Castle Mane-ia
Once the certified Pinkie Pie party had ended, welcoming not just Aqua as a part of the party mare's long and ever growing list of friends, but Lea and Yen Sid as well, they prepared to head back home to Equestria. As much as Pinkie begged for Lea to come along with them, the man declined, mostly due to the many random things Pinkie had managed to pull off that defied all logic and he needed a big break from her. As soon as the ponies and Keyblade wielders were in the Gummi ships, they set off back to Equestria, getting there in minutes using their Warp Gummi drives.
It was still a rough ride to handle for some of them for a second time, but Aqua wasn't all that woozy once they exited the warp field. She was surprised that the warp was a lot faster than she could have made it on her glider, estimating it would have taken her a couple days driving nonstop to reach Equestria from the Mysterious Tower. At least Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack recovered a bit faster than the first time, but it was still a pretty shaky walk back to their homes.
As the ships had reached the world's atmosphere and landed, everyone got a chance to see what Aqua looked like as a pony underneath the armor she hid herself in. She was a unicorn as Twilight had seen while in her armor, her coat an icy blue under her torn clothing, and through the tears in her outfit was a cutie mark that showed what her old Keyblade looked like. The gray-blue blade was pretty thin, the teeth curving the blade at the end with blue spikes around it, the handle black while the silver-gray guard curved up from the pommel.
Rarity offered Aqua to stay with her at her boutique for a place to stay while she was in Equestria, unable to say no to the mare's generosity as she followed the fashionista to her home. It was an odd sight for her to see a carousel to make a clothing store stand out in the small town, but she wasn't going to question how business practices worked in other worlds. The two unicorns walked inside, Rarity giving her guest a tour of her home and shop.
"Welcome to the Carousel Boutique, Aqua," Rarity said. "Where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique!"
"Rarity!" Running down the stairs was Sweetie Belle, the filly tripping as she hit the last step, but quickly got up and shook off the fall. "You were gone all day! Where'd you go to!?"
"Oh! Sorry, Sweetie Belle," Rarity apologized. "I should have left a note. I was...up in Canterlot."
"Why were you in Canterlot?" Sweetie asked. "You were up there for Twilight's coronation and the Summer Sun Celebration."
"Oh, you know how I enjoy being in Canterlot. It's my dream to be a part of the city one day, remember?" The filly rolled her eyes, having heard her dream several time, but nodded her head. "Anyway, I want you on your best behavior for our guest."
"We have a guest?" Sweetie turned her head and just now noticed Aqua.
"Aqua, this is my little sister, Sweetie Belle," Rarity said, introducing the Keyblade Master to the unicorn filly. "Sweetie, Aqua."
"Aww, she's adorable," Aqua said, approaching the filly and patted her head. "It's nice to meet you, Sweetie Belle."
"Hi, Aqua," she said, suddenly gasping as she saw the clothes she was wearing. "Oh my gosh! Did a manticore try to maul you!? Rarity, Aqua has a fashion disaster, and you didn't notice it!?"
"Oh. We really should fix these, darling." Aqua looked down at her clothes, wincing at the many bad tears she received for the last decade and a half. "Maybe we can give you a new wardrobe, too."
"No, I don't think anything else is necessary. I'm not exactly fond with typical girl stuff with what I do for a living, though these definitely need to be fixed." Using her magic, Aqua stripped herself out of her outfit, feeling a little awkward to be in the buff as a pony. Before she gave her clothes to Rarity to fix up, she grabbed the pauldron attached to the shoulder of the sleeve. "And I'm keeping a hold of this until it's done."
"I'll get us some tea while Rarity works!" Sweetie said as she ran into the kitchen.
"Sweetie Belle, don't make a mess!" Rarity warned, sighing in defeat at her rambunctious sister's eagerness. "Aqua, can you make sure my sister doesn't hurt herself while I start sewing?"
"Sure." Aqua followed the filly into the kitchen, spotting Sweetie Belle standing in front of the counter with a highly concentrated look on her face. Her horn began to lit up, sparking a little as her green aura began to fade in and out. After hearing her let out an exhausted grunt, her horn stopped glowing as she panted heavily. "Are you ok, Sweetie Belle?"
"I was trying to see if I could levitate the tea kettle and put it on the stove," she said, rubbing her forehead as she tried to concentrate again. "I just can't seem to get my magic to work right just yet."
"I'm sure you'll get the hang of it with more practice. Let me help." Lighting up her own horn, Aqua's aura as blue as her coat, she began levitating the kettle over to the sink, pouring some water inside it for the tea. She never really tried to use her magic as a unicorn when she came to Equestria a while ago, but it was relatively easy, almost like she knew how to use it. She began using her new magic to open the cupboards, grab a tea set and some fresh tea leaves, placing the silverware out on the nearby table, and turning on the stove after placing the leaves in the kettle and setting it on the burner. "There we go. It's been a long time since I've had tea."
"...Wow...You're really good at magic," Sweetie Belle complimented.
"Well, I am quite adept at spells. I prefer casting magic than swordplay." At the mention of Aqua's talents, Sweetie Belle looked at the mare's flank and saw her Keyblade cutie mark.
"Hey! You have a similar cutie mark like Sora, Riku, and Kairi's!" she exclaimed.
"A what?" The mare looked behind her, noticing her Keyblade plastered right on her sides. "Oh...I was wondering what those were."
"Do you have a Keyblade like they do?" The filly's question startled her, quickly looking back at Sweetie Belle with a look of shock. "Can you fight Heartless, too?"
"...W-What?...How...do you know about that?" Aqua asked.
"Well, they kind of showed up a while ago, and Sora had been taking care of them since he came to Ponyville. He's actually really amazing! And he saved Equestria a dozen times along with my sister and her friends, but he does most of the work." The mare's eye twitched, Sora having made himself known in another world, revealing his Keyblade and abilities, though their weapons being known was by the fault of their magic transforming them to fit into the worlds around them.
"...Oh, really?" Aqua hid her anger from the little filly, knowing she was going to have a big talk with her new subordinates once they were alone. "I heard he was quite powerful...I'm going to have to have a little talk with him in the future."
