The Cutie Re-Mark (Part 4)
Sora looked behind him as he and Twilight made their way back in the past through the time stream. "Be careful, Kairi," he said, turning back around, meeting Twilight's worried gaze. "Stranded for the last couple years in Equestria, and Riku didn't bother checking up on her?"
"Maybe something had come up in the other worlds," Twilight said. "Who knows what else could have occurred outside of Equestria if no one tried to save her?"
"Or Xehanort created another Keyblade War and no one could escape from it..." Sora grunted in frustration, promising himself not to let his Kairi get hurt like that. "We need to stop Starlight Glimmer. And if we have to use force, we're going all out."
Even though Twilight wanted to disagree, she was getting fed up with seeing these terrible futures and hearing what had happened to her friends, her family, and everyone else in Equestria and beyond. They reached the end of portal and back into past Cloudsdale once again, but they were ready for Starlight's sneak attack unlike last time. Starlight fired her magic at them, but Sora summoned his Keyblade and deflected it, sending it flying up in the air and away from any nearby pegasi. Twilight flew up, her Keyblade in her hoof as she fired a beam of her own magic at the unicorn, Starlight simply hopping to the side on the cloud she stood on as Twilight sliced it in half.
"Not bad, but it's going to take a lot more than that to stop me!" Starlight Glimmer said.
"We're ending this, Starlight!" Sora exclaimed. "You're not changing the past again!"
Sora and Twilight began firing magic spells at Starlight, but the unicorn deflected them with a barrier cast around herself. She retaliated with firing more beams of magic, forming her aura blade in case any of them decide to rush in and physically attack her. She aimed for Twilight after Sora dove down under the clouds to avoid her fire, their battle catching the pegasus foals' attention as they heard magic zapping around the camp. Twilight rolled around a beam and flung her Keyblade at Starlight, mimicking Sora's Strike Raid, but ended up missing and struck the cloud, the unicorn levitating around with her magic to take the fight in the air.
"You really need to work on your-!" Starlight's mocking was interrupted as Sora suddenly shot up in the air underneath her, barely hitting her as her sword managed to block his Keyblade, his hard hit sending her flying back a little.
"You need to shut up!" Sora yelled, flapping forward and slashing in a furious combo, making Starlight stagger as her magic shifted to defense, her swordplay unable to compare with the up-and-coming Keyblade Master. "I'm getting sick and tired of you messing around with time, and mocking us when you think you keep winning!"
She blocked his downward strike, firing a beam of magic straight in his chest, sending the pegasus flying off and spiraling into a cloud column. "I would be winning if you two would just admit you've lost and stay in the present!"
Sora groaned and snapped out of his daze, boosting off the pillar while poofing it out of thin air, him speeding off catching the attention of Rainbow, Hoops, and Dumbbell while in the middle of their race. The three fighters continued clashing, firing spells at each other and weapons swinging and flung around the air, miraculously avoiding the little audience sitting on the runway watching their battle in awe. Starlight was unfortunately overwhelmed by the one-on-two fight, her magical power her only saving grace as she created shields to protect herself from Sora's swifter strikes when her aura blade couldn't while also weaving around Twilight's magic spells while firing at them with her own magic.
Starlight felt her mana draining far too fast, breaking away from Sora and Twilight and landed on the runway. She panted heavily, unable to take that much strain flying around and defending herself. She sparked up her horn to try to attack them, both wielders landing on the other end, Twilight panting a little in exertion, but Sora was barely tired. She shot a beam at him, but Sora rushed at her, deflecting the weak magical beam and tackled her to the ground, pressing his Keyblade against her neck.
"Too tired to make another move?" Sora asked rhetorically. "Good. Your stupid revenge scheme only causes a lot of destruction to Equestria, but now that you're done, the sonic rainboom will still happen and everything will be back to normal."
Despite being physically and mentally exhausted, Starlight smirked. "You sure about that?"
"Yes...Wait, why?" Sora asked in confusion.
"Aww, come on! Keep fighting!" Sora looked up as he heard Rainbow's voice, letting out a surprised squeak with his mouth hung open. Sitting there with all the other fillies and colts in Junior Speedster's Flight Camp, aside from Fluttershy who must have already fallen to the ground, Rainbow Dash was watching them with the two bully colts, eating popcorn while being entertained. "Shoot some more lightning out of that weird giant key thing!"
"What are you doing!?" Sora exclaimed. "You're supposed to be racing! Pay no attention to us!"
"Are you kidding!? This is way more awesome!" Rainbow said, munching on some more popcorn as the others agreed and cheered for more. "I don't know how you do all that magic when you're a pegasus, but it's so cool!"
Twilight facehooved for Sora, altering the past without meaning to as the foals were distracted by the fight show in the middle of their flight camp. Sora was about to look down Starlight and leer at her, only to yelp as he felt one of her hind legs kick him between his, letting out a pained groan as he was struck there for the second time in what felt like a day in this endless loop of time traveling. Twilight and the foals groaned as Sora nearly doubled over in pain, especially the colts as they were afraid of knowing how it felt to be hit there. Feeling her second wind, Starlight shot Sora point blank in the face with a beam of magic, sending him tumbling back toward Twilight as she stood up.
"See? Even if you win, you'll always lose," Starlight mocked.
"...Why?" Sora begged, his voice raising an octave as he curled in the fetal position. "Why...am I always...getting hit there?"
He didn't have time for his question to get an answer as the time portal opened up above the duo yet again, sucking them back into the present and into another alternate future. "Aww, man," Rainbow whined, tossing her popcorn and pouted. "It was just getting good, too."
In yet another new alternate time, the portal spat Twilight and Sora beside the map, sparing the stallion anymore pain unlike the mares who enjoy hitting him and make him writhe in excruciating pain. Twilight sat up and leaned against the map while Sora slowly recovered from the painful blow in the goods.
"Ok...I'm pretty sure I'm gonna be sterile if this keeps up," Sora groaned. "This is why I need my pants. They at least help keep me slightly protected down there."
"Uhh...Sora? What time is it supposed to be?" Twilight asked as she looked around them, finding themselves in the middle of a forest again, only it was night time.
"I lost track of time when we kept going back and forth." Sora stood up with a wince and looked at their surroundings. They figured it probably was nighttime, but it was the middle of the day back in the past, and the last two alternate timelines wound them up in the middle of the day as well. "...Ok? Assuming the portal takes us back to the point where we went back in time the first time, I think it should be daytime. But it's the middle of the night." It then dawned on him with the night sky in place of the afternoon, making Sora facehoof. "Please don't tell me Nightmare Moon's taken over, and I somehow end up killing myself trying to revive Kairi and couldn't come back from the Realm of Darkness. Because if I hear I died again, I'm going to flip this crystal table."
Suddenly, a canine growl caught their attention in the brush. Facing the foliage where it was coming from, a group of strange-looking wolves, at least for Sora, stalked toward the two ponies. They were made out of wood, bark, branches, twigs, and had glowing green eyes. Sora nearly wretched at the horrible stench of their breaths as they growled, intimidating their prey.
