//------------------------------// // Chapter 26: When One isn't Enough // 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) Castle Gates It was a mad dash to the Castle district surrounded by the sounds of dragon roars, green flames spewing out in random directions, and the occasional sighting of something large and black poking out behind the rooftops they were passing by. “There’s just no way… she didn’t” Sora was mumbling to himself as it all looked very familiar. “What is it, Sora? You know something about the dragon?” Twilight ran along side him. “I’m hoping that I don’t” Sora said ominously as he galloped ahead and started using flow motion to speed through the street faster. When they reached the castle gates Sora knew his fears had come true as he landed back on the ground with a roll and summoned his weapon instantly. “I knew it.” When the girls reached the castle gate’s a few of them immediately took a step back in response to what they saw. A large, winged black dragon stood there glaring at them. Dark purple underside, glowing yellow eyes, mouth open as if ready to snap at them or bathe them in a torrent of dragon fire, the creature towered over them in a menacing pose. “This dragon… it looks so… evil…” Twilight may not have come across many dragons, but among the ones she has encountered, as well as her assistant Spike, She’s never seen one with such darkness and malice coming from it as the one standing before her. “That’s… Maleficent…” Sora stared back at the beast. “What?!” The girls all said at once. “The witch?! She’s a dragon?!” Rainbow gawked at it. “Uh, the jury’s still out on that” Sora replied before charging in, “Let’s talk about her identity later, ok?!” “Come boy…” The Dragon spoke in a booming yet familiar tone. It was clear that it was Maleficent after all now. “You will not find me so simple to defeat this time.” Twilight felt something off about this as her other friend, sans Fluttershy, ran after Sora. This is strange… Why would she want to fight us so much? She shook herself out of her thoughts. There would be time for that later, if they manage to subdue and Capture Maleficent she would get the answers from her one way or another Neither Sora nor Maleficent wasted any time in taking each other on. Maleficent swipes at the stallion who jumps and flips over the attack before smacking his blade across the dragon’s face, knocking it to the side from the force of impact, but the witch wasn’t going to let that stop her as her head whipped back spouting green flames at him. Immediately he erected a spell. “Reflega!” and the familiar transparent hexagon dome barricaded him as the flames past right over. Once the barrier vanished in a retaliating blast He threw his keyblade at maleficent’s face before he started running toward her. As soon as the girls were knocked out of their shocked stupor Rainbow flew past Sora and gave the dragon a flying two hoof uppercut on the jaw. “Bam! How do like that, dragon breath?” She called out as Maleficent’s head reeled back from the impact for a moment but her eyes suddenly seemed to catch a spark in them as it returned to it’s proper position and startled rainbow by how close the dragon’s head got as she almost managed to snap her up in her jaws. “Wha-Whoa!” Rainbow in instinctive response started back pedaling in the air as her wings pulled her away from anywhere near that row of teeth. Twilight started casting Blizzard at the dragon and it proved to irritate Maleficent enough for her to return a volley of flame at the Unicorn, however she managed to pull up a barrier just in time. Applejack tried charging in with her gauntlets and give her a wallop on the head, but Maleficent caught on in time and slammed her foreleg on the ground making Aj and anyone ground bound around her tumble from the ground shaking. Maleficent was just about to snatch up the helpless farmer when a Rainbow streak flew in front of her and the next second, Applejack was nowhere to be seen. Sora managed to get back to his hooves after that and struck at where the elbow of Maleficent's foreleg rested causing the big beast to lurch involuntarily. This Left her open to Rarity’s weapons firing light beams into her body. Pinkie, not wanting to be left out, was already in her turret peppering the dragon with rockets. Urrgh… Such Insolence Maleficent said in her head she slowly got back to her feet, however the barrage of attacks were not helping her. Soon Twilight joined in the volleys of projectiles with Blizzard as Applejack and Rainbow joined Sora, trying to disable her even more by taking out her legs. Such Fools Her anger seemed to rise, and the signal had not been given yet.. She needed to fight longer. She would swipe at the three melee-ers with her claws only for them to narrowly dodge and get a mouthful of rockets, beams and ice. She would fire flames at the ones attacking her from a distance and watch a barrier as from the one named Twilight would appear and protect them from the flames, only for her to receive another double hoof uppercut for leaving herself wide open for those closest to her. “SUCH INSOLENT FOOLS!” She bellowed out