze of darkness. More heartless began to appear out of the newly formed walls of darkness, slowly snaking their way towards Sora and Fluttershy.
"Fluttershy," began Sora, "as long as Riku and I are linked, you're the only backup I have. I'm asking you to fight by me. I didn't think we'd be trapped like this, but now I'm left with no choice. Can you gather your courage to help me?"
Fluttershy looked like she was on the verge of tears. "I don't know, Sora," she whimpered. "They're so scary..."
"I know," said Sora. "They were terrifying when I first fought them. But right now, Twilight needs our help." Sora glanced back to the unconscious alicorn. "We have to fight to protect her. Can you do that?"
After a moment, her expression hardened. She lifted the keyblade, set it on her shoulders, then crouched. "If I have to." The aforementioned alicorn lay unconscious behind Fluttershy, a large red bump forming on her forehead. Sora could see Fluttershy shaking, but she seemed stable for the moment.
"Okay," responded Sora. "Let's go!"