Twilight had lost count of how many stars she had seen zip past her, or more accurately as she zip passed them. It seemed like an eternity of tumbling, spinning, jolting and zigzagging across an endless expanse. Barely able to keep her eyes open, Twilight barely noticed that one of the stars seemed to be growing larger; and, although she knew stars couldn’t have this color physically, saw brown and gold mixed with blue and green. She did however notice when the light that was surrounding her popped like a bubble and she was sent falling down through the air.
“Aaaahhhhh!” She screamed. “Wings! I have Wings, Right!” Unfortunately she made contact with water before her wings could fully extend. The waves pushed and pulled at her, barely allowing her time to pop her head above the water. When she did finally right herself, she was able to see that she was in a vast ocean and an island was not too far from her. So with as much strength as she could muster, Twilight swam to the shore. Reaching the island and exhausted from her ordeal, Twilight Sparkle collapsed on the beach. “Are you okay?” Twilight looked up through half lidded eyes before she embraced unconsciousness. She could only see a blurry image of white, pink, and red. Then she succumbed to her exhaustion and fell unconscious.
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Meanwhile, in the former Ponyville Castle in Equestria, a council now sat on the altered thrones. “So it appears dear Twilight escaped the Darkness, how…unexpected.” A tall, black unicorn mare with wavy purple mane and tail stated from her royal seat. “It is such a shame as well that she took the Elements, without them the Door remains shut.”
“She never could understand that we are trying to do what is best for everypony, griffon, dragon, and other beings in the world. Our duty must come first!” A large pegasus from the papal throne said. Her large grey wings clashing with her electric, chromatic mane.
“Hehe…She must think it’s funny what we’re doing…” A dull pink mare with curly a curly mane falling flat sat on the carnival throne, a demented smile on her face. “We should…make her see she’s the real joke...Hehe…”
“We don’t have to Suga’. She’ll come to us eventually.” An orange mare with a black hat reclined on the lounge chair, fore hooves steepled in front of her face. “The truth is, we matter to her. Aint that right, Boss?”
She had turned to look at the Pegasus sitting on the simple stone throne. The Pegasus turned her cold red eyes towards the orange mare, then to the rest of the council. “No.” The others were surprised. “We do not need her now, only her Element.” Glancing towards the corner of the room, she saw a pony shaped object in a black overcoat, and the Pegasus smiled, showing off her fangs.
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“Uggh…” Sunlight flittered across Twilight Sparkle’s eyes. “Please Princess…Put the sun down for a few…more hours.”
“I don’t think I’m that kind of Princess.” The unfamiliar voice caused Twilight’s eyes to open in shock. Looking around, she could see she was in a cabin of some sort, on a beach if the sounds of the ocean she heard were correct. Standing over her was a human girl. ’Human?’ The girl had long red hair that stopped at her shoulders, a pink hooded vest over a white dress, and pure blue eyes.
“Are you all right? It’s not often a purple horse comes here, especially by falling from the sky.” The girl reached out her hand to Twilight. “My name’s Kairi, what’s yours?”
“Tw-Twilight Sparkle.” The girl chuckled but Twilight waved it off. “Where am I exactly?” The red headed girl smiled and walked to the stairwell in the cabin, and beckoned Twilight to follow. Opening the door at the top of the stairs, Kairi revealed a bridge to a small mesa with palm trees overlooking the ocean. In the distance, Twilight could see another land mass with houses. “Welcome, to Destiny Islands!”
As Twilight stepped out onto the mesa, she could only stare into serene beauty of the island she found herself on. “It’s so peaceful.” Twilight sat down next to a bent palm tree, and looked up. To her surprise she saw that instead of coconuts as was to be expected on an island of this climate, but a star shaped fruit. It sparked a memory in Twilight, of just before she lost her friends.
“They say sailors make these for those closest to them, and it comes from a far-away island with star shaped fruit. They say that fruit…”
“…When shared, binds the destinies of those who share it together.” Twilight was pulled out of her memory by Kairi’s voice.
“Sorry about scaring you, I noticed you looking at the paupu fruit, so I thought I’d tell you the legend.” Kairi looked at the paupu tree with an odd smile on her face. “I can tell you now, that the fruit…it doesn’t need to have any power. As long as there are stars in the sky we share, we already share a destiny.”
Kairi walked to the edge of the mesa and jumped into the water. She swam to a small dock with a single boat tied to it. “Aren’t you coming?” she yelled across the beach. Twilight spread her wings and glided to the boat.
When they reached the other shore, Twilight spoke what had been on her mind. “I’m not in Equestria anymore am I?” It needed no answer.
“No, I’m sorry. You left your world to come here. I know exactly how hard it is to lose a home to darkness, twice over in fact.” Twilight looked at the red haired girl in shock.
“How do you know it was darkness!?” She exclaimed. “It could have been anything! So how did you know exactly what it was!?” Did you cause it? Because if you did…” Her threat was left verbally unfinished, but her Keyblade flashed into existence above her head.
