Sora groaned as he stirred awake, his body feeling sore. He opened his eyes, squinting as the sun shone down on his face through the window he was facing. As his vision adjusted to the blinding light, he noticed he was inside someone's home, and he was alive. He remembered, before blacking out, his gummi ship began to fall apart and blew up. He must have landed in the new world, thankfully still alive, though he had taken worse falls in the past.
"Urgh...Note to self: make a pit stop and check your ship before going on a near-week endless journey through space." As Sora climbed out of the bed he was in, he ended up falling on his face from losing his balance on his legs. Grumbling in annoyance, the teen rolled over onto his side to pick himself back up. He finally noticed that his body had changed, not really surprised since this kind of transformation happened several times in the past. "...Ok...This is a new look for me."
Sitting up as best as he could, he moved his arms up to his line of sight, only to have hooves instead of hands and his arms were now forelegs. Getting a better look at his underbelly, he now had fur, a light tan in color, along with a brown tail sitting between his hind legs, similar in style to his own hair. Using his new front limbs, he felt around his head, feeling a pair of ears sticking up on his head through his hair, which thankfully was the only distinguishing feature about him that stayed the same. Moving his hooves lower to his face, it felt a bit longer, like a muzzle.
While pondering this new transformation, he stood up and practiced walking around on his four legs. At least it wasn't as difficult to learn like it was when he turned into a lion cub in Simba's world. The only difference was that he thankfully didn't have short legs, his body a bit skinny and lanky, almost like his svelte figure as a human. He may lack muscle, but he can be pretty strong and agile. Speaking of agility, he felt a strange ticklish feeling on his sides, looking over each side to find a pair of wings, the feathers similar to his coat's colors.
"Huh...I'm a pegasus." Sora unfurled his wings, surprised to feel they were easy to control, almost as if it was a hidden nature of his. He flared them out, checking the wingspan, feeling a little disappointed. "I'm actually a smaller version of Pegasus from Mount Olympus...I hope I don't make bird calls like he does."
Curling his wings back to his sides, he got a good look at the room he was in. It looked like a rustic building, every section of the building probably made out of wood. There wasn't much inside aside from the bed, a side table with a lamp for some illumination in the night, a small dresser for storing clothes, and, to his luck, a mirror. Deciding to get a better look from a reflective perspective, Sora approached the hanging mirror and got a better look at himself.
The first thing he noticed was the size of his eyes. They were pretty big, bigger than an average horse's, or anything else for that matter. He was glad he didn't poke his eye while getting feel of his muzzle. Along with his new facial features, he didn't have a scratch on him from the explosion, or the crash landing he must have had. He also noticed his clothing was gone too, whether they disappeared because of his new body needing to fit in with the rest of the inhabitants, or they burned up or were torn to shreds. Sighing, he felt guilty, having lost Kairi's charm.
"Perfect. I crash land here in this world, my enchanted gear is gone, and I lost Kairi's-" As Sora turned to his side while he began to mope, the moment he looked back at the mirror, his eyes widened as he caught sight of something on his flank; a tattoo of his Keyblade, and it was on both sides of his rear. "...Oooooook! What the heck is this!? I know I can remember never having gotten a tattoo...or two! And on my butt!"
Sora began spinning around in circles, getting a better look at the new marks that were on his flanks. He was warned never to tell anyone he was from another world, and most of the time, he failed to do that and keep the world's order in check. Now his Keyblade was on full display on his rump, meaning he would involuntarily show everyone he was abnormal. While fumbling around trying to look at his hindquarters, in the midst of his spinning, he froze when he saw someone was watching him from the open door.
He slowly turned his head toward the doorway, finding a small yellow pony with red hair staring at him awkwardly. He noticed the pink bow on her head, which made her more adorable than she would be without it, able to tell it was female by the eyelashes along with the bow. Sora slowly sat down, the filly's eyes glued on him.
