From Dreams to Nightmares
6. From Dreams to Nightmares
Sweetie Belle clung tightly to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, shivering somewhat. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom eagerly wrapped their forelegs around her as well. While tears fell freely from Apple Bloom's eyes, Scootaloo would always deny any possibility that she was crying. That would have been so uncool.
"Ahem!" a stern voice said from the stairs upward.
The three fillies turned. A human stood there, dressed in blue and possessing a long white beard like Merlin, plainly a wizard. However, where Merlin had possessed an aura of playfulness and his expression had been friendly and somewhat absent minded, this wizard's face and expression conveyed unrelenting sternness, and he projected an aura of raw, unfettered power that nearly overwhelmed Apple Bloom and Scootaloo's minds. He held the staff Sweetie Belle had been wielding in one hand. "Miss Belle," he said firmly, "what have I told you about keeping hold of your weapon?"
Sweetie Belle blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry Master Yen Sid," she said quietly, seizing the staff in her telekinesis and floating it into her saddlebags. "I didn't mean to drop it. I just got so excited at seeing my friends again..."
Yen Sid's expression softened noticeably, and the aura of power seemed to withdraw, allowing Apple Bloom and Scootaloo to catch their breaths. "So these are the friends you spoke of, the ones who you knew would find you?"
Sweetie nodded happily. "Yes, Master."
Yen Sid examined both of the fillies carefully, his eyes locking onto the Keyblade Scootaloo still clutched. He then nodded. "In that case, your friends may assist you in cleaning up the mess in this room, during which time you may catch up. When you are finished, please report to me at the top of the tower. There is much I would speak to all three of you about." Turning, he went back up the stairs.
Scootaloo frowned after he left. "He really expects us to clean up this mess?"
Sweetie giggled as she seized three broomsticks in her magic. "Don't worry, it will be easy." Seizing her staff in her magic as well, she began swinging it in the air like a conductor's baton. The brooms began to sway in a rhythmic motion in response, sweeping on their own. Sweetie lay down on a clean spot on the floor. "This way we can talk," she said, letting her staff continue conducting.
As Apple Bloom and Scootaloo lay down nearby, Scootaloo spoke up. "So, how come you knew we were coming?" she asked.
"The dreams," Sweetie Belle said happily.
"Dreams?" Scootaloo and Apple Bloom replied simultaneously.
Sweetie nodded. "Yep. I'm pretty sure you two had similar dreams. Mine went like this..."
----------
Sweetie Belle opened her eyes, blinking. "Where'd my blanket go?" she asked. "And why am I sleeping on glass?" She pushed herself to her hooves. "This isn't my bed." She stared down at the relief of Spike catching the Crystal Heart and saving the Crystal Kingdom. "Pretty picture though." She stared around. "But where am I?"
A voice echoed in her mind.
'A great power has-'
"AH!" she screamed. "Get out of my head get out of my head out out out OUT!"
There was silence for a time. This was followed by a spectral sigh and a very quiet muttering. 'Never working with preteens again...'
A sign dropped out of the sky to land quivering in the relief, landing right at the base of Spike's tail where his scales shifted over to his underbelly. The sign had writing on it.
"A great power has chosen you. But that power must be given form..."
Three pedestals rose out of the relief. The writing on the sign changed. "Choose the form of your power. Take your time and be sure...there's no rush..."
Sweetie walked around the alters, not sure what to pick. She stopped by the staff alter. The staff was pure white with a pink and purple top. Another sign dropped down.
"The power of the mystic. Inner strength. A staff of wonder and ruin. Is this the power you seek?"
Sweetie blinked. "Umm..." She tilted her head as she heard something whistling through the air. "What's that-" Something hard smacked into the back of her head. "OW!" She rubbed the back of her head and looked down. Another staff, this one orange with a purple top, was clattering to the ground in front of her. "Oh! Can I have this one?" she asked happily, picking it up and hugging it to herself.
The sign's writing changed. "Umm...you should really take this one."
"Please?" Sweetie begged, widening her eyes and going into a slight pout, letting her lower lip quiver ever so slightly.
The sign seemed to shiver. "...fine."
"Yay!" Sweetie Belle cheered happily as the staff vanished into her.
The sign contrived to look irritated. "You're lucky you're so cute."
Sweetie turned her back to the sign. "Works every time..." she muttered under her breath.
"What was that?" was written on the sign in the center of the platform.
"Nothing!" Sweetie said happily, doing her best to appear as innocent as she could manage.
The sign seemed to be eyeing her. Then the writing changed. "You have chosen a path for your power. But what will you give up in exchange?"
Sweetie blinked. "I don't understand."
"You have chosen to focus your strength in the mystic arts. From where will you take strength away to do so?"
