The Mean 6
Inside Twilight's office in the School of Friendship, the headmare paced around back and forth in agitation. Her friends, Starlight Glimmer, and the key bearers watched the lavender alicorn getting more and more impatient with every second that passed.
"Where is that photographer!?" Twilight exclaimed. "I've been planning this retreat for weeks, and we're already ten minutes behind schedule!"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Sora said. "You hate being tardy, late, running behind, blah, blah, blah."
"Did you even inform the photographer where your office is in the school?" Ventus asked.
Before Twilight could answer, a unicorn mare with a camera hanging around her neck barged in, panting heavily and in a panic. "I'm so sorry!" she apologized. Her fur was a very pale, faded green color, long two-toned brown hair, green eyes, and a ladybug with some leaves as her cutie mark. "Can you forgive me? I don't expect you to forgive me...Forgive me?"
She gave the group a huge, apologetic, albeit forced smile, but Twilight ignored her tardiness, wanting to get the pictures done and over with. "Of course we will," Starlight said as she approached the photographer. The mare's grin dropped, leering blankly at the periwinkle unicorn. "I'll help set up your-"
"Princess Twilight, thank you so much for this!" the mare zipped past Starlight, completely ignoring the school's guidance counselor. "The Canterlot Historical Society is thrilled to document the friendship work your teachers do!" She then looked over to the Keyblade wielders, mostly eyeing Sora with a pair of bedroom eyes as she sashayed her way over to him. Sora noticed, biting his bottom lip nervously as yet another mare seemed to have the hots for him. "And Sora, the most heroic, and incredibly handsome young swordscolt who took on the likes of Discord and Tirek."
"Uhh, heh, I'm...actually taken," he said with a grin.
Kairi immediately took Sora's side, giving the photographer a warning glare while wrapping a hoof around her lover's neck. "We're engaged. Look elsewhere if you plan on touching my stallion," Kairi said, gesturing to the engagement ring nestled snuggly around the base of her horn.
"Oh, congratulations!" the mare said, going from sultry to chipper faster than Pinkie can change emotions. "If you're looking to have an unforgettable bachelor party before the big day, hit me up, stud muffin." She gave Sora a sly wink, making him rear his head back in awkwardness. It didn't help that Riku, Ventus, and Terra snickered at Sora's unfortunate predicament while Aqua just rolled her eyes, unable to imagine what kind of bachelor party the boys would have before the couple's wedding. Kairi kept an eye on the photographer, glaring daggers as she focused on the Mane Six. "Anyhoo, let's take some pictures! Let me pretty you all up first!"
The photographer then went around the room to "pretty up" the group. She started with Fluttershy, messing around with her long pink mane, poofing it up in Pinkie's style for a brief moment before it drooped back down. Then came Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Sora, but stopped after him. The weird thing about this mare's style of beautifying for a good picture was the lack of doing anything, though she was a bit harsh when she did Rarity and Rainbow Dash's hair. She barely touched Applejack's mane, instead taking off her stetson hat, pulling out a strand that got caught on the inside, then slapped her hat on her face instead of on her head. She mussed around with Sora's spiky mane, making him wince a bit as she seemed to have accidentally plucked a hair out while feeling his sharp hairstyle.
"Uhh, what about us?" Aqua questioned. "Or are we fine enough as it is?"
"Nah, you're good," the mare stated blandly before going back to being cheerful. "Photo op!" She went around the room, taking pictures of the Mane Six, all of them completely off guard and rushed, not even caring about the quality or if any of them had forced smiles for the camera. From her camera, the pictures came out with the Mane Six in different poses: Twilight looking regal, Pinkie munching on cupcakes, Fluttershy wincing as the camera flash caused her to shut one eye out of reflex, Rarity too busy brushing her mane and tail for the photo shoot, Applejack looking like she was sneezing as her picture was taken, and Rainbow's was taken with her back facing the camera. The wielders tried to put on quick smiles as she took their pictures, but they were just as rushed until she got to Sora. "Say 'love bug', Mr. Hero."
"Uhh, love-?" Sora was blinded when the camera's flash went off, startling him as he had an awkward grimace in his photo. As his picture was taken, he grimaced slightly, subconsciously bringing a hoof over his chest, feeling an odd sensation around his heart. "W-What the...?"
"Well, that's that! Bye!" the mare said and prepared to make her leave.
Pinkie Pie quickly got in the photographer's way, surprising her. "Wait! You forgot about Starlight!" Pinkie said.
Starlight waved sheepishly at the mare, who was a bit inconvenienced with taking the unicorn's picture. "'Kay," she said with a shrug, hastily taking Starlight's picture, then put on her cheerful face. "Now I'll get out of your manes. I know how busy you all are."
As she left, Rarity stopped brushing her hair in shock. "Wait, she already took our pictures? I wasn't ready!" the fashionista exclaimed.
"Too late, Rares," Applejack said.
"At least she made up for her tardiness with getting all our pictures in record time," Twilight said, then glanced at the wielders. "You guys can handle teaching our classes for today, right?"
"It won't be like following the EEA guidelines after the first week," Riku said.
"I kinda wished we all went along," Ventus said with a sigh, then glanced at Sora with a dirty look. "I knew the girls as long as Sora had, too."
Terra ruffled the younger tan pegasus's mane with a chuckle. "Doesn't count if you were inside Sora's heart all this time, little buddy."
"Let's hope Sora doesn't have too much fun on this little retreat you made for you all," Kairi said with a small giggle. She nudged Sora's side with a teasing grin, only to frown when she noticed him rubbing at his chest with a hoof in confusion. "Sora, is something wrong?"
Snapping out of his daze, Sora looked at Kairi. "Uhh...Yeah, I think so. Just...felt something weird in my chest for a moment." Everyone else looked a bit concerned, but Sora reassured them that he was fine. "I'm alright now. Probably something I must have ate."
Inside Sora's heart, Xion sat on the ledge of the outlook on top of the clocktower in Sora's memories of Twilight Town. She was waiting on Roxas after he went off to get some sea-salt ice cream for the two of them to enjoy as they watched Sora on the friendship retreat Twilight planned for the girls and Sora. She shook her head as she watched Twilight's impatience with a small laugh.
"She hates being late or others being late, as usual," she said to herself. She even laughed when Sora stated how much Twilight hated tardiness like it was never any news to the group. Then came the photographer and her quirky behavior. Even she grimaced when she began hitting on Sora. "Yikes. I guess some girls can be a little desperate at times." Xion leaned back a bit and watched the photographer run around, messing around with everyone's manes to get them ready for their picture. However, Xion found it odd when the mare was messing with the Mane Six's hairs, she was taking a strand from each of them. When she went for Sora, the moment she plucked a strand of hair from his head, Xion winced as he hand quickly grasped at the spot where she felt her own hair getting plucked. "W-What in the world...? I felt that? Did Roxas feel that, too?"
While Xion grimaced, the mare began taking everyone's pictures, looking up in time for her to take Sora's picture last. "Say 'love bug', Mr. Hero."
The blinding flash from the camera disoriented Xion, but before she could blink, her body felt like it was getting sucked away by the bright light. She couldn't grasp the ledge in time, screaming in surprise and terror as she was pulled into the light as the viewing window through Sora's eyes disappeared along with her. Moments later, Roxas walked around the corner at the top of the train station's clock tower, rubbing his head with one hand while the other held a pair of their usual ice cream treats.
"Hey, Xion, did you feel something pull on your hair a moment ago?" he asked. "Whatever happened, that was something I didn't-" When Roxas finally looked at the ledge, he didn't find any sign of his friend anywhere. "...Xion?"
Trotting merrily down the road away from the School of Friendship, the photographer made a detour from the safe path toward the dangerous woods of the Everfree Forest. Now alone from any eyes, the mare grinned sadistically as she looked through the photos she took of the many heroes of Equestria, along with the strands of hair she snatched from the Mane Six and Sora. After going as deep as possible in the forest where no pony dared to venture forth, she chuckled as she held her spoils.
"Now I have everything I need." Her horn glowed a sickly green aura, her body suddenly engulfed in a sphere of the same magical color, the transformation spell revealing her true self. Standing as tall as Celestia, black chitin body, long, spindly dark green hair flowing down her neck, sharp fangs, a jagged horn, holes in her legs and her insect-like wings, the queen of the changelings, Queen Chrysalis, laughed maniacally, fooling her enemies once again with her disguise. A fog began to roll in along the ground as Chrysalis went around a circle of trees in the small clearing she was in, placing the pictures of the Mane Six and their hair on each tree. "I have been planning this for quite some time. My spell can create a copy of anypony I desire. All I need is an image and a piece of that pony.
"Oh, along with this." Her horn shot a beam at the tree where she placed Applejack's picture and hair, creating a trio of apples matching the farm mare's cutie mark. "Oh yes, Applejack. It wouldn't be complete without a copy of your cutie marks." She zipped over to Rarity, having a conversation with herself after surviving on her own without her loyal minions to bark orders at. "Why copies, Rarity? Because Princess Twilight and her friends control the Elements of Harmony, the most powerful weapons in all of Equestria!" She zapped Rarity's trio of diamonds cutie mark on her copy's tree, then merrily skipped over to Pinkie's tree. "Which means you will be able. To use. Them. Too." Another zap, with Pinkie's three balloon cutie mark. Chrysalis then went around the other trees with Rainbow's, Fluttershy's, and Twilight's photo and strand of hair, zapping their cutie marks on their respective trees. "And serve me!
"Together, we will destroy Twilight Sparkle and her meddlesome friends!" The former changeling monarch rummaged through the other photos, though her sadistic glee turned to a scowl when she held out the photos of Starlight Glimmer and Ventus. "Of course, I haven't forgotten about you two. Starlight Glimmer, and that traitorous outsider's twin brother, Ventus. They stole my hive, turned my subjects against me." She burned both photos with a zap of her horn, dropping them and watched them flutter to the ground as they burnt to ashes. "Well, we'll see who has the last laugh when I take their friends away before destroying them!" She discarded the other wielders' pictures, leaving Sora's stunned photo in her aura. She licked her lips, shuddering with delight as she recalled how delicious the stallion's love tasted back in Canterlot. "You might be my biggest trump card. You might not have any of your love to feed me, but a strong warrior to be my guard will do just fine. With you and the Elements under my control, I will build a new hive, and I will rule Equestria as its queen!"
Chrysalis pinned Sora's photo up on the last tree, giving the strand of his hair a long whiff before placing it with his picture. With a wide, manic smile, she zapped Sora's Keyblade cutie mark into his clone's tree, then began casting her spell to create the Element bearers and the Keyblade wielder's doppelgangers. She started with the Mane Six's trees, wanting to save the best for last. Charging her magic in her horn, she reared back, creating a ring of aura on the ground around her, then slammed her hooves down and released the spell. The six trees with the Mane Six's images began to light up as Chrysalis's green aura shot from her horn and toward the trees, all of them connecting together for a brief moment before it disappeared.
Chrysalis watched as green veins trailed up the trees from their roots to their branches, grinning with anticipation. The magic seared into the trees, causing them to wilt and open up like a flower in bloom, but in a more twisted fashion than it seemed. From within the opened up stumps, green light within each one formed into a pony shape, each one mimicking the form of each mare it was meant to copy. The light faded to reveal their bodies, leaving perfect clones of the Mane Six, though their fur and hair are duller in hue, small bits of their hair slightly frazzled, and an odd imperfection Chrysalis missed on Applejack's clone were the color of her apple cutie marks; they were green instead of red. Chrysalis eyed each clone, unaware of Twilight's double giving the back of the changeling queen's head a sly, sinister smirk.
"Excellent," Chrysalis giggled, then turned to look at Sora's tree. "Now, for my big star." The evil clones stepped out from their birthplaces and watched their queen charge her magic. Casting the same spell on the final tree, Chrysalis watched with glee as the lights from her horn and Sora's photo connected. She wasn't aware of the photo and the strand she plucked out of Sora's head had changed under the bright glow of her magic, too busy relishing seeing her perfect little Keyblade warrior's clone be one of her many devoted servants in her next takeover. The tree blossomed open, all the mares watching as a form began to rise from inside. Once the clone was fully revealed, Chrysalis's smile quickly turned into a shocked frown; instead of seeing another Sora, she was staring at some pony veiled under a black coat, the hood completely concealing their face. "...What!? What is this!?"
"Ah know exactly who that is," the fake Applejack said, darting her eyes back and forth while scrunching her muzzle nervously.
Chrysalis glanced back at the farm mare double quizzically, then back to the mysterious pony as they let out a breath and fell out of the stump, passing out. "Pth. What a weakling," the fake Fluttershy scoffed.
The fake Twilight walked over to Chrysalis's side, glancing at the black-coated pony curiously. "That spell of yours, which created us, was supposed to make a copy of Sora, right?" she asked. Chrysalis glared at the alicorn double for her remark, but the faux Princess of Friendship bowed her head respectfully to the changeling queen, hiding her grin from the former monarch. "If you don't mind my asking, Your Grace."
"Mrf. It was supposed to," Chrysalis grumbled. "There was not a single pony in that office who wore such a thing, and I made sure to get a picture with JUST Sora! My spell was foolproof! How did this happen!?"
The clone grunted as they began to wake up. The struggled noises sounded feminine to the changeling and her new subjects, baffling Chrysalis as they watched the mare try to stand up. On shaky forelegs, the equine clone sat herself up, but quickly lost strength in one leg and rolled over on her back with a weak grunt.
"Ugh. Rolling around in the dirt looks so boring," the fake Pinkie groaned. "Do a better trick!"
"Shut up!" Chrysalis ordered.
The hooded clone tried to get up again, pushing herself up to sit on her haunches. With a grunt, she managed to succeed at sitting up, her head flicking forward and dropping the hood off her head. She looked down at her hooves, letting out a startled gasp as she looked over her body.
"W-What...Where am I?" she asked fearfully. Her hooves touched her face, feeling her snout, ears, and eyes. "...I-I'm...I'm not inside...H-How did I-?"
"Enough of this." Chrysalis stomped over to the pony, quickly grasping the mare's coat with her magic and forcefully turned her around to face her. "Who are you, and why are you not-!?" The changeling queen's maw dropped from her scowl, letting out a disturbed gasp when she got a look at her Sora "clone's" face. The mare gasped in shock as well, blue eyes similar to Sora's staring back at the changeling's greens. Chrysalis dropped the pony, making her grunt as she shakily stood back up while Chrysalis backed away. "...What is this? You have Sora's eyes...but not his face..."
The Twilight clone seemed shocked as well, though the other clones didn't seem to care all that much. Before them, the queen and her minions stared at a mare, but her face reminded Chrysalis of Kairi's. Her mane was black, not brown or auburn, and cut short without a single strand out of place like the other clones, and her fur was a pale gray, not tan or pink. The mare stared at the group, confused, distressed, but definitely recognizing the changeling queen as her dumbstruck gaze quickly turned into a harsh glare.