startling some and scaring the others to pause their attack for a brief moment. A mistake from them all as she proceeded to move faster than a creature her size had any business going. She spun around and smacked her attackers away with her long tail sending them flying back and away from her, even Pinkie’s turret wasn’t safe as it was knocked off its upright position and crashed into a building. Sora and Applejack were cast far back and fell into a tumble. Rainbow Dash reacted quickly enough to right herself in mid air before she could join the other two. Fluttershy thankfully was far enough in the back to avoid the tail swing, however what she saw didn’t make her feel all to happy about it as Twilight and Rarity were so far back that when they were struck, just like Pinkie they were knocked into a wall. “Oh no!” she squeaked and flew over to the two unicorns of the group. They were out... ~~~~~~~~~~ Meanwhile Castle Depths Chrysalis along with her most elite agents made their way deeper and deeper into what she could only assume was where dungeon would be… However given lack of attention here it was safe to assume that Criminal activity in Canterlot, and the whole of Equestria for that matter, hasn’t been anything severe enough to be cast in here. “Only so long before this time to peace will come to an end and these cells might carry some residents” She imagined sticking the two Princesses and those bothersome elements into the deepest darkest cells and it seemed to amuse her. It was then that they reached the bottom most part of the dungeons, a flight of stairs that lead to a wall. “Hm… a bit peculiar don’t you think?” she turned to one of her agents who simply nodded in silence. Her horn was then aglow and before long she was able to sense something magical in front of her, with some effort she managed to break the illusion that was the “wall” in front of her. Once it vanished, old, rusted double doors were what laid behind it. Glowing chains practically covered them as they all joined together on what she could assume was a magic seal. (Source of Picture: Pinterest ) The Queen was grinning “So… this is where you two have been hiding them… Clever, and judging by the security” She stepped up to examine the seal more closely. You have no worry of some foalish intruder stumbling upon this discovery… It’s a shame I am no lowly thief” With a glow of her horn she briefly fought against the seal’s powerful magic until finally it broke in half and vanished, slowly dissolving into light particles that too vanished when they drifted too far from their starting point. The chains following suit. Once the chains were broken, the seal destroyed. The doors cracked open slightly, through that small crack a dark Aura seeped out, the aura moved as if it were a dark mist. It rolled across the ground and pass the Queen and her much more nervous escorts, before the doors moved once again fully revealing the long hallway that laid behind it. Undeterred from this ominous display she steps forward into the dark corridor, her agents close behind. ~~~~~~~~~~ Back in the Surface It was at that moment that both Royal sisters felt something deeply disturbing… Something ominous was happening, something was warning them… However, it was unclear what it was. This feeling, felt so old to them. Unfortunately they could not afford any time to meet up with each other and discuss it, their subjects right now needed their attention, so they both individually agreed to set it aside for now until they had a better chance to figure it out with their sibling, and leave one last battle to the fate of Sora and the bearers. Back at the Castle gates, Maleficent observed her foes. She was not surprised the boy was able to recover and get back on his “hooves” She’s known the whelp long enough to confirm this. However, she expected his little pony friends to be more brittle. Yet they proved her wrong. Applejack and Rainbow were soon back on their feet, ready to take her on in another round. Twilight and Rarity were knocked out cold, however it looked like Fluttershy was already at the works recovering them with cure spells, and Pinkie went with her turret into that new hole in the wall. “Can’t quit now…” Sora spoke as he was already running back into the fray. “We gotta back up the others till their back on their hooves!” His charge was put to a halt when a large black claw came flying right at him, barely giving himself enough time to guard from the attack, but now he was stuck in place trying win in a battle of strength. “Hold on, Sora!” Applejack galloped to aid her friend in the power struggle, but was immediately deterred when Maleficent spat out a long green trail of fire in front of the Farmer’s path. “Whoa, nelly!” “Incoming you old hag!” Rainbow called out as she was flying toward Maleficent’s head again. However the witch expected as much as she stopped throwing fire and and shot her neck out like a coiled snake, jaws wide open. Rainbow veered as hard as she could but unfortunately was caught by her tail “Uh oh…” with one quick flick of her neck Maleficent threw the pegasus through the air and crashing through