Sora and company crash land in Equestria and discover that Equestria is in the grips of a Heartless attack and race to offer their assistance. They soon discover a dark plot that seeks to use the Elements of Harmony to unleash the power of Kingdom Hearts in favor of a great evil. Takes place around two years after the second game.
“You know guys out of all of the crazy places we’ve been and crazier things we’ve done I have the sinking feeling that this is going to be crazier!” Sora shouted to his friends as he smashed his Keyblade into yet another Shadow Heartless that leapt out of the shade of the surrounding trees dissipating it into black mist. Sora, Donald, and Goofy had been traveling from world to world when suddenly a new world had appeared on the radar of their Gummi ship. The ship had then of course taken the opportunity to do a nosedive onto it, Chip and Dale had told them that it would take at least a week to fix the ship so in the meantime Sora should look around. The moment that their feet had touched the ground he and his friends had been transformed into small horses. Sora was a black unicorn, Donald had become a white unicorn, and Goofy had become a large brown plow horse.
“What makes you say that Sora?” Donald asked as he launched a blizzard spell out of his staff which impacted among a group of Shadows causing the several to vanish.
“Well normally the ship only crashes us into worlds that really need our help and judging by the fact that we’ve been fighting Shadows for twenty minutes straight the situation here must be crazy.” Sora said swirling the Keyblade around his head and deflecting four Shadows who had jumped towards him.
“Gosh Sora this place is coated with them.” Goofy said as he bashed his shield into a Shadow.
“I don’t know Sora, it’ll be crazy but I doubt it can top the World that Never Was.” Donald replied as he ducked under a Shadow and blasted it to pieces with his fire. Suddenly Sora heard a wild cry for help off to the right.
“HELP!” Sora looked at his two friends who nodded in confirmation before they went running towards the sound of the scream, killing Heartless as they went. They arrived in a clearing to find a purple unicorn sending out magic blasts of energy from her horn into an onrushing swarm of Heartless that were fixated on her position. Goofy expertly plowed through a group of them clearing a straight path for Sora and Donald to follow, the purple unicorn looked up in surprise at her rescuers as they lashed out at the Heartless surrounding her. “Who are you?” she called out as she sent a blast of energy into one of the heartless.
“I’m Sora, that’s Donald, and that’s Goofy.” Sora told her, somehow managing to point at each of his friends in-between swings of the Keyblade. “What’s yours?”
“I’m Twilight; I came out here to discover if the rumors that Everfree had been overrun by odd creatures were true, as you can see they were. I’ve been fighting for my life ever since.” She let out another blast of energy while she was talking sending Heartless flying.
“Nice to meet you Twilight, now is there somewhere that you consider safe, because if I know the Heartless, and believe me I do, then they won’t stop until you’re someplace considerably safer?” Sora asked her while he stabbed his Keyblade into the chest of a leaping Heartless.
“Ponyville would count I guess.” Twilight said uncertainly, she didn’t want to lead these monsters back to her home.
“If you tell us the direction we can get you there safely.” Sora told her reassuringly while he wondered about who in their right mind would name a town that.
“We just need to follow that path over there…” Twilight told them and pointed with a hoof at a dirt path that was running through the forest. “…but if you can keep me safe for a few seconds I can just teleport us there instead.” Twilight told them confidently, Sora shrugged, or at least he pulled off something slightly resembling a shrug and replied.
“If you can do that it would be great.” Twilight nodded and began to concentrate as Sora Donald and Goofy formed a triangle around her, deflecting all of the incoming Heartless away from the purple unicorn with quick flourishes of their weapons. Then there was a bright flash of light and the clearing was empty, leaving several disappointed Heartless behind. Sora looked around him blinking his eyes quickly, trying to dispel the flashing lights from his eyes, when his eyes cleared they were met with a vision of a quaint small town filled with brightly colored horses.
“Well that was an interesting spell.” Donald murmured to himself while he looked around “I wonder how she cast it without an object to focus the magic.” Twilight looked at him oddly and replied.
“I use my horn, just like everypony else.” Before Donald could respond Twilight was tackled by a blue rainbow maned pegasus.
“Twilight what happened out there, I was flying overhead like you asked then you started to scream for help but the canopy was too thick for me to find a way through? I was about to go and get help when I saw your teleportation spell and came here to check, are you ok?” The blue pegasus seemed guilty about not being able to help her friend, but the purple unicorn waved away her apology with a hoof.
“Don’t worry Rainbow Dash I’m fine, thanks to those three that is.” She said pointing at Sora, Donald, and Goofy.
“Well then I guess that I have you to thank for keeping Twilight safe, thank you.” Dash told them sincerely offering them her hoof.
“Don’t mention it ma’am saving people is what we do best.” Sora told her while he shook her hoof; the Keyblade had helpfully dropped back into its hamerspace pocket so that Sora would look less conspicuous. Dash looked at him sideways for a moment before she said.
“I think you mean ponies, not people.” Sora nodded
“Yeah let’s go with that. Anyways I’m Sora, that’s Donald, and that’s Goofy.” He said pointing at his friends in turn.
“Well it’s nice to meet you three, but I have to fly, there’s a storm scheduled for tonight and I’m on cloud duty.” She flew off in the direction of a large mass of dark clouds leaving Sora wondering what she meant.
“Why don’t you three come over to my house and I can ask you some questions about what’s been going on around here.” Twilight told them, it wasn’t a question, and Sora had the sinking feeling that by the end of the day the purple unicorn would know everything she wanted to.
AN Alright guys if you want more just let me know, me writing another chapter is dependent upon what you have say
While Sora walked down the bright streets of Ponyville he couldn’t help but wonder how the ponies had made the place, he had already seen a shop made out of gingerbread and he had the sinking feeling that that wasn’t going to be the strangest building that he would see today. Overhead a small group of pegasi flew by chatting happily about something, while two unicorns traded jokes. It’s going to get ugly fast when the Heartless arrive, Sora thought to himself worriedly noting the complete lack of any real fighters among the ponies as they went about their daily business.
“Guys this is going to be rough” Sora whispered to Donald and Goofy quietly, they both nodded the same thought had been going through their heads as well. After ten minutes of walking they arrived at a large tree that had been fashioned into a library, Twilight invited them inside with a wave of her hoof. The walls of the tree were lined with countless books and there were several maps positioned in the few clear spaces, sitting in a chair against the back wall sat a small dragon who was hungrily eating a gemstone.
