Chapter three
The walk back to Ponyvill was much less hectic then the one to the Apple family farm, Sora stayed behind the three mares as they talked about the events leading up to now. Sora was occasionally asked questions which he answered with the ease of someone who has answered them all before. As they entered Ponyvill Sora once again noted just how happy all of the ponies looked as they went about their daily lives, out of the corner of his eye he spotted a mint colored unicorn waving at him madly while the pony next to her sighed and facehoofed.
“Twilight, do you know who that unicorn over there who won’t stop waving at me is?” Sora asked gesturing in the unicorn’s direction with a hoof. Twilight turned to see who he was talking about but when she saw she took a swift intake of breath before replying.
“That’s Lyra, ignore her, she’s legitimately crazy.”
“Yes darling she thinks that there are these odd mostly hairless apes called humans that posses advanced technology, can you believe the absurdity of it?” Rarity asked Sora, who sighed, this was going to be a fun talk later. Donald and Goofy exchanged looks before looking at Sora’s face and bursting simultaneously into fits of tiny giggles.
“Oh shut up.” Sora whispered, the three mares didn’t seem to notice they were too caught up in their discussion about someone named Celestia.
“Do ya think she’ll have responded yet Sugarcube?” AJ asked Twilight as they approached the library.
“I hope so; even with Sora and his friends and all six elements I doubt that we would be able to stop the Heartless without at least her advice.” Twilight replied worriedly looking off into the distance as if hoping to receive some kind of guidance from the sky, then again Sora had seen stranger things happen.
“Darling don’t you think that you’re selling Sora short, he is after all a very strapping and talented stallion?” Rarity asked Twilight while she turned around and looked Sora in the eyes, Sora barely managed to stop his mouth hanging open, had Rarity just made a pass at him? Oh god Kairi would kill him if she knew!
“Sorry, I’m already in a stable relationship right now.” Sora stuttered out, his cheeks blushing a deep red, Rarity pouted briefly before saying.
“Oh well no harm in trying is there.” She then turned back to Twilight and the three fell back into deep discussion repeatedly mentioning The Elements of Harmony, as to what those were Sora had no idea. As they approached the library Sora noticed that night was falling rapidly.
“Say Twilight you wouldn’t happen to have an extra bed or three would you?” Sora asked as he looked towards the darkening skies.
“No but I have three couches.” Twilight told him.
“That works to I guess” Sora told her, while he ruefully thought about how his back would feel the next morning. Donald and Goofy let out slightly exasperated breaths but remained otherwise silent; they’d all lived through far worse than sore muscles. When they walked into the library Spike jumped up from a chair that he was sitting on and rushed over to Twilight before handing her a letter.
“This came through earlier, I haven’t looked at it yet but I think it might be important.” Spike told Twilight while she fixed him with a raised eyebrow.
“You mean that a letter from Celestia about an interdimensional evil is important?” She asked him sarcasm literally dripping from her voice like honey. Spike walked away in a huff grumbling.
“Was that really necessary darling?” Rarity asked Twilight.
“He’ll be fine Rarity I’m just a under a lot of stress right now and I get a little testy when I’m stressed. Now let’s see what Celestia has to say.” Twilight unfurled the letter and held it in front of her face with magic. “Dear Twilight Sparkle the news of this great catastrophe fills me with dread, it is fortunate that you weren’t killed by one of the Heartless and as such you can pass on my thanks to your rescuers. On that note I would like you and your friends to come to Canterlot immediately for an emergency meeting, oh and please tell the Keyblade Master that King Mickey and I are on good terms and that he and his friends should accompany you to our meeting.” Twilight said as she read the letter out loud. At the last part Donald and Goofy looked at each other, typical of Mickey to be friends with the royalty of another dimension and never mention it to them.
“Sora darling how could the Princess be friends with your king?” Rarity asked him curiously.
“Ah was wonderin that maself.” AJ agreed.
“Oddly I’m not really surprised that The King is friends with your Queen, he seems to do that.” Sora told Twilight. Twilight nodded before turning back to Rarity and Applejack.
“Ok girls we need to get the others then board the first train to Canterlot, Rarity you go find Fluttershy and Pinkie, and AJ you go find Dash. I’ll stay here and keep them company until you get back.
***
While they waited for Twilight’s friends to return Sora, Donald, and Goofy explored the selection of books in the library. Much to Sora’s surprise the books were actually full of words. For some reason in every library that he’d been to up to now all of the books had only contained one or two paragraphs, at best. Here they appeared to be full length and teeming with knowledge. Twilight raised her eyebrow at him when he asked her about it.
“As far as I know most books have more than a paragraph Sora, in fact I’ve never heard of one that doesn’t.” Twilight replied cautiously, Sora shrugged. Luckily they were saved from any awkwardness thanks to the timely arrival of Twilight’s friends. Dash walked in first, followed by Applejack. Rarity came next with two unfamiliar ponies in tow, one was a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, the other was a bubbly pink pony.
“Oh my gosh three new ponies! I can’t believe it Ineedtothrowyouallapartywhat’re yournames?” The pink pony asked excitedly hopping up and down in front of Sora.
“I’m Sora and this is Donald and Goofy.” Sora said introducing his friends and offering her his hoof; the pink pony shook his hoof ecstatically before moving onto his friends. The yellow pegasus looked at Sora nervously.