"...Uhh...hi?" She didn't say anything, the teen highly unsure if she could speak, understand him, or had no clue what to say after seeing him spinning around like a dog trying to chase its tail. "...I'm not crazy or anything. I just kind of..."
"...Did ya hit your head?" she finally spoke, her accent resembling a country accent.
"...Well, that's a way to say hello," Sora mumbled to himself as the filly already thinks he's nuts. "Uhh...Is there anyway you know how I wound up here?"
"Mah big sister carried you here," she said. "Though why she wasted a wish on a stallion Ah'll never know. Ah saw that shootin' star first, and she stole it when Ah called dibs."
"Shooting star?" As Sora pondered what she meant, he realized she must have talked about him and his crash landing.
"Yeah...But there was no star down there. Ah checked while doin' mah chores, and there was nothin' except for you in there from last night." Hearing no sign of any debris from his descent, Sora groaned internally. His gummi ship was long gone, and it doesn't look like there might be any to find or create in this world. "Ah think we're all surprised to see ya'll aren't even hurt! Ya'll must be a lucky pony, mister!"
"...Sure. Lucky. Let's go with that," Sora said as he scratched his neck. "I guess I should introduce myself. My name's Sora."
"Ah'm Apple Bloom." Suddenly, Sora's stomach made a loud, gurgling noise that echoed in the room. Apple Bloom giggled while the teen groaned in hunger. "Well, ya have been out all mornin'. It's almost lunch time." The filly ran up to him and grabbed on of his hooves with hers. "Come on! Ya'll are gonna love Granny Smith's cookin'!"
Sora allowed Apple Bloom to drag him along, guiding him through the house for some lunch and to possible meet the rest of her family. As they walked down the stairs, Sora could smell the mouthwatering aroma coming from the kitchen, smelling like a variety of different apple recipes being baked or cooked. As they entered the living room, a pretty average space fit for those that live on a farm, they heard a barking noise as a brown collie ran at the teen, knocking him over and began licking his face.
"Ahh! Help! I'm being attacked by a cute dog!" Sora laughed, trying to get the excited dog off of him.
"Winona! Down, girl!" Apple Bloom commanded, though the collie didn't seem to listen.
Sora finally grabbed a hold of Winona, placing the happy puppy down on the ground and pet her head. "At least you're not as drooly as a certain little alien I can summon," he whispered, which got a yip out of the collie as she licked his hoof.
"Ah didn't think Winona took a likin' to ya so quickly," Apple Bloom said in surprise. "It usually takes a while for her to like somepony she didn't meet after a couple hours."
"Well, maybe it's a good thing I hang around animals all the time," Sora chuckled, an inside joke for him since many of his friends are animals.
"Really? Then why is your cutie mark a big key?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Uhh, 'cutie mark'?" The teen-turned-pegasus looked at his flanks, wondering if these tattoos were what she meant.
"Yeah. It's a giant key." She walked up next to him and prodded his flanks, finding it awkward for a filly who's probably a few years younger than him touching him somewhere around there. "Do ya even know what a cutie mark is?"
"...Well...No?" Sora said, unsure of how to answer that.
"Ya'll don't know what a cutie mark is, yet ya have one!?" Apple Bloom shouted, practically leaping onto his back. "What kind of pony are ya!?"
"A very confused one. I don't even know where I am, aside from being in your house." That response only made the filly gasp harder in shock.
"Somethin's wrong with your brain...Ah can fix it!" Apple Bloom leapt off Sora's back and ran into a nearby closet. He looked down at Winona as she looked at him, wondering if the collie might have some insight as to what she was up to. The filly came back, but with a hammer in her mouth. "Ah can get a cutie mark in memory fixin'! Ah'll get your memory joggin' real quick!"
Before she could jump back on his back and give him a concussion or a fractured skull with that heavy tool, Sora grabbed the hammer before she could hurt herself with it. "I don't have a memory problem, Apple Bloom. I'm asking because I have no clue what I don't know. Also, don't use dangerous objects like these without permission. You could hurt yourself more than me."