Kairi, if she was at all shocked by the appearance of the weapon, hid it well. She merely smiled and touched the palm of her hand to Twilight’s muzzle, and closed her eyes. From the point where they met, Twilight could feel…a feeling. An odd, buzzing feeling that warmed her and comforted her, like a thick blanket next to a warm fire on a cold winter’s night. It calmed Twilight down as the feeling spread throughout her entire being, before resting in her chest. If Twilight was to give the feeling a description, she only had one word. “Light.” She spoke it so softly that it was drowned out by the wind, but the angelic girl before her only tilted her head to go along with her smile, knowing exactly what Twilight felt.
“Why don’t you head into town and get to know the area. I need to contact a few people who may be able to help get you home.” Kairi said, still smiling motherly. Twilight of course looked nervous, as her only experience with humans involved her being human herself. Kairi apparently noticed and put those fears to rest. “Don’t worry, this town…we are used to the strange.” And with that the redhead walked farther down the beach, away from civilization.
‘Right’ Twilight thought to herself, ‘Mingle with humans while I’m a purple pony princess, I can already feel the suffocation.’ As she walked into town, Twilight did notice that the humans living there did in fact do double takes as she went by, but then shrugged their shoulders and smiled or waved in her direction. ‘Pinkie would love these people…or she would have.’ Lost in her thoughts about her friends, Twilight didn’t notice a being in front of her until she bumped into them.
“Kupo! What was that for!?” Twilight looked up …at a red ball on a bouncing stick? Following the stick down, Twilight did not lose any confusion about the creature before her. It was doll like in appearance with curved lines where eyes should be, stubs for limbs, a big red clown nose, and tiny wings that apparently could support its weight as it started to hover. “Hey, Kupo! Pay attention Kupo! You knocked me down and messed up my supplies Kupo! So now you are going to do my delivery for me, Kupo!” The strange being slapped a map in twilight’s face and floated away.
‘Jerk’ Twilight picked everything up from the ground. ‘The only reason I’m doing this and not kicking that thing’s flank is that this delivery route will take me all over town. I need to get the lay of the land after all.’ She flapped her wings and landed on a nearby roof. ‘Doesn’t mean I won’t kick its flank later though.’ And so she was off, delivering items of interesting make and quality to different shops and locations around the town. Her last stop was a newly furnished store front that had a sign whose very existence made Twilight’s academic self, shudder in revulsion. Crusading Items ‘n’ Sundries. Walking in, Twilight was greeted by the most surprising thing that she could see, or hear in three distinct forms. “Hiya Princess! Welcome to our shop!”
The Three Terrors of Ponyville, The Cutie Mark Crusaders. Twelve legs, two wings, a horn, and a bow. Needless to say, Twilight was not happy. “How did you girls get here? No, why are you here? No, why do you have a shop? No…I…Buh…Arrgh!” Twilight’s her began to get frizzy as her eye started to twitch, a sign the Crusaders personally knew meant bad news.
“We kind of just woke up in this empty shop Princess, we don’t know what happened.” Sweetie Belle squeaked out. “We felt something here” she placed a hoof on her chest, “and we just knew that our sisters were in trouble. We thought we’d make enough bits to make a ship and sail to help, but all we got are these crystal things. They kinda look like bits, if you squint.” Scootaloo facehooved at the conversation derailment.
“We’ve been tryin’ our hardest to help Princess, honest.” Applebloom said.
Twilight looked at the three fillies, scowling. “You aren’t going anywhere. You are staying here. You can keep running the shop because it should keep you out of trouble and will help you learn responsibility. But the moment I save your sisters, you are going home, and no Twilight Time for a month.” The Crusaders gasped and were about to object, “Want to try for two?” They didn’t. “Good, now what do you ha…” Twilight was interrupted by a scream outside. “Stay here!” Twilight raced outside, Keyblade aloft to come face to face with strange bipedal creatures with yellow eyes, clam-like objects for helmets, claws, and a strange symbol of a black heart with red outline and stitches through the center.
The emblem creatures turned at the appearance of Twilight and her Keyblade. A few performed a spinning kick that sent Twilight flying. Geez! These things are stronger than the invaders! After she destroyed one, Twilight was shocked to see a pink heart float out of the darkness of the destroyed creature. A heart? What? She managed to weed her way through the group in front of her, but a crash on the other side of town grabbed her attention.
“Shannaro!” The yell was followed by another crash, and a cloud of smoke rose into the air, and small explosions of black showed that the creatures had just been attacked by an incredible force.
Flying over the rooftops, Twilight saw a pink-haired human punching and kicking the creatures, and leaving shockwaves and craters in the wake of her blows. Unfortunately, despite the girl’s immense strength, she was quickly becoming overwhelmed. Twilight was just about to drop in to help, when a black blur zoomed past her into the air. The blur began to spin rapidly, taking on the appearance of a ball with an orange glow. Dozens of laser like lights rained down from the sphere, piercing the creatures and obliterating them. The sphere stopped spinning and landed on the ground next to the girl, revealing a black anthromorphic being with spiky black and red hair.