"Oh!" Sweetie said happily. "Like balancing stat points for a D&D character! I got it!" She looked around at the shield and sword. "I give up the shield."
The sign changed. "But...you don't even know what-"
"I've chosen to be a mage type. However, it will likely be a while before I gain enough strength to be throwing spells around like a fire sale. In the meantime, I need to fall back on my other strengths for defense, right? Since I don't like taking hits, I want to be sure I can still deal good physical blows, so I want to hold onto the sword." She then giggled. "And here I am talking like this isn't just some crazy dream."
The sign went blank for a time. Then the shield faded out and the sword vanished. The platform had changed, now showing Rarity posing in her Gala dress. Sweetie smiled at the image of her sister. "So, what's next?"
Shadows began to gather across the platform, forming into Heartless. The sign had words on it, but Sweetie didn't notice them.
"AAHH!" she screamed, grabbing her staff in her forehooves as she ran around on her hind hooves, whacking the Shadows like a strange game of Whack-a-Mole. "KILLITKILLITKILLITKILLIT!" As she proceeded to smack several of the Shadows into nothingness, she continued to scream that out. "KILL IT WITH FIRE!" she screamed as she approached the last one.
A fireball leapt from the tip of her staff, smacking into the last Shadow and dispersing it. Sweetie fell back on her rear, blinking. "Did I do that?" she asked, turning to the sign.
The writing had changed. "Your fighting style is...unusual, but effective. You will face many dangers in your quest, but you have nothing to fear. You will not have to face them alone." This was followed by an arrow pointing down.
Sweetie looked down. The relief now showed her posing on her hind legs, holding the staff in a magical grip. Opposite her was Apple Bloom, a shield seemingly clutched in her teeth. Between them was Scootaloo, braced on all fours in a fighting pose, the Keyblade clutched in her teeth. A triangle was formed in the negative space between their bodies.
Smiling, Sweetie Belle curled up to the sign, her staff clutched to her body in her legs, and began to doze off.
Until she awoke to Rarity shaking her awake for school.
---------------
Sweetie Belle smiled at Apple Bloom and Scootaloo. "So, when you both had a weird dream at the same time, I knew that they were real, and when I woke up here after crashing through the window I knew you'd find me eventually. So I waited here for you both to arrive, and in the meantime, Master Yen Sid taught me magic." She grimaced. "At first, he insisted that I begin my apprenticeship with cleaning and similar tasks before he taught me any magic. As my sister could attest, that didn't go well." She shuddered, remembering how her first attempt at cleaning up the shards of the window she'd broken on entering had resulted in breaking Yen Sid's desk, upsetting his cauldron, torching his papers, breaking three more windows, and bending his hat...and that was from trying to pick up the broom. "After that, he asked if I had some other way of grabbing things, and I mentioned I never mastered unicorn telekinesis. That's when he gave me this." She touched the green and yellow stone in the choker around her neck, which glittered with an eldritch light. "It's a magic amplifier, increasing my magic power tenfold. After that, I could handle telekinesis easily, and when I showed discipline with that, he began teaching me combat magic so that I could assist you both in our quest when you got here." She blinked. "That reminds me!" Her horn glowed, and green light surrounded Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, healing their injuries.
"Wow!" Apple Bloom said excitedly. "Yer a black mage AND a white mage! That's so cool!" She turned towards Scootaloo. "Scoots, why are ya lookin' guilty?"
Scootaloo winced. "I...kinda need to apologize to you, Sweetie. See, that staff that clocked you in the head in your dream...is the one I kicked off MY platform, when I gave it up to keep the sword."
Sweetie blinked, looking up at her staff still guiding the brooms, which was the same one from her dream. "You mean...that's your staff that's mine now?" Scootaloo nodded. Sweetie Belle squeed happily. "I knew there was a reason I liked it so much."
Scootaloo was somewhat confused. Apple Bloom, however, giggled.
Seeing that the room was clean, Sweetie Belle made her staff make a rather strong finishing gesture, conducting a full stop. The brooms immediately stopped moving, and lay back against the walls. She smiled at Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. "Master Yen Sid said his last apprentice never mastered that spell!" she said happily, pride in her voice. "He says I have real talent!"
"Ya certainly do!" Apple Bloom proclaimed.
"Yeah, you're really awesome!" Scootaloo assured her.
Sweetie blushed in pleasure. "Thanks. Come on, we need to go see what Master Yen Sid wants to tell us about." The three fillies walked together up the stairs.
-----------
Yen Sid watched the three fillies as they approached his desk. "I have much to tell all of you, and I am not sure how much you will be able to understand. However, I will do my best to explain everything." He waved his hand, and an image of several Shadows appeared. "Do you know what these are?"
