Celestia paced around nervously in her room as she waited for her student, her friends, and Sora to stop Discord. Things have already gotten a bit chaotic as the draconequus's influence began to spread more the longer he was freed. His riddle on where he hid the Elements of Harmony was questionable when Twilight suggested her garden's labyrinth. She knew he was a cunning trickster and can plan two steps ahead of his opponents with his illogical sense, never placing the artifacts that could defeat him so close to where he stole them and in an obvious maze he could make into a twisted torture chamber and trick them.
She looked out of the window to her balcony, finding her hedge maze was now nothing more than a huge crater. "Of course he wouldn't hide them so close to his enemies." Celestia couldn't tell what was going on down in the center of the crater that used to be her garden. She then heard a scream as a tan figure grew closer and headed straight for her tower. "What in the world?"
Her eyes widened when that figure was Sora, sent spiraling out of control and unable to right himself back up in the air. The alicorn teleported out of the way as the teen crashed into her room, bouncing all over her furniture, the walls and ceiling, finally stopping as he slammed down onto one of her tables, smashing it to pieces. He groaned in pain, but at least his whole body began ignoring the slow, agonizing pain of a certain part of him.
"...Ow." Sora slowly sat up, grunting and fighting through the pain, brushing off the bits of table he shattered. "That...wasn't smart..."
"Sora, what happened!?" Celestia carefully levitated the debris off the injured Keyblade wielder.
"Discord tricked us," he said. He called his Keyblade to him after he dropped it once he made a dynamic entrance in the princess's personal chambers. While he tried to cast his Cure spell to heal himself, he couldn't cast it, or any spell at all. "Dang it...Discord must have kept my magic sealed...Smart."
"Are you alright?" Celestia asked.
"I will be, after a little potion." Sora dug around his red pouch and grabbed one of his handy potions. He tossed it in the air, and as the bottle disappeared, instead of the healing powder that comes from it, green slime splattered all over him, the stallion yelping as he was drenched in the slimy, freezing cold muck. "Oh come on! He even messed with my potions!?" He tried to shake off the sticky substance, unable to get it off him. "And why does this stuff smell like strawberries!?"
"Discord is even stronger than you," the alicorn muttered, growing more concerned. "Are Twilight and her friends alright?"
"Define alright." Sora stood up, ignoring the slime covering him. "Twilight's fine, but she's beginning to lose her patience with the others...He got to them and corrupted them, and he almost got me earlier." Celestia gasped in shock. "We need to find the Elements of Harmony, and we need to find some way to get them back to normal. But where did he hide them!?"
The teen tried to pace around, but the slime around his hooves caused him to slip, making him fall flat on his face. "I think that slime can be washed off. Use my shower and we'll both figure out what Discord's cryptic riddle means."
"Thanks." Sora carefully made his way across Celestia's room, unable to help but drip the green slime on the princess's carpet, entering her regal bathroom and immediately jumped into the shower.
He turned on the water, not caring what temperature, thankful that the shower didn't pour anything that made him even more filthy. While letting the water wash off the strangely sweet smelling slime, Sora began to think about Discord's riddle. The "twists and turns" portion was misleading and led them into a trap, but the last part had to be the clue where Discord hid the Elements of Harmony. "Find the elements back where you began." The longer Sora had focused on figuring out the last part of the riddle, the more it slowly began to dawn on him.
"'Back where it began...' Back when we found the Elements of Harmony. Back where Twilight found her destined friends. The library in Ponyville...That's it!" The pegasus turned the water off, completely cleaned of the slime covering his body, and ran back into the room, not bothering to dry himself. "The Golden Oak Library! The elements are there!"
"Are you certain?" Celestia asked.
"They have to be there! Send a message to Spike, tell him to find the Elements of Harmony and keep them safe!" Sora was about to fly off, only to wince and fall back to the ground.
"Sora, you aren't in any condition to move," the princess said, concerned about his injuries. "Without your magic to heal yourself, you won't last long if you fight Discord again."
"I've faced worse. I actually turned into a Heartless, and that was more painful than running into everything like a ragdoll." The teen grunted and stood back up, approaching the balcony. Looking down at the crater, there was no sign of Discord or the rest of the girls. "I hope Twilight figured out where they're hidden. If she gets corrupted, then the Elements of Harmony won't really work."
"Be careful, Sora. Discord's a lot more powerful than he seems," Celestia warned.
