//------------------------------// // World Two - Lanes Between // Story: The Conversion Bureau: Worlds Where It Wouldn’t Work // by Sora2455 //------------------------------// Unlike Equestria, Earth, or any other world Xlestia knew of, this world was divided up into hundreds of smaller worlds separated by powerful barriers. Teleporting Equestria into this mess had simply made it another world among others. That put a huge damper in Xlestia’s plans right away – converting those worlds to pony worlds could only be done case by case. Worse, she couldn't use all of the tricks she had planned out. Still, that meant that any defense would also be done case by case; and considering the lack of overarching rule, or even communication, conquering these 'mini-worlds' should be a piece of cake. Xlestia resisted the urge to throw back her head and laugh - that was Nightmare Moon's gig. Instead she settled for an ominous smirk. Soon, all those worlds would be full of laughing, frolicking ponies all living - "Princess?" Xlestia hated being interrupted, but she had an image to maintain. She schooled her features, and turned away from her crystal ball to face the pony who had spoken up. "Yes, Token?" "Uh, Princess? You're... glowing." Token Minion seemed very nervous for some reason. "I'm using magic, Token. Of course my horn is glowing." Xlestia really needed to up the standards in castle servants if kindergarten flunkies could get in. "No, Princess, I mean like all of you is glowing. All glowing... black." That comment well and truly shocked Xlestia into examining herself. She caught a glimpse of black shadows wrapped around her body like an aura before they faded away. "What under the sun was that?!" Token Minion voiced Xlestia's own concern. "Was the Nightmare trying to get you too, princess?!" Xlestia looked at her forehooves. What had she been doing? She had been plotting the downfall of all non-pony worlds - there. The aura of darkness returned when her thoughts of conquest did. And there was such strength in this darkness... "I think I see what our sister saw in the power that opposes the light... hm. This world ruined my plans, but maybe it can also let me execute them some other way...." Token ran straight for the hills upon hearing that, so she missed the deep, booming laughter that spoke of suffering for those fools who opposed Xlestia... Ponyville was completely overrun by monsters of shadow. Rainbow Dash had no idea where the critters were coming from, but the creepy black things were the most unnatural thing the weathermare had ever seen... and she'd been in the Everfree. Twilight, bless her book-obsessed soul, had called the things 'Heartless', whatever those were. She could name the things but couldn't tell them something useful, like say... how to GET RID OF THEM? 'Course, they weren't any threat to the world's most awesome pony, but no matter how many times she zapped, smashed or bucked them, they kept coming back! Every day, there was a new variety to fight... which had become a lot harder when flying heartless had shown up! Giving a good kick to a gargoyle-shadow-thing dispersed it, but that just let her see the black pony on the ground, surrounded by Heartless. "Look out!" Rainbow cried as she tackled one of the imp things. A quick tussle destroyed it, so Rainbow looked up, trying to see why the black pony wasn't running - and looked straight into the glowing yellow eyes that meant 'Heartless'. Rainbow's pupils shrank in surprise and fear as she realized that the Pony Heartless already had reared up, ready to trample her. Her heart seemed to beat between her ears as she wondered if this was it. Its blow was interrupted by the silver pole that pierced it straight through its chest, destroying it. Rainbow blinked. "Hey!" Turning, the weatherpony found a pegasus with ashen brown fur had just saved her flank. His mane was a lighter brown, but so spiky that Rainbow had to hold in a snort of amusement. "Are you okay?" Rainbow's ego started to reinflate after her brush with Death. "What, worried those creeps hurt me? Please, they'd have to try harder than that! The name's Rainbow Dash." She added when she realized the kid was probably new around here. "Hi there! My name's Sora." The kid - although he was closer to stallion age than foal age - replied. "So... how long have the Heartless been here?" "Ugh, like a week or so? The Princess said we were going to go help some weird creatures call 