4
“Interesting…quite interesting, indeed my little pony.” The mare from across the dungeon cell spoke coolly, tapping a hoof to her chin lightly. Sora had explained his story to the mare across from him in the dark cell, though he probably knew that she thought his story was ridiculous. He had mentioned the parts about the Heartless, since he had already broke his promise to Donald on accident again. The stallion had a habit of forgetting that often and he knew he’d never hear the end of it from the Griffin. He had tried to get the blue mare to at least tell him her name or something about her, but she insisted on him telling more of his story. Of course, he didn’t tell her about the different Worlds beyond this one or his adventures with Donald and Goofy but he did explain the events of where he was with Twilight.
“Yeah well…” Sora began, awkwardly trying to shrug off the ‘My Little Pony” comment, “You haven’t told me anything about you. I think it’s only fair if you return the favor.” Sora had been trying to see the pony in the dimly-lit area. He’d been at this since he got her, feeling somewhat curious to whom exactly this pony was. He heard her hooves click against the stone as if she were nervous before there was silence. After what seemed like ages for the young brown pony, she spoke.
“Very well, but take a seat because I do not repeat myself.” Sora quickly scampered onto the cold ground, wincing at the feel before peering through the bars towards the pony. She gave a sigh and stepped closer towards the hallway lights that illuminated the dungeon cell slightly. She had a sky blue colored pelt with a creamy, light blue mane whipped in a light curl around her horn that protruded from her forehead. Her purple eyes seemed to glow in the dim light, which caused Sora to blush slightly realizing he had been looking at her for a long time. Her flank was slightly in view, showing of some of her cutie mark which contained a crescent moon with a wand attached to it. The unicorn gracefully sat down as well, holding her snout up into the air as she sat down before looking towards Sora.
“It all started after I defeated an Ursa Minor that had ransacked into Ponyville thanks to two colts. It began a year or so later, but my bad luck just kept getting worse…”
Xxx
Trixie trotted away from Hoofington, her special purple cape dragging behind her in the dirt. Thanks to another lousy show, The Great and Powerful Trixie hadn’t been noticed by any pony since the whole Ursa Minor incident. She had heard rumors along the grapevine about Twilight Sparkle and how she was claiming that she slew the Ursa Minor back in Ponyville. They all spoke of how cowardly she was, and rejected her whenever she came. Her shows began to slowly stop as the pony begun to run out of bits she had managed to earn by using petty parlor tricks. That was how she earned a living…or so she thought she could.
The Great and Powerful Trixie sighed, continuing her pace as she soon came to the boundaries of Hoofington. The blue unicorn adjusted her star-covered wizard’s hat slightly with a hoof before tossing her head a little.
“Don’t worry Trixie, things’ll look up!” She said to herself, smiling slightly as if it would cheer her up. The unicorn kept a small grin before looking towards the ground slightly and sighing.
“Oh, what’s the use? That stupid Twilight Sparkle is spreading rumors about me, and I can’t even show off my own expertise to other ponies. I’m the laughing stock of Equestria!” The blue mare put a hoof dramatically over her head, sobbing slightly to herself as she flung herself to the ground and continued to wallow away in her misery. She sobbed for a few minutes before somepony wandered across her and accidentally tripped over her. Trixie heard the impact of hooves onto the ground especially a pain in her side where the pony had kicked her.
“How dare you trip on THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE! Who do you think you are? Celestia!?” The blue mare had jumped to her hooves, stamping her hoof loudly in front of the pony that had tripped over her. The mare’s hat was crooked slightly forward over her head, which even made her mood worse that her favorite hat was crooked up on her head. Her anger soon melted when she saw who had tripped over her, a purple mare to be exact. A familiar, purple mare…
“T-Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie hissed the name, her anger soon reigniting itself once again she realized who it was. The light purple unicorn got to her hooves, shaking her head lightly to herself before looking towards Trixie. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it and looked slightly ashamed of herself. Trixie glared at the pony, waiting for an apology or some sharp remark about something from the past. Neither pony said anything, just gave each other long and hard stares for awhile before Twilight finally regained herself.
“O-oh Great and Powerful Trixie…please forgive me.” Twilight said, dipping her head a little to Trixie’s surprise. The pony pursed her lips but gave a nod of the head for the purple mare to go on.