"Timberwolves," Twilight uttered. She tried to blast them with magic, but her horn fizzled, having used up most of her mana attacking Starlight. She then summoned her Keyblade, gripping it tightly in her mouth in defense against the vicious predators of the Everfree Forest. "I think I used up what magic I had left in me against Starlight."
"Any Keyblade magic left in you?" Sora asked, the alicorn shaking her head no in response. "Alright. I'll deal with these mangy mutts." Sora called his Keyblade to him and aimed it at the timberwolves. "How about we make you wolves into a bonfire!?" He was about shoot out a Fire spell and incinerate the wolves made of wood, but he noticed something behind them. Several pairs of glowing yellow eyes twitching erratically loomed over the unsuspecting predators, and right as the timberwolves made a lunge for the ponies, the screech the hidden creatures made rang out before they sideswiped the wolves, making them yelp as they were flung away, shattering to pieces. "Oh crap. Stealth Sneaks!"
"Aren't those the chameleon Heartless?" Twilight asked, getting her answer as one of them thrust its tongue out at Twilight, smacking her and sending her to the ground.
"Yeah!" Sora heard more behind them, quickly ducking as one of them tried to slash him with its claws. He picked up Twilight, shaking her head from her daze as he dragged her along, getting away from the pursuing Heartless. "And apparently, they're in a pack far more dangerous than those timberwolves...And I didn't expect them to actually be made of wood!"
"Can't you fight them off!?" Twilight exclaimed, questioning why they were running.
"I can handle two or three by myself, but there's at least eight of them if I counted all sixteen shifty eyes back there!" Sora said, leaping to the side to avoid a pair of homing laser beams heading straight toward them. "We'll get overwhelmed by those things and have a huge advantage while they're invisible!"
They continued running through the forest, trying to elude the hidden Stealth Sneaks, though their trills and cries weren't helping them stay hidden while they attacked the Keyblade wielders. Sora and Twilight finally made their way out of the Everfree Forest, nearly running off the side of the ravine as the skid to a halt. Across the ravine was what appeared to be the Castle of the Two Sisters, but unlike how dilapidated the millennium old castle was to them in their time, it looked brand new with the towers a light blue, the taller middle one bearing a crescent moon at the top glowing an ominous light.
"Is that the Castle of the Two Sisters?" Twilight questioned.
They heard the Stealth Sneaks behind them, finding no time to admire the scenery as they continued their escape, flying over the gap and making their way to the castle for safety. Luckily, the Heartless didn't pay any attention to the bridge Sora and Twilight stopped nearby, forgetting their enemies and continued patrolling the Everfree Forest. Once inside, Sora slammed the double doors shut, letting out a sigh of relief.
"I think we lost them," Sora said. Taking the moment to breathe and recuperate, they got a look at the interior of the castle. There were a lot of banners, tapestries, and designs all related to the night sky and moon decorating the foyer, and there were gargoyle statues against the walls that held swords or axes, all of them set symmetrically down the hall. "...I have a really bad feeling I was right about this timeline involving Nightmare Moon coming back and taking over Equestria."
"I hope you're wrong," Twilight uttered. Cautiously, the duo made their way down the hall to see what else has changed in the supposedly old castle. Twilight noted the odd gargoyle statues, feeling a little unnerved as they seemed to be watching them. "If this really is Nightmare Moon's castle, why would there be so many of these statues?"
Sora slowed down as he got a better look at the statues, only to stop as he remembered seeing these kinds of statues before in another world. "...Oh no. Twilight, we're not safe in here."
The statues suddenly came to life as they appeared to be Heartless, catching them both off guard as they surrounded the Keyblade wielders. Two of them, the ones with swords known as Gargoyle Knights, stood behind them and pressed their blades to their necks, apparently smarter than the ones Sora knew in Beast's Castle as they warned them silently not to make any sudden movements. They then heard a familiar laugh as he stepped out from behind the doorway into the main hall of the castle.
"Looks like we got ourselves some intruders." Appearing before them was Pete in his minotaur form, only instead of the red and blue one-piece suit he wore, he was now wearing purple and blue armor with a moon sigil behind the heartless emblem etched onto his new outfit. "The queen's gonna have herself a fit when she sees who's breaking and entering."
"Pete!?" Sora exclaimed in shock.
"Wait a minute, you know who I am?" Pete questioned, leaning down to stare skeptically at the pegasus. "I sure as heck don't know you." Sora wanted to retort, but figuring in this alternate timeline that he and Pete never met at the Mysterious Tower if he expected his alternate self to have died, vanished, or left behind in some way, hoping neither of those reasons were the former two, the pegasus kept his mouth shut. "Bah, it doesn't matter. Everyone will know my name as the queen's commander."
"...Maleficent's ruling Equestria?" Sora and Twilight asked.
"Maleficent? Pth! Yeah, right!" Pete said. "How long have you two been living under a rock to know who really runs this kingdom?" He turned and waved his hand forward, commanding the Gargoyle Knights and Warriors to "escort" Sora and Twilight behind him as he lead them further through the castle. They soon came up to the big doors that lead to the throne room. Pete opened them wide and marched in turning to his prisoners with a grin. "Meet Her Royal Highness of Darkness, Queen Nightmare Moon!"
The minotaur stepped aside, showing them the throne where a dark alicorn mare in blue armor sat in the shadows, her blue eyes glowing in the dim light. Twilight gasped in surprise, but Sora knew his guess was spot on as Nightmare Moon had returned, took over Equestria, and cast the world in an eternal night. But how Pete became her loyal minion over Maleficent baffled him, though they would probably find out sooner or later.
"Who are these interlopers in my palace?" Nightmare Moon questioned.
"Tryin' to sneak into your throne room to try and assassinate you, no doubt," Pete said. "The Stealth Sneaks were acting up, so I thought to check out the situation myself, but they delivered themselves right to me. And all without bein' gift-wrapped."
"...I see." Nightmare Moon stood up and stepped down from her throne, eyeing Twilight out of the two intruders. "An alicorn? When was there a fourth one?"
"Wow. Someone actually noticed Twilight was an alicorn after all this jumping around," Sora said, keeping their time traveling a secret from the dark alicorn, earning a hard smack in the head by the hilt of one of the Gargoyle Knights' swords. "Ow! You things actually act like real guards and aren't trying to kill us in a heartbeat?"
He earned another blow to the back of the head, shutting his mouth before they made him fall unconscious. Nightmare Moon grabbed Twilight within her aura, dragging the lavender alicorn toward her with a stern glare.
"There should have only been two alicorns in existence, but it appears that my sister decided to give you foals the power of one if you felt enough like royalty," she muttered. The Queen of Darkness then strapped a magical inhibitor ring around Twilight's horn, keeping her from using any magic. "Only one alicorn deserves to rule this world, and that would be me. If Celestia thought hiding one from me to try to dethrone me would succeed, she was dead wrong."
"W-What did you do to Celestia?" Twilight asked, wishing she could use her Keyblade, but didn't want the Heartless to kill her or Sora and reveal their powers to the alicorn and minotaur.