"Yeah. I think I got a taste of that when I was flung into your room, and the fact he nearly manipulated me into thinking I killed my friends." Sora leapt off the ledge of the balcony and flew off to Ponyville, where he could see the small town was greatly affected by Discord's chaos.
Ponyville was a chaotic mess as soon as Sora arrived. The ground was randomly splotched with checkered patterns in random colors, buildings and ponies were hovering randomly in the air, buffalo wearing tutus and dancing like ballerinas as they passed by. Discord was even more chaotic than Wonderland, but a thousandfold. While the teen was too focused on the ground, the sun quickly went out and his eyes failed to adjust to the sudden darkness.
"AHH! Who turned out the sun!?" He slammed into something, groaning into the object he blindly flew into. "Urgh...Why does this tree smell like peppermint?" The sun popped back up into the sky, and he saw what he ran into. It was indeed a tree, only it looked like a giant tree-shaped peppermint stick. "Oh. Right. Discord. Why am I not surprised?"
"Sora!" Twilight and the four other corrupted mares approached him, the lavender unicorn relieved to see him. "Are you ok?"
"Oh, yeah. Fine...if you can call me being bounced around and crashing into Celestia's room, further injuring me, Discord blocking my magic to keep me from healing myself, and swapping out my healing potions with green slime to further prevent me from recovering, then I'm just peachy." Sora peeled himself off the sticky peppermint tree, needing to take another shower after all this madness is over. "So, I'm guessing you figured out where the Elements of Harmony are located. Here in Ponyville."
"I think so." Twilight rubbed her head, looking back at her "friends". "They're starting to drive me crazy."
"It'll be over soon. While I was with Celestia, I told her to send Spike a message, telling him to find the Elements of Harmony. At least I hope he gets it." While Sora was focused on Twilight, Fluttershy grabbed the hood of his jacket again, but he quickly flipped the manipulated pegasus over, as much as he didn't want to hurt her. "Fool me once, shame on you. Now cut it out, Fluttershy."
"Make me, dork," Fluttershy said, kicking Sora hard in the chin.
"Why am I the one being hit!?" They continued walked down the path, being careful not to slip as it suddenly turned to soap, until they finally reached the library, which was thankfully unharmed by the chaos.
"I hate libraries!" Pinkie shouted, her coat suddenly turning more monochrome.
The others headed inside, Fluttershy's and Applejack's bodies turning gray too, but Rarity stayed outside with her "diamond". "Rarity, will you please get in here!?"
"Oh, I know what's going on here," the white unicorn said, her coat and mane turning more gray like the others. "You want me to just waltz right in and let you take Tom away from me! Well that's not happening, you money grubbing colt!"
"...You seriously called a rock 'Tom'?" Having enough of Rarity's greed, he summoned his Keyblade. "Say goodbye to Tom, Rarity! He's going bye bye!"
"STAY AWAY FROM HIM!" As Sora tried to rush past the corrupted mare, she bucked him hard in the face and sent him crashing through the window of the upper loft in the library.
He slammed into a bookshelf, several books raining down on him as he slumped against it. "...Today just isn't my day, is it?"
"Sora?" The Keyblade wielder looked over at the bedroom door, where Spike came upstairs to investigate the strange noise. "...What happened to you?"
"Ignore me and my sudden crash entrance." Sora slowly stood up, stepping over the books littered around him. "Did you get Celestia's message?"
"I did, but I've been looking all over for the Elements of Harmony," the baby dragon said. "I don't think they're here...and why are they? I thought they were safe in Canterlot."
"Well, apparently Discord, the one causing all this chaos and stole the elements, placed them here." The pegasus picked up one of the books, which happened to be the reference guide for the Elements of Harmony Pinkie had found before entering the Everfree Forest to search for them. "And before you ask, I'm completely useless right now. My magic's been sealed, I'm badly injured and I can't recover, and I'm getting beat up by everything. Including the kitchen sink." Both boys headed downstairs, where Twilight had just slammed through the wall with Rarity's "diamond" named Tim. "Twilight, we better hurry before-"
A loud gonging sound rang out in the library, Sora's words cut off as Fluttershy smacked him on the head with a frying pan, for no reason whatsoever. Birds chirped in his ears as his eyes spun around in his head, slumping forward and tumbling down the steps, dropping the reference guide as he hit the ground floor.
"Too slow to react, Sora? I thought you were good at being fast," the non-timid bully mocked, swiping the book up. "Yoink!"
