//------------------------------// // Chapter 25: From Robes to Scales // 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. Anywords with This coloring to their text means to click on it for a sound effect. If there is music playing, then let it keep playing, the sound effect is brief Completely optional: Your free to ignore this) Luna’s Plaza         Sora had to admit, that was one heck of a light show he just witnessed as he finally lowered his forehoof from his eyes. He felt awesome now. Whatever that did, made him feel like he was ready for another invasion. Not that he was asking for one of course.         Everyone was looking around, standing at the ready, but no heartless appeared for what felt like ages. Then they all started looking at one another unsure what to say… It was at this moment that one pony would make it their mission to break the silence, in the manner they do best. She points her turret guns in the sky and made it go into a repetitive 360 as she fired only the fireworks and light beams “WE WON!!! GO TEAM!!”         This startled the pegasus guards that were protecting her from any flanking attacks as well as freaked out her timid friend Fluttershy who was there at the time checking up on them causing her, on instinct, to drop to the ground, or rather, rooftop trying to shrink as much as possible so as not to be noticed. However that was short lived when her mind caught up with her and she finally looked at her friend Pinkie Pie cheering away and generally being silly. Now she couldn’t even help herself as she got up and started giggling at the sight, genuinely happy that it was all finally over.         As if everyone could hear the Party Pony, which might have been the case, everyone, guards, civilians, Sora, and the girls all started to cheer with her. As the Princesses finally finished their spells and give a triumphant smile at their subjects. Luna took a moment to announce “Everyone, You have all fought bravely and Canterlot remains free from the darkness!” A another round of cheers in the plaza was heard before she lifts her hoof to calm them. “Now, I believe it is time for us to regroup and focus our attention on the citizens here and aid them in anyway we can.”         “But princess?!” a voice to her right, it was one of the guards, a private to be exact. “What about him?” he pointed towards Sora, said stallion raised an eyebrow and pointed to himself with a confused look.         “What about him, soldier?” Luna turned her gaze toward Sora then back at the guard.         “S-surely you have seen it too!” He continued. “Earlier he was something else… some… some kind of bipedal beast”         At this Sora and the girls that were in the plaza frowned at him. “Whoa, calling me beast is a bit much, don’t you think?”         “Then what are you?” another guard spoke as he stepped forward. “Why do you disguise yourself as a one of us? Are you a changeling?” Immediately at the mere mention of the word some of the guards tensed up and even got their spears at the ready.         “What? No way, whatever he was definitely didn’t look like any changeling I’ve ever seen.”         “Don’t be deceived that was probably some sort of trick, a ploy to hide their true identity”         “It was so weird, It’s forehooves… they were like claws or something, but not sharp or pointy.”         “Kinda freaky lookin’ if you ask me”         “Well this is escalating rather quickly.” Sora was surprised how fast the guards were taking a one-eighty on his presence. This was when the girls stood around Sora.         “Whoa! Hold on, in case you’ve all forgotten, he fought the heartless alongside with us! What you all got grass for brains or something?!” Rainbow was the first to speak. This caused all of the guards to pause as that bit of memory came back to their minds.         “Honestly, do you all simply point your spears at anything that’s different?” Rarity stomped her hoof, now the guards were feeling some shame at how they reacted to him.         “I swear if my brother was here right now he would be sending you all back to bootcamp for this” It was Twilight’s turn to say her piece and she swore she could hear a good few of them gulp at the thought.         “You have a brother in the guard?” Sora turned to Twilight and asked.         “Later Sora, kinda busy right now” She whispered back to him. To which the stallion simply shrugged and looked on at the situation, not showing much concern for his own well being from his lax attitude on the situation.         Applejack took this moment to say her piece “Fact is, ya’ll oughta apologize ta’ Sora here. Cuz if it weren’t fer him bein’ here, things could’ve been a lot worse fer Canterlot, or even all ah’ Equestria fer that matter!”         By now all the guardsponies seemed to quiet down with some even starting to show regret for how they acted. That was when Luna cut in. “Twilight and her friends speak the truth. Sir Sora came here upon my sister’s and my request. If there is anyone here that is most skilled in fighting heartless, it would be him” She gestured a hoof toward Sora who just scratched his head.         “Sir Sora, huh?... Can’t say I’ll ever get used to being called that.” he mumbled to himself         “It is true, my sister and I along with the bearers kept his true identity a secret, we originally wished to reveal him when the time was right. However, as you can all agree, the darkness cares not for what we wish.” ~~~ Celestia’s Plaza         “So then what is he, Princess, and what relation does he have with these monsters?” The guard Captain in that area bowed to her as he respectfully asked the question that was no doubt lingering in all of their minds by now. Though for some, it was more important than others.         However, the sun princess smiled. True they all seemed rather rude earlier with how they addressed Sora as an “it” or “freak” but they were willing to accept him nonetheless once they saw reason. “His name, is Sora, and he wields the keyblade. A powerful weapon the heartless fear. A blade that can truly destroy them and free the hearts that were stolen away by them.”         The guards were all looking at each other. They couldn’t really think of anything else to say at this point, whether they accepted the princess’s explanation or not. The fact remained that Sora was the head of this attack and reclaiming Canterlot went both a lot smoother and faster the moment he dropped in. Some may still be wary of him but fact remained, as capable as the guard was, Sora and the Bearers were the greater asset to this victory. The Captain decided to speak. “Then I have to ask Princess, where exactly is he from?” ~~~ Luna’s Plaza Luna simply smiled, a question she and her sister would expect their subjects to ask “An explanation is needed, we understand” Luna lifted her head up to face the rest of the guards there. “For those that wish to understand more, a public speaking will be held once we have made sure to secure this town and we’ve returned to the civilians. I would like you all to fan out and scan every inch of Canterlot, Celestia and I wish to make certain that our spell was successful. “Yes, your highness!” The Captain then saluted before turning to face the rest of the guard. “You heard her! Get moving, Fan out and get to searching. I want five pegasi to fly out and relay the order to the rest of the guard. Move it!” “Sir, yes sir!” After a salute, the guards were scattered in all directions. As Sora and the girls watched them disperse, Luna made her way over to them. “Sir Sora, we must apologize for the negative actions our guards set toward you.” she lowered her head in apologetic bow, “It was unbecoming of them to alienate you in such a way.” Sora lifted up his forehooves trying to wave off this awkwardness. “Hey, don’t worry about it, Princess. Also, you don’t really have to add the “sir” to my name. Just Sora is fine for me. Also I don’t recall ever being knighted anyway” he chuckled scratching his head.  That’s when we was suddenly tackled by a pink living missile. “Yeah! That makes you sound all stuffy anyway.” Pinkie Pie, with wonderful timing as always, seemed to have made it from the rooftops all the way to the plaza and was giving Sora another one of her lung crushing hugs. After getting over Pinkie’s surprise attack Twilight decided to speak. “I sort of had a feeling you would say something like that, Sora. Your pretty calm about things, it can be a bit worrying in my opinion sometimes. Fluttershy wasn’t too far behind as she flew in from the same position “Is everypony alright?” she didn’t wait for their replies as she was already examining each of them for any injuries or wounds. “Y-yeah we’re fine” Twilight tried to reassure the frantic pegasus, “I’ll admit that I’m exhausted now, however” She finally took a seat on the ground, now that the fighting seemed to be over, she was finally noticing her body screaming at her. “I’ve never ran so much or used so much magic in such a short amount of time before.” She heaved a sigh. “One of the drawbacks of being such an egghead” Rainbow remarked with a laugh as she seemed all well together with a slightly even more frazzled mane. “It was a nice workout, I guess.” Applejack and Rarity seemed to be rolling their eyes at Rainbow’s response, while Twilight just held a look of contempt for her rainbow friend. Sora just smiled and shrugged at it all until a thought rose up into his mind, that changed his smile into a confused looking frown as he went into his thinking pose. “Somethin’ on yer’ mind Sora?” Applejack was the first to pick this up.   