“Hey Twi, how was the forest?” The dragon asked around a mouthful of gemstone.
“Spike we have a big problem, take a letter.” Twilight then turned to Sora and asked “What did you call those things in the forest?”
“Heartless.” Sora supplied while he surveyed the room, looking for chests that might contain something useful. Twilight then turned back to Spike and began to dictate.
“Dear Princess Celestia upon investigating rumors that the Everfree forest was infested by odd creatures I went to investigate. I quickly found myself surrounded by odd black creatures and it was only through the intervention of three ponies, one of whom used a large key shaped sword, that I was able to make it out alive. The pony with the key sword is known as Sora, he calls the mysterious enemies Heartless. I plan on asking Sora more questions about the nature if these dark foes but thought it best to forward you this letter ahead of time, as always your faithful student Twilight Sparkle.” The Dragon finished the letter with a quick flourish before throwing into the air and breathing a small gout of green fire over it, causing it to vanish in a flash of light.
“So Sora what can you tell me about these Heartless?” Twilight asked Sora turning her full attention to him.
“They come from the darkness in pe…ponies’ hearts, as long as there is anger, haltered, or any other negative emotion in someponies heart they will form. Their purpose is to gather as many hearts as they can by stealing them from ponies, when they do that the pony will leave behind two things. One is a Heartless which you’ve already met, and the other is a Nobody which are like heartless but some of them gain enough intelligence to almost become ponies. They aren’t really people though because without a heart they can’t have emotions or any of the other things that makes somepony a real pony.” Sora told her like he was reciting a well used lecture, which he essentially was. “I’m the Keyblade Master, which means that it’s my job to keep the Heartless from obtaining too many hearts and to lock away the hearts of the worlds to prevent the destruction of Kingdom Hearts, which I’ll get to later.” Twilight had taken out a notepad and was furiously scribbling down what he said using energy from her horn to hold the pencil and notepad. “Did you get all of that?” Sora asked her.
“Did you say worlds?” Twilight asked uncertainly, Donald facehoofed, Sora always forgot about not telling people that part.
“Sora why do you always do that?” Donald asked him crossly, Sora smiled abashedly.
“I’m too honest to keep secrets Donald; you should know that by now.” Sora told his frowning friend.
“Wait so there are other worlds out there?” Twilight asked her face full of wonder, and questions.
“Oh here we go!” Donald sighed exasperatedly before turning to look for Goofy who was busily talking to Spike. Before Sora could explain further the door of the library was knocked open and a white unicorn galloped into the room.
“Darling come quick, some black monsters are attacking AJ’s farm!” the unicorn told Twilight panting trying to regain her breath, she had the oddest accent that Sora just couldn’t place. Pulling his Keyblade out of hamerspace Sora sighed and looked to Twilight for direction, it was her world after all.
“Thanks Rarity, let’s go!” Twilight told them and set off down the streets of Ponyville at a run with Sora, Donald, and Goofy following closely behind, Rarity brought up the rear still trying to get her breath back. “Do you happen to have any pointers for fighting these things?” Twilight asked Sora as they ran down the street past random ponies.
“You should try to stay out of range of their claws and fire off spells, no offense but I doubt that you can hold your own in a physical fight.” Sora told her while his mind prepared for the oncoming engagement.
“Sora I have another question, how do you manage to talk so well with that giant Keyblade in your mouth?” Twilight asked him uncertainly.
“Experience Twilight” Sora replied easily. Presently they came upon a large sign with the words Sweet Apple Acres written on it, Twilight led the way up the dirt path to a large red farmhouse that was currently being besieged by Heartless. Sora and Goofy sprinted ahead of the other three and plowed into the Heartless sending many flying into the air before they hit the ground and vanished.
“Who in tarnation are you?” asked an orange pony wearing a cowboy hat who was standing on her doorstep as she kicked a heartless into the air.
“We’re friends of Twilight, it sounded like you had a Heartless problem so we decided to come and help.” Sora replied as he smashed his Keyblade into a Heartless who was jumping towards the orange pony. Sora then angled the Keyblade so that it sliced another in half before bringing it down upon the head of another. Goofy smashed a Shadow to inky bits with shield before spinning and crushing another against the ground.
“Sora I’ve been wondering something. Why are there nothing but Shadows here?” Goofy asked Sora while he bashed his shield into one of the Heartless. Immediately after he asked a large group of Neoshadows detached themselves from pits of darkness and leapt towards Sora with outstretched claws. Acting quickly Sora deflected the first one dodged the second while driving his blade through the first, he then brought the Keyblade through the head of a third who was trying to flank him. Before the second one had a chance to make a move Donald dealt it a quick thunder spell sending it falling backwards in paralysis allowing Sora to finish it off cleanly with an expert downswing. Panting slightly from fending off the sudden attack Sora turned to Goofy and said.
“And that Goofy is why you don’t ask that kind of question!” Goofy however ignored him because he was being kept busy by the large amount of Shadows who had decided that he desperately needed a hug.
“What are these things?” the orange pony called as she bucked another shadow into oblivion.
“They’re called Heartless and I’ll explain more latter, for now focus on killing as many of them as you can.” The fighting carried on for several more minutes with Sora and Goofy dealing the most damage while Donald cast spells in all directions, including a heal spell after a Neoshadow managed to get through Sora’s guard and rake him across the chest with its claws causing several large bloody gashes to appear. But eventually the horde of Heartless drew back leaving the Keyblade bearer and the other ponies in peace. Eventually he noticed the orange pony looking at him sideways.
“What is it?” Sora asked her
“I’ve never seen a mane that spiky before, how do you keep it like that?” Sora shrugged, he didn’t really know his hair had always been spiky. Before the he could reply Twilight and Rarity walked in front of him.
“AJ are Granny smith and Applebloom alright?” Twilight asked in concern.
“Yeah Granny’s up in her room with the door bolted and Applebloom is at school so she should be fine.” AJ said immediately.
“And Big Mac?” Rarity asked
“Eeyup, I’m fine.” Said a very large stallion who had somehow walked up behind them without anyone seeing him. “I was in the orchard and when I heard the commotion I came a running, but it looks like it wasn’t needed.” He then strolled over to the barn without a backward glance.
“We need to get back to my house girls; hopefully Celestia will actually have answered in time to be helpful for once.” Twilight told her two friends, before turning to Sora and saying. “And you three are can come too of course.”
