Friendship is the Key

by appendingfic

Treacherous Sands

Friendship is the Key
Chapter 5: Treacherous Sands
by Appending_fic
--------------------------
It was hot. Almost unbearably so; Fluttershy tried to raise her wings over her head to shield herself from the sun, but they were numb. She shivered and curled up in a ball rather than think too hard on it, and her thoughts drifted to Cruella, and her last panicked expression-
“Hey, you all right, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy glanced up at Applejack’s question, meeting instead of Applejack’s familiar freckled face, she saw...
Well, it was freckled. But it was also pink. Ish. The creature’s face was flat and framed by blond hair pulled and tied back.
Fluttershy shrank back away from the intruder, yelping. “I...”
“What’s the matter with you, Fluttershy? You look a little-” The creature yanked back. “Aigh!”
A chorus of screams suggested that some of the other fillies had made other unfortunate discoveries. Fluttershy scrambled to her feet, an endeavor made harder by the way the ground, gritty sand piled with little else underhoof, shifted under her hooves, which ached like a fresh burn. She squinted in the direction of the others, but the glare of the sun nearly blinded her.
“Is...everypony all right?”
“I think so,” Twilight replied. “Under the circumstances, this is probably perfectly natural.”
Fluttershy raised a hoof to get a more shaded look at the others. Her leg moved oddly, and it wasn’t until she saw the other ponies that she realized what had happened.
They were shaped like Man, more like Cruella than Riku, at least in overall shape. Twilight’s skin looked like it might have already been baked in the sun bearing down on them; she was slender but somewhat gangly as she bent her arms different ways to examine the strange limbs. Applejack’s hair looked odd contrasting with the freckles on her pink cheeks, but the taut sturdiness of her limbs made it clearer she was, in fact, Applejack. Rarity, smaller than both of the others, had truly pale skin, and was shifting uncomfortably on the sand as she rummaged through her pack. Pinkie Pie was still pink, but the shade was much more subdued, and coupled with her rounded figure, made her look a little like a bunch of party balloons. Her hair retained its original shade and shape, which would have been evidence enough that it was really Pinkie, if she hadn’t already started to absent-mindedly push sand together in an attempt to build something. Rainbow Dash had her arms folded, and was glaring at the world in general. Her limbs were limber, as a flightpony’s were wont to be, and her skin dusky and slightly weathered. Her hair bore her mane’s usual shock of color, and even her posture made it clear she was Rainbow Dash. Rainbow glared down at Spike, who had, against all odds, retained his own shape, and then let her gaze drift to Fluttershy.
“Can you give Riku a kick for me?” she asked. “I have a sneaking suspicion this is his fault.”
Riku was sprawled at Fluttershy’s feet; he looked peaceful, arms and legs akimbo while he breathed easily. Fluttershy looked at him, and then back up at Rainbow Dash.
“I don’t think he’d like that,” she said.
“Well wake him up, anyway,” Twilight said. “We need to get out of the sun quickly. Climates of the Whole World says that you shouldn’t be without shelter in a desert during the daytime.”
Fluttershy glanced down at Riku again. She wasn’t entirely certain she wanted to wake him; his casual sprawl suggested a deeper weariness than he’d let on. Still, if Twilight was right, it would be for his own good. She reached out and cautiously tapped Riku’s foot with her front hoof. He didn’t move.
“I think he’s asleep,” she offered.
“Of course he’s - all right, out of the way, this looks like a job for a Rainbow Dash Special!”
“Or a Pinkie Pie Pounce!” Pinkie cried, launching herself at Riku. She landed in the center of his stomach, sending Riku’s middle six inches deep into the sand. He awoke with a pained shout. He stared at the person crouched on him, eyes crossing as he tried to focus on her.
“Who the hell are you?”
“It’s me, Pinkie Pie, silly!” Pinkie declared, throwing her...arms around Riku.
“Pinkie?” Riku pushed her off of him onto the sane and sat up, gaze drifting over the other women and Spike. He then carefully raised a hand over his eyes. “I’m really glad to see you girls, but could you put on some clothes?”
Rarity, who had located a parasol now clutched in both hands, frowned at Riku. “This really isn’t the environment for high fashion, darling. Besides, I don’t have anything that’d fit!”
“I think you could do it with a few alterations,” Fluttershy said. “It wouldn’t be quite up to your normal work, but it would look nice enough.” She shrank away from the others when they all looked at her. “What’s wrong?”
“Since when are you on Riku’s side?” Rainbow demanded.
Fluttershy glanced between the glaring rainbow-haired woman and Riku, who was still sitting on the sand, eyes resolutely closed. She let her gaze drop downward, hair shielding her from Rainbow’s challenging stare.
“I’m not...I just thought Riku might know more about being...looking like a Man,” Fluttershy whispered.
“Everyone in that last world was wearing clothes,” Twilight agreed.
“He said they eat meat, too. I bet some of them eat pony,” Rainbow Dash said darkly. “So do you want to do that, too, miss ‘let’s do what Man does’?”
“N-no,” Fluttershy whispered. “I’m sorry.” That seemed to settle Down Rainbow Dash, who looked away from Fluttershy, face still wrinkled.
“It’s not your fault.” She glared at Riku before folding her arms, awkwardly, over her mammaries. “And I really hope I’m not expected to do any stunt flying with these things. The drag alone...”
Pinkie poked Riku’s shoulder inquisitively. “Why are you covering your eyes?” she asked.
“Because you’re naked,” he said. “If Selphie knew I was looking at a bunch of naked girls, I’d never have an opportunity to appreciate it again.”
Fluttershy yelped and scooted away from RIku, and Rainbow started laughing. Rarity shot her a disdainful glare, but Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to notice or care, as she slipped back to earth and was rolling on her back, guffawing as she did so.
“Rainbow,” Rarity chided.
“Oh, come on, Rarity,” Rainbow replied, undaunted, “He thinks we’re going to hit him for seeing us without any clothes on! I haven’t worn a stitch of clothing since I met him!”
Rarity sighed. “I suppose it does have a certain...humor to it,” she said. “But if it is the custom, it might be best to do our best to blend in.” She glanced at Fluttershy, adding, “within reason, of course.” Rarity looked at her pack, her shoulders drooping as she contemplated it. “Spike, I’m going to need your claws.”
With Spike’s help, Rarity quickly reduced a number of fancy outfits into serviceable loose dresses for the Equestrians. They weren’t particularly attractive; Rarity gave Fluttershy an apologetic smile when she handed over a tan and grey shift that draped over Fluttershy awkwardly. Fluttershy just shrugged and smiled to show Rarity there weren’t any hard feelings. Once everypony (every person? Fluttershy hoped Riku knew how to talk around Man, because the thought of speaking herself left her knees wobbly) was dressed, Rainbow Dash tapped his shoulder.
"You can open your eyes," she said. "No ponies without clothes on to be frightened of."
"I wasn't-" he started, but abruptly shook his head and dropped it. Fluttershy gave Rainbow a stern look; Rainbow shrugged, her flat Man face wrinkling after a moment of concentration. Her left ear wiggled, and she scowled.
"Geez, I can barely move my ears. How do you manage?" she demanded of Riku.
Riku gave her a blank look. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Hmph. Man," Rainbow scoffed. She took a step forward and launched herself off the ground, fell back onto the sand and rolled a few feet down a dune before coming to a stop. Everypony stared at her silence until Pinkie burst into laughter.
"Dashie, you don't have wings!" she giggled.
"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. It could have happened to anypony," Rainbow retorted.
Fluttershy didn't laugh, and she did reach down to help Rainbow Dash up, but she couldn't keep from smiling. Even if she was embarrassed, Rainbow Dash falling was a little funny. Fluttershy did pat Rainbow's shoulder to show she wasn't really making fun of her friend. Rainbow Dash was smiling, though, so it must be all right.
"If everypony is quite finished making fools of themselves," Rarity interjected, "we might want to take Twilight's advice and find shelter before we all die of heat exhaustion."
"How?" Rainbow demanded. "I don't see anything that looks like shelter. I mean, if I could fly, I could check out the lay of the land, find us some sweet digs."
"Um..."
Nopony gave Fluttershy any attention, so she tried again. "I might have an idea. It's not very good, and I'm sorry, Twilight, if it's troublesome for you, but if nopony has any other ideas, we might try it."
Nopony offered any suggestion. Twilight then smiled at Fluttershy. "We might as well hear what your idea is."
"i thought you might be able to make Rainbow Dash wings so she could find shelter."
Twilight grinned at Fluttershy. "That's a great idea!"
"Wait a minute," Rainbow said, sidling back to put Fluttershy between her and the others. "You aren't talking about that fairy wing spell, are you?"
"Of course we are," Twilight said. "It's the only flying spell I know."
Rainbow glowered at Twilight from around Fluttershy's shoulder. "Then get some other filly to do it. I'm not going to float around on wings made out of gossamer - it's embarrassing!"
"Well, have it your way," Rarity replied. "You might as well cast it on Fluttershy, Twilight. Rainbow Dash can walk until we figure out how to get back to normal."
"Wait, you don't know how to fix this?" Rainbow demanded.
"If I did, I already would have! Transformation magic is just very advanced."
Rainbow folded her arms and glared - whether at Twilight specifically, Fluttershy couldn't tell. She may very well have been glaring at the world. "Fine," Rainbow declared at last. "If we've only got one flyer, it ought to be me. But ladies? Nopony hears about this. Ever."
;;;:::::{-]
Rainbow drifted slowly above the sands, gossamer wings flapping behind her. She was beginning to wonder if she'd move faster walking, even though she knew her altitude was more important that her speed. Still, it was almost painful to move this slow. Even when she talked Fluttershy into a flight, Rainbow would speed ahead and wing her way back just to make sure the quieter filly hadn't gotten distracted by some cute animal.
In fact, Rainbow Dash couldn't remember ever flying this slowly before when unhurt.
She paused in her flight, scanning the horizon. Still nothing. She sighed, and briefly considered breaking out her new trick. She'd find shelter for the others in no time...
Catching sight of the edges of one of her wings, Rainbow abandoned that thought. Rarity's wings had fallen apart in sunlight; she didn't like too think about how delicate these appendages were. And that was Rainbow's other concerns about the wings. Sure they were embarrassing, but Rainbow would have put up with a lot worse if the wings were fast.
(She resolutely ignored the part of her that was amazed at the rainbows cast on the sand by her passing. Totally not worth it.)
Instead, she was practically a sitting duck; if something attacked her in the air, she'd be helpless.
Moreso because this stupid body didn't have proper hooves, or claws, or jaws strong enough to do any real damage. She only hoped it could take a hit, because that was all Rainbow would have to rely on.
Rainbow flapped a little harder, hoping her wings would survive getting a little closer to the sun. Her back started to heat up a little, but Rainbow took it as a good sign that she didn't immediately plummet to her death. Still, if she didn't find somewhere they could rest soon, falling would be the least of her worries.
At her new altitude, Rainbow thought she saw something; hovering, she considered whether it was wiser to get closer or higher to find it.
After a moment of thought, she scoffed. Nothing said she couldn't do both! So, climbing steadily, Rainbow flew in the dire toon of the setting sun, where she thought she'd seen something shelter-like. Rainbow almost crowed when a minute of flight, warming her back significantly as she climbed, brought into view the top of a rounded tower. Sure, it was further away than they'd like, but it was civilization. And maybe they'd have a library so Twilught could figure out how to get Rainbow back her real wings, instead of these sissy fairy-ma-jigs.
A scent like burning paper caught Rainbow's attention; she sniffed carefully, trying to find the direction it was coming from, but it seemed to be all around her. It couldn't be the desert itself; in the hour or so she'd been traveling, Rainbow had gotten used to the baked smell of the sand below. That left-
"Oh, cajones," Rainbow growled. Behind her, the wings evaporated, and Rainbow, held up by nothing but blind hope, plummeted.
She tucked in her arms and started rolling; when she hit the ground, the sand absorbed some of the impact, and Rainbow rolled for a few tense seconds, absorbing the rest of the force. She climbed to her feet, a little dizzy, but not too dazed to forget to pump her arms over her head in triumph. "That, fillies and gentle colts, is how Rainbow Dash rolls," she announced to the empty waste.
When nopony appeared to cheer her, Rainbow let her arms drop. She looked up at the sun, drifting entirely too slowly towards the horizon, and sighed. She knew it was going to be a long walk back to the other.
"This is not how Rainbow Dash rolls," she grumbled as she started trudging over the sand dune she'd rolled down.
Just behind that dune was another twice its height; Rainbow took ten minutes to climb over it. The problem, she realized, as she rolled down that dune to find yet another looming over her, was that the sand looked deceptively flat from the air. A walk she'd expected to take an hour at most looked like it would take all day. And she was parched. As noble as it had sounded at the time, Rainbow wished she hadn't told Twilight to save her magic to make water for the others. Now that she was trapped under the sun's punishing light, Rainbow could barely swallow, her throat felt so dry.
The urge to flop onto the sand until nightfall seemed overwhelming; when she rolled down the next dune, Rainbow just rested there for a moment, pretending it was just a warm summer's day and she was sprawled on a sunny tree branch. She could almost feel the gentle breeze that always ruffled the trees around Ponyville.
Rainbow yawned and stretched out further. Maybe later she'd go to the Sugar Cube Corner for some iced tea. Pinkie Pie was always willing to share on hot days like this.
A wrong note registered in those thoughts, but Rainbow found she was too comfortable to care. She rolled over and snuggled into the branch. Somewhere nearby, somepony was making a racket. Probably Scootaloo and her friends.
"-keep her cool! And Goofy, get the canteens!"
Something blocked out the sun, and the breeze intensified. "Hey, stop it," Rainbow muttered. "I just got warm..."
