//------------------------------// // Chapter 17: You Bring me Joy // Story: Kingdom Hearts: Harmonic Connections // by Mr Curious Writer //------------------------------// (As Always Green Text means "click me" to play theme music to go with what your reading. Red text means to stop the music. Completely optional: Your free to ignore this)         Once again, Sora looked around found himself in the very same place when he first connected with Applejack; standing on that same pillar with the same stained glass flooring, though it looked like Applejack’s Element was now part of the picture. “Back here again, huh…” Sora looked down and he found that he’s back in his true form, then he lifted his head up to look around at the ever expanding darkness around him, until he caught sight of Pinkie on another pillar, her own pillar.         “Oooh, Pretty, Pinkie was looking at the image on her floor then  she released an innocent giggle. “Hey, that’s me!” (Image Source by Akili-Amethyst of Deviantart. http://akili-amethyst.deviantart.com/ )         “Oooh and there’s the girls! Wow, my compliments to the artist! It captures my good side!” she giggled again as she trotted around the floor to examine every inch of it.         “Pinkie?” Sora called out to her. Immediately, she lifted her head up and responded with a wave, “Oh Hi, Sora! This place is pretty neat! Hey, you’re human again! Why’s that? Something amazing going to happen now?!” Then she bounced in place now as questions fired out of her mouth one by one.         Sora couldn’t help but laugh over her energetic personality. “You know, I had the feeling that all this wouldn’t faze you like it did with Applejack.         “Really?” Pinkie turned to him with an innocent smile on her face, It wasn’t much longer before a voice Sora recognized all too well returned with another riddle.         It comes from laughter, the joy and sunrays of friendship; it brightens even the darkest of moods. That got Pinkie’s attention. “COOL! Disembodied Voice, those are always a staple for adventure games!” “What?” Sora looked at her as she was bouncing around in excitement. “Hey Sora! That spooky voice is giving us a riddle! Don’t be rude! We gotta answer it!” Pinkie pointed at Sora with what she thought was a serious look, but the way she did it, just looked adorable. Sora opened and closed his mouth before yet again was brought into another laughing fit from the silly look on Pinkie’s ‘serious’ face. This also brought the mare into giggling fit herself. “That’s a good laugh, Sora!” she beamed. After a moment to calm down and a shake of his head, he smiled and sighed before looking back up “Right, the riddle, that’s more important right now.” Then he crossed his arms and started giving it some serious thought “It comes from laughter, the joy and sunrays of friendship…” Then Pinkie continued as she sat on her haunches and tapping her muzzle but also seemed to be wearing something on her head that said “Thinking Cap” on the front of it. “.... it brightens even the darkest of moods.” “It sounds pretty straight forward this time,” said Sora. “Really? I was about to say the same thing,” Pinkie replied as she looked over at Sora. “Yeah, I mean when you think about it, what happened today is a good example of that.” He looked back at her with a smile. “That whole time fighting those heartless while making it look like a show for the ponies at the party… I was having a good time. when you showed up with a drink and some words of encouragement, that sealed it. Like saying, it was okay to feel that way in the middle of fighting heartless.” Pinkie was standing up in a more proud posture, yet tried to look modest as she waved a hoof dismissively, “Aww, shucks, Sora! You’re just saying that…. but go on.” she slyly added that last part. He laughed again and then said, “Right, Well what I wanted to say is…” he held his hand to his heart and gave a polite bow. “Thank you, Pinkie. I had a lot of fun today.” Then he gave off that goofy grin of his to her. Then Pinkie kindly replied, “Aww, you’re very much welcome, Sora! It always brings joy to my heart when I see my friends laughing and having fun! That’s what I love about my job!” Then she gave hers and it was just as big as the others but had even more of a genuine feel than most other times. Suddenly, the darkness around them started flooding with light. Then the voice appeared once again. Joy, it goes hand in hand with laughter; that it bonds friendship with it’s rays. A new power awaits you. Then a glass panel path appeared connected to both Sora and Pinkie’s pillars, Leaving Pinkie to happily trot her way over to her friend. “A new power! Is it gonna be like laser beam out of your eyes or something?! Or a super ultra cupcake launcher?!” Sora looked at the floor he was standing on and watched Pinkie’s element appear in one of the circles grouped together just like Applejack’s. Then chuckled at Pinkie’s guessing. “Well Only one way to find out! Though I get the feeling it’ll start off as a new keyblade” That’s when he summoned the Keyblade into his hand and aimed it to the floor. “Ooooh, now I’m even more excited! Alright Sora, let er’ rip!” She cheered with a hoof pump into the air. “You got it!” Then the light shrouded them completely as they were once again sent back to reality. ~~~~~~~~~~ Time Flows again in Reality Applebloom and Scootaloo pushed through hordes of bystanders to get to the front. There was no way they’re going to miss Sora beating down a giant baddy. “Come on, Applebloom, we’re almost there,” said Scootaloo, as she was moving around and under ponies. “I’m hurryin,” said Applebloom catching up behind her friend. Then she and Scootaloo noticed the flash of light up ahead. They’re going to miss it. They really picked up the pace, pushing through the legs until they finally found the final set of legs. They’re ready to push them aside except when the owners of those legs  they backpedaled over them as if they noticed them; then the pair stumbled forward, making grunts and dust plumes, in front of the crowd. “Finally,” said Applebloom as she gets back on her hooves to look, but then suddenly she almost jumped from shock. Scootaloo got on her hooves and said, “Alright we’re here, now where is-” But Applebloom grabbed her head and turned it for her to see someone next to them. “S-Sweetie Belle?!” Their unicorn friend was somehow standing next to them, despite the fact that she was at Town Hall with the mayor. “Sweetie belle, what are you doing here?” Scootaloo asked. But instead of responding to Scootaloo, she seemed far too distracted with what was in front her with her mouth agape. Out of that nagging curiosity, they followed her gaze only to eventually make the same face. As they found a familiar stallion standing on his hind legs in front of them. “Is that… Sora?” Applebloom asked. Sora is a good few feet