Nightmare Moon laughed maniacally, flashing her sharp teeth at the smaller mare. "I got the revenge I sought for my sister for banishing me to the moon for a thousand years and making our subjects love her more than me. She's no longer among us after thinking she could still stop me from my return." Twilight's face paled, making Nightmare Moon laugh harder as she relished the despair from the lavender alicorn in her grasp. "Even with her gone, some fools thought they could try to stop me as well; one of them being that unicorn who claimed she was stronger than I, even transforming into a dragon to crush me. I beat her without even a scratch."
"Maleficent lost to Nightmare Moon?" Sora uttered under his breath.
"Her lackey, Pete, is now loyal to me," Nightmare continued. "At least he knew his place and who he should really be following. And his knowledge on these 'Heartless' as my personal guards convinced me enough to make him my head commander for my army."
"The only one who's not a Heartless who's a part of your army, I might add," Pete boasted, pounding his hand against his chest with a clank as he bowed to his queen.
"...And there were others as well?" Sora asked curiously.
"Oh yes," Nightmare Moon said. "Pete gave me a little warning when we met this colt. He had a weapon that he could use to easily destroy my Heartless army called a Keyblade, the bane of the Heartless. It was an odd weapon, but in the end, I was victorious in the end, and he's now my prisoner. I've even made sure to place enchantments in his bindings to prevent him from summoning that accursed blade out of thin air."
While Sora and Twilight feared who it was Nightmare Moon imprisoned, the alicorn tossed Twilight back to Sora and in Pete's custody. "So, what are we gonna do with these two, Your Royal Highness?"
"Send them to the dungeons," Nightmare Moon said. "I'll give them some time to think about who they should follow. If not, then they'll be fodder for the Heartless."
"As you command, my queen," Pete said with a bow, then snapped his fingers, making the Heartless surround Sora and Twilight as he lead them further through the castle. Down the hall, they reached a stairwell leading down in the castle's dungeon, the lower floor slightly illuminated with blue flames from the sconces on the walls. There were more Heartless acting as guards, Large Bodies and Morning Stars watching the entrance to the dungeon from the inside and out. They stepped aside, allowing their commander to step in with their new prisoners. "Hey, you two! You got some company!"
As they walked up to one of the cells, he grabbed Twilight by the neck, unlocking the door with a key he kept on him, opened it, and tossed the alicorn inside. "Ow! You didn't have to throw me like that!"
"Eh, shuddap," Pete said, slamming the door and locking it shut. He then grabbed Sora by his mane, dragged him over to the cell next to the one Twilight was harshly flung into, then tossed the pegasus inside before locking it. "Don't get too comfortable in there."
"You can't keep us trapped in here," Sora said. "We'll find a way out."
"Try figuring that out when I'm the one who's got the key," Pete mocked, waving around the jail key in his hand teasingly. "Get to know your new roomies. That is, until you become a Heartless if you misbehave."
Pete laughed and sauntered his way out of the dungeon, heading back to his patrols while the Gargoyle Knights and Warriors returned to their posts upstairs. As soon as the minotaur left, Sora scoffed and stood up, brushing the dust off his clothes.
"I have a key, too, and it unlocks anything," Sora said.
"No simple skeleton key or lock pick will break you out of this cell." Forgetting Pete had mentioned other cellmates, he quickly turned to see a figure in the shadows in a corner, hearing chains clinking as they moved. Sora recognized that voice, squinting his eyes to try to see in the faint blue lighting coming from outside the bars. "That key he's got is the only way to unlock it."
"That equine placed a powerful enchantment on the locks for that key to be the only means of unlocking the doors," another said in Twilight's cell, but Sora recognized that voice all too well. As Sora tried to poke his head through the bars to see, Twilight got a better look at her cellmate, surprised to see who it was. A green unicorn mare wearing remains of what used to be a long black robe, only it was now shorter as it reached her knees, her horn and the dragon horns on her hood were cut off, her cutie mark shown in the torn cloak a dragon head with green flames surrounding it; it was Maleficent. "Pete will pay for betraying me, but because of that mare, I am powerless without my magic...She took it all away."
"Maleficent? You're a prisoner?" Sora asked, making the mare growl as she tossed on the hard bunk that was supposed to be considered a bed.
"Do not remind me, boy," the powerless sorceress growled. "You're lucky I cannot zap you through this wall. And how do you know my name. Your voice is unfamiliar to me."
"You should," Twilight said. "He fought you before when you tried to open Kingdom Hearts. You kidnapped his marefriend, Kairi."
Maleficent looked up at Twilight in surprise. "...That boy with the Keyblade?"
"I do have a name!" Sora called out. "It's Sora! Ring any bells!?"
"Sora?" the pony in Sora's cell said in shock. Sora turned his head as his cellmate stood up from the shadows in the corner, the metal clanking shifting as he slowly moved forward into the light. As soon as the flickering blue flames lit up the figure, Sora's jaw dropped at who he saw imprisoned in this cell: a dark brown earth pony stallion wearing a black coat that covered every inch of his body, long silver hair that reached down past his shoulders, and binding him were shackles that covered all four of his hooves, his forelegs chained together along with his hind legs, a muzzle on his face, and a short stub that used to be his tail. The stallion's yellow eyes looked at the pegasus in bafflement, slowly shaking his head in disbelief at the teen standing before him. "...T-This can't be..."
"Ansem!?" Sora exclaimed. He was about to summon his Keyblade and attack the Heartless, but aside from how he was bound and muzzled, he seemed a bit too surprised to attack him out of instinct. And the black coat wasn't the kind of outfit the Heartless wore. "...Wait a minute..." Curiosity taking over, Sora approached the flabbergasted stallion, grabbing his hoof with his own, being mindful of his chained together forelegs so he didn't trip him by mistake. Following the same advice Kairi once gave him when confronted with the man he thought was really Ansem, he closed his eyes and focused. Standing before him in the darkness of his shut eyes, Sora saw his best friend, Riku, standing with the same shocked expression as "Ansem" was, his hair longer than it was when he returned back to normal in The World That Never Was, and he wore the blindfold the was made to suppress his darkness. Sora opened his eyes again, staring at his transformed friend in shock when he figured it out. "...Riku..."
"Riku!? Where!?" Twilight questioned, trying to poke her head through the bars to look in the next cell without smacking her horn against the confined bars. "Is he ok!?"
Riku snapped out of his stupor when he heard Twilight's concern for him. "...Does she know who I am?"
Sora sighed in annoyance, letting go of his alternate friend's hoof. "Alright. Might as well just tell you and get this nonsense over with. Long story short, Twilight and I come from another timeline, forced back to a point in time by a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer, who wants to stop a friend of ours from creating the sonic rainboom to prevent Twilight and her friends from getting their cutie marks as a revenge plot for ruining her village cult of equalists, where everyone is literally the same in appearance, not including race, and no special talents, but she doesn't seem to realize that changing the past from that point made the future terrible in two different ways so far, and each change makes each new future worse than the last. The first one was an apocalyptic war with a unicorn named Sombra ruling Equestria with the power of darkness and controlling Heartless, and the last one we went through had the changelings win an invasion from the royal wedding of Twilight's brother and sister-in-law, and where I met Xehanort in the first, who was helping try to stop Sombra, and Kairi in the second, who was badly scarred physically, mentally, and psychologically and was trapped in Equestria trying to stop Chrysalis, the queen of the changelings. But, in both those timelines, something terrible happened to me for some strange reason, so considering this isn't our timeline, I'm probably dead, missing, or gravely ill where I'm not around to save the day, so just tell me what happened to me and how Nightmare Moon took over this world."