“I-I shouldn’t have taken credit for slaying the Ursa Minor. I apologize.” Twilight said, looking towards the blue mare, “I managed to teleport to Hoofington to find you. I know you’re…quite busy but, please accept my apology.” Trixie was a bit surprised that the purple mare had come out all this way to apologize to her…but then again she was the Great and Powerful Trixie.
“Very well…Twilight Sparkle…I accept your apology.” Trixie replied cooly, knowing that she herself was a very forgiving unicorn. Twilight smiled before giving the blue mare a quick hug to her surprise. Trixie tapped a hoof on the unicorn’s back before they broke the hug, in which she stepped back slightly. The pony seemed relieved slightly, and Trixie could tell that Twilight was sincerely apologizing. The purple unicorn gave a satisfied nod before looking towards Trixie.
“I must warn you though…” Twilight’s tone grew somewhat grim, which caused Trixie to raise a brow, “Something
awful is going to happen…I don’t really know how or why but I can tell it’s going to be bad…”
“What do you mean…bad? The Great and Powerful Trixie demands you to explain yourself!” Trixie spoke towards Twilight, stomping a hoof towards the purple pony. Twilight simply shook her head from side to side before looking towards Trixie again.
“Be careful okay? I need to head to Canterlot now, but fair well.” Twilight smiled warmly towards the mare before summoning a spell with her horn. Trixie trotted forward to stop the mare but she had disappeared within a few heartbeats. Trixie pouted slightly to herself, wondering what exactly the purple mare meant by ‘bad’.
“No matter.” Trixie said simply, sighing to herself slightly as she trotted towards Trottingsdale which was her next destination. Though she could perform magic, her magic wasn’t as powerful as Twilight’s but she’d never admit that. Trixie continued a few steps forward before she heard somepony yelling at her from a distance. She took no notice at first, until she heard the words ‘Celestia’ from afar. The blue mare whipped her head around to face the pony yelling at her, until she realized two royal guards had arrived just a few feet away from her. Trixie froze, unsure of whether to run or keep her position there on the dirt road.
The Guards galloped closer and Trixie began to weigh her options. She hadn’t done anything bad that she knew of…maybe they were trying to catch a thief of some sort! Trixie nodded to herself and kept her position though she couldn’t help but bite her lip in anxiety. The Guards came closer, and soon the two surrounded Trixie with blank looks that the usual Royal Guard held.
“May the Great and Powerful Trixie help you?” Trixie asked coolly, looking towards the guards with half-closed eyes. The Guards looked unimpressed but Trixie didn’t really care as they begun speaking.
“I see you are Trixie…The Princess wants an audience with you, she didn’t give details of the cause was but she wants to see you right away.” Trixie tried to hide her surprise by giving a raised eyebrow. It was surprising to her that the Princess would want an audience with her, especially since she was the laughing stock of Equestria.
“Alright…Trixie will allow you to escort her.” Trixie said smiling slyly towards the two Guards. They gave no notice towards the mare and grabbed the mare roughly by the hooves.
“Ow, hey, watch it you oafs!” Trixie snapped, glaring towards the Guards as they picked her up off the dusty road.
The Guards simply rolled their eyes and carried out their duty by flying towards the far-away castle of Canterlot with ‘The Great and Powerful Trixie’.
Xxx
There was a bang that startled the two ponies that had been talking in the dungeon cell. Trixie had seemed to choke up after ending her story with her flying away with the Guards. Sora looked up curiously before turning towards Trixie earnestly to hear more of her story. The mare had been taken aback by the bang before casting a glance towards the brown stallion a little bit away from her.
“I got to the castle, and right as I arrived they locked me in here. I heard from a couple of other ponies that
Twilight Sparkle is Celestia’s apprentice, therefore it’s all her fault I’m stuck here!” Trixie ended curtly, a slight edge in her voice as she spoke the last of her story. Sora felt a bit off about the sudden ending by Trixie, but he decided not to pry. The brown pony got to his hooves, shaking himself awake as he looked towards Trixie with large blue eyes.
“Oh…well, thanks Trixie for the information.” Sora said, looking around slightly inside of the cell.
“The Great and Powerful Trixie,” The blue mare corrected, looking towards the brown pony with an annoyed look. He grinned sheepishly for his mistake before looking around the cell again.
“What exactly are you doing?” Trixie asked, tilting her head slightly towards the pony that began shuffling in his cell.