"Aww..." Sora put the hammer up somewhere Apple Bloom can't reach so she doesn't try anything that reckless again.
Before he could ask the filly everything he needed to know, Winona barked happily as she ran to the front door, someone walking in. "Easy, girl! Down! Ah've only been out for a few minutes!" Sora watched an orange equine walk in, the collie leaping up to give the mare affectionate licks, along with a burly red one who seemed far too big to even fit inside the doorway, let alone the house. The two older ponies spotted Sora in their living room, both of them surprised to see him up. "Ya'll are awake."
Apple Bloom ran up to the mare and stallion, then turned to face Sora. "Perfect timin'! Sora, this here's mah big sister, Applejack, and mah big brother, Big Macintosh! Applejack, Big Mac, that's Sora!"
"...Well, guess your sister's done the introductions for me," Sora said as he gave them a sheepish grin, scratching the back of his head. As he got a better look at Applejack, he noticed that she looked like the same blurry figure that must have found him when he fell unconscious. Only instead, she was wearing a brown stetson hat on her head. "...So, your little sister told me you brought me in when you found me."
"Ah did, yeah," Applejack said. "Are ya'll alright, sugarcube?"
"I'm fine. Just a little sore is all." Sora was being honest, though he had to be sure not to reveal his true identity to this family.
"Sora says he has some memory problems," Apple Bloom said. "He doesn't even know what a cutie mark is, but he clearly has one! Ah was tryin' to help him by hittin' him in the head with a hammer, but he took it away from me."
"What!? Apple Bloom!" The filly winced, about to get another scolding from her sister.
"It was my idea!" Sora exclaimed, not wanting to see Apple Bloom get punished for trying to help him, even though he clearly didn't. "I guess I have some amnesia about a few things, including where I am. I asked her to help jog my memory, and by that, I must have said 'Smash my noggin with a hammer,' instead. She was only trying to help."
Both older siblings looked at Sora, then back down at Apple Bloom. "...Well, at least ya weren't more hurt than ya already are. And Apple Bloom, don't take any tools without our permission again. Understand?"
"Yes, Applejack," Apple Bloom said, looking down at her hooves.
"Soup's on, everypony!" an elderly voice called out from the kitchen. Sora turned around, seeing an elderly green mare slowly walking into the living room, her limbs creaking with each step. Her grayed mane and tail were tied in a bun, and the teen spotted what looked like a pie as her, what Apple Bloom called the tattoos on their flanks, cutie mark. The mare squinted her eyes at him, her vision not as good as it used to be. "Big Mac, what in Equestria happened to ya?"
"...Uhh-" The mare, who must be Apple Bloom, Applejack, and Big Macintosh's grandmother, grabbed Sora's cheeks and stretched them to their limit.
"Macy, look at ya! How did ya get so skinny!?" she questioned, the siblings, stifling their giggles at Sora's misfortune. "For goodness sake, colt, did ya forget to eat again!? Ya need more muscle in them bones if'n ya'll are gonna work in them fields!"
"Granny, that ain't Big Mac. He's over here." The elder looked over at the sisters and brother, the red stallion waving to her as all three of them tried not to burst out laughing.
"Huh?" Granny Smith let go of Sora's cheeks, the teen rubbing his sore face, thankful for his constant smiling when around Donald and Goofy. She looked back at him, no longer concerned about which one of her grandchildren she was worrying about. "Well, whoever ya are, ya'll need food in ya. You're all skin and bones!" The mare grabbed his tail in her mouth, Sora's skin crawling as he didn't feel a pair of dentures in the grandmother's mouth, feeling her gums pulling him weakly to the kitchen. "Let's get some food in ya, sonny."
Just the disturbed look on Sora's face broke Apple Bloom, Big Macintosh, and Applejack, all three siblings laughing uproariously. His first few hours of being awake in this world, and he was greeted by a filly obsessed with cutie marks and an overprotective grandmother who seems more crazy than her youngest granddaughter. Not one of the weirdest beginnings of his venture in a new world, but it was the most awkward.
