//------------------------------// // It Came From the Shadows // Story: Kingdom Hearts: Friends of Harmony // by indigohue //------------------------------// Chapter lll It Came From the Shadows Fluttershy was at a lost. She was cornered by beings that she has never seen before in her life. Her body wouldn't move as if she was struck by fear. All she could focus on were the eyes of the shadowy figures that were in front of her. In an instant the monsters all lunged at Fluttershy with claws showing, and Fluttershy closed her eyes, and just screamed for her life. Fluttershy waited for the fatal blow but was taken back by the fact that there was no fatal blow at all. She opened one of her eyes to see what had happened but all she could see was a flash of light and something that had the shape of a giant key. "Fluttershy, are you okay?" Fluttershy looked up and saw that it was Sora that came to rescue her. "Sora...." "Just stay right there Fluttershy, I'll handle these guys." Sora then got into his battle stance and ran towards the monsters. The first one lunged and made a swipe with its claws towards Sora's face. Sora slid back away from the attack and saw his opening to attack, then he swung his key blade in a downward strike and attacked the shadowy being. The being soon began to dissapate and a crystalline heart was seen floating to the sky. The other monsters quickly tried to attack Sora but to no avail. Sora smoothly evaded the barrage of attacks that the monsters were using. Sora did a black flip and cocked his key blade back. He threw the key blade towards his enemies. The key blade started to curve in a boomerang motion as it hit the monsters making them disappear and quickly returned back to Sora. Fluttershy was in awe in what she was seeing. To say she was lost beyond all measures would be sugarcoating it. As Sora looked back towards Fluttershy he saw more heartless starting to appear. He ran towards Fluttershy to make sure that they weren't cut off by the growing horde of heartless. As Sora started to look around in his predicament, he knew that there were slim chances of getting any help out of this one. He needed a plan and quick. The heartless then pounced at Sora and Fluttershy all in one movement. Sora put his body right in front of Fluttershy to block the attack from hitting her. As he braced for the impact, he saw that the heartless had been pushed back to the ground. Sora did not see what had happened, but what stood in front of him made him gasp in surprise. It was the Organization XIII signature black cloak, and in each hand of the wearer was a key blade. Oathkeeper and Oblivion. The wearer of the cloak started to speak. "And you're supposed to be my other?" "C'mon Sora, you can do better than this." Sora was shocked to hear such a familiar voice in this unfamiliar world. "It can't be........Roxas?" The cloaked person then pushed his hood off his head to show a head of dark blonde curved spiky hair. His eyes were the same ocean blue color as Sora's. He looked at Sora with a smile. "Who else, would it be?" Sora was puzzled on how Roxas was here in this world, but he couldn't dwell on it for long as he still had to fight. "Come on," Roxas said. "Let's get rid of the rest of these heartless." "Yeah," Sora said. "Let's do it." The heartless regained their consciousness as Sora and Roxas quickly got into their stances. They heartless started to dash forward as did Sora and Roxas. They ran straight towards the heartless then when they were face to face with the horde Sora jumped up onto Roxas's key blades, and Roxas launched Sora behind the the heartless. Sora then started attacking the heartless from the back as Roxas was attacking from the front. They both their way into the middle of the pack and saw that they were circled inside the heartless. They faced the heartless back to back and started attacking the heartless as they tried to attack the key blade wielders. One after another the heartless were quickly disappearing and the horde was getting smaller and smaller. There were only a handful left. What caught the key blade wielders off guard was that heartless started fusing into one. The heartless started fusing into one giant heartless.The tips of its feet were red, and it had small, dark grey wings on its back. It also had an orange wing on each of its elbows. It had a long tail that ended in a silver, pendulum-like blade. Its small eyes were glowing yellow, and its head featured two large, conical, dark purple spikes on either side. It also had two horns with orange tips on its head that connected to each other to form a heart shape. One thing new was that the heartless carried an ornate, orange sword with a grey cross guard, black edges, and the kanji for "hard shell" printed on its shaft. Roxas and Sora saw this heartless and were taken back by it. "Is that an Orcus?!" Roxas said. "You've seen this heartless before?" Sora said. "Let's just say, this is definitely not an illusion," Roxas said. The heartless then proceeded to fly towards them with sword in hand. Sora and Roxas looked at each other and nodded their heads. They each ran up towards the heartless. Sora and Roxas locked blades with the monster as they were each trying their best to get the