"Chrysalis," she growled. Chrysalis's brow raised at the sudden animosity, but when the mare crouched in a fighting stance, she let out a yell as a flash of light appeared in her maw. When it disappeared, the changeling gasped in shock; she was holding Sora's Keyblade in her mouth, from the blade down to the keychain hanging at the end of the pommel. "Why are you here? What are you planning?"
Snapping out of her stupor, Chrysalis shook her head, staring down the defiant clone, who seemed to have a lot of mixed features of Sora and Kairi, but was neither of them. "You dare try to attack your queen, slave?" she questioned with venom in her voice.
Being called a slave made the mare snap as old memories of her past resurfaced. Yelling angrily, she charged toward Chrysalis. Caught off guard, Chrysalis was about to blast the mare, only for the fake Twilight to jump in, summoning a Keyblade matching the real Twilight's, though its colors were faded and didn't have a keychain. The dull lavender alicorn clone smacked the cloaked mare's Keyblade away, then gave her a swift headbutt in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her as she fell back. Stunned, Chrysalis stared at the alicorn clone, baffled witnessing a Keyblade appear in her hooves. While the spiteful mare wheezed and coughed, writhing in agony, the fake Twilight glanced at the blade curiously, her smile growing as she looked back at her queen.
"Seems like the other me is a Keyblade wielder, too," she said. "Now you have two warriors. Unless, you want me to get rid of the mistake you created."
Chrysalis growled, her eye twitching as her most loyal, though insubordinate clone of the bunch, called the mare struggling to breathe a mistake. "She just needs to be taught her place. Like the lot of you should." Chrysalis marched past the Twilight clone, who scowled bitterly as she dismissed her Keyblade. The queen stared down at the mare, stomping her hoof down on her chest. The clone let out another gasp, grasping both forehooves against her leg to try to pull her off. "You're going to be more troublesome than the others." Chrysalis powered her horn, then zapped the clone, making her cry out in agony as she was painfully shocked. The spell the changeling cast created a mark of one of her drones, visible above her coat's collar between her neck and chest. She stopped shocking the mare, but as she tried to punch Chrysalis, she was met with another painful shock, making the monarch grin as the clone quickly understood what happens if she defies or attempts to strike her down. "You came from Sora's image, hair, and bear his cutie mark, but you are not him. Who are you?"
Panting, she leered at Chrysalis. "...I-I am Sora," she admitted.
Growling, Chrysalis stomped down hard on the clone's chest again, the impact making the Twilight clone wince while enjoying watching the failure getting beaten by their creator. "No you are not! Do not lie to me!" While leering down at the clone, Chrysalis spotted the photo that Sora's clone was supposed to come out from. Snatching the picture, her frown deepened when the image didn't have Sora's dazed expression; it had the mare's image instead. She even found the hair she took among the blossomed bark, which was just as black as the mare's mane, not brown. Confused as to how this happened, she glanced back down at the clone she created, who managed to catch her breath again, completely helpless under the changeling's hoof. "You are not Sora. Tell me your real name this instant."
Unable to fight back or else risk getting shocked again, the clone shut her eyes, the memories of feeling trapped and forced to do another's bidding against her will causing tears to run down her cheeks. "...Xion...My real name...is Xion..."
After saying goodbye to the others, Twilight, Starlight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Sora began to make their way down the trail into the Everfree Forest. While Twilight talked to her friends about their little camping retreat, Sora and Starlight took the rear with the stallion carrying a wagon filled with camping supplies, thankfully none of them being all of Rarity's belongings like she'd usually do on long trips as she only brought with her a small saddlebag with a few camping essentials.
"I cannot believe this is your first time camping out," Sora said to Starlight in awe.
"Eh, I never really felt the need to...'hang out' in nature," Starlight said, swatting away some flies that began to get in her face. "Home has books, tea, fewer bugs, a roof..."
"Well, that attitude is why Ah brought the whole kit and caboodle," Applejack said. "Sora and Ah are gonna give ya the full Apple family campin' experience!"
Applejack grabbed a camo parka in the cart, putting it on Starlight, to her annoyance. "Oh, great. Sounds fun," Starlight whined, waving her hoof frantically as more flies continued to bother her.
"Umm, where exactly are we camping?" Fluttershy asked.
"Right next to the Elements that brought us all together in the first place - the Tree of Harmony!" Twilight said.
"Oh, cool. Not as breathtaking as Winsome Falls, but it's a decent camping spot," Sora said.
"As we go through the Everfree Forest," Starlight mentioned. "Where there are dangerous beasts lurking in the woods that could jump out at us at any moment and attack."
"SURPRISE ATTACK!" Pinkie screamed as she popped out of a bush. Starlight screamed, ducking behind the cart as she shook in fear. "Like that?"
Sora stared at Pinkie with an amused grin while Starlight poked her head out from her cover, glaring spitefully at the party pony. "I'm sure they wouldn't yell out 'surprise' when they're supposed to be sneaky while hunting their prey."
"Eh, this is more fun," Pinkie said, then sunk back into the bushes to startle someone else in the group.
"Just ignore Pinkie Pie," Starlight grumbled to herself. "Stick with Sora, and nothing will actually try to eat you, Starlight."
"Listen to your queen!" Chrysalis ordered, addressing her clones. Clone Twilight and Xion stood at attention, the latter having no choice but to obey with her head hung low, but the others just lounged about, refusing to listen to their queen. "We must retrieve the Elements of Harmony!"
"Hunting down some lame Elements? This is the worst day ever!" Clone Pinkie complained.
"No. This is your worst day ever!" Clone Fluttershy kicked up some mud, splatting it in Clone Pinkie's face, laughing mockingly at her.
"Those Elements are mine!" Clone Rarity said with a greedy glint in her eye. She wandered around the group, looking around for things to take. "Along with this rock! And this twig!" When the greedy mare approached Xion, she eyed the black coat she wore, letting out a manic, impish giggle as she dropped her rock and twig. "Gimmie that coat."
Xion eyed Clone Rarity, feeling a strange sense of deja vu from the way the Mane Six clones were behaving. The moment Clone Rarity tried using her magic to yank off her coat, Xion kicked the double away from her.
"Ah got all KINDS of Elements right here under mah hat," Clone Applejack claimed, even though it was a blatant lie.
"Losers," Clone Rainbow scoffed as she got comfortable on her perch.
"What is wrong with them?" Xion muttered to herself. "They're acting nothing like the girls if they're supposed to be perfect copies."
Clone Twilight approached Chrysalis, a curious question popping into her mind with her queen's plan. "Why didn't you just attack them?" she asked.
"Excuse me?" Chrysalis questioned the alicorn double.
"You were close enough to pull hairs from their manes," Clone Twilight stated. "Why not just take your revenge then?"
Furious at the accusation and questioning, Chrysalis was about to retort. "Because there were seven Keyblade wielders, and she would have been outmatched if she tried anything," Xion answered. Despising the mare's interjection, she got Clone Twilight to shut up. "It wouldn't have been a smart move to go at it alone unless you were strong enough to beat them all."
"Not if you stab them in the back," Clone Twilight muttered to herself.
"My army would not have been enough, not even with you two as my strongest soldiers," Chrysalis added. "What I need are-"
"Friends?" Clone Twilight answered snidely, angering Chrysalis more as the word made her want to vomit.
"SERVANTS!" Chrysalis shouted at the evil alicorn, who barely flinched at the queen's reaction while keeping her smug grin. "And the power of the Elements!"
"Right. So where ARE these Elements of Harmony?" Clone Twilight questioned.
"The location of the most powerful weapon in Equestria isn't something made known to just anypony," Chrysalis explained. "I learned they were hidden somewhere in this forest."
Clone Twilight looked around, finding nothing but endless, dense foliage for what feels like miles around. "Well, it is a big forest," she remarked.
Chrysalis grumbled at her created subject's sarcasm. Before she ordered them to follow and search through the woods, Chrysalis glanced at Xion curiously. The way she reacted when she saw her, the gray Keyblade wielder seemed to know her when she questioned what she was up to instead of obeying her every whim. Then again, the other clones of the Mane Six were acting out in the oddest way, too.
"Xion, you were supposed to be Sora, yet unlike these clones, you appear to have recognized me, like we have met before," Chrysalis said. Xion's eyes widened, slowly glancing toward the changeling queen while trying to keep a straight face. Chrysalis smirked, catching the mare's hesitation, slowly approaching her as she found her easy out to finding the Elements of Harmony. "If so, then...you have Sora's memories?"
Xion panicked on the inside. She didn't want Chrysalis to find the Elements; not only did she want them to fall into evil hooves, the Tree of Harmony needed them to keep the Everfree Forest from growing out of control. The tree was still recovering after getting strangled by Discord's plunderseed vines, and she dreaded to know what the Elements of Harmony would do if they were in the evil clones' possessions if they responded to their respective "bearers". She didn't have much time to think as Chrysalis loomed over her, her smirk slowly turning into an irritated frown.
"Uhhh...I-I..." She suddenly got an idea. Being called a mistake by Clone Twilight, Chrysalis thinks she messed up her spell, even though she wondered how that picture she took of Sora took her out of his heart, into the photo, and in this magically constructed body. Could her magic holding the camera caused this strange predicament? Putting those questions aside, she widened her eyes and grimaced, putting her plan into action as she suddenly grasped her head in both her hooves. "Ugh! Agh! Nggh!" Chrysalis stepped back, startled as she watched the mare flail her head about while suffering from a massive headache. Xion collapsed on her side, grunting in pain for a bit while inwardly grinning to herself, panting slightly as she rolled onto her stomach, still holding onto her head. "M-My head...m-memories...overflowing..."
"Eeyup! She definitely knows where the Elements are!" Clone Applejack said with her shifty, not-so-subtle lying.
Chrysalis growled, grasping Xion's coat collar with her magic and hoisting the mare up to her face. "Where are the Elements of Harmony!? You should know where they are! Tell me this instant, you failed clone!"
Ignoring the hurtful comments, Xion continued her act for a while before stopping it, trying to calm down from the migraine she "experienced". "...I-I don't know," she uttered weakly. "I...I saw this forest...and a path...an old castle."
"Which direction, you idiot!?" Chrysalis demanded.
"...I-I don't know," Xion repeated.
Chrysalis growled, giving up her interrogation and dropped Xion. "Great. What a useless clone. And it's not even close to being Sora aside from the eyes and that blade of his." While Xion rubbed her head, she was relieved she managed to buy more time. Knowing Sora and the Mane Six would be making their way to the camp near where the Tree of Harmony is, she hoped they could run around in circles before "remembering" where it lies and set them up for an ambush. Although trying to explain how she's out here and not in Sora's heart was going to be a doozy. "Let's go. We're going to search every inch of this forest until we find those accursed Elements."
With the changeling queen leading the group, Xion was forced to follow Chrysalis at a close distance due to the curse on her. She did let a small grin slip out, deceiving the deceiver quite easily. Clone Twilight caught that slight lip curl on the Nobody's face, glaring suspiciously at her, then to her "queen".
"Everypony stop!" Pinkie screeched. Everyone stopped in their tracks as Sora summoned his Keyblade, on the lookout for any danger. "And smell these roses!"
Pinkie hopped over to a small patch of wild roses and took a deep whiff of their floral scent. The rest of the group let out a groan as Pinkie kept delaying their trek to the campsite every few minutes.
"For goodness sake, Pinkie, tone down the silliness for an hour, at least," Sora grumbled, dismissing his Keyblade.
"Pinkie, we need to stay on schedule," Twilight chided the party pony. "We were already delayed by our photo shoot by fifteen minutes, and we're burning daylight."
As they continued onward, Rarity kept fussing with her mane as it got frizzy from the slight humidity in the forest. "Applejack, darling, is there anything in that wagon for mane maintenance?"
Applejack hummed in thought, looking through the cart. "Let's see...I got a bandana."
"Ugh, an entire wagon and no anti-frizz?" Rarity whined. "Darling, you're not even prepared."
Sora and Applejack gave each other a deadpanned look, then looked back at Rarity. "She brought stuff for camping, not a beauty pageant," Sora stated. "You should remember our last trip and it almost getting ruined by those bite happy flyders."
"Speakin' of campin' supplies, how ya holdin' up, Starlight?" Applejack asked.
Sora looked back as Starlight finally caught up with them, now carrying some camping supplies on her back was wearing a beanie on her head, and was struggling to just waddle forward with the heavy load Applejack placed on her a little farther from the trail they walked down. "Great. I love camping," Starlight stated with a bitter hint of sarcasm.
"AJ, don't you think that's a bit too much for a first time camper to be carrying?" Sora asked the farm mare.
"She's got all the essentials: her poncho, lantern, small tent, sleepin' bag, some flint, a canteen, compass," Applejack listed.
"Are you sure the tent is supposed to be small?" Starlight questioned. "Feels really big to me."
While Pinkie stopped the group again, Fluttershy heard scared and panicked tweeting. Stepping off the trail, she followed the sound, finding a baby bird crying out for someone to help it.
"Oh, no! You and your sister fell out of your nest and got separated?" Fluttershy asked the unfortunate young bird, who nodded in response. She picked up the bird with her wing and began to walk further from the group. "Don't worry. I'm sure your home isn't too far away."
Twilight looked through her scroll of activities for the group, then heard Pinkie squeal as she swung on a vine-like swing. The alicorn yelped, nearly getting hit by Pinkie, getting more frustrated from all these distractions.
"Pinkie, if we keep stopping to have fun, we're never going to get to the fun things I'VE planned," Twilight said, hoping to sway the fun-loving earth pony to keep going until they got to the campsite.
Pinkie stopped swinging, a look of shock on her face. "...You know what? You're right!" Pinkie said. She hopped off her swing and bounced on ahead of the group. "Last one to the Tree of Harmony is a parasprite!"
"At least we'll keep moving," Sora said. As he pulled the cart, he did a head count, noticing someone was missing. "Hey, where did Fluttershy go?"
Pushing through the foliage, Chrysalis, her cloned minions, and Xion wandered through the Everfree Forest to search for the Elements of Harmony. They had their own delays as well, figuring out where they've been, along with the other clones slowing down and causing trouble. Clone Pinkie plopped down on the ground out of nowhere, rolling around with a look of boredom.
"I'm soooooo bored. Are we there yet?" Clone Pinkie asked.
"WHERE yet?" Clone Twilight responded angrily. "We don't even know where we're going!" She shifted her eyes toward Xion. "If the failure didn't have any memory issues, we would be there much faster."
Xion ignored the evil alicorn, but kept her eye on her. While continuing their blind trek, Xion took note of the behaviors of the clones and why they seemed so familiar to her. Rarity kept trying to take her coat while taking every twig, rock, or leaf that laid on the ground, Applejack claimed a boulder told her where the Elements of Harmony were, even though she has no clue and was lying through her teeth. Pinkie was a downer and constantly bored with everything they did. Fluttershy was mean and rude, even picking on a baby bird they passed who was lost and couldn't find their nest. And Rainbow Dash, as she did a double take, had no idea where she disappeared to, abandoning the group to do whatever she pleased.
