Kingdom Harmony

by Kingdom Harmony

Chapter 6: Preparations

Click the green links to start music, and use the red words to know when to stop music.

The group arrived at Ponyville as the the moon began to rise in the night sky and Twilight gave out the plan to make sure they all stayed safe until this heartless problem was dealt with. Sora seemed extra exhausted, so Twilight sent him into the castle to get some rest. She then sent everypony to gather up their things so the could stay in caste for the time being. However she felt it was too dangerous to have anypony travel alone so she sent Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity together, and she accompanied Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

“Sis, what are ya doing?” Applebloom asked sleepily.

“Twilight asked us to stay at the castle for a few days,” Applejack explained. “Don’t ya worry though, I’ll be back in the morning to do the chores and spend time with you.”

Applebloom’s eyes shot wide open. “Wait, you’re going to stay at the castle!” she shouted.

“Only for a few days… ah think.” Applejack replied.

“Can ah come?” Applebloom asked with giant puppy-dog eyes.

Applejack thought about this for a while before nodding, “As long as it’s okay with Twilight.”

“Yes! I’m staying at the castle! I’m staying at the castle!” the filly cheered.

“Okay, okay, calm down.” Applejack interjected. “If you’re coming with us ya need to pack up quickly and then help me help Pinkie Pie and Rarity get their things.”

“Got it!” Applebloom beamed and dashed towards her room.

“I don’t see the big deal,” Rarity said as they waited. “It’s not like they’ve never been to the castle before.

“Heh, kids,” Pinkie Pie commented, “em I right!” Applejack and Rarity just rolled their eyes and continued waiting.

“Okay Fluttershy,” Twilight began. “I recommend that set up your animals in a few of the guest rooms for the time being. Your cottage is fairly far away and and nopony else is there other than you. We need to stick together till this is all over.”

“Okay everyone,” Fluttershy said to the animals. “We have to go for now. Don’t worry everything will be fine.” The animals lined up and followed Fluttershy out the door and Rainbow Dash and Twilight followed carrying Fluttershy’s supplies.

Twilight arrived back at the castle with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. As Fluttershy led the animals up to the guest rooms Twilight was surprised to see Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity arrive, “Wow, I thought you’ld be here sooner.”

“Well, we would have been, but we got a little held up,” Applejack explained and then the Cutie Mark Crusaders jumped out from behind the three mares.

“What?” Twilight jumped.

“Well, Applejack didn’t want to leave Applebloom alone at the farm,” Rarity began, “and one thing lead to another and now the whole gang is here to see if they can stay with us.”

“So can we?” The three fillies asked in unison.

“I don’t see why not,” Twilight agreed. “There’s plenty of room in this place.”

“Sweet!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “You hear that Rainbow Dash?”

“Sure did Squirt,” Rainbow replied. “Looks like we’ll be spending some more time together for the next few days.”

“Well, now that that’s settled,” Twilight spoke up, “Applejack, Rainbow, can you two help Fluttershy with her animals.”

“Sure thing,” the two said and headed up the guest rooms as Spike came down to them.

“Good to see you're all back safely,” he said, “How was Canterlot?”

Twilight groaned. “That bad?” Spike commented.

“The whole city was attacked those dreadful… heartless creatures,” Rarity explained.

“Well that would be, Wait!” Spike stopped mid-sentence. “The whole city?!”

“It’s a long story,” Twilight commented.

“Really long,” Pinkie added.

“Let’s just say that things are a lot more serious than we originally thought.” Twilight answered best she could. “Where’s Sora?”

“I sent him to the same guest room we put him in last night,” Spike replied.

“Good work,” Twilight told her assistant before heading up to the room. She knocked on the door and when there was no answer she opened it slightly as Spike caught up. Sora was asleep in the bed, but also tossing from one side to the other and mumbling to himself. “Well he’s far from sound, but at least he’s asleep.” Twilight commented.

“Maybe we should ask Princess Luna to help,” Spike suggested.

“Spike, you're a genius!” Twilight replied. “Take a note please.”

Sora stood his ground in a black void, surrounded by heartless with his keyblade in hand. As the heartless lunged at him, he stuck them down one by one, until his keyblade suddenly disappeared. “Wait, what happened to my keyblade?” he protested.

“Ha!” laughed a voice that echoed all around Sora, “As if the Keyblade would choose a wimp like you.”

“But, I’ve been using for this long,” Sora counted.

“You were only the delivery boy,” said a second voice.

“But…” Sora tried to argue.