After the family, along with Sora invited to join them, settled around the kitchen table, they began eating some of the delectable apple meals laid out. As soon as the teen bit into any one of them, his taste buds were on cloud 9, never having tasted anything so delicious in all his life. He grabbed one of everything on his plate and dug in, filling his empty stomach and showing his appetite was more than his skinny frame showed.
While eating lunch, Sora had his questions answered by Applejack about what he didn't know about this world, all of them believing he had amnesia. The world he was in was called Equestria, the town they were currently in was Ponyville, and he was a guest of the Apple family on their farm, Sweet Apple Acres. The cutie marks Apple Bloom mentioned earlier, yet failed to explain, were what the ponies in this world get once they figure out what their special talent in life is. They somehow appeared out of thin air when they discover what it is, though his would have probably appeared a couple years ago when he first began wielded the Keyblade. It was odd to see that Apple Bloom, out of all her family, was the only one without one, now understanding the reason why she was that obsessed with his and wanting one for herself.
As the other Apples were finished with their lunches, Sora chomped down on an apple tart, wanting to know a little bit more about them. "So, the strange thing I noticed about your family, Applejack, is that all of you are named by something related to apples. Is it some kind of tradition?"
"In a way, ya could say that. Though, Ah gotta say. Your name, 'Sora', doesn't sound like any name Ah've heard of in Ponyville. Ya must have lived in another kingdom or somethin' to get that name, right?" Sora chuckled as the farm mare's guess was pretty close.
"Yeah...I think so. Can't really remember all that well." He finished up his last piece of dessert, licking his hoof clean. "Oh. Applejack, was I by any chance wearing anything when you found me last night?"
"Sure did. Ya'll were wearin' a strange lookin' shirt and jacket, and a small red bag that was tied to one of your hind legs. Ah washed your clothes, since they were pretty dirty, and that little bag is up in the guest room in one of the dresser drawers," Applejack said, making Sora breathe a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness," he said. "I thought they got ruined." Sora sat up in his seat as Big Mac took the dishes and began cleaning them. With his clothing still intact, he began to fear Kairi's charm might have gotten ruined when Applejack was doing laundry. "Uhh...was there something that looked like a star in one of the pockets? Made out of seashells?"
"...Sorry. Ah didn't find anythin' in any of them before Ah washed them." Sora felt his heart sink as Applejack told him there wasn't any sign of Kairi's charm.
He promised to keep it safe. He promised he would give it back to Kairi. He promised her he would use it to remember her and his friends if he ever forgot about them or missed them. Was it destroyed when he fell or when his ship exploded? Did it fall out of his pockets and shatter to the ground after he was blown out?
"Wait! Ah think Ah saw somethin' like that!" Apple Bloom exclaimed, quickly running out of the kitchen, her little hoofsteps climbing up the stairs, the floorboards creaking above them.
A moment later, the filly came back down, and to Sora's relief, she had the charm in her mouth. "That's it!" Sora scooped Apple Bloom in his hooves and hugged her tightly. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!" He took the charm and carefully examined it, finding no cracks in the shells or any part of it out of place. "I don't want to lose this. Where'd you find it?"
"Ah found it near that crater ya'll were in. It probably fell out when Applejack was carryin' ya," the filly beamed as she was glad to have found it. "Ooh! Maybe Ah got a cutie mark in findin' lost stuff for other ponies!" She eagerly looked down at her flanks, spinning around to see if she got a cutie mark, but it was still bare. "Darn it. No cutie mark."
Applejack and Big Macintosh shook their heads at their sister's impatience. "It'll come when ya find out what your special talent is." Apple Bloom ignored her big sister's advice as she got back in her seat at the table. "Might Ah ask what's special about that charm of yours, Sora?"
"...Well...Someone really special to me gave it for me to hold onto." He held the star-shaped charm up for Applejack to see. "Where I'm from, it has a very special legend to it, involving a star shaped fruit called a paopu fruit. They say if you share this fruit with someone you care about, your hearts are intertwined. No matter how far you are, or whatever happens, you'll never be apart from them..."
