Chapter VIII
Escapades in the Everfree Forest Part ll
As the morning rays from the sun entered into the tent, Sunset was awakened as the light shined on her face. After her eyes started to adjust to the light, she looked around and noticed that she was the only one in the tent. After she realized that she was alone,only one question came to her mind. "Where's Fluttershy?" Sunset got up and walked out of the tent to see Fluttershy, Roxas, and Sora eating different arrays of fruits. Sunset was a little confused, and the cold morning air didn't help any better as she was rubbing her arms together for warmth, but she decided to go join them to see what was a going on.
"Good morning Sunset," Sora said.
"Good morning Sora, so, where did you guys get all this fruit?" Sunset questioningly said. "You didn't pick out of the Everfree Forest did you?"
"No," Roxas said with a slight chuckle. "Fluttershy had brought fruit for us to share for the picnic, and we all know how that went, so we just decided to have it for breakfast."
"Do you want any Sunset, there's plenty for everyone," Fluttershy offered.
"Yeah, I don't see why not," Sunset said as another cold wind passed by them as only Sunset was the one shivering from it. Sunset looked at the rest of the group and noticed how they weren't fazed the wind. "You guys aren't cold?" Everyone shook their heads no to Sunset's question. Then why is it just me?"
"Maybe it's because you're not wearing your jacket," Roxas said.
"What are you talking about, I am wearing my-" Sunset looked down to notice that she did not have her jacket on at all and was slightly embarrassed at herself for not noticing it all this time. "Oh, that would explain it."
"Know what, I really didn't notice how well that shirt matches you with your jacket on," Roxas said. "It's a soft enough tone of color that just makes everything else about you pop out." Everyone was wide eyed at what Roxas had just stated except for Sunset who was mildly blushing as she wasn't expecting that this early in the morning.
"Oh, thanks Roxas," Sunset said while she fiddled with her hair. "It's kinda surprising hearing it come from you. I'm going to go get my.....my......"
"Your jacket?" Roxas said.
"That's right," Sunset said as she awkwardly started walking backwards towards her tent. "Be right back," she said as she let out a nervous chuckle.
"Wonder what that was about," Roxas said nonchalantly.
"Probably nothing serious," Sora said.
"Sigh, they are they really that oblivious," Fluttershy thought to herself.
"Ugh, I can't believe I just embarrassed myself like that," Sunset said. "But, what Roxas said, he's never said anything like that before. I wonder what those words mean to him." " *sigh* I'm probably just over analyzing things, I need to find that jacket." As Sunset started looking for her jacket, her stomach had started to growl, reminding herself that she didn't get a chance to eat with her friends. She decided to ignore the growl until she found what she was looking for, but the growling never seemed to stop.
The growling started to grow more and more intense as Sunset wondered what that sound was. She heard that it was coming from the backside of the tent and proceeded to walk out and discover the culprit of the growling.......... What a mistake that was, fore the culprit that was making the sound was none other than the beast that they were searching for.
"It's Cerberus." Sunset said as she was frozen in fear. Cerberus started inching his self closer and closer towards Sunset. Sunset, not knowing what would happen if she would try to yell loud enough for her friends to know that Cerberus was here, stayed silent. Cerberus stopped and stared at Sunset as if he didn't want to attack her at all.
"You don't want to hurt me," Sunset said. She started to relax just a little bit as she saw that Cerberus meant no harm to her, and started to reach out towards the three headed dog, but before she could reach him, Roxas came and attacked Cerberus with his key blades, causing him to slide back away from Sunset.
"Sunset, what are you doing, why didn't you call for help?!" Roxas said.
"Roxas listen, I don't think that Cerberus wants to hurt anyone," Sunset said.
"He look like he wants to do more than hurt us right now," Roxas said as he noticed an enraged Cerberus looking dead at him. Cerberus howls and out from the shadows of the Everfree Forest came a two headed dog a little smaller than Cerberus .
"What is that thing," Roxas asked.
"I can't believe it, Orthrus is living in the Everfree Forest," Sunset said in disbelief.
"Orthrus?" Roxas said. "What is an Orthrus?"
"Orthrus is the brother of Cerberus," Sunset said.
"Hmph, I guess ugliness runs in the family," Roxas mockingly said. So, it's two of you, against me. That seems fair," Roxas said as he crossed his key blades causing sparks to fly around him, showing that he was ready for a fight.
Orhtrus rushed in first and quickly tried to attack Roxas head on, but roxas dashed away from the attack and quick secession. Roxas was stuck between a rock and hard place, as Cerberus was in front of him, and Orthrus was behind him, both of them with the intent to kill. Roxas expected for the two to rush him at once, but what he saw made him double take. Cerberus started summoning a fireball from his mouth, and shot it towards Roxas.
Roxas then crossed his keyblades into a "X" formation as the fireball made contact with the blades. Roxas started to struggle against the ball of fire, but with allis might, he was able to launch it into the sky as the fireball exploded in the air. Roxas was starting to lose momentum as the fight continued.
"Didn't think that they would be this tough together," Roxas said in a tiresome tone.
Sora and Fluttershy make it over just in time to see Roxas not fairing so well against the two demon dogs. Sora immediately summoned his key blade and started running towards the battle, but was stopped by Fluttershy who was holding tight to his wrist.
"Fluttershy, what are you doing," Sora said.
"You don't need to fight him Sora, there has to be another way," Fluttershy pleaded.
"What other way is there Fluttershy," Sora said. "What could we possibly do to stop them from attacking?"
