• Published 14th Oct 2015
  • 11,545 Views, 1,477 Comments

Kingdom Hearts: Harmonic Connections - Mr Curious Writer



Master Yen Sid sends Sora to a world he's never been to to help an old friend of his and have him train there for a year to unlock abilities he never knew he had. However the darkness will hold many mysteries he & his new friends will have to solve.

  • ...
28
 1,477
 11,545

PreviousChapters Next
Chapter 14: Wake Up Call

(As Always Green Text means "click me" to play theme music to go with what your reading. Red text means to stop the music.
Completely optional: Your free to ignore this)

A few minutes earlier

Twilight followed Sora’s gaze upon a figure, who is standing at the far end of the room. It was a large altar of some sort, but at the far end the stranger stood in front of something glowing on the opposite wall. It was framed but at the center of it, the shape that Sora recognized.

“The Keyhole!” Sora blurted out. Noticing his mistake Sora face hoofed form his loud mouth, as the stranger seemed to take notice.

“Well, you certainly got here sooner than I expected.” It turned to face them. The cloak obscured most of it’s body. All they could make out, was it’s low voice, indicating it’s a male voice at least, and that it stood on two legs and had arms. However, there wasn’t much time to figure out more about him, as the being lifted his arms on either side and a dark aura surrounded him for a brief moment, then thrusted his arms forward to shoot out a blast of dark energy toward them.

Twilight barely managed to bring up a barrier in time, negate the attack.As soon as she released it, Sora was already sprinting toward the being with his keyblade in his mouth and ready to go. She ran after him though wasn’t able to catch up in time as the battle already started without her. Sora jumped up with a somersault and swung down at the stranger’s head.

The stranger simply side stepped and kicked Sora away. “So you’re suppose to be a keyblade bearer.”

“Sora!” Twilight saw Sora get knocked back but flip himself upright in midair and landing back on the ground, skidding back a few feet.

“Can’t see what all the fuss is about. Just a colt with an oversize key, really.” The stranger sighed, but barely managed to dodge a flying keyblade that was aimed for his head at high speeds. “Whoa now!” He looked back at the flying key before back at Sora who was already making another dash toward him.

“Hasn’t anyone ever told you to never judge a book by it’s cover?” said Sora. Then he lunged forward summoning the key back but in his hooves as he made a rising slash at his foe. He then felt his keyblade stop completely. He looked up in shock to see the stranger was blocking it with it’s hand, or rather a claw.

“Yes, believe me, I’ve done my homework on you key bearers. Like how I’m at an advantage, since you’re still not used to that body of yours.” He, yanked the weapon out of Sora’s ‘hooves and twisted his body, Suddenly, something shot out of the cloak, smacking Sora toward Twilight. then quickly returned back inside it before anyone could even see what it was.

Twilight managed to catch Sora in her magic and bring him back to his feet this time. “Sora, you okay?”

“Sora, shook his head until his mind was clear. “Y-yeah, I’m fine. We gotta be careful of this guy. He definitely knows who I am.” Sora returned to a fighting stance as his keyblade returned to him.

Twilight got ready as well then whispered, “Then I think it’s okay to use those beads again.”

“Right.” Sora nodded and reached into his bag…. and reached deeper into his bag….. then reached for his other bag.

“Looking for this?” Sora and Twilight looked back to see the stranger tossing a familiar bag in his claw a few times.

“What?! H-how?!” Sora glared at the foe.

“Oh, don’t be so surprised.” The stranger tossed it one last time before snatching out of the air when it came back down. “It’s one of the trades you learn in this sort of business.” Then he placed the bag into his cloak, pocketing it away. ”Can’t have you reverting to your true form. I’ll be honest, you could totally kick my flank if you did.”

“Then I’ll just have to learn to kick it with how I am now!” Sora retorted

“I’m helping too!” Twilight’s horn began to glow.

Then the figure clicked his tongue and waggled its clawed finger at their response. “Easy now, I’m not one to go looking for fights that are too much of a hassle for me. I always have insurance.” He thrusted his hand out and a dark energy formed around it before, suddenly dome barriers appeared behind him, and four ponies were dropped in each separate one.

“Girls!” Twilight and Sora were to pick up their identity. now they were both staring daggers at the being.

“What did you do to them?!” Sora yelled, his anger immediately flaring up.

“Nothing, I assure you… yet.” Hearing that last word, Twilight is on edge now. “See, my client was very specific with what they wanted me to do, and I intend to complete it. The pay isn’t something you just pass up.

“You mean, Maleficent and Chrysalis hired you to stop us?!” Twilight asked in an angered tone.