Sora was rocking his head from side to side. “I just remembered something… didn’t you and your sister say someone was leading these heartless in the letter?” Luna was a bit surprised that she herself had forgotten that, but nonetheless nodded “I-indeed, as you have explained, Heartless are not the kind to plan or think about their actions.” At this Sora nodded before she continued “Yet, when the vile creatures did invade, they appeared all around the city and forced the citizens, as well as the guards that were patrolling, to get pushed back toward the castle. In such a short time they had managed to claim more than half of the city before the reinforcements and Tia and I arrived.” Sora looked over to the girls who most of them seem to be imagining what that was like for the ponies living here. “Does sound like a smart plan… which doesn’t fit a heartless” “In other words, they were directed to attack in such away by someone else, just as the Princesses said in the letter.” Twilight added “Which means… we’re not done here” Rainbow was looking around them now as if she would be able to spot the leader from her position. “That would seem to be the case” Sora nodded before getting back to his hooves “Guess we gotta start looking for them.” “The guard should prove useful flushing them out if nothing else” Luna added. “You think it’s that creepy witch Maleficent again? Or maybe the queen?” Pinkie asked “Ooo, Ooo, what if it’s that mystery guy again. He was a meanie!” “You think he could control the heartless?” Sora asked “Mystery guy?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow. Sora turned to Luna confused on why she asked, but then turned to Twilight when it dawned on him. “Oh right, We never really did explain how it went when we locked the keyhole to the Princesses” Twilight looked like a Deer caught in the headlights after hearing this. “Oh my Celestia… I FORGOT TO WRITE THAT IN MY REPORT!” She then decided to make her impression of the famous painting ‘Scream’ “I was so busy when Merlin showed up to train me that it must of slipped my mind in all the excitement about learning new magic!” She was absolutely distraught about this detail. “How could’ve I have been so foalish!” “Whoa, whoa, easy there Twilight, It’s not the end of the world that you forgot about it.” Rainbow tried to calm her down. Sora sat next to Luna observing the girls join Rainbow Dash to keep their friend Twilight from having an mini episode about a slip up. Looking over to said Princess, he could see her try to hold a smile, she looked like she was trying to keep herself from laughing. Looking back at Twilight’s… over dramatic melodrama, he had to do the same thing. To avoid laughing out loud he decided to bring the lunar Diarch up to speed. “In any case, here’s the long and short of what happened back in the forest…” ~~~ Outer Castle Walls Maleficent had been speaking with Chrysalis, whilst awaiting news from her agents. At the time Maleficent had decided to explain her plan of how to deal with Discord. All the while the Queen just kept on staring at the liquid inside the bottle. “Can there really be such a concoction that can strip a god’s immortality?” she let it float in her magic as she continued to observe it.   The witch only nodded as she seemed more focused on the book again. “As absurd as it may sound, he has used it once before. At most he’ll become a demigod, far more limited than his original form. However, if he drinks every drop it will make him about as powerful as the common riff raff here. I would assume that his magic would be reduced to the level of the average unicorn. After a moment of silence Chrysalis finally turned to Maleficent. “You know, you’ve been more focused on that book then anything else. It makes me curious, what exactly are you reading in there?” She wasn’t fond of others not giving her their full undivided attention when they spoke to her. Maleficent showed no sign of caring about that whenever that book was in her hand. “It’s a rather interesting read. Among those immortals, it would appear whoever wrote this has experienced the heartless before.” a smile crept onto the wicked witch’s face. “Heartless… in Equestria? This has happened before?” Chrysalis had no knowledge hearing or seeing those dark creatures in the past and she has lived for a long time. “I wouldn’t go so far as to say that, for all we know whoever wrote this book was able to travel outside this world. Hilariously they decided not to put their name as the author. Just straight to business.” The Queen furrowed her brow, she went back to looking at the bottle. “So how exactly are you going to manage to get him to drink this. Keep in mind that we’re using him as a distraction, so that would mean he would still need his powers then.” “Believe it or not, all immortals have an ego, work with that and you can convince an almighty trickster to do what you want. Of course, it would require you to not be so twitchy and shifty eyed.” Maleficent tore her gaze from the book to look at her partner. True to her word. Chrysalis seemed rather nervous of the whole plan and would glance around them every now and then. She did not like the plan even with such an amazing sounding potion in her hooves. “Can you blame me? We’re basically trying to pull one over the very embodiment of chaos. Just a snap of his claws and that special bottle will turn into chocolate milk or something. He makes no sense and that’s how he likes it.” “I suppose I’ll have to demonstrate for you when the time comes… how goes the search if I may ask?” Maleficent looked up toward the castle. “Hold on, just give me a moment” Chrysalis was suddenly quiet as her eyes closed … Then her eyes shot open “What?!” This gained Maleficent’s attention “Is there a problem?” She could only assume she wasn’t going to like what she heard. “The… The statue… Discord is gone…” Chrysalis turned to Castle “What? How can this be?” the witch’s grip on the book tightened. “My agents are at the garden where the statue should be, but it’s nowhere to be found. Just an empty pedestal!” Chrysalis face was showing a mix of feelings. Anger and frustration that their plan might become void. Fear and anxiety that there was a possibility that Discord was now free and could be anywhere at this point, perhaps even listening to their conversation the whole time. Confusion on why and how this could happen. Maleficent gripped her staff before slamming it the bottom of it against the ground in frustration. “A rather irksome day, that buffoon forgets his mission, and now we can’t even make use of a distraction….” After some time, she finally sighed.  