Scootaloo nodded. "Heartless. They're the hearts of people who have fallen to darkness. Consumed by darkness, they wander in shadow, seeking to consume other hearts." She smirked. "We've fought several varieties."
Yen Sid nodded with a smile. "Indeed." He made another hand wave, and another image appeared, of several Dusks. "Have you encountered any of these?"
Scootaloo shook her head. "No, but I'm guessing those are Nobodies, formed when someone with a strong will becomes a Heartless. The empty shell left behind begins to move on its own." She paused. "Riku said I didn't need to worry about this, but...is there some way to reunite a Heartless with its Nobody to recreate the original person?"
Yen Sid smiled. "Your compassion does you credit, tempering the razor edge of the vengeful Keyblade. However, Riku is right, you need not worry about this. If a Heartless and its connected Nobody are destroyed by a Keyblade, when their world of origin is freed from the darkness, they will be reborn there, once more whole." Yen Sid frowned. "However, this is only the case with Heartless and Nobodies. There are...other varieties of these creatures that are bound by different rules."
He waved his hand. The Shadows and Dusks vanished. Two images appeared this time, one of a pony that seemed to be made of blood red flame, roaring in fury. The other looked like a pony, but stood like a human, her eyes dead. "These two beings were born of a pony whose heart was lost to darkness. The dark power bonds more firmly to body, heart, and soul with ponies due to your inherently magical nature, causing slightly different results. However, for whatever reason, only those ponies who have acquired their Cutie Marks are vulnerable to the corruptive process, which strips them of their Cutie Mark as part of the transformation. As such, I have dubbed the consumed hearts of this variety as...Markless." He gestured to the fire pony. "This one was dubbed Sunset Satan." He gestured to the dead eyed humanoid pony. "Her Nopony was called Shadow Shimmer. I must warn you, a Markless and Nopony are bonded utterly to the corruptive darkness, and cannot be freed from it. When they are destroyed, it is forever."
The three fillies gasped. "Ya mean..." Apple Bloom began, "if we encounter somepony we know as a Markless or Nopony, then...they're gone forever?"
Yen Sid nodded sadly. "I'm afraid so. Our forces fought and destroyed these two...and the heart shattered, instead of being freed from darkness."
Sweetie Belle gulped. "Well...we shouldn't focus too much on the negative. Just...just how many Markless and Noponies could there be?"
Yen Sid once more sighed sadly. "I would rather not have to tell you this, but you must know what you are up against." He waved his hand one last time. A new image appeared, that of eight ponies in black robes, two of which much larger than others. "When Nobodies first became a threat, an Organization of powerful Nobodies came to the fore with a specific mission. I'm afraid a similar group of Noponies has also arisen to command Heartless and Nobodies. They call themselves the Empty Melody. Nothing more is known about them...except that they are quite powerful, meaning the ponies they were born from had exceptionally strong will."
Scootaloo stared at the image, afraid. However, she then looked down at her bracelet. The letters 'WWRDD' stared back up at her, and she steeled herself. "Doesn't matter," she said firmly. "We still need to fight. If we don't, darkness will consume everything. We can't let fear like this stop us."
Yen Sid smiled proudly. "Indeed. You have proven ready to be the hero the worlds need you to be. As such, I have gifts for you." He waved both hands together, and the image vanished. Three familiar capes appeared in the air.
"Our Cutie Mark Crusader Capes!" Apple Bloom said happily as the capes floated down to drape across them.
"Indeed," Yen Sid replied. "Magically amplified. They will prove useful armor, and will grow with you. Wear it with pride, and show no fear to your foes."
------------
Sweetie Belle joined the party
Initial Equipment:
Sunset Staff - A staff with the colors of the sunset
Attack - 1
Defense - 1
Magic - 2
Ability - Leaf Bracer, the casting of Cure cannot be interrupted
Student Choker - Amplifies magic ten-fold...according to Yen Sid
Magic + 1
Ability - Hyper Healing, quickly recover from KO and greatly restore health
Gained Equip Item:
Crusader Capes (AB), (SB), (SL)
Defense - 1 + (X/5)
Fire Resist - 5+X%
Bliz Resist - 5+X%
Thun Resist - 5+X%
Dark Resist - 5+X%
(X=number of levels gained while Crusader Cape is equipped)
------------
Yen Sid smiled proudly at the young fillies, now young warriors. "Go forth, young heroes, and save all worlds from the encroaching darkness."
Scootaloo glanced around. "I wonder where Riku is. He was supposed to be following us."
"Is he travelling via the Corridors of Darkness?" Yen Sid asked. When Scootaloo nodded, he smiled. "That is why he has not arrived. My tower is shielded against all dark incursion."
Sweetie Belle blinked. "But...then where did the Heartless I was always fighting come from?"
