//------------------------------// // Manehattan // Story: Kingdom Hearts: Friendship is Magic // by Mudkipman98 //------------------------------// Sora, Riku, and the ponies were charging towards the gate to Manehattan by 6:30 in the morning. They had to hurry and find the hunter of the dark to stop it, and getting up early was worth it if it meant saving lives. When they arrived at the gate, a guard stopped them commanding, "Halt! The city is under attack by a monster. You must leave immediately." He took notice of Twilight's wings, but instead of letting her through, he held his position even firmer. Twilight summoned a piece of paper with a seal on it. The seal consisted of the two princesses circling each other around a half sun, half moon. She floated it to the guard and he broke the seal, reading it quickly. After a minute of his eyes darting back and forth across the page, they suddenly widened when he reached the end. "Can you really help us?" he asked desperately. "Count on it," said Twilight with a smile. "We need help getting everyone else away from the city. Can you move your troops in and finish evacuating everyone else?" "Yes ma'am," said the guard. "Though, we haven't been very successful as of late. Every time my soldiers enter the city, they're attacked by these strange creatures. As they continue to impead our progress, it becomes more and more difficult to evacuate the rest of the civilians." Twilight thought on this for a second. "What if we sent one of our warriors with each of your squads. Then, you could have extra help dealing with the heartless from ponies who know how to fight them." The guard immediately agreed. "Okay. I've got five squads that need help with the evacuation. It's up to you, however, who should go with them." Twilight turned to her friends and said, "Sora, why don't you pick. You've had the most experience fighting the heartless, so I'm sure you can put together a team that can beat our target." Sora nodded and started thinking about the team he should take to fight the hunter of the dark. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were great physical attackers, Pinkie Pie and Twilight were great offensive magic users, and Rarity and Fluttershy were good supporting warriors, not to mention Riku who could do all of the above. After thinking for a minute, he decided. "Riku, you join the weakest of the squads. They'll need the most help. As for the two who will join me, Applejack, Rarity, you're up." The two ponies stepped forward. "Rarity, I'll need you to cover me with supporting spells while Applejack, you and I will attack the heartless head on. As soon as the rest of you have finished evacuating everyone, come and find us. It shouldn't be that hard. I'm sure we'll make enough noise." With their battle plan decided, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Twilight, and Riku were all escorted away by guards to join their respective squads. Sora, Applejack, and Rarity were then let in by the guard as he said, "Celestia help you." Once inside, Sora and his team started making their way to the tallest building in the city; the Empire State Building. They came across a few heartless in the streets on the way there, though they made it through easily with Sora and Applejack handling the physical attacks and Rarity covering them with reflect spells. Somehow, she had managed to learn the Shell spell and it was proving to be very effective. When they arrived, they could practically feel the darkness coming from the top of the tower. They rushed inside to the lobby of the building and were met with several armored knight heartless. The heartless rushed forward in a perfect line and attacked all at once. If it hadn't been for Rarity's reflect spell on all of them, then the combined blows would have done massive damage. The reflect spell suddenly kicked in to its main purpose and reflected the damage back at the heartless, destroying them in a flash of energy. With the heartless destroyed, they rushed to the main elevators and made their way inside. Sora pressed the button for the top floor and, with a minor shake in the elevator, they were off. Sora's original plan had been to used the Empire State Building to search the city with his eyes so that he could find the Hunter of the Dark. It seemed, though, that the heartless or at least one of equal strength was already higher up in the building. On the way up, the elevator stopped at the fifth floor. It dinged before the door opened, revealing three shadows. Sora fired a wide Blizzard spell, expanding and destroying all three at once. The elevator doors shut and it kept moving up. They were stopped every five floors or so to fight small groups, but