A splash of water hit Rainbow's right foreleg. That was it, she thought, and bolted up. She was going to give whoever was bothering her a piece of her mind! Sitting up, however, turned out to be a bad idea. Her head swam, and the tree suddenly felt much grittier under her flank, which felt like it was shaped weird. Somepony had dropped a coat (and one that hadn't been washed often) on her head. And she could feel a couple of ponies standing around her.
"All right, what's the big idea?" she demanded. Or tried to. Her words slurred and jumbled, and the effort to speak made her stomach roll. And then something cold dropped on her back legs.
Rainbow yelped and launched herself off the tree branch. Halfway through the jump, she panicked, realizing she couldn't feel her wings, which was embarrassing as it was dangerous; Rainbow's wings hadn't fallen asleep since she was a tiny filly!
Rainbow executed a Weather Patrol-standard recovery, rolling to lessen her momentum. Something, hover, was wrong. She didn't seem to be falling, just rolling around in...dirt?
It seemed the only thing that had gone right was that the jacket had fallen off of Rainbow's head. She could see the sun blazing high above and baking her skin, and much of the past few days came back to her. Of course her wings weren't working; she was shaped like a Man. But that didn't explain those people annoying her. She twisted and caught sight of a round, open Man face, one centered with bright blue eyes and framed with wild brown hair that wouldn't have looked out of place on a member of the Weathet Patrol returning from hurricane duty. His eyes were wide, and the way he was bent over Rainbow made h think of Fluttershy tending to a sick animal.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
The Man grinned. "I'm Sora! That's Goofy over there, and this is Donald!"
Rainbow looked around cautiously; she felt that moving her head too fast might end with her losing the last meal she'd had. Next to Sora was a tall creature that looked sort of like a dog that walked on two legs. It was wearing loose yellow trousers and a green shirt. She decided it was 'Goofy', because it certainly looked the part. Standing a ways off, next to a wide depression in the sand, was a duck. It wore a long blue shirt covered in buttons, and had a long rod topped with three interlocking spheres pointed at Rainbow.
Rainbow bared her teeth. So that's how it was. She might not be able to fly, but she was still Ponyville's best fighter.
"You'll never take me alive!" she shouted, trying to jump at the duck. As before, Rainbow had overestimated her capabilities, because a wave of dizziness sent her sprawling onto the sand. "All right. What did you do to me?"
"You've got heat stroke," Sora said. "You should get back under the coat and let Donald keep you cool. And Goofy?"
"Right here, Sora," the dog-thing said. Sora handed Ranbow a cloth pouch. She stared at it, trying to figure out exactly what Sora's angle was.
"Ma'am? You really ought to drink something," Sora said. "I don't know how long you've been out here, but you don't look well at all."
"Yeah," the duck agreed, "you look cooked!"
Rainbow found a spout on the pouch, and sipped carefully at it; the unfamiliar shape of her mouth causing her to spill more than half of what she drank. “Sorry,” she muttered, handing the pouch back to Sora. He was watching her, eyes wide in something - concern or fascination, Rainbow didn’t know. Donald handed Rainbow a cloth-wrapped bundle that was cold and just beginning to grow damp. She stared at it.
“You should stick that under your arms...or legs,” Sora sad, “to keep cool.”
Rainbow wished she had the energy to glare at Sora, because this was possibly the most ridiculous thing anypony other than Pinkie Pie had ever said to her. She instead stuck her tongue out at him. Sora’s brow wrinkled. He sighed and turned to Donald.
“Can you give her a quick cure?” Sora asked. “It can’t hurt, and she still seems a little dazed.”
“All right,” the duck agreed, and pointed its stick at Rainbow. She opened her mouth to protest, and then a cool, mint-scented light swept over her. The worst of her dizziness passed, and with it, Rainbow found herself able to think a little clearer. She remembered crashing and trying to make her way back to the others, and deciding to take a nap. She berated herself for letting her guard down; if Sora and his friends hadn’t shown up, she could have died, and then what would have happened to her friends?
Rainbow set Donald’s package on the sand and wrapped her legs around it. It did seem to cool her a little, so she looked to Sora, who seemed to be in charge of the outfit.
“Where’d you come from?” she asked. “Cause me and my friends got a little lost and we were trying to find shelter.”
“Good luck,” Donald snorted.
“We just got here,” Sora said. “It’s just chance we found we.”
“Well, as grateful as I am,” Rainbow said, pushing herself to her feet, “I gotta get back to my friends.”
“You can’t do that!” Sora said. “You nearly died out there!”
“So I’m not leaving them out in the sun to roast, too,” Rainbow said. She wavered on her feet, but turned, slowly, away from the sun, and took a step forward. “You see?” She gave Sora a grin. “You patched me up fine.”
Sora jumped and grabbed Rainbow’s arm, tugging her back. “You’re not going out there!” he insisted. “You’re not supposed to exert yourself when you’re suffering from heat stroke.”
“I’ll be fine.”
“No you won’t!”
“You want me to leave my friends out there?” Rainbow demanded. “Because I’ll take all three of you if you’re going to try to make me.” She looked down at her front legs and, awkwardly, clenched her digits closed. That looked more like a weapon, she decided. Ready to fight, she looked back up at Sora, who was unarmed. “Come on!” she snapped. “Either fight me or let me go!”
Goofy bent down next to Sora, a hand on his shoulder. “I think we’re going to have to go with her,” he said.
“Ha!” Rainbow snapped. “Just try and keep up! And no more dawdling!”
;;;:::::{-]
An hour passed before anyone other than Fluttershy started worrying. Rarity had sacrificed more material for pavillions to keep the sun off of them, while Twilight had managed to conjure enough water to hold them for the day. So Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Spike had taken the opportunity to rest. Fluttershy had likely had enough sleep in the last world, because she paced nervously under the tent’s roof, glancing frequently at the sky.
Riku had slumped over almost immediately after taking refuge under the tent. Twilight watched him, remembering Aurora’s words. The void between worlds was dangerous. He’d pulled them through it twice, now, and it seemed to be pulling something out of him.
Plus, he seemed to understand something about what was going on. The story of Nightmare Moon had told him something about what was going on, even while she was still confused. The pieces of the puzzle, though few, had a worrying shape. She vowed to take an opportunity to visit the first library they came to civilization, and see what she could discover about the void, and the creatures Cruella had nominally commanded.
It was at this point that a distant cry drew Twilight’s attention skyward. A tiny figure hovered high in the air. Twilight scowled; she’d warned Rainbow Dash not to fly too high, and even without that warning, she knew Rainbow remembered what had happened to Rarity.
A moment of examination revealed that the figure wasn’t Rainbow Dash, but rather a large bird circling the desert some distance away. Twilight stared at it for several moments. She didn’t recognize the creature, so she turned to Fluttershy, whose eyes were riveted to the bird.
“Fluttershy, do you know what that bird is?”
“...Maybe,” Fluttershy whispered.
Twilight glanced at Fluttershy, noticing that the other...young woman, had locked her hands together, twisting them absent-mindedly.
“Fluttershy, what’s wrong?”
“It’s just...Rainbow Dash has been gone a very long time. And that’s a...” Fluttershy gulped. “Vulture.”
“Oh.” Twilight stared at the circling bird. “I’m sure Rainbow’s all right.”
Fluttershy looked briefly at Twilight, ducking her head behind her hair. “If you say so.”
She didn’t sound convinced, so Twilight wrapped an arm around Fluttershy’s shoulder and pulled her close. “Fluttershy, don’t worry. Rainbow Dash has faced things a lot worse than this, and she never gives up. She’ll be fine. Frankly, I feel sorry for any vulture that tries to eat her.”
A giggle escaped Fluttershy’s mouth. “That’s...not very nice, Twilight.” She was silent for a moment. “Poor vulture,” she added.
“She’ll be fine, Fluttershy,” Twilight repeated.
Fluttershy didn’t reply, but pressed closer to Twilight, as if trying to shield herself from the rest of the world. Eyes pinned to the sky, Fluttershy stayed huddled next to Twilight as the sun drooped, each fraction of an inch marking another agonizing minute in which Rainbow Dash was still gone.
The sun was just touching the horizon when Pinkie Pie stirred. She clambered her way over the other sleeping people to drape her arms over Fluttershy and Twilight. “What’s up, girls?”
Fluttershy sighed.
“Rainbow Dash is still gone,” Twilight replied.
“Oh,” Pinkie said, drooping momentarily. “But there hasn’t been any bad news, has there?”
“I don’t think there’s any way we could get bad news out here,” Twilight said.
“Well, there you go! She must be fine,” Pinkie concluded.
“I hope so,” Twilight murmured.
Pinkie didn’t move; Twilight didn’t move her, because she was sure the proximity was comforting to Fluttershy. The sun sank further, and the others were still sleeping. The daytime heat dissipated rapidly, and Twilight pressed slightly closer into the warm bodies next to her. They were going to have to plan for the night, or, if Rainbow Dash reappeared, get moving so they could find shelter by daybreak.
Something moved on the sand. Pinkie gasped.
“What is it?” Twilight demanded.
“Ducks!” Pinkie shouted. She pushed her way through Twilight and Fluttershy and ran, stumbling all the way, out beyond their camp. Twilight struggled after her, ready to shout a warning that would almost certainly go unheeded. The words tangled up when she saw what Pinkie was running to. A duck, or something like it, stood on the top of a nearby dune. It shouted something behind it a moment before Pinkie hit him with a full-power tackle. The duck yelped and full down the far side of the dune, taking it and Pinkie Pie from view.
“Calm down! That’s not a Heartless! It’s Pinkie Pie!”
Twilight was frozen for only a second at the sound of that voice. She heard a squeak behind her, and then she herself was climbing the dune, heart surging.
“It attacked me!”
“It looked more like a hug to me. I always like a hug as a greeting. Hello, miss.”
Twilight crested the dune to see the duck-thing sitting up and glaring at Pinkie Pie, who was smiling cheerfully at it and its companions, a two-legged dog, another Man, and...Rainbow Dash, lacking wings but otherwise looking none the worse for wear. Scrambling from behind Twilight suggested Fluttershy, at least, was catching up.
“You’re okay.” The statement, lacking the sort of enthusiasm, say, Pinkie Pie would have put into it, nevertheless cut through the silence and earned a brilliant grin from Rainbow.
“Yeah, I’m great,” she said. At a frown from the dog and Man, she flushed and ducked her head. “Sort of. Sora here kept me from dying of thirst out there and helped me back.”
“Then we owe you our thanks, Sora,” Twilight said. She bowed her head. “Rainbow Dash was supposed to be scouting. If we’d lost her, I don’t know what we’d have done.”
Sora reached up, scratching the back of his head as he grinned, cheeks reddening. “Don’t worry about it. I couldn’t let Dash get separated from her friends.” He glanced at the duck, who while still glaring, made no apparent comment. “And speaking of that...I’ve been looking for some of my friends. We got separated when the Heartless attacked our island. Have you met either of them? Their names are Kairi and Riku.”
“That pain’s your friend?” Rainbow blurted out.
Twilight sighed and rubbed her forehead, a soothing gesture that gave the Man form at least one advantage over pony shapes. But Rainbow’s thoughtless comment didn’t seem to upset Sora particularly, or at least, the prospect of a reunion seemed to excite him more than the insult to his friend.
“Are you talking about Riku? Have you seen him?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Unless he was eaten by a giant sand worm in the past couple of hours, he’s still at camp.”
“Still asleep, actually.” The remaining Equestrians, including Spike trailing Rarity, had appeared. Applejack met Sora’s relieved smile with a brief grin of her own. “Plum tuckered out, I think. He really took what Aurora said to heart, and I think it wore him out more than he was willing to admit.”
“But he’s here? Riku’s here?” Sora demanded.
Applejack nodded. “Course. But first things first...who’re you?”
Introductions were quick, although Sora spent a long moment staring at Spike when introduced to the dragon, as if he’d never seen one before. It seemed weird, given Sora’s traveling companions, although Twilight allowed that the duck and dog might be native to Sora’s home. Still, as soon as introductions were finished, Sora sprinted over the dune and towards camp.
“Riku!”
Sora hit the tent at top speed, eliciting a pained cry from within. Twilight sighed and began trudging down the dune. She supposed traveling with adolescents had its complications, but somepony was going to get hurt before long, and who would be expected to clean up the mess?
“-you to stay off me, Pinkie!”
Twilight winced, but by the time she reached the tent, Sora was talking nearly as fast as Pinkie.
“-we fought a giant monster made out of cards or streamers or something, and then I met this guy who was raised by gorillas and we fought these evil chameleon things, plus I learned magic!”
“That’s great,” Riku said dully.
Sora shook him by the arm. “What about you?”
“I’ve been yelled at by a bossy pegasus, got to watch a bunch of ponies yell at the fashion industry elite, and nearly died three times trying to get out of dead-end worlds,” Riku said. “But I’m glad you’re having fun.” He glanced up at Twilight, who’d paused just outside the tent. “Did Rainbow find a settlement anywhere?”
“I...haven’t talked to her yet.”
“Then let’s figure out if she has and go,” Riku said, standing and brushing excess sand from his shirt, apparently ignoring Sora’s pained, wide-eyed look. Riku stalked off towards the dune and shouted towards the others while Twilight stared at Sora. She didn’t know what to say; she barely knew how to comfort her own friends, much less complete strangers.
“He’s...been under a lot of stress lately,” Twilight said weakly.
“He was always pretty protective of us,” Sora said. “I would’ve been really upset if I hadn’t met Goofy and Donald to help look for him and Kairi.”
Twilight glanced sidelong at Sora, bursting with questions. He sounded like he knew what was happening to the worlds, and information was the one thing they still lacked. Her questions, however, were forestalled by a flare of light from the south (or what Twilight had designated south; it was entirely possible directions worked differently here).
An enraged roar shook the air and earth; Twilight ducked her head and heard various shouts of alarm from the others.
“It came from that way!” she shouted. “Let’s go!”
Sora, too, was calling to his friends. “Goofy! Donald! Come on!”
The two groups left the camp at about the same time, mingling easily as they moved.