In response, the Stranger shook his head and placed a hand on his hip. “Can’t say I’ve heard the names, toots.”

“Toots?!” Twilight’s eyes blazed hot and red.

Sora tilted his head, “If it’s neither of them, then who hired you?”

“Sorry, goes against customer policy giving out private information. I’m trying to run a legitimate business here.”

“By stealing, an’ harming other ponies?” A southern voice came from behind him.

“Applejack!” Twilight looked over to see the other girls were now coming to and Rainbow running her head into the barrier, accidentally.

“Well… Now that everyone is here. Let’s start the game!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back outside

Spike was giving the stew another stir as he watched Fluttershy float by, holding a small box of first aid supplies and placed them next to the first aid kit nearby the tent. He sighed, “I wonder what they’re doing? They’ve been down there for awhile now.”

Fluttershy turned to Spike with a worried look on her face. “I hope they haven’t gotten hurt or anything.”

“Relax Fluttershy, they’ll be fine. Sora and Applejack are down there, no doubt Rainbow Dash, wouldn’t sit idly by in a fight. Those three are super tough.” Spike took a sip of the stew with the ladle, before nodding that it tasted perfect and went back to stirring. “They definitely would be able to give Twilight some breathing room to use magic if needed, so even better.”

“I-I guess that’s true.” Fluttershy subconsciously played with her mane as she sat in front of the campfire and thought. “I just…” she searched for the right words of what she was feeling. “Just feel, sort of uneasy about all this.”

Spike scratched his chin. “Can’t say I blame ya. We’re split up, on guard duty of the camp, in some old ruins in a creepy forest. I definitely would never come here. It always gives me the creeps coming here.” He looked back at Fluttershy shaking now. “Aaah ahem… Of course, everything is perfectly fine here. Nothing to worry about, ok? Besides um… there are also animals that live here right?”

Fluttershy was calming down now. “Yes, um, all sorts of them.”

“So then the forest isn’t all bad right since there are some nice animals too.” Spike pointed.

She nodded again until another thought came to her mind. “Oh… But… Now there are heartless in the forest too… You don’t think they would hurt the poor animals would you?” A look of deep concern was stuck on her face, and Spike had no idea how to respond.

“Well, they were fighting that manticore earlier I guess, so.” Spike then quickly added “But, those heartless don’t seem very well together, they’re basically a bunch of boneheads, so I’m sure the animals would be able to escape from them or even beat them up if they’re strong enough.

“I, I guess so,” Fluttershy nodded slowly, but kept gazing at the fire with a sad look. “I just wish, none of this was happening. Four days ago, all that was on my mind was just the animals at home and my friends. Deciding what I would do that day after my chores were done. Perhaps some tea with Rarity, cheering for Rainbow whenever she tries some new stunt. Maybe look for a book in Twilight’s house about animals, or perhaps have some cupcakes with Pinkie or visit Applejack on her farm…”

“But instead, we’re in this mess, right?” Spike asked with a sigh. Fluttershy didn’t answer, but nodded as she looked away. “Yeah, I liked it better when everything was ‘same old same old’. We wouldn’t have to worry about Heartless, or Chrysalis, or whoever that Maleficent lady you guys keep talking about.” Spike decided he stirred enough for now and sat back looking at the fire as well. “But, there is one good thing about all this.”

Fluttershy looked at Spike waiting for an answer, and he delivered with a big grin on his face.

“We get meet someone really awesome!”

At first Fluttershy had to take a moment to register who he meant, but when she did, she couldn’t stop the smile appear on her face and slowly grow every second. “Yeah… Your right. I’m glad we did too.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back inside

Sora stood his ground but was utterly confused on what he had heard. “A game?”

The being nodded, “Of course, just something to entertain me really.” He got into a ready stance. “It’s simple really, if you can actually surprise me with an attack, I’ll let your little buddies go.” Then red eyes glows within the hood of the cloak. “Of course, if you lose… I’ll just be taking these ladies with me.”

Twilight and Sora glared at the stranger. “You can’t just take my friends away like that! I won’t allow it!” Twilight horn starts to shine brightly.

“Oh, I struck a nerve it would seem. Then you better be able to back up that claim, toots.” Twilight couldn’t see, but from the tone of his voice, she could tell he was wearing a condescending smile of some sort. She went to levitate him and throw him across the room, but was surprised at how heavy it felt to even attempt it. She strained and gave it everything she got, but he wouldn’t budge.

“As if it be that easy, honey.” He then looked at his right to see Sora try to flank him with a running jump slash. But he simply side stepped from the flying stallion, grabbed his hoof. “Kudos on using the distraction, I can say.” Then threw Sora back to where he came from. “But don’t tell me that’s all you got.” He thrusted out his hand and fired a barrage of dark blasts at the Sora.