in front of the awestruck crowd, in a similar posture he would be in his human form. However there were differences, one of the first things to be noticed was the familiar gem glowing brightly on the back of his jacket, It was Pinkie’s Element of Laughter. Next were the pink wild streaks in his mane and tail; they were curled and intertwined with his normal brown colors but some parts of it sticked out as well. The last thing,the most important change, in his right hoof a completely different Keyblade replaced his normal one. (Owned by Aniamalman of Deviantart http://aniamalman.deviantart.com/ ) As the CMC and the rest of the audience stared in awe at the key bearer fusion, Sora’s body seemed finally to move as he looked himself over. Well, Pink streaks this time then, Sora thought Oooh, just like when you fused with Applejack! Wow! I’m in your head too! This is neato! I can read your thoughts and your mood! Oh, Oh! The Keyblade is different! Pinkie spoke in his head as Sora felt his head turn to the Keyblade in his hooves. Awesome! I can make you do things too Then Sora had the image of Pinkie holding a Sora shaped Marionette while she made a diabolical smirk. Dance my puppet! Dance! Whoa… kind of festive looking. Sora lifted the keyblade up toward his face to get a closer look at it; completely ignoring Pinkie’s little moment. THUD! Immediately Sora was reminded of the reason why he fused. “Oh right!” He said aloud before taking the new keyblade to his teeth and getting all fours. Ready to see what we can do with this thing? and he charging off before she could answer. I was born to party, Sora! He felt like she would make a willful smile on her face. Sora grinned and nodded and started a speed summary for her, Okay, it basically works like this- Yeah, yeah, we both control your body with what we’re thinking and cool stuff happens we think differently on something, Pinkie replied nonchalantly. Meanwhile Sora was already closing the distance with sprinting and flowmotion. Wait what?! How do- We can read each other’s thoughts, silly! Sora could hear her giggle in his head. Oh… Right… Well that makes things easier then. He turned all his focus on the gargantuan enemy in front of them. Then let’s give our audience a show! Okie Dokie Lokie! Then Sora kicked off a wall very hard and  shoot towards the heartless like a missile. The giant responded to its tiny foe by hold both of its giant hands on either side of it, forming dark energy orbs then fired it toward Sora. “Oh boy!” In mid air, Sora quickly broke out of his flowmotion, switched his weapon to his hoof, and smacked the first orb but the heartless quickly shot another orb and it collided into the first. Then Sora twirled his body rapidly, then threw his keyblade hard towards the giant’s face. Suddenly, when it whipped out, Sora could have sworn he heard the sound of a lit fuse. Then just before the weapon connected with heartless’ face, in his head Pinkie screamed out and BOOM goes the dynamite! Then the keyblade finally connects, and a massive explosion of smoke, flames, and confetti blocked out the creature’s face as it stumbled back from unexpected force of that explosive attack. “Did the keyblade just… Blow up?!” Sora shouted in utter disbelief and nearly fell on his flank haunches as the keyblade re appeared in his hand like nothing happened to it. I know! Wasn’t that awesome?! It blew up when I wanted it to! said Pinkie cheerfully. Wait, you did that?! Sora thought in disbelief. Yep Yeppers! Of course I’m surprised too! I was just pretending it could happen. They soon noticed the Heartless regained its footing and looked menacingly at Sora. Well… think you can do that again? I feel like… this keyblade can do more than that. Pinkie responded. Sora didn’t bother questioning it for now, Alright, then let’s get back to work then! Then he took a few bipedal steps toward the heartless, putted the keyblade back in his mouth and ran on all fours towards it. Then he sprinted head first, dodged an oncoming fist that was slammed on the concrete. Then Sora took this as a chance to give the creature something else to worry about. He took a sharp turn towards the offending fist, dashed into it and started to spin like a top with the keyblade in his mouth. Here comes the buzzsaw! Pinkie called within his mind, and just like that Sora heard the sounds of a spinning buzzsaw cutting into wood; only the wood was the heartless’ fist. Then he had to wonder how he was still spinning, he had been spinning for a lot longer then he would’ve expected his body to do in midair against contact. Soon enough however, Sora managed to make it pretty deep into the fist, causing the owner to pull it back quickly and try to patch it up before all the black mist like darkness seeped out of it. After recovering from his dizziness, Sora said, “I gotta say this is all… pretty random.” Woo! That was fun! Can we do that again? Not unless you wanna see what he had for lunch back in the forest Then Sora turned to the big lug nursing its wound. Ok, while it's distracted! Sora held his keyblade up “THUNDER!” And suddenly a huge bolt of Thundaga appeared above and struck its target with all its might. Of course, the target this time happened to be the keyblade instead. “W-what?! Pinkie?” Don’t look at me I was thinking the same thing as you when you were about to cast that spell, said Pinkie looking at the now supercharged Keyblade. Oddly enough, only the shaft was sparking with wild electric energy. What is with this keyblade? said Sora  while looking at it, intently before the sparks of electricity gave him an idea. Ooooh, I like the way you think! Immediately, Sora ran to the beast and the wall of a nearby building and the heartless’ round big belly towards the monster’s head “How about a love tap!” Sora yelled out as he swiped the electrified weapon across the monsters face. Then immediately, several large thundaga bolts, shot down at where Sora hit the heartless last and dangerous amounts of volts coursed through the creature’s body, “Whoa!” Sora looked in awe while standing on the slightly electrified enemy’s shoulder. “What’s up with my magic?” I don’t know, but it’s awesome! Is the keyblade doing that too? Pinkie replied in his head. After hearing Pinkie’s words, he looked at his keyblade and had to admit, the keyblade itself seemed somewhat random in design. Was that an indication to its abilities? However further thoughts was brought to a close when he felt the big lug start to move again. Looking behind him, one of its big hands was trying to grab him. Quickly, he jumped high over it letting the hand clench the air over its shoulder. Let’s try that move again. He lifted the keyblade skyward. “THUNDER!” Just like before, a massive lightning bolt crashed on the keyblade like a lightning rod, then the blade started coming to life with sparks of electric energy