"Fluttershy, cut it out!" Twilight shouted.
"Keep away!" Fluttershy called out, throwing the book away from Twilight to Pinkie.
"I hate books!" the grumpy earth pony said, tossing it to Applejack, the lying farm mare balancing it on her snout.
"Applejack, give me the book!" Twilight demanded.
"Ah don't have any book!" Applejack tossed it back to Fluttershy, but before she could grab it, Sora snapped out of his daze and dragged her to the ground, catching the book in her place.
"Alright, enough keep away! Fluttershy, if you hit me again, I will not go easy on you!...But I will apologize because this isn't-" Rarity suddenly snatched the book away from him with her magic, running past him.
"MINE!" The teen grumbled as Twilight chased after the greedy unicorn, snatching the book away after tackling her.
"I am getting SICK AND TIRED OF THIS!" The lavender mare threw the book, the pages opening as a metal clanking was heard instead of a thump. Sora gasped, the Elements of Harmony were lying on the floor, hidden inside of a hollowed out section inside of the book. Twilight noticed and picked them up with her magic. "They...They were in the book?"
"...Well, that was lucky," he said, scratching his head. "I just grabbed it while I was somewhat delirious and not thinking clearly...And the pain I'm in isn't really helping me think straight either."
He received a hard kick in the side by Fluttershy, leering at him for dragging her down. "That's what you get."
"...I can't believe this is happening," Twilight said. "My friends have become nothing but jerks!" Grabbing the Elements of Harmony, she clasped the elements to the right bearers and put on her crown. "Let's get this over this and end this madness!"
"T-Twilight," Sora coughed, struggling to get up on his hooves. "We're missing Rainbow Dash. The elements won't work."
The unicorn clasped the Element of Loyalty around Sora's neck, confusing the teen. "There. You're the new Rainbow Dash. That's everypony: the ACTUAL loyal friend, the grump, the hoarder, the liar, the brute, and me."
"Twilight, I'm not the Element of Loyalty," Sora said. "I'm not a part of this world!"
"I don't care. You're Rainbow Dash. You're a pegasus like her, and you're a lot more dependable than all of these ponies combined together!" The teen grew worried, knowing Twilight was starting to succumb to their friends' change in behavior.
Before she could throw Tom out of the window to get Rarity moving along with the rest of their corrupted friends, Sora stopped Twilight from exiting. "Twilight, the girls are being manipulated. Discord hypnotized them just like he tried to do to me earlier. They're not themselves, and you can't let them get to you."
"Well, it's working, and I want to get this over with before somepony ticks me off anymore than I should be!" Twilight growled, putting emphasis on her last few words as she glared at the four mares.
"Twilight, if you get corrupted like them, then the Elements of Harmony won't work!" Sora tried to reason. "I can't fight Discord by myself, and we need the Elements of Harmony to stop him. I'm useless with his hold on my magic. He could easily beat me and win."
"You hit him with your Keyblade," the unicorn pointed out sourly.
"Because he was too busy laughing to pay attention. I'm only able to get a hit on him out of luck, and it's already run out." He placed his hooves over Twilight's shoulders, forcing her to look at him. "Please, you have to calm down and not let him get to you."
She ignored him, sliding him away from her with his magic and threw Tom out of the library, leaving a gaping hole in her home. "Either you help me, Sora, or give that element to Spike. I want this over with so I don't have to deal with them anymore."
Twilight exited the library, the others following after her, Fluttershy getting a good smack on the back of Sora's head before flying after her. He didn't bother trying to retaliate against the grayed out yellow pegasus. He watched the purple unicorn up ahead, slowly following after them as he sighed.
"She's already about to crack," he mumbled. "Discord got to her without even trying to manipulate her...How can I save them?"
After navigating their way through the chaotically struck town, they found Discord standing in the center of the square, wearing a smug grin on his face. "Oh no! You actually found the Elements of Harmony!" he said sarcastically. "Well, I guess I know when I've met my demise." The draconequus made a target appear on his snake-like abdomen, blindfolding himself as he stuck a small peppermint stick in his mouth. "Fire when ready."
Growling, Twilight began charging her magic into her element to activate the powerful artifacts. The girls began glowing, along with their respective elements, but the Element of Loyalty didn't glow with Sora, not being the true bearer of the red gem he was currently wearing. He knew it wasn't going to work, looking away as their power failed and the five mares fell to the ground.
"Of course they wouldn't work," Sora mumbled, hearing Discord guffawing as he peeked out from his blindfold and saw the Elements of Harmony failed.