After the water had boiled and the tea was brewed, Aqua poured some into the teacups she placed and levitated the set out into the living room. Rarity was focused stitching her clothing back to their pristine state, surprising the ice-blue unicorn at how quick she was from the large amount of tears. The unicorns sat on the couch as Aqua and Sweetie Belle watched the fashionista work, occasionally taking a moment to sip her tea.
"You didn't make a mess in the kitchen again, did you, Sweetie Belle?" Rarity asked, not wanting to walk into a messy kitchen over a simple pot of tea.
"Aqua was the one who made the tea," the filly admitted. "She's a pro at using her magic. Can I see some spells you know?"
"I'd rather not," Aqua said as she took a sip out of her cup.
"Oh, Aqua, I have a little question to ask you. If you aren't too busy, would you like to accompany Fluttershy and I tomorrow into the Everfree Forest?" Rarity asked.
"Why?" the older mare questioned. "That whole forest is dangerous."
"Yes, but not on the path to where the ruins of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna's castle resides," she explained. "Since Twilight is a princess, we don't know when she might get her own kingdom to rule. It might be her own once it's reconstructed and we're able to find a way to clear out the Everfree Forest. Plus, the tapestries there are antiques, and I want to restore them to the way they were back then."
"The ruins of a castle, deep in the middle of a dangerous forest, and you want to go there with the risk of encountering dangerous monsters that could lurk in those abandoned halls?" Aqua shook her head, refusing to let anyone think it's ok to venture somewhere deadly. "I don't think so."
"But we have you there to watch out for any danger, and I'm sure you can handle anything after what you've encountered in the past." Aqua sighed, placing her cup down.
"I know, and I'd like to not be anywhere involving darkness and danger, if you know what I mean," she said, hinting to the unicorn about her imprisonment in the Realm of Darkness. "Besides...I kind of want to take a long vacation from fighting for a while. Every day, I fought to survive, and it made me grow weary physically and mentally being on my own and taking care of myself."
"Oh yeah." Rarity bit her lip, forgetting how much of a struggle Aqua had to go through to survive in a world filled to the brim with Heartless. "I understand. Maybe I'll ask Kairi tomorrow before we head out."
"I still wouldn't suggest going in there. It doesn't even matter if that forest is like your own backyard. Who would be crazy enough to live in a dangerous place?" She was met with silence, both Sweetie Belle and Rarity knowing a certain zebra who resides in the Everfree Forest. "...Someone seriously lives in the Everfree Forest?"
"Our friend, Zecora," Rarity said. "She's a zebra, and she handles herself fine on her own."
"She makes lots of different potions, and they heal any ailment," Sweetie added. "There was this one time that my sister and her friends all got into some Poison Joke, and it made them look or sound funny. I think Apple Bloom told me and Scootaloo Sora touched it too, and he turned into a mare!"
The filly giggled while Rarity groaned at the embarrassing dreads her hair had turned into the morning she woke up after stepping on those flowers chasing after Zecora. Aqua was a little surprised to learn about a magical plant that was able to change someone into the opposite gender.
"Yes, but the Poison Joke's effects differ between ponies," Rarity explained further. "Sora turned into a mare, but for me, my hair grew out in long strands. Coat, mane, and tail. I looked like a walking, talking, purple and white curtain with those horrible dreads. Whenever you decide to walk into the Everfree Forest, Aqua, avoid beautiful blue flowers in a small field around those woods. I'd rather not be curious to find out what happens to you that would wind up embarrassing you to death."
"Duly noted," Aqua said, though with the possibilities Poison Joke could give her, part of her did want to find out, and maybe spread the flowers over Sora and turn him into a girl as an ideal punishment for breaking the rules of keeping the world order.
Early the next morning, Riku walked inside the Golden Oak Library to meet with Twilight. After the plunderseeds nearly took over thanks to Discord's failed plan a thousand years ago, she had fallen behind on her training schedule and needed to get her into fighting shape for the future. The lavender alicorn was already downstairs, going through several of her books in the library while Spike cleaned up the stacked books Twilight had left after reading them.
"Twilight, what are you doing?" Riku asked, picking up one of the books and skimmed over the cover. "You're not on a study binge, are you?"
"I was, but I think my research is a lost cause," she said, closing another book as she cleared off her fifteenth shelf. "I'm trying to find out anything about the Tree of Harmony, but it doesn't look like there's anything in here that can help me find out what's in that chest."
"I doubt you'll find anything about a crystal tree that's been hiding in a cave for many years." Twilight gave up her searching, none of the books in this library holding any historical information over something never heard from. "Considering how old that tree is, it's probably older than Celestia and Luna, whatever their age is...How old are they, anyway?"
"...I don't think anypony ever asked. I guess nopony wanted to sound rude to a princess and insult her by questioning her age." While they were on the change in topic, Twilight had a thought as she recalled the Tree of Harmony's location within the Everfree Forest. "Wait. The age of the Tree of Harmony is unknown, but the princesses knew of it back then when they confronted Discord. Maybe there's something in the library in the Castle of the Two Sisters, filled to the brim with lost history!" She flapped out of her seated spot and rammed into Riku, kissing him deeply and leaving the pegasus stunned. "Riku, you're a genius!"
"...Buhhhhhh, what?" he dumbly asked.
"To the ruins!" She carried the dazed stallion in her levitation and headed out the door. "Spike, clean up the library while we're gone!"
After slamming the door shut, the baby dragon looked at all of the books littering the floor. "I don't understand why she can't just use her magic to put her books back on the shelves when she's done," Spike grumbled with a sigh, beginning to clean up the alicorn's stacked books.
Twilight and Riku reached the ruins of the castle deep in the Everfree Forest, the mare eager to see what else in the castle was still standing after only being in the crumbled throne room and one of the towers. There were still plenty of areas that remained standing from the wear of time and the plant and animal life finding refuge around or inside. The duo searched through the upper floors of the old castle, looking through each of the barren rooms that was once a majestic palace filled with servants and royal decor.
Down through the halls, Riku heard Twilight gasp as she opened another door, taking a guess that the alicorn found the library. "Oh my gosh! Look at all the books!"
"Of course she'd find it first," Riku uttered with a smirk, hurrying after her before she slammed the door on his face.