“It occurs to me that while we have made a habit of endangering our lives in new and exciting ways, it might be considered wise to run away from a noise like that,” Rarity commented dryly. “Among other things, I’m certain whatever made that noise will find us in due time.”
“Noted!” Twilight gasped. “But somepony could be in trouble!”
“Yes, us!”
A less feral cry of anguish cut through the night, and Rainbow, Applejack, and Sora and his friends sped up, climbing another of the endless dunes and vanishing from view. When Twilight hit the top of the dune, she paused to take in the scene. A mound of sand was sinking rapidly from view. Next to it, a wild-looking Man in ragged clothes sat, shoulders slumped and staring at the sand. Rainbow had reached him and put a hand on his shoulder, causing him to look up, slowly. Then he let his gaze travel in a slow arc, taking in the others behind Rainbow, and Twilight and the rest on the top of the sand dune. Twilight met his piercing, dark eyes for a moment before they moved on.
“Come on,” she said to the others.
It took a minute to clamber back down, and when they had managed it, the old Man had stood, leaning heavily on Sora.
“-a monster said to lurk in these sands,” he was saying. “It would be wise to get back to Agrabah, and soon.”
“Sounds like a good plan,” Sora said. “But are you sure you’ll be all right?”
The old man threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, I’ve had worse walks,” he declared. “And with your help, young man, I’ll be fine! I just had a bit of a shock, a little startled, was all. Now, who are all of you?”
Twilight introduced her friends, and Sora his. The man stared at Spike when Twilight introduced him, his expression unreadable. But when they were finished, he gave a gap-toothed smile.
“I’m Ahmed. I’ll take you as far as the palace. Ladies like yourself will likely find welcome there.”
“And what about you?”
“I’m not the type to be welcome there,” the man said. “Don’t worry about me. But come along, ladies, gentlemen.”
Despite his apparent lameness, the man pushed them at a brutal pace, although he did allow them time to gather their things. He seemed to know the desert well, however, sending them along paths that were easy to walk along. Still, it was near dawn when they arrived at the gates to a sprawling city. High domes rose high above them, pale in the dim light, and Twilight could see half-constructed buildings scattered across the city, a testament to a growing settlement.
The heavy metal grates of the entrance were closed, but the old man stepped close and beat at them with one of a pair of crutches he carried. “Hey! Visitors to Agrabah!” he shouted.
It took a minute, but eventually a guard, dressed in loose white pants, a dark vest, and a high white hat with a gemstone embedded in it, appeared. He glared at the old man without apparently noticing the others.
“What do you want, old man?”
“I’m escorting these ladies to the Sultan,” the man said. “These are emissaries of royalty, you know. The Lady Twilight Moon...and her attendants.”
“Twilight Moon? Never heard of her.”
“For a student of international politics, you hide your learnedness well,” the old man retorted. The guard’s face twisted in confusion. “I think it would be better to let Lord Jafar decide whether a royal emissary is worth admitting to the city. After all, if word got around to him that you kept out royalty...”
The guard’s face paled. “Right away!” he cried, and vanished. A moment later, the gate began to slide open.
The old man grinned at the group. “Easy as anything!” he declared. “Now this is where I’ll be leaving you. The guards will take you to the palace. Find the Lord Jafar there. He is the vizier to the Sultan, and he’ll do everything in his power to help you.”
“But we haven’t had a chance to thank you yet,” Twilight protested.
“Oh, don’t worry about that,” the old man replied. “You’ve been more than enough help...seeing me out of the desert. So I bid you adieu, and good luck.”
;;;:::::{-]
The guard reappeared to lead them to the palace; he seemed much more respectful to Twilight, calling her ‘Lady’ and ‘ma’am’, and walked some distance in front of them, to ‘give them privacy’.
Twilight waited only a few minutes before she turned her head to the others. “Why didn’t you say anything?” she whispered.
“Why should we? You are Princess Celestia’s favored protege,” Applejack said.
“And it does smooth over all sorts of problems neatly,” Rarity added. “I’m certain if she’d thought of it, Princess Celestia would have given us a letter just for this sort of situation.”
“But I don’t know how to deal with royalty!”
“Don’t worry about it, sugarcube. That’s what we’re here for,” Applejack said. She patted Twilight on the back, which seemed to calm the frazzled woman marginally. “Anyway, I’m sure we can tell the sultan everything he needs to know once we get inside.”
“I hope so,” Twilight said.
The journey was fairly swift, and when the guard knocked at the massive stone doors to the palace, a place full of even more domes and soaring towers than the rest of the city, they opened right away.
“These people showed up saying they were envoys from royalty,” the guard said.
“I am well aware.” The man’s hunched posture stiffened, and his expression crystallized into a pained grimace. A tall man dressed in robes of red and black stood on the other side of the door, flanked by guards standing ramrod straight. The man’s lips curled up in amusement as he looked down at the guard, and he turned his eyes, dark, piercing orbs, onto the ragtag group. He tapped the end of a staff, a long, golden rod, on the stone beneath his feet. “Get them rooms immediately,” he commanded. “Come in,” he added to Twilight.
Twilight took a few uncertain steps forward. Applejack nudged her, and Twilight almost stumbled. She turned to glare at Applejack, who pointed at the tall man and mouthed ‘you’re in charge’. Twilight nodded, and, chin held high, walked after him. The others followed more distantly while the tall man engaged Twilight in conversation.
“Welcome to Agrabah, Lady Twilight. I am Jafar, vizier of this kingdom. What, pray tell, is your home?”
“Ah - we’re from Equestria. How did you know-?”
“It is my business to be well-informed,” Jafar said smoothly. “And what brings you to our land? I do hope it is not our princess; she has yet proven difficult to please.”
“Princess? Oh, no,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “I have been sent by my monarch, Princess Celestia, to seek knowledge from beyond our borders. I had hoped you would have a library we could examine.”
“Research? I believe you will find our library to be very well-stocked,” Jafar replied. “I, after all, saw to its recent expansion. But you must be tired from your journey, and you must hold an audience with our sultan before you are allowed on your errand.”
With little further time for answers, he delivered them to their rooms - a larger one for Twilight, and two others, one for the men and one for the women. Applejack collapsed on her bed almost as soon as they arrived, and woke to bright light shining in through the room’s narrow windows. A knock came at the door, and Applejack realized the sound must have woken her.
They were, a guard reported, expected for breakfast, which led to a flurry of washing up and primping, forcibly, in Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s cases.
“You are meeting royalty, and royalty much less understanding than Princess Celestia,” Rarity instructed as she pulled a brush through Applejack’s hair. “We have to make a good impression, or they might decide we aren’t a royal envoy after all.”
“Which we really aren’t,” Rainbow pointed out.
“Well, not formally, no,” Rarity said. “But we are on a royal mission, which is good enough, at least if we behave ourselves. Now, is everypony ready?”
They met Twilight outside her room. Somepony had provided her a dress similar to the mis-matched one she’d worn in from the desert. It was loose but concealing, likely in deference to the blazing sun that was likely to be the norm here. The boys proved to look little different than they had the night before, eliciting a sigh from Rarity, but she didn’t threaten to force them into a makeover. Applejack suspected she was already straining the limits of her talents with the ponies looking like an entirely different species.
Spike clambered up Twilight to her shoulder, earning a glare from Twilight.
He shrugged. “Donald told me it’d look less suspicious traveling with a dragon if you said I was your familiar.”
“I also said it’d be better if you were a snake or a bird or something,” the duck insisted.
Spike glowered at Donald. Twilight scratched the back of his head to calm him, and gave Donald a quick frown. “Spike’s a little sensitive about birds,” she said. “And in any case, we’ve got to meet the sultan.”
The sultan turned out to be a small, fat little man dressed similarly to the guards. The loose clothing seemed to be the style, and one Applejack appreciated for its practicality. The little man hopped off of his throne, an ornate gold chair, to clasp Twilight’s hand and flail it enthusiastically.
“It’s a delight to meet such esteemed visitors!” he said. “Jafar told me you were from...Equestria? And you must be Lady Twilight. Ooh, is that a spitting lizard?” He poked Spike’s belly inquisitively.
“It could be,” Spike said darkly.
“Oh, please don’t do that...sire,” Twilight said. “Spike doesn’t like being touched, much.”
“Oh.” The man drooped a little before looking around at the others. “But certainly I can meet your retinue?”
“Certainly. This is Rarity, she’s my stylist. Applejack and Rainbow Dash here are...”
“Security,” Applejack said hurriedly.
Twilight smiled at her gratefully before continuing. “Fluttershy is an expert zoologist. Um...” She glanced at Pinkie before pointing to Riku. “Riku, Sora, and Goofy here are the rest of my bodyguards, and Donald’s a magician.”
“Lovely, lovely!” the sultan exclaimed. He turned to Pinkie. “And this enchanting young lady?”
“That’s my...social planner, Pinkie Pie.”
“Excellent!” the sultan said. “You must all meet my daughter, and tell me all about Equestria. You all have such exotic names.”
He swept them into a large dining room, just smiling broadly when anypony tried to protest. It seemed he was used to getting his way, and in the end, Twilight submitted to it. They were shortly all seated, and the sultan clapped his hands, summoning forth a small army of servers to present platters of fruits, pastries, and delicate-smelling flowers.
Applejack reached for a dark, shriveled fruit on a platter near her, only for Rarity to slap her hand away. Applejack opened her mouth to protest; Rarity just jerked her head at the sultan, who hadn’t put anything on his plate yet. Applejack sighed.
“I am sorry for the delay,” the sultan said. “I think Jasmine must just be out in the gardens.”
“Gardens?” Fluttershy asked, perking up.
The sultan chuckled, smiling at her. “You must be a botanist, too,” he said. “But I would expect such refined tastes from a woman of your beauty.”
“O-oh...that’s nice.” Fluttershy ducked her head, and Applejack could see her cheeks redder than a Red Delicious. She was saved by further attention when two people arrived from opposite ends of the room. One was Jafar, dressed immaculately in his robes. A parrot clung grimly to his shoulder. The other newcomer was a young woman, wearing much less practical clothing than anyone else Applejack had seen. Light blue scraps clung to her chest and lower torso; she seemed comfortable, but despite her somewhat dark skin tone, she didn’t look like she spent much time in the sun. She’d tied her long black hair back with light blue ties, and her neck was adorned with gold. The princess, Applejack decided. The young woman gave the Equestrians a brief smile, but when she caught sight of Sora and Riku, she compressed her lips into a tight line, and she glared disapprovingly at the sultan.
“You said there were people here I’d like to meet, father,” she said, “not more suitors.”
“Suit - oh! Goodness, no, dear,” the sultan said. “These are all a part of the Lady Twilight’s retinue! She’s visiting from a distant land, and I thought you’d like to meet her. You, too, Jafar. This is my daughter, Jasmine, and my vizier, Jafar.”
“If your majesty has not forgotten, it was I who told you about our visitors. I let them into the palace last night.” The man’s eyes remained entirely expressionless, but he sounded displeased, or downright angry. The sultan just laughed, apparently unaware of the man’s annoyance.
“Well, you hardly could have taken the time to get to know them. Sit, sit!”
Jasmine sat across from Twilight, while Jafar settled himself closer to the other ponies, nearest to Riku.
The sultan grabbed a pomegranate from one of the plates near him and began popping seeds into his mouth. Happy to have official permission, Applejack began piling her plate with food. She missed most of the next few minutes of conversation, although she did perk up when the sultan clapped his hands.
“Lady Twilight, I wonder if I might trouble you for a moment...for a little advice.”
“Your majesty, we hardly need to burden these find people with our problems,” Jafar said. “I have everything well in hand.”
“Of course you do,” the sultan said. “But it never hurts to ask someone else for help. You see, Lady Twilight,” he continued blithely, ignoring his adviser’s protests, “we have been beset by monsters. Terrible creatures with gold eyes that have been multiplying beyond all reason.”
Sora glanced at his companions at that, and he raised his hand, slowly. “We know about those things. If you like, Donald, Goofy and I can take a look around and see if we can help get rid of them.”
“Would you?” the sultan asked. He turned to Jafar with a wide smile. “Did you hear that? They’re happy to help!”
“I heard,” Jafar said between gritted teeth.
“Then you can stop your digging around for that old legend to stop these things,” the sultan said. “Will your other bodyguards be joining them, Lady Twilight?”
“Ah-” Twilight glanced at Rainbow and Applejack, and then at Fluttershy, who was discussing something animatedly - at least for Fluttershy - with Jasmine. “I don’t believe so, your majesty. I was planning to explore your libraries, and I think Fluttershy has designs on your gardens. If your problems are as bad as they seem, I’d prefer someone familiar on hoof in case of an emergency.”
“Oh, perfectly, understandable,” the sultan said, even as Jafar looked like he wanted to say something.
“If you don’t mind, Rainbow, I’ll go with Twilight to the library,” Applejack said quietly.
“Sure; I bet I’ll have better luck finding a nice place to bask outside, anyway.”
Applejack rolled her eyes. “You’re supposed to be looking after Fluttershy,” she said.
“I can relax and watch out for her at the same time,” Rainbow said defensively. “Besides, Rarity said she’s coming, too. I think she wants to talk fashion with the princess.”
“And no offense, Twilight, but book-diving doesn’t sound all that exciting,” Pinkie said.
“Well, if you all have decided what you’ll be doing, I’ll be taking my leave. Kingdoms don’t just run themselves.” The sultan left the room, chuckling to himself as he walked. Twilight could see Riku arguing in hushed tones with Sora, but as they were friends, she decided to stay out of it. They presumably knew how to handle each other.
Twilight glanced at Applejack and gave her a bright smile. “I’m ready to go if you are,” she said.
“I’m right behind you,” Applejack said, pushing herself up from the table. “Only...where are we going?”
“Oh, I can show you, Lady,” Jafar said. Applejack yelped when the voice came from right behind her; she hadn’t even seen him move. “But be warned: there are rumors our library is haunted.”