as he brought it down in an overhead swing on the giant fist. Once again, leaded to a multi-simultaneous massive lightning bolts, crashed down on it; gave the heartless another shocking taste of pain. All right! It worked again! Woooo Woooo! Go us! Sour Shock for the win! Pinkie cheered and the thought of Pinkie waving a ‘Go Team!’ flag around came to mind. But then, at this point, the beast had enough of its riding companion. It blasted out dark energy from its body violently pushed Sora off of it with a strong wind. Wheeeeeee! Sora immediately dodge-rolled in midair and pointed his keyblade at the beast. “Alright, then, how about this? ‘Fire!’” Expecting a barrage of fireballs to pelt the being, he did not expect the giant flames to blast out of the party poppers on his handguard and blasting him erratically back towards the big guy. “Whaaaaaa, What?! Huh?!” He yelled as he tried to control his flight path as best he could. Best. Flight. Ever! Wheee!!! Go Party rocket! Pinkie cheered. That keyblade took them for a ride to be sure. It flew so close to the sides of the buildings that Sora’s hind legs were forced to run on them as he tried to figure out how to control the thing before he accidentally made it loop away from the building they were on and rocketing through the open window and into the house. Well I’m glad one of us is having fu-Oh boy… The rocket dragged them around the bedroom they were now in knocking everything over before crashing into the door, right off it’s hinges, and down the stairs. Which much to his dismay, Sora’s body was dragged along it. “Ow,ow,ow,ow,ow,ow,ow,ow,ow!” Now with the urge to get this thing under control, Sora forced himself to be back on his hooves, and narrowly dodge what no doubt look like a very delicate and expensive centerpiece on the dining room table they just flew over. Get it Sora! Tame that wild Keyblade! said Pinkie in a rather southern accent. Swerving and curving through the air and out the living room window, the flame propelled Keyblade brought its owner back to the monster but heading lower than anticipated as he was heading straight for the stomach. Out of instinct, Sora let go of the keyblade letting it rocket ahead and impact the giant’s stomach in fiery explosion then he simply just went through it. This caused the heartless to lurch forward from the stomach blow, its jagged jaws wide open as if it was gonna hack up its insides, but all that came out was an intense concentration of dark mist. Not missing a moment Sora and Pinkie decided to take the initiative, thanks to that wild rocket ride, Sora had enough momentum to glide to the blackened gut then run up and grab the zipper, This looks mighty important, don’t you think, Pinkie? said Sora taking in the knowledge of how the creature reacted poorly to a strike in the belly. Oh I concur, dear Sora! Pinkie replied, imitating a proper speaking old timey gentlemen, or stallion in this case. I say, let us expose this vagabond, for the ugly meanie it truly is inside. Sora rolled his eyes at her little moment, as he yanked hard on that slowly but surely bringing the zipper down, releasing mist out of it and what looked like a few dark claws that seem to immediately reach out for freedom. He immediately backed off when one of the hands reached out in his direction. Then he landed back on the ground they watched the big guy reach its zipper and pull it back up, hiding the eerie claws back inside it. Okay, That was weird. Well, now what? Pinkie asked as Sora called back his keyblade. I’m still pretty sure undoing that zipper is what we need to do, but we need him preoccupied to keep him from zipping it back up again. He looked up at the creature before pointing his weapon skyward. “Fire!” Suddenly, Sora propelled into the air by the makeshift rockets/ party favors on his keyblade. However this time, now that he was aware of it he was better able to control the flight… mostly. Oooh I like this plan! Pinkie read Sora’s mind and was giving her support. Sora rocketed up until he was face to face with the creatures… well, face. Phase one: give this thing something to worry about. Sora let loose a barrage of strikes and swings on the thing’s massive head. This in turn brought its attention again on the keyblade wielder and tried to swat him away. Sora, would dodge them with acrobatics and perfect timing. When a hand came at him he would jump and kick off  from between the creature’s eyes to narrowly dodge the giant hand slamming into its owner's face. He would then throw the keyblade at the wrist of the hand causing it to explode on impact. The creature was stumbling around now from the painful trick it landed itself in I guess while I’m at it… I am kinda curious  Sora landed on the in front of his writhing enemy. As he held his keyblade forward, with a cautious look in his eyes   Do it!... Do it do it do it! He could hear that hyper voice in the back of his mind. He sighed and shook his head before casting the spell. “Freeze!” immediately in response Sora’s keyblade shot ice out of its shaft and encased it in a large blade of ice, as Sora stumbled for a bit to compensate for the added weight “O… Okay… iceblade, right, that makes sense.” He rolled his eyes, before an idea struck as he looked at the heartless’ stubby feet. “That might work” He put the blade into his mouth and galloped toward them. Woo! Sherbert blade! Phase two: Immobilize them. Once he was a few feet from them, he lunged forward keyblade in mouth and giving a few rapid spins as his blade cut through where the body and the legs connected. When Sora turned to look at his handiwork, he was amazed that frost and ice covered the legs and the lower half of the creature, locking them in place and causing it to fall back losing balance. This would be a perfect time for Sora and Pinkie to cheer at a job well down if they didn’t also figure out that, they were still in range of the behemoth’s crash radius. “Oh crud” with quick thinking Sora used his fire magic again to rocket back between the legs, narrowly avoiding becoming a pancake. Then Pinkie posed a thought in his mind You are just full of ideas today and Sora directed his flight back to go skyward once again. Aww, you know you would’ve wanted to try it too eventually Pinkie responded, and Sora couldn’t help but feel like she was right Told ya! he smiled shaking his head when she said that. I’m just gonna hazard a guess here… all those names you called out… those were for the attacks weren’t they? Once they felt like they climbed high enough over the large body, Sora cut off the fire magic to his Keyblade and looked down. Yup yup! Cool Right?! They’re like special attacks! That only Pinkie’s Keyblade can do. Sora laughed before aiming the attack down at their foe. “Well then… shall we?” He said aloud and soon gravity finally took hold of them before the momentum could pull them