"Well, it turns out the Elements of Harmony are now completely useless," the draconequus laughed.
"Mine's workin' just fine," Applejack said, her eyes darting back and forth with her lies. "All of y'all's must be broken!"
"I hate the Elements of Harmony!" Pinkie shouted, throwing her element at Sora's hooves.
"Mineminemineminemine!" Rarity dove in to try to take the Element of Laughter, but the teen snatched it away and took hers, not wanting to let the greedy unicorn hide something as important as the elements.
Applejack dropped hers as she walked past him, Fluttershy throwing hers at his face. "I'm sick and tired of you losers. I'm out of here."
"Eyup! Ah got better friends than any of ya put together!" Applejack said as each of the girls split up.
Twilight's eye twitched, and after having the elements fail on them, along with the girls throwing away their necklaces, she exploded. "FINE! GO ON AND LEAVE! I don't care about any of you stupid jerks anyway!" Tears welled up in her eyes as she shouted. "With friends like you...who needs...enemies..."
Sora gasped as he saw Twilight's body slowly turning gray. "Twilight, no!" Ignoring the Elements of Harmony, dropping the Element of Loyalty on top of the pile of necklaces, he ran up to the depressed and manipulated unicorn, grabbing her cheeks and forcing her to look up at him. "They aren't behaving like they should! Discord manipulated them, remember!? You can't let him win! Your friends are trapped inside their hearts, their minds warped into being the opposite element they represent! It's not them you should be mad at! It's Discord!"
"...You're not my friend either." The monochrome colors crawled over her shoulders and were reaching her head, her tears running down her cheeks. "You're from another world...You make so many friends, but you'll end up forgetting them."
"Twilight, that's not true! That's Discord's influence talking! You have to fight this!" Sora pleaded, unable to do anything to stop her manipulation.
"You'll forget about us...Just an outsider...who only came here to help us...nothing more..." He was too late to help her, Twilight now fully gray, losing the color in her purple eyes. Her crown fell off her head, her aura now gray as she lowered his forehooves. "You don't care about us..."
"I do care." Twilight turned around and sadly walked back in the direction of the library, leaving behind a teardrop, creating a broken heart as it splattered to the ground. "Twilight!"
"Just go," she said. "We're nothing but a distant memory to you...Everypony you knew...Everypony you befriended...Only to be forgotten...and lost..."
"...Twilight." Sora reached out to her, but she kept walking. As soon as she disappeared down the road, the Keyblade wielder looked down at the broken heart tear, slowly dried up by the earth it touched. He reached a hoof to his chest, placing it over his heart, recalling the words told to him by Leon after stopping Hollow Bastion's/Radiant Garden's castle from leaking out powerful Heartless. "'We may never meet again...but we'll never forget each other.' You never forget those you hold dear in your heart...No matter what..."
"A pointless sentiment if you ask me." Sora's ears twitched, his saddened gaze turning to anger as Discord loomed over him.
"...You tricked them," the teen muttered. "You used your magic to twist them around, forcing them to be something they don't want to be..." He slammed his hoof down in the ground, the same spot where Twilight's tear landed, grasping at the earth to try and dig out that metaphorical broken heart, wanting to mend it and make everything better for the depressed unicorn. "You're as sick and twisted as Maleficent and Xehanort combined!"
"That old hag of a witch that can turn into a dragon and an old geezer who's more powerful than he seems?" Discord asked. "Just how am I worse than them?"
"You forcefully manipulated them!" Sora shouted, turning around to glare at the draconequus. "You broke apart their friendship and made the Elements of Harmony useless! You cheated your way to getting what you want, by using magic to turn my friends into their opposite element, and you shattered Twilight's heart and hopes of ever having friends who care about her! Because of you, she thinks that I would just abandon her and the others if I ever leave, but it's not true! I never forget any of my friends, as long as their memory stays in my heart!
"That's how I was able to break out of your little hypnotic spell when you tried to break me with that illusion! My friends all rely on me, and I need them just as much!" Sora summoned his Keyblade, crouching low as he glared at Discord, who still held a smug grin. "Now, these girls need me to be their light to free them from the curse you put on them! You haven't won yet, Discord! I'll still beat you, even without the Elements of Harmony!"
Sora charged at the draconequus, leaping up in the air to slash him through. "Descend, heartless angel."