“Oh, I don’t worry about ghosts,” Twilight said easily. Applejack followed her and Jafar, glumly wondering where that brave Twilight had been when they’d first ventured into the Everfree Forest together. Regardless, after Jafar led them down a few twisting corridors to a dim, cool set of rooms full of scrolls, Applejack saw no reason to worry. Ghosts only came out at night, right?
Twilight made her way immediately to a stack of actual books near the rear of the first room. Jafar stood watching her, eyes gleaming.
“Don’t you have a job to do?” Applejack asked.
“Indeed,” the man replied. He did not, however, move.
Applejack set her jaw, recognizing the sort of passive-aggressive attitude learned by the pre-adolescents of every intelligent species. The man smirked at her when he saw her watching.
“Is something the matter?” he asked.
“Naw. I’m willing to sit here with you all day,” Applejack replied. She leaned back against a bookcase and folded her arms. Jafar nodded and remained where he was. Applejack began humming a tuneless melody, letting the noise waver when she hit high notes.
“If you’re trying to drive me away, ma’am,” Jafar said, “You’ll find that I have nigh-infinite patience when it comes to tolerating irritating dolts.”
“If you please,” Applejack said. “How’s it going, Twilight?”
“I found a fascinating treatise on the magic of mythological beasts,” Twilight said excitedly. “The books aren’t organized well, though. It’s stuck next to a bunch of books on the history of Agrabah’s politics; did you know it used to be a republic until the first Caliphate dissolved a corrupt triumvirate over their actions during some sort of world war? Of course, it’s framed as some sort of old mare’s tale, but the metaphor is clear...”
Jafar seemed to be trying to pay attention to Twilight’s rambling, but after less than a minute, his eyes started to glaze over. Applejack tried not to smirk. The man obviously had no experience with a real bookworm. She just let the words wash over her while Twilight jumped from book to book.
Jafar at last snapped his fingers, a startlingly loud sound that stopped Twilight mid-word. “I can see you ladies are settled in. Dinner may be taken in the lounge next to the kitchen, and supper is traditionally served at sundown. I trust you won’t have any problems.”
Applejack sighed when the man turned and left. “I thought he’d never leave,” Applejack said.
“What?” Applejack laughed when she realized Twilight hadn’t noticed anything.
“Nothing, sugarcube.” Applejack stayed a few moments to make sure Twilight and Spike were all right before wandering away on her own.
The library was a small cluster of rooms, scrolls and books scattered haphazardly in small alcoves and piled on desks. There was no apparent order to it, suggesting there wasn’t a librarian, or at least that whoever was in charge of this place had worse habits than Twilight, who was known to upend her library researching the simplest issues. But Applejack knew she wasn’t going to find what she was looking for by using an index. There was a woman named Belle hiding in a library, and somewhere among all of these books was the answer she was supposed to be looking for...
But after nosing through three rooms, Applejack had yet to meet the woman, or see anything that looked like some great secret. She sighed and sat on one of the chairs uncertainly.
“I suppose it would be too much to ask that Belle’d be hiding here,” she said. to herself. “But couldn’t we have gotten better advice than ‘she’s hiding in a library?’”
“A mistranslation, I suppose.” Applejack yelped at the unexpected voice, falling out of her chair. When she raised her head, she saw a pale-skinned woman with brown hair draped over he shoulders. She was smiling gently, hazel eyes focused on Applejack. She knelt down and held out a hand. “Sorry for startling you.”
“My fault, I guess. I wasn’t paying much attention,” Applejack allowed as the woman helped her up. “I didn’t see you come in.”
The woman’s smile grew by a tiny margin. “Ah. That’s because I didn’t use the door. Whoever told you I was hiding in a library had it almost right - I’ve been hiding out in the library.”
Applejack stared at the woman, who must be Belle. “I don’t follow.”
Belle laughed. “Neither did I, at first. But it’s a useful little trick, especially if you’re trying to get around without being noticed. There’s something...particularly magical about books. Get enough of them in one place, and they start to change things. And if you’ve the right talent, you can travel from one library to another without every going out-of-doors.”
Applejack wrinkled her nose. “That sounds more like Twilight’s department.”
“But you’re the one looking for me,” Belle replied. She reached out a hand. “I’m Belle.”
“Applejack.” Applejack grasped the woman’s hand and shook it uneasily. She’d never been happy with the plea to seek out research and women hiding in libraries, but it looked like she was stuck with it. “I thought you might be able to help,” she said. “Somepony told me I needed to find research that had been lost...”
Belle’s eyes narrowed. “If you’ve arrived here and met one of the others, there’s only one researcher I can imagine you’re looking for. Well, six,” she amended.
“Six?” Applejack demanded. “I really don’t want to have to dig through six boring old researchers’ books.”
“Don’t worry,” Belle said, and at this, she sounded a little weary. “There isn’t much of anything to read. All I’ve been able to find are the abstracts of their research, and that’s bad enough.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think...your friend should be here with you when I tell you,” Belle said.
;;;:::::{-]
Jasmine had shown them all around the garden, and they’d met her tiger, Rajah, before she sat on the edge of a fountain and gestured for them all to sit. Fluttershy did so carefully, nervously. Something in Jasmine’s expression, so solemn, suggested they weren’t going to be getting good news.
“Look, I know you didn’t come here just to visit,” Jasmine said.
“What makes you say that?” Rainbow demanded. “You don’t know anything about us!”
Jasmine shook her head. “Maybe not you, Rainbow Dash. But Fluttershy and I have met before.” She glanced at Fluttershy, who felt a momentary tug at her heart. A faint trace of a memory, a room holding seven ponies, occurred to her.
“You...don’t look the same,” Fluttershy said at last. Jasmine smiled.
“We wanted to make you feel comfortable. We had to reach you before you got in too deep.”
“You’re not making any sense!” snapped Rainbow Dash.
“You’re right,” Jasmine agreed. “But it’s hard to explain. I suppose I have to start at the beginning.”
;;;:::::{-]
“The Heartless are a natural phenomenon, of sorts. When a heart is mired in anger, fear, despair...it becomes swallowed in darkness. Whatever remains is no longer quite a heart, because it only knows its own pain, and the hunger for more hearts.”
Twilight shivered at the words.
;;;:::::{-]
“I began having dreams where I met six other young women...sisters, they called each other. They told me about a threat spreading over every world, a darkness that threatened all of our spirits.”
;;;:::::{-]
“One of them, named Aurora, knew more than that. She told us every world has a heart, something that contains everything good about that world. The heart can be consumed, and if that happens - the world comes to an end.”
;;;:::::{-]
“The Heartless appear wherever dark emotions threaten, and they hunt tirelessly for the strongest hearts they can find. They’re pests, or would be, if it weren’t for-”
;;;:::::{-]
“Maleficent. Aurora didn’t have much good to say about her. But she said the woman was strong. She commanded Heartless as a queen commanded her own people. Aurora told us to go into hiding because of her. Snow and Aurora ran off together. Alice...got lost. Jasmine said she has to stay to protect her people. Ella’s trying to lay low. I went into the library. And Kairi...we haven’t seen her since this started.”
;;;:::::{-]
“She wasn’t content to ruin her own world; she had to ruin every other one she found. And she has friends - dangerous ones.”
“Cruella. Tremaine. Grimhilde,” Rainbow said. “Applejack found letters.”
“I bet she did,” Jasmine muttered. “Yeah. There are others, but those are...the worst. After her, of course. They’ve been scouring the worlds for their hearts, and we’ve been looking for a way to stop them.”
;;;:::::{-]
“And there is. Legends speak of a weapon called a Keyblade, the only thing that can defeat the Heartless.” Belle dropped a book on a table, and Twilight drifted close, peering at a simplified drawing of a key the size of a human arm, if the hand gripping it was anything to go by. “More than that, it can seal the hearts of worlds away from the darkness, protecting them from the Heartless.”
;;;:::::{-]
“They hunt the Keyblade as intently as they do the hearts of worlds. If they could, they’d eat the heart of the bearer and turn him into something like themselves.”
;;;:::::{-]
“But I’ve been looking for something else. The Ansem Reports.”
Twilight felt a perk of curiosity, and tried to look at the scrolls Belle was carrying, but they revealed pretty much nothing.
“What’re they?” Applejack asked, in an uncharacteristic show of academic interest.
Belle just smiled at Applejack and spread a scroll out in front of them. Twilight bent in, peering at blocks of text. They looked all the same - a few paragraphs headed with a long title. Spike clambered onto the table and began examining them in earnest.
“Darkness-Induced Catatonia? The Construction of a Mechanism to Induce Artificial Atrafication? What’s all this supposed to mean?”
“It means Ansem was researching the Heartless,” Belle replied. “It’s taken quite some time for me to find even his abstracts, and those are worrying enough.”
“But why?” Twilight demanded. Looking at the paper, she could see that Ansem and his apprentices had learned a great deal about the Heartless. She could see everything Belle had said - how the Heartless reproduced, what they wanted - if the abstracts were this informative, she could hardly imagine what the full reports would be like! “There’s enough in here to tell us how to stop the Heartless!”
“But I reckon the price was too high, Sugarcube,” Applejack said.
“What?”
“The mean tolerance of an adult human is 350 millifiends, and this resilience falls by 50 millifiends for every decade of life. At the other terminus, tolerance increases at an exponential rate. One subject held out until exposure reached 3,000 millifiends, a feat enabled by the subject’s unusual optimism and youth.” Belle sounded like she was quoting something; it took Twilight only a few moments to find the phrase written in the text, and the shock of it sent her recoiling from the scroll.
“He really...”
“Him or one of his students,” Belle said quietly. “They were studying darkness, and in the process, decided to see what made a Heartless. ‘Atrafication’ - it’s their way of saying ‘a heart falling into darkness’. And the millifiend...well, I don’t quite know how they were measuring darkness, but I imagine the full reports go into more detail. I imagine they might shed light on what they’re attempting, and why.”
Twilight shuddered, and she saw Applejack do the same. It couldn’t be possible that anypony could be so cruel...
;;;:::::{-]
Riku, sitting on one of the walls of the palace, was glowering at the markets below. He’d watched Sora head off in that direction with his new friends an hour ago, but now there was no sign of them. Not that he cared. Just because Sora had a fancy new magic sword didn’t mean he was better than Riku. If Riku had one of those, he was sure he’d be twice the fighrter Sora was.
A shadow drifted over Riku’s face. He glanced up, expecting one of the ponies-turned-women, but found instead Jafar’s austere face looking down at him. The man smiled, a thin, barely-visible smirk.
“Riku, I believe?”
Riku rolled his eyes and tried to shift back into the sun. Jafar had positioned himself, however, so that the only way for Riku to manage would be rolling off the edge of the wall. He turned to Jafar, resigning himself to humoring the old man.
“Yeah?”
“Why aren’t you with the rest of your friends?” The man’s tone was casual, but he was leaning close, as if trying to establish a bond with Riku. It was just as bad as every school counselor who’d tried the same thing with him.
“Wasn’t invited,” Riku said. “Thought I’d catch some sun.”
“Ha,” Jafar replied. The parrot on his shoulder joined in. “Ha!”
“Of course, I don’t blame them,” Jafar added after a moment of pause.
Riku, who’d been letting his mind wander, felt a shock at the man’s words. He’d expected Jafar to pretend to be nice to him, not insult him. “What do you mean by that?”
“Oh, nothing to do with you, certainly,” the vizier said hurriedly. He bent a little closer and put a comforting hand on Riku’s shoulder. “There’s nothing wrong with you. They’ve all just lived...sheltered lives. They see you’ve delved into the Darkness and they fear it. The princess is likely already poisoning them against you. And your other friend...” He trailed off.
“What about him?” Riku was sitting up fully, giving the man his full attention. “Sora’s just showing off for his new friends.”
“He told you, though,” Jafar said, “about the Keyblade. It chose him. Why not you?” The man gave Riku a brief smile before continuing, answering his own question. “It, like he, fears the Darkness. They will tell you it will corrupt you, destroy your heart. But you know better. A strong heart can use the Darkness and never yield to it.”
“Snow told me it was dangerous,” Riku said. He knew he should have more arguments, but he could only remember the exhilaration of spinning between worlds.
“So is fire, boy.” Jafar snapped his fingers, bringing a flame into existence, letting it dance along his fingers before crushing it in his fist, snuffing it out. “But we can control that. Darkness is the antithesis of light, but a world without night is a lifeless desert. Fear and anger have their places. And the power of Darkness can be harnessed. I can teach you more tricks than that ferryman thing they’ve roped you into.”
Riku opened his mouth to reply, but then a fanfare cut through the hypnotic spell of Jafar’s words. He looked out over the wall, peering out to see what the commotion was. He heard a squawk from Jafar’s direction, but then Riku caught sight of the source of the noise, and his attention was officially caught. A parade was approaching the palace, elephants, dancing girls and marching soldiers dragging a dancing crowd behind them. And music was drifting up to the highest part of the palace.
“Make way...”
;;;:::::{-]
Rarity carefully took a bite of her custard. Somepony coughed.
"So, Prince Ali," Twilight said brightly. "Where are you from?"
"Nowhere you'd have heard of," the richly-dressed young man replied quickly.
"Oh."
The dining hall returned to silence. Jafar, fork clenched in one hand, was glaring at Ali. He had been ever since the prince had arrived. Rarity couldn't quite understand it. Surely, he'd be happy somepony was still seeking Jasmine's hand. Jasmine had admitted she'd been...harsh on the others. And he may have been insufferable, but he was nowhere near as bad as Prince Blueblood. Still, she thought, glancing at Jasmine's empty chair, he could have done better. They all, gathered to meet the prince, had witnessed Jasmine's furious outburst. Rarity narrowed her eyes at the prince. Jasmine had been right; sitting around talking about winning her had been gauche. Still, it didn't explain why Jafar had been so annoyed with the boy even beforenthat. Maybe he came from a country Jafar's family had a feud with.