up any higher. Hit’em with our best shot! Pinkie replied before both their voices were heard at the same time out of Sora’s mouth. “Sherbet Blade!” The shaft was once again encased in a blade of ice, Sora lifted the blade above him. “Sour Shock!” A massive Thundaga bolt struck down on the ice blade and electricity coursed through it, before he pointed downward once again. “PARTY ROCKET!” He lets go of the keyblade and watched the party poppers on the hand guard blast out jets of flame, blasting the electrified iced over the keyblade straight in high speeds directly below before it finally pierced through its chest. What came first was the Heartless becoming iced over as it was impaled into the ground, then multiple thundaga bolts that came crashing down with pinpoint accuracy on where the blade penetrated, and coursing millions of volts into the body, then finished off with an explosive finale of electrical fire and ice mist that covered the area. To say it gave off a spectacle for those that were watching was understating it. Phase Three: Rip’em a new one. Sora looked down to see that their plan was successful, as there was now a huge gaping hole of Dark mist escaping the monster’s chest and stomach. Alright! That wasn’t so bad, He was a pushover. Pinkie commented as Sora descended and directed his descent between the beast and party. Oooh! We should name that combo attack, too! It’s not over yet, Pinkie When he landed, he whipped around to face the downed enemy. It’s never over until they cough up a heart. He got into a battle stance and peered into the mist. Already seeing the movement of many creatures within it. “YOU'RE KIDDING ME!” That familiar voice, clicked in both their minds as they turned around. And just as they saw Rainbow Dash flew in from out of nowhere and was glaring daggers at them. “Hey, Rainbow, perfect timing!” Sora was about to go on when suddenly the blue pegasus was right in his face. “Don’t you ‘Hey, Rainbow’ me, buddy! What is this?!” She gestured to him. “You just gestured to all of me,” Sora blinked a few times at the question. “And why do you think that is?!” Rainbow retorted. ~~~ Earlier “Aw, horse apples! Where’d he go now?” said Rainbow, flying all over ponyville looking for Sora after taking a rather long lunch break. Hearing that Sora was going to fight some training dummies on Applejack’s farm had her interested in joining in, though her main reason was to ask him to fuse with her, only to find out he hasn’t shown up yet. She had already been fantasizing about what cool weapon her element would make. These were along the lines of Hoof Cannons, wing blades, or even incase her completely in armor and become invincible; she would charge into the enemy at full speed. Her mind went on for miles in her imagination about what she would have done. Although she wouldn’t admit it, she wanted to fuse with Sora as well. Listening to Applejack explained what it was like, made it sound… cool. Mushy... But cool. When this thought crossed her mind, if anyone looked her way, they would see just a little bit of pink on her cheeks, along with an angry looking scowl for even thinking of the idea in such a way. “Ugh! Where is that Spiky headed dope?!” She flew up in the air to get a higher vantage point, but as soon as she did she did she heard the sounds explosion, and thunder way off in the distance. “What the?” Whipping her head around, she finally locked her eyes on the source. “How did I not see that big fat thing! It’s bigger than a house!” She also noticed smoke coming off of it, more than likely it was the target of those explosions and lightning strikes, but who would be powerful enough to…”Oh That’s where you are?! Who says you get to hog all the fun?” And she shot off like a bullet over to the battle at hand, just in time to catch Sora tripping the giant lug onto its back. “Whoa!” She was about to call out when she noticed Sora was- “Flying? He’s flying?!” His keyblade propelled him in the air jets of fire coming off it until he was high above over the heartless. The next thing she saw Sora do, he would have made her drop so far it would have threatened to touch the ground from that height, it all happened so quickly, One second he was charging up some massive attack and then... Only one phrase came out of her mouth at that moment. “SO… AWESOME…” She would have squee-ed from the amazing display, if she didn’t pick up on something different about Sora’s appearance. “What the… Pink streak, crazy looking, a blue balloon gem on his jacket, and the keyblade…” she got a good look at the festive looking weapon, that is nothing like his Kingdom Key or the one when he fused with Applejack. No, only one pony that she knew that would qualify for such a weapon. “No way… Pinkie gets to fuse and I don’t!” Unlike the cheering crowd below her, all her excitement and wonder from the previous attack turned into jealousy and anger. “YOU'RE KIDDING ME!” Then she flew off towards the fused pony. ~~~ Back to the Present “This is so unfair!” Rainbow pouted as she folded her forelegs and looked away. “Ahehe…” Sora felt a chill coming on. Never knew she wanted to fuse so badly. Oh, yeah Rainbow always talks about it, she wanted to be the next pony to fuse with you, said Pinkie cheerfully. “Pinkie, can you hear me in there?!” Rainbow called out to her friend, “If so, get out of Sora! I want a turn!” Sora just had a blank look on her face. “I don’t think… that came out right for what you meant, Rainbow. Also, don’t I get a say in this?” “No!” Never! Sora looked away with a look utter defeat. “Oh well, don’t mind me then, I’ll just be over here thinking about my life.” However, that was short lived when he heard some sounds from behind him, and remembered. “Oh crud, the heartless!” He turned around and got in a four legged battle stance. “What are you talking about, you already demolished that g-” Rainbow’s mouth gaped open and in silence when she looked on in disbelief what she saw. Countless of dark figures rising out of the fallen one. (Image Source: http://www.khwiki.com/Neoshadow ) “W-what are they?!” Rainbow moved back again, “There’s so many of them!” “Neo shadows…” Sora replied. Eeeeew, they’re crawling out of its body! Gross! Sora immediately started feeling sick even though he was fine about what he saw. Pinkie, whatever you feel, I feel it too. Sora suddenly had to hold his hoof to his mouth feeling like he was gonna hurl. I’m gonna need you to relax and keep calm about this. H-how can I, that’s so gross, and there’s so many of them coming out. the sensation of nausea, only grew worse for Sora. Making him stumble a bit. Just don’t think of it like that. That big guy was basically a big costume and black mist! Just remember that and you’ll be fine. Immediately he started to feel a lot better now. You think so? Wait that’s right, I think. Her memory played back to all the times