Everyone stepped out of the train and onto the platform as engineers began running on and around the train to inspect the damage wrought by the heartless. They had stopped off in a small town near Manehattan and were getting ready to take a small break.
Sora let out a large yawn. "Man am I tired," he said.
"We can't afford to rest," said Riku. "We have to get to Manehattan to stop that heartless."
"Do we have to go now though?" asked Pinkie, bouncing up beside Sora and Riku as they led the crowd.
"Well, we won't be going right away," responded Riku. "We still need to train a little first. That heartless was no pushover and I doubt we can just walk up and stab it a few times."
"So when do we start?" asked Twilight, now joining Riku, Sora, and Pinkie.
"We'll start as soon as everyone's ready. I'd suggest grabbing something to eat while we've got some down time," said Sora.
"Okay. You two find a good spot to practice and I'll take a look around here with the others," said Twilight. She then directed the rest of the group away from Sora and Riku while they continued walking, hoping to find some sort of open field or flat area. They soon found an abandoned lumber yard at the edge of the small town and decided to use that. It had a few pieces of debris, but it was clear for the most part.
"Riku, can you clear off the extra wood while I go find the others?" asked Sora.
"Sure. Just be back soon. We don't know how far the heartless have spread in this world," said Riku. Sora nodded and hurried off, hoping to find Twilight and the rest of the ponies soon and lead them to the yard.
Back in town, Twilight and the others had just sat down to an outdoor restaurant but couldn't quite find their appetites. Within minutes, Applejack fell asleep, while the others began yawning themselves.
Rainbow Dash was just about to nod off when she heard a loud rustling in the bushes nearby. It sounded like it was about the size of a human. She turned around and saw three shadows coming out of the concrete by the bushes. "Guys," she said, "I think we have a problem."
Everyone else lifted their heads while Applejack slowly woke up. When everyone noticed the heartless, they cautiously backed up. The waiters and any other ponies who happened to be walking by started running in panic, yelling "They're back!"
Everyone stopped backing up only a few feet from where they had all started and summoned their keyblades. Rarity immediately started complaining. "Sora never showed us how to fight these things. What should we do?"
"We're just gonna have to do our best," said Rainbow, shouldering her keyblade. She thought about activating her keyblade armor, but decided against it. After all, why equip such powerful armor if you're just going to fight a few small heartless?
The 'few small heartless' quickly became many as more and more of the shadows started showing up. Nevertheless, the group charged forward to meet and fight the heartless.
Everyone seemed to be having an easy time dispatching the creatures, executing a few quick strokes of their keyblades before finishing with a thrust. They had even been able to guard a lot of the shadows' attacks. However, Rarity and Fluttershy weren't doing very well. They stood back to back, only finding the courage to guard and rarely swing.
A heartless jumped at their exposed left side where they had no one to help them defend. Rarity managed to turn and bring her keyblade down on top of the heartless, cushing it into the concrete to let it disappear into darkness.
They weren't without their wounds, either. Of the few attacks that did land, the damage was devastating, taking massive amounts of energy just to keep standing. Fluttershy was quickly wearing out after casting the Cure spell so many times, and Rarity barely had energy to swing her keyblade.
Just when they thought they had lost, Twilight came in, keyblade swinging, to fight off the bulk of the attackers. "Stay focused!" she said before leaping off to fight another group of heartless that was beginning to edge away from the ponies.
Meanwhile, Rainbow Dash flew high overhead, striking the heartless below with multiple Thunder spells. She had no idea how she was summoning the bolts of lighting and honestly didn't care as long as they were working as offensive weapons against the heartless. Every now and again, she would dive bomb the heartless below with a few keyblade swings and pull up before crashing.
Applejack kept a steady attack and defend pattern. Swing three times and then watch to see if the heartless would attack. If so, she would be ready to guard. If not, she could unleash another combo on the heartless surrounding her.