She abruptly set her shoulders. If anypony was going to save this social nightmare, it would be her.
"Your Highness, I do hope Sora and his friends were able to assuage some of your fears."
"What? Oh, yes. He apparently has a marvelous device called a Keyblade. Cuts right through those bandits we've been getting." The sultan smiled at Sora brightly. "A shame you aren't royalty, boy. I think you'd get along with Jasmine."
"Really, Your Majesty. That goes too far," Jafar protested. "A common mercenary?"
"I appreciate the compliment, sir," Sora said, flushing. "But I'm not - well, thank you, anyway. I know how hard your daughter is to please."
"And what's that supposed to mean?" Ali demanded, slamming a palm onto the table.
"All right, sorry to cut this thrilling conversation short, but the Lady Twilight does so need her beauty rest," Rarity insisted. "Co me along ladies, Spike." Smiling brightly at the non-Equestrians, she hustled their gang out of the dining room and back to Twilight's room. There, she collapsed dramatically on a couch. "Thank goodness that's over. I cannot stand drama."
"Did you see the way Jafar was looking at that Ali guy? If looks could kill...zap!" Rainbow declared with great enthusiasm.
"I think he likes Princess Jasmine," Pinkie said.
"Of course he does; he came thousands of miles just to meet her," Spike said from his Twilight-top perch.
"From a land I'm not likely to have heard of!" Twilight mimicked. "What does he think I look like?"
"No, sillies! I think Jafar's sweet on Jasmine!" All other conversation stopped.
Rainbow Dash wrinkled her face. "Really? But he's so...old."
"And creepy," Spike added.
Pinkie giggled. "He just has to act that way because it's his job. I think it's sort of sweet."
"Well, it would explain why he hates that guy," Rainbow agreed. "But there's no problem. Jasmine was furious with Ali."
"Well, she is now. But no romantic heroes are successful right out of the gate," Pinkie said. "But now he's going to sweep her off her hooves with a grand romantic gesture, like a midnight flight or slaying some terrible beast! Jasmine told us there's alway been rumors of a creature called Kurt Zisa lurking out there."
"And she also said taking it on was suicide," Rarity interjected before Ranbow would be tempted - again - to go after it.
“This is interesting and all,” Twilight said, “but I think we have more important problems to talk about. We met this woman in the library, and she told us all about these monsters called the Heartless-”
“Jasmine told us all about them, too!” Rainbow said. “She also talked about this weapon called a Keyblade that’s the only thing that can hurt them for real. Only the most awesome people get Keyblades, you know.” She was bouncing on the balls of her feet, grinning widely.
Rarity lolled back on a chair while Rainbow chattered. She was almost an enamored as the idea of Keyblades as she was of the Wonderbolts, if the way she nearly slapped Fluttershy with an effusive sweep of her hands was any indication. It took a firm hand on her arm from Applejack to calm Rainbow down, and even then she was twitching.
“It’s not just about Keyblades, sugarcube,” Applejack said. “Belle - the woman we met - told us it’s a lot worse than that. Cruella and...Maleficent...are trying to goad the Heartless into eating every world there is - not that they’d need any encouraging.”
Everypony quieted at that pronouncement. Rarity looked at her hands, which had each gripped the other without any thought. She wasn’t certain if the others had thought about it, but she couldn’t forget the panic that had engulfed Ponyville when Nightmare Moon had returned. How much worse would things be when the threat was eating hearts, instead of endless night? What would happen to all of their friends? Her heart stopped abruptly. Who was going to look after Sweetie Belle?
“And...they’re in Equestria?” Rarity asked. She saw Applejack’s head snap around to face her, and Rainbow Dash’s prancing falter.
“No - of course not,” Twilight said hurriedly. “Remember, Luna told us to leave so the Heartless couldn’t follow. She knew what was going on, and told us how to get out without risking anypony else.” Rarity almost asked why sending Equestria’s best warriors against darkness was supposed to protect anypony, but shut her mouth before she could speak. The others looked too hopeful; and in any case, the princesses had proven themselves smarter than anypony else before.
“So now what are we supposed to do?” Rainbow asked. “Entire worlds are being threatened by heart-eating monsters. Are we planning to sit around and talk about it?”
“Of course not!” Pinkie Pie said. She bounded to Twilight’s bags and began rooting through them. “The worlds are being threatened by darkness and discord! So who better to save them but the bearers of...” She triumphantly lifted the Element of Magic above her head. “The Elements of Harmony?”
They all stared at the tiara for a single stunned moment before Rarity spoke. “If you’d warned me about this, I could have packed your dresses from the Gala.”
;;;:::::{-]
Riku was pacing in one of the gardens, wondering if it was worth it trying to get some sleep when a hand landed on his shoulder; he tried to spin away from it, but the hand tightened, holding him in place.
“I want to talk to you, Riku,” Jafar said.
Riku reached up and shoved the hand off of his shoulder and turned so that he could actually look the man in the face. The vizier was smiling, thin lips turned up at the very edges, eyes sparking with something Riku couldn’t place.
“I’m sort of busy right now.”
“Doing what?” Jafar asked. “Hoping your friend will decide to take you along on his grand adventure? Hoping those young women will overlook your dabbling in darkness and take you back? They’ve all but forgotten about you.”
“And what? You need me? What could I possibly do for you?”
“Prince Ali is no prince,” Jafar said, bringing Riku up short. “He did not come by his wealth or power honestly.”
“Nothing like you, then,” Riku replied.
Jafar threw his head back and laughed uproariously. “You missed your calling, Riku. You should be in politics. But you see, Riku, I knew Ali before he was a prince. He was a street rat - a common orphan with nothing except a monkey and the clothes on his back. He found something, Riku, something fantastic. It could give you everything you’ve ever dreamed of.” He raised his hands above his head to the stars.
“And you want to give it to me?” Riku asked. “Do I look that stupid?”
Jafar dropped his hands, and turned his piercing eyes on Riku. “I certainly don’t think that. But I think you are intelligent enough to realize that not every resource cannot be shared. Ali found a lamp, Riku. In it are three wishes for anyone who holds it. Two, if you want to pass it along afterwards. Two wishes, Riku. Can’t you think of two things you want that you never can have?”
Riku couldn’t stop the hitch in his breath, even though he knew Jafar was looking for it. Jafar didn’t respond, however. He didn’t push Riku to do anything. He just raised one eyebrow and walked away. His parrot called out, “Polly want a lamp!”
Riku resolved to forget about it, but he didn’t have anything better to do than sit next to one of the fountains. The stars wheeled slowly overhead, twinkling like candle flames about to go out. Sora had left soon after dinner to sleep; apparently, fighting Heartless took a lot out of you...assuming they didn’t take the one thing that mattered. He scowled, his mood turning sour. Sure, maybe giving Jafar the lamp would be stupid. No, there was no maybe about it. But what could it hurt for Riku to borrow the lamp for himself? He could do a lot with two wishes.
Of course, if he had something like that, Riku’d keep a close eye on it. He’d have to be careful, sneaky, or very, very lucky to get it away from Ali.
Speaking of luck...Riku sat up when a dark shape flitted across the moon, something that looked like two people standing on a - carpet? He considered for a moment. Most people who had three wishes would pick up an artifact or two, and flying was pretty awesome. The carpet was drifting in for a landing, and if Riku had figured out the layout of the castle, he could get there practically as soon as Ali landed. He sprinted through the palace’s corridors, hitting the entrance to a garden as the carpet, now with only one passenger, landed on the grass.
Ali, eyes unfocused as he hit the ground, was smiling at nothing in particular. Riku smiled to himself and hurried into the garden. He slammed into Ali, eliciting a startled grunt from the other man as the two of them tumbled to the ground. Riku caught Ali’s hat and handed it back to the prince.
“Sorry,” Riku said. “You might want to watch where you’re going, Your Highness.”
“No problem,” Ali said genially. He looked happy; Riku suspected he’d been spending time with Agrabah’s resident princess. Which meant, Riku thought, as he bid Ali good-bye, that the guy didn’t need his lamp anymore.
Keenly aware that Ali probably knew the streets better than Riku did, Riku stayed within the palace, ducking through twisting corridors until he found an unused store-room and slipped inside. He took a deep breath, reached down, and rubbed the lamp he’d stolen when Ali had been distracted.
Blue smoke billowed out from the lamp, coalescing into a tall blue...person whose legs trailed off into smoke.
He grinned at Riku. “So, Al, how’d the big...date...you’re not Al!”
“Look, I’m sorry about this,” RIku said. “I don’t want to make any trouble, but I need help, and I knew Ali had this lamp...”
The creature sighed. “Not much I can do, anyway. Anyone who has the lamp gets three wishes, courtesy of its resident genie-”
“I want a Keyblade,” Riku blurted.
The genie’s mouth dropped open. After a moment, it pushed its mouth closed, and looked at Riku sidelong. “Oh. Well, you see, when I say three wishes, there are a couple of provisos, quid pro quos-”
“You can’t do it?” Riku demanded. He’d thought for a moment there he’d finally match up to Sora. “What sort of genie are you?”
“Look,” the genie said quickly, “There are things I can’t do. I can’t kill. I can’t bring people back to life. And I can’t...meddle with the heart.” He settled in the air as if sitting on a stool. He gestured, and a chair appeared next to him. Riku sat, still feeling numb. “The Keyblade isn’t a real weapon. It’s a projection.” A movie projector appeared next to the genie, throwing out an image of a cartoon mouse steering a boat. “You can’t make a projection if a machine isn’t set up for it, or if the projector doesn’t have enough power.” The image flickered and died, and the genie held up the projector’s power cord. “And I can’t...give you that boost. It has to come from here.” He poked Riku’s chest. “You have to feel it yourself.”
“Great,” Riku said. “Fine. Then find my friend for me.”
The genie nodded, and rolled his arms up from his hands like they were sleeves of a coat. “All right. Who is it?”
“Her name’s Kairi. She’s got brown hair, nice smile...wears pink a lot.”
“Give me just a moment and I’ll find your girlfriend.” The genie raised his hands to his forehead and closed his eyes, making a humming sound. After about a minute of this, he opened one eye. He ducked his head and smiled weakly at Riku. “I...ran into a bit of trouble,” he said.
“Don’t tell me you’re supposed to respect people’s privacy,” Riku snapped.
“No, it’s not that. And she’s probably not dead; I usually find bodies when that happens.” The genie gave Riku what was presumably supposed to be a comforting smile. He leaned closer and put a hand on Riku’s shoulder. “It’s just...look, kid, I’ve got a secret to tell you. Genies aren’t...quite all-powerful. There are creatures that can make genies look like stage magicians.” The genie absent-mindedly pulled a quarter out of his ear and handed it to Riku. “Let’s call them, for purposes of this conversation, gods.”
“You said Kairi wasn’t dead,” Riku said. “So why would she be with a god?”
“Not with, necessarily. Just...hiding. Someone’s blocking my semi-omniscience.” The genie pressed a hand over his eyes. “But...she’s not far away, exactly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
The genie shrugged. “Heck if I know. I just felt like she was close. This sort of thing isn’t my area of expertise. I’m more of a cosmic butler than a thaumaturgical theoretician.” He winked. “But I’ll call this one a freebie, because you’re a nice kid, and I couldn’t deliver as promised. So what’ll those three wishes be?”
Riku growled and shoved himself away from the chair, knocking it to the floor as he did so. “What’s the point?” he demanded. “I’m stuck out here without any way to help anybody fight the Heartless and Kairi’s missing! What the hell am I supposed to ask for? What would you ask for?”
“Me?” The genie drooped a little in the air. “You know, you’re the second person to ask me that in ten thousand years. But I guess...look, kid, I’m not doing this job for my health. I’m stuck here. So what I wish for most is...to be free. To be able to do exactly as I wish, when I wish.”
“All right,” Riku said with a shrug.
“What?” the genie said.
Riku smiled at the genie. It might not have been what he was out to do, but if the genie couldn’t help him, he might as well help the genie. And that was something Sora hadn’t done. “Genie, I wish...”
;;;:::::{-]
Rainbow Dash was still digging through her packs for the Element of Loyalty (and trying to dispel the echo of Rarity’s nagging reminder that well-organized luggage was useful as well as attractive) when thundering footsteps rattled past the door.
She poked her head out to investigate, only to be nearly run over by a pack of guards rushing by.
“Hey! Watch it!” she snapped.
One of the guards turned to her, face twisted into a tight scowl. “You’d better stay close, ma’am. The princess has gone missing.” He then turned and sprinted to catch up with his brethren. Rainbow watched with narrowed eyes. Disappeared? She’d bet her wings (if she ever got them back) this was the doing of the Heartless. Twilight had said Aurora and Snow had been hiding from something. And that meant it had to be time for a rescue. Rainbow glanced back at her packs and sighed. She turned them upside-down, emptying the contents onto the floor. She grabbed the ruby-studded necklace that was now easily visible in the mess and sprinted out of the room. If the girls didn’t know about the princess’ disappearance yet, they had to hear about it so they could find her and kick the tail of whoever was responsible!
When she burst into Twilight’s room and announced the news in what she’d assumed was properly dramatic fashion, however, the response was underwhelming.
“We’re going to need a plan,” Twilight announced.
“A plan? We’ve got the Elements of Harmony! We’ll just trot in there, wham, bam, bright rainbow show, and no more Heartless problem!”
“As usual, a very...succinct thought,” Rarity said. “But one fraught with complications. First, where are we going? Second, do you know how we’re supposed to use the Elements? That entire Nightmare Moon episode was such a strain, and I’m still fuzzy on the details.”
“Plus, I don’t know how we’re going to manage if we have to fight anyone,” Applejack added. “These hands are too soft for an honest day’s work, and kicking with these legs is right out.”