they struck the being and mist flew out. Ok I’m fine now there was enormous sense of happiness in his mind now. I’m glad cuz they are approaching. Sora looked on at the oncoming horde. “Alright, if you two are done puking, What’s the plan?” said Rainbow after getting out of her initial shock and got into a battle stance. She apparently saw the whole display Sora’s body gave for all to see. Much to Sora’s regret. Sora thought for a moment, “With so many heartless, it might prove a bit difficult to keep the party alive at this point…. But he didn’t want to call it off, they’ve gone this far already, plus Pinkie Pie was in his mind and didn’t seem to like the idea of cancelling the party one bit… That’s when he noticed the glow on his handguard. The balloon gem on the Keyblade was glowing brightly, and experiences of when he fused with Applejack told him one thing. “This keyblade can transform too!” He smiled stood up on his legs with the keyblade in his hoof. “Rainbow, I need you to fly ahead and attack first. We gotta see what this thing turns into and how to use it.” Rainbow, also seeing the glowing gem, only smirked. “Oh is that all? Sounds like I get to start the flank whoopin’. I’m game!” She then flew off towards the horde in record speed. “Come on you freaks, wanna dance?!” She impacted the horde like a meteorite causing countless amounts of them to either die on the spot or get hurled in the air from the airblast of the impact. Then she carried on to do a high speed brawl with the things. Sora closed his eyes and exhaled, before opening them again with a bright smile, “No clue what’s going to happen now.” But there’s just no other way around it, Right? Pinkie continued as Sora lifted the keyblade high above him. In unison they called out, “LET’S GO! TRANSFORM! The gem was bursting with light as it went absolutely nuts shooting all around the keyblade, until it quite literally popped out of the keyblade and swirled around. The blade was becoming thicker, more round, than the clones of itself appeared and bunched up against it, until now there were four of them, a ribbon like band wrapped around just under the tip as if holding them together, as the shaft and its clones turned into long hollow cylinders but of varying colors, one red, another blue, another yellow, and the last one pink. The hand guard they were attached to drastically changed. The handle was pushed back and turned sideways, as the material of the handguard spun around rapidly making an after image of a much larger but short cylinder. The after image then turned pink and expanded even more both in width and in length Until it was half the length of the 4 barrels that was once the blade, but 5 times the size of all of them put together, A pink flash and the spinning after image became a solid pink barrel drum with the balloon gem resting on the top and glowing brightly. Finally another handle shot out of the left side of the large pink barrel just like the one in his dominant hoof was holding in the back, out of reflex once he felt the weight of the newly formed weapon got pulled down by gravity, he immediately grabbed the other handle with his left hoof barely catching it in time before it hit the ground. “OK, Whoa! This is… new.” Wooooow… I don’t know what that is, but it looks AMAZING! How do we use it. Not entirely sure really… it kinda looks like some sort of portable cannon or something. Santa had one of those in his workshop that shot out presents. Santa who? Wait you don’t know… never mind, perhaps another time. Sora looked at the weapon, on a whim he moved his left hoof, he noticed that the handle he was holding could move back…. He pulled it all the way back in a swift motion until he heard the sound of a click and the weapon started lighting up wherever there was grooves in the material as the handle shot back to its original position but locked in place this time. “Whoa… Ok, I guess I must have… turned it on… now what?” He then decided to try his luck with the other handle his right hoof was holding. Sure enough he noticed the handle bar could be pushed in, so he pushed it a few inches into the weapon until another click was heard and a pink hologram appeared in front of his face. Looking through it he could see the battle Rainbow waged ahead, it was clear that she was having a tough time. These kind of heartless were a lot more nimble and tenacious than their smaller counterparts. That’s when a blue circle was placed over her in the holo screen and tracked her every movement, meanwhile dark red circles were appearing over all the heartless that were within his sight through the holo screen. “Whoa… okay… a targeting system… Now I got a pretty good guess on what this thing can do now.” Sora smiled and felt that the handle inside the weapon could still move in a different direction once he pushed it all the way in. he turned the handle clockwise and watched as the long barrels in the front started together rapidly. Ooooh, what’s that gonna do Pinkie’s questions were answered when a heavy barrage of what looked like fireworks matching the colors of the barrels were shooting out of the hollow opening at the tip of the spinning things and erratically barreled down towards the horde of heartless and the single pegasus, before they all started splitting away from each other, aiming for their own personal targets. Rainbow had no clue what was about to happen until she heard the sound of fireworks being set off, she flew up above just in time to watch countless flying festive rockets fly right past her and into the mob of darkness, where multi colored starry explosions just engulfed the unsuspecting enemies. “What the hay?! The onslaught didn’t end as each individual rocket seeked out their specific target and impacted an explosive and visually spectacular gift in the process. She looked back to find the source and her eyes would’ve popped out of her head. “THAT IS SO COOL! Meanwhile for Sora: “YEEEEEAAAAAAAAH!!!! WOO!!!” He was having a blast firing that thing and watching the heartless go up in brightly colored stars and black mist. I LOVE THIS THING! Pinkie called out in his mind, so much joy and excitement was coursing through his body courtesy of Pinkie’s current emotions. Pew Pew PEW! Sora kept the fireworks going as he started aiming for the ones out of his targeting range. Thanks to that holo screen in front of him, it kept on tagging neo shadows he didn’t even notice, and leading him to those outside its targeting scope, like a group that already got on the rooftops. “Oh no you don’t” Sora shifted his body and weapon towards the rooftop, the targeting system once again locked on the multiple hostiles and fired out the flurry of fireworks. They hit their intended targets, However Sora felt like there might be more that are hidden from his sight… He smiled “Rainbow!” Rainbow in the middle admiring the