Riku blinked as he processed the not-so-short story, Maleficent growing just as confused as the stallion. "...You lost me at 'from another timeline'."
Sora fell over and groaned in exasperation. "Seriously!? I thought I was clear enough!"
"No. No you weren't," Riku grumbled. "Why should I even trust you anyway?"
"What!? You're my best friend!" Sora argued, quickly flipping back on his hooves. "Please don't tell me you still think I'm not loyal to you or Kairi again, because the first time I understand Maleficent fed you a bunch of lies-!"
"And the fool believed every word I said," Maleficent said with a dark chuckle as she reminisced meeting Riku.
"Can it, you old hag!" Sora shouted, making the de-horned unicorn growl angrily.
"Watch your tongue, you insignificant brat," Maleficent warned. "I may not have my magic, but when I retrieve my staff, I will-"
"Hey, I'm already having a bad enough day as it is knowing I DIED in two different timelines!" Sora interrupted. "So would you like to elaborate to me and Twilight what happened to me for Riku since he doesn't trust me anymore!?"
"I'm saying I don't trust you because I don't know if you're trying to set me up in a trap to join Nightmare Moon," Riku said. "There's no way you can be Sora." Sora let out an irritated growl, lifting up his hoof and summoned his Keyblade, pointing at the weapon with an annoyed glare. Riku realized his mistake, unable to deny that Keyblade was indeed his best friend's. "...Oh...You really are Sora...but, Kairi has your Keyblade."
Sora dropped his glare at the mention of Kairi in this timeline wielding his blade. "Wait, what?" Suddenly, the Heartless guards reacted to the weapon of light called forth by the stallion. They approached the bars, making Sora sigh as he aimed his Keyblade at the Morning Stars and Large Bodies, casting Gravity on them to take off huge chunks of health from the tank-like Heartless, then finished them off with a blast of Firaga. "No more interruptions. Talk."
Riku blinked in surprise, never seeing so much pent up anger being released from his friend like this. "Just please tell us," Twilight begged. "This is no coincidence at this point if this timeline's Sora was killed. We want to know what happened that had changed from what we know."
Riku let out a sigh, then sat down, noting Sora fidgeting as he was both anxious and worried about what he wanted to hear. "...Well, what happened to Sora was...pretty upsetting for me and Kairi..."
Sora clashed blades with Ansem-Riku, the teen fighting his hardest against his possessed friend on his own. Despite being outmatched by the power from Ansem inside his best friend, he wasn't going to let him take Kairi's heart, which had been resting inside his own ever since Destiny Islands had been destroyed. Sora managed to prevail, exhausting his energy and mana in the process, but he defeated the possessed teen and his ever-growing power, Ansem-Riku disappearing as he escaped in defeat while dropping the black Keyblade created by six of the seven Princesses of Heart, or so he thought.
The barrier keeping Donald and Goofy out of the one-on-one duel to the death disappeared, running up to Sora as he fell to his knees, panting heavily in exhaustion. "Sora! Are you ok!?"
"Y-Yeah," Sora assured, shakily standing back up on his legs. Looking at the large, Heartless emblem-shaped doorway that lead to the keyhole for Hollow Bastion's world and possibly Kingdom Hearts, he walked up toward it and held his Keyblade out to seal it. Unfortunately, the Keyblade wasn't responding. "Huh? Why isn't it working?"
"The keyhole's not finished yet!" Goofy said. "We need Kairi's heart to finish it!"
"Right." Sora turned back to Kairi's comatose body, still laying on the floor where she was left before fighting Ansem-Riku. He held his hand over his heart, wondering how he was supposed to wake her and release her heart back into hers. Sora then recalled the Keyblade Ansem-Riku wielded; he used it on Maleficent to unleash the latent powers of darkness in her heart, and he tried using it on him to release Kairi's heart from his and use her power along with the other princesses' to open Kingdom Hearts. "A Keyblade that unlocks people's hearts...I wonder..."
He walked past Donald and Goofy, confusing his friends as he approached the dark Keyblade and picked it up. They gasped in shock when they realized what he was about to do with it.
"Wait! Hold on, Sora!" Goofy begged.
"Don't do it!" Donald added.
Sora turned to his friends, giving them a wide, apologetic grin, unable to think of any other way to save this world. He turned the Keyblade around, aiming the tip of the blade at his chest, and then after bracing for the painful thrust, he plunged it directly at his heart with a gasp. Donald and Goofy watched in horror as Sora's chest began to glow, the Keyblade floating out from his chest as he closed his eyes and began to fall backward. The dark Keyblade broke apart into the six stolen princesses' hearts, each of them flying back into their appropriate owners' bodies, where they rested not too far from where they were. Sora's heart then flew out of his chest, Kairi's splitting from his as it floated over the unconscious teen.
The moment her heart returned to her, Kairi woke up with a gasp of shock, unable to believe Sora would do that for her. She turned her head to look at him, Sora grinning in relief as his body began glowing, only to fall unconscious as he began to fall. The barrier to lock the keyhole within the void was broken, but it didn't matter if there wasn't a Keyblade wielder around to lock it. Ignoring Donald crying out Sora's name, Kairi quickly got up and ran to him.
"Sora!" she called out, reaching her arms out to catch him. As she wrapped her arms around him, his body disappeared into several hundred orbs of light, leaving behind his Keyblade as it clattered to the ground from where he stood. Kairi stood there in shock, her eyes welling up with tears as her friend, her crush, faded away, sacrificing his heart for her. "...N-No..."
"Sora!" Donald yelled as they watched the lights fly up and fade away. "Come back, Sora!" There was nothing left of the teen aside from his dropped Keyblade. "Why...? Sora, you idiot..."
Kairi fell to her knees, staring at the Kingdom Keyblade. She picked the weapon up in her hands, unable to believe Sora was really gone. She didn't want to believe it, wishing there was a way to bring him back. Suddenly, a portal of darkness appeared before them as Ansem stepped forward.
"You have awakened at last, princess," the Heartless said. "The keyhole is complete. You have served your purpose. But now, it is all over."
He approached the distraught teen, who leered at him angrily. Donald and Goofy quickly stood in his way, protecting Kairi for Sora's sake.
"Not another step closer!" Goofy warned, even though he and the duck mage probably wouldn't stand a chance against something like Ansem if Sora barely won.
Ansem ignored them and continued, only to grunt as his body seemed to freeze in paralysis. "W-What?" he questioned aloud, struggling to move his body. "Impossible..."
Appearing in front of Ansem in a glowing aura, Riku struggled to keep the Heartless at bay, his arms spread out to stop him and keep Kairi, Donald, and Goofy safe. "No! You're...not...using me for this!" He grunted as Ansem began to fight for control, unable to hold him back forever. "Kairi, you have to get out of here! Now!"