“Looking for a keyhole or something…y’know for the jail cell, so I can unlock it.” Sora said, looking around again. He was half-telling the truth at least, so he didn’t feel so bad after somewhat bonding with the blue mare. He had to find the keyhole to this world before any Heartless started appearing in this world, especially in the castle itself. He also needed to get out Donald and Goofy on the way, they’d need some place where they could stash the Gummi Ship and get it back working again.
“Good luck with that; these doors are magically sealed so that none of us unicorn ponies can unlock it with our magic.” Trixie said smirking slightly at the stallion’s ignorance. Sora grunted in annoyance after she said that, feeling a bit stupid for wandering around the cell for awhile.
“Well thanks for telling me sooner.” He muttered quietly to himself as he begun to think once more. He needed a plan, and fast, to get out of here but there was no keyhole…how could he get out?
“Well…the Keyblade does perform magic…” Sora said, looking up at the ceiling in thought before hearing another bang. Sora could hear a loud voice above a softer one before another bang was heard. Suddenly a dark pony entered the dimly lit dungeon, her dark coat blending in easily in the dim surroundings. Sora could see some ponies bowing towards the pony; even Trixie seemed to dip her head slightly towards the pony. Sora noticed the particular features of the pony, a long horn and Pegasus wings protruding from her body. He’d never seen a pony like this, nor had he seen many ponies at all since he’d got here besides Twilight, the Guards, Trixie and that rainbow-maned Pegasus.
The pony continued along the hallways until she stopped in front of Sora’s cell. She lifted up her muzzle above the cell before looking down at him with dark blue eyes.
“Does thou goeth by thy name of thy Keyblade Wielder?” She asked, a curious expression lifting through her
voice as she shouted it towards Sora. The brown pony firmly placed his gloved hooves into the stone ground to keep his footing. Now he wasn’t so sure if he wanted to answer the mare’s question.
“Y-yes…? But, how do-“ Sora answered only to be cut off by the loud mare.
“Then come with us! We need your assistance.” The dungeon cell seemed to swing open just at her words, allowing Sora to exit. He glanced around warily, as if it were some sort of a trap, before looking up at the dark blue mare. She watched him with deep blue eyes, as if carefully assessing that Sora didn’t want ask about.
“Alright, on one condition…” Sora said carefully, glancing at her, “I’ll you to get my friends out of their cells as well.”
“We hast done it! Now, make haste young one!” The mare boomed, trotting towards the direction of the lower branch of the prison, “We must make haste!” Sora watched her go, carefully trotting out of his cell to glance towards Trixie who was eyeing him with envy.
“Don’t worry; I’ll help free you as soon as I can.” He looked apologetically at the blue mare before clumsily galloping and half-running after the dark Alicorn. Trixie watched him go, though a smile crept along her face as he disappeared into the black of the prison.
“Oh, you’ll help me more than you think…Keyblade Wielder."
Xxx
There was blood pumping in her ears as she banked downward, trying to shake off whatever these creatures were. The blue Pegasus ignored the fact on ‘what’ they were and decided to focus on getting rid of them. They were ruining the plan! However, Rainbow Dash smirked slightly to herself as outstretched her hooves in front of her. No creature was faster than her in Equestia, and no pony would ever get the chance to be faster.
The creatures kept on her tail, making hissing noises as the blue Pegasus sped ahead of them in the air. Her wings were flapping almost like crazy, but she had managed to avoid them for now. A small trail of rainbow followed the rainbow-maned Pegasus but the creatures seemed to avoid it as they followed her. There were three, two on her left and one on her right while flapping their mechanical wings even more than Rainbow Dash. The blue Pegasus was holding back her taunts to them for now, focusing more on getting away from the creatures.
Suddenly, one of the creatures on the right banked downward while another one soon followed after it. Rainbow Dash looked behind her to see just where exactly they were going, only to see Applejack and Pinkie Pie just below her. What were they thinking?! She could handle this on her own! Rainbow Dash angled her wings to the right, managing to go around the creature as she dove towards her friends. Rainbow Dash looked quickly around for Rarity, trying to see if the unicorn had decided herself to help out the cause, but luckily did not see her. The two creatures had swarmed the two earth ponies, though Applejack and Pinkie Pie were handling them quite well.
Applejack was using her back hooves to do the talking, smacking one squarely in its face as Rainbow got closer. Pinkie Pie had managed to dodge one as it took a rough landing into the ground, and proceeded to bounce on top of its head quite hard. Rainbow Dash had slowed down to an idle position in the air as she watched her friends fight off their opponents, sighing slightly in relief they were fine. Rainbow Dash, however, had forgotten the creature right behind her until it slammed into her. The blue Pegasus tussled with the black creature, biting on one of its ears as inertia kicked in tossing the two towards the ground.