Sora could see there were way too many to reflect. His memories were once again going on rapid fire, there had to be some way he get out of this. Then he came across a memory of his days when he first started adventuring. A spell he hadn’t used in a long time. “Stop!” A giant clock face appeared above him and the attack literally halted in mid air. “It worked!” Sora cheered as he landed back to the ground. Sora successfully remembered an old spell he used, Stopga!

Twilight and her friends couldn’t believe what they were seeing, Sora made time stop for the attack. “Whoa! He can do that?!” Rainbow face pressed against the barrier. “That is so awesome!”

“Impressive indeed, You’re certainly a very versatile spellcaster for a colt.” The Stranger folded his arms and nodded.

“That’s not all I remembered! FORCE!” Sora had jumped to the side and pointed his keyblade toward the stranger and right above his head appeared a purple orb of energy. It grew at an alarming right as it descended down toward the stranger who just narrowly happened to dodge it. The ground where he once stood was soon encased in the purple energy orb then started cracking and breaking from it as if the force of gravity increased exponentially.

The figure whistled. “If I’m not mistaken, that’s Gravity… no… Graviga. You’re definitely no novice at magic that’s for sure.” He then started back stepping dodging Twilight’s magic bolts. “Don’t think I haven’t forgotten about you there.”

“Tch!” Twilight had thought Sora’s distraction would give her an opening.

He was forced to side step again when he sensed Sora was already upon him giving another swing at him. When Sora jumped and went for a downward strike, the being caught him in midair by the neck. “I admit your formidable, and in this world, that fighting style is a great asset.” His grip on Sora’s neck was even tighter before he turned toward Twilight using Sora as a shield to take on Twilight’s magic bolts in the back.

Sora writhed and screamed in pain leaving Twilight to backpedal in shock at what had she had just done.

“You’re just unlucky that I that I fought one of you guys before. Should probably change your game plan.” He let go of Sora’s neck only turn and have that same thing under his cloak whip out and smack the Keyblade bearer away crashing into a pillar.

Rainbow and Pinkie were fuming and yelling at the being, Apple was trying her best to break out of the barrier with her gauntlets, but to no avail. Rarity was distraught at seeing her friends in such peril, forgetting that her position is even worse.

Twilight snapped out of it when she saw her friend get knocked away like garbage and was too late to stop him from crashing into it. “Sora! No!” She was clueless on what to do. Not even Sora could take on this guy, and it was far too soon for Applejack and Sora to fuse again. Even if it did, Sora’s out of commission so he wouldn’t be able to-. A thought occurred to her; if magic bolts and telekinesis did nothing… what else did she have in her arsenal? Why wasn’t she prepared for this? She complained about not having more techniques and spells up her sleeve earlier, so why didn’t she before when she was in all this mess?

She noticed a shadow loom over her, she shuddered yet, against her will her head turned to face the stranger standing right over her. “Well, seeing as your little buddy over there is down for the count, guess I’ll just take this as a victory and add you to the collection.” He held his claw out toward her and a dark aura formed around it. Twilight backed up only to run into the wall. She had nowhere to go, she had no plan to try, She had nothing… When the aura started glowing brightly she closed her eyes and resigned to her fate.

“Back off!” Her eyes shot opened at that voice and there he was. Standing there Keyblade in his mouth, staring daggers at the now retreating enemy.

“Sora?!” Twilight was amazed at how he was able to get up after all that.

“Well, you’re certainly tougher than you look, boy.” The figure took a ready stance.

“No one messes with my friends!” He sprinted toward the stranger.

Then the stranger laughed hard. “Have you learned nothing, colt?! Your attacks are useless as you are now? If you can’t even fully control your body right now, then you’re just wasting your time.” He continued laughing as he watched the stallion keep speed.

He’s right Twilight thought, He made it perfectly clear that Sora couldn’t lay a hoof on him. she was starting to lose hope until

“Whoo!! Go Sora!” Twilight turned to see it was Pinkie Pie still stuck in her barrier but was cheering their friend on.

Sora seemed to be going for a hoofed slash attack. The stranger moved his arms already predicting where the attack going, only to reach nothing but air.

“Huh?” The Stranger watched as Sora let go of the keyblade, Stepped forward and and slammed his hoof against the stranger’s head, knocking him back. but he wasn’t done; he turned, jumped on all fours facing away from the stranger and gave him double buck to the face; sending him flying back.