AN It's been years since I played the games so let me know if I screwed up with the Heartless and Nobody lore
The walk back to Ponyvill was much less hectic then the one to the Apple family farm, Sora stayed behind the three mares as they talked about the events leading up to now. Sora was occasionally asked questions which he answered with the ease of someone who has answered them all before. As they entered Ponyvill Sora once again noted just how happy all of the ponies looked as they went about their daily lives, out of the corner of his eye he spotted a mint colored unicorn waving at him madly while the pony next to her sighed and facehoofed.
“Twilight, do you know who that unicorn over there who won’t stop waving at me is?” Sora asked gesturing in the unicorn’s direction with a hoof. Twilight turned to see who he was talking about but when she saw she took a swift intake of breath before replying.
“Yes darling she thinks that there are these odd mostly hairless apes called humans that posses advanced technology, can you believe the absurdity of it?” Rarity asked Sora, who sighed, this was going to be a fun talk later. Donald and Goofy exchanged looks before looking at Sora’s face and bursting simultaneously into fits of tiny giggles.
“Oh shut up.” Sora whispered, the three mares didn’t seem to notice they were too caught up in their discussion about someone named Celestia.
“Do ya think she’ll have responded yet Sugarcube?” AJ asked Twilight as they approached the library.
“I hope so; even with Sora and his friends and all six elements I doubt that we would be able to stop the Heartless without at least her advice.” Twilight replied worriedly looking off into the distance as if hoping to receive some kind of guidance from the sky, then again Sora had seen stranger things happen.
“Darling don’t you think that you’re selling Sora short, he is after all a very strapping and talented stallion?” Rarity asked Twilight while she turned around and looked Sora in the eyes, Sora barely managed to stop his mouth hanging open, had Rarity just made a pass at him? Oh god Kairi would kill him if she knew!
“Sorry, I’m already in a stable relationship right now.” Sora stuttered out, his cheeks blushing a deep red, Rarity pouted briefly before saying.
“Oh well no harm in trying is there.” She then turned back to Twilight and the three fell back into deep discussion repeatedly mentioning The Elements of Harmony, as to what those were Sora had no idea. As they approached the library Sora noticed that night was falling rapidly.
“Say Twilight you wouldn’t happen to have an extra bed or three would you?” Sora asked as he looked towards the darkening skies.
“No but I have three couches.” Twilight told him.
“That works to I guess” Sora told her, while he ruefully thought about how his back would feel the next morning. Donald and Goofy let out slightly exasperated breaths but remained otherwise silent; they’d all lived through far worse than sore muscles. When they walked into the library Spike jumped up from a chair that he was sitting on and rushed over to Twilight before handing her a letter.
“This came through earlier, I haven’t looked at it yet but I think it might be important.” Spike told Twilight while she fixed him with a raised eyebrow.
“You mean that a letter from Celestia about an interdimensional evil is important?” She asked him sarcasm literally dripping from her voice like honey. Spike walked away in a huff grumbling.
“Was that really necessary darling?” Rarity asked Twilight.
“He’ll be fine Rarity I’m just a under a lot of stress right now and I get a little testy when I’m stressed. Now let’s see what Celestia has to say.” Twilight unfurled the letter and held it in front of her face with magic. “Dear Twilight Sparkle the news of this great catastrophe fills me with dread, it is fortunate that you weren’t killed by one of the Heartless and as such you can pass on my thanks to your rescuers. On that note I would like you and your friends to come to Canterlot immediately for an emergency meeting, oh and please tell the Keyblade Master that King Mickey and I are on good terms and that he and his friends should accompany you to our meeting.” Twilight said as she read the letter out loud. At the last part Donald and Goofy looked at each other, typical of Mickey to be friends with the royalty of another dimension and never mention it to them.
“Sora darling how could the Princess be friends with your king?” Rarity asked him curiously.
“Ah was wonderin that maself.” AJ agreed.
“Oddly I’m not really surprised that The King is friends with your Queen, he seems to do that.” Sora told Twilight. Twilight nodded before turning back to Rarity and Applejack.
“Ok girls we need to get the others then board the first train to Canterlot, Rarity you go find Fluttershy and Pinkie, and AJ you go find Dash. I’ll stay here and keep them company until you get back.
***
While they waited for Twilight’s friends to return Sora, Donald, and Goofy explored the selection of books in the library. Much to Sora’s surprise the books were actually full of words. For some reason in every library that he’d been to up to now all of the books had only contained one or two paragraphs, at best. Here they appeared to be full length and teeming with knowledge. Twilight raised her eyebrow at him when he asked her about it.
“As far as I know most books have more than a paragraph Sora, in fact I’ve never heard of one that doesn’t.” Twilight replied cautiously, Sora shrugged. Luckily they were saved from any awkwardness thanks to the timely arrival of Twilight’s friends. Dash walked in first, followed by Applejack. Rarity came next with two unfamiliar ponies in tow, one was a yellow pegasus with a pink mane, the other was a bubbly pink pony.
“Oh my gosh three new ponies! I can’t believe it Ineedtothrowyouallapartywhat’re yournames?” The pink pony asked excitedly hopping up and down in front of Sora.
“I’m Sora and this is Donald and Goofy.” Sora said introducing his friends and offering her his hoof; the pink pony shook his hoof ecstatically before moving onto his friends. The yellow pegasus looked at Sora nervously.
“I’m Fluttershy.” She offered quietly and offered Sora her hoof hesitantly; Sora smiled at her and shook her hoof gently earning a cute smile.
“Ok girls time to get to the train station.” Twilight said before Donald or Goofy could get dragged into a conversation about party ideas. They all set off at a nice walk while Twilight informed the other three about what had happened over the course of the day. At the mention of Heartless Fluttershy stiffened with fear but Twilight quickly reassured her they’d all be fine, Sora noticed that Twilight seemed to be the leader of their group. As they walked through the town Sora noticed that the ponies were still going about their business as usual, he sighed it was probably better than making them panic. The train conductor eyed Twilight’s group with a critical eye before shrugging and agreeing to let them board free on account of royal orders.
“So Fluttershy I’ve heard you raise animals, that most take a lot of work.” Sora said kindly trying to break the ice as the group sat in their train car.
“Yes, it does, but I really love making all of the animals happy.” Fluttershy replied, a little of her nervousness dissipating from her voice as she said it.