a window of another building. “Rainbow!” Sora looked back toward the sound of the crash, which was a mistake as he lost focus on his current situation and the claw overpowered him and grabbed him. “Guh!” “Sora! NO!” Applejack tried to charge in again, but once again was forced back by another wave of fire. “Let’em go you, monster!” She was pawing at the ground with a furious glare. Trying to figure out a way to get to him. The dragon seemed to be smirking now “Oh, you want him back?” she squeezed the hero in her clutches viciously. “Aaaaahhh!” “I said let him go!” The Farmer yelled. Her eyes were filled with a righteous fury. And on her gauntlets, her element looked like it was caught in a magic orange fire However it seemed Maleficent did not pay any mind to this new development. “Fine… You can have him!” and she slammed the key bearer so hard into the ground it cracked and created a crater. “NO!” Horror covered her face as she watched her Sora get flattened, near her. Then a shock wave of air pushed her back a few feet from the ground shaking stomp. The witch was laughing maniacally. “Pitiful boy… Are you really so useless in that pathetic form of yours” She lifted her claw to see the aftermath of her attack on him. “You’re just a shell of your former self-What?!” when she looked into the crater, she was shocked to see no one there. “How?! “Hey!” Sora’s voice called out from the distance, both her and Applejack turned to where Fluttershy the Unicorns were. Sora was back on his hooves again, scuffed up, but rejuvenated as Fluttershy casted Cura on him. Next to him Twilight was sitting on the ground but her horn was glowing that magenta aura indicating a spell had just been cast. “Teleport… suck on that, you old hag” Twilight replied with an exhausted tone, sure Fluttershy managed to heal her and Rarity, but they needed time to recover their stamina. It seemed getting knocked out finally reminded the two unicorn’s bodies how “Active” they have been all day. “Thanks for the save Twilight. You too Fluttershy for the pick me up.” Sora turned and smiled to her before charging off to join Applejack in the front lines. Hearing him say that, Twilight felt so accomplished at that moment. That recurring memory of hitting Sora with her own magic bolt, washed away by those words and his smile. It was a rather contagious smile as one had no trouble forming on her lips along with Rarity’s and Fluttershy’s. “Go get’em Sora, we got your back” Twilight managed to say to him before he was out of earshot. Rarity managed to shakily rise to her hooves. “Quite right, darling. A true lady must always be able to help to assist her friends” Once she was able to stand up straight she held her head up high and summoned her element weapons and hat once again. “I uh.. Well” Fluttershy fumbled with her words a bit but the look in her eyes wasn’t one of a coward’s. She took a moment to breathe in and clear her thoughts before finally speaking clearly “And I will take care of you all, I don’t like seeing my friends get hurt.” that’s when it hit her. “Oh dear, Rainbow and Pinkie! I hope they’re ok!” she immediately flapped her wings as fast as she could toward the two crash sites. Upon reaching Pinkie’s location what she found only confused her. “Huh… where did she go?” Fluttershy looked all around but saw no signs of Pinkie Pie within the building. When Sora finally managed to join up with Applejack in the front lines, he noticed something different about her. Eyes seemed to burning with what he could assume was determination, and her gem on her gauntlet was… well outright burning, on fire. “Hey Applejack, your-” Before he could continue Maleficent roared “Do you really think I would let you all recover so easily!” She boomed as another tail swipe was heading their way. “Oh no! Not this time!” Before anyone could react Applejack Stepped in front of Sora Planted her hind legs firmly on the ground as he was on her hind legs. That was when she shocked everyone when she thrusted her armored forelegs out and caught the tail Her Element was blazing now as her eyes were glowing bright. She grit her teeth as she was pushed back a foot or two before finally managing to stop the attack. “Impossible!” Maleficent was in shock “Whoa!” Sora went wide eyed “My word” Rarity held a hoof to her mouth as Twilight’s jaw dropped “Ah… Uh… What?” Even Applejack had no idea she what she was capable of. “GO AJ!” a familiar cheer called everyone’s attention to look up and behind the heroes. On the roof top Pinkie Pie was once again in her turret, a confident smile on her face as her element too was burning in a pink inferno. “Time for some Pinkie Support to back you up!” She went crazy on the panel and unleashed a torrent of rockets, explosives and beams pushing the dragon back as she tried to avoid the barrage as best she could. “Aaaarrrrgh! You Insolent-Gah!” A Strike to the face from a rocket shut her up for the moment. “IN YOUR FACE, SCALY BUTT!” Pinkie pointed out toward Maleficent when she received a mouthful of rocket! Sora was looking back and forth at Applejack and Pinkie Pie in confusion. Just what is going on? These two