they finally made it to the observation deck. The darkness was incredibly powerful by now and even the ponies could feel it. The stepped out onto the observation deck and looked around for the Hunter of the Dark. There was no sign of it, yet the darkness was overwhelming. Suddenly, a roar rang out above them. When they looked up, they saw the Hunter of the Dark hanging from the top of the building like King Kong. "Everyone, hop the fence," shouted Sora. "But that's crazy!" protested Applejack. "We'll fall!" "No you won't. Trust me, and jump," he said. Rarity and Applejack looked at each other nervously, but did as they were told. When they reached the top of the fence, they climbed over, shut their eyes and jumped. But instead of falling, they were suspended in mid air. When Applejack looked down, she backpedaled and fell on her back, noticing, apart from how high up they were, that a forcefield of what seemed to be wind was holding she and Rarity up. She looked back up to see Sora backflip off of the building, clearing the fence and landing on his own platform of air. "It's a spell," he said with a smirk at Applejack's initial reaction. "I cast Aeroga to create a platform for us to fly with. Now, we just have to bring down that heartless. Rarity, cover Applejack and I with support spells. We'll take it head on." Rarity nodded as she gripped her keyblade with her magic, channeling her energy into to call upon her magic. "How the hay am I supposed to fly this thing?" she as she shook, still trying to get the hang of walking on air. "You kind of just have to 'will' it where you want to go. Just think in your head what you want it to do, and it should do it," responded Sora with a nervous smile. "Okay," she said uncertainly. "I'll trust you." It took a moment, but she slowly started hovering over to Sora as he waited for her. "Are you ready?" he asked. "Ready as I'll ever be," she said nervously. Sora nodded and together, they flew off toward the Hunter of the Dark. /)*#*(\ As Sora and Applejack approached the heartless, Sora said, "Remember to wait for an opening. This thing's attacks are devastating." Just as he finished his sentence, the Hunter of the Dark swung its clawed arm out and smacked Applejack, almost knocking her out of the sky. If it hadn't have been for Sora's Aeroga spell, she would have kept falling. Sora, meanwhile, kept flying toward the beast and managed to land a few hits to its face before it clawed him, sending him spiraling higher into the air. He suddenly felt the Shell spell encase him in a barrier. That would protect him from the creature's magic, assuming it had any. He silently thanked Rarity. Applejack regained control and flew up toward the heartless again, this time being very careful to dodge its claw swipes. Her maneuvers were sloppy, but she came in close enough to bring her keyblade down on the hand that held onto the top of the tower. Its grip loosened, but it held on tight. "Aw, pony feathers," cursed Applejack as she retreated. Just as she started flying away, what looked like a tinted red ghost of the heartless leapt off of the tower at her and struck her in the back, disappearing as she dropped 20 feet down. She regained her balance and used a potion that she had picked up from Sora to heal herself. She then turned around and began flying back up. Sora noticed Applejack get attacked, but he couldn't focus on it because the same attack came at him. He was guarded by a reflect spell from Rarity who was coming in to help fight the heartless as well. The reflected damage only hurt the Hunter of the Dark's double and didn't do anything to the actual creature. Now combining their attacks, Sora and the ponies began pounding the heartless, finally getting the hang of controlling their spinning platforms of air. Every now and again, a solid attack landed, but Sora quickly cast Cure on the damaged person/pony and fixed them up again. The battle continued on like this, with Rarity casting support spells a couple of times and all three of them attacking it head on. When the Hunter of the Dark was done with being beaten, it teleported away off of the building. The battle was far from over, though. A massive ring of red, yellow, blue and green darkness began swirling around the top of the building and the group. Every few seconds, the heartless would come spiraling out of one side of the wall and into the other. The few times when Sora happened to be in the way cost him dearly, though he managed to stay standing with Cure spells. Eventually, the dark wall faded and the hunter of the dark resumed its position on the top of the Empire State Building. This time though, it started shooting out homing balls of darkness from its mouth