"You want to be a master, but you fail to realize the truth,” said a third voice as the heartless all disappeared. Rising out of the ground was a pure white throne, and sitting upon it was Master Xehanort. “Your heart is as strong as they come. Roxas was second in power only to my nobody and a nobody’s power comes from the strength of the heart from which they came. The only thing that keep you from being a master is your power. And power is something Yen Sid cannot provide you. But I can.”

But Riku and Kairi…” Sora resisted.

“Have already left you behind,” Xehanort spoke. “You no longer have the power to be stand at their side. If you try to help, you would only be in their way. But I can change that.” Xehanort’s throne began to grow taller and taller, stretching into the sky. “Join me, and Kingdom Hearts, as well as anything you want, can be ours, Master Sora.” As he spoke he blasted a magical ball into the sky which exploded into a shock wave of energy that blow away the darkness and revealed a heart shaped moon, which the light of shined down onto Sora. “You must accept your destiny Master Sora, you must join me.”

Soon all of Sora’s friends began to appear a circle around him. “Accept your destiny,” they spoke in unison. “one way or another you will join him, so why not accept it.”

“Silence!” screamed a voice from above and everything from the moon to the people were blown away like dust in the wind. Even the darkness of the void was gone and in it’s place was an old throne room with two thrones. On the left was a navy blue throne with a banner of a moon above it and on the right was a golden throne with a banner of the sun over it. In between the two banners was a giant hole in the wall and a crack that extended down to the floor.

Princess Luna flew in through a hole in the cleaning and leaded in front of a dazed Sora. “Pri...Princess Luna?!,” he blurted out and then looked himself over. “Oh this is a dream,” he realized. “That’s good, for a second I thought you were real.”

“This may be a dream, but I assure you Sora, I am quite real,” the princess told Sora.

“Wait… What?!” Sora exclaimed and once again looked over his still quite human body.

”Twilight asked me to help you.” Luna explained. “As the princess of the night it is my duty to help those with their dreams.”

“Okay then, you're not going to tell anyone about this are you?” Sora asked hesitantly.

“I assure you the content of your dream is confidential,” Luna reassured, “but I do not see why you need to keep you true form a secret.”

“Well, I’m not supposed to tell anyone I’m from another world. I normally wouldn’t mind but... well lately…”Sora sighed. “I just don’t want to fail at this whole keyblade thing more than I already am.”

“I understand,” Luna confirmed. “And I can see that you are experiencing some strong emotional struggles. That is why I’m here.”

“Yeah, well I’m not sure you could understand that one.”

“You feel weak and helpless. You think you need more power, but the only way you can find to obtain it is thought means that you don’t agree with, and thus your mind is at war with itself, trying to find a solution.”

Sora blinked. “Close, but there's one thing you didn’t figure out. I know full well I can’t join Xehanort. My struggle is less about what I want to do and more about what I’m dealing with. The way I am now I can’t beat or even escape Xehanort and he has the power to possess me. At this rate I will end up joining him, either willingly or by force.”

Luna looked puzzled. “Well you already seem determined to choose by force, and that’s a start. Still the biggest part of this problem is in your head. You can’t find a way out, so you mind is torturing you to make you look, but all you find is weakness in yourself. However, I can’t fix this problem for you, all I can do is keep the nightmares at bay as well as point you in the right direction,” Luna smiled, “And maybe that will steady your sleep.”

Twilight woke up early and proceeded to the library to do some more research. This whole situation was still one giant mystery. Where did the heartless come from, and why were they only appearing in Equestria now? Why was there never any record of a keyblade, and where was these Destiny Islands that Sora came from? And then there was Sora, he was one big mystery wrapped up in clues that only left more questions. For all Twilight knew Sora could be from a completely different dimension. “Wait,” Twilight gasped. It almost made too much sense. It explained the secrets and the weird forms of magic. “I wonder.”

Princess Luna was about to finishing her shift with Genie to repair the city when Celestia decided to ask a question. “How was Sora’s dream?”

“Sister, you know full well that the content of dreams is confidential,” Luna lectured.

“I know,” Celestia replied, “but you can’t blame me. Sora is very secretive.”

“I know but all I can tell you is that we are working to solve an emotional complication,” Luna informed her sister as her gave her the lamp.

On the way back to the castle Luna notice a unicorn stallion covered in a brown hooded robe standing in an alleyway, peering around the corner. “You there,” she called out. “State your name and reason of being here, immediately!”