handiwork of Sora and Pinkie’s weapon, while subconsciously stomping and kicking a few neo shadows out of existence, until she heard her name “Huh? What?” She looked their way. “Take the high road!” He shouted, firing another volley into the rooftops before shifting back to the ground force of darkness, and unleashing another barrage. “Huh?” She flew out of the oncoming fire storm as looked at where he was shooting earlier. On the roofs there were still some heartless that were fortunate enough to not be in range “Oh! Right!” She shot off and attacked the first two closest to her. One hoof for each head. Ramming them into a nearby chimney, making quick work of them before dismounting into the air with an acrobatic somersault before flying off to her next target. “And where do think your going?” She rounded a rooftop another Neoshadow was on, it was about to use its height advantage to pounce on Sora below but a nice corkscrew air dash, punched right through its torso, therefore erasing its existence. “Another one bites the dust” she gave a confident smirk before flying across the street when she saw more trouble. Meanwhile, back at the party, the crowd was just eating up the “show”. And loving every bit of it. The Sights the sounds, it only gathered more and more ponies to see what was going on. At one moment When Rainbow noticed another group of heartless on the other side of the street, on the rooftops again. She decided to do something flashy, she swooped down past Sora and flew alongside the flying rockets, before opening her hooves to grab a heartless, then run into more, and more, and even more, then with all her might carry the horde into the the air. “Hey Sora! How about some target practice?!” She yelled before letting the balled up horde go above her, Flapped back downward to get some distance, then shot skyward as fast and hard as she did hooves first into the horde shooting through the center and out the other side taking out a few with her, and making the rest scatter helplessly in the air. Before she flew to her intended destination. Sora and grinned as he lifted the weapon facing toward the airborne heartless. Immediately all of them targeted and rockets soaring right after them, Not even one of them touched the ground as they were all sit and turned into black mist. ”Woo! before immediately bringing his weapon back down to face the ground. Sora poured on the fire dwindling the advancing horde from an army to just some stragglers with the same brainless tactic of running headlong into his hail of rockets, thinking they could reach him through all of that. Wow, these guys sure aren’t too bright Pinkie said as she watched the annihilation. Yeah, heartless usually aren’t, they just have one goal and they stick to it… Though something is odd. Sora couldn’t help but have an uneasy feeling These are Neoshadows, Neoshadows can swim into the ground like their smaller brother the Shadow…. So how come none of them used that ability yet? Sora looked around for a moment before moving back forward shooting at the last of them. I kind of expected some of them to do that just to close in on us a long time ago. Before long Sora turned the back handle counter clockwise and the  weapon stopped firing rockets and the front barrels slowly stopped spinning. All ground heartless were completely destroyed. Once they did they were a bit caught off guard from the sound he heard from behind. When they looked back, they finally took notice of the cheering and raving crowd. Oh Yeah! Forgot about them for a bit Pinkie said cheerfully before making Sora’s arm wave to them. This just made them cheer even louder. “Same here” Sora spoke aloud as he gave a smile. At that moment the balloon gem on Sora’s weapon, lost its shine then reverted back to its original Keyblade form. “Well, I guess that’s that, with the rocket gun” Sora said. No no, Sora. That’s too boring, we should give it a more awesome name. You’re still making up names for things? Sora asked in mild surprise. Of course! A cool name that strikes fear in the heart of its foes! We shall name it, The Sparkle Blaster! … “How about, Party Gun…” Sora deadpanned Oooh, I like that name, you’re good at naming things, Sora Pinkie immediately accepted the name much to Sora’s surprise, he just thought of the name on a whim. “And that’s another Heartless Army taken down by us, Who bad? We Bad!” Rainbow cheers for and praises the three of them on the monumental task like it was nothing as she flew down and flew around Sora hoof pumping. Sora smiled and shook his head from his friend’s behavior, and at that moment a flash of light once again covered Sora, and just as quick as it appeared, it vanished leaving Sora in his regular pony form, and appearing next to him was Pinkie Pie only, something was different about her. Standing there was the Pinkie they know and love, but what she was wearing was what got their attention. On her head were gold rimmed goggles with glyph like engravings on the rims, the lens were a darker shade of pink, and they were attached onto her head by a brown strap elastic looking strap, but it didn’t end there. On her back was a sort of large metallic box, pink in color just like the goggles, and engraved in the same glyphic design, at the center of the top part of the box looked like it was like saddle bag flap and button that keeps it closed, only the button was Pinkie’s Element of Laughter instead. “Whoa, what is that-” Rainbow went on but Sora answered for her. “I think it is…” Pinkie looked at her friends “What’s wrong, is there frosting on my face?” She went to place her hoof on her face to check for said frosting, but eventually ran her hoof against part of the goggles she was wearing. “Huh?” Pulling it out so she could get a better look, she looked up and instantly gave a huge squee. Filling the weight on her back, she looked back and her Squee was only louder. “I got a thing… the thing! The Fusey thing! Just like Applejack!” She was stammering for the right words as she was bouncing in place in hyperdrive. “You got a fusion weapon!” Rainbow said with both excitement, and a little bit of envy. Sora looked at Rainbow, placing a hoof under his muzzle and thought for a moment. “That… doesn’t sound too bad for a name for these things.” “Whoo Hoo! I got a Fusion Weapon! Ooooooh, What’s it do, What’s it do?!” Pinkie said as she put the goggles on and the lens lit up. Sora shrugged “Only one way to find out” And as if on Cue, they heard the sound of rushing wind behind them. Whipping their heads back they were greeted with the same giant large body looking Heartless they fought earlier only it seemed to be sucking in a lot of air. “What is it trying to puff itself up for another round?” Rainbow then started shadow boxing “I’m game, Let’s try to make it pop!” Sora stared at the wind tunnel getting sucked into the creature’s mouth. He