“I’m Fluttershy.” She offered quietly and offered Sora her hoof hesitantly; Sora smiled at her and shook her hoof gently earning a cute smile.
“Ok girls time to get to the train station.” Twilight said before Donald or Goofy could get dragged into a conversation about party ideas. They all set off at a nice walk while Twilight informed the other three about what had happened over the course of the day. At the mention of Heartless Fluttershy stiffened with fear but Twilight quickly reassured her they’d all be fine, Sora noticed that Twilight seemed to be the leader of their group. As they walked through the town Sora noticed that the ponies were still going about their business as usual, he sighed it was probably better than making them panic. The train conductor eyed Twilight’s group with a critical eye before shrugging and agreeing to let them board free on account of royal orders.
“So Fluttershy I’ve heard you raise animals, that most take a lot of work.” Sora said kindly trying to break the ice as the group sat in their train car.
“Yes, it does, but I really love making all of the animals happy.” Fluttershy replied, a little of her nervousness dissipating from her voice as she said it.
“Yall won’t find a pony better then Shy when it comes ta raisin animals.” AJ said from where she was looking out the window.
“Yeah she’s awesome with them.” RD volunteered enthusiastically, suddenly the train lights went dark Fluttershy screamed in surprise. Twilight quickly activated a lighting spell
“Donald, Goofy keep the girls safe, I’ll deal with the Heartless.” Sora ordered as he peered around to find a target in the low light of Twilight’s spell, the train car was full of Shadows and Neoshadows. Sora raised his keyblade and charged, the first Neoshadows leapt at him but he rolled under its raking claws and sliced through its back with a quick cut. The lesser Shadows decided to rush him directly and tried to smother him. Thinking quickly he set off a small powered lightning spell and stunned the group before he mercilessly bore down on them destroying their black bodies in seconds. Five more Neoshadows sprang at him and Sora was engulfed in a swarm of long black claws that he dodged and weaved under and around before retaliating with a well timed combo that sent three of the black monstrosities flying backwards.
Sora really wished that he had hands because it would make what he was about to much easier. Hoping that the new body would be able to reproduce the move Sora threw his keyblade into the air, jumped over the Neoshadows caught the keyblade in midair with his mouth, before dashing the two Neoshadows’ heads in. Donald and Twilight had their hooves full protecting five other ponies from a hoard of Shadows that seemed to never end sending blasts of magic roaring through them eliminating dozens at a time as Goofy easily bashed the survivors away with easy swings of his shield.
The heartless just kept coming, Sora was just beginning to have flashbacks of wading through the streets of the World that Never Was when suddenly the train car was engulfed in a pink wall of light. The heartless all burst into inky blackness and disappeared and the light returned to the train car. The train rolled to a stop and the door to their compartment was kicked open violently by a stallion blue maned stallion in gleaming golden armor who rushed inside. Sora stood between him and the mares keyblade at the ready the stallion met his eyes before lowering his horn and sending out a spear of magic, Sora deflected it into the ceiling and ran forward to engage the new threat.
“Sora stop, that’s my brother!” Twilight yelled, Sora grinded to a halt his blade a few feet from the stallion’s face.
“Please lower that blade or I will pull it out of your mouth and smash your skull in with it.” The stallion said surprisingly nicely, Sora shrugged and the keyblade disappeared. “Thank you.” The stallion told him before stepping past Sora and embracing his sister in a tight hug. “You ok Twily?” He asked worry on his face.
“I’m fine Shining, I see you’ve met Sora.” Twilight said with a little smile, Shining blushed a little before turning back to Sora.
“Sorry about that, I was worried about my sister.” Shining said sincerely
“No worries it happens to everyone when heartless are involved.” Sora replied with a shrug.
“I’m here to escort you to your audience with Celestia and Luna, follow me please.” Shining told them. The mares followed him out with Fluttershy brining up the rear still extremely shaken from their encounter with the heartless. They walked in relative silence till they arrived at the castle, Shining nodded to eight heavily armed guards who were waiting at the gate before pushing it open and leading the group inside. Sora was impressed; he’d seen lots of castles in his time, to many to remember all of them in fact but even so the Canterlot castle had an edge over them. Maybe it was the aura of peace that it exuded or maybe it was the way that its walls reflected the light but something about it just made him happy inside when he looked at it.
“That was a lot of guards.” Donald whispered to Sora quietly.
“Yeah it’s good to see that they aren’t completely defenseless here, what do you think Goofy?” Sora asked his other companion.
“Gosh Sora I don’t think it’s enough, there are more heartless here then I’ve seen in most places which surprises me.” Goofy replied stating something that had been troubling Sora as well. The other seven ponies had started to listen to their conversation.
“We need to find the heart of this world and lock it as soon as possible that’s for sure.” Sora went on oblivious to the fact that he now had seven pairs of eyes looking at him.
“I’m not sure what you three are talking about, but it would probably be best if you did it in front of Celestia and Luna.” Shining told them as they walked towards the Princesses corridors.
“Right sorry we got distracted.” Sora apologized; he was interested to meet these princesses. Eventually they came to a large door where several sets of guards stood at attention Shining knocked Twice.
“Come in and bring our guests.” Came a friendly sounding female voice from behind the door, Shining did so. Sora gasped.