“Yall won’t find a pony better then Shy when it comes ta raisin animals.” AJ said from where she was looking out the window.
“Yeah she’s awesome with them.” RD volunteered enthusiastically, suddenly the train lights went dark Fluttershy screamed in surprise. Twilight quickly activated a lighting spell
“Donald, Goofy keep the girls safe, I’ll deal with the Heartless.” Sora ordered as he peered around to find a target in the low light of Twilight’s spell, the train car was full of Shadows and Neoshadows. Sora raised his keyblade and charged, the first Neoshadows leapt at him but he rolled under its raking claws and sliced through its back with a quick cut. The lesser Shadows decided to rush him directly and tried to smother him. Thinking quickly he set off a small powered lightning spell and stunned the group before he mercilessly bore down on them destroying their black bodies in seconds. Five more Neoshadows sprang at him and Sora was engulfed in a swarm of long black claws that he dodged and weaved under and around before retaliating with a well timed combo that sent three of the black monstrosities flying backwards.
Sora really wished that he had hands because it would make what he was about to much easier. Hoping that the new body would be able to reproduce the move Sora threw his keyblade into the air, jumped over the Neoshadows caught the keyblade in midair with his mouth, before dashing the two Neoshadows’ heads in. Donald and Twilight had their hooves full protecting five other ponies from a hoard of Shadows that seemed to never end sending blasts of magic roaring through them eliminating dozens at a time as Goofy easily bashed the survivors away with easy swings of his shield.
The heartless just kept coming, Sora was just beginning to have flashbacks of wading through the streets of the World that Never Was when suddenly the train car was engulfed in a pink wall of light. The heartless all burst into inky blackness and disappeared and the light returned to the train car. The train rolled to a stop and the door to their compartment was kicked open violently by a stallion blue maned stallion in gleaming golden armor who rushed inside. Sora stood between him and the mares keyblade at the ready the stallion met his eyes before lowering his horn and sending out a spear of magic, Sora deflected it into the ceiling and ran forward to engage the new threat.
“Sora stop, that’s my brother!” Twilight yelled, Sora grinded to a halt his blade a few feet from the stallion’s face.
“Please lower that blade or I will pull it out of your mouth and smash your skull in with it.” The stallion said surprisingly nicely, Sora shrugged and the keyblade disappeared. “Thank you.” The stallion told him before stepping past Sora and embracing his sister in a tight hug. “You ok Twily?” He asked worry on his face.
“I’m fine Shining, I see you’ve met Sora.” Twilight said with a little smile, Shining blushed a little before turning back to Sora.
“Sorry about that, I was worried about my sister.” Shining said sincerely
“No worries it happens to everyone when heartless are involved.” Sora replied with a shrug.
“I’m here to escort you to your audience with Celestia and Luna, follow me please.” Shining told them. The mares followed him out with Fluttershy brining up the rear still extremely shaken from their encounter with the heartless. They walked in relative silence till they arrived at the castle, Shining nodded to eight heavily armed guards who were waiting at the gate before pushing it open and leading the group inside. Sora was impressed; he’d seen lots of castles in his time, to many to remember all of them in fact but even so the Canterlot castle had an edge over them. Maybe it was the aura of peace that it exuded or maybe it was the way that its walls reflected the light but something about it just made him happy inside when he looked at it.
“That was a lot of guards.” Donald whispered to Sora quietly.
“Yeah it’s good to see that they aren’t completely defenseless here, what do you think Goofy?” Sora asked his other companion.
“Gosh Sora I don’t think it’s enough, there are more heartless here then I’ve seen in most places which surprises me.” Goofy replied stating something that had been troubling Sora as well. The other seven ponies had started to listen to their conversation.
“We need to find the heart of this world and lock it as soon as possible that’s for sure.” Sora went on oblivious to the fact that he now had seven pairs of eyes looking at him.
“I’m not sure what you three are talking about, but it would probably be best if you did it in front of Celestia and Luna.” Shining told them as they walked towards the Princesses corridors.
“Right sorry we got distracted.” Sora apologized; he was interested to meet these princesses. Eventually they came to a large door where several sets of guards stood at attention Shining knocked Twice.
“Come in and bring our guests.” Came a friendly sounding female voice from behind the door, Shining did so. Sora gasped.
“Sora do you think you could move out of the doorway, you’ve been standing there staring with your mouth open for a while?” Donald asked his friend.
“Donald, they’re gods, the Princesses are gods.” Sora replied softly looking at the two ponies in front of him.
They were both tall and elegant easily twice Sora’s height, he guessed that if he’d been human then he would’ve come up to the white one’s shoulders. What had stopped Sora and made him gasp was the amount of power that they both gave off. He’d fought Hades in the underworld at his full power, but either of these two could have utterly destroyed the god of the dead in a fight.
The other thing that had caused Sora to become awestruck was the amount of love he could feel in their hearts. These two beings had been around for a millennia and yet they still cared; he could detect no hint of darkness in them. Actually no, the smaller darker one she had been lost once, he knew because he could feel her heart. She’d managed to fight her way back to the light through the power of heart, much as Sora had when he’d been lost once. Sora walked through the door until he was standing directly in front of the dark alicorn, then he did something unexpected. He pulled her into a tight hug.
“What do you think you’r-” Shining Armor began before he was silenced by a look from the white alicorn.
“Thank you Keyblade Master.” The dark alicorn told Sora softly as she returned the hug.
“My lady, if I had been aware that there was a god in need of help I would have come immediately, can you possibly forgive me?” Sora asked shocking Donald and Goofy, they’d never seen their friend like this.
“Sir Sora there is nothing to forgive, it happened long before you were born, and I was saved in my own time after serving a punishment that I deserved.” The dark alicorn told him Sora gently.
“But I-”
“No, that was hardly you.” She told Sora cutting him off quickly before he could finish his sentence.
“I’m still sorry.” Sora told her, Luna nodded.
“That shows your character, along with how worthy of your mantel you are; now I believe that there is some explaining to do.” The dark alicorn said with a small smile. Sora nodded and released his grip from around the alicorn’s neck “Besides what would Kairi think if she saw this?” she asked slyly.
“She’d probably join the hug, she’d better at reading hearts then I am.” Sora replied with a small smile as he thought of his girlfriend.
“So I’ve heard.” She said with a nod.
“Sora, what’s going on?” Donald asked in confusion.
“She lost her heart.” Sora replied softly.