"Show him that you care," Fluttershy said calmly.
Sora did nothing but just look at Fluttershy. He could by the way she was holding onto him, to the way she said that statement, that she was not joking. Sora's key blade disappeared from his hand and he started to walk towards Cerberus and Orthrus. There Sora stood, in front of the beast that they had spent days searching for, in his face, and he was not going to attack. As Cerberus noticed how Sora was doing that seemed harmful to him, he started ease up a little, and since he did this, his little brother Orthrus also started to relax.
"So, all this time, you were more scared of us, then we were to you huh," Sora said as he started to pet Cerberus. "I was right, you're nothing like the Cerberus I know."
"I can't believe this," Roxas said. "Sora tamed Cerberus, and I thought things couldn't get any weirder."
"I think I'm starting to get used to it," Sunset calmly said.
"Sora....you did it!" Fluttershy said as she started hugging Sora. "You did it, you actually did it!"
"Wow, I've never seen you this excited before Fluttershy, I must've did something right," Sora jokingly said.
"Thank you, Sora," Fluttershy softly said.
Sora had started to tense up a little when he heard Fluttershy say this.
"N-No problem," Sora said. As they finished their embrace, they both knew that now they had to find the rest of their friends. Sora climbed onto the back of Cerberus and positioned himself to where he was riding Cerberus. Cerberus then kneeled down, and allowed for the rest of the group to be picked up. With Orthrus and Cerberus, things should be a lot easier from now on.
"Alright Cerberus," Sora commanded. " Let's go find our frie-"
"Isn't that them right there," Sunset asked as she cut off Sora.
Everyone looked down to see the rest of the group paralyzed by what they were seeing in front of them.
"Come on guys, you should expect something like this to happen now," Roxas said.
"How did you even find us," Sora asked.
"We saw the fireball that exploded in the sky and knew that it had to be Cerberus," Twilight said. "We thought that you might have had problems with stopping Cerberus but it seems that is not the case at all. "
"We also found Orthrus too," Fluttershy said.
"I see that ," Twilight said mesmerized by the entire scene that played before her.
"By the way, where did you guys come from, we had to stay a night in the forest," Sora said.
"Well," Pinkie said before she took a giant breath of air. "When we had split up and we were being chased by the timberwolves, they had cornered us next to a wall, and we thought that it was all over, but then it just so happened that the timberwolves had landed in poison joke and they broke apart and became twigs, it was so funny, and then out of coincidence, the wall that we were on happened to be our friend Zecora's hut, and we stayed there, well, until we saw the big fireball explosion, and we started running over here and-"
"I think they get it Pinkie," Applejack said. "So, now what y'all, what do we do with those two?" Applejack said pointing towards the the demon hounds.
"Easy, we take them back to the gates of the underworld, and go back home," Rainbow said.
"Are you okay with that big guy?" Sora said to Cerberus. Cerberus responded with a loud bark and so did Orthrus. "That's right, and Orthrus will be right with you."
"When did he become so caring," Rarity asked.
"We just had a little talk was all," Fluttershy said.
"Just a little talk hmm," Rarity slyly said.
"Maybe there was a song," Fluttershy said as they both started laughing together.
"Alright everybody, let's go," Twilight said as she started leading the way. "The faster we get this done, the faster we'll get back to Ponyville."
"Well then, hop on," Sora said as Cerberus and Orthrus leaned their heads down so that everyone else could ride on their backs. After everyone had climbed on, they immediately went to the direction where the gates were located.
"Well, I know one thing that I can say," Roxas said to Sunset. "This is the craziest picnic that I have ever been to."
Sunset laughed at Roxas's comment which caused him to share a laugh back.
Sora started chuckling to himself.
"Uh, Sora, what's so funny," Twilight said.
"Oh, it's nothing, it's just that, this place is really starting to grown on me," Sora said.
Epilogue
It was a beautiful and relaxing night. A certain night that could make anyone feel at ease with themselves. The full moon was out, the wind was just right, and the atmosphere was amazing. It was definitely a night to enjoy, but who could be enjoying it? After a long day dealing with Cerberus, Fluttershy decided to fly to the roof of her cottage and just relax with a beautiful view of the night sky. Letting her mind wonder over the whole day, but the moments that kept repeating in her mind the most was when she gave Sora that wayfinder. As the wind blew through her, the only thing that was on her mind was the boy that fell from the stars.
****
As the full moon rose into the sky everyone knew that it was time to go inside for the night. All except for one red headed girl. Sunset stood out on the balcony of the library, leaning over the rail as she thought about the entire day. It was supposed to be a picnic, just a picnic, but the events that occurred were far from what she was imagining. But the one that thought that kept coming back was a certain spiky headed boy that mostly kept his thoughts to himself, but for some reason, today happened to be the day where he said what he actually felt. All Sunset could do was grin from pure glee as the only person on her mind was the boy that she met on the orchard.
****
As the night sky covered the world, and everyone fast asleep, there stood two keybladers who were on the roof of the Apple Family's house enjoying the night time air. But, there was something on their minds as well.
"You feel it too don't you," Sora said.
"Yeah, I wonder what it is, I don't know why, but I feel as if there's someone watching over me," Roxas said.
"Yeah, for some reason I feel that too, it's someone that cares," Sora said.
"It's someone that I can trust," Roxas said. They both looked at each other and then to the sky where the stars were shining high with the full moon watching over them.
"It's someone that I must protect," they both said in unison.