While looking for the fake Rainbow Dash, Xion noticed Clone Fluttershy had wandered off as well. "What are you looking at?" Clone Twilight questioned.
Chrysalis looked back at the pale lavender alicorn, her frustrations and impatience skyrocketing when she noticed her missing "servants" weren't following her. "Where...are...THE OTHERS!?" Chrysalis demanded with a snarl.
"Uh...A bugbear in...plaid socks flew down and, uh, grabbed them!" Clone Applejack said, but her lies didn't amuse Chrysalis, only further agitating her knowing that three of her created army had run off in the forest. "And they just disappeared! Craziest thing Ah ever did see!"
Growling, Chrysalis was already beginning to regret this plan of hers with her Mane Six copies being sentient and defiant. "Turn around. We're going back."
The queen began to stomp back where they came from, but Clone Twilight got in her path. "No. Keep searching," she suggested. "Xion and I will find the others. We'll be able to accomplish more by splitting our resources."
Xion eyed Clone Twilight, wanting the two of them to team up to find the other missing clones and leave Chrysalis to searching for the Elements. Chrysalis didn't like the idea at first, not willing to risk having the Nobody out of her sight in case she tried to escape or attack her or her cloned servants. But with the mark she placed on Xion, she doubted she would do much if it paralyzed or shocked her to keep her subdued.
"...Very well," Chrysalis finally said after some thought. "You have my permission."
Clone Twilight bowed her head, waiting for Chrysalis to leave their sight. Clone Applejack and Clone Rarity followed the queen while Clone Pinkie dragged her bored body along the ground after them, leaving their other two companions to their task. Once they were gone, both mares looked at each other.
"...You're a pretty good actor for faking that amnesiac headache," Clone Twilight commented with a frown.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Xion grumbled.
"Don't act dumb around me. I know you know exactly where these Elements are," the alicorn said.
"And if I do, what are you going to do to me?" Xion questioned. "I think it's obvious you plan to betray Chrysalis from that sinister look in your eyes."
Clone Twilight smirked in amusement. "Clearly. Her 'Royal Highness' is too blinded by her revenge to realize she's going to be double-crossed by the very 'servants' she created. The others are mere fools compared to us, but if I lead them, there's no reason we can't find the Elements and keep their power to ourselves."
Xion summoned her Keyblade and pointed it toward the fake Twilight. "You're comparing the two of us after you keep saying I'm a failure?" she asked, the pain and anger from her former life in the old Organization welling up as she glared angrily at Clone Twilight. "How do you know I'm not actually one of those poor imitations?"
"Because unlike them, you're competent," Clone Twilight said, almost complimenting Xion. It didn't last long as she also summoned her Keyblade and aimed it at her. "However, you need to know your place. You're supposed to be Sora, not be somepony else while having his memories or whatever personality he has."
"I shouldn't even be here," Xion growled. "You and the other fakes shouldn't exist either. I thought that the others' behaviors were oddly familiar to me; their personalities are the complete opposite of what Element they should represent."
"And your point?" Clone Twilight asked curiously.
"The Elements of Harmony might not even work, or you could end up corrupting them," Xion said. "Discord did the exact same thing to the girls years ago when he was freed from his stone prison after a thousand years. By changing who they were, they left the Elements of Harmony useless, and the real Twilight was corrupted by her loss of faith in the friends she made. But you...You're not secluded and miserable from being betrayed by your friends. You're sadistic and conniving to where you might end up being Equestria's newest troublemaker."
"Oh, good. I'd prefer being evil than be a downer who has some self-esteem issues." Xion glared angrily at Clone Twilight, gritting her teeth as her hoof shook. She wanted to show her that she was not to be trifled with, but she was afraid of getting shocked by Chrysalis's curse and be left vulnerable to the evil gloating alicorn before her. Clone Twilight dismissed her Keyblade, confusing Xion, watching the alicorn turn around and begin walking off. "I have no time to put a worthless mistake like you in your place. We need to find the other three now."
Xion's ears flicked down, pressing tightly against her head. She wanted to run her Keyblade through this horrible monstrosity Chrysalis created that's stealing the real Twilight Sparkle's image. Sadly, she dismissed her weapon, letting the insults fester inside her heart, just like how the Organization treated her back then. A hoof found its way to touch the mark Chrysalis left on her, back to being a slave lapdog to an insane tyrant of a small group. She'd rather be forced to work for the Chrysalis from the alternate timeline where she used a grief-stricken Kairi who arrived in Equestria in his stead after losing his life to Xemnas.
After stewing over her horrible, misguided existence, Xion hurried after Clone Twilight to catch up with her. While trudging through the bushes, she found the fake alicorn up ahead, but she was on alert with her horn glowing, prepared to blast something in the bushes ahead of her. Suddenly, Pinkie Pie, the real Pinkie jumped out, startled the evil alicorn, and pounced her. Xion stayed hidden, avoiding the party pony and the others if they weren't too far behind.
"You're it, Twilight!" Pinkie cheered. "Wow, you are fast. You got ahead of me."
Clone Twilight shoved Pinkie off of her, but Pinkie didn't seem bothered by the harder than usual push. "I'm looking for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy."
"Aren't they back there?" Pinkie asked, pointing to the section of woods behind her where the safe trail was located.
"They are?" the clone questioned.
"Sure! Unless they're already at the Tree of Harmony," Pinkie said.
Xion winced, but she couldn't bring herself to jump out of her hiding spot and tell Pinkie to stop talking. The Mane Six have never seen what she looks like, and since she was wearing the Organization's uniform, she could confuse her for being part of the new Organization, panic, and freak everyone else out when she found another Organization baddie.
"What is the 'Tree' of Harmony?" Clone Twilight asked, confused with the fact there was a tree involved with harmony.
Pinkie was baffled at first, but chuckled slightly. "Oh, this is one of your 'activities', right? Like a friendship quiz?" Xion stifled a frustrated groan and facehooved, silently pleading for Pinkie to stop talking. "It's the crystal tree that holds the Elements of Harmony. Boom!"
As Pinkie pumped her hoof in the air, nailing the answer to the fake alicorn's trivia question, Xion wilted while the clone grinned, getting all the information she and Chrysalis needs, though mostly her. "Where is it located?" she asked.
Pinkie quickly slammed her hoof down on the ground like she was hitting a buzzer to answer before an invisible opponent, even making the buzzing noise to add to the silly bit. "It's at the bottom of the stairs in the ravine by the Castle of the Two Sisters. Double boom!"
"How do you know? You've seen it?" Clone Twilight asked.
"Yup. But to be honest, Twilight, these questions are way too easy." The clone began walking away, and Pinkie was too obliviously proud of herself for getting the correct answers to notice the alicorn rubbing her wings together with an evil grin.
Pinkie followed after Clone Twilight, Xion watching them pass while still hiding in the bushes. She had no idea what to do now. If the real mares, Sora, and Starlight were this close, who knows what would happen if they all ran into the Rainbow and Fluttershy copies, or if Chrysalis ran into them. She hoped Sora would see the clones behaviors and recognize them from the real ponies.
On the path, when Sora mentioned Fluttershy went missing, they began searching for the animal-loving pegasus mare, much to Twilight's irritation. "Great. Pinkie races on ahead of us, and now Fluttershy's lost somewhere behind us," she grumbled. "Fantastic start to my retreat."
"This is not like Fluttershy to up and disappear like this," Rarity said.
"Well, we are in a wild forest that all of you consider is 'unnatural'," Sora said. "Aside from the worst of the animals that live here, there are some less hostile ones like birds, moles, or something she'd find cute who might have distracted her."
"Let's split up and search for her. We can all meet up at the Tree of Harmony." Applejack suggested. "Starlight, take the navigation gear and-"
"Go with Rarity? Great!" Starlight quickly said, chuckling nervously, wanting to get as far away from Applejack and her Apple family camping experience. "And Rainbow Dash can go with Applejack!"
Sora unhitched himself from the cart, leaving Applejack with the camping gear. "I'll take to the air for a better search," Sora said. "And steer away any dangerous beasts that get anywhere near anyone."
"And I'll search for Pinkie Pie," Twilight said.
The group all split up in search of their two missing friends. Sora flew over the trees, scanning the forest floor for any signs of yellow or pink among the various shades of green.
"Hopefully Fluttershy didn't go too far off the trail," he mumbled to himself. As he slowly spun around, he doubled back when he thought he saw something cyan and rainbow colored along the trees. "The heck? Rainbow's supposed to stay with Applejack." Sora flew off to where he saw the pegasus mare flying off to, catching up with her and blocking her way. "Hey, what are you doing? You're supposed to stick with Applejack."
"Who cares?" she questioned with an uncaring tone.
Sora was appalled by the response, but he began to notice something odd about Rainbow Dash. Her fur was a paler shade, almost slightly grayed, and her messy hairstyle had some strands sticking out. He knew Rainbow didn't care much about her appearance as much as Rarity, but she clearly wouldn't leave her hair that unkempt on purpose. And the lazy look in her eyes as she blankly stared at him seemed dull. Rainbow would have challenged Sora or had some energy in that gaze, but it was lackadaisical; unloyal.
"...Rainbow Dash?" Sora uttered.
"Whatever," "Rainbow" scoffed, then flew off, leaving behind a confused Sora in the middle of the air.
While the stallion hovered there puzzled, down on the ground, Fluttershy spotted him and flew up to him. "Hi, Sora," she said, snapping him out of his daze. "Were you looking for me? I got sidetracked helping a baby bird find his nest. But his sister's also lost, too."
"...Did you see Rainbow Dash fly by?" Sora asked.
"I did, but when I got her attention, she just...didn't seem to care," Fluttershy said. "It was...odd."
"Tell me about it," Sora uttered.
"Bored. Bored. Bored. Bored," Clone Pinkie repeated, lounging around while verbally expressing how she's feeling, much to the annoyance of the changeling queen.
"This is ridiculous! Where are my minions!?" Chrysalis exclaimed.
"Probably plotting to steal MY things!" Clone Rarity growled, protecting her hoard of gathered forest trinkets, having piled up several leaves and branches like a dragon overlooking its gold and jewels.
"They're at a secret party up in that tree," Clone Applejack said, pointing up to a nearby tree where a small family of squirrels watched them curiously. "Run by that squirrel named...err, Jerome. But, ya...ya need a password to get in."
Chrysalis was already getting fed up with her useless minions, about ready to snap. "Enough!" Grabbing all three clones in her aura, she slammed them down on the ground and held them down, looming over them with a snarl, finally intimidating them as she asserted her dominance as their leader. "You three are going to go out there to find the others, you will bring them back here, and we will steal the Elements of Harmony so I can destroy Starlight Glimmer and that brat Ventus's lives like they destroyed mine! Understand!?"
All three of them nervously nodded their heads, but Applejack raised a hoof while glancing at the copies of Rarity and Pinkie. "The party password is 'rutabaga'."
Chrysalis's eye twitched, completely regretting giving life to these useless copies she created as they've done nothing productive for her.
Elsewhere in the forest, Clone Fluttershy watched the sister of the bird the real Fluttershy helped climb up the tree to the nest her brother was in. Too young to learn how to fly, the pegasus continued being malicious, mocking the poor bird as other animals watched in shock.
"Why don't you just fly up to your nest? Oh wait. You can't!" Clone Fluttershy laughed, upsetting the bird, but she made it up to the nest, where her brother helped her up and held her, looking confused after swearing this mare helped him earlier. He asked her what her deal was through his chirps, and even though the copy understood him, she clearly didn't care. "Oh. Nopony asked you." She then glanced at the other animals watching her, terrifying them with the most horrid, malicious smirk that made the innocent animal lover turn into a monster. "I hope you all FREEZE this winter!"
Clone Fluttershy began to laugh with an air of cynicism, scaring all the critters into the bushes as she stomped around on the flowers nearby into bits and pieces. Satisfied by putting fear into their hearts, the clone trotted away. A moment later, the real Fluttershy flew back down into the small clearing with Sora, just missing the evil pegasus as she disappeared in the underbrush.
"This was where I helped the bird before I spotted you and Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said. Looking up, she spotted the tree and the nest she left her helpless friend before, and she was relieved to see another bird with him, who must have been his sister. "Oh, you found your sibling! I'm so glad you're-" As she flew up to greet them, the brother bird tweeted angrily at Fluttershy, keeping his sister as far from her as possible and startling the mare. "O-Oh my. W-Where did you learn that kind of language?"
Sora was taken aback by the animosity coming from the small, adorable birds. He looked around and saw some more critters who were also just as angry, from the small mouse the shifty ferret.
"Ok, this is getting even stranger," Sora said. "What did you?"
"I-I didn't do anything!" Fluttershy whimpered. "I-I-I...I'm so confused..."
Sora looked around at the other animals, hoping they can hear him out. "Hey, listen, little guys. Fluttershy is the nicest pony around," he promised. "She helps take care of other animals. I'm sure it can be a bit confusing to mistake other ponies between you, but we all want to be your friends." He approached the growling ferret, who backed away from him nervously. "Don't worry, little guy. I'm just gonna give you a nice little-" Sora reached his hoof out to pet the ferret, only to get bitten by it and pulled his hoof back. "OW! Bad adorable ferret!"
The ferret snapped its jaws at Sora again, making him jump back. Taking that as a sign that they weren't wanted, he took Fluttershy and led her away from the clearing, guiding her to the Castle of the Two Sisters to regroup with the others.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash searched around the area they headed toward for Fluttershy. Applejack left the cart be as she searched through the bushes while Rainbow covered the canopy. Stepping through the woods, Clone Rarity spotted the two ponies.
"Finally, you found her!" Clone Rarity called out.
Applejack and Rainbow were surprised to run into Rarity, though they were confused when she seemed to be looking specifically at Rainbow Dash. "Wait, you mean me? We're looking for Fluttershy," Rainbow said.
"Where's Starlight?" Applejack asked.
"Well, if I knew that-" Clone Rarity's train of thought derailed when she spotted the cart full of camping gear. Her eyes widened as her greedy inhibitions came out. Laughing insanely, the unicorn copy dove into the cart, startling Rainbow and Applejack, watching in confusion and a bit of fear as Clone Rarity rummaged through Applejack's stuff. "This is mine! And this is mine!" She grabbed a telescope, glancing through it with a manic eye, then held it in a foreleg while took the compass, and then a fishing pole. "And this is ABSOLUTELY MINE!"
"Rarity, what in the hay are ya gonna do with a fishin' rod?" Applejack asked.
"...I don't know. But I WANTS it!" Clone Rarity barked as she glared suspiciously at the two mares questioning her.
Disturbed, thinking Rarity had lost her mind from the lack of anti-frizz haircare product in the woods, Rainbow and Applejack stepped away slightly, unsure what to do.
Rarity and Starlight walked through their path through the forest, the latter struggling to keep up with the fashionista with all the gear Applejack gave her. Starlight fell over several times from carrying what felt like half the camping gear, her face and body getting scuffed up from the dirt with each fall.
"Starlight, darling, you're a gloriously bad camper," Rarity said. "And coming from me, that is saying a lot."