Discord snapped his talons after saying those words, a dark void appearing around Sora's chest as it began compressing around him. The Keyblade wielder's eyes widened, having heard this spell cast by one of the most dangerous of swordsman he had ever fought in his life, far too late to stop Discord or even attempt to avoid the spell. His whole body exploded, screaming in agony as every part of him felt like it was on fire, burning him from the inside out.
Sora fell to the ground, dropping his Keyblade as he laid in the dirt, still alive, but barely able to move. His very life had almost been sucked out of him, every bit of strength he had in him destroyed by that one deadly blow that had actually struck his heart. His limp body was lifted up by Discord's magic, bringing the battered and greatly injured teen up to his eye level.
"You will beat me even without the Elements of Harmony, eh?" the draconequus asked. "You are not the brightest of the bunch, are you, Sora? I am Discord, the lord of chaos and disharmony. I can bend time and space, throw all logic out the window, and come out unharmed from anything deadly. Your magic may be unique from an otherworldly perspective, but in the end, you are just an ant compared to the giant that I am.
"Now look at you." Appearing around Sora's vision were strange blue boxes at the bottom left, each one having a different word in them: Attack, Magic, Item, and Drive, all of the white letters grayed out. At the top left was a green bar with about ten small blocks underneath it. On the top right was a grayed out images of the six mares: Applejack looking like she was trying to hide something and failed to do so, Pinkie Pie leering angrily at something, Rarity grinning maliciously like a greedy thief, Fluttershy smirking evilly, Rainbow Dash's back turned to him, and Twilight looking miserable with tears running down her face. His ears had finally picked up the blaring alarm sounds as he looked down at the bottom right, seeing a curved bar around an image of himself as a stallion, looking pale with his eyes closed. The bar was black except for a small sliver of green at the end, red waves flying out from his image as it pulsed with the alarms. Along with the nearly empty green bar was a smaller one above it, though there were chains held tightly against it, and another one above that, this one being yellow, with the word "Drive" and the number "9", nine total orbs of light circling around the number. "Even the player controlling you has no idea what to do. I think they might have just given up, but they're not going back to their last save point.
"I can control all of reality, and even if you could stop me, how will you do it?" The strange boxes and images disappeared around Sora's sight, Discord dropping the weakened Keyblade wielder to the ground. "You can't. I'm unstoppable." The teen desperately reached out to his Keyblade, but he was too weakened by the near-death blow to call it back. "Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time I make Ponyville the chaos capital of my new kingdom. Farewell, 'hero'."
Discord laughed as he teleported elsewhere, his laughter echoing as he began to spread more chaos. Sora weakly pulled himself across the ground to his weapon. As he reached out for it, he pointed the tip to the ground and struggled to lift himself back on his hooves. With enough effort, he was back to standing, though his legs threatened to buckle out on him, using his Keyblade as a crutch. He slowly limped over to the Elements of Harmony, lifting all six up in his shaking hoof.
"...H-He's...too strong...I...need to...save them..." The gems lightly sparkled, Sora gasped as he began to feel a strange pulse of light in his heart. It was like the Elements of Harmony were trying to tell him something, showing him the colorful orb he had gotten when he was in the enchanted book Celestia gave him to see. They focused his vision on the silhouettes, blackended versions of the gems they represented. "...Are you...trying to tell me something?"
The lights from the gems gleamed, now realizing what he needed in order to awaken this new Drive Form he had gotten. He needed six specific keys, and those keys were in his hoof, but he needed to find a way to extract those keys. Fighting through the pain, he limped off to the Golden Oak Library, needing to save the one mare who needed help the most.
He made it to the door and walked inside, hearing someone groaning in agony nearby. A familiar belch was heard, along with a green flame making a scroll appear nearby, which had come from Spike, though he groaned more. Sora approached where the baby dragon was curled up, finding him in a lot of pain as he clutched his belly.
"Spike? You ok?" he asked.
"N-No," Spike moaned. "P-Princess Celestia...s-she keeps...sending these scrolls since Twilight got back." He belched another scroll out, only worsening the pain of his stomach. "Auuugh! M-Make it stop!"
"Sorry, little buddy," Sora apologized. "If I could use my magic, I could heal that stomach ache. Is Twilight upstairs?"
"Y-Yeah." Spike's cheeks puffed out, but it thankfully wasn't a belch, though it almost seemed like he would vomit. "She said...we're moving back...to Canterlot...She didn't tell me why..."