Pinkie Pie would just laugh at the heartless as they fell before her impossibly fast swings and even faster movements as she danced her way around and behind the heartless to strike them from behind.
Eventually, the group began to tire and was pushed together. Even Rainbow Dash didn't have any strength left to fly. They were all pushed into a tight circle when the back lines of the heartless began exploding in light. Eventually, the light worked its way to the ponies and revealed itself to be Sora in his keyblade armor.
Sora's armor was completely gold and his helmet matched Ventus's. The only difference was the visor which was a deep and reflective Silver.
The armor seemed to be amplifying his attacks as he swung his keyblade, each swing releasing a wave of light that destroyed more nearby heartless. The ponies joined in his attack and with Sora's help, quickly defeated the remaining heartless.
When the coast was clear, Sora deactivated his armor and went to check on everyone else. "That was awesome!" cheered Rainbow. She was clearly impressed not only by Sora's display of attacks, but also by his gold plated armor.
"Thanks," he said in response. "Are you all okay?"
"Yeah, thanks to you," said Twilight in relief. "Did you and Riku find a good training area?"
"Yep. Just follow me. It's on the edge of town, so it may take awhile to get to," said Sora as he turned away from them. The ponies nodded their heads and together, they all began making their way towards the abandoned lumber yard.
/)*#*(\
Riku watched Sora go and hoped he would take a while. Riku planned on making a few quick dummies to train on. At least, before moving onto real time combat. Looking around, he found several suitable pieces of rotting wood and logs, so he began to stick them into the ground in a straight line.
As he worked on the positioning of the dummies, he had the strangest feeling he was being watched. He waited to see if the sensation would pass, but it didn't. If anything, it got stronger. Riku paused to listen for any movement behind him, but all he heard was the wind whisking through the trees.
He finished setting up the last dummy and stood back to admire his work. All of the extra pieces of wood were in a perfect line, though none of the 'dummies' looked alike or even resembled heartless. Nevertheless, they had targets now.
When Riku turned around, he saw a dark shape in the trees ahead. He squinted, trying to make out a solid shape. His eyes widened in shock and he jumped back just in time to avoid a pillar of darkness erupting where he stood just moments ago. The figure stepped out from trees slowly and stopped, staring with its red eyes at Riku.
The figure was humanoid and wore a black cloak. On its arms, it had woven magenta patterns and the same went for the bottom of the cloak. On its back was the symbol of a nightmare.
"You," said Riku. "I thought I destroyed you." The Nightmare continued to stare at him, unblinking, unmoving. Finally, it held up its hand and from it came a purple and magenta sword with the Nightmare sigil on its handguard. It lowered its hand, now holding its sword and waited, seemingly for Riku to summon his keyblade. He did and held it at the ready.
The Nightmare rushed forward and brought its sword down on Riku who guarded it and followed up with a swing of his own, catching the Nightmare in what Riku assumed to be its chin. The creature black flipped and landed perfectly, charging forward again to strike at Riku who, again, guarded the attack and countered with ease.
Something was different about the Nightmare this time. Its attack pattern was one tracked to say the least. It was nothing like before. Maybe it didn't have enough energy for its more powerful attacks. But then why would it attack him in the first place? These questions were cycling through Riku's head as he guarded and countered, over and over again.
Finally, the Nightmare changed its attack pattern. It disappeared into the earth and moved around as a swirling pool of darkness. It came back up behind Riku, but he was ready for it. He spun and slashed the nightmare horizontally, sending it spiralling back a ways. It managed to right itself in mid air and come to a safe landing, though that didn't save it from being blasted by a fireball from Riku as a followup to his earlier strike.
Riku ran toward the stunned Nightmare and charged his keyblade with light. In one swing, he slashed the creature in half and watched as it disappeared into shadows.
/)*#*(\
When Sora showed up with the ponies, he found Riku dismissing his keyblade. He also had a couple minor scuffs and bruises. "What happened?" asked Sora.