Sitting in the shelves on the many bookcases in the room were many books hidden from others in the Everfree for a thousand years. Though there was a crumbled skylight shining sunlight down in the old library, the books seemed to have been magically protected as a failsafe from the elements that may have seeped in through the hole in the ceiling. Twilight squeed at the sight of hidden history just waiting to be read, bouncing up and down like a little filly as she approached one of the shelves.
"So many books!" she squeaked, her excited mind too distracted as she managed to fly perfectly up, her eyes focusing on all the dusty tomes on every shelf. "I'm going to have to clear my old schedule just to read all of these!"
"You are not clearing anything involving your training, Twilight." Riku leapt up and grabbed Twilight before she could go any higher, gently hovering them back down to the ground. "You're still not out of basic training just yet, then we'll go into spell casting and advanced spells, then advanced combat."
"But there has to be something related to the Tree of Harmony in here." Twilight pouted and opened her eyes wider, giving Riku the sad, puppy eyes she used to use on Shining Armor when she was little. "Please let me read them?"
No matter how hard he tried, Riku just can't say no to a face like that. It was bad enough to see a little kid pull that off and succeed, but it was heart wrenching to see an animal, or a purple alicorn in his case, staring at him like that with those big eyes and quivering pout of sadness. He groaned in defeat and sighed, poking her snout with his hoof.
"Can you please quit being adorkable if I say yes?" he begged.
"Yay!" Twilight hugged Riku tightly and kissed his cheek. "I love you!"
The stallion whined as he watched his pony girlfriend fly around and grab large stacks of books off the shelves, his legs giving out as he sat on his haunches. "Why does this world have to have so many things involving cuteness? It's making me crazy..."
"...Ok, what the heck am I witnessing here?" Sora asked as he stared at what was happening in front of Sweet Apple Acres.
He stood next to Pinkie, who set up a table with Gummy sitting on top as he stared off into who knows where, the two ponies watching Applejack and Rainbow Dash competing against each other. Sora could understand rivalries pretty well, considering how many races or duels he's had with his best friend, but what he was looking at right now was practically insane. Both mares were staring each other down...with bees covering every inch of them.
"Dashie and Applejack are competing to see who will win the title of 'Most Daring Pony'!" Pinkie answered. "And this is the final test out of many: the Bee Stare! Last pony that blinks wins!"
Sora looked at Pinkie with a blank stare, then at Applejack and Rainbow. "Seriously?" He flinched as he saw a stray bee fly by, thankfully avoiding him, flying right toward Gummy. The doofy alligator sat still, doing nothing as the bee flew into its nose and out one of his ears. Even though he should have been grossed out as Gummy's head was like a cave to the insect, Sora was bored and approached the toothless gator, making him flap his lips with his hoof as he pretended to talk like Gummy. "'Boy, this competition sounds a bit silly, Pinkie Pie. What is the point of this dare besides Applejack and Rainbow Dash risking getting stung by a swarm of bees?'"
"Are you crazy, Gummy!? It's exciting!" Sora snickered, finding Pinkie's naivete more entertaining as she really thought Gummy spoke to her.
"Uhh, excuse me." Pinkie and Sora looked over at the entrance to the farm, Rainbow and Applejack moving their eyes as they stayed perfectly still, a stallion in a bee keeper suit approached them. "I'd like to have my bees back. They got honey to make before the cold weather comes in."
He whistled, calling the bees off the mares before they could argue with him over their competition. Ironically, Rainbow and Applejack were wearing bee keeper outfits too, their Bee Stare not even close to daring if they were wearing protective gear. Once the stallion left with his surprisingly tame bees, the two mares groaned in annoyance as they took off their suits.
"Great, now how are we going to know who's the 'Most Daring Pony'?" Rainbow asked in a huff.
"Well, so far it's a tie," Pinkie said as she pulled up a notepad, both sides with pegasus and earth pony's faces with drawings of different activities they competed in. "Yup. Them numbers don't lie."
"There are no numbers," Sora stated.
"Numbers don't always have to be numbers, silly." Pinkie bopped Sora on the snout as she stuck her tongue out. "As much as I want to keep tallying the scores, I gotta get down to the schoolhouse! They put up a new bell, and I volunteered to test it! I get to ring it all week, and I have it all to myself!"
She grabbed Gummy off the collapsible table and ran off down to the school, the toothless alligator flopping along as he grabbed her bouncing tail in his maw. Sora turned around, noticing the grins on Rainbow's and Applejack's faces.
"...What?" he asked.
"We came up with another idea for a dare," Applejack said.
"And you're coming along with us to prove who wins," Rainbow continued.
"Uhh, where to?" Sora questioned, not exactly willing to go through with anymore of their shenanigans, but going along with it to avoid being pestered.
Walking through the Everfree Forest, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Kairi stayed along the path as they made their way to the ruins of the castle. Fluttershy brought Angel along after taking care of her animals, though with her planning to make sure they were fed tonight without her around, it was late in the afternoon, the sun just about to set on the land. Kairi looked around as they set foot inside the crumbled throne room, her first time being inside the ruins of the princess' previous castle.
"This place must have been beautiful before Nightmare Moon came," the Princess of Heart said. "And it's still standing after all the collateral damage."
Angel began to get bored and wanted to explore, but Fluttershy grabbed him before he could venture forth into the other rooms. "Angel, I don't want you wandering off on your own. You might get hurt, or get lost."
The rabbit grumbled in annoyance at his master's constant worrying, mostly out of fear of anything that could happen to her more than him. "And from what I've seen in that castle back in Radiant Garden where I was kidnapped, there might be some traps lying around."
"I'm sure we don't have to go too far. Let's find ourselves any of the tapestries and bring one back," Rarity said. "Maybe I'll gain some more inspiration for a new line of clothing! I hope Aqua won't mind helping me by modeling any older fashion trends that might make a comeback in the future. She has a marvelous physique, and pack quite a kick with her abilities."
"At least she's taking a breather after surviving in the Realm of Darkness for so many years. She's done enough fighting to last a lifetime." The trio headed off through one of the many hallways in search of any intact tapestries from the past that could be fixed up.