The stallion quickly darting away and Luna gave chase. “Halt!” she yelled and the stallion released multiple purple flames from his horn that rose into the air and hit the ground causing a cloud of dust to rise. Luna wasn’t even phased. She quickly cast a spell to clear the dust away and then continued chase. However, the stallion started to jump up the sides of the buildings to reach the roof tops. “Agile I see,” Luna observed, “not that it will help you much.” Luna took to the sky and began to fire magic beams at the stallion who evaded them by stepping to the left or right. Luna then teleported in front of the mystery unicorn and fired again. The unicorn cast a barrier spell made of transparent hexagons which blocked the attack. After the barrier dissipated a navy blue aura surrounded the robe he was wearing and with one quick motion it was ripped off and thrown at Luna. Luna quickly grabbed it with her magic and threw it away, but by the time she cleared it away from her vision, the unknown unicorn was gone.

Twilight was still reading when Pinkie bust into the library. “Breakfast's ready!” she called in with a singing like tone. Twilight was unaware of the time, or the fact that Pinkie was cooking to begin with. Still she put the book down and headed over to the dining room to eat.

Once everypony arrived Pinkie dished out pancakes. As they ate they talked about what they were doing for the day. “Well I have a hootenanny of cores to take care of today,” Applejack started.

“And I have to get back to work at Sugarcube Corner,” Pinkie added.

“And I should get back to my boutique,” Rarity announced. “I have alot of research to do if I’m design an effective, yet fashionable, weapon to use against those dreadful creatures.”

“Wait,” Sweetie Bell interrupted, “what creatures?”

“Oh, yes I’m sorry.” Rarity apologized. “I promise we'll inform you three tonight.”

“Why not now?” Sora asked.

“Because it’s an incredibly long story,” Rarity answered. “It took the entire sommit for you to explain it.”

“And I’m still not sure that I understand it all,” Rainbow added.

“Fair point,” Sora agreed. “By the way, Rainbow Dash, do you have anything planned today?”

“Not really,” Rainbow responded. “ I mean I have to do some cloud busting, but that won’t take long.”

“Good,” Sora replied. “I wanted to ask you… well...um…” Sora diverted eye contact and his face turned red with embarrassment. “Well can you…Can you teach me how to fly?” he blurted out quickly.

The was silence for some time as the ponies processed what the pegasus stallion asked. “You can’t fly?” Twilight asked in shock.

“No,” Sora mumbled.

“But I’ve seen you glide,” Rainbow pointed out.

“Well that’s all I can do,” Sora explained in an aggravated tone of voice.

“Okay, then.” Rainbow agreed with a chuckle.

“Oh can I join you?” Scootaloo asked?

“Sure thing squirt,” Rainbow assured.

Shining Armor and Princess Cadence were discussing what to do with the citizens of Canterlot. They had decided to put as many as they could in hotels around the Equestria. As they were figuring out if there would be enough room the book that Celestia had given them began to vibrate. “That book has to be the weirdest thing Celestia ever came up with,” Shinning commented.

“Yeah,” Cadence chuckled as she opened the book and looked inside. “It says that a spy was sighted in Canterlot.”

“What?” Shining Armor said in shock.

“A spy,” Cadence repeated. “It also says that it was a unicorn, thought to be male, that hide his features in a brown robe. Luna wants us to keep an eye out as he, or others may try to come here as well."

Fluttershy kept the horseshoe Discord gave her on her at all times. She currently had it hooked onto the outside of a saddle bag she was wearing as she tended to the animals. Fluttershy hoped that this good will would somehow make it back to Discord and help him wake up.

At the time, Rainbow was teaching Sora and Scootaloo how to fly, Rarity and Spike were at the bootique, Sweetie Belle joined Applejack and Applebloom, who went to Sweet Apple Acres together, and as far as Fluttershy knew, Twilight was reading in the library.

Then, suddenly, Twilight came into the room. "Fluttershy, I just received urgent news!" she announced.

"W...What is it?" Fluttershy asked.

"Luna spotted a spy in Canterlot," Twilight explained.

"Oh my," Fluttershy gasped.

"Yeah, she sent out a warning and asked that we keep an eye out," Twilight told the shy pegasus. "However, a thought occurred. Zecora is in the Everfree Forest and they may show up there. We should let Zecora know. Not to mention the danger she may be in. I really think we should check on her."

"Okay," Fluttershy said slowly. She did agree, but the Everfree Forest was dangerous enough without these heartless running around. She shuddered to think what it may be like now. It was then that she caught a glimpse of the horseshoe hooked onto her saddlebag once again and remembered what Discord had done. What had happened to him. If she was to keep running from these creatures, then she'd never be able to help him. "Let's get going," she said determinedly.

Twilight and Fluttershy arrived at Zecora's and Twilight was still surprised at Fluttershy's initiative. Normally she would run away at the mere mention of the Everfree Forest, or at least try to discourage entering it. However, not only was this timid pony willing to go in without a moment of hesitation this time, but she also had led the way, stopping only to glare in the direction of strange sounds. Twilight also noticed the golden horseshoe she had hooked to her saddlebag and couldn't help but wonder where it came from.