and claws. Rarity managed to protect everyone with reflect and even bounce back most of the shots, dealing heavy to damage to the creature. Suddenly, it leapt from the building and grabbed all three warriors. With nothing to hang on to, it fell towards the ground at an alarming speed, bringing Sora and the ponies with it. Sora turned his head and watched as the street below grew closer and closer while he and the others struggled to get free. They impacted the concrete, splintering the street with cracks and dents. The air escaped Sora's lungs and left him without breath. He struggled to regain it as the heartless pushed off of him, jumping far away down the street. He slowly got up and watched Rarity and Applejack do the same. "Come on," he said, still trying to breathe. "We can't let it get away!" Rarity and Applejack marveled at the fact that they had not broken any bones and that they were still able to stand as they hurried after Sora. The Hunter of the Dark was already far down the abandoned street by the time the group was ready to move. Already, they had to start sprinting to catch up with it. When they reached the end of the street, the heartless rounded a corner and left them behind. They followed it and found that it was waiting for them. It roared before hitting them all with a wide claw swipe from the left. Everyone nearly went down, tumbling to the side as they lost the energy to stand. After just one, stronger swing, they were down for the count. Rarity and Applejack couldn't move and Sora was using his keyblade for support as he knelt on one knee. He suddenly felt a potion wash over him, recovering him and helping him stand. When he looked behind him, he saw Riku and the rest of the ponies running to join him. He watched Rarity and Applejack stand as they were healed by Twilight, getting up and brushing themselves off. "Need any help?" asked Riku. "Yeah," said Sora. Together, everyone faced the Hunter of the Dark, Sora's team breathing heavily from exhaustion. It roared in defiance and turned into a smoky black cloud of shadows. The only part of it that wasn't black were its glowing, red eyes. "Lookout! It's going to disappear again. Be ready because it could come at anyone of us from any direction," said Sora. As Sora said this, the heartless disappeared, yet its growling could still be heard coming from everywhere at once. "Rarity, now!" Just in time, Rarity cast Reflect on everyone. When the heartless emerged, it tried to attack everyone at once, but instead, it was met with a powerful reflection of its own attack. The combined force of everyone reflecting the heartless' attacks at once proved to be too much for the beast. It stopped its disappearing act and, now low on energy, faced the group head on, relentlessly attacking everyone with balls of darkness and massive claw swipes. For the most part, the group managed to guard the attacks. They even countered with their newly aquired magic. All the while, Pinkie Pie seemed to be the only unstopable one. Whenever the heartless would swing at her, she would somehow teleport without leaving a trace and cast a powerful Thunder spell on it from behind, sometimes alternating between that and the Fire and Ice spells. Eventually, the heartless gave up and collapsed. Sora, Riku, and the ponies jumped all together and brought their keyblades down on the heartless as Sora called out, "This is it!" The combined strength of the eight warriors eradicated it and split it into small shards of darkness. /)*#*(\ The shards covered the street like glass, giving it the look of shimmering, black ice. Suddenly, they wove together under everyone's feet to make a platform of solid glass. It didn't crack under their weight and it was smooth, but not slick. "Great job, everyone," said Sora with a smile. "Now, to find that keyhole. Let's check back at that tall building. We may have just stopped the heartless from getting it." Everyone nodded in agreement and began rushing back to the tall skyscraper. When they arrived, the heartless were nowhere in sight. They rushed to the elevator and rode it to the observation deck. "Ok everyone," said Twilight. "Where is it?" "I don't know," said Sora. "It's always revealed itself when the keyblade is nearby." Everyone thought on this for a moment before Riku came up with an idea. "Maybe it's not in Manehattan. Maybe we miscalculated." "Well then, where is it?" asked Sora. Then Twilight spoke up. "I've got it!" she said. "Earlier yesterday, I was reading a book. It was called 'Myths of Mystical Weapons'. I thought that some of the weapons in them were sort of strange, like the gunblade or the ultima weapon. However, what caught my eye was the keyblade. I forgot about it in