"I'll tell you later," said Riku. "For now, let's start training everyone." From here, Riku lined up the six ponies so that they were facing the 'training dummies'. "Now, none of you have been in a real fight except for Twilight and Fluttersh-"
"Actually, Riku," cut in Sora, "when I found them, they were being attacked by heartless."
"Oh. Well then I guess I was wrong. However, none of you have very much applicable skill. Other than Twilight, none of you seem to know any offensive magic."
"Wait, so you're saying we can use magic even though we're not unicorns?" asked Rainbow Dash, bewildered at the idea. Her mind was drawn to the lightning she had summoned earlier.
"Precisely," said Riku. He summoned his keyblade and turned toward one of the dummies. "Fire!" he called. A ball of fire launched from his keyblade and struck the dummy in its 'head', blowing it clean off. The ponies released collective oo's and ah's. "We'll have to teach you all how to use magic. It'll benefit you immensely when it comes to a tough fight."
"So where do we start?" asked Pinkie.
"Well, we've only got a little bit of time. No doubt that heartless is back in Manehattan and is looking for the keyhole. So, I'll give you all a list of magic that Sora and I know, and we'll teach each of you one spell of your choice." Everypony nodded their heads. "Okay. Now form a line in front of me and we'll get started."
Everypony began forming up with Twilight in front. "Okay, Twilight. I'm going to ask you to train with Sora for now."
"Why's that?" asked Twilight.
"You already know some offensive magic and if we divide and conquer, then we can finish up here and move onto Manehattan faster." Twilight nodded her head and walked over to Sora.
"So, Sora, what kind of magic will you be teaching me?" she asked.
"I was thinking about the Cure spell," he said. "I know it's saved me an amazing amount of times, and I've even seen Fluttershy use it before, though I don't know how she learned it."
"Okay. So what do I do first?" Twilight pulled out a notebook from seemingly nowhere and summoned a pencil.
"Let's just stick with practical application," said Sora. Before Twilight could react, Sora had summoned his keyblade and struck her, knocking the wind out of her as she fell to the ground. "Sorry, but I knew you wouldn't agree to me whacking you like that."
Twilight picked herself up and brushed off. She was definitely hurt, but she didn't show it. "What was that for again?"
"I needed to put you in a position where the Cure spell could be effectively learned and practiced. Again, sorry." Twilight groaned in annoyance. "Now, you've been injured during battle and your enemy has stalled its attack. This is a perfect time to heal because your spell won't be interrupted by your enemy's attack. Focus your magic and heal yourself."
Twilight thought of every healing spell she knew, but none of them did the trick. Then, she found something else. Something near her heart that looked promising. She was careful and started fueling her magic into it. Before she knew it, a massive flower bloomed over head and showered her with its healing energy. It disappeared almost immediately and Twilight went to rejoin Sora who congratulated her.
"That was great!" he said.
"Yeah. I just wish you didn't hit me so hard," she said, rubbing her sore foreleg. "That really hurt."
"Sorry, but the heartless won't let up at all. Now, unfortunately, the only way that that Cure spell can be put to use is if you're in danger and you've lost some strength. When you need to recover during a fight, make sure that you're not being attacked and then cast your Cure spell. What do you say to a sparring match to get you acquainted?"
Twilight shivered inwardly. With just a simple swing, Sora had knocked her down before she could react. She hesitated before nodding her head. "Okay then," said Sora. He jumped far back and crouched into his combat stance. "Here we go!"
Sora charged forward, hoping to get the benefit of the first strike. He swung his keyblade at Twilight and it passed right through her as if she wasn't there. He then felt an intense pain in the back of his head as Twilight's keyblade knocked him forward. He was pushed through 'Twilight' to find that it was a hologram of sorts. In fact, she had teleported behind Sora and left a still image of herself.