"Riku..." Gripping the Keyblade tightly, Kairi stood up and readied herself to fight, even though she has no experience in swordplay like Riku or Sora. "No! I can help you!"
"Forget about me! Just go!" Riku exclaimed. "The Heartless are coming!"
Shadows rose from the ground and surrounded Kairi, Donald, and Goofy. Kairi was about to fight them off,
but she noticed one of the Shadows acting differently. Instead of it being hunched over and poised to strike, this one stood up on its legs, its antennae hanging over its glowing yellow eyes. She felt something familiar inside that Heartless, lowering her guard as they both stared at each other.
"...Sora?" she called out. The Heartless slowly walked forward, everyone, including the other Shadows, watched them. It stood before Kairi, looking up at her, and being this close to her was able to let her sense the same light that Sora had. "Sora...It is you..."
She reached her hand out to the Shadow's cheek, but as she touched it, it shuddered and suddenly slashed its claws at Kairi. She yelled out in pain, backing away in shock as she looked at her arm. She looked back at him in confusion, watching the Shadow writhe as it struggled to not lose itself. Ansem smirked even as he couldn't move, relishing the shock on their faces, including Riku's.
"It seems as though your heart can't reach out to him, princess," the Heartless mocked.
The painful scratch began to ebb away, but Kairi was still hurt, knowing Sora was losing his fight against the darkness. While trying to remain in control, the Shadow mimed out what he wanted Kairi to do, pointing at himself first, then shakily dragging a finger across his neck.
"W-What's he trying to say?" Goofy asked.
"...Sora, no...I can't..." Without warning, Sora attacked Kairi again, making her yelp as she quickly brought the Keyblade up in defense. He knocked her down and jumped on her, trying to thrust his claws into her, but she held him back with his Keyblade. "Sora, stop! I don't want to do this!"
"Hang on, Kairi!" Goofy said, rushing forward and smacking Sora off of her with his shield. "Come on, Sora, snap out of it!"
"Yeah! It's us!" Donald added, readying his wand to cast a spell on his friend. "Fight back against it!"
The Heartless stood back up, shaking its head, then looked back at Kairi. He froze, his eyes begging Kairi to end him so he didn't hurt her. His body twitched and rushed forward, heading straight for the princess. Donald and Goofy stood in front of her to defend her, but he sank into the shadows, slipped past them, then jumped up from the ground with his claws. Time slowed around her, tears streaming down her face as she seemed to have no other choice. Holding the Keyblade tightly, Kairi screamed and swung the blade hard, striking Sora and making him disappear in a puff of darkness. Donald and Goofy turned and watched Kairi destroy Sora's Heartless, the princess falling back on her knees as she sobbed in sorrow.
Riku wanted to look away, but he couldn't as he still kept Ansem from moving. "Guys, get Kairi out of here!" he said. "I can't hold him back any longer!"
Donald and Goofy nodded, mourning the loss of their friend later as they helped Kairi back on her feet. "Come on, Kairi!" Donald said. "It's not safe here!"
Her feet failed to move her, holding Sora's Keyblade tightly. Seeing the distress she was experiencing from killing Sora, Goofy decided to carry Kairi in his arms, he and Donald making a break for it while the mage used his magic to destroy the Heartless that got in their path. Riku watched them leave before his strength failed him, his image fading as his light was sucked back in the deep confines of his heart, where Ansem finally took back control.
"They made it out safely," Riku continued. "I don't know what happened when they escaped, but I was surprised to see Kairi teaming up with Donald and Goofy to try to stop Ansem. She must have gotten some training with them while darkness began to spread and create more dangerous Heartless in the other worlds. She held her own pretty well, and defeated him. We closed the Door to Darkness, begging her to stay back home at Destiny Islands until I could find a way out." He paused in his tale to see Sora's reaction, who was listening intently. "...I think everything else was somewhat similar to what you experienced after that?"
"...Probably," Sora finally said. "Also, Twilight, I called it. I'm flipping that stupid map when this time travel stuff is finally done."
"But where is Kairi now?" Twilight asked curiously.
"Training under Master Yen Sid," Riku said. "But, while I was lost in the Realm of Darkness, Ansem tried to take control of my heart again, and I barely managed to fight it. Through Castle Oblivion, I fought me way through the floors to escape, where I also met DiZ. He gave me this coat to protect me from being caught by the Nobodies in Organization XIII, and I blindfolded myself to suppress me from ever releasing my darkness. I defeated the rest of the Nobodies, including their leader, Xemnas, and headed back home to see Kairi after escaping from The World That Never Was.
"Master Yen Sid called the both of us to his tower, where we were both enrolled as his pupils, and I took my Mark of Mastery exam, even though I still had this darkness threatening to take hold of my heart...I managed to pass while waking up the sleeping worlds, even stopping Xehanort's younger self and his annoying time powers." Riku growled at the irritating confrontation he had with Young Xehanort after being taunted by him through the dream worlds. "Xehanort must have been a pretty sore loser as a kid if he resorted to traveling back in time while in the middle of a fight."
"And we need to stop Starlight Glimmer so we can end all this time traveling crap and keep the present how it's supposed to be," Sora said. "But what happened to you and Maleficent?"
"After I became a Keyblade Master, Master Yen Sid sent me here to help someone he came into contact with through one of his mirrors back in the tower," Riku said. "Someone named Celestia asked for help dealing with her sister, which just so happens to be Nightmare Moon. I arrived a bit too late with how far Equestria was from the Mysterious Tower. She overthrew Celestia, killed her sister, found out Maleficent had arrived here first to try to take over and lost, and when I tried to fight her, she was far stronger than I was. I even unleashed the darkness in me, permanently turning me into Ansem, but even that wasn't enough to stop her. When I woke up, I was in this cell with my hooves cuffed like this, wearing this stupid muzzle on my face, and my tail hacked off. No thanks to Pete joining her side, if she figured I didn't have anything to use to hold onto anything, including my tail, I couldn't summon my Keyblade...And her enchantments keeping my magic contained work far too well."
"There's one thing that's bugging me, and it's about the me in this timeline," Sora pondered. "Did you happen to encounter my Nobody, Roxas?" Riku nodded his head. "So, did you at least kill him? Xehanort came back when his Heartless and Nobody were destroyed, which meant it's possible for someone that strong to be able to come back to life."
Riku let out a disappointed grunt as he looked away. "...Yeah...about that...I lost to him...and when I said Organization XIII was killed off...I lost track of Roxas." Sora groaned in annoyance, knowing his Nobody was still out there. "I was told not to by Naminé when DiZ and I found her. She said Roxas was the last remnants of Sora's life, and even she wasn't sure if he could come back to life just like Xehanort had. No idea where he is now, but at least he's on our side...sort of."
"It was possible with Lea when his Nobody, Axel, was killed," Sora recalled. "So the same could have been done for Roxas and me in this timeline." Riku looked down in shame, almost forgetting about Lea when he came to the Mysterious Tower out of nowhere and asked to be a Keyblade wielder. "Ok, enough story-time. We're getting out of here."