noticed there was a lot of dark mist going into it. “I don’t think a balloon heartless is what it’s trying to make.” Soon more and more dark mist was getting pulled in from the atmosphere making the wind tunnel pitch black, until finally, after expanding to absurd proportions, the heartless closed up its mouth and just remained in that position. “Sooo, if it’s not trying to inflate itself to fight us, then what is it doing?” Rainbow decided to ask, Meanwhile Pinkie’s goggles was lighting up a rather large circle within a circle “You guys… there’s something inside” Both Sora and Rainbow turned to Pinkie from her statement before looking back at the monster. That’s when they saw its gut showing bulges, appearing then disappearing back into place, soon they started to appear more and more violently by the second. Sora and Rainbow took a combat stance, with sora it was his four legged one, as Rainbow took off into the air. Pinkie decided now was a pretty good time to press that shiny gem on her back. The gem sunk into the box releasing the “flap” to open up and let loose a lot of retractable metal parts, gun barrels, belts, and the like, the metal contraption sheltered over the confused yet excited Pinkie Pie and continued to expand. Meanwhile, Sora and Rainbow were already making their way towards the heartless, just to watch it finally give in and pop just like a balloon into pieces that dissolved in mid air into nothingness, causing the two to stop in their tracks for a moment as a blast of air pushed them back for a moment. What stood in place of the inflatable heartless however was completely different. It was something he hadn’t faced in a long time, but remembered how much of a pain it was to deal with it when he was younger. (Image Source: http://soxxeh.deviantart.com/art/Kingdom-Hearts-II-Behemoth-Removed-297185457 )         “It's a Behemoth!” Sora called out gearing himself up         “Well, yeah we know it’s big but what kinda heartless is it?” Rainbow walked up to him, her eyes still locked on their new arrival.         “A Behemoth, that’s what it’s called, look that thing is difficult to deal with if you don’t know what you’re doing” “What’s there to know, You just go in and and kick its flank!” And Rainbow rushed without another word. “Rainbow wait! You Can’t-” Sora tried to stop her but she was already off. He groaned as he galloped after her. Rainbow aiming a Flying tackle into the thing’s face, but once she did, it was like the equivalent of when she slammed into Rarity’s roof… Also causing her to strike the same pose when she impacted, legs sprawled out in every direction like she was a splattered bug on the wall. This caused Sora and everyone watching to wince and in unison say “Oooooooooh…. “Ow….” she managed to say before sliding off the Behemoth’s face “Rainbow!” He watched her fall and threw his keyblade at the  Behemoth’s small horn to distract it, then dove and caught the dazed mare on his back. “Gotcha!” Then made a 180 bolting out of there with her. Stomping close behind was the Behemoth and it was already shaking things up for the houses it walked passed as it tried to gain on Sora. thanks to its larger stride it looks like that was exactly going to happen! Until a whistling streak in the sky collided with its face making it immediately stop and back pedal from the surprise attack. “Huh?” Looking forward his face changed from shock to a big grin. “No way!” On the opposite end, near the crowd, stood a Pink metallic contraption that looked like a turret, rigged up with more gun and cannon barrels that it anyone knew what to do with, except for the Pinkie mare sitting in the gunner’s seat. “You like that?! How about a taste of my extra special “Pinkie Bomb Barrage!” She was standing on her hind legs, one hoof on the seat, and the other on control panel slightly above and infront of it, her hoof precariously close to a few of the big flashing buttons, as she pointed her hoof at the monster striking a rather daring pose “Nopony hurts my friends!”  He jumped back to her seat properly before looking at the massive array of buttons before her, “Let’s see… what to push… Well, duh, Pinkie you already know that answer” she tapped her hoof against her head sticking out her tongue with a goofy smile for her silly question. “ALL OF THEM!” And that’s exactly what she did as her fore legs were a blur pushing all those blinking and flashy buttons, pulling on all the levers, and it was just a cacophony of rockets, bombs, and light beams blasting out of every gun and cannon on that thing, every one of them aiming for wherever she was looking at in her goggles, which happened to be the big red circle appearing around the Behemoth on her lens. Sora watched the sky above him get covered by a rain of rockets, sparkling beam shots, and comically huge bombs with lit fuses flying over him and all over the Behemoth he was running from, pushing the creature back from force of impacts, but doing minimal damage against its tough hide, However a good portion of them hit the small horn on its head just like Sora did earlier so it all ended up dazing the creature once the hail of firepower ended. Once he reached Pinkie he looked at her and said “Thanks, Pinkie, that helped a lot” he gently lowered his body to carefully place her nearby and the Crusaders were all on them now, Scootaloo being the first on the scene. “That thing’s weakness is the small horn on its head, can you aim for that?!” “That tiny horn waaay over there?” Pinkie Pie refocused her gaze on the recovering beast’s head. “From this far away, it’ll be kind of tough!” She said as her weapons were reloading for another volley. “Rainbow! Rainbow! Are you ok? Wake up?!” Scootaloo’s voice brought Sora’s attention on her and the Blue pegasus on the ground. Scootaloo was shaking her to get her to come to her senses. “Uuuugh, Five more minutes… blurgh” She was out of it for now. If her response wasn’t enough, her eyes swirling in circles was a good enough indicator she was down. “Right…” he pulled out his keyblade and pointed in the air. “Heal!” Just above his keyblade a floral plant of some kind with three yellow flowers at the top appeared, along with a ring of vines circling around it, then a green ring of light circled Rainbow and encased her body in the same light. “Huh? What?! I wasn’t sleeping?!” Rainbow instantly shot up, completely back with reality only to be tackled by her number one fan. “Rainbow, You’re Ok!” Sweetie Belle turned to the stallion “You’re a doctor too Sora?” “Uuuh, not quite, and thanks to that, I’m out of magic for now” then turned to face the monster ahead. He knew he had an ether with him, but he was seriously debating whether or not to use it to regain his magic ability quicker. But he had no clue when and if he’d be able to get another one… No, in retrospect the monster was only a pain at first when he