“I didn’t think that gods could lose their hearts Sora.” Goofy said scratching his chin.
“We can and she did; now I believe it is time that we answered some questions so everypony please gather round.” The white alicorn said softly, but there was a slight hint of iron in her voice, enough to make the three adventurers stop their conversations and kneel in front of her.
“Sorry for ignoring you your majesty, but she needed the hug.” Sora told the white alicorn matter-of-factly.
“I do not begrudge you for it Keyblade Master.” The white alicorn said inclining her head slightly in a nod.
“That’s good, because I’d do it again if I needed to despite anything you had to say against it.” Sora replied with a grin, all the while shocking everypony in the room except his friends and the two princesses with his boldness.
“Yes I’m quite aware Sir Sora, the king has told me about you.” The white alicorn agreed with a smirk.
“Oh good then we won’t have to reintroduce ourselves.” Sora told her with a grin rising back to his feet along with Donald and Goofy; if he’d been human he would have put his arms behind his head.
“Sora, you can’t talk to Princess Celestia like that!” Twilight said as she recovered from her shock.
“Yes I can Twilight, she may be a god, but thanks to her her sister lost her heart.” Sora told Twilight lightly, but there was an edge to his voice.
“Now you listen here you do not talk to Celes-” Shining Armor began before he was interrupted by the dark alicorn.
“Enough, all three of you! There will be no more discussion; my sister was guilty of only ignorance nothing more nothing less. Her ignorance was as much my own fault as hers and I will not allow you to harbor any feelings of distrust towards her!” The dark alicorn said looking Sora in the eyes; he met her gaze for a moment before he nodded. “Good, we have work to attend to and the longer we tarry over useless matters the worse the situation outside of the capital gets for our citizens.”
“I am Princess Celestia.” The white alicorn said gesturing to herself. “And this is my sister Princess Luna.” She said gesturing towards the darker alicorn.
“Your majesties.” Donald and Goofy said with a bow, Sora remained upright but nodded to Celestia and smiled at Luna.
“Alright now we can get down to the matter at hoof.” Celestia began “The three of you know that when anything losses its heart both a heartless and a nobody are created, when my sister was taken the heartless claimed control of her body and used the moniker Nightmare Moon. That heartless was destroyed by the mares behind you two and a half years ago. However I have recently detected the incursion of darkness back into this world and I believe the nobody to be responsible for this.” Celestia told them, Sora nodded, he’d expected that.
“So we get to fight off both an invasion of heartless; and a god level nobody who most likely knows who I am and what I represent.” Sora said.
“Yes, however there are other balls in play as well.” Celestia said with a nod.
“Oh good, I love it when there’s more than one, it keeps things interesting.” Sora said rolling his eyes. “Next thing you’ll tell me is that another god is out there helping this nobody.” Sora said.
“Yes.”
“Of course, there would be one.” Sora nodded with a sigh. “This reminds me of that time when-”
“We need to concentrate here.” Celestia said cutting Sora off.
“Right, sorry.” Sora replied.
“No matter, this entity is known as Discord.” Celestia told Sora.
“Let me guess, chaos?” Sora asked while the six mares behind him stared at Celestia in shock.
“If Discord is lose why aren’t things all crazy?” Dash asked.
“Because he’s not actually free, his mind is out there advising the nobody. He is essentially powerless besides the ability to speak to minds who let him in.” Luna answered. “The shield around Canterlot has two effects, it keeps anything, even heartless out, and it prevents Discord’s mind a clear view of our position.” Luna finished.
“Alright, do you know where this nobody is, or are we going to have to search for it?” Sora asked Celestia.
“We do not know exactly where it is, but we believe that it has taken refuge among the changelings. Their queen would most likely see it as an excellent tool to further her goals.” Luna replied answering for her sister.
“Ok, we can handle this.” Sora said with a confident smile. “Just to be clear, we’re facing off a god level nobody, the mind of a chaos god, and last but not least a kingdom of things called changelings.”
“That is correct.” Celestia replied.
“Eh, we’ve faced worse odds, right guys?” Sora asked Donald and Goofy who nodded. “Alright then point us in the right direction and we’ll have all of your problems taken care of in a day or two.” Sora said flashing the co-rulers a large grin.
“Sora, are you sure you know what you’re doing?” Twilight asked.
“Definitely Twilight, you’re new to this but I’ve lived through more than enough situations like this to know how it works. Although I might need to call for backup if things are really the way they are we’ll need all of the competent fighters we can get and I’m sure Riku would kill me if I let him miss this.” Sora replied with a smile.
“Hey are you saying that we can’t fight?” Dash asked flying towards Sora angrily; before she could say anything else Sora’s keyblade was at her throat. Dash froze where she was.
“Yes, I’m sorry but all that you girls coming along would accomplish would be more people that we have to protect.” Sora said withdrawing the blade and letting it vanish again.
“But this is our home; we deserve the right to defend it!” Applejack protested angrily.
“Yes darling I know that I for one want to stomp out every one of these heartless for the terror that they’ve been causing the countryside.” Rarity said nodding in agreement.
“Um Sora, if you don’t mind too much, I think that you should really let us come with you.” Fluttershy added haltingly.
“I want to use my cannon on them!” Pinkie cried jumping into the air in excitement.
“Um girls, I agree with him.” Twilight said calmly.
“But Twilight, don’t you want to be out there fighting?” Dash asked in confusion.
“Of course I do Dash, but girls we’ve been lucky so far, incredibly lucky actually. The fact that the six of us are all still alive let alone friends is incredible enough as it is, I don’t want to risk you lives fighting something this powerful.” Twilight replied softly looking at each one of her friends as she said it. Then they all grabbed her in a large group hug.
“Aw shucks Twi yall don’t have ta worry about us!” Applejack told her.
“Yeah we know what we’re doing!” Dash agreed.
“Besides darling we’re the Elements of Harmony, we can fix this in no time.” Rarity added.
“Yeah Twi geese you don’t have to worry so much.” Pinkie said with a grin as she bounced in place.
“I’ll help to.” Fluttershy agreed, her face showed her fear, but she was willing to ignore it to help her friends.
“I love you girls!” Twilight told them with a grin.
“Princess please tell them this is a bad idea?” Sora asked Celestia desperately, he didn’t need another Axel on his conscience.
“I agree with Sora on this Tia, it is simply too dangerous for them to accompany Sora and his friends.” Luna told Celestia worriedly.