the excitement back then, but now that I think about it, the book said that keyholes, which it could lock, where often found in important places to the world such as capitals or major countries. Maybe if we check back in someplace like that, then we'll find it." "Great idea," said Sora. "But why is there a book with information on the keyblade? Even we barely understand it." "I ordered plenty of books from the Canterlot archives a few months ago. They were mainly for me, but I made sure to get reprints for the ponies in Ponyville to read as well. They're filled with all kinds of information on plenty of subjects, so it's no surprise that a weapon like the keyblade was in one of them." "So, what are some capitals or important places of Equestria?" asked Sora, trying to change the subject to avoid another string of information from Twilight. "Well, there's the crystal empire up north, the Winsome Falls to the southeast, though I'm not sure if that counts, Canterlot, or... the old castle in the Everfree Forest. I bet it's there. That thing's been around since the two princess ruled thousands of years ago. It's gotta be there!" "So where's the forest?" asked Riku. Twilight momentarily blushed. "It's back near Ponyville," she said with a sigh, one that was immediately echoed by Sora and Riku. "Well, then we'd better get moving," said Sora, crestfallen. "We've done our part, but now we've got to go. We can't afford to wait any longer." With that, the group left the city through its nearest exit and started making their way home. /)*#*(\ When they arrived back in Ponyville, the group checked back in with Celestia who had found refuge in Twilight's library. Thankfully, she had informed Spike about the threat and he had agreed to let her stay. "So, did you defeat the heartless and seal the keyhole?" asked the Princess. "Well, you see..." began Sora. He then recounted the events of the past couple of days; the train ride, the training, fighting the heartless in Manehattan, and then eventually working their way back to Ponyville. "I see," she said. "Do you have any ideas on where the keyhole might be then?" "Yes," said Twilight. "We think it could be in yours and Luna's old castle. If the keyholes are usually in places that are old and are deeply connected to the world, then that might be our best bet." "Good. Please, depart immediately. Sora, Riku, once you've sealed the keyhole, take them to see the other worlds. I know you need to find the portal to the dark realm, and maybe you'll find it by traveling the surrounding worlds. Besides, these six must learn to fight the darkness in every world if they are to master the keyblade." "Yes, ma'am," said Sora and Riku simultaneously, snapping to a quick salute. "There's a problem though," said Sora, relaxing. "We don't have our gummi ship to get off-planet with. Without that, we can't travel between the worlds." "So Yen Sid never told you," began Celestia with a chuckle. "Your keyblades can become vehicles to traverse the lanes between. So long as you wear your armor, the darkness in the Lanes Between cannot harm you. Now, go before the heartless catch on to the location of the castle." Without waiting to hear more, everyone dashed out from the library and set out for the Everfree forest. All except for Twilight who hung back for a minute. "Princess, I-" "I assume you read about the kinds of challenges that a keyblade warrior faces," said Celestia coldly. "Yes. Do you really think that I'm ready for something like this? That any of us are really ready? "I do," said the Princess, her tone softening. "Twilight, the reason I accepted you as my student at the school is because I saw great potential in you. I always knew you would one day do many great things, and I see I've been proven right." "But Princess, what should I-" "You should go with the others. Fight the darkness and save the worlds. Finish this one last task for me." "What do you mean by that?" asked Twilight. Before she could get her answer, Pinkie jumped on her from behind saying, "Come on! We have to go!" Twilight bowed her head to the princess and left with Pinkie. As soon as they were gone, Celestia went up to Twilight's room where she would be staying, sat down, and cried. /)*#*(\ When they arrived on the edge of the forest, the ponies began to shift uneasily. "What's wrong?" asked Riku. "This place just ain't natural," said Applejack uneasily. "Nopony who values their life goes in there." "Don't worry. If we run into the heartless or the nobodies, we can take 'em," said Sora. "Remind me what a nobody is again," said Rainbow Dash. "When a person loses their heart," began Riku, "if they've got a strong heart and will, then their body will carry on. Though