"Thanks. Appreciate the compliment," Starlight sarcastically stated. "Want to break it to Applejack or Sora for me?"
"Who's breakin' what now?" Startled, Starlight and Rarity looked in the direction of the southern accent, Clone Applejack stepping forward as she bumped into the two unicorns. She recognized Rarity, mistaking her for the clone double, but looked at Starlight with a confused stare. "Who are you?"
"Ha ha, Applejack, very funny," Starlight said. "It's still me under all this stuff. Starlight."
Realizing who this mare was, the fake Applejack grinned as she had the perfect idea to get on her queen's good side. "How about that?" she mumbled, then walked on ahead. "Y'all better come with me. It's, uh, dangerous out here."
"Applejack, darling, are you alright?" Rarity asked, growing a bit suspicious with "Applejack's" odd behavior and leaving Rainbow Dash by herself. "You look a little peaky. And where is your wagon?"
Clone Applejack scrunched her muzzle and shifted her eyes. "Uh...Stolen! B-Barely got away!" she lied. "Follow me, and Ah'll tell ya all about it."
Starlight and Rarity followed Clone Applejack, the former sighing irritably as she was forced to lug all this camping gear all over the forest.
Twilight found herself in the swamps in the Everfree Forest. Hovering over the water, she looked around for Pinkie, having no clue where she could even be if she can pop out of one bush one moment, then hang upside down a tree in the next. Luckily, it didn't take long to find her sitting on the thick roots of a tree near the water, though it was the Clone Pinkie, staring bitterly at the bubbling swamp.
"Pinkie! There you are!" Twilight flew up to the earth pony copy, though she grew concerned when she saw the look on her face. "What are you doing?"
Clone Pinkie pointed at the water, where a big bubble bloated up on the surface, then popped after stretching as far as it could. "You call that a pop!?" Clone Pinkie exclaimed, followed by an annoyed, bored groan as she slumped against the trunk of the tree.
"I thought you were racing to the retreat," Twilight said.
"Please. Why would I waste my time on a boring, lame, no-fun retreat?" Clone Pinkie questioned.
The bored and fun-hating clone hopped out of her seat and wandered off, stunning Twilight with her response. "W-What?" She plopped down on the root Clone Pinkie sat on, feeling devastated that Pinkie was no longer interested in the retreat she worked so hard on for everyone. She looked up, spotting Clone Rainbow Dash flying overhead, thinking it was the real prismatic pegasus. "Rainbow Dash! I think something's wrong with Pinkie!"
"Not my problem," Clone Rainbow called out.
Shocked, Twilight fell off the root while trying to get "Rainbow's" attention, splashing into the murky swamp water. She resurfaced, letting out a dejected sigh, then crawled out of the muck after wondering if this retreat was a good idea. She didn't even bother shaking the water out of her fur.
"Uhh, Twilight? You there?" Sora said through the alicorn's communicator.
Groaning inwardly, Twilight touched her crystal earpiece. "What is it?"
"I found Fluttershy, but...the animals she tried to help somehow hate her." Twilight's ears twitched, thinking she misheard the stallion. "And...I saw Rainbow Dash fly off, without Applejack. She seemed a bit...off, like I've seen that 'off' part of her before, but I can't put my finger on it."
"I literally just saw her fly off, and she didn't even care when I found Pinkie, but she didn't want any part of the retreat anymore," Twilight said.
"...Ok, THAT is the sort of Pinkie I do not want to see again," Sora said after hearing him shudder at the thought of running into Pinkamena again.
"Sora...do you think this retreat is a dumb idea?" Twilight asked worriedly.
"Hey, don't think that, Twilight. Whatever's going on, we can fix this," Sora assured the alicorn. "Let's find the others and reach camp before it gets too dark. And avoid any cute critters you see. Especially ferrets."
"Alright. I hope you're right, Sora." Twilight flicked off whatever water lingered in her fur, then flew back down her path to figure out what was happening.
Xion carefully followed Clone Twilight and Pinkie Pie through the dense foliage, making sure nothing happened to the bubbly, oblivious pink earth pony. She couldn't help but grin as the alicorn copy was being pestered by the excitable Pinkie, suffering internally with the sheer randomness of the party pony. Pinkie continued talking about how they found the Elements of Harmony, getting their unique powers from the chest the Tree of Harmony gave them, something about oatmeal, how her cutie mark saved Equestria, and every other random story that got in the clone's nerves.
Sadly, her rambling stopped when they heard crying approaching them, along with some frustrated grunts and angry animal chatter. Xion peeked through the bushes, gasping silently in surprise as she saw Fluttershy and Sora heading in Pinkie and Clone Twilight's direction. She wanted to distract them, steer them away from the fake alicorn, but she feared Clone Twilight would do something drastic if push came to shove.
"For goodness sake, get away from us, you varmints!" Sora exclaimed, shooing the critters that were still chasing them and upsetting Fluttershy with whatever hateful things they were saying to her. He grimaced when Fluttershy let out a depressed whine. "Oh geeze, I didn't mean to call them that, Flutters. Applejack's countryisms are rubbing off on me."
"Sora! Fluttershy!" Pinkie called out, getting the stallion's attention, though Clone Twilight stared in shock as she encountered the stallion. "Oh my gosh, what happened to Fluttershy?"
"E-Everycreature is mad at me!" Fluttershy blubbered.
Shocked, Pinkie let out a loud gasp. "What!? That can't be right!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Tell me about it. And these animals won't leave us al-AGH!" Wincing, he lifted his left hind leg, where the same ferret he tried to pet was gnawing at his limb. He shook his leg, trying not to kick it and hurt it for Fluttershy's sake, but he was losing his patience with the thin, fuzzy critter. "Will you stop biting me!? I was going to pet you nicely!"
"No, no, no! Sora, get away from that Twilight!" Xion hissed, frozen in place as she continued hiding.
Clone Twilight watched Sora, relieved to see he didn't notice anything wrong with her, though she was confused by the fact the Fluttershy and Pinkie here weren't really her cloned companions. After shooing the animals, Sora glanced at Pinkie.
"So, Pinkie, I just told Twilight I found Fluttershy, and she said you didn't like the retreat?" he questioned the pink earth pony.
"Wait, what? When did I say that?" Pinkie questioned back. "I ran on ahead to see the fun stuff we'll do at camp! Twilight was even quizzing me on the Tree of Harmony and the Elements!"
"Not even a minute ago. I spoke with Twilight through our communicators," Sora said, reminding the earth pony of the crystal earpiece he and the Keyblade wielders used. "Twilight even saw Rainbow Dash fly off not that long ago either. Did you see her?"
"Ugh! Whatever nonsense you're going on about, can we hurry this up!?" Clone Twilight exclaimed. "We're on a schedule here!"
Now Sora gave Twilight a disturbed look. He just spoke with her, hearing the sadness in her voice, and now she's getting all bitter and offensive.
"Twilight, forget the schedule!" Pinkie said. "Fluttershy's really upset!"
"Then tell her to get over it!" the clone said. Fluttershy began to whimper and cry harder, burying her face in Sora's jacket, her remark definitely waving red flags around the Keyblade wielder. He and Pinkie knew how sensitive Fluttershy can be, even though she had gotten a lot more bolder within the last few years. Clone Twilight rolled her eyes, ignoring the odd looks as she wandered on ahead. "I'll go and get the others. You all stay right here."
Xion felt sorry for Fluttershy. Her clone must have been the one who caused the critters to get cross with her, and she's taking the brunt of their ire while the pegasus copy was somewhere in the Everfree causing more trouble. Sneaking through the underbrush, she would have to apologize to everyone for all this confusion later. She needed to catch up to Clone Twilight before she found the other clones or Chrysalis, and she'd rather be with the fake alicorn if they ran into the tyrannical changeling queen.
Not even a moment later, the real Twilight found Sora, Fluttershy, and Pinkie, however, she glared at Pinkie, thinking she was the one who got Fluttershy upset as she approached them. "Oh, great, Pinkie. You upset Fluttershy, too?"
"What!?" Pinkie shrieked.
"Twilight, YOU'RE the one who upset Fluttershy even more!" Sora argued while patting the upset pegasus mare's back. Twilight was baffled at the claim, only just meeting up with them now. "And you said you were going to find the others!"
"But...But I just found you three!" Twilight argued back.
"You know what, Twilight? Maybe if you weren't so worried about schedules, you'd realize YOU'RE the one ruining the retreat for your friends!" Pinkie accused.
Shocked, Twilight lost any logical reasoning for Pinkie's flip-flopping behavior. "Well, if my friends don't care about the retreat I planned for them, maybe they should've stayed home!"
Sora dropped his anger toward Twilight, nothing between the two mares' arguments making any sense. Twilight said Pinkie didn't want anything to do with the retreat, but did care about Fluttershy's misery with the animals who somehow hated her for no reason. Then Twilight was found with Pinkie and was frustrated and irritated at first, only to leave and come back feeling hurt that no one was appreciating all she was doing for all of them.
"Can't we all just get along!?" Fluttershy sobbed as the fighting kept escalating, confusing the four friends even more.
"What in the name of light and darkness is going on today?" Sora uttered, feeling his brain melt in befuddlement at what was supposed to be a fun adventurous trek through the woods was now turning into an emotional drama.
Xion finally caught up with Clone Twilight, surprising the alicorn as she shook off the branches and leaves that clung onto her coat. "There you are! Where were you?" Clone Twilight asked. "I thought you were right behind me."
"Excuse me if I didn't want to get caught by Sora. Or the real Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie," Xion stated, giving the fake Princess of Friendship a blank stare as she flicked a twig at her face.
Clone Twilight batted the tiny twig away with a scowl, which turned into a sadistic smirk. "Oh. So you didn't want Sora to see Chrysalis's disappointing copy of himself? Pretty smart for a worthless clone."
Xion growled, but her eyes flicked to some movement behind Clone Twilight. Through the dense trees, Chrysalis approached them, though the clones of Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity were no longer with her. The alicorn didn't notice their "queen's" presence, which made Xion smirk a little, coming up with an idea to get the double-crosser into some serious trouble.
"At least I'm smart enough not to get myself caught when Queen Chrysalis isn't ready to begin her brilliant plan to use the Elements of Harmony against everyone," Xion said. "Can't really work when we still haven't found the others."
"Oh, we'll find those imbeciles, and my plan will come together." Chrysalis's eyes grew wide, then squinted to a sneer as she glares at her. "And when I get them, you'll be the first to-"
"YOUR plan?" Clone Twilight gasped, quickly turning to face the irate changeling monarch standing behind her.
Clone Twilight glanced at Xion for a brief moment before looking back at Chrysalis and quickly bowing her head to her ruler. "I-I meant THE plan," she corrected, but Chrysalis wasn't buying it. "I was just doing your bidding, Your Majesty."
"Grub-sitting you seven is nothing like controlling my hive!" Chrysalis said, shooting Xion a warning glare, who was smirking at first, but quickly wiped it away, remembering her brand that marked her as the changeling's slave. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't destroy the lot of you and start over!"
"Because I know where the Elements of Harmony are," Clone Twilight calmly said. Xion gasped in shock as she got Chrysalis's attention. The alicorn lifted her head up, slyly smirking at the changeling. "You need me."
Chrysalis's grin widened, finally getting a lead. "Finally starting to become useful." She looked back at Xion, using her magic to drag the Nobody across the ground to her by the breast of her black coat. Xion began to panic, wincing slightly as she felt her magic searing into the mark the queen placed on her, threatening to shock her to death. "Unlike you. Maybe if you didn't suffer any migraines from your failed birth, those memories would have helped find the Elements' location much sooner. You have one last chance to show me you're worth being my personal guard, Xion. Because next time, I will snuff out your life with one little spell."
Xion gulped nervously, quickly nodding her head. She was embarrassed, being completely humiliated and one-upped by the fake alicorn relishing in her misery.
"Mine. Mine. Mine!" Clone Rarity cackled insanely, walking ahead of Rainbow Dash and Applejack while her magic carried everything from the cart and huddled them close to her. "All mine. It's all mine!"
"Ok, Rarity didn't snap this badly when we went camping last time," Rainbow uttered to Applejack. "Did she get cursed by something? Or did she step in poison joke again?"
"Couldn't have been poison joke. Sora drank an essence of it from Zecora to let Sweetie Belle take part in the last Sisterhooves Social, and he turned back into a mare," Applejack said.
"Oh yeah." Rainbow snorted, letting out a quiet giggle while Applejack smirked. "I still remember how much he freaked out about that the first time. And I think one of the judges hit on him. Or did they hit on your brother when he dressed up like a mare?"
"What are you laughing at!?" Clone Rarity shouted. "I can hear you plotting back there! Don't think you're going to take my things!"
The fake unicorn fashionista ran away from Applejack and Rainbow Dash, however, she wound up getting tangled up in a bunch of vines hanging under a tree branch. She struggled to get out, getting the camping supplies stuck with her and making her bound self get even more tangled.
"Hold on, Rarity," Applejack said. She looked back in her cart, though most of her stuff was in the unicorn's possession. "Ah had a shovel in here. We could use that to whack the vines."
"She's obviously holding onto that," Rainbow said, spotting said shovel with the struggling clone.
Clone Rarity tried gnawing at the vines to cut herself loose, but when she saw Rainbow reaching out for "her" shovel, she snapped and went mad. "I knew it! I knew you wanted it all to yourselves! You can't have it!" With an incredible amount of strength, Rainbow flapped away as the unicorn clone grunted and strained her muscles to push against the thick vines. She actually managed to snap through them, falling to the ground and shocking the two physically tough mares of the Mane Six. Clone Rarity stood back up, snatching back the shovel and the other camping gear she took, snarling like a mad beast at the two mares. "It's mine, you hear me!? MIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!!!!!"
Clone Rarity sprinted off, laughing maniacally and disappeared deeper into the woods. Applejack and Rainbow Dash glanced at each other, having no idea what just happened.
"...Yeah, I think she snapped," Rainbow said. "We might have to leave her out of our next sibling camping trip to Winsome Falls."
"Eeyup," Applejack agreed.
"So there Ah was. Just me and, uh, a bucket of honey. Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket." Clone Applejack continued her endlessly fabricated story of her camping "experience" with Rarity and Starlight. Starlight was getting miserable hefting all this camping gear, despising the outdoors, despising the heavy stuff Applejack forced upon her, and despising the infernal flies constantly flying up in her face. Clone Applejack stopped, to Starlight's irritation, continuing her tall tale. "B-But Ah survived all by mahself in this here forest for, uh, a hundred and...twenty-seven hours!"
"Really? I can't believe you've never told us that story before," Rarity said.
"She's making a point," Starlight said. "We get it. You're the greatest camper in the history of Equestria."
"Well, Ah sure don't need any of that silly stuff you're luggin' around," Clone Applejack said to Starlight.
Shocked, Starlight glared at the fake farm pony, Rarity also appalled as she leered at Clone Applejack. "Uh, the things YOU gave me are silly!?" she exclaimed angrily.