Applejack and Pinkie Pie witnessed the two falling out of the sky, abandoning their opponents to dodge the oncoming rainbow blob. Rainbow Dash hit the ground quite hard, eyes seeing stars once she realized she had plowed a good amount into the dirt. She laughed slightly at her own clumsy mistake, realizing that the shadow creature that had tackled her was underneath her now as well as the rest of them. The rainbow-maned peagsus flew upward, hooves poised for them to attack once more but the three creatures lie motionless. She waited a few heartbeats, until the creatures seemed to melt back into the ground below.
“Rainbow Dash!” The blue Pegasus twitched an ear and turned around to see Applejack was calling her. The Pegasus landed with grace, meeting Applejack and Pinkie Pie as the two came to meet her. She grinned slightly; already proud of herself that she had took on three mysterious creatures by herself. You wouldn’t see any other Pegasus do that!
“Didja see me!? I was great! I totally took care of those nasty creatures!” Rainbow Dash said proudly, placing a hoof on her chest confidently while raising her snout. Applejack simply rolled her eyes at the blue Pegasus while Pinkie Pie kept a grin plastered on her face. Applejack gave a frown suddenly, looking around curiously to Rainbow Dash’s surprise. Something was a bit off about their meeting…
“Where’s Rarity?” Applejack spoke up suddenly, alarm present in her voice. The three ponies looked around curiously for their friend only to hear a shriek in the distance.
“You guys forgot about Rarity!?” Rainbow Dash groaned while putting a hoof over her face. The two shrugged their shoulders slightly, each giving an worried glance before the three rushed off to find their friend.
Rarity’s scream had been near the entrance of the garden where she had been abandoned by her friends. Rarity
was staring in the face of a large creature, black as night with two large yellow eyes. She kept her mouth closed, backing away while still attempting to keep away from the leaves. What could she do? Even if she used her magic there was nothing she could really do. The white unicorn quickly squeezed her eyes shut, assuming the position of a damsel in distress already.
“Hold on!” A voice shouted above, before Rarity heard the sound of the large creature wailing. The unicorn slowly opened on blue eye to peer out to what exactly was in front of her, only to see the black creature had turned its back on her. It was facing someone else, probably who ever had called out to her. Rarity craned her head around the large monster to gasp slightly, placing a hoof over her mouth. It was a brown earth pony, with the two monsters Rarity and her friends had seen before!
What were they doing here?! The brown pony had seemed to notice Rarity before lifting a hoof to motion for her to get out of here.
“Quick, while we’ve got it distracted!” He called out to her before summoning some sort of key-like object from out of nowhere. Rarity gasped lightly, but began to cautiously move out of the way from behind the creature as fast as she could. However while she was moving the creature noticed her and immediately turned in her direction. Rarity skirted around the monster, narrowly avoiding the monster’s claws slamming down into the earth to catch the white unicorn. The brown Pony launched himself forward, jumping upwards to jerk his head in the same direction while still airborne.
His weapon slashed easily through the monster, who gave a roar of pain. The griffin from earlier had flapped his wings and was airborne as well, holding a staff that also had seemed to come out of thin air. The Diamond Dog was still on the ground, unlike the other two, but held a large shield in front of him. Rarity squeaked as she hurried out of their way, only to be picked up by the large Diamond dog. She winced slightly, expecting grimly claws digging into her freshly brushed coat as well as foul breath straightening her air.
However, that was not the case. The Diamond dog’s appearance looked…well, quite silly, as it were. His claws were neatly trimmed as well as his breath far from rancid. Now if all Diamond Dogs were this cleanly, Rarity thought to herself quietly.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got you hyuck!” The Diamond Dog spoke to her, chuckling to himself slightly. Rarity still was quite
worried about the other two fighting that creature, as well as the condition of her mane afterwards, and glanced over quickly to see what exactly was happening next. The Griffin had cast a large spell, summoning what looked like a cloud of lightning. It gave a loud boom before at least five large beams of lightning shot down from the sky onto the beast. It gave a wail before attempting to swipe the Griffin out of the sky, only to be intercepted by the earth pony jumping upwards again. Rarity had to admit, they were quite powerful.