Fluttershy knocked on the door to Zecora's hut and it soon opened. “My friends, it’s nice to see you again,” Zecora greeted. “I presume there's something you'd like to talk about then.”

“Yes,” Twilight answered.

Fluttershy stood there as Twilight told Zecora about the situation. This usually shy pegasus was feeling determination that even shocked her. The way she charged through the the Everfree Forest may have been brave, but also reckless. Fluttershy thought about what would have happened if the heartless did show up for the first time and there was only two possibilities that applied to her. One, Twilight would handle them all herself, making Fluttershy’s presence pointless, and two, the heartless would swallow Fluttershy, after all she had no way to fight back.

"While your concerns is appreciated, allow me to have them alleviated," Zecora said to Twilight. "These creatures are attracted to darkness in the heart, but out here hearts are few and far apart."

"But they still could come after you," Twilight argued.

"I also am brewing a potion that wards them away, and it is already completed halfway," Zecora added. "Only a few more ingredients left to add, starting with that lily pad." Zecora pointed to a lily pad on the counter behind Fluttershy. Fluttershy reached over to get it for Zecora but as soon as she touched it, the lilly pad vanished and reappeared above Zecora's head, which it then fell onto. Fluttershy stood there like a statue and looked at the at the place that the lily pad was before.

"What? How? When?" Twilight panicked as she looked back and forth between Zecora and Fluttershy so quickly that her mane began to stand up.

"This is an interesting development," Zecora observed as she lifted the lily pad off her head and dropped it into the condren. "It appears that there is power within that amulet." Zecora gestured to the horseshoe that was still hooked to Fluttershy's saddle bag.

"Where did you get that?" Twilight asked confused.

"D... Discord gave it to me," Fluttershy answered.

"That may come in handy with your blight," Zecora spoke. "If you'd like I can teach you to use it to fight."

"Wait really?" Fluttershy said intrigued. "I'll be able to help my friends?"

Zecora nodded. "However, in order to proceed, an appropriate method of carrying that amulet you will need."

Twilight took some deep breaths as she took this all in "If this is something you really want to do, I'm sure Rarity will help." Twilight told Fluttershy.

"A nice suggestion," Zecora commented, “but for you I have a question. I still have ingredients to collect, Twilight, will you assist me with this request."

"Sure," Twilight agreed to help. "Fluttershy, you head back to Ponyville without me, I'll catch up."

A earth pony mare stood in the shadows of an old castle as a black portal opened up in behind of her. “So how’s things going?” she asked as a unicorn stallion walked out of the portal.

“Well, Canterlot's repairs are coming along quickly thanks to the genie,” the stallion answered, “but I don’t think I be able to go back there any time soon. One of the princesses saw me.”

"So much for your stealth skills,” the mare chuckled. “Seriously you’ve never been good at avoiding attention.”

"You can say that again," a pegasus stallion called over. "They already sent news over to the Crystal Empire. They'll be tightening security everywhere."

The unicorn grumbled. “I going to scout the perimeter," he declared.

"Twilight, they are over there," said a an voice approaching the three.

"Hide!" the unicorn whispered and the three of them dove into the castle.

"And it looks like I will be able to make enough to share," the voice continued.

"That would be a huge help. Thanks Zecora." said a second voice.

The mare lifted her head slightly and looked out the bottom of the window. She saw a purple alicorn and a zebra collecting herbs. As the two left, she saw the zebra look towards the castle and she could have sworn she saw the zebra wink before leaving.

"The coast is clear," the mare called out to the others.

There was a knock on the door. "Come in," Rarity called out as she applied the finishing touches to the design sheet of her weapon, which she named Heart Sewer. It would be a skinny steel blade with a hilt wrapped in golden fabric and the heart shaped fire ruby Spike had given her encrusted at the the bottom of the hilt.

"Rarity, I have a favor I need ask," Fluttershy said as she came in. "I need you to make me a necklace that can hold this and be use in combat." Fluttershy placed a golden horseshoe on the table.

"Dear, why ever do you need that?" Rarity asked confused.

Fluttershy placed one hoof on the horseshoe and another on one of Rarity's fabrics, then closed her eyes. To Rarity's amazement the fabric disappeared before her eyes before reappearing in the corner. "That's amazing," Rarity commented. "Wherever, did you get such a thing?"

"Discord," Fluttershy said softly.

Rarity backed up a bit. She knew how close Fluttershy was to Discord and this whole ordeal must have been hard for her. "With Zecora's help, I may be able to use this to help," Fluttershy explained.

"Of course," Rarity replied. "I'll get started right away."