“I know, Twilight I’m sorry but none of the six of you are permitted outside of castle ground for any reason whatsoever.” Celestia told her student.
“But-” Twilight began.
“No Twilight, this is out of your league, I would prefer to deal with this myself but Luna and I are required here to help uphold the shield along with Cadance and your brother.” Celestia said firmly.
“Fine Princess if you think it best.” Twilight said sadly with a sigh.
“Thank you for understanding Twilight, Shining would you find your sister and her friends rooms to stay in?” Celestia asked.
“Of course Princess.” The white unicorn replied “Come on Twilight I know just the place.” Shining told his sister and her friends. All seven walked out of the room with sad expression on their faces leaving Sora, Donald, and Goofy alone with the two princesses.
“How long do you think it’ll take them to escape or find a loophole?” Sora asked Celestia who shook her head.
“Around four hours once her brother leaves them.” Celestia replied with a shrug.
“Well then we’d better get started. Princess do you have a private place that I can summon my friend from? I don’t know if he’ll come through as a pony or as a human.” Sora asked Celestia who nodded.
“Yes, Luna show him to the chamber of light.” Celestia said.
“Follow me Sir Sora.” Luna commanded as she rose to her hooves, her starry mane flowed behind her as she walked. Sora, Donald, and Goofy followed behind.
“Goofy, Donald are you two alright with sitting this one out?” Sora asked Goofy as they walked.
“Sure Sora, I’ve been meaning to do a few things around the castle anyways.” Goofy said shrugging his shoulders.
“Yeah I think Daisy wants to spend some more time with me to make up for how much I’ve been gone.” Donald agreed.
“So is Riku the one I think he is?” Luna asked Sora.
“Probably.” Sora replied with a grin.
“I see, do you think that he’ll give me a hug to?” Luna asked.
“Maybe, he’s not as comfortable about these kind of thing as I am, but he’s gone through something closer to what you did then I did so his reaction might be more even severe.” Sora replied with a shrug as they entered a new room.
The room’s walls were a calming blue while the floor was a spotless white; the ceiling had been enchanted to show a scene of the night sky. Several red metal circles split up the white floor and they appeared to have been engraved with glowing runes.
“You know I expected more white from someplace called the chamber of light.” Sora remarked looking around with a small smile.
“This is our summoning room, anyone that you wish to bring here can be summoned from one of the circles with royal permission of course.” Luna told Sora. “You should be able to contact your friend from here.” She added with a smile. Sora nodded before he shut his eyes.
Riku can you hear me? Sora called out mentally.
Loud and clear Sora, what do you need? Riku’s voice replied inside Sora’s head.
Well it’s a long story, trust me I need your help with this. Sora answered, a few minutes passed as Riku searched for
Sora across the multiverse.
I’ve got you locked in and I’ll be there the second that you call.Riku told him. Sora nodded and opened his eyes before walking over to one of the circles. f
He placed his hoof on the edge and willed Riku to join him; Goofy and Donald stood waiting on the other edge of the circle preparing for the jump. The room was suddenly filled with blinding light, when their vision cleared a tall gold colored unicorn with a bleached white mane stood in the middle of the circle. Goofy and Donald had disappeared entirely but Sora knew they were fine.
“Sora why am I a unicorn?” Riku asked looking around himself until his gaze settled on Luna.
“It’s so that you can fit in better.” Sora replied with a shrug, Riku’s eye hadn’t left Luna as Sora spoke. Then suddenly he asked.
“Sora who is this?”
“I am Princess Luna.” Luna answered easily while bracing herself for whatever reaction Riku had.
“Sora you are hopeless without me aren’t you?” Riku asked before he drew his black keyblade and placed the blade against Luna’s forehead. There was a blast of light and the sound of a keyhole locking echoed throughout the room. Luna stared at Riku for a second before she rushed towards him and wrapped him in a hug.
“Thank you Sir Riku you have locked the darkness out of my mind and at long last it is no longer there whispering seditious thoughts that even the Elements of Harmony could remove!” Luna cried as she squeezed Riku.
“Anytime your majesty it’s what I do, and by that I mean clean up things that Sora forgets about.” Riku said cheerily.
“Gee thanks for the ringing endorsement.” Sora told Riku who snickered once Luna released him from her grip.
“Hey it’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it.” Riku replied with a shrug. “So Sora, why did you need me so badly?” Riku asked changing topics.
“Oh you know the usual.” Sora replied.
“So you missed not having my body around to look at?” Riku joked with a grin.
“Yeah that’s it, seriously why do you do that?” Sora asked his friend sarcastically with a scowl.
“Because the look that you always get makes me laugh.” Riku replied with a chuckle.
“Boys stay on topic.” Luna said interrupting their banter.
“So we’re fighting gods?” Riku asked his face immediately become more serious.
“More or less.” Sora replied with a shrug.
“Sounds like fun, where do we start?” Riku asked with a grin.
“I thought we’d scope out the local bar for rumors.” Sora replied his mouth turning up into a grin.
“Ah yes bars are always the best place to begin any quest.” Riku said with a nod before he turned back to Luna. “But in all seriousness where are we going?” He asked her.
“Your most likely destination is the hive of the changeling queen Chrysalis, I’ll provide you with all the information that you need to get there on the way to the train station.” Luna answered as she began to walk out of the room. Sora and Riku followed close behind.
“By the way Riku we’re going to have the company of six determined mares who have decided that it’s their job to help us in around four hours or so.” Sora told his friend who nodded.
“Let me guess no real combat experience but they want to help protect their land so they’ll get away from whoever you have watching them whether you like it or not?” Riku asked casually.
“Yep.” Sora replied simply.
“Well this should be fun.” Riku said with a small smile. “So what do the local heartless look like?”
“So far I haven’t seen much verity the usual Shadows along with a few Neoshadows.” Sora replied.
“Odd, I would’ve expected to have run into some horse heartless somewhere along the way.” Riku said.
“Yeah I’m waiting for one to appear.” Sora nodded.
“Hmm, well no use waiting let’s get on with this so we can get back to the island!” Riku told Sora with a large smile on his face.
“And back to Kairi!” Sora added with a grin.
“You two are very odd.” Luna told them.
“Ha you haven’t known Sora very long if you’re just now figuring that out.” Riku told her with a grin at his friend.
“I’ll show you weird!” Sora cried before he grabbed his face and started to pull the skin out to the side while rolling his eyes.