Something seemed a little…off about the three who had just appeared. Rarity wasn’t sure if she was jumping to conclusions or what, but her conscious still nagged at her. Rarity wondered if this was who exactly Twilight had been talking about. She hadn’t seen the actual pony carried off, she had been busy comforting Fluttershy. All the evidence that she had been kidnapped by them was there…but Rarity felt conflicted.
Did she really have a reason to distrust her friend? Rarity already felt guilt washing over her as she thought longer about it. Rarity soon realized she was being set down on the grass by the Diamond dog, causing her to wake from her thoughts.
“Stay here, we’ll be done in a jiffy!” The Diamond dog grinned then turned around to return to battle. Rarity stared as she watched him go, before turning her blue eyes upward to stare at the battle again. She was safe for now, but now she began to worry about her other friends. What if the creatures had gotten them?! Rarity bit her hoof in anticipation as she watched the brown Earth Pony, the Griffin and the Diamond Dog return to their battle.
Suddenly the doors to the palace swung open, causing Rarity to nearly shriek again. Twilight was standing in front of it, Fluttershy a little ways behind her, looking quite out of breath. Her face was quite red, and she seemed to be looking about the garden. Her eyes trailed to Rarity, before convincing Fluttershy to hurry out from under her. As soon as the two ponies began to move the large black creature had moved its way in front of the doorway.
“Twilight, Fluttershy, dears!” Rarity called out to her friends, getting onto her hooves as the black creature roared again. Rarity desperately wanted to know if the two fillies were alright, but she was frozen. There was no way she could fend off that ruffian without getting her hooves dirty! Before she could even move the three others were on the creature like a parasprite on an apple. Each was fighting it off with a flurry of attacks; so much that Rarity wasn’t even sure who was landing what blow. The creature was wailing now, seeming to already give up by now. Rarity continued to search for her friends under she saw Fluttershy round the corner of the monster. She was flapping her wings as fast as she could, her eyes closed however so that she didn’t even see where she was going.
“Fluttershy, dear over here quickly now!” Rarity called out to the yellow pegasus, whose ears pricked when she heard her name. Fluttershy timidly opened her eyes before quickly landing near Rarity. The two embraced in a quick hug before the monster loomed over the two. They both screamed quickly, hugging each other tightly until there was a sound of something bursting. It was similar to the sound of Pinkie popping balloon but a bit louder than that.
Rarity and Fluttershy looked up, only to see that the monster was gone and in its place was a large heart that floated upwards to the heavens above. It disappeared shortly after it flew upwards, which caused the Unicorn and Pegasus to look towards the ones who destroyed the monster. Twilight Sparkle was standing near the brown Earth Pony who still held the key-like object in his mouth, and the two other creatures were in the back.
“Aw man, we missed it!” Rarity’s ear twitched as she heard Rainbow Dash’s voice suddenly from behind her. When she turned around, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Applejack had appeared from further down in the courtyard. The palace gardens were a mess from what she could tell, especially from the original mess Rainbow Dash had caused earlier with the guards. And speaking of guards…
“Twilight, what are you doing here?” The brown Earth Pony had spoke up, sounding quite surprised that she was actually here. The purple unicorn seemed to be already in a bad mood, pushing her face into his.
“What am I doing here? WHAT AM I DOING HERE? I was here to get you out of that prison cell, but I see you did that by yourself just fine.” Twilight Sparkle spat in the brown Earth Pony’s face before turning her head around. She was obviously steamed about something. Maybe it was the fact that he’d gotten out himself and they’d gone through all the trouble of lying to the Princesses and such. Rarity frowned slightly, unsure of what she could do to calm the purple unicorn’s anger. The brown Earth pony seemed bit distraught, shifting his hooves slightly while his friends gave their own concerned looks.
“L-listen I can explain…” The brown Earth pony began, timidly holding out a hoof towards Twilight. The purple unicorn didn’t seem to notice, pouting to herself before she opened one eye to look at him. Suddenly, a shocked look spread across her face, confusing Rarity and most of the others in the group before they all turned their heads. A few feet away from them was Princess Luna, obviously looking quite distraught.
“P-Princess…” Twilight spluttered before the Princess began to speak.
“There is no time, thou must come with me! Discord has been released!” Luna spoke urgently, her face pulled into a
tight frown. Everypony, except for Sora, Donald, and Goofy, gave a surprised expression. Discord? Free?! How in Equestria did that happen?
“R-right! We’ll talk later!” Twilight spoke, shooting a glare at Sora before turning her head back to the Princess, “What do you need from us?”