A moment later, Riku walked across the upper balcony on the second floor, carrying a candelabra on his back. "Good thing the wax from these candles are still useful. Twilight's definitely going to need this when it gets dark, and maybe we can get in a little magic training with Fire...I still can't believe she got me with that face. I'm not supposed to be suckered into cutesy stuff...Then again, my girlfriend is the size of a big dog while I'm human, but a lot more adorable and she can talk and use magic."
As he headed back to the library, a few minutes later, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Sora walked into the castle. The stallion sighed in irritation as they came back here.
"So, we had to wait until nightfall for a scaredy-cat contest?" Sora asked. "This is where the Elements of Harmony were found, so how exactly is this a good enough place for a scare fest?"
"Well, Granny Smith told Big Mac and Ah stories about this ol' castle, and they weren't all about Nightmare Moon." Applejack walked on ahead while the others followed, Sora grunting as he was forced to be their witness to see who gets too spooked to run away and escape from the castle. "After the Mare in the Moon was banished, all of her magic wasn't truly gone. When magic fell on the castle, that magic takes the form of...the Pony of Shadows!"
"You mean a Heartless?" Sora questioned in a monotonous tone.
"...Well, Ah don't think so," Applejack said, unsure of herself.
"Those things showed up a while after you arrived," Rainbow said as she pointed to the Keyblade wielder. "I kind of doubt they would have come here a thousand years ago, otherwise we would have known about them."
"Aside from Sombra and Luna, both of them tainted by darkness, they should have showed up to spawn and take more hearts." As Sora pondered why the Heartless began showing up after he did when darkness was present a millennia ago, he continued following Rainbow and Applejack as they wandered the halls. "Just in case there are any, I'd better be cautious. I've encountered some Heartless that were able to possess statues, or anything else that isn't attached to the ground. Plus, this place isn't scary. If you want scary, you should see how creepy Beast's Castle is. Gothic decor, dark halls, and plenty of creepy stone statues and living armor."
"Maybe we should have gone there instead," Rainbow suggested.
"Ah don't think Ah can stomach another one of them space jumps to see another world." Applejack groaned and rubbed her stomach, still feeling the queasiness from her first two warp jumps the other day. "Ah'd rather keep mah hooves where they belong: on the ground."
As the three mares wandered about the halls, they found one of the many decorative banners they were searching for, showing a expertly woven picture of Luna without her flowing, starry mane. "Ooooh. That's perfect! Fluttershy, could you be a dear and lift it off the hook?"
"Umm...Ok." Before Fluttershy flew up, she placed Angel down next to Kairi. "Now, you stay with Kairi until I come back down."
The white bunny let out a frustrated sigh and nodded his head, chittering grumpily as Kairi patted his head. "Now, don't be a sour bunny. She's just looking out for you, Angel." The pegasus flew up and grabbed the rod holding the tapestry up on the wall. Unfortunately, due to being the meekest out of everyone, she wasn't able to budge it barely an inch off the hooks. "Here, I'll help, Fluttershy. Get underneath it and lift."
"Ok." Fluttershy flew under it and pushed up, Kairi using her levitation to lift it up.
They soon heard a click, the wall suddenly flipping around, turning Fluttershy around and getting her stuck under the cloth. "Fluttershy!"
"Goodness! What happened!?" Rarity exclaimed.
On the other side, Applejack, Rainbow, and Sora walked around, unaware of the movable wall with Fluttershy flailing underneath the tapestry. "So, there's also Heartless that act like ghosts, too?"
"They're not as scary as you girls think," the teen explained. "They're more like small things wearing a sheet that have a creepy face on them."
The trio heard Fluttershy yelping, looking up at the mysterious lump moving around underneath the banner. "W-What the hay is that!?"
"Is it a Heartless?" Rainbow asked Sora, the stallion shaking his head, feeling no sign of a threat, or seeing yellow eyes in the dark halls. "Then...what if the Pony of Shadows legend is actually a ghost haunting this place!?"
The timid pegasus yelped louder, her cries of shock scaring Rainbow and Applejack as they both ran down a random hallway. "Hey, guys! Come on! Ghosts don't exist!...Well, except the Windigos. Those do exist after seeing them last year." Sora heard a click, the wall flipping around and the "ghost" disappeared on the other side with the tapestry. "...Huh. Turning walls. That's pretty neat."
He soon averted his attention back to the two mares, unable to believe how scared they were over a moving tapestry as he chased after them. Back on the other side, Fluttershy tumbled down the wall and fell to the floor. She stood up, wincing as she tried to stretch out her wing, left with a scrape after falling out of the tapestry.
"Ow," she said. "I think I hurt my wing."
"Here, I'll fix that." Kairi called out her Keyblade and cast Cure, healing the pegasus's injured wing. Dismissing her weapon, the pink unicorn looked up at the tapestry. "Well, that thing isn't going to come down. That rod is a trigger to flip the wall, and that tapestry is not going to come down unless we cut it off its hanger."
"Oh, poo," Rarity pouted. "I want to fix one of them, not ruin them any more than they already are from the wear and tear of time. Let's try to find another one elsewhere, and a bit smaller."
"What happened to me again?" Fluttershy asked as the mares wandered along, Angel hopping behind them.
"That wall flipped around and sent you on the other side while you were struggling under the tapestry," Kairi said. "I knew there were hidden switches and traps around here. I suggest we keep our eyes open and watch out for any booby-"
Kairi, Rarity, and Fluttershy screamed as the floor beneath them suddenly disappeared, the mares falling down a trap door they didn't know was there. Angel blinked in surprise as he watched his owner and her two friends fall down the chute, looking down at his paws. He stood on a pressure plate, the small bit of flooring sunk a few centimeters into the ground. When he leapt off it, the trap door closed back up. He looked around and shuffled away, whistling nonchalantly down another hall after accidentally setting off one of the traps, wondering where the mares had gone off to.
Sora managed to catch up to Applejack and Rainbow Dash, the two of them panting after getting spooked by a large piece of art made of fabric. "Ok, you two are absolutely ridiculous. Where the heck did all those brave and thick-headed actions go in the past?"
"We don't know what's been living here!" Rainbow argued. "That Pony of Shadows could exist!"