upper hand. Seeing that they were at a standstill, all three of them jumped back from each other. "I have an idea," Sora said. "Just watch for your Que.." Sora started running towards to the Orcus. "No, Sora, what are you doing?!" Roxas screamed. The Orcus took this opportunity to strike at Sora, but Sora quickly dodged the swipe from the heartless's sword and went behind the heartless. "Roxas,now,this is your chance!" Sora said. "Alright, here I go!" As the heartless was focusing on Sora, Roxas was able to jump up in the air and proceed to land hit after hit onto the heartless. The Orcus started to descend to the ground and as he was falling, Sora went under him and used his key blade to launch it into the air. "Sora!" Roxas called out as he pointed to Sora's key blade and ran full fledge at him. "Right!" Sora understood as he put his key blade into a defensive position in front of his body. Roxas then jumped onto the key blade and Sora launched him into the sky at same height as the Orcus. "Now you're finished!" Roxas proceeded to slam down both of his key blades onto the stomach of the heartless. It then fell to the ground and landed with a thud. The Orcus started to fade away leaving behind a heart which floated into the sky. Roxas and Sora both tired from the fight had sat down on the ground. "Now that, was better." Roxas said. Sora did nothing but laugh at his comment. "Wait, where's Fluttershy," Sora said as he got up from the ground and looked back to see Fluttershy lying on the ground. "Fluttershy!" Sora said as he ran towards the fallen girl. Sora held her in his hands as he put his hand over her chest feeling for her pulse. The world fell into an absolute silence until Sora felt her heartbeat. When he felt it, he immediately became relieved. "She's okay.......she's okay, she just fainted ." "Who is this girl Sora?" Roxas said. "This is Fluttershy, and let's just say that if it wasn't for her I'd be in pretty bad shape right now." Sora said. "Hmm, how kind of her." Roxas said. Sora then looked down as he saw Fluttershy coming into consciousness. Fluttershy slowly opened her eyes and the first thing that she saw were two blue eyes. "Fluttershy, are you okay, are you hurt?" Sora said. "Sora.......," Fluttershy said. She then started to tear up as she looked at Sora. She then put her arms around him and placed her head on his chest witch caused the young man to blush. "Sora......I was so scared. Those things came at me all at once. I didn't think that I was going to make it." "Fluttershy....." Sora said. Sora then started to hug her back trying to comfort her. "Don't worry Fluttershy , they're all gone, and I'll make sure that they'll never come back to hurt you." Sora said. He then pushed himself off of her to show Fluttershy the smile on his face. "And that's a promise." Fluttershy started to smile back at Sora as she wiped off the rest of her tears. Roxas sat back and watched letting Sora have his moment. As he was doing this, Roxas heard a rustle in the trees. He got into his fighting stance and summoned his keyblades. "Another heartless, Sora there's more heartless in the trees!" "What?" Sora looked up and saw how the trees were rustling rather vigorously. Sora then summoned his kingdom key and was getting ready to attack as something popped out of the tree, and it had dark pink hair and brown skin and was wearing a black jacket and boots with turquoise shirt and black pants. Then in another tree something fell out with long pink and purple swirly hair, wearing a pink and white striped shirt with a pink jacket over it,yellow skirt, and pink boots. Then another one fell, this one had on a yellow shirt with blue overalls, yellow stockings and red shoes witch matched her long red hair and bow. The two key blade wielders could tell that the beings were just girls no older than fourteen. "Woah, that was Awesome!" The girl with the dark pink hair said. "That was incredible, I can't believe what I just saw!" The girl with the red hair said. "I really really like their hair!" The girl with the pink and purple hair said. Sora and Roxas looked at each other in confusion and decided to disregard using the key blades. Sora was the first to talk to the three girls. "Ummmmmm, not to be rude but who are you three?" "I'm Scootaloo." The girl with the pink hair said. "My name's Applebloom." The girl with the red hair said. "And I'm Sweetie Bell." The girl with the pink and purple hair said. "AND WE'RE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS WHO CRUSADE FOR THEIR CUTIE MARKS!" all the girls said at once. "I see, and what were you doing in that tree?" Roxas said. "We were sent to see where you had run off to ," Scootaloo said pointing at Sora. "Oh, I didn't mean to cause any trouble." Sora said. "Don't tell it to me, tell it to them," Scottaloo said, "Them?" As Sora said this he saw the rest of the main 6 come out of hiding as they were bewildered by what they had just saw a few moments ago. "Oh, hey guys, how much of that did you see?" "Oh, just all of it." Twilight said. "So, I guess you have more questions?" Sora asked sheepishly. "Well, I have plenty that need to be answered. First, what are those things that attacked Fluttershy, are there more of them, what are