Sora slashed his Keyblade at Riku, destroying his bindings and muzzle as he stretched out his jaws from the last couple years of confinement. "Now I know how miserable a dog feels with one of those things on," Riku mumbled, then looked back at his tail. "...You can't fix this though, can you?"
"Nope. But be thankful you have pants," Sora said before making his way to the cell door and unlocked it with a beam of light.
"Why should I be thankful?" Riku questioned, holding out his hoof and summoning his Keyblade.
"Don't ask." Sora kicked opened the door and walked over to the cell Twilight and Maleficent were in. He got a good look at Maleficent, feeling a little bit of pity for the sorceress in the state she was in. "Twilight, you know you can use your Keyblade now, right?"
"Oh! Right!" Twilight held out her hoof and called forth her Keyblade, surprising the witch and transformed stallion. "I think I'm getting too used to holding it in my magic," she said as she held her blade backwards, slicing off the ring sealing her alicorn magic.
"She has one, too?" Riku questioned in shock. "When did that happen?"
"Ask yourself that," Sora vaguely said, unlocking the door for the two mares.
Now freed, Twilight got a good look at Riku, a little disturbed to see him take a different form, and it was from the sealed darkness Ansem left behind in him. "...Oh my...Is this...really Riku?"
"Yeah," Riku answered, able to hear his voice come from Ansem's body.
"...Ok...I'm probably going to be avoiding looking at my Riku for some time after seeing this," Twilight muttered, which only confused the stallion even more.
Maleficent walked past the Keyblade wielders, finding her staff resting against the wall by the guard station by the entrance to the dungeon. "As much as I loathe working together with the three of you, I appear to have no choice but to form a temporary truce until we escape this world."
"Agreed," Twilight said. "While we escape, Sora and I need to find the map that'll help us get back in time to stop Starlight, but it's out in the forest with those Stealth Sneaks prowling around. If we make it, can you two give us cover so I can cast the spell to send us back?"
"A time travel spell, eh?" Maleficent asked curiously, only to flinch when Sora's Keyblade was aimed at her face.
"Don't even think about it," Sora growled. "It was bad enough with Xehanort doing that, and it's even worse with Starlight this time. I'm not having an alternate Maleficent try to shift time around so she gets a future where she succeeds." The witch growled in annoyance, then huffed, letting the thought go. "Now, it's time for a jailbreak."
Sora and Riku kicked down the dungeon entrance doors down, sending the iron bars sailing into the stairs with a clang. The two stallions lead the way while Twilight and Maleficent followed behind them to support them with magic, Maleficent forced to hold her staff in her mouth with no unicorn magic to levitate it for her. Their jailbreak didn't go unnoticed as the Heartless sensed the wielders' Keyblades, popping out of dark portals to them or breaking out of their statue poses for the Gargoyle Knights and Warriors. At the rate with all the Heartless began to spawn around them, they were sure to alert Nightmare Moon at worst, though Pete wasn't that difficult compared to the Mare in the Moon.
They only broke through the ones in their way, Sora and Riku rushing forward and slicing their way past the tankier Heartless while Twilight and Maleficent took care of any stragglers they missed with magic spells, their combined power obliterating them. Rushing through the corridors to reach the front gates, they saw Pete in a panic as he sensed something was going on with his Heartless troops.
"What's going on around-!?" Pete noticed them, his jaw dropping when he saw Sora and Twilight with Keyblades, along with Riku and Maleficent out of their cells. "WHAT!? Y-You two have Keyblades, too!?"
"Out of the way, fatso!" Sora yelled, ramming into the minotaur's gut hard, knocking the wind out of him as he fell on his back.
Riku and Twilight ran past Pete as he struggled to breathe, but when he caught his breath, he quickly lost it as he stared up at the furious gaze of Maleficent. "...Hehehe, uhh, hello, Maleficent," Pete said nervously. "Umm...Y-You know I didn't mean by it betraying you and all, right? It was all, uhh, a ruse! Yes! That's it! Just to get on Nightmare Moon's good side so I could try to bust you out! And it looks like that time is now, so-"
"Shut up, you blithering imbecile," Maleficent interjected, her cold tone making him shiver in fright. "No one...defies me. Ever. You will pay for your insolence."
She lifted her staff, waving it around to create a massive storm cloud, lightning zapping her staff on occasion as the storm got worse from her fury. "W-Wait! I'm serious! I didn't mean it! I'm still loyal to you, Maleficent! I promise!"
"It's too late to kiss up to me. You chose your alliance, and left me to rot in a dungeon these last few years." Maleficent unleashed her magical storm, shocking Pete repeatedly with lightning bolts. It was bad enough Pete was wearing metal armor, conducting with the electricity shocking him continuously and making it hurt even worse than it would have. Sora, Riku, and Twilight turned when they heard Pete screaming and sputtering erratically, shocked by how brutal Maleficent was being toward her ex-minion. After around several thousand lightning bolts, she finally stopped, leaving Pete a charred mess, his limbs twitching from the electrical shocks coursing through his body, but he was still alive by some miracle. Satisfied teaching him a lesson, Maleficent turned around and walked back with her temporary allies. "I feel much better now."
"Are you?" Riku asked. "I knew you kept ranting about how Pete will pay for his insolence, but you didn't kill him?"
"I still plan on punishing him more," Maleficent said. "Besides, it is difficult to kill someone like him when he's incredibly resilient."
"True that," Sora said. "He takes beatings from me, and he's too stubborn to stay down."
Leaving the singed minotaur behind, the group made their way to the front doors of the castle and escaped. Nightmare Moon was bound to figure out they were escaping, not bothering wasting any time dealing with the stronger alicorn. Sora may have been able to hold his own against Nightmare Moon before, but that was when she had just returned from the moon and her power was still recovering. This alternate alicorn has been in power for the last couple years and had plenty of time to regain all of her strength, so it wouldn't be the same fight as before.
They crossed the bridge and ran into the forest, heading to where the Cutie Map was. The Stealth Sneaks in the area shrieked and began chasing after them, lashing at the fleeing ponies and firing their laser beam eyes at them.
"Damn, there's a lot of them!" Riku said, narrowly avoiding an invisible claw that came out of nowhere. "Sora, you and Twilight keep going! We'll distract them!"
He began firing Dark Firaga spells at the Stealth Sneaks, making them turn their attention toward him and Maleficent, the sorceress adding her own fire spells by blocking their path with a massive wall of green flames. "So, if they're going back in time to solve this mess with this unicorn responsible for all this, are they just leaving us to rot with our predicament?"
"They don't belong here, so it shouldn't matter to them," Riku said, both ponies back to back as they stared down the invisible Heartless. "I know Sora's concerned about us. But the only way he feels he should solve this is to change the past back to normal and return to their actual time."
"In other words, he is leaving us like this," Maleficent summarized, shaking her head with a sigh. "It doesn't matter. As soon as these Heartless are vanquished, we escape, and go our separate ways."
"Best plan I've heard in years," Riku said.
Farther on ahead, ignoring the Stealth Sneaks' attacking as Riku and Maleficent distracted them, Sora and Twilight reached the map safely. "I hope they'll be ok," Twilight said.