'humans', but then the Heartless showed up and nopony's heard from her since." Rainbow explained, scowling at the Heartless visible at the other end of the road. Shouting a wordless battle-cry, Rainbow flew at the Heartless. Sora frowned, then dashed to help her out. As he tore into the darkness made solid, Rainbow saw him wield the pole from earlier in his mouth - only now she saw that it wasn't a pole, more like a really weird sword with spokes on one end that would have looked more at home on a key than a weapon. "'er are humans 'at need 'elp?" He mouthed between swings. "Well -pant- the princess was saying -hiya! - that there were all nasty to each other and not being - ack!" At that last one, Sora had to hop over and help the less experienced fighter out from under the pile-up she'd ended up beneath. "Pretty sure you don't need to be human to be nasty to one another." Sora commented, handing Rainbow a bottle. "Healing potion." He explained. Rainbow gratefully downed the bottle. "You don't happen to know where the Heartless are coming from, do you? Normally they need a huge source of darkness to attract them in this kinda numbers." Sora asked. "Well..." Rainbow went over her list of known villains. Luna was fixed, Discord reformed, Chrysalis would starve, Sombra destroyed... "Me and Twilight and the others have been trying to figure this out all week. We got no clue!" "That's 'My friends and I', Rainbow Dash." Speak of the mare.... Walking up from the intersection was Twilight and the others (including Fluttershy, amazingly enough) with... a Griffin and a Diamond Dog? Sora seemed to recognize the latter two. "Donald! Goofy! There you are!" "Sora!" The unlikely pair cried in thick accents. To the ponies mild surprise, the three gave each other a great bear hug. While the cross-species friends were catching up, Twilight trotted over to Rainbow. "Donald was saying how he and his friends are travelers who fight the Heartless a lot, so having them on the team will be a great help!" "On what team? We've been playing defense the whole time!" Rainbow argued. "Aw-hyuk! Well, if I was an evil conquering villain," Goofy pulled out of the hug to comment "then I'd be holed up in the biggest castle I could find!" His eyes moved meaningfully to Canterlot, perched on its mountain in the distance. "Now hold up just one minute sugar-plum!" Applejack interrupted. "You'll not saying whoever's behind this is in Canterlot, are you? Both princesses there, and neither one would stand for this sort of commotion!" "Quite right!" Rarity added. "Well yeah, but... neither princess has answered my letters this whole time the Heartless have been here." Twilight pointed out, slightly downcast. A moment of depressed silence fell on the group. "OKAY THEN," Both Pinkie Pie and Sora started yelling, before stopping and looking at the other. Pinkie giggled, and Sora gestured for the native to go first. "Okay then, we just have to go to Canterlot and kick the bad guy's butt, right guys? Piece of cake! And trust me, if anyone knows cake, I know cake!" Pinkie pulled the group into an awkward group hug. "Cheer up! All this doom and gloom isn't good for your heart at all. Like cholesterol!" "But Pinkie - " "No buts! This is a but-free trip! The princesses are fine. Luna's probably just locked up somewhere so she can't interfere while her sister controls the heartless!" Twilight furrowed her brow. "Pinkie, you need to word that better. You made it sound like Celestia is behind the evil plot." "I did? Silly me!" Going to Canterlot was much more difficult than normal. First of all, the train schedule had been massively cut back due to all the Heartless. Second, when they were able to get a train, Heartless attacked it in waves. Donald had not been kidding when he said they attacked anything moving. Fortunately Sora, Donald and Goofy were old hats at this sort of thing, so the Heartless attacks were more annoying then life-threatening. Which led to problem number three. The three friends had apparently met humans at some point on their journeys, and were thoroughly confused at the princess's 'rescue plan'. "Look, humans can be nasty to each other, and sometimes they can't get along to save their lives... but they're hardly alone in that, right?" Sora argued. "It's more than that. The princess said that they're these horrible monsters who fight each other with almost no reason!" Twilight rebutted. The other mane six members