The clone laughed mockingly at Starlight. "Just look in a mirror. Guess Ah should have told ya that before, huh?"
While Clone Applejack continued to laugh, Starlight was hurt and insulted as she began to tear up. "Well, I'm glad I was so entertaining for you!"
Starlight took off all of the gear she had been carrying for the last couple hours, tossing them at Clone Applejack's hooves before running away crying her eyes out. "Starlight, wait!" Rarity called out, absolutely appalled by "Applejack's" harsh comments when she had tried to help Starlight experience a good first camping trip. "I am going to make sure she doesn't break a hoof out there, and then you and I are going to have a serious talk!"
Rarity chased after Starlight, but Clone Applejack just shrugged it off as she watched the unicorn leave. "Finally! There she is!" Clone Applejack turned around, startled to see Chrysalis, along with the other clones found. Stumped, the cloned farm mare looked back in the direction she thought she saw was her unicorn companion, then looked back at the Clone Rarity who was clutching her stolen belongings with her magic. "Nopony leaves without my say-so."
"Now, wait a second here. Weren't ya just-?" Applejack ducked when Chrysalis shot a beam of magic at her.
She quickly ducked, barely getting struck in the head as her hat was knocked off her head. "SILENCE! The time for my revenge has finally come!" Chrysalis exclaimed, startling her clones, then looked down at Clone Twilight. "Let's see if you're telling the truth about this tree."
Chrysalis chuckled maniacally as she led her army in the direction Clone Twilight said where the Tree of Harmony and the Elements of Harmony were located. The alicorn copy smirked, ready to stab her queen in the back once she and her clone allies took the Elements for themselves. Xion, however, was really terrified. She had to stop both the changeling and the alicorn clone from gaining the mystical gems that kept this world protected with harmony, but she couldn't do it alone if they both decided to team up against her. Clone Twilight was already well-versed with her Keyblade, and Chrysalis could paralyze her with a flick of her magic aura. She had to do something fast, but she was beginning to run out of time as they kept getting closer to the empty ravine where the Tree of Harmony resided.
Sora sat in the middle of a heated argument between Pinkie and Twilight while Fluttershy sobbed in misery. Nothing about what was happening between them made any sense with their sudden mood swings and fighting about the retreat. He was snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Starlight and Rarity tumble down the cliff near where they were, followed by Applejack and Rainbow Dash finally joining them, but the cart was of camping supplies Applejack didn't put on Starlight was completely empty. And Starlight seemed to have lost or taken off the gear she had.
"Of course I care about Fluttershy!" Pinkie exclaimed at Twilight. "We both have the same voice actress!"
"The hay is that supposed to mean!?" Twilight shrieked, trying to ignore the random comment Pinkie made while getting more frustrated with her. "You have really funny ways of showing how you truly care, Pinkie! And not in a hilarious way!"
"What in Equestria is going on here?" Rarity demanded after she and Starlight recovered from their fall.
"Ah'd like to know, too," Applejack said, her and Rainbow giving Rarity a suspicious stare. "Would have gotten here much sooner, but we had to take the long way around after Rarity ran off with all mah stuff."
"What!?" Rarity shrieked, aghast, sputtering in absurdity before turning her attention to the farm mare. "I most certainly did not!"
"You were with us for the last hour or so!" Rainbow interjected. "You just took everything that was left and ran off!"
"I was with Starlight Glimmer! Applejack should know when she bumped into us!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Ah was with Rainbow Dash the whole time! Ah ain't a liar, Rarity!" Applejack exclaimed right back. When she looked at Starlight, who was still sore from the painful comment, Applejack noticed the lack of camping gear. "Wait. Starlight, what happened to your gear?"
"Why? So you can laugh at me some more!?" Starlight shouted.
"Laugh? What did Ah say?" Applejack questioned.
"Because you just said I looked stupid with all that dumb camping equipment you put on me!" Starlight said, her voice cracking as she was about to break down in tears again.
"But Ah wasn't with y'all!" Applejack argued.
"Yeah! I can vouch for AJ!" Rainbow swore.
"How!?" Fluttershy spoke up. "You just flew away and abandoned me and Sora!"
"Huh!? I was with Applejack the whole time when we split up to look for you, Fluttershy!" Rainbow exclaimed.
The arguing got worse and worse, no one's stories making any sense with who said what and who did that. Sora looked at everyone, his eyes shifting to each different arguing group as everything got out of hand really fast. Gritting his teeth, finally having enough, Sora summoned his Keyblade and raised it high in the air, pointing it down to the earth.
"ENOUGH!!!!!!!!" he shouted, thrusting his Keyblade down hard into the ground, causing the ground around them to shake violently. The girls finally went silent, nearly stumbling over from the magical quake, barely disturbing the woods or the creatures surrounding them. Now that all eyes were on Sora, he leapt on top of the guard of his Keyblade, using it as a perch as he looked down at everyone. "This is going absolutely nowhere! We're all just pointing hooves at each other, but nothing anyone of you is saying is making any sense! Pinkie said Twilight was too focused on the retreat to care, but Twilight said she was being a grump and didn't want to have fun at the retreat, but she actually does! Rainbow and Applejack were teamed up together, but Rainbow Dash flew off on her own, ignoring Fluttershy and myself, and Applejack was with Rainbow, but was also with Starlight and Rarity, while they were together and Applejack joined up with them, but then Rarity grouped up with Applejack and Rainbow!"
"Dude, I've literally been hovering just at the height of the trees all-!" Before Rainbow could argue any further, Sora turned to give the cyan pegasus mare a deadly glare. That angry, disturbed expression on his face was something none of the girls had seen on the stallion before. Rainbow gulped nervously, quickly looking down and avoiding eye contact with him. "...Shutting up."
Taking in a deep breath, Sora composed himself before continuing resolving this mysterious turn of events. "Now, I have no idea what happened when we all got separated, but, I for one and so thankful that we came up with the idea of taking these enchanted ornaments with us for situations like these." Digging into his pocket, Sora fished out his ornament, holding it out like a golden idol that the mares should worship before them. "We are going to figure out what the heck happened, to ALL of us, put the pieces together, and try to make up for any of the mistakes we made on what was supposed to be a fun retreat for all of us." Hopping off his Keyblade, he dismissed his weapon and approached Fluttershy. "Twilight, Starlight, Rarity, would any one of you PLEASE enhance the image for the class to see? We will start with Fluttershy, since she was the first to wander off, helping a baby bird find its nest and their sibling when they both fell out. If you would be so kind, Fluttershy?"
Twilight was the first to volunteer with the spell, creating a wide viewing window connected to the ornament while Fluttershy nervously touched the enchanted piece of plastic in Sora's hoof. Silently, they all began playing back everyone's memories of what they all saw to try to match what the others had. Fluttershy was mostly by herself, helping the little bird friend before finding Rainbow, then Sora, followed by returning to the birds to be verbally harassed by the animals after suspecting her of terrifying them, which made no sense to anyone. Sora showed his memories next, which matched up to running into Rainbow Dash wandering off, then meeting Fluttershy, the animals, then to Pinkie and Twilight, where the alicorn made Fluttershy cry, only to suddenly return and scold Pinkie for upsetting Fluttershy.
Twilight was next, showing her searching the forest for Pinkie, finding her by the swamp for a brief moment before she wandered off, then spotted Rainbow Dash flying away, talking to Sora via their communicators, and finally to him, Fluttershy, and Pinkie, where she began scolding Pinkie for Fluttershy's distress. Then it was Pinkie's turn, who was mostly jumping from bush to bush until she found Twilight, then spouted random events about the Tree of Harmony, the Elements, their rainbow powers, etc., before they bumped into Sora and Fluttershy, where Twilight hurt Fluttershy's feelings and left to find the others, only to come back and scold Pinkie. Now that the problems between those four were all seen, they knew that there was definitely something off, and Sora's rage began to die down when he started putting the pieces together.
Now for the rest of the mares' stories and their claims. Starlight was next, with her beside Rarity all that time, then bumping into Applejack, who spouted some tall tales about camping and what happened to the wagon, then ran away from Applejack after being made fun of for the camping gear she carried throughout most of the trek. Rarity had the exact same memories Starlight had, just from her point of view, and she was honest when she said she never grouped up with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. One thing Sora noted in both unicorns' memory testimonies were the odd change in color Applejack's apple trio cutie mark were green when they were supposed to be red.
Then came Applejack's turn. She had been with Rainbow Dash all this time, though it made no sense how Sora, Fluttershy, and Twilight saw the rainbow-maned Wonderbolt flying away from everyone above the forest. Rarity eventually showed up, though upon seeing Rarity acting insane and taking everything from Applejack's wagon made Sora's jaw drop as it all finally clicked. He didn't finish watching Applejack's memories and quickly went to Rainbow's. Same exact moments, but from Rainbow's eyes, and even through the end, Rainbow had stuck by Applejack's side all this time.
Once everyone saw the whole story from everyone's perspectives, they were all dead silent in shock, confusion. Sora knew he recognized the odd behaviors from the Mane Six, aside from Twilight: "Rainbow Dash" abandoning the search for Fluttershy and going about her own way, "Applejack" making up a bunch of stories that made no sense and fabricating details, "Pinkie" being moody and grumpy, disliking any fun and wanting to stay bored and miserable, "Rarity" taking away all of Applejack's belongings and hoarding them all to herself, and though they never saw her, but if the animals got mad at one of the nicest ponies in the entire world, there had to have been another "Fluttershy" that was downright despicable and mean to them and mistook her for that other pegasus.
"...Dear, sweet Celestia," Sora uttered, losing his grip on the ornament as it fell out of his hoof. "I thought you girls were acting strange..." His eye twitched, his muzzle clenching into a gritted growl, knowing exactly who was responsible for those very same polar opposites of his Equestrian friends. "DISCOOOOOOOOOORD!!!!!!!!"
In a flash, Discord popped in while wearing a frilly apron and a messy feather duster, with Dizzy accompanying him while the younger draconequus was covered in dust. "Alright, alright, who called my name while I'm in the middle of summer/fall cleaning?"
Dizzy noticed the stallion's furious gaze, wincing slightly as he floated away from Discord. "Umm, I think you might be in trouble."
"What? I've done nothing all day," Discord nonchalantly said. "This isn't even my epi-"
Sora quickly tackled Discord, pinning him down to the ground with a dark, overly cheerful grin as he loomed over the startled draconequus. "Heeeeeeey, Discord," Sora said, his voice dripping with sarcasm as his hooves slowly pushed harder against Discord's slim chest. "Buddy. Pal. Old friend. What'cha...What'cha been up to?"
"I just said I was doing some cleaning around my home," DIscord said. "Well, in the chaotic sense, at least. But not too much on Tuesdays for mine and Fluttershy's weekly get-togethers. After the last time I tried to be normal, it almost killed me."
"Really? Well, do you recall when we first met?" Sora asked. "When you...tricked us into the hedge maze outside Celestia's castle to find the Elements?"
"I do," Discord said, barely phased as Sora tried to put pressure on his chest and threateningly inched his face closer to his.
"And, when you did get us, you remember how you changed the girls, my friends, including your dearest friend, Fluttershy, but not Twilight, you changed their personalities into the opposite of the Elements they're meant to represent to beat us?" Sora asked curiously, tilting his head and raised one of his wings up to his ear, fluttering his eyes as he waited for the answer he wanted to hear.
"...Yes, though there are moments I do regret doing that looking back on my...formerly evil ways," Discord said, slowly growing suspicious with Sora's interrogation. "...Why are you asking me?"
"Oh! I'm so glad you asked!" Sora overdramatically laughed, startling the girls watching him slowly devolve into madness while Dizzy pressed up against Fluttershy nervously. Sora then smacked Discord's chest a couple times, though much harder than intended for a friendly gag between buddies, though Discord wasn't bothered by it. "Because, this little retreat we were meant to be on to have FUN and ENJOY each other's COMPANY was kinda ruined by some of us not acting like ourselves! And by that-" Sora quickly lost his fake smile and frowned angrily at the draconequus. "-I mean why the hell did you make clones of the girls as the exact opposite personalities running around the Everfree Forest, giving all of us grief, and spouting an all out war of arguments between all of us."
Discord blinked a couple times while Sora scowled at the draconequus. Discord gave Sora an unamused, deadpanned stare, then let out an annoyed sigh. With a snap of his fingers, he teleported Sora's enchanted ornament in his paw, then held it in front of Sora.
"Before you insinuate I made clones of all of you, I can only do copies of myself." Another snap of his digits, and three more Discords appeared around Sora. The draconequus copies grimaced nervously at the stallion's frazzled nerves, carefully lifting him off the real Discord, then set him down while trying to settle his nerves by massaging his neck, back, and wings, which didn't do much to deter the Keyblade wielder. "And like I said, I have been busy all day at my chaotic abode to pull any pranks on anypony, doing some tidying here and there."
To prove his innocence, Discord played back his day with Dizzy at his chaotic house in his chaotic void. Both draconequi were doing chaotic chores around the house, though in the weirdest way that would be considered tidying for chaotic reasons. Discord ran a vacuum through the living room, but it blew out dust into the carpet rather than sucking it up. Dizzy was doing dishes, but he placed clean dishes into the soap water, which only got dirty as he placed them on a drying rack. The other chores did some menial cleaning tasks in the opposite way, though they didn't go too crazy to make the house a mess by keeping it as messy, but also as clean for Fluttershy on her visits.
The duo took a small break in the living room, sipping some apple juice from glasses, though they drank the glass instead of the liquid, which somehow turned into a solid as they "drank" their refreshment. "I'd say this house is looking quite chaotic," Discord said.
"Yup!" Dizzy agreed. "Although, would you have to keep it clean a lot if Fluttershy wanted to move in with us?"
"What are you talking about?" Discord in the memory questioned his younger self while the Discord before the group raised a brow in shock, confused as the memory continued without his say so.
"Oh, you know what I'm talking about," Dizzy said, giving his older self a knowing smirk. Snapping his smaller digits, Dizzy created a miniature doll of Discord and Fluttershy. Discord's eyes popped out of his skull in surprise, glancing down at the ornament, then back to the scene everyone was watching, including a curious Fluttershy while Dizzy had a cocky grin on his little muzzle. "'Oh, Fluttershy, you make my chaotic heart beat like the first part of your name. You helped change my life for the better.' 'Oh, you are so very welcome, Discord! Anything for a friend!' 'No, I want us to be more than friends!' 'D-Discord, what are you trying to say?' 'Kiss me, my little pony!' 'Oh, Discord!'"
While Dizzy changed the tone of his voice to act out the childish romantic scene he was creating, the young draconequus tapped both the dolls' muzzles together and made kissing noises. Discord turned white as a ghost, literally, quickly tapping the ornament to get the memory to stop, but it was already too late. Discord's clones snickered, leaving Sora be while he and the other mares stared at the scene with awkward silence. Fluttershy, however, blushed, covering her mouth with her hooves. She glanced down at Dizzy, embarrassed, but curious as to whether or not Discord LIKED her. The young draconequus just looked up at her with an innocent smile, though the half-lidded gaze filled with impish malice to get under his older self's skin gave her his answer.