“Not done yet.” When he landed he grabbed his faced the enemy with keyblade pointed forward. “FIRAGA!!” he channeled a lot of his magic on this one and barrage flaming projectiles shot out of his keyblade at rapid and pelted the being into the wall. When he finished firing, he went back on all fours, when he noticed something in front of him. “Huh? My bag?!” He scrambled over to the familiar silk back, stashed it away but took out a bead and bit into it.

Man, that’s smarts!” The being stood up but was encased in a cloud of smoke from the attack, but his red eyes could be seen through it and once he noticed Sora’s true form he chuckled. “Well, good job, kid. You managed to surprise me. You win.”

“I’m gonna do a lot more than that. Now let my friends go!” He got back into a fighting stance.

“Right, right, relax, they’ll go free. I’m not a masochist.”Then he suddenly was engulfed in a dark aura for a brief moment, and then the barriers over their friends were finally gone.

“Girls!” Twilight rushed passed Sora to meet her friends, this distracted him for only a second, but apparently that was enough because once he looked back. The stranger was gone. He looked around, but saw not even a sign of where he went.

He sighed and banished his keyblade for the time being and went to check on his friends as well.

~~~

When things finally settled down, and no one could find any signs of their recent guest. Everyone formed together and traded their experiences of what happened during all that.

“Man that creep was annoying. What was his deal?” Rainbow had her forelimbs folded wearing an agitated look. “Why was he even here?”

“Can’t say I have a clue, but it was clear that he’s fought keyblade wielders before from the way he went on about it.” Sora sat down and looked at his hoof for a moment. “That last attack came off the top of my head to be honest. I wasn’t really sure it would work. I guess that guy had a point.”

“Huh? About what?” Applejack asked, unsure why there would be anything they would agree one with that guy.

“I can tell even after all the fights we had, I could do so much more than what I can now. I mean, I just remembered how to use two spells I haven’t used in a long while. Also, I guess there is more that I can do with this body in a battle for sure as well. I don’t know if they knew it or not, but Applejack and I already fused not too long ago, so I couldn’t use that ability, and the guy was able to steal my bag too. What if that happens again?” He stood back up. “I need to be able to handle things better in this form, since I’m mostly going to be in it.”

“You have a point Sora, but I think that applies for all of us.” Twilight spoke up, but her tone wasn’t as a bit somber. “If there is anything this battle told us… It’s how inexperienced we all are.” She turned to her friends. “there is no doubt Sora could take on a lot of things in his original form and when he fuses with AJ, but if you take those away, what then.” Everyone was silent for a moment. then Rainbow spoke up.

“Well, then AJ and I can pick up the slack whenever that happens.” Rainbow waved a hoof at the thought.

“Like what happened earlier when you were all trapped in a barrier?” said Twilight sternly, catching the pegasus off guard with no chance to rebuttal. Twilight sighed before speaking again. “Sora isn’t the only one that needs to toughen up… We all do. Otherwise, there will be more times when this happens again.” It was clear to her friends that Twilight was very adamant about this.

Sora looked around, seeing the depressing mood and everyone shifting their gazes away from each other… he cleared his throat. “Well.. for now, how about we take care of this keyhole here and discuss more about it at camp.” Grabbing their attention, they all looked toward the wall at the other end and on it was a large keyhole emanating light off of it.

“Wow, so that’s a keyhole!” Pinkie trotted toward it and gazed at it. “Does that mean that the walls a door? Ooooh, what do you think is behind it?”

Sora chuckled as he followed behind her. “The Heart of this world, Pinkie, and we’re making sure nothing bad happens to it.” He summoned his keyblade.

“So this is the thing we need to keep the heartless away from?” Rainbow flew over to it to inspect it.

“Yup, if the heartless find it, you can kiss this world goodbye,” said Sora.

Then Rainbow gulped, “I don’t want to think about it.”

“Would you move out of the way, please, Rainbow. I need to lock it, the sooner the better.”Sora waved his keyblade at the pegasus.

“Uh, r-right. Sorry.” Rainbow hovered to the side then turned to Sora to watch him.

Applejack stood on his other side and watched the Keyhole ahead of them. Twilight sitting next to her doing the same, observing the method did excite her, but after what happened today, most of that enthusiasm couldn’t be seen.

Sora got onto his hind legs, Keyblade in hoof, before lifting it up and pointing the tip at the Keyhole in front of them. Suddenly, a beam of light shot out of the Keyblade and into the Keyhole. The gazes of the girls varied from astonishment to curiosity, in case the constant “Oohs” and “Awws” weren’t evident enough. then there was the sound of something locking, echoing throughout the room as the beam disappeared and Sora banished his keyblade and returned to all fours. “Ok, that’s it.”