nodded, backing her up. Sora let out a chuckle. "Have you ever met a human? Sheesh. You sure your princess wasn't talking about some other race? I know plenty of creatures like that, and yeah, some of them are human - or were, at some point - but that had nothing to do with their species. That has to do with their heart." "But no pony has ever acted like that!" Twilight was focusing on the argument so much she missed Spike coughing *Nightmare moon* and *Sombra* under his breath. "If other races can't avoid the darkness, wouldn't it be better for everyone to be ponies?" "Hey!" Spike cried. Twilight spared an apologetic look for her number one assistant. "Sorry Spike. But you're practically an honorary pony anyway!' "Now see, I know you meant that as a complement, but I enjoy being a dragon, thank you very much. Dragons are cool." Spike grumbled. "Look, Twilight." Sora put a hoof on her shoulder. "I know you just want to make everyone happy. But forcing change upon people just leads to them opposing your change, and then where are you? If you want to change someone, you need to help them, not force them. You'd be surprised what a few friends can do for someone." Twilight remembered a pony who refused a party invitation because she was wrapped up reading thousand-year old prophecies, and compared that to herself now. She remembered a chaos-causing mischief-maker, and how Fluttershy had changed him. She recalled all the reports she had sent to the princess about the power and nature of friendship. "Yeah, I guess I would." She admitted. If the girls had thought Ponyville was bad, they were gobsmacked at Canterlot. You really couldn't walk though the streets without tripping over Heartless. Worse, they couldn't find any of the actual inhabitants; just the Pony Heartless. They tried hard not to think about what that meant. The citizens had probably just evacuated... right? Sora, Donald and Goofy surprised the ponies with how they tore though the Heartless, Donald especially with how he was using a magic staff clutched in his claws. They didn't know griffins could use magic. The native ponies weren't slaking off either - Applejack was bucking as hard as ever while Rainbow harassed the Heartless with hit-and-run strikes. Rarity was using her Unicorn TK to tangle the smaller Heartless in cloth for the others to get, and Twilight was casting spells left, right and center; with Spike on her back dragon-flaming any Heartless that got too close. Pinkie Pie kept popping up in clusters of Heartless, blowing raspberries, and vanishing again just in time for the Heartless to pumble each other. Fluttershy, bless her, had tried to get the Heartless to back off back in Ponyville - and found out the hard way that Heartless can't feel guilt. So instead, she stayed in the middle of the group, handing out the newcomer's stock of healing and magic-restore potions when needed. Thus the group made its way to the royal palace. "So, straight to the throne room?" Sora asked. "Hang on." Twilight opened up her saddlebags. "Girls, we'll be needing these." Armed with the Elements of Harmony, everyone entered the throne room ready to blast whoever had taken out the princess. Instead they found Xlestia waiting for them. "Princess? You're okay?" Twilight was ecstatic. Opinions on Humans aside, her mentor always knew what to do. Then the shadows curled up around Xlestia's form, as she almost purred at seeing her student. "Oh Twilight, I have never been better!" "I think we found our black heart." Sora quipped, summoning his Keyblade into his mouth. "What? But - How? When? WHY?!" Twilight was screaming, and she didn't care. "Well, y'know how some people say the ends justify the means?" Donald raised his staff up. "That's where that kinda thinking ends up." "Really, the problem wasn't that the people weren't ponies... the problem was that the people weren't ruled by ME!" Xlestia cried, the shadows forming into armor eerily familiar to the main six. "Soon, I shall rule all the worlds... as Nightmare Sun!" Then she stopped and rubbed her chin. "No, no... it just doesn't have the same ring to it. What do you girls think? Scorching Sun? Unbearable Heat?" Her head snapped back as Sora threw his Keyblade into her face. "Agh!" Xlestia cried in pain. She'd been ignoring the brat and his friends in favor of the EoH, but that was clearly a mistake. Whatever his weapon was, it could hurt her though her Shadow Armor. Sora summoned his Keyblade back