are really fired up today… Before he could think more about it. Two voices called his name. “Sora!” It was both Applejack and Pinkie as they made their burning gems shoot out of their weapons and at the same time float in front of him. “Let’s end this here, with a good ol’ fashion flank whoopin’!” Applejack called out. “No way! What we need is lots of firepower, right Sora?!” Pinkie yelled from the rooftops. Sora looked between the two briefly, then at the two gems floating in front of him This is new… However, he wasn’t going to have much time to think on the matter as Maleficent was coming out of her shock and stupor and she was going to strike as soon as she could move. On the other hand, perhaps it wasn’t such a hard decision after all. Sora just held a grin as he pulled out his keyblade into his hoof and lifted it to the side of his face, now holding the hilt with both hooves and taking a stance by moving a hind leg back stand sideways, blade pulled back and over his shoulder pointed at the two gems. “Why not both?!” was his response as light started glowing at the and he thrusted his weapon right between them “Connect!” To everyone’s surprise the elements responded by radiating light with Pink and Orange flames, that melded together into a red and flew at Sora. Instead of just being covered in light like Applejack and Pinkie, Sora was engulfed in light AND a red inferno. Then, everything around Sora blacked out. ~~~~~~~~~~ Falling in the dark His eyes shot open as Sora, in his true form, looked all around him. He was back in that dark place again, but this time he wasn’t standing on a pedestal. “Wha?” there was the feeling of something being pushed against and past him and the sound of wind in his ears… He was falling. “Wha?! Whoa, what’s going on?!” In his frantic moment of panic he brought himself into a tumble that lasted a bit longer then he would’ve liked given his new situation. Below him, far below him, was a pillar he always stood on. Nearby that pillar Sora could see Applejack’s, Pinkie’s, and Rarity’s own pillars as well surrounding his in a triangular shape with it at the center. However there were more differences as well. Both Applejack’s and Pinkie’s held a large raging flame of their own. “What the?” A warning… It was that voice again making it’s appearance as well. “Huh? Warning?” Sora looked around in futility to locate the source of the voice. The voice simply continued. ...What lies ahead is locked for a reason…. Until you believe you are ready to accept this new found power, Your connection remains severed… “T-then, how do I unlock it?!” Sora asked, completely forgetting his plummet for the time being. The voice did not answer. Sora didn’t have time for this, “Look my friends are depending on me here, Are you gonna help me or not?! Cuz I will use this power whether you want me to or not!” There was more silence… Sora had just about given up on hearing the voice and started to think for himself when finally his question was answered. … If you truly believe you need this power, then claim it... Sora noticed a flash of light. Looking down he noticed on his pedestal there was now a large keyhole. ...Once unlocked, this ability will need to be able to reside in a form… If it were to be just your body alone, You would not be able to handle it… However, an alternative has already been established… Now go… Unlock this power, and never falter. Sora pulled out his keyblade, it was now or never at this point, and his friends needed him. He pointed towards the keyhole and a beam of light shot out of the tip of the keyblade. A wave of light pulsed from the Pillar itself as it started changing color from green to red. And the Keyhole changed into a symbol Sora was familiar with seeing, before. (Source of image: kingdomhearts.wikia.com ) Immediately after that paths of stained glass appeared connecting Sora’s Pillar with Applejack and Pinkie’s. That was when the flames on both of their respective pillars suddenly flared and burned more furiously than before. With the deed done Sora dismissed the keyblade and continued his descent in a diving form toward the symbol head first. Light started radiating from it and that’s when he heard two voices. “Sora!” Pinkie was the first, Looking around he saw no one. “Ah’ think we’re already in yer head again, pardner” Applejack spoke this time. Another chance to look around confirmed it. “Already?” Sora asked before facing forward at the symbol. “We were here the whole time!” Pinkie stated “You just couldn’t hear us for some reason. Oh OH! But we heard everything you and spooky voice we’re talking about” “She’s right, Sora. So I gotta ask, is this really a good idea.” in hindsight she had a point, they were basically a few seconds away from smashing Sora’s face right into the pillar. “Yeah I’m kinda just winging it and going with my gut on this, hehe” He spoke honestly with dumb grin and nervous chuckle. “Of course ya’ are!” Applejack yelled in frustration, but at that moment where the three of them were expecting a horrible crash, they somehow broke through the now glowing symbol as if it was as flimsy as paper causing it to