didn’t know how to deal with it back then, he’ll be fine, he decided. “Pinkie, just keep shooting at it, Rainbow and I will take care of it.” “Aye aye, boss!” Pinkie gave a salute, to which Sora only smiled and rolled his eyes before she went back to her seat and got to work firing a volley of large fireworks at the behemoth. Sora waited for Rainbow to get back on her feet and get a grip on what was going on. “Rainbow, can you get us over there fast?” “Can I get-” Rainbow looked at him with surprise before it turned into a confident looking smirk “Do you know who you’re talking to?” She flapped her wings and and grabbed onto Sora as they took to the air. “I guess so” he simply replied. “Go Get em, Rainbow! Kick his flank!” Scootaloo was already cheering for her before they took off at high speeds to cover a lot of ground “Wow, she really is your no.1 fan” Sora commented as he looked ahead and summoned his keyblade in his mouth. “The squirt? Yeah she’s pretty cool, smart too. I mean look who’s she’s rooting for after all” the bragging was heavy with this one. Sora had to roll his eyes a second time today now. “Right, Well let’s make sure we hit the small horn on its head this time, that’s where it only takes damage.” “R-right” Rainbow responded, as she had a flashback of her not so glorious first strike. Meanwhile, the monster was getting sick and tired of all these rockets in its face and leapt into the air toward everyone. “Uh oh!” Rainbow watched the big lug leapt high above the flow of rockets and toward them. “Rainbow! The horn! Get me to the horn!” Sora deciding to hold the Keyblade. “O-oh, right!” With a hard flap and a boost of Speed, Rainbow and Sora closed the distance and played chicken with the heartless. Once close enough, Sora swung his keyblade in a horizontal strike at the horn, giving the heartless so much pain it lost focus on its landing and ended up crashing face first in the ground giving everyone and the surrounding area a small and short earthquake. “Pour it on Pinkie!” Sora yelled out as he and Rainbow were making a loop to make another pass. Pinkie didn’t hesitate to re-aim and unload another explosive onslaught of her weaponry. Sora and Rainbow dived toward the fallen foe and Sora pulled his keyblade as far back over his head as he could. “Ready?!” “Always!” Rainbow grinned as she glared at their target. A slight dim flash of light appeared on her gem for a brief moment, though neither would’ve been able to see it. The Behemoth after getting a heavy shot to its weak spot shot up and reared back from the damage taken, but was getting ready to charge Pinkie and the ponies behind her. Unfortunately for it. At that moment, it was at the wrong place at the wrong time.  “Do it!” Sora called out. Rainbow flapped her wings to get as much of a speed boost as possible for Sora before finally letting him go and breaking off. “Bombs away!” Sora held his stance in mid air as he was dropping harder than a missile. Though he kept staring at his target, his muscles in his forelegs tensed and filled with immense potential energy, they held the weapon tightly. But right when the moment presented itself, he didn’t hesitate to swing it down like his arms were spring loaded. Ching! The sound of metal cutting through a hard object rang throughout the neighborhood block, immediately followed by something impacting the ground that kicked up a plume of smoke. Not a word was spoken as everything went silent. Pinkie had her hooves on two levers staring intently into the cloud. Rainbow hovered in place, maintaining that same glaring look in her eyes waiting for anything. Once the dust started to settle. Everypony could finally see what had happened. Sora was in front of the beast, standing bipedal but crouched in the same position he was in when he impacted the ground, holding his keyblade in front of him as the tip was embedded into the ground from the force. His head lowered hiding his eyes with his spiky mane… but not the small smile on his muzzle. Immediately something fell to the ground right next to him at that moment. It turned out to be the Behemoth’s horn. The monster was stumbling back, pawing at where it’s small horn used to be, as darkness gushed out of the opening, with no intention to stop. Sora stood up straight and watched the Heartless’ futile attempts to keep its gaseous insides where it belonged, until it tensed up started fading as well, all that remained was a large heart that soon rose to the sky and vanished. Although it was a victory… Sora felt like that win was much easier then it would’ve been.He never even used any of his other attacks from back then… and the Neo shadows didn’t even phase into the ground… all coming from inside that weird balloon heartless… Was that all just the same heartless, copying other heartless? Well, it didn’t do a very good job at it anyway. He sighed and rubbed his mane with his free hoof. All this just seems a little odd. Before he could even go back on all fours he was tackled in the gut by a Rainbow blur, rolled back a few yards before he was in a familiar position again. On his back as an excited looking mare was standing over him, This time not three fillies, but Rainbow Dash “That was awesome, dude!” She cheered “Zero fear dive bomb! You’re almost as crazy as me! And listen to that crowd” Just as she said, the party goers and any other ponies that were curious of all the racket, guards included, were not cheering Sora and the girls for their heroic deed. He laughed at her enthusiasm “Well, I’ll take that as a compliment then” he tried to get up for the Cutie Mark Crusaders tackling him from behind, One glomped his head, the other bounced off and landed on Rainbow Dash’s head instead, no surprise who that was. “You guys are so awesome!” Scootaloo yelled as Rainbow Dash pulled her off her face and gave her a smug grin. “Was there ever any doubt, squirt?” “Yer like Superheroes!” Applebloom popped her head out of Sora’s mane giving the same big smile Sweetie Belle decided to bounce around everyone. “Yeah like some kind of League of Justice or something!” “Dog Pile!” They heard from above as they looked up just in time to see Pinkie make a belly flop jump over to them and knocking the all over. “WOO!!! Go Team!! We’re Number One! We’re Number One! “Pinkie!” Everyone yelled at her, before they all ended up laughing over the whole ordeal. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Just outside of town         A pony was standing on one of the high hill stops that overviewed the eastern part of Ponyville. After watching the whole scene, the pony seemed to hold a look of disapproval on their face, as one of their legs flickered for a moment. They turned to make themselves scarce only to stop in and backpedal in shock from the bipedal creature, wearing a ragged cloak. “Well… Looks like your planned bombed pretty hard there, buddy.”