When Sora turned, he was met with a fireball and couldn't guard it. It impacted but carried little force behind it. Sora didn't even flinch, but the heat still burned. He rushed forward again and started pounding at Twilight's defenses, forcing her to switch from attacking to immediate guarding. She knew that Sora could finish her with one blow and she didn't plan on letting that happen.
Twilight teleported again, this time above Sora and she dove down on top of him, smacking him with her keyblade. He was pushed a few centimeters into the ground but managed to roll away and guard Twilight's next attack. He immediately countered and struck Twilight in the chin, launching her into the air. She came down hard and collapsed as she landed, surrendering with the weak wave of a hoof.
"That was good," said Sora as he cast Cure on Twilight, "but you didn't get a chance to use your Cure spell. Try using it now to fix whatever damage I couldn't." Twilight did as she was told and, instead of the basic cure spell, she unleashed Curaga, the spell's strongest level. Sora stared for a moment in awe. "Great job, Twilight! I don't think I learned that one until near the end of my first journey."
"Thanks," she said wearily. "Could I take a rest now? Maybe over on that log over... there..." Twilight fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Looks like I took it a little too far," said Sora to himself. He picked up Twilight and carried her to a pile of logs, setting her down so she would lean against them.
Meanwhile, Riku had just finished showing Applejack, the next in line, how to use the Magnet spell. "Great job," he said. "Remember, at its current level, it'll only work well on weak heartless. Later, though, it will be effective on all kinds of enemies."
"Thank ya kindly, Riku," she said before leaving the line. Rainbow Dash was the next one up.
"So, Rainbow Dash, what spell would you like to learn?" He showed her the list of spells he knew. Already, she knew what she wanted.
"Blizzard," she said confidently.
Riku smiled. "Okay. It's a simple one to cast. Just start thinking cold. Really cold." Rainbow Dash shut her eyes and started thinking as cold as she could. The sheer cold of an ocean storm touched her consciousness as she recalled memories of her earlier flights as a mare. Her mind quickly wandered, however, to the outcome, where she crashed into the ocean and nearly drowned. As the memory tormented her, she opened her eyes and found that she'd frozen the end of her keyblade a little.
"It's gotta be colder I guess," said Riku jokingly.
"Right," she said in determination. She shut her eyes again and called up the memory, focussing purely on the cold and blocking everything else. She held out her keyblade at one of the dummies and fired a chunk of ice out of it, freezing the dummy on impact.
"Excellent," he said. "Now, go join Applejack and practice with her."
"Gotcha," she said before hurrying off.
"Okay, Fluttershy, you're up next." Fluttershy stepped forward in line.
"Um, Riku? If it's all the same to you, um, could I maybe learn a spell that doesn't hurt anyone?" Riku thought about this for a moment and then agreed.
"Okay. How about these?" He pulled out cards that he had gotten from Castle Oblivion. He had managed to smuggle them out, though he hadn't tried to use them. He shuffled through them until he found the Protect spell. While he had never used it himself, he knew what it did and thought Fluttershy would be the perfect one to use it. He turned it over and, sure enough, there were instructions on how to cast the spell.
"Okay, Fluttershy," he said. "Focus hard on me. Focus on the fact that I'm in danger right now."
"But, there aren't any heartless," she said confused.
"I know, which is why I need you to know it. You have to think of me being in danger as a fact right now. Close your eyes. It might help." Fluttershy did as she was told and waited. "Now, I'm in extreme danger because I don't have much energy left to fight and a heartless is about to finish me. Unless, you can manage to protect m-" Before Riku could finish speaking, he saw a barrier form around him and noticed Fluttershy's keyblade had appeared in her hoof, the tip aglow with a brilliant light.
"Wow," was all Riku could say. He was amazed at how quickly Fluttershy had learned the Protect spell, much less the speed she had cast it with. He made a mental note to study up on the spell himself later. "Great job, Fluttershy. Now, I want you to go over to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Ask them to spar and cast Protect on both of them. Good luck."