"Sounds like a romantic thing," Applejack commented, noting the tinge of red on Sora's cheeks as he was lost in thought, staring at the charm. "Does it really work, lover colt?"
"Huh?" The teen saw the smirk on Applejack's face, realizing he was lost in a daydream involving him and Kairi. "N-No! It's just a silly rumor!" he nervously chuckled. "I mean, how can a piece of fruit bring two people-er, ponies together!?"
"Well, by that blush on your face, it seems to have worked." Sora's blush deepened, groaning in embarrassment as he couldn't hide the legend's story come true for him and Kairi.
"...M-Maybe..." The teen sighed as he looked at the charm. "Our hearts were intertwined...but we aren't exactly...in a relationship."
"...That don't make any sense," Apple Bloom said. "Don't ya care about your special somepony?"
"Of course I do. It's just..." Sora sighed again, slumping over the table in misery. "I've known her ever since we were little. We were best friends, and as we grew older, I had a crush on her...I was afraid if I actually came out and told her I love her, I didn't want our friendship to be awkward if she said no." Applejack stared at Sora as she had realized that the pegasus didn't seem to be forgetful of all his memories. She didn't want to pry if he did remember some things with his past while forgetting others, like where he was. "I'm brave enough to face danger head on and laugh at its face, but I'm too scared to tell her how I feel about her..."
"...Maybe when ya meet her again, ya'll can just tell her." The depressed pegasus looked up at Applejack as he lowered the charm on the table. "It's better to be honest with her than hide what you think is gonna ruin your friendship. Even if it ain't meant to be, ya'll can still be friends."
"...I guess...Though, if you knew me well enough, you'll know just how crazy my life was." He grinned as he stood up and stretched. "I'll take your advice though. Next time I see her again, I'm just gonna let it out."
"That's the spirit," Applejack said, getting up as well. "Well, Ah gotta get on back to work. Ya'll are welcome to stay here in our home if ya got nowhere else to go. Maybe ya'll can get a look around Ponyville, see the sights, maybe get some more of them memories joggin' in your head."
"Thanks, Applejack." Sora approached the mare and shook her hoof. "But if I'm going to be a resident here in your home, I don't want to be some kind of slacker. If there's anything I can do around here or on your orchard to repay your hospitality, then I'll gladly do it without any complaints."
"Ah'll take your word for it. In fact, since Big Mac and Ah are gonna be workin' all day today, ya think ya'll can run a few errands for me?" Sora nodded his head as Applejack pulled out a list. "Ah was gonna have Apple Bloom do this, but seein' as last night she chose to run off on me and check on where ya laid unconscious, she's in a lot of trouble."
"Ya stole mah wish!" the filly complained, still sitting at the table.
"Let me guess; you wanted to wish for a cutie mark?" Sora questioned, which the filly immediately nodded in response. "Of course. Well, I'll see what I can do for my first job, boss."
He gave a mock salute as if Applejack was running a military base, the mare rolling her eyes at his goofiness. "If ya need any directions to anywhere on the list, just ask the locals. Ponyville's a pretty friendly town, and you'll find the shops pretty easily."
"Cool. Oh, and, my clothes?" Sora asked.
"They're still dryin'. They should be dry enough when ya get back." The pegasus sighed, though it shouldn't bother him too much to wander around in the buff since he was a pony like the rest of Equestria's inhabitants.
Before he left the farmhouse, Sora gave Apple Bloom a light noogie, messing up her mane, and pat the energetic Winona on the head. Exiting the front door, he could see an old barn not too far from the house to his right, and on the left was the orchard, and it was bigger than any other farm he had ever seen in his youth. With the list Applejack gave him, Sora set out to explore Ponyville and complete her list of errands. Little did the teen know he was being watched as something pink and poofy shot out from a bush near the entrance to the farm, the bushy mass pointing at it as if it had an eye inside of it, watching the stallion head toward town.