it's usually a husk of itself and carries no personality. However, Sora and I once fought a group of them called Organization XIII. They were sentient and commanded the rest of the nobodies. Like most of our old enemies, they wanted Kingdom Hearts, but we stopped them." "Roxas was from organization XIII," said Sora. "When I became a heartless, Roxas was created in another world and Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, found him and recruited him." "He's on our side, right?" asked Fluttershy. "Would he have helped us earlier if he wasn't?" responded Riku lightly. "I guess not," she replied. "Ok, everyone," said Twilight. "Let's find that castle again and the keyhole with it." "Right," everyone said back. Together, the group charged into the forest, led by Twilight, to find the castle and end their search. They encountered few heartless on their way to the castle, but other than that, they met no opposition. After crossing the creaky bridge over the gorge, they arrived at the castle's massive double doors to find that they were locked with a massive chain. "That's strange," said Twilight. "That wasn't there before." "Ah told you it ain't natural," whispered Applejack to Riku. "Hmm," said Sora, deep in thought. Then, he got an idea. "Twilight, why don't you use your keyblade?" "What?" she asked in confussion. "It can open any lock, even magical ones. Go ahead and give it a try," he said with a smile. Twilight summoned her keyblade and did as she was told. She slowly lifted her keyblade in front of her, lining the tip up up the lock's opening. With a small glimmer of light, her keyblade began to glow and, from its tip, it released a thin beam of light that entered the lock. A moment later, a loud click echoed around them. "Great job," said Sora, giving her a quick thumbs up. "Thanks," she answered. The team opened the doors and walked to the main throne room. There, their keyblades all appeared and began to glow with a strange, yellowish light. Suddenly, the back of the main throne lit up with a brilliant glow before dimming down again. "There it is," said Riku. "Twilight, why don't you seal it?" "Why should it be me?" she asked curiously. "Because you're our leader," answered Applejack. "What?" "Well, any time we've needed ya, you've always lead us right to victory. Remember when we fought Discord, and he drove us apart? You were the one who helped us find the light again. So, I guess it's just fittin' that you outa seal the keyhole," finished Applejack. The realization that she had been their leader for so long hit Twilight, and it made her feel weak in the knees. She knew she should have been happy to have her friends regard her so highly, but it still didn't seem right. Doing as she was told, she walked behind the massive throne and held out her keyblade to the glowing lock embedded in the wall. She pointed it at the keyhole and fired another thin beam of pure light, causing it to radiate a small amount of light before the keyhole evaporated with another click. "Great job," said Riku. The floor suddenly lit up with a brilliant light under Sora. A large crown appeared in the light and a whirlwind surrounded him, temporarily drawing him away from the others and into a cloudy, glowing dimmension. He summoned his keyblade and waited for a seperate keyhole to appear. Strangely, his pauldron was what revealed the second keyhole. He jumped back, twirled his keyblade a few times then held it rigid, aiming at the secondary keyhole. He fired his own beam of light from his keyblade and it went straight in, sealing it as well. When the whirlwind cleared, everyone except for Riku stared in awe. "What was that?!" asked Rainbow Dash. "That was awesome!" "A new path is open," said Sora. "Now, it's time to go." "Go where? Should I bring a scarf?" asked Rarity. Riku chuckled along with the ponies. "No, hopefully not anywhere that cold." Riku then activated his keyblade armor, which was just as awesome as Sora's. His matched Terra's armor, though it was all silver and his helmet visor was black. He then motioned to Sora to activate his keyblade armor and he did so. Together, the two keyblade wielders threw their keyblades in the air and they transformed into a vehicle of sorts. It was exactly like the vehicle that they had used to fight the nobody Dragon in the World That Never Was. This time, however, the platform that Sora stood on was gold, the place where Riku drove was silver, and instead of the nobody insignia, a crown was emblazoned on Sora's platform. Together, the two armored keyblade wielders jumped onto the vehicle, both humans summoning their keyblades. They hovered in mid air as Twilight asked, "How do we do that?" "Activate your armor and then