"I-I...This thing must be broken. S-Some...strange interference," Discord tried to reason.
He was about to break the bauble before it finally got caught off, but it gave him no relief when Fluttershy got a hint of how he felt about the yellow, kindhearted pegasus. "...Uhhhh...Ok," Sora uttered. "...I...I believe you."
Sora took back his ornament, then backed away when Discord slowly turned his head, the upper half of his face growing dark as a menacing yellow glint flashed in his eye, glaring directly at Dizzy. The other Discord clones knew what was coming, all three of them raising their hands up to their faces: the left one covering his eyes, the middle one covering his mouth, and the right one covering his ears before they disappeared in a flash. Dizzy uttered a nervous sound, but as he tried to back away, Discord appeared behind him, snatched him by the tail, and held him upside down as he raised him up in the air. Dizzy squirmed, whimpering slightly as Discord's face was still dark and blank, leaving only his muzzle visible.
"Dizzy, you're gonna regret that," Discord uttered darkly. The young draconequus gulped, terrified of what his older self was going to do to him. "...Time for a bath."
"...Uhhh, a-a chaotic bath?" Dizzy hopefully asked.
Discord lifted his other hand, revealing a loofah on a stick as his lips curled into a sinister grin. "A real bath." Dizzy blanched, then screamed and flailed about, unable to escape his older self's grip on his tail. He quickly looked back at Fluttershy, the darkness around his face gone as he grinned, embarrassed and nervous after what was revealed. "I'll see you Tuesday at our usual date, Fluttershy! B-But not THAT kind of date, I mean our usual tea time get-together! Toodles!"
With a snap, Discord teleported back home. Fluttershy blinked, unsure what to think, or if what happened was just Discord and Dizzy being silly.
"...Oh...my," Fluttershy mumbled.
"...Uhhh, so...I guess it wasn't Discord messing with us to teach us some sort of friendship lesson," Sora said. He put away his ornament and sat on his haunches, stumped by who those doppelgangers were that they all saw. "...Was it some...strange, out of control magic illusion?"
"That seemed all too real? Unlikely," Twilight mumbled. The group all stood or sat in silence, looking back on what they all witnessed from everyone's points of view. Twilight eventually spoke up again with a sigh. "I guess, even with mysterious doubles throwing us off, we end up getting on each other's nerves. I just wanted to make a fun trip with my friends, but...maybe I did get a little carried away with my schedules and plans and ruined it. I understand if you all want to go back and forget about the retreat. I won't be offended."
"I'm actually glad it didn't escalate to something much worse," Sora said. "Whatever those doppelgangers were, I hope we don't see them again."
"Ah'm sorry Ah got carried away with all that campin' stuff," Applejack apologized to Starlight.
"I'm sorry, too," Starlight said. "I should have just told you and Sora I'll never like camping. Also, I'll NEVER like camping."
'Well, if we're all being honest, I cannot survive with just this tiny yet fashionable little saddlebag!" Rarity exclaimed, gesturing to her light camping gear. "I miss my things."
"Twilight, I'm really sorry if you thought that I thought your plan was lame," Pinkie said. "Your plans are the most un-lamest!"
"And I always have fun when we're all together," Rainbow added. "Even if there's learning involved and we have to pretend it's fun."
"So...does this mean you still want to have the retreat?" Twilight asked everyone hopefully.
"Yes!" everyone said, though Fluttershy didn't answer with them as they looked at her.
"Umm...if everypony likes me again," she said.
Sora laughed and hugged the pegasus. "Fluttershy, none of us have ever hated you since this whole mess started!" he assured the animal loving pegasus. Soon the girls piled up with the two pegasi into a group hug, but Pinkie jumped into it, causing everyone to fall over, laughing and reconciling now that they knew it was all a case of mistaken identities. As Sora looked up to the sky, the sun was beginning to set, the orange glow of the fading light slowly turning to night. "Let's get to the campsite and get whatever we have left set up for the night."
"I've already got that well prepared," Twilight said. "I had it all set up yesterday in advance."
"Now, who could ever hate being overprepared with great news like that?" Sora teased.
Everyone got up after another small laugh while Sora earned a light punch in the shoulder from Twilight for his jab at her scheduling and pre-planning. Making their way back toward the path, they continued walking safely through the woods toward the Castle of the Two Sisters and the Tree of Harmony.
Xion grimaced as she and her entourage of clones and changeling monarch stood near the wooden bridge, looking down at the chasm split between the forest and the ruins of Celestia and Luna's former castle one thousand years ago. Xion could see the many tents Twilight must have set up for everyone for the retreat, grateful that neither of them had shown up just yet. Chrysalis found the stone stairs leading down into the dried up ravine, guiding her army down to the bottom of the steps, where they could see the cave where the Tree of Harmony resided.
"Ugh. What is this garbage?" Clone Pinkie asked as she pointed at the campsite.
"Badger installation art!" Clone Applejack said. "Ya see-"
Chrysalis quickly cut off the lying earth pony, having enough of their shenanigans to last several lifetimes. "Just! Retrieve! The Elements!" she ordered angrily, done with the senseless stalling.
The clones moved on ahead, going past the campsite. Xion growled when she saw Clone Fluttershy knocking down the tents and stomping on them, while Clone Rarity began to take even more things, helping the pegasus tear up the camp and ruin Twilight's hard work. Chrysalis stayed back, keeping an eye on them to make sure neither of them ran off, otherwise she'd blast them. Xion noticed Clone Twilight talking to her clone companions, no doubt plotting to take the Elements of Harmony for themselves and use them against Chrysalis. As insane as Chrysalis had gotten with this idea creating all of them, including unintentionally bringing her to life from Sora's heart, the clones of the Mane Six were going to do far more harm than what the changeling queen would have done.
"Chrysalis, can I have a word with you?" Xion asked.
"Excuse me? Are you demanding me to listen to you?" Chrysalis questioned, giving the Nobody the stink eye.
Ignoring the threatening gaze, Xion continued. "Whether or not you want to believe me, you cannot trust your clones."
"And why not?" Chrysalis asked with a suspicious quirk of her brow.
"Because they're planning to use the Elements of Harmony against you, not for you," she said.
"...You're right. I DON'T believe you!" Chrysalis zapped Xion, causing her body to convulse as she cried out in agony. The shocks finally stopped after a painful few seconds, making the mare fall to her knees. "You have done nothing relatively useful for me since I created you! I think you are the one who will betray me when you attempted to strike me within your first few minutes of life!"
Chrysalis kicked Xion hard while she was down, making the mare grunt and roll away as she tried to recover from the shock. The changeling queen stomped over to the cave to join her real army, ignoring the random camp that was now a destroyed mess. Xion groaned as she sat up, finally fed up with being constantly mistreated by an egomaniac of a leader and whatever minions followed them.
"Screw it," Xion muttered. She called her Keyblade, deciding to show Chrysalis, Clone Twilight, and the other messed up copies of the other mares how strong she truly was and she was done being treated like nothing. With her blade in her mouth, she dashed up toward the cave, disappearing in a flash of light and zipped past Chrysalis, startling her as she stumbled after nearly getting brushed past her. Xion passed the clones, then rammed into all of them, pushing them all away from the entrance of the cave before reappearing and blocking their path. Chrysalis looked behind her, where she last left Xion, shocked to see what the Nobody had just done. "I tried to be compliant! I tried to give you a warning about your actual lapdog! But in the end, Chrysalis, all you ever care about is yourself! None of you are getting the Elements of Harmony!"
Clone Twilight got up with a growl, using her magic to teleport in front of Xion with her Keyblade out and slamming it down on her, but Xion quickly blocked it as both mares pushed against each other. "What are you doing!?"
"What am I doing!?" Xion repeated.
"Thwarting my plans!?" Clone Twilight questioned.
"Thwarting your plans?" Xion repeated again.
"Thwarting YOUR plans!?" Chrysalis exclaimed angrily.
"ARE YOU!?" the alicorn shouted at Xion, ignoring the scowling changeling ready to blast her to pieces as she admitted her treachery.
"...You know what? YES!" Xion managed to shove Clone Twilight back, to the alicorn's shock, then let out a yell as her body was engulfed in a bright light, unleashing her inner power. The blinding light caused the clones and Chrysalis to cover their eyes, but when it died down and they could see again, they were shocked to see what stood before them. Xion was now in her true Nobody form as a pony: her body looking like a full suit of thick, rubbery-looking armor, which matched similarly to Sora's clothing in shades of black, reddish-pink, white, and gold, her head resembling closely to Sora's hairstyle while it looked more like a helmet, and as she stood on both hind legs, in both her forehooves, she grasped a pair of "Keyblades", but both blades had the shape of the Nobody sigil instead of the usual teeth her Keyblade had. But even though Xion's form resembled Sora, she lacked the pegasus wings in this transformation, which left her pony body as an earth pony's underneath her black coat. "I'm getting rid of you, the other fakes, then I'm going to kick Chrysalis out of this kingdom for the rest of her miserable existence!"
"...We're not impressed!" Clone Applejack called out, her exclamation clearly a lie as she seemed a bit terrified staring at Xion now.
As startled as Clone Twilight was, her shock quickly faded, giving the Nobody a cocky grin. "Well, I was definitely wrong about you now. You're CLEARLY a much worse mistake than I thought! If you wanted to prove you were supposed to be Sora, a dumb transformation like that doesn't even come close to being him by a smidge!"
"...Don't underestimate me." Xion swiftly charged toward the alicorn copy with a shout, both blades rising up to cross slash Clone Twilight.
Taken aback by Xion's speed, Clone Twilight didn't let the Nobody's abilities deter her as she leapt away. Xion went on the offensive, having the advantage with two swords in hand, putting the alicorn on her hooves as she dealt with a mare who was able to fight and keep her balance on two legs. Chrysalis and the other clones watched in frightened awe as the two mares clashed blades, the front half of the cave and the ravine their intense battlefield while Xion made sure to keep her fight with Clone Twlight as far from the Tree of Harmony as possible. With Xion's attention only on the alicorn, Chrysalis had a chance to take the Elements of Harmony from both mares who planned to betray her.
"Get those Elements now!" Chrysalis ordered the other clones.
"You want us to sneak past them while they're fighting, getting us caught in the crossfire?" Clone Pinkie questioned. "That's not fun at all!"
"JUST GET THEM!" Chrysalis roared, blasting the five copies' hooves with several magic beams to get them moving.
They complied and ran to avoid the changeling's wrath. Xion slammed her blades down repeatedly against Clone Twilight as she kept her Keyblade up, blocking each strike to protect herself. While standing her ground, she noticed her companions sneaking around out of Xion's view. With a smirk, she blocked one last swing before blasting the Nobody in the chest with a magic beam, forcing her back and slid across the ground a few feet away.
"You're not doing a very good job keeping us from that tree, Xion," Clone Twilight mocked.
"Huh?" Xion chanced a glance behind her, letting out a shocked gasp when she saw the clones heading for the tree. "No!"
Xion made a big mistake turning her back on the alicorn. She tried to rush toward the clones, only for Clone Twilight to snatch her legs with her magic aura, trip her, then leapt up and slammed her hooves down on the Nobody's back, smashing her chest and stomach into the ground with a painful grunt. Fighting through the pain, Xion wasn't going to remain pinned forever. Bringing her hooves and swords together, she fused them as her body shimmered in an aura of light. Clone Twlight stared at Xion in confusion, watching her form's color shifting from its pink and white shade to a light and darker blue.
"What is happening?" the fake alicorn uttered, her eyes quickly shifting up when she saw the three-pointed tip of the blade pointed at her face.
"Firaga!" A large fireball appeared right in Clone Twilight's face, then exploded around her and Xion as it touched her snout. Clone Twilight cried out in pain as she was sent flying, freeing Xion as she quickly stood up with blue sparkles appearing under her hooves. She skated toward the clones, flicking her blade toward them. "Magnega!" A magnetic void appeared behind the five clones, sweeping them off their hooves as they got sucked by the gravitational spell. She reached the fake mares, using an Aero spell to forcefully fling the five mares back to the mouth of the cave with Clone Twilight. Panting, Xion grasped her fused sword with both hooves, splitting them apart as her body shimmered again, changing her body colors to bright and dark red. Bringing her two swords to her right side, the one in her right hoof rested over her shoulder, while the left was held at her hip. "I said NONE of you are getting to this tree!"
Chrysalis recalled her changelings mention how Sora transitioned into a different form back when he was under her spell. She thought that maybe Xion might have actually SUPPOSED to be Sora, but whatever she did with the spell to create his copy, she can't put her hoof on what went wrong. Clone Twilight got back up with a growl and flew toward the Nobody. Just as she blinked, Xion was already sprinting right at her, shortening the distance between them much faster than she anticipated. She barely held her Keyblade up in time as Xion slashed away with a flurry of dual-wielded strikes, constantly staggering the alicorn back and gave her no time to recover. Xion smacked Clone Twilight up in the air, leapt after her, then performed a spiral slashing finisher that slammed the alicorn back to the ground.
The clone grunted as she landed on her back, wincing slightly as she looked up, quickly raising her Keyblade to block the divebombing Nobody aiming toward her. Xion slammed her blades down on Clone Twilight, the sound of metal clanging against metal and cracking earth ringing out as the fake alicorn had created an imprint of her body from Xion's swift and rough landing on her. Despite the pain wracking her backside, she kept pushing back against Xion, but her strength was beginning to outweigh her own in the Nobody's Valor Form.
"Q-Queen...Chrysalis! H-Help...me!" Clone Twilight called out desperately.
"She's not going to help you! You were planning to use the Elements of Harmony against her from the very beginning!" Xion exclaimed. "You'd do the same to your other so-called allies to keep their power for yourself! You don't even know how to use your Keyblade, because like you, it's also a fake!"
"S-So...are you!" Clone Twilight grunted.
"I was always meant to be a fake, but unlike you, I actually found my heart!" Xion said. Glancing up, she saw Chrysalis and the clones watching, neither of the other fakes attempting to get past after getting flung away. "Chrysalis, you need to destroy this Twilight! She's not like the real one, and neither are the other copies of the girls! Where the real Twilight cares about her friends, this one is the complete opposite; she's only looking out for herself, and she could do far worse than any other villain in this world with her intellect!"
Chrysalis's eyes shifted between the fake Princess of Friendship and the incredibly powerful Nobody. She trusted neither of them after creating them, but if Xion was telling her the truth, she had to choose one of them to destroy first. Her eyes narrowed on Xion, spotting the mark on her upper chest that still remained, even after her transformation. Lighting up her horn, she roared and fired a powerful beam at the two mares.