“Really? That’s all?” Twilight looked toward him. “No, special ritual, or dance, or some kind of incantation?”

Sora laughed, “It’s not voodoo Twilight, I’m basically just locking up the entrance to the world’s heart. Think of it as a flashy way to lock a door or something.”

“Ah’ like the sound of that. Short and Simple.” Applejack smiled.

“Well, this is definitely a story to tell Flutters and Spike,” said Rainbow

“Wait! What if that stranger ran out that way?!” Twilight jaw dropped when that dawned on her. Sora and the others soon shared similar expressions.

“Come on! Let’s go!” Sora galloped back to the other end and into the hallway, the girls not far behind.

Once they all left, from out of the shadows, that very person stepped out and observed their retreating forms. “Heh, well… I did my job.” He looked back at where the keyhole once was. It disappeared as soon as Sora left. Before long he disappeared into the shadows. “What a pain…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back outside

5 minutes later

Spike and Fluttershy were definitely surprised and confused when they saw their friends burst out of the passageway. Most of them were running all around the campsite looking for something, whereas of the girls, Twilight and Pinkie. Where the two out that nearly knocked over the pegasus and dragon and bombarded them with questions about some guy they never even seen.

When everything seemed safe and everyone finally relaxed, the smell of the stew finally caught their noses and decided to explain everything during dinner. Rainbow and Applejack took turns telling it, though Twilight would butt in every now and then to clear up some parts they didn’t see from where they were.

As Sora watched the girls talk, he felt a tap on his shoulder, he looked back to see Fluttershy holding a first aid kit. “Sora, um, you have something that needs to be looked at.”

Unsure of what she meant Sora looked at himself and only now that he noticed it… He was pretty banged up, Some scratches here and there on his body, and he could feel some minor pain on his back as well. “Oh, heh, Thanks Fluttershy, but it’s not too bad-” He was silenced when Fluttershy wordlessly went to work with the bleeding scratch on his foreleg. From the looks in her eyes, there didn’t seem to be anyway to talk her out of it. He sighed and accepted his fate. “Thank you.” He smiled, he does appreciate it, despite his earlier protest.

When he had to take off his jacket for Fluttershy to check his back, Twilight couldn’t help but notice some small wounds that were visible from where she was sitting.

It brought back the memory of when she shot him by mistake, immediately her head hung low and her friends picked up on it.

“Yo, Twi, you alright?” Rainbow asked first.

“Yes, why the long face, dear?” Rarity placed a hoof on her shoulder.

Twilight was quiet for a moment as everyone’s attention went to her, before she finally manage to find the words. “I’m so sorry, Sora.”

Sora tilted his head with an eyebrow raised. “Uuuh, for what?”

“For… For that.” she pointed toward his back that was Fluttershy was still bandaging up. “When he grabbed you, I thought I could help in someway… but all that did was make it worse…”

“What? This?” He looked at his back “Don’t worry about it, it wasn’t your fault,” Sora replied.

“Yeah, that sleezeball is the one to blame. The nerve of that guy using Sora as a shield.” Rainbow’s voice shifted to an agitated tone.

“Indeed, he was nothing more than an uncaring brute,” Rarity scoffed, “the next time I see would be too soon.”

Twilight nodded, “I know, it’s just...” she pursed her lips, “I should have done better than that. I should have known he would do such a thing, or even dodge it for that matter, and using telekinesis seems to not work on him either. So all I could rely on was shooting at him with my magic, and look at how that turned out.” She lifted a hoof towards Sora’s wrapped up back.

“It’s frustrating… I couldn’t do anything, when my friends needed my help the most. Even more so when he used my attempt to hurt a friend… It’s really frustrating how useless I was and I don’t want that to happen again. EVER.” Sora watched Twilight then look up at him “Sora, can I ask you something?”

“Sure what is it?” He looked at her curiously

Twilight stood up and walked over to him before looking him in the eyes, and he could see a lot of determination in them.

”Is it possible to use the magic that you use?”

Author's Note:

Alright! Hello everyone! Sorry for the wait.

Well, the keyhole has finally been closed, we can finally close up this arc of the story and move onto the next one. Of course, now I suppose some more questions have arisen thanks to that mystery guy. Hehe, I'll leave that up to you guys to figure out. :raritywink:

Of course as you can tell, from reading this Chapter, Just the way the girls and Sora are, isn't quite gonna cut it. So I made this chapter also as a way for them to think about getting stronger. I intend to make things wild when it's time for them to fight in the future so this was needed. Twilight learning Sora's magic is a good way for Twilight to start.

Next Chapter: What's Short, Ambitious, and knows many ways to get into trouble?

As Always, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and look forward to future ones.

PreviousChapters Next