"An example of a 'Pony of Shadows' would most likely have been Sombra, and he's gone," Sora said, sad to say it, but there was no hope for him to come back from that darkness. "Anyways, I don't think this whole competition is worth it if you're both trying to find dumb ways to one-up each other. Like a bee stare down."
"What about your rivalry against Riku?" Applejack questioned.
"You two compete with each other," Rainbow added as both mares leered at him.
"Our rivalry involves duels and races. And when we were little, prank wars." The two stared at Sora blankly. "...Ok, you know what? How about a new challenge? Against me? Whoever stays here in this castle the longest until the sun rises wins. The ones who get freaked out the most over stupid stuff loses."
"Ha! I'm not scared of anything!" It was Sora's turn to stare at Rainbow, the mare giggling nervously as she recalled the earlier scare. "That one didn't count."
"...Alright then. Starting now. Deal?" Applejack and Rainbow looked at each other, then nodded their heads. The mares spat on their hooves and hoof bumped each other, a sign of a promise between them, then pointed their spat on hooves at him. Sora went along with it and mimicked them, but as he bumped his hoof with theirs, his fur stood up on end at the disgusting feeling. "Agh! That's even grosser than watching a bee fly up Gummy's nose and out his ear earlier! I'm a guy, and I find that dumb hoofshake disgusting!"
"Then why did ya go along with it if ya didn't like it?" Applejack asked as the mares smirked at his expression.
"Because I've seen that happen in movies and I thought it looked cool!" Sora wiped his hoof on the dusty red carpet beneath them, none of them noticing one of the picture's eyes moving and watching them. "It felt so disgusting after doing that. Eck!...Let's just go before you make me do anything else that no guy, or girls like you, has to do that's even grosser than that..."
They continued making their way around the castle, oblivious to the picture's eyes watching them until they disappeared around a corner.
Nestled inside the library, Twilight looked through the books she brought down from the shelves, reading old novels never published before, thoughts from other ponies from a thousand years ago, and more. Riku was doing the exact opposite, however: doing pushups on his forehooves out of boredom. He was unable to convince Twilight to take a break and practice with her Keyblade. Whenever she had her nose in a book, she was determined to finish it no matter what. At least she got some magical practice in, casting Fire on the candelabra and lighting the candles, but that was all.
"I should have said no," Riku said aloud. "Next time you pull off that face again, Twilight, I am going to ignore it."
"If that worked on my brother, then it is always going to work on you," the alicorn teased, sticking out her tongue at him before going back to the book she was going through.
"It'll get old at some point, so you're going to have to think of another way to try and convince me to do whatever you want." The stallion landed on all fours, grumbling to himself as Twilight giggled at him. Before he stepped forward, he heard a squeak and look under his hoof, nearly stepping on a white rabbit glaring at him and chittering at him angrily. "...Uhh, do rabbits wander in this place from time to time?"
"Rabbits? In the ruins?" Twilight looked up, surprised to see Angel here. "Angel? What are you doing here?"
"Wait. If this little demon rabbit is here, does that mean Fluttershy's around? Or did he wander off in the Everfree Forest by himself?" Riku carried Angel by his back paw, the critter flailing angrily as the stallion walked over to the other side of the table Twilight was seated at to read the many books in the library. He sat down in the other chair and dropped the rabbit on his head. "I think this rodent looks for trouble more than we do."
Riku leaned back in his seat, nearly falling back as it moved faster than he leaned. They heard a clicking sound as one of the bookshelves began moving, the chair a hidden mechanism to open a secret passage. Curious, both ponies and the white rabbit looked in the new room, which seemed to be a private reading room. There were two windows, one bright and orange with an image of a sun and the other blue with a crescent moon. In the center of the room was a pedestal that held a book on top. Twilight levitated the book over to her, reading the inscription on the cover.
"'The Journal of the Two Sisters'. Is this a diary?" she asked.
"Celestia and Luna's secret diary, filled with their thoughts." He looked at the condition of the book, which was surprisingly more pristine than the other books in the library. "You don't think this might have some information about the Tree of Harmony, does it?"
"I'm not sure. The princesses know more than we do, and there might be something in here that they may have forgotten about for the last millennium." Though it seemed wrong to read something that was private to Celestia and Luna, they looked through it anyway to know if there was anything the princesses had held from the world along with some secrets about the Tree of Harmony.
Sora, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash continued walking down through the halls, reaching a corridor with oddly shaped sconces that looked like disembodied pony legs holding the unlit torches. It was hard to tell in the lighting, but at least it wasn't too dark to see where they were going.
"Uhh, how about you go first, Sora?" Rainbow suggested, stepping behind him.
"Y-Yeah! Not that we're scared or nothin'," Applejack added, joining her friend behind the stallion. "Just because...Heartless might lurk in these halls."
"I'll know if there's Heartless around, but if you two insist, I'll take point." Sora rolled his eyes and began walking forward, the two mares slowly following him as they eyed the creepy torch holders.
On the other side of the wall in a hidden room, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Kairi screamed as they slid down through the trap door, landing inside of the "inescapable" room. They landed in a heap on top of each other, groaning from the impact and the terrifying rush.
"Trap doors. As soon as I say it, we fall in one," Kairi muttered, the trio slowly getting up as they looked in the dark room. She lit up her horn, lighting the area, finding themselves trapped in the room with no way out. "And the only way out is up that steep chute by the looks of it."
"Where's Angel!?" Fluttershy panicked, finding no sign of her pet anywhere.
"I think he might have accidentally stepped on a sort of pressure plate, so he's probably still up around the castle." The unicorn noticed a hole in the wall, big enough to fit an entire foreleg through. "Let's see if there's some kind of hidden lever that can open a secret compartment for us to squeeze through."
"Squeeze through a tiny hole? With all this dirt!? Kairi, you're mad!" Ignoring Rarity, the pink unicorn stuck her hoof through and began blindly feeling for something to pull.
Sora stopped near an empty sconce, looking around the room as he waited for Applejack and Rainbow Dash to catch up. He soon felt something touch his flank, making him yelp and flinch in surprise, only to grumble.