charge your keyblades with light," directed Riku. "From there, you just have to feel it." "Okay," said Twilight nervously. Feeling as if she was taking a test, she activated her keyblade armor and summoned her keyblade. Charging her keyblade with light, she threw it high in the sky. The pink piece of metal unraveled from the blade and the magenta star with it. Her keyblade glowed for a few seconds and, when the light cleared, a single platform floated above her. Her vehicle consisted of a platform with her cutie mark on it and what looked like a purple, magical barrier surrounding it. Outside of the barrier, two glowing orbs floated around, orbiting the purple shield. Twilight teleported inside the barrier and noticed that the gravity was slightly stronger than Equestria's norm, holding her in place. "It worked," she said with a smile, though it was hidden behind her visor. "Go on, everyone. Your turn." Rainbow Dash went first. After activating her armor, she threw her keyblade into the air. The red, blue, and yellow strand of metal unraveled from her keyblade and another flash of light was displayed. When it cleared, a platform similar to Twilight's, though bearing Rainbow's lightning bolt on it, appeared surrounded by crackling, transparent thunderclouds. A console floated at what appeared to be the front of the vehicle and two high powered laser cannons were mounted to it. Rainbow Dash simply had to fly straight through the cloud barrier before the console lit up. "Awesome!" she said. "When can we go?" "Soon," said Sora. "Let's wait for the others first." Fluttershy was next. She activated her armor and gently tossed her keyblade into the air. The vines that formed the blade unraveled and rewove to form a giant, green blooming flower. Once the inevitable flash of light disappeared, her vehicle was revealed. It consisted of a platform, this time surrounded by green energy and leaves that seemed to swirl around it. Her vehicle also consisted of a front facing console with two seperate panels to either side. Two green orbs floated around the shield of leaves. Fluttershy flew up to her glider, the barrier of leaves parting to allow her entry. As soon as she touched down, the console lit up with various colors and lights. "All set," she said. One by one, the vehicles emerged. They all consisted of a similar design; a platform and console surrounded by various things, though Twilight's vehicle had no console. With Rarity, they were various shards of elemental crystals. With Applejack, a shield of apple tree bark surrounded the platform. And of course, with Pinkie Pie, it was a collection of various types of confetti and deflated balloons. When everyone had donned their keyblade armor and were on their gliders, they all flew out of the castle and upward on Riku's command. A single beam of light fired from Sora and Riku's vehicle and created a portal. "Everyone through!" yelled Sora in excitement. All at once, they flew through the portal and disappeared from the face of Equestria. However, they weren't prepared for what they would find on the other side. Immediately, a meteor crashed into Sora and Riku's ship. They regained balance and found that they were in an asteroid field. Everyone continuously used their vehicle's weapons to blast away the rocks, but eventually, they were overcome. Everyone was constantly battered by the impossible amount of debree and eventually, they lost control. Luckily, they were near a world that just so happened to be watching the meteor shower with awe. That is, the citizens who could watch. Everyone lost control and their ships began to crash together. All at once, they fell to the new world and crashed. Hard. Their armor deactivated in the sand and their keyblade vehicles disappeared. They could hear waves washing up on a shore and could feel the heat of the sand beneath them. Everyone slowly picked themselves up and took in the surrounding area. They appeared to be on a beach near what looked like a bar of some sort. It had strange writing on it and it wasn't legible to any of them. Out of nowhere, a bullet grazed Sora's arm and, despite the hit, he turned and summoned his keyblade. Everyone followed suit and found that a group of armored soldiers with rifles had moved toward them and were now pointing their weapons at Sora, Riku, and the ponies. "By order of PSICOM high command, you are to be purged due to the Pulse Fal'Cie in the city. Stand down and you will not be harmed," ordered the first soldier. After taking a bullet, Sora wasn't in a stand-downish mood. He held firm along with his friends as they summoned their keyblades together. "Then you leave us with no choice," said the now identified PSICOM soldier. "Fire!"