And made the glass disappear. “I have come too far to just roll over to these sickening brightly colored equines… A change of plans. You’re going to have to complete the mission without me.” A dark portal appeared behind her before she turned and made her way toward it. “And what will you be doing?!” the Queen barked at her, she did not like how Maleficent just barked an order at her. However, the witch could care less about how she felt right now, but did manage to reply. “Giving us our much needed distraction. You know the plan, just follow it” once she stepped through she disappeared. ~~~ Pete’s Location “Heh, Well I have to say, these pony people sure know how to cook!” the big lummox Pete laughed as he was busy scarfing away at all the donuts and pastries behind the counter of a store he had found. He didn’t see the harm in taking a moment to have a snack. The hordes of heartless were basically running on autopilot, which gave him some time to take a moment and ‘indulge in the local cuisine’ while he was there. From the sounds of things outside, it seemed like it was heating up out there for a moment, then quieted down. He never bothered to look out the window as he was stuffing his face with a blueberry pie. “Haven’t had a meal this good since… huh… it has been awhile hasn’t it” he scratched his head before giving out a loud belch. “I may have been here a bit longer than intended but a few extra minutes couldn’t have changed anything.” In fact, they probably already won and all he had to do now was nab the Princesses and show how amazing he was to Maleficent. “Eeyeh heh heh heh! It’s almost too easy!” he laughed as he finally stepped out of the store and into the sunlight illuminating the plaza ready to continue his mission… however instead of the army of heartless marching toward the castle, He was greeted with a sight he had not expected. ~~~ Luna’s Plaza Sora could not believe what he was seeing… he wasn’t surprised so much to see Pete just waltz right out of a building in front of him. He was surprised on how the answer to their current problem just walked right into their line of sight. “Well that was quick… there’s the leader.” What’s that stuff on his face… pie crust? Pete, upon realizing the situation he was in froze like a statue as he was trying to contemplate what happened to his army of heartless from earlier…. “How long was I in there?” he asked himself. Rainbow Dash cocked her head to the side trying to make sense of what she saw. “The leader of all these heart is a big fat cat thing?” Fluttershy suddenly whizzed right past them to get a good look. “Oh my, you’re a very large cat aren’t you, and look at those tiny little ears! So cute!” she immediately was petting Pete’s head, as if he was a common stray.         “My word” Rarity held a look of disgust “What a grotesque looking creature, cat or no. I think I can smell it from here. Sora was trying to contain his snickering watching and listening to the girls react to Pete. “Ya’ know, fer the one runnin’ this invasion… I was kinda thinkin’ he’d be more… intimidatin’. This is…” Applejack was trying to find the right word to say when Pinkie came in. “Underwhelming?” “Yeah that’s it!” Applejack replied, pointing to the pink mare.   Pete stood there fuming at the ponies constantly dissing him.“What the… Why I outta-wouldja cut that out!” he waved off Fluttershy and her hoof causing her to squeak and zip back to hide behind her friends. “No respect, you ponies need to learn some manners. Fortunately for you I’m gonna teach ya” Rainbow huffed some air through her nostrils “With what army? Oh that’s right? They’re all gone now aren’t they?” She then faked a gasp with both her hooves placed on both sides of her face.   “Just give it up Pete, The invasion’s over, you lost!” Pete blinked a few times once he heard that familiar voice, “Waaaaiit a second” He turned his gaze to the owner of the voice and squinted his eyes. “I recognize that hair and keyblade anywhere. What are you doing here, twerp?!” he pointed at Sora before he finally registered the form he had taken and started laughing. “As if your goofy outfit and hair wasn’t enough of an embarrassment, now you’re a cute little pony! Hyeh heh heh heh! Oh this is too much!” he continued to make a large bellowing laugh. ‘Why don’t you go make a little girl’s birthday wish come true, runt” Sora opened his mouth to say something… but closed it as he scratched the back of his head. “Yeah you kind of have a point there.” “Sora!” he heard the girls berate him from behind.  