"Thank you, Riku," she said. She turned and began walking toward Applejack and Rainbow Dash as they were practicing their spells.
"Okay Pinkie Pie, you're next," said Riku. The pink party pony bounced up in front of him.
"That's okay Riku. I already know how to use magic," said Pinkie simply.
"How?" he asked. "I thought only unicorns could use magic."
"Oh you know. Cartoon logic," she said.
"Oh, okay," said Riku. He paused for a moment as he realized what he'd just said. "Wait. What?"
"What?" asked Pinkie back as if she hadn't said anything.
"Um... nothing," said Riku, confused. "Why don't you show me something then." He pointed to the dummy Rainbow Dash had frozen and said, "Why don't you unthaw that dummy?"
"Sure," said Pinkie happily. She held up her keyblade and said simply, "Fire." A Fira-sized ball launched from the tip and passed near the dummy, perfectly thawing it without damaging the dummy itself.
"Nice," said Riku. "It looks like you know quite a bit already." He tried not to think about why, as he felt that he may give himself a headache trying to figure out the walking enigma. "I guess you can go over and practice with the others," he said, giving Pinkie the okay to bounce off toward her friends.
"Okay, that just leaves you, Rarity," he said as the white mare approached him. He showed her the list of spells he knew and immediately, she picked the Reflect spell. "Alright. It's the same idea as with Fluttershy's protect shell, though it's more direct in that it stops all damage for about a second."
Copying what Fluttershy did, Rarity successfully cast Reflect on Riku. She even summoned her keyblade and brought it down on him to demonstrate how strong of a barrier she had made, though she hadn't anticipated the 'reflection' of damage and had to jump back to avoid it. "Excellent," said Riku. "Now, go ahead and join the others. I'll be meeting with you all soon." Rarity turned and walked toward the others.
Meanwhile, Riku joined Sora who was still sitting by Twilight. "Take it a bit too far?" he asked.
"Yeah, just a tad," responded Sora. "So how's the magic training going?"
"Great. Everyone learned a new spell," said Riku. "Well, everyone except Pinkie Pie. I honestly don't know how she functions."
Sora chuckled to himself. "Me neither," He paused before adding, "Hey, Riku?"
"Yeah?"
"When we tried to link before, it went out of control and I switched to Anti-form. The problem this time though is that I had absolutely no control. I'm worried about what might happen if I transform again and the ponies can't defend themselves."
"Relax, Sora. They've all got some kind of natural skill with this. They'll find some way to keep you under control," said Riku, half chuckling while he spoke that last part.
"That's good. Did you set everyone up to spar?"
"Well, not exactly." A loud explosion could be heard from where the ponies were. "Guess we'd better see what happened."
"Yeah," said Sora. He stood up and held his keyblade above Twilight before saying, "Cure." After a moment, a shower of green magic fell over her and she woke up, mumbling groggily to herself.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"I think your friends had some trouble with their magic," said Sora. "We're going to go check on them, okay?"
"Sure," said Twilight as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and followed Sora and Riku. Together, they made their way to where the ponies were sparing. Evidently, Pinkie Pie had made too large of a fireball. When Rarity cast her Reflect spell to guard it, both her shield and Pinkie's fireball exploded. Neither of them were hurt, though they weren't too happy with their results.
Riku called everyone back together to talk to them. "Everyone, we need to get moving to Manehattan. The ponies there are in trouble and we've got to help."
"So soon?" asked Twilight. "I mean, I get that we have to get there soon to stop the heartless, but we've only just learned how to use our keyblades. Do you really think we're already prepared for this?"
"Come on, Twilight," said Rainbow Dash. "We've taken down worse, right? What's some heartless against the Elements of Harmony, huh?"
Twilight paused for a moment before she admitted, "I guess you're right. I just hope we're good enough to stop them."
"If you're ready, then let's get moving," said Riku.
"Twilight, do you know what direction Manehattan is from here?" asked Sora.