Sora looked at the amount of scrolls Spike had burped up from Celestia, taking one of them and opening it up. It was one of Twilight's friendship reports. All of them must have been her reports she sent to her, hoping she would read them and realize that her friends do care and they aren't the way they're acting now.
"I know why." Taking an blank scroll nearby, Sora wrote out a quick message to Celestia, telling her to stop sending reports and ease Spike's aching belly. "Here, Spike. Breathe fire on this and send it to the princess."
"B-But my stomach," Spike whined.
"She'll stop once she reads this. Just relax and rest your stomach." Sora held the message over the baby dragon's mouth, able to weakly breathe out a plume of green flames, sending it to Celestia.
The teen slowly limped up the stairs to Twilight's room, her door wide open as he saw her crying, packing up some of her belongings in a suitcase. "I shouldn't have come here," she said, sniffling and wiping her eyes. "Having friends only brings misery...when none of them care..."
"I do." Twilight gasped, turning around to see Sora standing there, more beaten up than the last time she saw him. "And the others care too. Discord turned them into the opposite element, but he hasn't won yet. His spell can be broken."
"Leave me alone." The unicorn turned away and continued packing, but Sora stopped her, placing the Element of Magic on her head.
"No. You need to remember one very important lesson when it comes to friendship, Twilight." Sora felt his Keyblade pulse, along with the Element of Magic. Appearing over Twilight's chest, over her heart, was a keyhole, shining the same fuchsia light as the element on her head. "No matter what happens, your friends are always in your heart. They'll never forget you, and if you remember them, you'll never forget them either."
He aimed his Keyblade at the keyhole, thankful to see his Keyblade's own light magic still existed as it wasn't connected to his own mana. Light built up at the end and fired a beam inside it, Twilight gasping as her eyes widened, feeling the light swirling around her broken heart and making her remember all the good times she's had with the five mares and Sora. Slowly, her colors began returning, eliminating the monochrome shading of her body. As she was fully colored again, the keyhole on her chest glowed and shot a small orb of fuchsia light out.
Sora held his hoof out and caught it, the orb turning into the same star as the Element of Magic and Twilight's cutie mark. It hovered over to his chest and flew into his heart, his eyes widening as he felt it merge with his new Drive Form, feeling his magic return to him. Deciding to test it, he cast his Cure spell again, being bathed in green healing powder coming from the magical pink bell flowers above him. His injuries were now fully healed, his magic now back and unsealed.
Twilight groaned as she shook her head, looking around at her surroundings. "...Sora? What happened?"
"You're back!" Sora wrapped his hooves around Twilight's barrel, lifting her up and spinning her around as he laughed with glee. "I can't believe it worked! I broke Discord's spell on you!"
"Sora! Let me go! I'm getting dizzy!" The stallion reluctantly let go, grinning like the goofball that he was as the unicorn slowly got her bearings. "W-What happened? Why am I back in the library?"
"There's no time to explain. We gotta find the others, change them back to normal, and stop Discord!" Without giving Twilight much information to many of the questions she wanted to ask, Sora grabbed the unicorn and placed her on his back. "Hang on tight!"
"W-Wait, Sora! What were you-" Her words turned to screams as Sora flew out of the balcony of the tree library as they flew off to gather the rest of their corrupted friends.
It took Sora and Twilight a while to find a majority of their friends, especially with all the random chaos happening in Ponyville. Their flight had ended suddenly after the unicorn smacked Sora repeatedly in the sides, now experiencing a fear of heights. He did apologize, too excited to rescue the others from their opposite personalities and figure out just how his new form would be.
Their first stop was Applejack, her whole farm gone completely wild. Big Macintosh and Granny Smith had also been corrupted too, the former acting like a dog while the latter was dancing around, despite her old age. Sora found it hilarious when Winona, unaffected by Discord's influence, stared at the red stallion in confusion, shaking her head as if he was embarrassing her own species. The two found Applejack leaning against her barn, completely oblivious to Sora and Twilight approaching her. Sora quickly slapped the Element of Honesty on the slumbering mare, holding her down before she woke up and aimed his Keyblade at her chest, the element creating an orange keyhole next to her heart. Firing a beam of light, he turned Applejack back to normal, reminding her of her life as an honest, hardworking mare and gaining an orange light shaped like an apple, entering his own heart and merging with his new form.