"Hey, the whole point of this wager is to get spooked by something in this castle!" Sora said. "Whoever is touching my butt, that's cheating!"
"Uhh, Sora? We're over here." He looked over his shoulder, the two mares too far away to even reach his rump.
They were staring at something and looked freaked out. He turned his head to his other shoulder, feeling the hoof travel up along his back. Underneath where the empty sconce was, there was a hoof moving around and touching him, making his fur stand up on end in shock. Before he panicked, he noticed the hoof looked pink through the dim lighting that seemed to be coming in from the other side.
"These things are alive! Run!" Applejack shouted as she and Rainbow ran off screaming before the other hooves could grab them.
"Wait...is this...?" As Sora pondered who's hoof it belonged to, it disappeared back through the hole, Kairi shivering as she felt something not exactly solid on the other end.
"I think I felt something furry on the other side," she said.
"Angel!?" Fluttershy gently shoved Kairi out of the way and stuck her hoof through the hole, hoping whoever it was was her pet bunny.
Sora noticed another hoof pop through and search around for something. Before he could wonder what was going on, the hoof grabbed the sconce above the hole and pulled it. The wall suddenly flipped around rapidly, swapping places with Kairi, Rarity, and Fluttershy, all three mares staring at the hallway as they found their lever out of the trap room.
"Well. That worked." Fluttershy pulled her hoof out, disappointed that her little companion wasn't there. "Don't worry, Fluttershy. I'm sure wherever Angel is, he's somewhere safe."
"I'm starting to get sick of this castle!" Rarity complained. "Tapestries or no, I want to get out of this topsy-turvy deathtrap before it dangles us over a pit of spikes! Or snakes!"
"But what about Angel!? I don't want to leave him here!" Fluttershy whimpered, Kairi placing her hooves on the mares' shoulders before they could blow up in anger or have a heart attack.
"Girls, relax. We'll find a way out and find Angel. Let's try to head back upstairs and find where we fell. Then we'll search for the rabbit." Kairi took the lead and took them down the opposite direction where Applejack and Rainbow Dash fled.
As they climbed up the spiral staircase, Sora pulled the lever that caused him to get trapped in that dark room, finding no sign of Applejack or Rainbow Dash. "What the heck was this castle in its prime? A fun house?"
Sora quickly ran down the hall where Rainbow and Applejack disappeared down, hoping they didn't set off any other traps around the maze of corridors.
While Twilight and Riku were busy reading through Celestia's and Luna's diary, Angel was busy lounging on a pillow as he munched on some carrots. Riku had no clue where Twilight found the carrots to feed the spoiled rabbit, but he was too enthralled with what the princesses had written down.
"'I love to duck behind the paintings, and though the Hall of Hooves still gives her a bit of fright, the trap door slide is Luna's favorite,'" Riku read aloud, unable to believe what kind of palace Celestia and Luna used to live in. "Sheesh. This whole entire castle is like a carnival fun house. Trap doors, secret doors, flipping walls."
"Sounds really fun," Twilight said, continuing off on the page as she snuggled next to Riku. "'Soon, the Organ to the Outside will be finished. I can hardly wait.'"
"An organ? I doubt something like that could still be functional in these ruins." A moment later, they soon heard the sound of an organ playing a note somewhere in the castle, surprising the two ponies and rabbit. After the note went silent, the empty bowl holding Angel's carrots disappeared through the floor and popped up again with more carrots. He wasn't all that surprised as he got a free refill, though that did concern Riku. "Is there someone else here with us?"
"I hope not. Maybe it's just the wind." The pegasus doubted that the wind could have blown through the pipes of the organ and made a sound, though with how destroyed the place was, it was a possibility where it was held. As she turned the pages, they saw the organ they heard drawn out on the pages, connecting to different objects that were supposedly secret entrances. "Ooh. It looks like the organ seemed to control some areas of the castle. Pretty spooky."
"And like I called it before. A giant fun house, or a haunted mansion." They continued reading, seeing the many wild journal entries left behind by Celestia and Luna of their experiences inside their giant playhouse of a castle.
"Applejack! Rainbow Dash!" Sora looked around another hall, calling out to the two mares. He sighed, having lost them after they ran and he got flipped around by that hidden room's wall. "Great. I think I lost them. And I have no idea where I'm going, either."
He walked through a hall with several suits of armor standing against the wall. Earlier, he heard a pipe organ playing, the notes and chords echoing the halls, though there was no sign of the instrument, or the musician playing it. Sora leaned against one of the statues, trying to get his bearings, the organ playing again. He yelped as he was suddenly flung through the wall, the armor staying stock still from the random revolution and back where it stood. Sora wound up outside of the castle, hovering in the air as he looked down at the destroyed courtyard down below.
Having enough getting turned caught in the traps, he flew down to the ground and landed. He heard the organ play again, unable to turn around in time as he heard someone yell out in surprise as they were flung out from the ground floor of the castle, landing right into him and sending them in a crumpled heap.
"Ow," a mare said, surprising Sora as he recognized the voice, along with the red tail draped over his snout. "I barely triggered anything near that throne! And what was with the creepy organ music!?"
"Kairi?" The unicorn ceased her complaining, looking over her stomach as she saw a familiar spiky hairstyle between her hind legs and tail.
"Sora?" Kairi rolled off of him as they both got up, the couple surprised to see each other here. "What are you doing here?"
"I think I should be asking you that..." Suddenly, screams could be heard from inside the castle, the mares screaming in fright about something. "But, we should hold that thought until we find out what's going on."
"Good idea."
Sora and Kairi quickly ran back inside, jumping through a broken window as they hurried to where all the screaming was coming from. It was coming from the main foyer, both teens summoning their Keyblades in case it was a Heartless attack. Once they reached the foyer, they both stopped as they watched Applejack and Rainbow Dash running/flying around in a chaotic fright, Rarity was sobbing her eyes out as one of the tapestries had fallen on her, and Fluttershy was struggling to try to lift a pillar off of a pile of rocks. Neither pony had any clue what they were in a panic about, and there were no Heartless anywhere in sight.
"Uhh...What is happening?" Sora asked, Kairi only able to shrug, having no idea what was going on either.