“Ah, about that...” Everypony turned to Twilight, who was smiling weakly, cheeks reddening. “I talked to Belle - the woman we met in the library - and she told me what happened. She said I must have...subconsciously tried to blend in, and cast a transformation spell on us. There was a book there that had the spell in it, so I can make us ponies again.”
“Why stop at ponies?” Pinkie demanded. “You could turn us into hundred-foot tall colossi so we could stomp the Heartless into submission!”
“I’m afraid not,” Twilight replied. “This spell can transform us into the shape of the dominant species, or it can turn us back to our old forms.”
“Still, it was a helpful thought,” Applejack said. “Do you have any tricks that could give us an edge?”
“Probably not,” Twilight said. “Remember, we don’t even know where we’re going.”
“I might be able to help you with that.” Pinkie Pie gasped at the voice. Rainbow Dash spun, just in case Pinkie was actually startled, and not just making sure she reacted appropriately to a newcomer. Prince Ali stood in the doorway, hat clenched in his fists. He looked tired and wouldn’t meet any of their eyes.
“What are you doing here?” Rainbow demanded.
“Making a head count, to make sure no one else is missing,” Ali replied. “Goofy said it’d be a good idea, especially after we couldn’t find Jafar or Riku. Is anyone missing you came with?”
Twilight shook her head. Rainbow, however, felt something snap inside. Riku missing at the same time as the others? No one had listened to her when she’d complained about him, and now he’d kidnapped...half? three-quarters? A lot of the leaders of this city for some nefarious purpose and they were going to have to fight him, something they wouldn’t have to do if she’d been allowed to knock him off of something high when they’d first met.
She abruptly realized Ali was still talking, albeit almost done, it seemed.
“-the Cave of Wonders. People say it’s guarded by a fantastic monster called Kurt Zisa - the Coming of Death - and that all the world’s secrets are hidden there.”
“Why didn’t you go with Sora when he went after Jasmine?” Twilight asked. “You’re here to marry her, right?”
“It would be exactly the sort of gesture to win a lady’s heart,” Rarity added.
Ali dropped his gaze to the floor. “Look, I...Goofy said someone had to keep things in order here, and I - they all think I’m royalty, so they’ll listen to me. If the Heartless attack the city, someone needs to be in charge.”
“I think...” Everypony looked at Fluttershy when she spoke. She wilted back a step, but then straightened her shoulders and met Ali’s eyes with a firm gaze. “I think she’ll be more impressed you looked after her kingdom, than if you’d run out after her. Even if...” She finally ducked behind Rainbow to avoid everypony’s gazes. “Even if you’re...not a prince.” This last part was delivered in what even Fluttershy would consider a quiet voice; even though she was standing next to Fluttershy, Rainbow could barely hear it.
Ali laughed. “Not without Genie - I think Riku swiped the lamp when I saw him earlier. So you’re going to have to watch out for him. Who knows what he could have wished up?”
“So I guess that leaves one last question,” Twilight said. “How are we going to use the Elements?”
The others fell silent, except for Ali, who tilted his head to take in each of the elements - Applejack’s apple-shaped pendant, Fluttershy’s delicate butterfly opal, Pinkie’s blue balloon, Rarity’s diamond-shaped amethyst, Rainbow Dash’s necklace, and the tiara balanced on Twilight’s head.
“What are those?”
“Rainbow magic,” Twilight said. “Powerful embodiments of all that’s good and right in a world. They’re called the Elements of Harmony, and we defeated one creature consumed by darkness before with them.”
“And you think that will stop the Heartless?”
“Of course!” Rainbow snapped. “It’s pure light magic. What else is it going to do to the darkness?”
Ali flushed. “Right. I guess that makes sense. But you better get going. I lent Sora and his friends Carpet so they could get there as fast as possible.”
“Carpet?” Twilight asked.
“It’s a...flying carpet,” Ali said slowly. “It’s magic.”
“Magic, eh?” Twilight said, her eyes taking on a dangerous gleam. “Girls, I’ve got an idea.”
It didn’t take too long for Twilight, armed with three books of magic, to enchant her bed, large enough to comfortably sit twelve humans, to hover awkwardly above the floor. Rainbow stared at it suspiciously.
“Can’t you just change me back to a pegasus pony first?” she asked. “I don’t think I trust that thing.”
“Yeah, if earth ponies were supposed to fly, they’d have wings,” Applejack said, shying away from the floating furniture.
“Oh, don’t be silly, girls! Pinkie Pie, bouncing on the center of the bed, said. “Look!” She wobbled as hard as she could, and the bed remained stable. Rarity and Twilight delicately climbed on, and Spike clambered up as well, leaving only Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Applejack on the ground.
Applejack was the first to give in. “Well, if you’re certain it’s safe,” she said, and got on, moving as far away from the edges as she could manage.
Fluttershy glanced at Rainbow, and she felt as if the other pegasus was waiting for her. She looked at the bed and swallowed nervously, still remembering the last time she’d been airborne under the influence of something other than her own wings.
“Look, if you’re scared, Dashie-”
“I’m not scared!” Rainbow snapped, cutting off Pinkie. She took a running jump and landed heavily on the bed, causing Pinkie Pie to giggle madly while Fluttershy climbed on behind her.
“All right, if everypony’s ready...” Twilight steered the bed to the balcony and, with a little bit of awkward maneuvering, forced them out into the night sky.
And then they were off, the bed sailing majestically beneath the stars. It would have been impressive if Rainbow Dash couldn’t move faster, longer, and with a better view. Still, it was sort of nice not to have to pump her wings just to keep aloft. As long as the bed held.
“Um, Twilight?” Twilight didn’t seem to hear Fluttershy; her face had been twisted into an intense look of concentration ever since they’d taken off. Rainbow tried not to look at her, because it reminded her just how easily they could fall. “Twilight?”
“Don’t bother her!” Rainbow insisted, the shout making Fluttershy shrink back. She immediately felt her heart twist in pain. “Sorry, Fluttershy,” Rainbow said. “I just...” She glanced at the edge of the bed and shuddered. “I’m a little nervous.”
“Oh, that’s normal! You just need to laugh it off, Dashie!” Pinkie tried to rock the bed again and Rainbow, glad for the moment that she had hands instead of hooves, gripped the mattress more tightly.
“Pinkie, please don’t do that,” Rainbow said with gritted teeth.
“I don’t think...laughing is what Rainbow Dash needs right now,” Applejack said. “Don’t worry. We’re all watching out for you, and if we fall, we’ll catch you. Right, girls?”
Rainbow wanted to protest that it didn’t matter if someone caught her if they were all still going to hit the ground, but Applejack’s assurance did make her feel a little better. And it wasn’t like she could leave her friends to face Riku alone. She didn’t know what he wanted with Jasmine, but she couldn’t leave the princess to that fate.
“Um, do you mind if I say something, Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow looked at FLuttershy, who was eyeing her nervously, which managed to make her feel even worse. “Go ahead, Fluttershy. Say whatever.”
Fluttershy smiled at Rainbow before turning to everpony else. “I was just thinking...about the Elements. When we used them before, we’d just proven how we embodied them. I think...it seems that maybe if we focus really hard on what our elements mean to us...that might make it happen again.” When nopony replied, Fluttershy dropped her head. “I’m sorry. That’s a stupid idea.”
“Not...that...stupid,” Twilight muttered, face still contorted with her concentration. “It’s the best...idea...I’ve heard.”
“Darling, you might want to take a rest,” Rarity said, putting a light hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “You look exhausted.”
“I’ll be...fine. Won’t need...much...if we’re just...using the...Elements,” Twilight added. “Besides...we’re almost...there.”
The bed dropped suddenly, catching a few feet later, but Rainbow could see, less than a half-mile away, a tiger head made of sand rose from the dunes. “All, right,” she said, heart racing with the prospect of battle much closer, “bring us down!”
The bed fell another dozen feet in a sudden drop, and Twilight smiled at all of them weakly. “Sorry. Just give it a moment...” The bed shuddered, nearly dislodging Pinkie, who’d been bouncing aimlessly, and then fell another ten. “Whoops!”
“Rarity! Help her keep us stable!” Applejack snapped.
Rarity nodded and placed her hand over Twilight’s. The bed started dropping again, but it wasn’t a plummet any more. It would have been overly charitable to call what happened a landing, but they were on the ground, and nopony had died, so Rainbow considered it a win. She scrambled off of the bed, just before Applejack. Behind her, Rarity starting arguing in hushed tones with Twilight. Rainbow glanced back, and felt some of her sense of triumph drain away. Twilight looked half-dead, face covered in sweat and resting in Rarity’s loose embrace.
“I’m fine,” Twilight said. “Just give me a second, and we’ll all be back to normal-”
“You’ll kill yourself!” Rarity snapped, but to no avail. Twilight spoke a word, and the night flashed with green light. Rainbow felt suddenly unbalanced, and fell to all fours; her back itched with an almost painful feeling, and then she suddenly felt as if she’d had a really good stretch, her back feeling loose and relaxed. When the spots cleared from her eyes, Rainbow could see five other ponies scattered around the now-landed bed, and Spike, of course, unchanged. She grinned at Applejack’s familiar orange form, but the earth pony’s attention was on the bed, and Twilight Sparkle.
The purple unicorn was curled up on herself, her breathing labored. The small part of Rainbow Dash that handled all the worrying noted that at least Twilight was breathing, although it hastened to add that how long that went on nopony knew.
“Is she all right?” Applejack asked.
“Probably,” Rarity said, carefully untangling her limbs from Twilight’s. “Eventually. But she’s in no state to fight, and certainly in no state to do any magic.”
“Does that mean the Elements of Harmony plan is out?” Rainbow asked. “Because I’m fine if I just get to kick things.”
“No, I’m fine,” Twilight said, struggling to her feet. “I just needed a second.”
“You are not fine!” Rarity snapped.
“I-”
“No,” Rarity said. “You may convince yourself you can stand, but you’re to do no magic, and if I tell you to stop, you stop. Understood?”
Twilight looked like she wanted to argue, but when she moved her head, it wobbled noticeably. “Fine,” she said at last.
“All right. That mean we’re ready?” Rainbow asked. “Then let’s go kick some Heartless to the moon!”
The Cave of Wonders failed to meet Rainbow’s expectations. Sure, there was a lot of gold and jewels, but even Rarity declared the whole thing tacky. When it came right down to it, Rainbow had expected something a lot cooler than room after room stuffed to the gills with gold, gems, ridiculous monkey statues, and the occasional piece of furniture. The high, vaulting ceilings, however, were perfect for Rainbow to revel in her renewed freedom to take to the air.
“Hey! Stop fooling around and get down here!” Applejack snapped. Rainbow rolled her eyes and dropped down to join the others at ground level. They were in yet another room full of treasure, this one branching out three ways. “I was just saying that there’s something weird about this place.”
“Other than it being hundreds of rooms full of treasure hidden underground in the mouth of a magical tiger made out of sand?” PInkie asked.
“Yeah, beside that!” Applejack said. “Do you realize we haven’t seen anypony in here?”
“So? Seems pretty normal for a deserted cave,” Rainbow said.
“Not a deserted cave that’s supposed to have the heart of the world in it,” Applejack said. “I find this whole thing mighty suspicious.”
“And I’m starving,” Spike muttered. He reached weakly out towards a stack of emeralds.
“And I told you,” Twilight said sharply, tugging Spike back with her magic, “that these might well be cursed, and that’d at least give you a stomachache.”
“Oh!” Fluttershy’s pained cry made them all turn. She was shaking from her hooves to her ears, like she was having a Pinkie Sense of her own.
“Sugarcube, you all right?”
“It’s so...we don’t have much time!” Fluttershy said. She froze and then bolted down the rightmost path out of the room. Rainbow took off after her, and she heard the others galloping along. If this was a trap, they were fully committed to it.
Rainbow passed Fluttershy and thus was the first to erupt into a huge, unfinished cavern with a doorway set high up into the far wall, one that opened into a blank wall. Jafar stood far below it, holding a huge key in one hand. A net of dark ribbons was wrapped around a huddled group of people next to him, and the vizier was flanked by a huge floating blue man and-
“Riku! You’re not getting away with this!” Rainbow charged into the fray, only to be slapped back by an invisible force. Jafar glanced up from the key - Keyblade - and smirked at Rainbow.
“I was wondering when you were going to make an appearance,” he said. “We’re all quite miffed about what you did to Cruella. She was...useful.”
“Cruella got exactly what she deserved!” Rainbow Dash snapped. “Right, Fluttershy?”
Behind her, Rainbow heard the slight rustling of wings as Fluttershy shifted nervously. “I don’t think she...deserved it, exactly. Acting the way she did, though, was wrong. She shouldn’t have.”
Jafar chuckled. “Such harsh words. And look. The gang’s all here.” Rainbow Dash grinned. This was it. She heard the others shifting behind her. “It looks like you’re even outfitted for a party. I warn you: no mere jewelry can contend with the power of darkness. And certainly not with the powers of the lamp Riku so kindly assisted me in acquiring.”
“Wait - you’re behind this?” Spike demanded. “We thought Riku kidnapped you!”
“And where’s Princess Jasmine?” Rainbow asked.
Jafar shook his head. “Do you assume the masters of darkness cannot work together? A foolish mistake. The boy saw need of the genie’s powers, and graciously allowed me the use of it afterwards. And then, he was instrumental in allowing my servants to acquire...this.” He brandished the Keyblade. “Maleficent will be pleased to see it. Moreso when I give her a bearer for it. But enough talk. Genie, these, too, are interlopers; deal with them as you did the Keybearer.”
“Mrhlphrh!” Donald shouted; the shadows clung to him, Goofy and Sora, making speech, and even movement, impossible.
The blue man, however, nodded, eyes downcast as he swept a hand in an arc that grabbed Rainbow, and if the yelps behind her were any indication, everypony else, and threw her to the side against a wall. When she struggled to her Feet, Rainbow saw the cavern was now swarming with small, black-skinned creatures that hopped on four legs and probed the air constantly with small antennae. Above them towered huge blue-and-red-dressed creatures that moved ponderously under their spherical bellies. Lurking among them were creatures whose heads were wrapped in white cloth, who carried wickedly-curved blades.