“You always this useless?” The being spoke in a gravelly voice, a smirk on its face.
The pink-hair scoffed, “You sound like my husband.”
More creatures sprang up, completely surrounding them. The pink-hair merely cracked her knuckles, while the anthro cocked a futuristic pistol. Just before the creatures attacked, Twilight dropped down and spun her Keyblade in a circle around all three of them. “This a duet, or can anyone join this song?” Twilight snarked. I’m channeling Dash now.
The others blinked and looked at each other. “Just keep up” the black one said. And keep up she did. All three of them were in perfect sync with each other. When someone was hurt, the pink girl would move her hands into different shapes and a green aura would appear and heal that person. The spiky animal would dart around at amazing speeds and blast creatures into oblivion with lasers of fire, ice and lightning. All was looking up until the remaining creatures vanished.
In their place, a giant stone dropped out of the sky. It unfolded itself from its ball like form revealing a red interior with the Emblem on its chest, and two yellow eyes. Its arms were curved pillars, and its legs were no different. The creature curled itself up and rolled around the field. The party dodged the best they could, but were hit a few times. “Wear it out!” Pink said, “It has to uncurl eventually!” It did, for a small amount of time, but it took multiple tries to make it even slightly weak.
Once the creature had been stunned, Twilight and the others began a relentless attack, eventually destroying the creature and releasing a pink crystallized heart. The party fell on their backs in exhaustion.
“Rockadillo.” The other two looked at Twilight as if she was crazy. “I think we should call it Rockadillo, you know because it was a rock that acted like an armadillo. I'm Princess Twilight Sparkle, by the way.”
“That is without a doubt, the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard your Highness…I’m Shadow.”
“I don’t know, I think it fits. My blonde idiot of teammate would probably call it something similar. Sakura.”
The group just took the time to chuckle, and then laugh, at the insanity of being so far from their homes and just fighting for their lives against a creature called ‘Rockadillo.’ Unfortunately, it was not to last, as more of the soldier like creatures and the bugs appeared around them. The group could barely stand, let alone fight. It looked as though this new friendship was about to end.
Until Kairi dropped down between the group and the invading creatures. “Annoying Heartless,” She said rising to full height, a glare upon her face, her eyes as cold as a tundra. “Begone.” With a snap of her fingers on her right hand, bolts of light rained down from the sky like the fires of heaven, piercing the now called Heartless and destroying them. “It might be best if you three come with me.”
Kairi took the three out to the same island Twilight arrived on and sat them down under a curved paupu tree she sat on herself. "Those creatures are called Heartless. They are born from the Darkness inside one's heart."
"What do you mean?" Shadow asked.
"Negative emotions: rage, jealousy, hatred." Kairi closed her eyes and shook her head. "When someone let's those control their lives, they will consume them." Kairi opened her eyes again. "The Heartless steal the hearts of others to create more of themselves, spreading like a plague."
"Is there anyway to stop them?" Twilight questioned.
Kairi smiled. "You." Twiligth seemed to jump back in shock and Kairi giggled. "Your Keyblade."
Twilight's Keyblade appeared in a flash of light. "This?"
"Yes. The Heartless fear the Keyblade but are drawn to it, like moths to a flame. The Keyblade is the only weapon that can permanently free the stolen Hearts... And most liekly, it can save your worlds."
Sakura crossed her arms. "So now what? Twilight goes off on an adventure?"
"Kairi nodded. "I was hoping you two would go with her." Sakura and Shadow glanced at each other while Twilight brightened.
"Ooh, new friends!" Twilight started to skip around.
Sakura shook her head while smiling. "Just like you... Okay, I'm in."
"I'm in too." Shadow said, cocking his blaster. "These things are in my way.
Kairi clapped once. "That's great, now follow me." She led them to the other side of the island where a purple spaceship was hovering. “This is a Falcon type Gummi Ship, it packs a lot of punch and is incredibly fast, but don’t try a drawn out fight in it or you’ll lose. I’ve included books on my friend’s adventures to help prepare for what’s coming. Oh! I almost forgot.” Turning away from the ship to the newly formed adventuring party. Kairi snapped her fingers and a bright light engulfed the trio behind her. She took in their new clothes: Sakura was dressed in a red and black outfit designed for battle, with pockets and scrolls everywhere, and a red headband with a Japanese character engraved into metal. Shadow merely added a pair of sunglasses/goggles onto his head. Twilight was the most changed, a purple hooded-jacket and wraps around her hooves.
“Do you all understand, that this won’t be easy? The Heartless will exist as long as there is darkness. But as long as they exist, so does our light. Never lose sight of it.” The party got into their ship and took off, a grand adventure about to start.