“See what I mean?” Riku asked Luna who started to giggle.
“I don’t care what Princess Celestia or Sora have to say about it we need to be put there helping them!” Rainbow Dash said angrily inside the living room of their suites.
“Ah don’t either, Equestria needs us and we can’t stay locked up in these stuffy rooms while Equestria is ravaged by these monsters!” Applejack said loudly agreement.
“Perhaps our attempts to escape would be helped by not shouting our wish to escape at the top of our lungs.” Rarity said dryly causing Applejack and Rainbow Dash to blush in embarrassment.
“Ya have a point.” AJ said with a nod.
“So Twilight how’re we getting out of here?” Pinkie asked turning to Twilight. “I mean I could get out pretty easily but I can’t take the rest of you, your minds aren’t ready for that.” Pinkie added with a grin.
“I’ll just teleport us out in an hour after they’ve let their guard down.” Twilight said simply.
“You mean you don’t have a long complicated plan doomed to failure unless we each play our parts perfectly that could fail even if we do play all of our parts right?” Dash asked, her face was the picture of disappointment.
“No of course not, did you think this was an action movie?” Twilight asked with a grin.
“I like this plan.” Fluttershy said; she’d feared that the plan would be something convoluted and scary.
“But Twi come on we have to do something exciting and possibly deadly!” Rainbow said.
“Rainbow why don’t you take a nap to pass the time, I know how much you like those?” Rarity asked with a sigh.
“Fine I think I will!” Dash said before she stormed away to her room.
“Aww but Twilight I could use my party cannon to blast a hole through the wall as a distraction while you fend off the guards with your magic and Rainbow and Applejack start digging an escape tunnel through the sky and Fluttershy can bring down a plague of hawks to scratch at the guards and I can get Harry to shoot blasts of fire and…” Pinkie continued like that for several minutes before she realized that her friends had stopped listening and left the room. “Well that was rude; at least you guys won’t ignore me.” Pinkie said giving the wall a wink.
***
“So the two of us, plus six women who’ll get here sooner or later, are going to fight our way through an army of heartless, nobodies, and the gods of good know what else along with an army of bug things that can shape shift in order to trick us, oh yeah and the mind of a chaos god is advising all of the above and an insane god level nobody. Did I miss anything?” Riku asked.
“No I think that about does it.” Sora replied with a grin.
“This’ll be fun. You know, you should’ve brought Kairi along I’m sure she’d love it here.” Riku said with a smirk.
“I thought she needed a brake after last time, I thought she was going to burst a blood vessel when we went to Atlantis and she appeared without a bra on.” Sora said with a shrug.
“Yeah that was great, lucky your mermaid friend’s sisters had something for her or else I think she would’ve killed you.” Riku agreed with a grin.
“I still don’t know why she holds me responsible for that; how was I to know that her bra was incompatible with the world?” Sora asked.
They were sitting in train car seats anticipating the wave of heartless that would surely swarm them the second that they left the station. Luna had told them that the cabin of the train was warded against heartless along with the connections that held the train cars together to prevent those from being destroyed but otherwise the train was defenseless. Sora stood back to back with Riku his keyblade in his mouth, Riku held his aloft in his magic. Sora had tried that but found it odd and unnatural, he was way too used to having his keyblade in his grip.
“So what did you think of Luna?” Sora asked casually.
“I’d say that she’d been through as much as I have, I’d also say that she’d very pretty, for a horse.” Riku said with a shrug.
“Riku and Luna sitting in a tree k i s s i n-” Sora began but was cut off when Riku’s keyblade hit him on the head.
“I said for a horse.” Riku said.
“Yeah but that’s the first time I’ve heard you say anything about a woman’s looks since before Kairi and I got together.” Sora said nudging his friend.
“Oh shut up.” Riku said conceding the point. The train started out of the station and then passed rapidly through the pink bubble.
Both Sora and Riku tensed ready for the assault. It came suddenly; the first indication of the heartless was the large pair of hooves that were heading directly at Sora’s face. Sora quickly swung his keyblade out to deflect the blow and was sent a few feet backwards by the power of the blow, he was lucky that the keyblade protected his teeth otherwise they’d all be broken along with his neck. As it is he didn’t want to have to block another strike like that.
Standing in front of him was a tall pony shaped heartless; it lacked wings or a horn so Sora assumed that it had been an earth pony in life. Its fur was black and in place of its eyes it possessed two glowing yellow patches filled with black that skirted around the edges of the yellow. A long spiky mane made of inky blackness flowed around its body casting it in murky blackness. Its hooves were oversized and looked to be around the size of cantaloupes and they were edged with whips of blackness. In place of a cutie mark it possessed one large heartless symbol.
“It’s always nice to meet the locals.” Riku snarked, Sora glanced over his shoulder and saw that Riku was dealing with one as well.
Before Sora could reply his dance partner charged again and Sora sidestepped allowing the heartless to storm past him into the wall of the train car. It crashed into the car’s side and Sora immediately felt a small amount of satisfaction at the confused look that came over its face as it looked at him.
“They’re like bulls; remember what Tulio and Miguel taught us.” Sora told Riku.
“Yeah strong and stupid, get them mad and then move.” Riku nodded as he dodged his own heartless which collided with the wall. Sora turned back just in time to see his heartless charging at him again, thinking quickly Sora dived underneath the beast and swung his keyblade in a deadly ark that ended when his keyblade had slashed open the heartless’s stomach as he rolled. However the heartless ignored the wound and turned on the keyblade master who had just regained his feet.
“Oh come on that should’ve worked perfectly, that always works!” Sora lamented the failure of his tactic as he jumped out of the way of another charge.
“Sora we should probably finish this, I don’t want any magic users helping them.” Riku said.
Sora nodded and readied himself for another charge, the heartless let out a dark roar and charged at Sora. At the last minute Sora swung his keyblade down in front of its face and the heartless just kept on charging pushing itself farther onto the keyblade closer and closer to Sora’s face.
“Oh come on!” Sora cried before slashing his keyblade sideways throwing the heartless off of the blade and opening a deep wound along its head from which darkness leaked like dark blood. The heartless charged again but Sora just jumped out of the way and created a deep slash running along its side, it fell to the ground and vanished into a pool of inky blackness that faded rapidly.