"An artificial Heartless generator I borrowed from a friend of a friend named Tron," Yen Sid replied sagely. "I was training you in battle magic, and live targets would surely be more effective than bull's-eyes."
Sweetie Belle smiled. "Thank you for the training, Master Yen Sid."
----------
The three fillies clambered out of the tower and back to the gummy ship. However, Sweetie Belle stopped before boarding. "Hey, girls?"
"Yeah?" Scootaloo asked. "What is it?"
"I feel like there's something we need to do. You know, to make this whole crusade feel right."
At the word 'crusade', Apple Bloom hoped off the ship. "Ah know just wut you mean, Sweetie. Come on, Scoot, let's give a big Cutie Mark Crusader Cheer for the road."
Smiling, Scootaloo walked up to them. "1...2...3!"
They leapt into the air, hoofbumping, and shouted together, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS WORLD RESCUERS! YAY!"
Up in his tower, Yen Sid saw this and shuddered. "Why do I have the sudden sense of impending doom?"
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Oh boy! I have a feeling that the chaos or curse of the CMC is gonna be following them wherever they go! I'm also gonna wager a guess and say that they'll find a way to save the markless/noponies somehow.
Yen Sid, it's called Murphy's Law, "Whatever CAN go wrong, WILL go wrong."
The Elements of Harmony are going to be the key to restoring the Markless and the Noponies, aren't they? If so, then CALLED IT!
3165149
Nope.
3165160
Well, at least you aren't obvious. That's a good thing.
3165160>>3165238
Unless he is lying to lull you into a false sense of security.
3165633
This is indeed a possibility... I shall keep my eyes on you, Tatsurou.
Sunset Satan
Shadow Shimmer
Also, you excited for Kingdom Hearts 1.5?
Comes out in just two days from now. I'm so excited I have been going back and reading every KH fanfic I can find, including my own. That isn't too weird right?
3163897 Yeah, but at what cost?
3173050
Yup, you spotted it!
And what system is it for?
3173246 PS3.
3174463
Don't have one.
3174898 You should get one. With the PS4 coming out soon, they are becoming really cheap. I got one just so that I can play this.
(Yeah, I am a die hard fan.) 
3175621
No money for it. At all.
3175686 Darn. Well, at least you can watch the Lets Plays.
There is supposedly a new secrete boss, 2 new Keyblades and a new secret video for KH3. 
3176695
True.
3192942
As in 'if that long'. Riku's suggesting that Cid and the Moogles wouldn't even need a couple of hours to make it.
3622708 Epic Mickey...
4431071
Umm...yes.
5989418
Spoiler.
5989456
After the second.
5989199 When I made that comment I didn't see what the crossover was, I just read.
Leaf Bracer doesn't only include Cure. It also includes anything that heals you, such as items, and I think even items that don't necessarily restore health, such as Ethers. I'm not sure though.
Will these three meet the original three of the game franchise?
THere there.
She's weaponized her cuteness. EVERYBODY RUUUN!
Err... yes. You did.
Wait, so, Sunset Satan was Ansem, and so, Shadow Shimmer is her Xemnas. Oh crap.
Useful.
Probably, I'm guessing it can only spawn Shadows, and other weak Heartless that are easily dispatched and in small amounts.
Because it's the CMC. Sweetie caused immense chaos that Discord would be proud of, by trying to pick up a broom. Imagine what they can do together.
1 First post!
2 Is this still being worked on?
*2 days later*
This is the funeral for Firestar_Sparks, he laughed to hard....
Poor Sunset Shimmer...
7241930
Yeah...this was back when only the first movie was out.
7241959 I know that you're known for the PWNY multiverse, but I can't believe you have this 'lil gem hidden in the background. How much is your total writing experience and do you have a lotta free time to write?
7241977
Just a few years of fanfiction.
And yes, I have a lot of free time to write.
Oh Sunset...
Well, I like this premise, I'm sure RD will be (either ) KHI Riku or part of Empty Melody.
Will you rewrite this or are you writing the next chapter?
7959156
I will either continue this story when I get back to it or rewrite it, haven't decided which.
Either way, the majority of the plot is planned out.
7959294
Awesome.
You killed ShimShim?! Tatsuru, that was singularly uncool.
Going through and tracking the stuff I remember reading before I bothered getting an account. Also, I can imagine Yen Sid's slightly nostalgic sense of dread caused by Sweetie animating those brooms. That didn't go well the last time one of his apprentices tried to do that to reduce their workload. (I'm assuming that the short is still canon to this iteration of those characters, because it doesn't feel like a huge assumption)
9278258
And then went out of his way to overrule the part of KH metaphysics that say she would come back to life. Given how she was a relatively new character when this written, I feel like a reboot is more reasonable than simply continuing at this point, for that reason if nothing else.