“All right, ladies!” Pinkie shouted. “Let’s show them how we do it in Equestria!”
Rainbow bowed her head, and thought furiously on how hard she needed to fight to protect her friends, to rescue Sora and Jasmine, her new friends, and show Riku what she thought of people who betrayed others. She heard faint murmuring around her, and then a surge of warmth, comforting although she’d felt it only once before, rose in her chest, gathering just behind the necklace she wore.
A startled sound almost broke Rainbow’s concentration. But light gathering next to her heart kept her focus on the thoughts of loyalty, of friendship.
With all of them working together, once again Twilight Sparkle stood at the center of a swirl of color that erupted into a Rainbow of Light, which engulfed Jafar. The rainbow spun around him, imprisoning him in a cage of color. Rainbow felt a grin force its way onto her face in anticipation of seeing what the rainbow would do to the vizier.
Jafar cut through the rainbow with a slice of the Keyblade, dissipating it with no effect. He gave them all a thin smile.
“I don’t know what you thought that would accomplish, but I’m certain it was a waste of time. My servants? Take them.”
Rainbow leapt into the fray with a vengeance, kicking and biting any creature that drew near. The little black things were easy enough to knock aside, but the rotund ones seemed to absorb any frontal assault, and they moved deceptively fast to keep Rainbow from hitting them from behind. Rainbow heard a shout, and caught sight of Fluttershy desperately trying to get away from several of the creatures with swords, and a pair of floating creatures in bell-shaped robes that seemed to summon fireballs the other pegasus was barely managing to dodge.
“Oh, hay, no!” Rainbow snapped, and circled around the nearest pot-bellied Heartless to pursue Fluttershy and her attackers. The genie, however, suddenly loomed in her path, shrugging helplessly.
“Sorry,” he said, grabbing both of her wings in one huge hand. Rainbow struggled against him, but he had such a tight grip that the only way she’d get out was by dislocating her wings. She could only watch helplessly as a fireball caught Fluttershy’s wing, sending her spinning to the ground, where she landed in a circle of the small black creatures. One of the pot-bellies stomped towards her eagerly, and despite knowing it was hopeless, Rainbow struggled and twisted harder. The thought of sweet, kind Fluttershy having all the goodness sucked out of her and replaced by some sort of mindless hunger - it didn’t bear thinking about.
The pot-belly loomed over Fluttershy and swung its whole body, its arms swinging around in deadly arcs.
Rather than hitting her, the arms slammed into something between the pot-belly and Fluttershy.
Rainbow Dash blinked and ceased her struggles to escape, instead craning her head to see what had just happened.
Riku, swaying on his feet, held one of the pot-belly’s arms with both hands. The creature peered down at him before wrenching its arm free. It then launched itself into the air above Riku, ready to pile-drive the human into the stone floor.
A startled cry drew Rainbow’s attention away from Riku for a vital second. Jafar was no longer holding the Keyblade. When she looked back at Riku, he was swinging the legendary weapon at the descending pot-belly, impossibly slamming it up and away from him. He jumped into the air after it, making a few strikes at its exposed backside before slamming it back into the ground. The creature evaporated into streamers of shadow.
Rainbow’s jaw dropped. This couldn’t be Riku. He’d helped Jafar get the lamp. He’d been dabbling in dark magic; Aurora and Snow had told them. He was an insufferable jerk.
And yet...Aurora had said he’d tried to shield Fluttershy from the darkness. He’d done well enough that Aurora’s worries about the fate of Fluttershy’s heart had been proven false. And he’d jumped between Fluttershy and a Heartless.
“Genie, get him!” Jafar cried.
The genie tossed Rainbow aside; she caught herself mid-flight and took only a moment to reorient herself. She didn’t need to think about what to do. She didn’t like Riku. She didn’t want to be his friend. But he’d risked his life to protect one of Rainbow Dash’s friends.
She was going to help him.
Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark sparked and warmed, and for the second time in a place and time she could identify as real, she felt that electric warmth climb through her. She reached out with her mouth and caught the Keyblade as it materialized in front of her. In her dream, and when Rainbow had first summoned the weapon to fight Cruella’s rats, it had looked much like the simple key Jafar had been holding. But now, the teeth of the key were the color of the rainbow and radiated out from the end of the key in nearly a full circle. The handle was a pale blue circle shaped much like a crown of laurels, and the blade itself was a flowing mass of pure rainbow. It was, Rainbow Dash thought appreciatively, much like what she’d imagine her heart would look like, if it also had to look like a weapon.
“Another one? Impossible!”
Rainbow Dash ignored Jafar’s shout and put on a final burst of speed. She hit the genie from behind before it could attack Riku. It was turning slowly to strike back at her, but holding the Keyblade, she felt faster and stronger than she normally did, and got in a few more hits before the genie could even take a swing at her. And then?
She was Rainbow Dash, thank you very much.
Rainbow saw Riku cutting a swath through the Heartless, aiming his way towards the shadow cage Sora and his friends were likely imprisoned in. She ducked under a clumsy swing from the genie, and saw a flash of red near the ceiling.
A blast of lightning cut across the battlefield. If Rainbow Dash weren’t the fasting thing alive, she might have been hit. Given that, it was still a close thing.
Jafar was hovering ten feet in the air, his staff, a long golden thing topped with a red-eyed snake with a small blue jewel caught in its teeth, pointed at Rainbow Dash.
“I hoped I wouldn’t have to trouble myself,” he said. “I hoped my servants would prove capable enough to handle this on my own. But it seems there is no substitute for getting one’s hands dirty.” Flames suddenly erupted from the walls, forming a deadly circle around the battlefield. The genie caught Rainbow unaware, and this time, he wrenched the Keyblade from her mouth, as well. Rainbow glared at the genie, and once again, its stare was wide-eyed and sad.
“You brute!”
Jafar glanced down at Rarity, who, crouched on the ground below him, glared at him with fiery eyes.
“Are you upset by the prospect that dirt will be involved in your demise, my little pony?” he asked. “I promise you, fire is a very...clean death.”
Rarity didn’t seem to respond to the taunt; she just stood below Jafar, teeth gritted and horn glowing.
Glowing? Rainbow Dash looked for some hint of what was about to happen. There was nothing, except the distant roaring of something, probably the stupid tiger head again.
“What? No reply? Are you the...dumb one? Or just a common mule?”
Rarity finally looked up at Jafar. Rainbow, positioned as she was, could only see a corner of Rarity’s eyes, but they were glowing with pure white light.
“You picked the wrong place to pick a fight with me,” Rarity announced. “A pony’s cutie mark tells you their special talent. And when you’re a unicorn, that special talent manifests itself in your...magic!”
The roaring was louder. Rainbow looked to the entrance to their cave, and panic surged through her. “Down!” she shouted at the genie.
It dropped to earth, covering Rainbow’s body with its own, so Rainbow didn’t see what happened next. But she could imagine. Every room they had passed on the way to face Jafar had been filled with gold and...jewels. Wherever Rarity’s strength had come from, it had been enough to pick up...enough, and drag them through the Cave of Wonders to form a unicorn-aided assault on Jafar.
“Hey! Give that back! Genie!”
The genie lifted away just in time for Rainbow to see Rarity hop from a pile of gems ten feet high towards the ground below, Jafar’s golden staff clenched in her jaws. Jafar was just beginning to fall from his airborne position next to the pile of gems, one hand reached out towards the genie.
And then Rarity hit the ground, the staff’s serpent head pointed down to take the full brunt of the fall. The staff shattered, drawing out an inarticulate scream of rage from the vizier.
Rainbow saw the flash of red high above, too small to be one of the little bell-things with the fireballs. She blasted off before Jafar could think to order otherwise, pushing her wings to max her acceleration. Jafar’s stupid parrot hadn’t even noticed her until it was far too late, and by then, they had collided, the lamp tumbling from the parrot’s grip and spinning down towards the cave floor.
“Get the lamp!” Rainbow howled, as she suddenly had a faceful of enraged bird, which was at least twenty percent as much of a problem as a faceful of cat.
Fluttershy tried to take to the air, but her injured wing still held her ground-bound, so it was Pinkie Pie, bouncing around Heartless in a manner that rendered her nearly untouchable, and Riku, already near the far end of the lamp’s tumbling arc, who seemed the best chance to grab it.
Rainbow struggled to get the bird off of her as Pinkie bounded into a pot-belly that seemed ready for her, as it bounced her in the opposite direction, colliding with Applejack. Riku stabbed one of the sword-wielding Heartless and kicked one of the small ones aside, leaving the space around him completely clear.
Rainbow held her breath as the lamp landed in his hands. He’d saved Fluttershy, sure, but she still had no idea what to expect from him. Maybe he’d just leave all of them here to fight for themselves. She knew she’d be tempted to get as far away from this mess, if she weren’t a born-and-bred fighter.
Riku rubbed the lamp and looked to Jafar. “Genie...I wish you were free.”
“You think that will save you?” Jafar demanded. “The Keyhole is here before me! You stand among a sea of Heartless! And now...” He grinned, eyes wild. “Come to me, Lord of the Desert! By the strength of my darkened heart I call you! By the blood of my enemies I implore you! I summon thee - KURT ZISA!”
The air was rent with a rising chorus chanting in a foreign tongue. The cavern began to shake and rumble with a bone-jarring rhythm. Rainbow felt her heart quaver uncharacteristically. Sure, she’d be willing to fight the thing. But maybe...she’d prefer not to fight a creature named the Coming of Death. Maybe after a little more practice with the Keyblade.
Suddenly, a huge...thing appeared in the center of the cavern with a thunderclap.
It must have weighed tons. Some fifteen feet or more tall, the creature had eight limbs, six of them ending in vicious-looking claws. White sleeves capped in gold covered each limb, and a cobra’s head protruded from its top. A turquoise sash marked with a spiked, hollow heart-shaped emblem was wrapped around its waist. And two huge silver crescents had landed point-first next to it, embedding themselves in the floor next to the monster’s...inert body.
“Is it alive?” Applejack wondered.
Slowly, the creature’s body began to dissolve into tendrils of mist, and a huge crystal heart rose from the corpse before evaporating, as well.
Rainbow Dash kicked the parrot away from her and, diving towards Jafar, hoped she’d guessed right about what Riku had done earlier.
Indeed, as she flew, righteous fury building in her heart, the Keyblade reappeared in Rainbow’s mouth.
Jafar’s mouth was open, halfway through the word, “Imposs-” when Rainbow Dash hit him.
He flew back, but instead of hitting a wall, he seemed to meld into his shadow, vanishing from view.
“Watch out!” Rainbow tried to turn at Pinkie Pie’s warning, but was instead hit with a sphere of darkness. Jafar stood on a high pillar, hands engulfed in a familiar corona of light around pulsating darkness. It was exactly like that creature with the hole in its chest.
Rainbow Dash launched herself at Jafar, intent on stopping him for good, but he vanished before she could reach him. Expecting the same trick, Rainbow did a barrel roll, and was rewarded by a shout of anger, followed by one of shock.
The genie had entered the battle. Something about the blue creature firing short rays of blue energy at Jafar seemed subtly wrong, but Rainbow didn’t have time for that. She had a fight to win. She began a swift circuit of the battlefield, trying to swing around behind Jafar’s blind side.
“Hey, boss, on your six!” Jafar vanished at the cry from his parrot, and Rainbow cursed as she ducked another energy blast. She paused to asses, and almost swore again when she realized she was on her own in this one. The genie couldn’t do more than lay down cover fire, and Jafar was well out of reach of the others. Riku had cut open the dark cage, and Sora was helping everypony hold off the Heartless on the ground. Everypony except...where was Fluttershy? Rainbow didn’t dare look, but she’d seen healing magic in use, and that meant she could be...
Rainbow Dash dropped low and began circling low, building up speed on subsequent circuits of the cave. Jafar was holding off the genie by his rapid teleportation and occasionally ensnaring the genie in ropes of darkness. He seemed...to be expecting the bird to keep watch for him. Still, Rainbow wasn’t taking any chances.
She was nowhere near Sonic Rainboom speeds, but Rainbow knew it was fast enough. She made one last circuit and rose like a firework behind Jafar as he reappeared after avoiding another attack from the genie. There was no warning cry, but still, Jafar seemed aware, as he turned his head when Rainbow drew close. He raised his hand, trying to summon the shadows to drag him out of the way, but he’d lost just enough time, and Rainbow was just fast enough. She hit him full-on with the blade, and the blow carried with it an extra punch, an explosion of multi-colored light that engulfed the cave. Jafar hit the ground in an undignified heap as an expanding ring of rainbow light swept through the cave. It was enough to daze most of the Heartless, and the fighters below took ruthless advantage.
Rainbow landed next to Jafar, who hadn’t moved since he landed. He didn’t look too bad, except, Rainbow realized with a start, for a long, multi-colored gash across his chest. Something black oozed deep within the wound, smoking at it reached the glowing edge of the injury.
He grinned at Rainbow Dash. “What will your...friends...think of you...now?” he asked. “Now that you’ve...killed?”
Rainbow took a step back from Jafar. “I didn’t - anyway, you were going to hurt us!”
Jafar chuckled, voice weak. “Keep reminding yourself of that. But...would you like...to know a...secret?”
“What?” Rainbow asked uneasily.
“It won’t...work. Not against...us.” Jafar threw his head back and laughed madly, and at last, his body succumbed to the inevitable and evaporated into black smoke. No crystal heart rose from where he’d once lain, just more smoke. And an uncomfortable tingle ran down Rainbow’s spine.
Rainbow glared at the empty space and kicked at it nervously. He’d been trying to upset her. It wasn’t like defeating a Heartless was like killing. And even if it was, she’d done it protect the others. They couldn’t see anything wrong with that, could they?
“Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow jerked away from Fluttershy’s voice. “Don’t sneak up on me like that, Fluttershy!”
Fluttershy stepped away from Rainbow, eyes down. “Right. Sorry.”
Rainbow sighed at seeing the other pony, well, shying away from her. “It’s my fault, Fluttershy. I’m just a little...I killed him.”
Fluttershy’s eyes flicked to the empty stone and then up to Rainbow Dash. She stepped towards Rainbow Dash. Rainbow stepped away nervously. Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and took a larger step forward, and Rainbow, uncertain, stayed where she was. Fluttershy rubbed her muzzle against Rainbow’s. Rainbow, having expected anything but the gentle caress, started and stumbled back.
“What the hay was that for?” she demanded.
“You’re not a monster,” Fluttershy said. “You saved Riku, and I know you don’t like him. You did your best to protect everypony. And I...I knew what you’d do if I used the Stare to distract Iago.”
“Iago?”
“Jafar’s parrot,” Fluttershy said. She let her gaze drop and her mane shield her face. “Anyway, if you’re a monster, so am I. I helped you.”
“Flutter-”
“No, don’t say anything. I’m not,” Fluttershy said. “The Elements of Harmony, they turned Nightmare Moon into Princess Luna. He just laughed at them. There...isn’t any reasoning with them, and there won’t be any turning them back.” She looked up and met Rainbow Dash’s eyes, her aquamarine ones taking on an icy hue. “We’re going to have to find Tremaine, Grimhilde, and Maleficient and destroy them, and anypony like them.” She gave a curt nod and then turned to trot back to the center of the room. “Anyway, Sora was looking for you. Sorry for not mentioning it earlier. I think he and his friends might need a minute, anyway.” Rainbow glanced briefly towards the others; Donald was flailing at Sora, and even at this distance, Rainbow could hear a furious squawking. Sora tapped Donald’s beak; the duck folded his wings and muttered something.
Fluttershy nudged Rainbow and began trotting back towards the others.
Rainbow stared after Fluttershy, mind awhirl. It seemed inconceivable kind little Fluttershy could say something like that. But then again...the Elements of Harmony hadn’t had any effect on Jafar. To have gone so far that things like kindness, generosity, even laughter didn’t mean anything to you...maybe having someone kill you would be a kindness.
Rainbow hurried to catch up with Fluttershy. “Look, I want you to know, if I ever get like that-”
Fluttershy whirled on Rainbow. “You listen to me, Rainbow Dash. Your heart could be consumed and locked in darkness for a thousand years, and you’d be nothing like Jafar! If you were taken, I’d throw everything good about you back in your face until you remembered and came back to us. You’d never be so far gone there wasn’t hope.” Her voice dropped again. “I’m sure of it.”
Rainbow kept walking, but she couldn’t focus. Of course she’d this sort of fierceness in Fluttershy before, but it hadn’t occurred to her, even when hearing about the Heartless, how the plague might awake it. She couldn’t keep the grin from splitting her face as she followed Fluttershy. If even Fluttershy could get into this, there was no way they could lose.
Sora and his friends were standing with the others near the base of the large platform on which sat the door frame with no door in it. The duck kept giving her odd looks, but Goofy kept shushing him when he tried to say something.
“Great thinking on breaking that staff, Rarity,” Rainbow said.
“Oh, thank you, darling,” Rarity said with a toss of her head. “But there was more to it than getting rid of his magic.” She summoned a small blue bead that hovered in front of Rainbow.
“A gem?” Rainbow asked skeptically. “We passed hundreds of thousands of gems on our way here!”
“Look closely.”
Rainbow did, peering into the depths of the bead, gasping at what she saw. There was a creature, barely the size of a pinhead, inside the bead. It was a six-legged thing with blue skin, antennae, and a slavering mouth. It looked quite a lot like the small Heartless with antennae.
“You said Aurora told you hearts could seek refuge from the darkness in the form of crystal spheres,” Rarity said. “These...people seem just the type to try to take advantage of poor, lost hearts.”
“So that’s somepony’s heart?” Pinkie Pie asked.
“Probably,” Rarity replied, tucking the bead back away in one of her small saddlebags. “I’m going to hang onto it until I figure out how to free the dear and send him home.”
“That’s great,” Sora said, “but we’ve got a bigger problem to worry about.” He pointed to the door frame, where a keyhole was set. “That’s the door to this world’s heart. The Keyblade can...lock it, prevent the Heartless from coming back.”
Rainbow snorted. “Lock the heart away?” she asked. “Is that what you’ve been doing? Locking hearts?”
“It’s the only way to keep the Heartless out!” Donald snapped. He gave Goofy a sidelong loon before snorting. “Some Keybearer you’re turning out to be. Stand to figure a pony wouldn’t be much good at it.”
“So you want to lock the world away from everything?” Rainbow Dash shouted. “I know I’m terrible with...mushy stuff, but that’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. Do you think you’re helping, hiding these worlds from everything?” She waved at the Keyhole, heart still pumping from the energy of the battle. “Sure, the darkness can’t get in, but-”
“Neither can the light,” Twilight said.
Sora looked between Donald, whose arms were folded in stubborn determination, and the ponies, who almost all had nervous eyes fixed on the Keyhole. Rainbow just stared at him, and shook her head. She didn’t know if worlds had minds, as well as hearts, but the thought of a heart locked, so she couldn’t feel that surge of protectiveness when somepony threatened her friends, or the joy when she succeeded at something amazing, chilled her to the very...heart.
“Do it,” Riku said, startling Rainbow. She’d all but forgotten about him in the heat of the moment. But his gaze was fixed on Sora, hands clenched in tight fists. “You can’t leave this world open to the darkness. That’s how worlds fall.”
“You want him to lock your heart, too?” Rainbow demanded. “You want to keep out the big, bad darkness?”
Riku tried to hold Rainbow’s gaze, but he hold it no more than a moment, eyes hooded as he glanced down. “Maybe,” he muttered.
Rainbow dropped to the ground with a sigh. “Then go ahead. I’ll risk a bit a bit of darkness rather than live without any emotion. That’s almost as bad as not having a heart.”
Sora looked at Riku, who waved his hand at the Keyhole. “Lock it,” Riku said.
Sora nodded and raised his Keyblade. A beam of light shot from the blade, connecting with the Keyhole. A strange, almost-chorus seemed to echo through the cavern, and there was an audible click, like that of a lock catching. Everypony watched with awe, except Rainbow. She watched everypony else; Riku’s face was clouded as he watched, whether with anger, envy, or something else, Rainbow couldn’t tell. When it finished, Rainbow shook her mane and scrambled back to her feet.
“Well, let’s get going, not that anyone listens to what I have to say,” Rainbow growled.
“Um, Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy nudged Rainbow’s wings. “I think, maybe, you might have forgotten something. Unless you didn’t, and you forgot to tell us. It’s just...did we find Princess Jasmine?”
“Nah, Jafar took care of her before you showed up,” Iago piped up. Everypony turned to glare at him, and he wilted under the attention. “I mean...”
“What did he do to Jasmine?” Applejack demanded.
“Well...” Iago shifted nervously on her perch above the Keyhole. “The thing is, Jafar’s got something big going on. And he needs these young ladies...sort of...I don’t know the specifics. There’s something special about them, anyway.”
“He didn’t hurt her, did he?”
“Ah, that depends on what your definition of hurt is.” Iago preened his wing nervously. “She’s probably alive. But you don’t wanna go looking for her. I’ve been to Hollow Bastion once, and it’s not a good place for anyone!”
“Hollow Bastion?” Rainbow asked.
Iago took a step sideways. “I shouldn’t have said that. Hollow Bastion’s a nightmare, full of Heartless. You don’t want to go there. Maleficient’d tear your hearts out-”
“Maleficent?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, jeez,” Iago muttered. “Look...I’ll give you a warning, because you’re nice folks and I feel a little embarrassed helping Jafar snatch that lamp. The kid’d have the genie out of the game earlier if we hadn’t grabbed it first.”
Rainbow glanced at Riku. She was beginning to worry she’d misread Riku. He annoyed the hay out of her, but this was at least three times he’d gone out of his way to help somepony. Rainbow knew she wasn’t the paragon of kindness, so maybe...she should stop being so hard on him?
“Don’t fight her,” Iago said. “She’s holed up in that castle, and she’s been draining everything out of that world the Heartless didn’t take. Money, magic...she’s hoarding it. And she was nasty enough before she had those things following her.”
“We’ll take that under advisement,” Rarity said. “But for now, I think we ought to bring the news back to the sultan. Let’s see. Do you have room on that carpet you’ve got for a pony...or four?”
Sora shook his head. “I can’t hold all of you.”
“So Fluttershy can drag Sora back to Agrabah, and I’ll take Riku,” Rainbow said. “There. Problem solved.”
Riku gave Rainbow a skeptical look, but at that point, a loud cough drew everypony’s focus. The genie waved a big blue hand at them.
“Hi,” he said. “I must say, this is a novel situation, people needing something difficult done and not immediately thinking of asking the genie. But just this once, I think I’ll be helpful for the sake of it.” He snapped his fingers, causing the treasure room to dissolve and the great hall of the palace to appear in its place. The sultan, who was currently sobbing into Prince Ali’s shoulder, looked up at their arrival.
“Oh! Sora! And...some ponies! Goodness, a unicorn!” He stood and hurried towards them. “Did you find Jasmine? And Jafar? Oh, goodness, Riku, good to see you’re all right. Well?”
Sora glanced back, shoulders tense, making Rainbow wonder if he’d had to explain this sort of thing before. It was Applejack, whoever, who stepped forward.
“Look, your majesty, we found Jafar, and it turns out he...was a real snake-in-the-grass. He’d been using the Heartless to find a way to plunge your whole world into darkness. We took care of him, but...he’s sent your daughter elsewhere. We’re going to find her, I promise you, your highness, and...”
“Oh.” The sultan drooped, letting his head fall onto his chest. “Well. I’m glad you tried your best. And...I would appreciate to hear from you if you have any word.” He glanced back at Ali. “We’ll be keeping down the fort, here.” He scratched his head. “Although, I suppose with Jafar gone, I’m going to need another vizier...”
“And I think we’re going to be taking our leave, your majesty,” Sora said.
“The best of luck to you. And I do hope you find my daughter.”
“Time for us to get going, too,” Twilight said to the Equestrians.
“Then give me a second,” Rainbow said. Riku and Sora were talking in a corner, leaning close together. She ambled towards them, only for the boys to break apart when she approached. “Hey,” she said amiably.
“It was great meeting you, Rainbow Dash,” Sora said, reaching out with one hand, only to pause before actually patting Rainbow’s shoulder. “I thought I was the only Keyblade bearer out there.”
“Well, it’s natural I’d have one of those things myself, on account of me being so awesome,” Rainbow replied. “Even if my chest’s been itching ever since we beat Jafar.”
Sora glanced over towards Donald. “That must be magic!” he said in hushed tones. “I got a gift of magic from my Keyblade, too. Let’s see...there should be some sort of emblem on your Keyblade...”
Rainbow Dash called the weapon forth. It wasn’t the flashy shape from before, but the drab form of Sora’s. Sora turned the Keyblade over and at last pointed at the handle, where a set of three parallel lines, the middle line offset slightly, were carved.
“Huh. I never saw that before,” Sora said.
“That’s all right. I’ll ask Twilight. But I actually wanted to see Riku, here.”
“Oh.” Sora nodded and then pulled Riku into a tight embrace. “You keep an eye out for Kairi, and we’ll look, too. Okay?”
Riku grinned at Sora. Although Rainbow could see Riku’s eyes were damp, and slanted sadly, Sora just patted his friend’s shoulder and went to join the duck and dog.
“You’re not going with them?”
Riku shrugged. “It’s easier to find our other friend if we split up. And...”
“You want to keep an eye on Fluttershy?” Rainbow asked.
“What? No!” Riku snapped, cheeks flushing red.
Rainbow stepped around the boy, who was trying to avoid her gaze, and met his eyes. “Look,” she said. “I realized that I’ve been...unfair to you. You protected Fluttershy from the worst of the void. That parrot said you were trying to free the genie before Jafar got it. And you jumped in front of that Heartless to keep Fluttershy safe. And I never thanked you for any of that. I’m...sorry. And thanks.”
Riku rolled his eyes and patted Rainbow’s shoulder. “Sure. So, we ready to go?”
“That’s all you have to say?” Rainbow demanded. “I’m practically pouring my heart out here, and you just say ‘sure’?”
Riku shrugged. “I didn’t do it to impress you. I did it...for other reasons. Okay? So I don’t need you to tell me I did good, and I don’t need Sora to tell me look for Kairi, and I don’t need a stupid Keyblade, all right? Now let’s get out of here!”
He stormed back towards the ponies, and Rainbow watched him leave, irritation sparking in her chest. She didn’t know what she’d been expecting; obviously, the girls must have gotten to her, because she’d almost thought for a second Riku might have seen her thanks as an offer of friendship.
She shook out her mane, letting the thoughts go. She didn’t need to be Riku’s friend, just tolerate him. She needed to keep her friends safe, and, like it or not, Riku was going to help with that. Still, it seemed she could let up on him a little.
“Say, does anyone have any idea what happened to that Kurt Zisa thing?” Pinkie asked.
;;;:::::{-]
“How many are we missing?”
“The librarian’s still missing, somebody managed to lose track of her only house-servant, and...you told us not to worry about the last one. Despite the trouble she’s been causing.”
“Yes, I have plans for her. And if we’re lucky, the last Princess will come with a...little bonus.”
;;;:::::{-]
For those wondering, Rainbow Dash’s keyblade comes from Axwrend's deviantart, and the awesome art that goes along with it. Go give Ax kudos for the awesome idea!
Coming up, The Selfish Truth!

Comments

[Sora2455]

Seriously, why does nobody else think this is awesome?