shatter like glass. This dumped them into nothing but pure light causing Sora to close his eyes from the brightness. Use this gift well… Those were the last words they heard before the light dissipated and they were back at the castle gates again. ~~~~~~~~~~ Castle Gates: Sora’s Position Upon being brought back into reality, Sora felt an overwhelming surge of power residing within him. He definitely felt different. Oooh, did we transform into something awesome?! Pinkie’s voice was heard in his head. He could sense Applejack’s feelings within him so although she didn’t say it, he knew she was also curious as to what happened. He knew he was standing upright again and he had- “Sora! Claw!” Twilight’s rang into his ears to bring him back to reality as he finally saw a giant dragon claw speeding toward him. He narrowly manages to dodge it with a back jump. He held his keyblades in a guard stance before- “Wait what?” ~~~ Castle Gardens: Twilight’s Position A few seconds earlier Admittedly, Twilight was very curious on what would happen when Sora connected with the two. And the results amazed her, unlike when fusing with just Applejack or Pinkie alone, it was like Sora was briefly engulfed in light and red fire. But once that went away what stood there was much different than what she assumed would happen. “Oh Wow…” What stood there was the stallion they all knew, but his fur was a somewhat darker shade of it’s original chocolate brown. His spiky mane and tail had two different streaks added to them. The straight long blonde, and the curly sporadic Pink. There were a lot more than usual of each that together they seemed to match up the same amount as Sora’s actual main and tail color. His eyes, the Irises were glowing for reasons unknown to her, the right iris was glowing green while the left was glowing a bright blue. HIs outfit though was the what changed the most dramatically. What was black on his jacket became red. The pauldron-like cloth on his shoulders changed from Silver to black, same with the yellow straps on his hood. On his sleeves, Twilight wasn’t sure what they were but there was a symbol on each of them, it looked like a strange spear, but with an extrusion on both sides of it that shot out a bit then sharply curled into pointed ends that faced the opposite direction the main body was pointing to. His saddlebags looked the same, but the red bags and the black straps on them just seemed more vibrant in color now, as if to match the red and black his jacket changed into. The trims on his jacket however seemed unchanged in color. His undershirt changed from blue and red to a very dark and a very light grey. On the back of Sora’s jacket, was not one, but both AJ’s and Pinkie’s Elements, resting horizontally next to each other, both of them radiating light with such intensity it was almost like they were burning with it. Seeing all this Twilight could only imagine the look on Rarity’s face right now. Finally, in both of his hooves, Sora held a separate Keyblade. His right held Applejack’s where his left held Pinkie’s, and his hooves looked like they were emitting red sparks of lightning that coursed through them. All in all, he looked rather fierce right now. Of course, Maleficent didn’t seem to hold their appreciation of the change as she was now winding her claw back to strike at the boy. “Sora! Claw!” She almost fumbled on her words to warn him, but thankfully, he managed to heed her warning in time. It seemed Sora was surprised with his new form as well. It was then that Maleficent began to speak. “You can change anyway you like, but it’ll all be useless so long as I crush you where you stand” she fired a stream of flames at Sora. “Oh Boy!” he reacted by dodge rolling to the side and sprinting away from the path of fire trailing behind him with AJ’s blade over his neck and Pinkie’s held over to his right side and facing behind him. Surprisingly enough, he was moving pretty fast for a quadruped running on two legs, but then again, he has had plenty of practice at being bipedal after all. Wow! Look at us go! Run run RUN! Pinkie cheered within his head. Sora had ran up to a wall, hopped and started to wall run upward in a diagonal path. Pinkie’s gotta point, ah’ never seen a pony so mobile on two legs, What are we? Applejack asked as he she watched their rapid path defying gravity. Sora just smiled “I don’t understand how, or why…” When he felt like he reached the appropriate height he bounced off the wall with all his strength practically soaring at the Dragon. “But it looks like I get to use my drive forms with you girls!” With a twist of his body he narrowly manages to avoid Maleficent’s claw again when she stopped breathing fire. Another twist and a flip and Sora swiped both keyblades in an “X” slash Across the Witch’s face making her roar and rear back in pain. Sora at that moment felt really pumped and ready to end this fight for real, and that same feeling leaked over to the girls inside him as well. The moment his hoof touched the ground he was already pivoting on that hoof to sprint and leap back at the Dragon, keyblades out and at his side. “Say hello to Valor!”