those key shaped things that you were using, and who in the name of Celestia is that guy?" Twilight said as she pointed to Roxas. "Well, I can answer that one, I'm Roxas." "Where did you come from?" Twilight said. "I don't know." Roxas said nonchalantly resulting in Twilight giving a slight twitch. "Trust me Twilight, I'll give you all the answers you need but first, can we call it a day?" Sora asked. "Well, you did save Fluttershy, so I'll wait until later to get my answers." "Thank you, and next question, could I have a place to sleep?" Sora said. "Make that two," Roxas said as everyone else started to realize that literally had no where to sleep. "If it's not a bother, Sora can stay with me," Rarity said salaciously. "Ohhh,ohhh,ohhh, let Sora stay with me and the Cakes, I bet we could have a lot of fun there, Pinke Pie said. "Am I invisible of something?" Roxas said to himself. "No, Sora wants to stay with me in the Boutique," Rarity said. "No way, he would rather stay with me in the bakery," Pinkie said. They both looked at Sora. Sora started to get a little nervous. "Well," Rarity said. "My, house or Rarity's," Pinkie said. "Ummmm, I.....choose....," Sora was at a lost for words. "How about he just stays at the farm," a mysterious voice said. Sora looked around to see who it was and it was some girl wearing an orange plaid shirt tied in the front to show her midriff where a cutie mark if three apples was seemingly placed, jean shorts, cowgirl boots, and a stetson that sat on top of her long blonde hair that was tied in a ponytail. If her clothes didn't scream that she was a cowgirl, her southern accent surely did. "I think that'll work for now, just as long as he's away from those two I'm pretty sure he'll be fine," Twilight said. "I choose the farm," Sora said with quick intentions. The cowgirl then walked over to Sora and greeted him with a firm handshake. "My name's Applejack,it's great to finally get a chance to meet the new guy," Applejack then looked over to Roxas. "Both of the new guys." "At least somebody recognized me," Roxas mumbled under his breath. "Well, if tonight's events are done, I think it's time to go to bed," Roxas said. Everybody agreed and started heading their way back to their homes. Sora looked at Fluttershy as she started walking back home. he could tell that she was still shaken by the events that had just taken place. It made Sora feel guilty about he let the heartless get that close to her. He didn't want anybody to be hurt by the heartless. "C'mon you two, I'll take ya to where you're gonna be stayin'," Applejack said to the duo. Roxas started walking towards the girl as she was heading towards the house. Sora finally snapped out his train of thought and started walking towards the house as well. **** A few hours pass and everyone in the house was asleep. Sora and Roxas were able to meet the Apple family before going to bed. They met Granny Smith, a lady who can be seen as crazy to many but you just gotta get to know her, she's not all that bad. They met Big Mac, the older brother of Applejack, doesn't say that many words for some reason, and Applebloom, the little sister of Applejack, who would've guessed huh? Sora and Roxas then went to bed as the day's escapades finally took a toll on them. Applejack showed them to a room in the attic which had a bunk bed, a lamp, a table, a window. Sora quickly ran to the top bunk as Roxas steadily walked to the bottom bunk not really caring about who got the top bunk, he just wanted sleep. As an hour went by, Sora found himself not being able to sleep. For some reason, he kept thinking about Fluttershy, and how bad he felt for putting her through what happened tonight. He started thinking about what he could do to make things right. A lightbulb turned on in Sora's head as he had just gotten an idea. He snuck outside the house by jumping out of the attic window and landing without a scratch. He then summoned his key blade. "Alright, let's see if this works." Sora said as he started charging energy around his key blade and himself. Sparks of blue could be seen coursing around Sora as a flash of light and puff of blue smoke surrounded the air. Sora squinted his eyes against the bright light, and after the light had vanished, what he saw gave him a big smile on his face. A blue genie had appeared right in front of him. "Sora! long time, no see, how have you been?" "Eh, you know key blade wielder, beating some heartless same ol' same ol'," Sora said. "I heard that, so what do you need help with my spiky haired friend?" "Do you think I can borrow Magic Carpet for something?" "Well I don't see why not." Genie then snapped his fingers and the magic carpet appeared in front of Sora. "Thanks Genie, this is awesome!" Sora said. "No problemo Sora just give me a call if you need anything else," Genie said before he snapped his fingers and flashed away from Sora. "Great, now let's go to her cottage." Sora said as he got on Magic Carpet and started flying towards Fluttershy's house. **** We are now at Fluttershy's cottage as Fluttershy is in bed thinking about the events that took place. The things that could've happened to her if Sora didn't step in. She didn't want to dwell on it for too long. She started to drift