Next was Fluttershy, though with her, it was a little difficult to get her down. Luckily, Sora was able to keep the pegasus held down as he put the Element of Kindness around her neck. With Applejack's help, holding her hind legs down so she wouldn't kick him in a certain part of him, a pink keyhole appeared over her chest, and just like before, he shot a beam of light from his Keyblade into her heart. She was reminded of her kindness as she returned to normal, a pink butterfly made of light entering his heart and giving power to his new form. He startled Fluttershy when she came back to her senses, almost scaring her with his weapon aimed at her while standing over her.
Rarity was more bothersome, having hoarded everything in her boutique and made a fort out of it, with Tom as her head guard. Sora easily slashed through the hundreds of clothes, measuring tools, silverware, and the giant boulder, easily pinning the greedy mare against the wall as he put the Element of Generosity around her neck and shot a beam of light from his Keyblade as the dark purple keyhole appeared over her chest. With the fashionista back to her normal, generous self, tossing Tom out of her home while the teen absorbed the purple diamond light.
Pinkie Pie was easy as she just sat around and did nothing. Putting the Element of Laughter around her neck, he fired another beam of light into the blue keyhole against the grumpy mare's chest. The old Pinkie Pie was back to her pink, giggly, happy self, laughing as she felt the blue light peel itself off of her and turn into a balloon. Sora now had five different lights shining in the new Drive Form, and all he needed now was Rainbow Dash's and the Element of Loyalty's light, but where the cyan pegasus went to was a mystery.
As they found Rainbow's house, Sora and Fluttershy searched around, but found no sign of her. "Darn it. She's not here."
"There she is!" Pinkie shouted, pointing up to a lone cloud, where Rainbow Dash was resting on it without a care in the world.
"How did we miss her when we got up here?" Sora asked, receiving a shrug from the yellow pegasus. "Rainbow Dash!"
"Yo," Rainbow said, not turning to face them
"What are you doing on that cloud?" the teen asked.
"Protecting Cloudsdale, duh," she answered. "Ponyville's already a mess, so I'm just gonna stay here at home where everything is awesome."
"How in Equestria does she think that tiny tuft of cloud is Cloudsdale?" Rarity asked, where she received stares from the rest of the group.
"Remember 'Tom', your boulder of a 'diamond'?" Rarity blushed in embarrassment, Applejack and Pinkie giggling at the unicorn's reaction. Sora pulled out the Element of Loyalty, hovering over the relaxing pegasus. "Rainbow, we can do this the easy way, or the hard way. Put your element on so I can help you and we can stop Discord."
"...Well, how about..." Rainbow quickly grabbed the cloud she was on and sped off, leaving the Keyblade wielder in the dust.
"Hard way it is." Sora flew off after her, pouring all of his strength in his wings as he chased after Rainbow Dash.
The group watched from the ground as the pegasi flew around the chaotic skies of Ponyville, Sora actually catching up with the speedy mare with each pass around. Eventually, he managed to grab a hold of Rainbow Dash and send them diving down to the ground. The two slammed down into the ground next to the other girls, the mares running up to them to help restrain the bucking pegasus.
"Get off of me!" Rainbow shouted, trying to knock Sora off her back as he managed to get the Element of Loyalty around her neck. "I don't need any of you guys! Let me go!"
"You actually do need us, Rainbow Dash." The girls managed to tie the cyan pegasus up and restrain her, giving the Keyblade wielder freedom to snap her out of her senses. "And right now, we need you."
A red keyhole appeared against Rainbow's chest, directly over her heart. Summoning his Keyblade, he aimed it at the keyhole, light building at the tip of the blade. He fired a beam of light into it, Rainbow gasping as she was reminded of her loyalty to her friends, her colors returning to her coat and multicolored mane and tail. As she shook off the dizziness, the light of the keyhole shifted into a red lightning bolt, hovering over to Sora and entering his heart. With all six of the lights merged with his new form, he could feel its power allowing him to access the Drive Form.
"Sora, what was with those lights?" Twilight asked, having been surprised when she first saw him do that with Applejack, but was more focused on saving the others from Discord's corruption. "Is...that supposed to be normal?"
"It's actually a first for me, but I can feel magical power come from the Elements of Harmony." Sora slammed his forehooves together. "Let's go and get Discord. He's gonna be in for a big surprise when he sees what we can do now."
Discord sat upon his throne as he overlooked the chaos he had unleashed in his new kingdom's capital. "Ahhh...Now this is what I'm talking about. Endless chaos as far as the eye can see." He snapped his fingers, summoning a glass, a pink cotton candy cloud raining chocolate milk filled the glass, though from top to bottom instead of the logical sense. "Here's to me, the newest king of the world."