"They can handle themselves, unless Nightmare Moon chases them down, otherwise they'll end up right back in the-" Sora was suddenly struck by a beam of dark blue magic, sending him smacking into a nearby tree.
Twilight gasped and turned to face their attacker, only to freeze as a blue crescent-shaped scythe was held at her neck. Nightmare Moon leered at them, having either followed them or knew they would arrive at the mysterious crystal map sitting in the middle of the nearby forest.
"I knew something was strange about you two," Nightmare Moon said. "The Stealth Sneaks reacted strangely before you two arrived at my castle, and yet the Gargoyles didn't when Pete brought you to me...You had Keyblades as well, and you tried to escape with my prisoners. Bold, but very stupid."
"Yes, but this is even dumber!" Sora tapped into his Drive Forms, a burst of light exploding from him as his clothes changed, the shockwave catching Nightmare Moon off guard as she was sent flying back a little. Sora entered his Limit Form, then quickly dashed forward using Sonic Rave, thrusting his blade at the alicorn rapidly, constantly staggering her as her reactions were too slow for his attack. "Twilight, cast the spell! Hurry!"
"R-Right!" Twilight quickly pulled out the scroll and used the spell, creating the time portal to send them back in time again.
With one last thrust, Sora rammed through Nightmare Moon and leapt onto the map, following Twilight as they both got sucked into the portal. The Mare in the Moon growled in frustration and was about to chase after them, but the portal closed on her, only angering her more, not noticing the map beneath her disappear as well.
"They got away," Nightmare Moon growled in disdain. She looked out to where the Stealth Sneaks were being destroyed, hearing their shrieks as green and dark blue flames shot up in the air above the forest canopy. Brandishing her scythe, she slowly stalked her way toward her prisoners to deal with them herself. "But these two won't..."
Sora shifted back to normal as he and Twilight flowed through the time stream, letting out a heavy sigh of relief that he didn't change into Anti Sora. "I took a gamble on that, and it worked. As useful as my Drive Forms can be, I can't risk using them if we keep going back into alternate futures that terrible."
"Let's finally stop Starlight Glimmer and get back home," Twilight said.
They flew out at the end of the portal, back in the past Cloudsdale in the flight camp, only this time, Sora and Twilight attacked first, knowing where Starlight was going to be. They fired a Blizzaga spell, catching the unicorn off guard as they encased the mare in a block of ice.
"Starlight, we're ending this!" Sora said. "Give up now before we really have to kill you!"
Starlight lit up her horn, breaking out of her icy prison with a blast of magic, shaking off the shards of ice stuck to her body. "Good luck with that!"
"We won't need it!" Sora flew down and slammed his Keyblade down on Starlight.
The unicorn deflected his attack with a barrier, shooting him point blank with her magic to paralyze him for a brief moment. She levitated herself past him, avoiding Twilight's swing and zapped her as well, reaching Rainbow Dash as she flew by and tripped her up in the middle of her race, sending her flailing into a cloud. As soon as Sora and Twilight recovered, they were sucked back into the time portal back to the present, Starlight grinning in satisfaction at her victory.
The duo fell on the map and saw the next alternate future from their actions: Tirek was on a rampage through Equestria, fully powered with all the pony magic in the kingdom and using his unlimited power to render the earth asunder. They could see something flying around the centaur, looking like a Keyblade glider in the distance as a pony used it as a weapon to attack Tirek. He wasn't even phased, trying to swat the wielder riding it like it was an annoying fly that wouldn't leave him alone.
Not willing to stick around, Twilight cast the spell and sent her and Sora back in time again. Sora did not want to know what happened to him if Tirek was the one destroying the world, and if it was Aqua that was fighting him, they both dreaded to know what happened outside Equestria that had changed as well. Flying through the time stream and back in the past once again, they shot another Blizzaga spell at Starlight as soon as they came out. She seemed to have anticipated them attacking her, flying out of the way and accidentally hitting Rainbow Dash, shocking Fluttershy, Hoops, and Dumbbell as the frozen filly plopped onto the cloud the trio sat on. Starlight looked at them, giving them an amused grin and clapped her hooves in applause for their blunder, which only angered Sora more at her mockery of their attempt to stop her this time.
Forced back in the present, the new alternate timeline revolved around Discord reigning Equestria, flipping the world into his chaos capital he wanted upon his freedom from a thousand years turned into stone. Sora and Twilight ended up landing on a pile of pony dolls, then got rained on by pies, covered in what tasted like cinnamon-bubble gum flavored mush inside the orange flavored crust. The draconequus was riding on a unicycle, laughing hysterically as he rode around Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, their bodies transformed into more cartoonish forms as they tried to fight the chaotic deity, but it was fruitless taking on someone who can bend reality to their will.
Twilight sent them back in the past, again, but as they were about to stop Starlight, they froze when they saw her helping Fluttershy fly through the obstacle course, Hoops and Dumbbell following behind to give her pointers. Even if this was another positive decision to help build young Fluttershy's confidence in flying, Sora and Twilight knew this wasn't supposed to happen. Starlight turned to them and smirked, watching them fly back into the time portal they just came out of, and send them back into another alternate future.
This time, Equestria was overrun with darkness yet again, only this time, it was ruled over by Xehanort. Apparently, he seemed to have succeeded in gaining the power of Kingdom Hearts, shrouding every single world in the universe in pure darkness, and he also wields the X-blade. Whatever happened and however he managed to pull off his plans, Sora and Twilight didn't stay long to figure out, heading back to the past as soon as Twilight used the spell again.
While traveling through the time stream for what felt like the hundreth time, Sora and Twilight took the slight reprieve in stopping Starlight to discuss why they're still trying. "Sora, this isn't going to end, is it?"
"No, not at this rate," he answered. "I know we didn't stay long in the last few alternate futures, but I have a feeling I ended up dead in some way, too." Sora couldn't imagine how else he could have kicked the bucket, which only made him worry more about what happened to his friends and family. What bothered him the most was how everyone's fate not only relied on Equestria and the Elements of Harmony being given to Twilight and her friends, but Sora's life mattered as well. "I don't understand why I'm so important. I know I'm supposed to be important to all my friends, and I've done a lot to save everyone and all the worlds, but why do I die and we see no sign of alternate Twilight or the other girls???"
"I don't know, but after hearing what had happened to you and the others when you died in the first three futures, I don't know how much more I can take." Twilight pondered how hers and her friends' disappearances and Sora's deaths were somehow connected in the alternate futures. She made a realization when she thought back on how she found the Elements of Harmony, where Sora had become an integral part of their stopping Luna when she was Nightmare Moon. Without him, there would have been no way they could have saved the alicorn, or even their world. "...Sora...Did...Did you see the sonic rainboom?"
"Back then?" Sora asked, quickly answering with a shake of his head. "The first time I ever saw something like that was back at that Young Fliers Competition Rainbow was in. How long ago was it when she first performed it as a filly?"
"I think...it was about twelve or thirteen years ago," Twilight said. "I remember that year was when I took that entrance exam to get into Princess Celestia's school."