Up on the second floor, Riku, Twilight, and Angel stood over the railing of the balcony to see what all the commotion was about. They were just as confused as Sora and Kairi, even seeing them watching their friends yelling and running about.
"Ok, this is getting strange and ridiculous." Twilight hovered down to the bottom floor and lit up her horn. "Everypony STOP!"
A lavender wave flew out and encased an aura around the spooked mares, freezing them in place. Now that they weren't screaming their heads off, they noticed the others around them.
"Twilight? What are ya doin' here?" Applejack asked.
"Must...save...Angel!" Fluttershy was frozen trying to lift up the pillar, her attention brought to a familiar chitter coming from her pet. She looked up and saw the bunny wave at her. "...Oh."
"Fluttershy? Why are you here?" Rainbow asked, stuck in mid flight.
"She was with me and Kairi," Rarity said under the fabric she was bawling beneath.
Twilight released her spell, freeing the others as she pulled the tapestry off of the white unicorn. "What the hay were all of you doing? Scaring each other?"
"I think I'll start with our side," Kairi said. "Rarity, Fluttershy, and I came here because Rarity wanted to find any of the tapestries she could fix up and maybe give back to the princesses. Then we wound up getting caught in these traps, fell down a trap door chute that lead us into a hidden wall, I got separated by them after that organ played while I was near that old throne. I landed on top of Sora and we wound up finding all of you here."
"And those two-" Sora pointed at Rainbow and Applejack. "-were competing to be the 'Most Daring Pony', and wanted to see who could last the longest in this castle without getting scared. And I was forced along for the ride. They got freaked out over nothing, ran off after a hoof in that hallway of hooves that touched me, fell for more of those traps Kairi mentioned, wound up outside with her landing on me and back to here after hearing you all screaming."
"That was you I was touching?" Kairi asked.
"Yeah. I thought I recognized that pink hoof." Sora smirked as he leaned closer. "I didn't think you wanted to get that grabby when you groped my butt back there."
Blushing heavily, Kairi shoved Sora away while he laughed at her reaction. "I was trying to find a lever to get us out of that room!"
"Should have searched a bit lower," Riku commented with a snicker, getting smacked hard in the face by a decently sized rock Kairi threw at him, Sora laughing harder as he fell on his back at the innuendo and his friend's perverted comment.
Suddenly, the organ began to play again, the spiky-haired teen stopping his laughter as the music rang in the castle again. Twilight's friends hid behind her while she, Riku after rubbing his head, Sora, and Kairi looking around to find out where it was coming from.
"Ok, that's definitely not the wind. Somepony's actually playing it." Twilight lead the way down into the basement, she and Riku reading where the organ was located before they were interrupted by all the ruckus earlier.
The music began to grow louder as they got closer, traversing the dark corridors in the basement of the castle. One of the doors down the hall were opened, the sound of the pipe organ playing clearly from inside. Peeking around the doorway, they saw a cloaked figure playing on the large instrument, none of them having any idea who it was. Not willing to chance whoever it was as friendly, Sora, Kairi, and Riku slowly approached the mysterious stranger, Keyblades at the ready in case it was a foe. And with how similarly designed the cloak looked, Sora hoped it wasn't Maleficent distracting them while Pete sneaks up on them.
Sora approached the figure and grabbed the cloak, quickly pulling it off to reveal Pinkie Pie. "Hi, guys!"
"Pinkie!?" they all exclaimed.
"That's me! Hey, did you guys know I could play the organ? I didn't!" She began playing some random tunes on the organ, but only confusing everyone with her sudden appearance here.
"Pinkie's the one who's been setting off those traps?" Rainbow questioned.
"I thought you were ringing the school bell all week," Sora said.
"I was! But they said I only needed to ring it for a few minutes. Can't imagine why." The others did, knowing how random and goofy Pinkie can be. "So I thought of making a 'finish ringing the school bell' party, but I didn't have any bluebells to throw the party, so I went into the Everfree Forest to pick some, but then I got chilly, so I wrapped myself in that tarp that I was gonna use to carry the flowers. Then I saw Rarity and Fluttershy and I followed them to the castle, but then I lost them, found myself down here and began playing!"
Pinkie pressed a few notes, causing a tile beneath Riku to bounce up, sending the stallion up into the air. Completely surprised, he wasn't able to recover in time as he landed on Sora, both teens groaning in pain.
"Ok, let's get Pinkie away from that thing before she opens up a random pit beneath us," Kairi suggested as she levitated the pink earth pony away from the organ.
Twilight lead everyone back upstairs and in the secret reading room back in the library, showing the others Celestia and Luna's journal. "So, you knew about everything that was going on in this castle?" Rainbow asked. "And you weren't freaked out at all?"
"No. And I also had Riku with me in case anything went wrong, so I wasn't worried in the slightest," the alicorn said as she nuzzled him.
"And we all thought the princesses were supposed to be all regal and stuff," Sora said. "Who would have thought they had a fun side when nothing serious goes on?"
"More like insanely dangerous," Rarity said. "I don't want to set hoof in this place again knowing just how many surprises there are around here."
"It's too bad there wasn't anything in there about the chest," Fluttershy said, petting Angel as he slept. "I wonder what's inside it."
"It has to be something awesome!" Rainbow exclaimed.
"We won't know until we find them keys. Whatever they are and wherever they are," Applejack said.
Twilight looked down at the diary, getting a little idea. "Hey, how about we make our own journal and record our adventures? We could learn a lot about each other from anything the rest of us may have missed out on. And in the future, other ponies could read it too."
"That sounds like a great idea!" Rarity said, the others agreeing at the idea.
"And I think the first entry we're going to make is all about how this castle drove all of us crazy," Sora said. "That, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash had lost the title of 'Most Daring Pony' to me after getting scared by everything that happened tonight."
"We want a do-over!" both mares shouted.
With their plans to make a journal all of them could use to record any fond adventures they had to read back later in the future, the nine ponies left the castle and headed home to Ponyville. Tonight was a night none of them will forget, especially all the chaos that had occurred from the random traps they all set off.