The draconequus took a swig of his drink right as Sora lead the Mane Six up to his throne. "Hey, Dipcord!" Discord spat out his drink, which ended up being his glass, as he looked at the group of ponies, surprised to see the Keyblade wielder was fully healed. "Miss us?"
"That's impossible!" Discord clapped his hands together and spread them out, bringing up the same boxes and images Sora had been forced to see earlier. The bar around the teen's image was now fully green, his face grinning as he was in perfect health, the sealed off bar above the green one was unlocked as it was now blue. The images of the mares in the upper right corner were back to their original color with different poses: Applejack tipping her hat as she grinned, Pinkie Pie giving a big toothy grin, Rarity giving a soft smile with her eyes half-lidded, Fluttershy looking nervously with a grin, Rainbow Dash smirking cockily, and Twilight giving an open mouthed smile. "...How?"
"You haven't won yet, Discord. You made a big mistake not finishing me when you had a chance." Sora summoned his Keyblade, spun it around in his hoof, then hoisted it over his shoulder. "Now you're going to regret messing with me and my friends."
"Hmph." The pictures and boxes disappeared, the lord of chaos stepping down from his throne, looking amused. "Well, I guess that was one small error, but either way, your feeble attempts to stop me won't work."
"We do have the Elements of Harmony back together, but just blasting you with a powerful rainbow doesn't seem to be enough." Sora stretched his forelegs out to the six girls at his sides; three on each side with one of each race in both groups. "Girls, grab my hooves."
"Uhh, why?" Rainbow asked, all of them still clueless as to what Sora had planned.
"Just trust me. You girls are going to see how my Drive Forms work." They hesitated, but they did trust him, all of them touching his hooves.
"What are you gonna do?" Discord asked with amusement. "Huddle around each other and sing 'Kumbaya' to annoy me to death?" Sora didn't give an answer as he closed his eyes, focusing on tapping into his new Drive Form. The Mane Six gasped as they felt the same power inside of him, all seven of them slowly hovering into the air, their elements' gems glowing as their colored lights shrouded them. "Wait, what is happening? Why are you glowing?"
Sora unleashed his new form, a powerful shockwave of light spreading out over a mile in radius, the mares disappearing as their lights flew into the Keyblade wielder. Discord had to shut his eyes from the intense light that shot out of the teen, the sound of shattering glass echoing around him. As the draconequus's eyes readjusted, his eyes widened at the sight of the stallion. His black jacket had changed in a multitude of color, shifting around to different ones every few seconds like an aurora.
The teen opened his eyes, smirking at the shocked expression on Discord's face. He could feel new power coming from inside of him, a warm, light feeling, his strength and magic far more powerful than any of his other Drive Forms. Sora lifted up his left hoof and brought it down to his side, summoning not one, not two, but three Keyblades, then did the same with the right, three more Keyblades on the other side. One pair were in his hooves, the one on his right an orange blade, the teeth and guard in the shape of a red apple, the one on his left was a blue blade, the teeth a trio of balloons, two blue and one yellow, the guard in the shape of a cupcake. Another pair hovered behind his back like a second pair of wings, mimicking his hovering flaps, the one on the right a red blade with the teeth shaped like a lightning bolt, the guard a multicolored cloud, the one on the left a pink blade with the teeth and guard shaped like a butterfly, the hilt in the guard colored blue. The last pair hovered above his head, making it looked like he has two horns floating a few inches away from his forehead, the one on the right a fuchsia blade, the teeth and guard shaped like a bursting star, the one on the right a dark purple blade, the teeth made of three diamonds, the guard a large blue one.
Able to manipulate the Keyblades hovering above and behind them, he spun all six of his new Keyblades, clashing them together above him, then brought them back down in a fighting stance. He opened his mouth and summoned another one, this one his most powerful Keyblade in his arsenal. The blade was covered in white and blue thin threads of metal, crowns making up most of the hilt, the guard and teeth, and a heart shaped indentation above the pommel.
"It's time for you to take me on with the powers of the Elements of Harmony on my side: the Keyblades of Honesty, Laughter, Loyalty, Kindness, Generosity, and Magic, combined with my Ultima Keyblade!" Sora hovered to the ground and stood perfectly on his hind legs, readying himself to fight against Discord. "Prepare to feel the wrath of my new power; Harmony Form!"