Sora thought back to the year Twilight recalled, which only made him pale as a painful memory came back to him. "...That year...?"
"Yeah...why?" Twilight asked.
"...That was the year...my dad died out at sea." Twilight gasped, regretting bringing something that painful up to Sora. Before she could apologize, he had another vague memory of his childhood that came back to him. "But...I think a few days before my dad went out on his boat...I saw a strange looking star...It flashed a rainbow of colors, and it grew bigger and bigger before it faded away...I tried to tell my parents about it, but they said stars can't shine like a rainbow." Sora shook his head, unwilling to believe that little star was supposed to be some kind of sonic rainboom. "I might not be a genius in astronomy or science, but I highly doubt that was the sonic rainboom."
"Well, light can travel pretty far, depending on the sonic rainboom's frequency, wavelength, and energy," Twilight lectured. "Even with how far Destiny Islands is from Equestria, it could be possible you could have seen it, if only a small fraction of it."
Sora found it hard to believe that he saw the sonic rainboom just like the Mane Six, but since Twilight was a major in anything involving every bit of subject matter, he wondered if it really was true. He didn't have much time to ponder this confusing problem and the frustrating one he and Twilight were dealing with now, exiting the portal and narrowly dodging a beam of magic coming from Starlight Glimmer. The Keyblade wielders landed on a cloud, facing the insane unicorn from a distance.
"You two up for another race-ending fight?" Starlight goaded.
Sora and Twilight looked at each other, knowing there was no chance for them to win, forced to forever stop Starlight and end up failing every time. "...No," Twilight finally said. "You're right. We can't stop you."
Grinning, Starlight attacked them again with another magic beam, but Sora deflected it away from them. "But we're not going to just fall over and quit," he added. "If we have to, we'll keep trying to stop you for all eternity."
"If that's what it takes to keep you and your 'friends'' from getting your cutie mark connection, then I'm game!" Starlight shot another beam again, which was deflected by Sora again, making sure to avoid bouncing it off to anyone around them.
"Starlight, this goes way beyond cutie marks!" Twilight tried to reason, moving a piece of cloud and molding it into a hill, rolling a cloudy snowball down as it grew bigger when it reaches the bottom. "Everything we do in the past - even the smallest change - can snowball into an avalanche of trouble for the future!"
Ignoring the alicorn's warnings, Starlight shot Twilight's diagram of what the two of them had experienced, surprising the mare as she summoned her Keyblade on instinct. "Oh, and next you're going to tell me that 'the fate of all of Equestria hangs in the balance'!"
"It does!" Sora and Twilight both exclaimed, the unicorn rolling her eyes in annoyance.
"Spare me your overblown egos!" Starlight said, further irritating Sora as they both weren't flaunting their egos over something this serious. "No group of friends, not even Princess Twilight's or the great hero Sora's, is all that important!"
She noticed Rainbow passing by them, blasting the filly with a beam of magic, making her scream as she tumbled through the air, getting seriously hurt as she landed on a cloud hard. The time portal reappeared above Sora and Twilight again, but Sora had enough trying to reason with Starlight if she wasn't going to listen to them.
"That's it! I'm sick of using words!" Sora exclaimed. "If you're just going to be ignorant staying behind to not see how 'perfect' your future is by changing it, then we'll show you what it looks like!"
He quickly shot forward, fighting against the gravitational pull of the portal as he reached Starlight. He avoided a zap from her magic, striking her in the chest with the hilt of his Keyblade and knocking the wind out of her. As she breathed, Sora wrapped his forelegs around Starlight's barrel, dragging her with him and Twilight as they headed back to the future to show the unicorn the consequences of her actions.
Stats
Page generated in 0.05 seconds
Total duration
1,052 users online
1,722,258 hits today, 2,571,732 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Oh, this was a great chapter! And just in time for Christmas, too! Loved all the brief scenes with the other timelines and how Sora was involved with the Rainboom back then. I'm hoping that we'll see Sora actually flip the map and what answer we'll get for the Friendship Games chapters.
Wow, you were right Codex. I am shocked to see Sora's connection to the sonic rainboom. I hope that the next chapter convinces Starlight to stop once and for all.
What a nice early Christmas present. Thanks for the new chapter.
Amazing job here and the Rainboom tie in was pretty sweet too. Hmm, if they go Boss Fight...I kind of want to see Starlight Glimmer become Voidshade, a darkness of sorrow counterpart to fight. Most dark counterpart's are rage fueled. Wonder what one running with sorrow heavy and longing can do.
That Sonic Rainboom musta been awfully bright if Sora's able to see it all the way from Destiny Islands, seeing as it's luminesence is on the level of a supernova. Okay, fine... Starlight's not a Mary Sue, but how the eff did she learn how to use a sword!? I really wish he should flip the map, but the last thing I want is Starlight becoming a Keyblade Warrior. I also want her to be punished because of her temporal shenanigans. Starlight practically has DIO beat with the way she uses time magic.
I am so enjoying this. everything that happens really sounds like it would all fit. now it is only a matter of time of getting Starlight to turn good and see that what happen in her past is something she is letting ruin her life and not moving on.
After dealing with another Timeline with help from alternate Riku & Maleficent, Sora & Twilight have caught themselves in a loop to stop Starlight. But with Twilight unable to get Starlight to listen to reason and her still willing to change the past, Sora decides it was time to show Starlight the damage instead of explaining it. Will Sora and Twilight be able to change Starlights mind of changing the past? What timeline will the Map send them all to from changing it? Can Starlight be saved from the pain she suffers from? and what has happen to the Riku that Twilight knows? The excitement and mysteries continues Next time on My Little Pony Soras misadventures in Equestria!
8628132
I believe I kind of did that with Aqua, in a way. Most of it was anger, but she was also heavily depressed from losing her two best friends, her home, her master/father figure, and regretting the mistakes she's made in the past leading to three other teens into such a dangerous career. If only there was a sin for sorrow, but sadness isn't a sin as it's a more natural emotion everyone can experience that isn't considered a poisonous feeling...
8628135
Oh, trust me. Starlight is not gonna be a Keyblade wielder. But where she learned swordplay, she uses her magic to form an ethereal sword, and all it takes is a mental command to move it around, block, slash, thrust, etc. She may have picked up on it in one of the books in the Canterlot archives she snuck into while searching for the time travel spell, an added precaution in case she ever encountered Sora or the other wielders again. She is a powerful unicorn, and picks up on a spell pretty damn quickly with how she outmatched Sunburst when they were kids in the season 6 premiere.
Well one more chapter until the end of this season. It's been a time traveling ride Mr. Writer and I can't wait for the Friendship Games, next seasons, and the new MLP movie (Of course spoilers are going to be in it but I know you're going to mix it up ;) )
8630272
Technically the friendship games are happening right now if you watch the movie equestria twilight only shows up at the every end of the movie saying she was stuck in a time loop so seeing as this is the only time loop I know of in the mlp show the friendship games should be happening right now
Those doors really get low. Get low, get low, get low.
...Does that joke make me seem old...?
Er, that should either be "highly doubt" or "hardly think." As it is makes it sound like he has no doubt it was the rainboom.