"Yes. If we head north from here, we should arrive at the southern gate to the city. They may have it closed off, though."
"Okay. If it is closed, then we'll just have to find another way in," said Sora. He summoned his keyblade and held it straight up. Riku did the same, and soon they were all holding their keyblades to the sky. "No matter what happens, we'll all make it back alive," said Sora confidently.
Everypony shifted uncomfortably. Hearing that there was a possibility that they could die made them all uneasy and hurt their morale. Nevertheless, the group immediately set out for Manehattan, eager to finish their fight sooner rather than later.
/)*#*(\
The group knew that they couldn't make it to the city before sundown, and they definitely didn't want to fight the Hunter of the Dark at night with such low visibility. The group decided to settle down for the night five miles out of the city. From what they could see, there wasn't very much damage to the city, though Sora and Riku could feel the darkness emanating from the skyscrapers as the city's inhabitants were attacked by the heartless every now and again. The city was quiet and dark, showing just how scared all of the ponies there were.
Everyone had gone to bed and were sleeping soundly. That is, everyone except for Sora. He sat on a nearby hill, staring at the city. The stars lit up the night sky, giving the hill and city a beautiful blueish tint. His mind began to wander and he began to think about Kairi and the others that were trapped by Xehanort. How long would it take to find a portal back to the dark realm? When could he save his friends? Would he be able to save them once he arrived, or would he be too late?
He was torn from his thoughts when he heard a voice behind him. "So you can't sleep either?" Sora turned his head to see Twilight approaching him.
"Nope," he said matter-of-factly as Twilight sat down next to him. "I can't help but think that I've been failing everyone. Ever since I got here, I've been putting people in trouble. I couldn't even protect my own friends." He slammed his fist into the ground and hung his head.
He suddenly felt Twilight embrace him in a hug. Surprise crossed his face for just a moment before he returned to normal. Twilight backed up and stared at him. "What was that for?" he asked.
"I think you needed it more than anything," she said. "I can tell you're hurting right now, and I don't know what I can do to help. I can't stand to see my friends in pain like this."
Truth be told, it did make Sora feel better. "Thanks, Twilight," was all he said.
"No problem. I have to ask you though... when we get to Manehattan tomorrow, could we really not come back? Alive, I mean?"
Sora thought for a second before answering. "As warriors of light, we put our lives on the line to protect others. So, yes. We will be in danger and we might even lose our hearts if we're not strong enough." Twilight gulped in fear loudly. "But we can't focus on that. If we get distracted for a second, it could mean the difference between victory and loss. I was lucky, and Kairi helped me get my heart back when I became a heartless." Twilight released a breath that she didn't realize she was holding. "But she won't be there for me this time, so I've got to do my best. And so do you," he said while turning toward Twilight.
Twilight stared at the ground for a minute. "What was being a heartless like?" she asked.
Sora thought about it again before answering. "It was darkness; never-ending darkness that I couldn't escape from no matter how hard I tried. I just kept falling deeper and deeper into it until Kairi saved me. I saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and she brought me back." Sora smiled as he thought about her.
"What's she like?" asked Twilight.
"She's strong, but kind. She has the best personality and I couldn't be happier to know her. She certainly isn't some damsel in distress. When I returned to a world where darkness was overflowing, she wanted to come with me and help me out. I said no because I didn't want to put her danger, but I didn't see her for a long time after that. We've been friends since we were kids, and Riku and I were always fighting over her." He chuckled to himself. "She's a fighter and she won't give up easily. I bet she's still fighting Xehanort right now, even as he's stealing her heart." A single tear rolled down Sora's cheek and a small frown found its way to his face.
"Don't worry, Sora. We'll find her again, and then we'll all stop Xehanort. I'll do whatever I can to help. Count on it." Twilight smiled at Sora.
"Thanks, Twilight," he said. He laid back down and closed his eyes, drifting off into sleep.