into her sleep until she heard a knock at her window. Fluttershy jumped at the sound of the knock until she relaxed herself and looked to see who it was. "Who could that be at this time of night?" On the outside of the window was no one but Sora seemingly flying in the air. Fluttershy was surprised at was she saw so she opened the window to see it more clearly. "Sora, are you flying?" Fluttershy asked. Sora gave a light chuckle, "Nope, that's just the flying carpet." "Flying carpet?" Fluttershy looked down and noticed that Sora was telling the truth and that he was on a magic carpet. "Th-th-that's a flying carpet... how is that possib-" "I felt bad that you had to go through all of that tonight Fluttershy," Sora said. "So, I thought of something that would be fun for us to do to get over about what happened tonight." "And, you did help me when I was injured so I think that this is the least I can do to show for you." "What are we going to do exactly?" Fluttershy asked. "We're going to fly on the carpet." Sora said calmly. Fluttershy's eyes went wide thinking about stepping on that carpet which didn't look safe at all. "I'm not sure about that Sora, I appreciate the gesture and I'm sorry about this but I think I'll just...." Fluttershy paused as Sora stuck his hand out towards the girl. "Come on Fluttershy, I'm telling ya, this'll be fun," Sora said. Fluttershy looked at it one more time. "I'm not sure." "Trust me Fluttershy, don't let your mind coax you out of something enjoyable," Sora said with a reassuring smile. Fluttershy looked at Sora and all she could focus on were his ocean blue eyes under the moonlight as his smile made her feel safe. She started to blush from the way that she felt just by looking at him. Fluttershy then pulled out her hand onto Sora's and Sora pulled her onto the carpet. As soon as she got on, the carpet started to fly into the air. Fluttershy started holding onto Sora as they were getting higher into the sky. "I thought that you would be used to flying like this Fluttershy, you know having wings and all." Sora said. "Well, actually, I'm not the best at flying so i try to stay away from flying this high," Fluttershy said. "Well, this one you're gonna want to remember, because," Sora said as he started to sing. (Sora) I can show you the world Shining,Shimmering,Splendid Tell me Fluttershy,when did you last let your heart decide? I can open your eyes Take you wonder by wonder Over sideways and under on a magic carpet ride A whole new world.... A new fantastic point of view Where you can be who you are You are a star And go with your true feelings Fluttershy then started to sing with him. (Fluttershy) A whole new world.... A dazzling place I never knew But when I'm way up here it's crystal clear that now I'm in a whole new world with you. (Sora) Now I'm in a whole new world with you... The carpet started taking them higher in the sky and eventually above the clouds. (Fluttershy) Unbelievable sights Indescribable feelings Soaring, tumbling, freewheeling Through a moonlit diamond sky A whole new world (Sora) [Don't you dare close your eyes] (Fluttershy)A hundred thousand things to see (Sora)[Hold your breath it gets better] (Fluttershy) I'm like a shooting star I'm come so far I can't go back to where I used to be (Sora) A whole new world. (Fluttershy) [Every turn a surprise] (Sora) With new horizons to pursue (Fluttershy)[Every moment gets better] (Sora&Fluttershy) I'll chase them anywhere there's time to spare let me share this whole new world with you.... (Sora) A whole new world (Fluttershy) A whole new world (Sora) That's where we'll be (Fluttershy) That's where we'll be (Sora) A thrilling chase (Fluttershy) A wondrous place Fluttershy then started to lean on Sora's body as she was starting to relax more around him. (Sora&Fluttershy) For you and me........ For the rest of the ride Fluttershy and Sora just relaxed and let the sky take them to wherever it wanted them to go. Fluttershy started yawning noting Sora that it was time to go back home. Sora turned the carpet back towards Fluttershy's cottage. As they got closer towards the cottage the carpet started to descend until they were both in front of the cottage door. Sora helped Fluttershy off the carpet as they were both getting ready to go home. "Oh, wait, one more thing Fluttershy," Sora said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a charm that had a picture of a lion. "I want you to have this, just in case those heartless come back and try to hurt you." "Oh, I see, you're giving this to me because I'm weak and helpless right?" Fluttershy said to the surprise of Sora. "What, Fluttershy no, I'm giving this to you because of the exact opposite," Sora said as he slid the necklace onto her neck. "People with pure and strong hearts can use these charms, and I know that your heart is strong enough to use it, just in case those heartless come back." Fluttershy blushed at his words. "I'll see you tomorrow ok?" Sora said with a smile on his face. Fluttershy did nothing but nod. Sora got back on the carpet and started flying back to the barn as Fluttershy went inside her home. Fluttershy looked at the pendant one more time and a heartwarming smile appeared on her face before she went to bed.