As the magical beam came closer, Xion let out a gasp as it was aimed right at her. The moment it struck, the cursed mark lit up and began to violently shock her. Xion screamed in agony, her body unresponsive as it spasmed through every nerve inside her. With the alicorn freed from Xion's strength, she smirked at how stupid her queen was. Clone Twilight bucked her hind legs hard into Xion's gut, knocking the wind out of her as she gagged while still reeling from the endless wave of electric shocks Chrysalis continued to unleash on her. As soon as Clone Twilight got back on her hooves, she attacked the defenseless Nobody ruthlessly. Xion screamed in pain as the wild and powerful slashes from the fake's Keyblade burned through her body, dispelling her Valor Form while being knocked back closer and closer into the cave.
The other clones saw their opportunity, letting their real leader keep attacking Xion as they stepped inside the cave. Xion could barely raise her hooves to protect herself, and the shocks grew more lethal as Chrysalis continued paralyzing her. Clone Twilight cackled with a menacing grin as she physically abused the helpless Nobody. Pulling back her blade, she launched a magic beam of her own, striking Xion in the chest and sending her flying hard toward the Tree of Harmony.
Xion's back slammed against the crystal tree, letting out a strangled gasp from the impact as she bounced off it, Chrysalis finally canceling her spell. Xion's "armor" peeled away in several fading lights as they drifted off her like sparkles, reverting her back to her normal pony self. The Tree of Harmony flashed briefly upon contact, quickly disappearing as Xion fell to the ground with a grunt, her Keybade lost from her grip and clattered to the ground before disappearing in a flash of light. Laying prone several feet away from the Tree of Harmony, Xion remained conscious, but her body was in so much pain that she could barely move.
"So much for all that power," Clone Twilight scoffed, cracking her back slightly before joining the other fake Element bearers.
Chrysalis panted, watching her minions approach the tree, exhausted from putting all of her power into shocking Xion to death, but she still managed to cling on, even after Clone Twilight brutalized her. As they looked at the crystals shaped like the Mane Six's cutie marks, Clone Rarity's lips curled into an insane, twisted grin, giggling madly as her eyes flicked to the gems she wanted to hoard.
"That one is mine!" she claimed, pointing to the Element of Magic, which clearly didn't belong to her supposed Element, which began to glow in a dark aura.
The unicorn was about to run toward the tree, only for Clone Fluttershy to purposefully trip her. "Oops. I'd say sorry, but I'm not!" she said, her act of cruelty causing the Element of Kindness to glow the same ominous aura as Generosity.
Clone Rarity snarled at the pegasus, jumping up with a screech and tackled Clone Fluttershy, sending them rolling closer to the Tree of Harmony. Clone Twilight growled at her comrades' incomitance, watching the two quarreling mares fight while Clone Pinkie, Clone Rainbow, and Clone Applejack approached the tree, the grayish-cyan pegasus simply flopping down and lounging on one of the tree's roots while the earth pony fakes tried to shake the gems out from their placements. Neither of them noticed the Elements of Laughter, Loyalty, and Honesty had also glowed ominously, as if they were able to sense the presence of the evil counterparts of the true bearers.
"Stop fooling around!" Clone Twilight ordered Clone Fluttershy and Clone Rarity. "Get those Elements so we can take out Chrysalis and the Sora wannabe!"
"Not if I destroy you first!" Chrysalis shouted.
The alicorn clone quickly turned around, blocking a magic beam from the changeling with her Keyblade. Clone Twilight was pushed back a bit, but the mare came to a stop, her smirk hidden behind her blade. Chrysalis strained her mana to blast her creation, failing to push her back as her power was heavily drained. Clone Twilight let out a yell, smacking back the changeling queen's beam back at her. Chrysalis gasped, stuck in the chest as she flew back and tumbled across the ground, the deflected beam knocking the air out of her lungs.
"Long live the queen," Clone Twilight chuckled. Leaving her creator be for the moment, she turned back to Xion as she tried to get up. Forgetting about the Tree of Harmony and her useless copy comrades, she approached the Nobody. She gave Xion a hard kick in the side, rolling her on her back with a wheeze, then stomped a hoof down on the mare's chest. "You know, you almost had me there. Too bad Chrysalis couldn't trust you as much as she couldn't trust me."
Xion grunted, squinting her eyes open as she looked up at her foe. She looked at the Tree of Harmony, hearing the others either fighting with each other or the tree, letting out a faint gasp when she noticed the ominous darkness radiating from the Elements of Harmony resting on the branches. With the fake Twilight nearby, her eyes widened when she saw the Element of Magic getting corrupted by darkness.
"T-The Elements," she uttered in fear. "You're...Y-You're...corrupting the-"
The alicorn stomped her hoof down on Xion's chest again, making her gag, grimace, and cough as she struggled to breathe. "The Elements of Harmony belong to me now," she maliciously stated. "It is a shame that you won't be able to witness my triumph when I use them to kill that useless excuse of a queen and take over this pathetic world. But I won't waste their power on ending your life first." Raising her Keyblade, Clone Twilight moved her hoof off of Xion's chest and hovered her blade directly over the Nobody's heart. "A worthless nothing like you doesn't even deserve that honor. But don't worry. I'll make sure to give you a merciful death befitting a poor, useless mistake that should have never been born."
The alicorn clone slowly lifted her Keyblade higher, wanting to relish the fear in the Nobody's eyes before running her blade through her nonexistent heart. Xion could only watch, her body refusing to respond to her panicked brain. After several long, agonizing seconds, Clone Twilight began to thrust her blade down. Suddenly, the Tree of Harmony glowed brilliantly, and from its crystalline body, a tendril of light shot out from it, grasping the blade and stopping it from reaching Xion's chest by just barey an inch. Xion's breath hitched at the close call, but her eyes slowly trailed from the ethereal hand clutching the Keyblade to where it came from. Clone Twilight did the same, completely shocked. Even the other clones ceased their random antics as they stared at the odd tendril.
Chrysalis grunted, shaking her head as she rubbed her chest from her knocked back magic beam. She was grateful she didn't have much energy left to spare, but when she looked up to glare at her creation, her jaw dropped from the Tree of Harmony's retaliation from the amount of disharmony around it. The tendril yanked the alicorn copy's weapon away, holding it aloft between the ponies near it. It squeezed the blade as it pulsed with light, snapping it in half, though the sound it made as it was broken was more like snapping a twig, not bending metal. Everyone watched the fallen halves turn from a metal sword into nothing but thin pieces of wood, clattering to the ground harmlessly.
"...Mine?" Clone Rarity squeaked.
More tendrils flew out from the trunk of the Tree of Harmony, swiftly grasping the clones near it. All five clones yelped, held up in the air, not giving them any chance to escape. "W-What is this!? What's happening!?" Clone Twilight exclaimed. The tendril that took and destroyed the fake alicorn's Keyblade lunged for her, wrapping itself tightly around her barrel and hoisted her up along with the other clones. Chrysalis and Xion watched the tendrils pulsing and glowing with a bright light, their surprise quickly turning to horror when the Tree of Harmony began to drain out the negative magic energy from within them. Their bodies looked like they were melting, horribly disfiguring them, practically dying by the might of the powerful tree doing its duty to protect its surroundings from dark intentions. Clone Twilight struggled, but began losing her strength as her body began to wither and melt away. "You imbeciles! You ruined everything!"
The branches and roots of the tree flashed an intense, blinding light, forcing Xion and Chrysalis to shut their eyes. The Elements of Harmony stood out among the light in the corruptive darkness that came near them, but through the tree's light, the Elements were pure once more. Once the light faded, both the changeling and Nobody squinted their eyes open to see what had happened. No longer ponies, the tendrils held onto different colored logs, each of them matching the coats of the evil clones Chrysalis created. The ethereal arms dropped the now useless logs, then looked in Xion's direction. Xion began to panic, willing any part of her body to squirm away as the Tree of Harmony was targeting her.
"N-No...Wait. I-I'm not-" Xion gasped as the tendrils shot out to her, stopping mere inches in front of her, examining the Nobody curiously. Terrified, she looked back at Chrysalis, who was dumbfounded that her plan would have failed regardless, along with irritation as she wasted an entire day chasing her former minions around the Everfree to finally reach her goal, only to be left empty-hooved. With what little strength she could muster, she tried to reach her hoof out to the changeling monarch, desperate for anyone to save her, even if it were Xemnas himself. "C-Chrysalis...P-Please. Help..."
Chrysalis stared at Xion for a moment, then looked at the remains of the mistakes her "brilliant" plan created. "...This was a waste of my time," she grumbled, then glanced at the desperate, helpless mare on the ground as the tendrils slowly approached her. "I needed minions who will heed my every order, not foals I have to keep watch over every single second. You were all useless to me in the end." Chrysalis turned and began walking away, making Xion's heart drop as the changeling abandoned her, proving that she only cared about herself, just like how her copies of the Mane Six acted. "I will exact my revenge one day. I hope your death looks just as painful as those traitors, worthless puppet."
"N-No! Please!" Xion cried out as tears began to stream down her face in absolute terror. Her trembling hoof reaching out to the retreating changeling was then grabbed by a tendril, making her cry out in panic. The magical limbs of light were gentle with her, though that didn't help her when she was trembling like a leaf in the wind. Each tendril wrapped themselves around each of her hooves while one wrapped around her barrel, then gently lifted the Nobody up in the air. The last of the tendrils stared at her like it was a curious snake, the end of it shifting around as it slowly approached her face. Xion turned her head, clenching her eyes to avoid the slow, torturous "purification" process the Tree of Harmony was going to use on her. "I-I don't want to die...Please, please don't..."
While Xion cowered, awaiting her demise, the tendril finally set its sights on her upper chest, where Chrysalis's mark rested on her skin. "You are the boy, but also not." The mare's ears shot up, then opened her eyes just as fast, struck with disbelief as she swore she heard a feminine voice speaking to her. There was no one else but her and the Tree of Harmony. "You are also like the constructs who threatened to spread disharmony in presence, yet there is not a single ounce of evil or discontent in you."
"...A-Am I...going insane?" Xion uttered to herself. "...Is...Is that voice coming from...the tree?"
"I know not who you are, but the light within you is just like his." Her mind raced, trying to process this soft, celestial, goddess-like voice speaking to her. If this voice mentioned he was just like "him", that must have meant she could sense a part of her was Sora. The tendril brought the Nobody's attention to the mark on her chest. "A curse marked by a wicked creature who cares only for themselves, abusing the hearts of others to gain what they transpire to achieve. Even by creating duplicates of the current bearers of Harmony to use my power for harm and destruction. You will be spared; both from the same fate as the evil golems and the brand marking you as the heartless creature's slave."
Xion's eyes glanced at the free tendril at the tree's proclamation, barely having any time to brace herself as it suddenly thrust itself into her chest, right on the changeling mark on her chest. Xion let out a gasp, feeling a wave of pain as light flowed from the tree and into her body. The other tendrils held her in place as her body thrashed, yelling in agony as she felt like her skin around her chest was getting peeled off. Slowly, the mark was getting peeled off of the Nobody, expelling harmless electrical shocks that were absorbed into the tendril. After a painful minute, the tree yanked hard, pulling out Chrysalis's mark, then made it evaporate in its light.
Xion's body twitched as her mouth hung open in a silent scream, then hung limp as she passed out from the excruciating pain. The Tree of Harmony gently lowered Xion back down to the ground, letting her physically exhausted form rest. The tendrils of light retracted back into the tree and the bright light around it dimmed down. Despite being exhausted of its magic for Xion and the fake Elements bearers, the Tree of Harmony continued to rest and regain its strength while the gems within its trunk and branches continue keeping the Everfree Forest from growing farther.
"Hey, there's the bridge!" Pinkie pointed out.
The group finally arrived at their destination, the moon shining down to illuminate the forest. "After all the craziness we went through today, I'd rather just climb inside a tent and turn in early," Rarity said.
"This is still me technically going camping, but I'm looking past it so Twilight doesn't get upset that any of us didn't enjoy this retreat," Starlight said.
"Maybe you'll enjoy just being at camp instead of hiking to it," Sora suggested. "We'll set up the fire, hopefully find some stuff for smores packed down there, and swap some scary stories." Rainbow Dash chuckled with glee at the idea of sharing scary stories, rubbing her hooves with a sneaky grin on her muzzle. They soon reached the cliff where the natural staircase was, but as they looked down at the ravine, everyone's excitement and smiles quickly faded when they saw the campsite. The tents were collapsed and torn apart, pieces of them either missing or scattered around the camp, and whatever snacks and drinks Twilight did have for them were trampled on or spilled all over the ground. "...Or...maybe not."
"You've got to be kidding me," Twilight uttered. The flyers hovered down to the camp while the others went down the stairs. Twilight looked at the damage, disheartened that their whole day had been ruined from the very start. "What happened? All my hard work..."
"Did you animal-proof the camp?" Sora asked.
"I've never seen any creature in this forest ever come down here or near the Castle of the Two Sisters," Twilight said. "The Tree of Harmony's probably kept them from ever coming near this area of the Everfree."
"Well, it looked like a bear ran through here, so something got curious around the camp," Starlight said.
"It couldn't have been Harry," Fluttershy said. "He's a very friendly bear. Though I wish he would sleep more comfortably in his den. He always gets such a stiff back and shoulders if he has no cushioning."
"I think we can fix this camp up with a little magic," Starlight said. "We just won't have any snacks."
"We can forage for some food," Rainbow suggested. "Thanks to Scoots with that camper's guide, I know which berries not to eat."
Sora looked around the campground, observing the damages while the girls got to setting the camp back up and head back up to the forest to forage for some non-poisonous berries and mushrooms. He set the scattered logs up for the campfire and lit it with his Fire magic, lighting up the area much more than the moonlight. Along the dirt, he discovered several footprints that disturbed the dried up soil of the ravine along with their own, all of them hooves from what seem to be ponies'. Several sets passed through the camp and headed toward the cave where the Tree of Harmony resided.
"SORA!" The stallion winced as Roxas's voice practically shouted in his head.
"Agh. Jeeze, Roxas. Where's the fire?" Sora uttered.
"I can't find Xion!" Roxas exclaimed.
"Wait, what do you mean?" Sora asked. "What happened?"
"I have no idea! I've been searching for her for the last several hours!" the Nobody said. "We were going to meet up at the clocktower to watch you guys on the retreat, but she wasn't there! I looked everywhere around your heart, which is a lot bigger than it seems no thanks to how many worlds you've been in and how many friends you make." Sora laughed sheepishly in response, feeling sorry for his Nobody. "I even talked to Vanitas. He said he didn't see her, and spouted more insults about all of us, as usual."
"You don't think she just...up and disappeared, do you?" Sora asked.
"I hope not. I'm not going to lose her again," Roxas said.
"Hey, Sora, are you at the camp right now?" Sora's ear twitched as Aqua's voice came from his communicator.
"Ugh. Too many voices in my head. We'll figure this out, Roxas. I'll talk to you in a bit," he said to his Nobody, then brought a hoof to his ear to speak with Aqua. "Yeah, we're here. You're not gonna believe what happened to us on the trek there. And the camp's a mess, but we're cleaning it up. What's going on?"
"I just checked the map for any Heartless activity in any of the worlds, but I'm picking up something...odd," Aqua said.
"Can you explain the way you said 'odd'?" Sora asked.