In the late hours of the evening, the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters was silent. The sound of hoofsteps echoed in the halls as an equine figure roamed the grounds. Its shadow stretched out across the wall as it reached the library. It wore a cloak over its body, obscuring itself from anything that may come across it. The yellow eyes glowing under the moonlight squinted angrily at the room as it lifted up a pendant around its neck, made of gold and shaped like a triangle.
"I am still too weak," they said, sounding elderly and masculine. "Escaping from Tarterus while that hot-headed Hades neglected Equestria's prison of the underworld was simple, but I've been drained of all my magic...I need more time to recover before I can steal magic again." The figure dropped the pendant, hanging back down against his neck, growling angrily. "Scorpan, you had betrayed me for these weak, pitiful ponies. As soon as I regain my former strength, I'll destroy the land you saved from my inevitable reign...It's too bad you didn't live long enough to see me try again, and this time, I will succeed..."
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Love how you can't even see anything about ponies in the description without clicking on more
nice chapter nice equestia girl refence hint hint rainbow rocks
Ohoho.. ominous.
I have a question. When you get to season 5, are you going to incorporate the slice of life episode?
7601053 Maybe. We'll have to see when I get to that episode.
I saw this when I just finish a chapter in Harmonic Connection. So I was pretty lucky to see this. Anyway, I like when you put Tirek in it so early. Aqua is going to grab the Posion Joke and put it on Sora huh? Please make it happen to my entertainment >:3
I hope you get Aqua to grill Sora, Kairi, Riku, and the rest of the girls hard about being so careless with their actions risking the world order. They definitely need it.
Aqua grilling Celestia too wouldn't be such a bad thing either. I still remember Celestia's ignorant little comment towards Mickey after they got back from defeating Sombra:
"Though order is never really all that kept protected, isn't it? Even in a world as peaceful as ours is, there has to be something to mess what every world strives to keep. Except when it involves someone who is practically chaos incarnate that lives in Equestria, then what purpose is there to keep order when he just makes more chaos in his wake?"
Unless Discord actually blabbed about anything or goes outside of Equestria, his chaos was stuck exclusively to Equestria and had no real bearing on the outside worlds. If too many people witnessed Sora with his powers, all he could have just done was get Celestia to Men in Black-it and erase all the memories of the fight of those who witnessed it or heard about it. So putting the blame on Discord for not being able to keep the world order is kind of pointless since the world order isn't focused on any one individual world, its focused on all the worlds as a whole.
7603570 Well, the way I see the whole concept of keeping the world order in all the worlds in Kingdom Hearts, it's kind of a load of bull, seeing as Heartless show up and break that world order as they appear out of the darkness. And trying to keep one's powers a secret when witnesses see them and the Heartless, those rules were already broken the moment darkness begins to try to creep up on the world and destroy it.
And if Discord blabbed about anything involving the outside world, would you believe someone like him? A conniving trickster who loves to bend reality and fool others with his harebrained schemes, even going so far as to lie to make himself seem honest when he has other intentions hidden from anyone else? He was given a chance to reform in season 3, then winds up betraying everyone in Equestria by teaming up with Tirek, only to get his comeuppance by being betrayed himself when he trusted the obviously untrustworthy centaur. Now he's a bit more honest, but anyone else in Equestria who doesn't know him personally would pass off anything he says as a tall tale after helping Tirek steal everyone's magic.
7604162 I think the whole world order means just that the people, in general, of other worlds must not know that other worlds exist. Just because they saw weird monsters and people with giant keys fighting them doesn't mean that they are from another world and nobody is going to assume that if they know not about other worlds. After all there are legends in many worlds about the keyblade and how its user either brings salvation or destruction, meaning there were others who passed through that world but didn't say "hi i'm from another world".
7604374 I may have brought it up before, but the movie Men in Black has a perfect explanation for something like this that pretty much sums up my own argument pertaining to the world order.
I couldn't find a clip on Youtube for this next scene, but I found part of the script on IMDb and it pretty much sums up the rest of the argument:
Kay: We do not discharge our weapons in view of the public!
Jay: Man, we ain't got time for this cover-up bullshit! I don't know whether or not you've forgotten, but there's an Arquillian Battle Cruiser that's about to...
Kay: There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!
7604374 True, but most worlds that see Heartless or someone with a Keyblade saving them with magic they've never seen before might consider them to be alien. It's just my personal opinion on the world order thing, and I think it's already been broken because of the threats suddenly appearing, creatures that aren't native to the world and have never been seen or heard of until now, and even witnessing someone with an oddly shaped sword meant to open large locked doors wins against them with it, using magic they've never seen and abilities they aren't able to pull off without at least years of practice.
It's weird that most worlds don't question it and added party members from those worlds within the games fight back to help with their own unique powers. So, they believe some worlds exist beyond their own, but few are crazy enough to find out if it's true and go to great lengths to explore those other worlds, like Riku's obsession with that theory by trying to build a raft with Sora and Kairi.
But in Atlantica, King Triton knew about Sora and the fact he, Donald, and Goofy were from another world. I don't even know how he figured it all out just from a glance, and how much he really knows, but he somehow knew and tells Sora not to meddle in other worlds...
Plus, Maleficent and her merry group of baddies in the first game traveled between worlds and tried to spread darkness as they made themselves known to allies in those worlds...or maybe I'm thinking too much into this trying to prove a questionable point? 
7604993
7604970
The point is true in one world they might see some odd things happening but as the average John Doe can't realy know what is going he can make up any story he likes but without proof it means nothing and since the hearless don't provide information and the "visitors" won't realy tell then all is fine about the secret because after all the average John Doe doesn't know about everything that exists in their world. The point is strange things happening doesn't point to they are from another world(whatever that means in KH) especialy when we have worlds within worlds!! Think of Tron.
See this, this is awesome. That is all.
7607507 Well it wasn't that bad, its main issue was the timer.
7607820 you mean the drop system i heard it want that bad though
For a new chapter. Twilight gets turned into a human. She finds out when Riku takes her out of Equestria.
Trap. She was gonna say trap.
Duly noted," Aqua said, though with the possibilities Poison Joke could give her, part of her did want to find out, and maybe spread the flowers over Sora and turn him into a girl as an ideal punishment for breaking the rules of keeping the world order.
Aqua is scary in this one