He raised his hooves up defensively “Hey, it’s true! It’s like the number one generic goal on a little girl’s wish list! I can’t deny it!” He immediately shook his head. “But now’s not the time” then turned to face Pete again.   “Pfft Whatever, Ol’ Pete’s gonna show you girly ponies who’s boss around here.” Pete got into his awkward wrestler looking pose. “Then I’m coming for you and your sister, your highness” He pointed toward Luna. All that did was make the Lunar diarch raise an eyebrow and hold an “unimpressed” look on her face in return. “Oh really?” Sora was now smiling as he placed the keyblade into his mouth, the girls standing beside him. “What do you girls think about that?” ~~~ 30 seconds later Pete wasn’t sure how he was in this position… Or why everything hurt... He was slumped half way through the now broken store window groaning like a zombie as he ached from pain. “What’s with these ponies…” he groaned before gravity determined he was top heavy and he fell into the store and landed face first on the floor, with his legs in the air sticking out of the window. “Oooooowww…..” Sora slacked a bit in his stance as he looked on through the window Pete crashed into. His face held slightly apologetic expression looking at the state the state he was in. “Sheesh, now I feel bad for him since I egged the girls on.” after shaking his head once to focus again he straightened up and dismissed his weapon before trotting up to the window and called out to it. “Alright, Pete, you had enough? I’m sure they have no trouble going another round with you.” “I hope not, I really wish to go home and take a shower” Rarity mumbled as she gave a huff looking at herself “All this fighting and running around has made me absolutely sweaty, guh” her face scrunched up when she picked up the scent of B.O. though most of it was coming from next to her. One look in that direction and she understood. “Of course…” “What?” Rainbow turned to her side to look at Rarity next to her. “Anyway-” Sora continued to the issue at hoof only to find Pete was suddenly gone. “What the?” they all looked around to see he was nowhere to be found. “Where could he have gone? He’s as big as a carriage!” Rainbow called out. Meanwhile Pete, for someone as large as him, seemed to have to have to trouble making a “tactical retreat down the road. “This place is nuts! Why didn’t Maleficent tell me these crazy ponies could use magic like that… it’s weird…”He snapped his fingers and opened up a Portal to the corridors of darkness and ran right through it. “Later suckers!” Hyeh heh heh-Augh… My back!” the effects of the previous ‘battle’ were still taking a toll on his body so he ended up limping deeper into the portal before it vanished. Back with everyone else in the plaza Sora scratched his head and sighed. “Great, more villains to the party… well, at least he’s not much to worry about.” “We should fan out and look for him!” Twilight suggested as she was already making her way down one of the roads when Sora grabbed her by the tail. “Don’t bother Twilight, If I know Pete, he’s long gone by now so it’d be pointless to try.” Sora shook his head, prompting Twilight to look back at the road then at him a few times before sighing in response. “So… would um…. Would that mean we… won?” Fluttershy spoke up finally. Hoping for the answer to be a yes. Luna decided to  answer that question on Sora’s behalf “Yes, Fluttershy, we-” ROOOOAARRR! Suddenly from the direction of the castle came a roar so loud it reached the ears of everyone in the city. “What in tarnation was that?!” Applejack exclaimed as she turned to face the castle “That sounded like a giant dragon or something!” Pinkie was bouncing in place “They’d need a nice set of lungs to pull off a roar that loud” Sora found himself as a pegasus shelter as the scared mare was hiding directly under him with her hooves over her eyes…. Sora was unclear how this happened and what he should do right now. However all those thoughts were interrupted by a pegasus guard flying as fast as she could towards Luna. “Ma’am! Trouble in front of the castle! “Speak, soldier, what was it? Was it the cause of that roar earlier?” Just when things were finally calming down… Luna was not happy to hear the mare’s answer. “Yes ma’am, it… i-is ----- a Dragon.” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Canterlot Castle Gardens Earlier         During the time when the battle for Canterlot began, the castle was relatively empty… In a more private area of the garden lay a statue that looked like an odd mix of animal parts that sadly made up the form of a draconequus being. A being of godly powers lay trapped in stone, meant to spend the remainder of his days encased inside.... And then the sound of footsteps were heard along the grass, making their way towards that very statue. Soon a familiar cloaked individual stood in front of the statue and folded his arms as he gazed upon it. “No hard feelings, but we’re gonna have to postpone our big re-debut for another time.” He turned to the side and lifted up his arm hidden in his sleeve and a few feet away from it a portal appeared.