"Are you currently standing at the mouth of the cave where the Tree of Harmony is?" Aqua asked.
"Yeah?" Sora answered.
"Well, inside the cave, there's another light from a Keyblade wielder." Aqua's statement startled Sora, making him wonder who else was given a Keyblade in this world by pure chance. "But, on the map, it's not a bright white; it's...less dim, but it's also gray."
"Gray?" Sora repeated, confused by the explanation. "W-What does that mean?"
"I don't know. We've only been seeing Keyblade wielders like us or Heartless, nothing else," Aqua said.
"Alright. I guess I'll take a look," Sora said.
"Take a look at what?" Pinkie asked as she popped up behind the stallion.
The other girls walked over to Sora, including Rainbow Dash when she came back with a hoofful of hopefully safe berries. "What's going on?" Twilight asked. "Is there something wrong with the Tree of Harmony?"
"Aqua just contacted me. She said there's...another Keyblade wielder inside the cave." All seven mares gasped in surprise at the news. Twilight knew the only newest Keyblade wielder was Cozy Glow, but she's back in Ponyville and was in one of the classrooms at her school this morning. "Not sure if it's friend or foe, but you guys stand back just in case."
Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Starlight nodded and backed away from the cave. Twilight stuck with Sora, both of them summoning their Keyblades, then slowly approached and entered the cave. Sora watched the sets of hoofprints he spotted earlier, along with some scuffs along the ground from someone falling over, or getting shoved. They were a bit disturbed when they found an imprint of a pony body in the ground, almost like there was a fight that occurred here not too recently.
"Who came here before us?" Twilight asked.
"No idea, but we're going to find out." Up ahead, through darkness of the cave only illuminated slightly by the moonlight and campfire outside, Sora spotted a body laying several feet away. He held a hoof up to Twilight, signaling her to stop and watch his back. The alicorn silently nodded as she noticed the body, keeping a firm grip on her weapon as Sora stepped closer to the hopefully unconscious figure. "Hey! Who are you!?" Sora called out, making Twilight flinch at his idea of giving a possible enemy a wakeup call.
"Sora, don't give us away!" Twilight hissed.
Ignoring Twilight, Sora continued his careful approach. His eyes began adjusting to the dark, wincing slightly when he saw that the mysterious wielder was a pony, who was wearing a black coat just like the Organization's. Keeping his Keyblade at the ready in case they were pretending to be unconscious, Sora stepped closer until he stood right next to them. The pony was on their stomach, only seeing their short black hair on their head. He reached his hoof out, gently pressing against their shoulder, then rolled the pony over on their side to get a better look at their face.
Sora lifted his Keyblade to strike, only to gasp in shock when he got a look at the pony's face. "W-What the...?" Twilight leaned closer from her spot, trying to figure out what Sora saw, only to wince in surprise when Sora dismissed his Keyblade and sat beside the pony. He rolled the pony on their back, examining their face and hair. It was clearly a mare from the rounded muzzle and longer eyelashes, and she had a gray coat, but what startled Sora was how much this mare's face looked so much like Kairi's. And with the short black hair, he was in disbelief. "...Xion?"
"Huh? Sora, did you say...'Xion'?" Twilight asked.
Sora lowered his hooves, lifting up the unconscious mare's head and shoulders, thinking he was seeing things in the dark cave. Xion let out a small groan from the movement, weakly squinting her eyes open. Through her blurry vision, she couldn't see who was holding her aside from the silhouette of the stallion's spiky hair. And from what little of her irises he could see, Sora recognized the blue eyes staring blearily at him; his own eyes.
"R-Rox...as...?" Xion uttered before she blacked out in Sora's forelegs.
It was definitely Xion. He remembered not to drop her, but he was too stunned to speak. How did she get here? And HOW did she exit his heart without a vessel to inhabit? Sora glanced at Twilight in shock, who was just as stupefied when she heard Xion call out Roxas's name.
"...Uhh, Roxas? I found Xion," Sora said to his Nobody.
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Oh, boy I can already see the reunion between Xion and Lea.
Holy shit honestly idk if i wanna read that over 2mln words chapters from 3 up to 30k words how tf am i supposed to read all that in my lifetime ?! Duude i wonder how did you manage it...Dang...
awesome chapter mate keep it up cant wait for the next chapter i hope to see xion stay forever and hope roxas come out too
Xion status: RESCUED!
Only Roxas remains to get out of Soras heart! You have no idea how much I squeed
10998312
You should, it's absolutely worth it
SHOCKING 😱😱😱
10998302
Yeah, he's going to be happy. I also think that he should be the first one to see her when she wakes up. You know, a friendly face, because its only Roxas and Axel that were her friends in the Organization.
Wow a shocking chapter, not only did Chrystalis tries to cloned the mane 6 but also try to clone sora, but she accidentally brought Xion to equestria, first Roxas, Lea, Axel and now Xion, the whole nobody fugitives have journeyed to equestria, and not only did Xion survive the tree of harmony but the tree also helped Xion to be free as well, and the sora and the others have found her and they are in for a discovery, awesome job keep up the great work
Well, this is definitely quite the pickle Xion got herself into...
Oooh, looks like the cat is out of the bag now
OMG, Xion is among others!!
Oh man! What does this mean now!? Excellent job as always.
Breaking news!
Sora is now the newest and final character for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate! Penny your thoughts? 😊
11003530
I just have one thing to say to that.
11003530
Sora was the only character I wanted after finding out about Kingdom Hearts!
Sora is in Smash!
11003583
Are you going to add a reference about this news in the story?
Include Super Smash Bros Ultimate: World of Light in this Fanfic!
Sora is Final Smash Ultimate DLC!
11006104
My thoughts exactly!
11006197
Including the Mane 6 , Spike, CMC and the other key blade wielders.
But after the story of Kingdom Hearts 3 and the DLC story of it.
I think someone figured out how Smash can be canon to the KH lore.
11008631
It’s a Planet Of The Apes 1968 reference
YO SORA IS IN SMASH! Also, this was a fine chapter with a HUGE REVEAL LIKE SORA BEING IN SMASH!
HOLY SHIT!
Xion is in the cast. I have so many questions and theories, but for now, I'll be "brief."
So first off, the idea of bringing Xion back by the same spell that Chyrslies used in "Mean 6" is a genius move that I had not expected at all, so major props to you right there.
So onto the main point, Xion is now human again and part of the main cast, bringing in a lot of potential. For one thing, his relationship with Lea. I can imagine the character drama and wholesomeness. We know Lea is starting to remember Xion or at least wants to remember her. He seems to remember a good chunk, but would not have enough memories to see her as a long-lost friend, but just as somebody he once knew existed. Seeing Lea's reaction in KH3 upon seeing Roxas and Xion again (that scene me burst into tears), I think Lea currently in the story will be a reconnection with Xion. Imagine how Lea would react upon seeing Xion. He would probably be glad to see her (if not a little awkward), because he doesn't fully remember everything. I can picture Xion really happy to see Lea again, but Lea wouldn't know how to feel.
This can actually happen in the Hearts and Hooves episode (you can spend time with his holiday with your friends too, not just couples). Xion wants to find a way to reconnect with Lea again, but each time sort of fails, and it's just Xion trying to rekindle that lost friendship, to restore Lea's memory back. Maybe big events, like going through a trip, only traveling to worlds they visited in 358/2 Days or anything characters like Sora or Pinkie mention. Only every time, it fails, Lea just awkwardly doesn't know how to feel about Xion. It's not until they go back to the true Twilight Town clock tower and they share some sea salt ice cream, where all his memories come back, and he bursts into tears.
Just think of how dramatic his reaction would be, every memory of Xion flushes in this one moment, and they both embrace each other crying. It would be a beautiful moment for the series. I loved that one moment in KH3, and I hope to see that here. Xion deserves a happy ending.
There's also another potential, like her being a proper fighter in the keyblade war, and also some funny moments with her and Ventus. I can imagine just being weirded out how so alike Roxas and Ventus are, but with completely different personalities. There can be some fun interaction between the two. Nothing romantic, but wholesome and funny.
I cannot wait to see what you do with Xion here. My only wish is, again, to give her the happy ending she deserves.
Well hot diggity damn, son, here we are. So, Fluttershy finally saw that Discord might have feelings for her. This will definitely come into play later in the Hearts and Hooves episode.
I really love the idea of them being a couple, so I wonder how you will be able to handle it. As mentioned in my hopes for Season 8 post, I can see Discord feeling doubt and insecure about his feelings for Fluttershy. This could lead to his poor excuse that love isn't real and nopony will ever love him. I can see being super awkward around Fluttershy and trying his best to dismiss the whole thing altogether. Maybe this can lead to why he encouraged Big Mac to break up with Suger Belle, because he probably would think doing him a service by being free of love. I don't want Sora to be in conflict with him in this episode, but I think it should be either Terra or Ventus. Ventus because the two haven't interacted since the finale, and Terra because he needs more screen time. Either way, I can see them calling out Discord on his bullshit, and how he had no right to push his insecurities onto Big Mac. This can make him realize whats he has done and fix it, by helping the two get back together. Having Terra or Ventus be proud of him for that.
Also, I do see Fluttershy and Discord get together in this chapter but maybe leave a hint, with something like Discord receiving an anonymous Hearts and Hooves gift. Spike and whichever KH character probably know it's from Fluttershy, but Discord continues to deny that because he just can't see him being good enough for her. We then get a scene of Fluttershy in a tree disguise looking at him in the distance, unsure of how she feels at the moment, but certainly is willing to take the first step into this idea.
I can honestly see Sora and Riku against the idea of Fluttershy being together with Discord, simply because them thinking Fluttershy deserves better. This can be an interesting conflict with their girlfriends believing FLutershy has every right to choose who she wants to be with. It would be a fun conflict, and a great slap in the face against Sora and Riku, whose bullying of Discord deserves to stop. Cannot wait to see what you'll come up with.
Ok, so this ended the way I expected it to end, but I have a strong feeling Evil Twilight will come back. How? Probably around the start of Season 9. I'll get into the direction it'll take at a way later date.
We had evil versions of KH characters here, why not Evil Twilight, or Midnight Sparkle as she's normally called in the fandom. I do feel like she has to come back somehow and be a part of the Legion of Doom.
Anyway, that's my analysis. This chapter was overall pretty fine, but it's a GREAT setup for future stories. Specifically for the likes of Xion, Lea, and Discord.
Shine on, keep on writing dude.
Also, hype for Sora in Smash.
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Bullying of Discord? You do realize that Discord is the one who CAUSED problems not them, sure you can argue with that, but my argument is Discord did more pranks and little jokes on Sora; who may have been aggressive to him, but he caused the mane 6 to break up, nearly KILLED Sora and when he first got 'reformed', he later betrayed them and if not for Twilight, would let Tirek to take over Equestria! And just because all of that is in the past doesn't mean anything, how is Sora supposed to trust him after all that he did to him and nearly the whole world?
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Not saying he should trust him, just stop bullying him, XD
Do you think you could write a chapter where everyone visits the world of Super Smash Bros. after Sora gets his invitation?
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holes.
I'm sorry if I sounded aggressive in my previous comment, (I was going to be late for school, so I was in a rush) and I clearly didn't make my point. So let me restart...
You see Sora and Riku as being against Fluttershy dating Discord, thinking that she "deserves better", then latter make it sound that they're 'bullying Discord', (yet he himself was making fun of Sora half of the time) I really don't understand where you're getting that from, because even though it's been a while since I read the previous chapters, I don't remember them ever 'bullying Discord', and I may be wrong, but... them being against Discord dating Fluttershy? I don't know where you get THAT from, because from what I know, that is really OOC for them to think that way and sure it could be possible for them to think like that (maybe more for Riku), but again, why would THEY be against that? Sure he's done a lot of things wrong, but why would they purposefully sabotage Fluttershy's and Discord's feelings for each other? Maybe find it odd, but I doubt against their feelings.
Honestly, I respect that you are giving constructive criticism to a story that you love and want to shine, but not everything can be perfect, plus sometimes you are giving ideas for character improvement that sound good on your paper, but feel OOC for that character to do or say (eg. Sora shouting "Maybe I'd be better off without friends like you!"), I understand you want this to tell a great story, but don't butcher the characters for the sake of the story. Not saying your critiques are terrible, I can agree with some of them, but please dude, don't make characters seem like a
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Ey, finally somebody I can discuss this story with.
Sora and Riku have been showing to dislike Discord throughout the story heavily. When I used the term "bullying Discord," I mostly referred to how they feel about him rather than literally bullying him. So I'm sorry on my part for missing that term.
Sora and Riku do not like Discord. And in theory, there's nothing wrong with that. Discord has made many mistakes to the point where I can see characters like Sora and Riku never being friends with him. And I think that's completely fine. It would be those two Keybalde wielders all the more believable to me as human beings. Sometimes I have issues when they go too far, like that statue comment by Riku and Sora threatening Discord as a child (seriously, what the fuck) but when you peel through the layers and what happens to the story. At the same time, it's not justified. But it is understandable.
That's what I meant by "bullying Discord," I hope this clears up a few things. I know their relationship is getting a bit better, I don't see Sora ever accepting as a friend, and I think that's fine. I think it would be stronger if Sora learns to trust him in the same way an ally would in battle, rather than a friend. That's how I see this version of Sora doing. Maybe not; I'm not sure what the author has planned.
As for them being against the relationship, I think it would be more OOC if they didn't comment or even be supportive. Sora and Riku know how sensitive and fragile Fluttershy is. Sora could project those feelings he had during the "Return of Harmony" and think that Fluttershy shouldn't be with him in the first place. He may tolerate Discord and even see that he's trying to reform and be better, but as a couple with a pony, he's good friends with?
While this is Sora from season 2, I think something to a lesser extent like this would happen. Sora is somebody who's protective of his friends, and he still, in this chapter, was straight to the point in blaming Discord for strange events. To be fair, Discord did do this before, so I don't blame Sora for suspecting him, but it does say something about his relationship with Discord.
Sora cares deeply about relationships and romance. He's an IRL shipper throughout the story, which serves as a running gag. So I do see him intervene in some way. He probably thinks Discord would be a terrible partner for Fluttershy for how different they are, and he believes he would be protecting Fluttershy from the hurting and his influence.
The worse he could do is maybe talk Fluttershy out of it, intervening with her feelings and such.
Would that be the horrible Sora to do? Absolutely, and that's good. It goes to show Sora isn't perfect and shouldn't be intervening with these characters' lives. We are reaching the end of the series, and I think we need one more story that involves Sora finally learning to trust Discord, and the two are at peace with one another since this chapter clearly states there's still some tension there, mostly from Sora.
Thinking back, I don't see Riku being against it anymore. Probably he would think it's weird until getting a slap from Twilight and just concluding, "well, it's their lives."
So yeah.
I think Ocellus in Frozen is after Xion story.
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Interesting
Maybe Ventus could be added.
Yeah Ventus with Ocellus in Frozen sounds like a good idea
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Si
Yeeeeees! Xion is free!