to his mouth from where he'd thrown it. "It 'osen't 'atter, 'cause we'll stop ya!" "Princess, something mighty strange has come over ya... but don't worry! We'll get that darkness offa ya, just like we did your sister!" Applejack backed Sora up. She gripped Twilight by her shoulders and gave her a little shake. "We'll have your teach back to normal before you can say- whoa nellie!" Heartless had slipped from the shadows from all sides of the room, surrounding the girls. Not for the first time, Twilight wished she'd left Spike somewhere safe - but with Heartless everywhere, not even her tree-house was really safe. Still he was doing great at keeping the Heartless at range where she could use her spells the best. Of course, the situation was back-to-front. The Heartless had surrounded the Element Bearers, preventing them from actually using the elements - they were single target only. That had left the three out-of-townees to hold off the darkness-possessed sun-princess by themselves - and while they might be able to defeat her; the goal was to purify her, not beat her up. To Xlestia's surprise, Sora grabbed Goofy by the scruff of the neck, flapped his wings twice, and then threw his friend straight at the Heartless hordes. To her greater surprise, Goofy flew forwards like he was strapped to a rocket, sweeping back and forth and swashing them with his shield, dealing huge damage to the Heartless. "What was that?" Rarity demanded, trying to entangle a Neoshadow in cloth while also trying not to reflexively dress it up. "Oh, ya'mean Knocksmash? That's a Limit I have with Sora - do y'know what a Limit is?" Goofy answered, having finished his seemingly-rocket-powered flight and trying to fight his way back to Sora and Donald. Upon seeing shaken heads, he explained "Basically, you take the love and trust for your friends, and throw a bunch of magic into it! Real helpful in messes like this!" Normally a spellcaster would need some time and practice before even thinking of trying a technique they heard in passing, but normally such a spellcaster wasn't Twilight Sparkle, extremely talented mage and lead element of harmony. She had done 'friendship magic' before, but from what Goofy said, if she shoved magic back down her bonds of friendship rather than let the power come to her... All six ponies and dragon immediately stopped what they were doing. Spike breathed green flames straight up, which formed a dome around the friends - something he could never do normally. Then, the flames cleared - revealing the Mane Six facing inward, forming a circle. Without the slightest care for their surroundings, the friends began to dance. First they pranced from side-to-side, then as the Heartless closed in, they all kicked out simultaneously, doing far more damage than such a kick would normally do. It was some kind of weird barn dance, but where the kicks killed monsters. After five kicks, the girls collapsed in a pile giggling, while fireworks exploded in the face of the Heartless. Still in the pile, Rarity groaned. "Twilight, dear, warn a pony before you do that again..." Xlestia looked over from where she was trying to cook herself some Griffin with flames of Darkness. To her anger, all the Heartless she had set on the Mane Six had been destroyed. She reared up, ready to summon more, before Goofy managed to shield-bash her in her exposed underbelly, interrupting her. "Now, everypony!" Twilight cried, tiara aglow. At her cry, her friends got into position and lent their strength to Twilight. The familiar rainbow light formed, charging into Xlestia. "NO!" The darkness covered alicorn cried, summoning a wall of darkness to block the rainbow light. It worked, but the Elements continued pouring the Magic of Friendship into the Darkness as fast as Xlestia could summon it. Watching the lightshow, Sora whistled. Then he grinned, and pointed his Keyblade into the rainbow light. A white beam shot from the magic weapon, spinning around the friendship beam to slam into the darkness wall with an audible 'click'. The wall of Darkness shattered, and Xlestia screamed as the magic enveloped her. Everyone in the room blinked to clear their eyes of the bright flash, then again to make sure they were working right. "Twilight, did you mess the settings up on that thing?" Pinkie Pie asked, confused. Frozen, the statue of Xlestia continued to hold up an angry hoof of evil denied. World Two – Let our Hearts be filled with friendship!