Riku’s fight went differently. The heartless charged him and instead of stepping aside at the last second Riku teleported behind the heartless and let out a stream of energy blasts that infuriated the heartless more than anything else. The heartless turned and charged again Riku simply held his black keyblade out in front of him in his magic grip certain that it could stop the heartless. This view was shattered when the heatless tore the keyblade out of his magic grip as it charged towards him.
“Shit.” Riku cursed quietly before he teleported behind the heartless and swung his keyblade down at its exposed flank. Black mist drifted out of the wound but the heartless ignored it and charged again. Gathering up a bit more of his magic Riku opened up a black portal in front of the heartless which charged into it thoughtlessly.
Riku then used a trick that he’d learned from a certain woman and popped open another portal on the roof of the car. The heartless came flying out of it and Riku stuck his keyblade out with the point pointing directly at its forehead. The heartless tried to turn away but it was too late. It was speared through the head and slid all the way down the length of the keyblade before vanishing into black mist.
“Well they sure know how to make heartless here.” Sora said panting a little.
“Yeah all say.” Riku nodded in agreement. “I hope that they’re all be that stupid.”
“Hopefully but I wouldn’t bet on it, I’m guessing that those will be the type that we’ll be fighting the most. Well along with shadows of course.” Sora said with a shrug.
“Definitely should’ve brought Kairi we need a healer.” Riku said.
“I think one of the girls is one.” Sora replied “So what do you want to do to pass the time till either they show up or we’re attacked again?” Sora asked.
“Sora we’re in enemy territory and could be attacked at any time!” Riku said.
“Yeah, and?” Sora asked with a grin.
“I think blackjack, or would you prefer war?” Riku asked with a shrug as a deck of cards materialized out of thin air in front of him.
***
“So Luna what did you think of our two guests?” Celestia asked her sister once she rejoined her in the meeting room.
“I like them.” Luna said simply with a smile.
“Anything else Lulu?” Celestia asked with a grin.
“Please Tia I just met them, besides Sora’s already taken.” Luna replied with a shrug.
“Yes I know, but I know how much you like stallions with a dark and troubled past. If I remember correctly your first love was Starswirl the Bearded and his back was as troubled as they come.” Celestia said with a tiny smirk.
“Tia I’m perfectly capable of selecting my own mates thank you very much.” Luna said with a dignified toss of her starry mane. They both felt the sudden burst of magic that signified Twilight’s teleportation spell and Celestia shook her head.
“That mare has been getting so predictable lately, you’d think that she would at least remember the fact that I can sense it every time she teleports any time that she’s within a mile of me.” Celestia said.
“She’s young give her time sister; we both know where she’s eventually headed.” Luna said with a chuckle.
“I suppose that you’re right, are we sure that this is the best thing for her, what if she’s killed or losses her heart?” Celestia asked both possibilities suddenly jumping into her mind.
“She’s with two of the most experienced fighters of darkness from this generation, she’d only be safer if Mickey was with her and we both know that he’s far too busy dealing with the darkness to be here.” Luna replied comfortingly.
“I know, I just worry, she’s like a daughter to me.” Celestia said with a sigh.
“She’ll be fine Tia; she’s in strong handsome hooves.” Luna said Celestia smirked causing Luna to blush. “Never said that.”
“Of course not.” Celestia said with a chuckle.
“I’ll just be going; I’ve got lots of sleeping to catch up on.” Luna told her sister hurriedly before hastily fleeing the room.
“Have fun in your bunk!” Celestia called after her sister and then chuckled, things could’ve been worse, Discord could’ve
been free.
***
Twilight opened her eyes expecting a fight, what she and the others found was slightly anticlimactic. Sora and some other unicorn were sprawled on the floor with a deck of playing cards spread out before them.
“Ha king beats queen.” Sora said with a grin, the other unicorn whose coat was gold rolled his eyes and passed over the queen. Sora looked up at the shocked faces of Twilight and her friends. “Oh, hey Twilight. You’re a little early I wasn’t expecting you for another hour, this is Sir Riku he’ll be helping us.” Sora told them offhandly before drawing another card and flipping it at the same time as Riku.
“Ace beats jack, Ace beats queen, Ace beats everything!” The golden unicorn said with a chuckle.
“I think ODST are going to kill you for stealing that line.” Sora said.
“Um Sora, what the hay?” Twilight asked.
“Draw?” Sora asked Riku who nodded.
“For now.” Riku replied with a grin before he gathered all of the cards up with magic before sending them back to hammerspace.
“Ok introduction time.” Sora said getting to his hooves. “Riku this is Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity.” Sora said gesturing at each of them in order. “Everyone this is Sir Riku my best friend and the third most powerful keyblade master.” Sora said.
“Third?” Riku asked puzzledly.
“Yeah, it goes Mickey, me, you, and then Kairi.” Sora replied with a grin.
“Sora I see a problem with that order, I’m below you.” Riku said.
“Well you are.” Sora replied with a wide grin Riku put him in a headlock.
“Well that escalated quickly.” Twilight said dryly as the two stallions wrestled.
“I wonder if he’s single.” Rarity said looking at Riku lustfully.
“Here we go again.” Applejack said with a sigh and a facehoof. The two stallions were on the floor of the train car at this point with Riku using his superior size to keep Sora’s face pressed into the floor while he sat on him.
“So who’s below who now?” Riku asked with a grin.
“You know Riku keep saying things like that and I’ll wonder if there’s a reason you don’t have a girlfriend!” Sora said as loudly as the floor would allow him.
“It’s because I haven’t found anyone who I like.” Riku said defensively. “Besides you took Kairi and she was the only attractive girl on the island.” He added as an afterthought.
“Um boys I know the solution to your problem.” Rarity said, both keyblade masters looked over at her. “Why don’t you have Riku kiss the first mare he saw when he got here, if he likes it then he’s straight, if not then he’s gay.” Rarity told them. Sora and Riku exchanged a look and burst into laughter.
“What?” Rarity asked; she’d been preparing to claim the honor.
“I guess Celestia’s going to be pissed at me.” Sora said with a chuckle.
“Well I’m going to be the one kissing her sister so I don’t know why you’re worried.” Riku said with a laugh, a look that was somewhere in between heartbroken and shocked played over Rarity’s face.
“This is the worst possible thing!” She cried before a red couch appeared behind her and she fainted into it.
“Hoist by her own petard, who would’ve bet.” Pinkie said with a giggle before she turned to Twilight and asked. “Twilight what’s a petard?” Twilight sighed and began to explain what a petard was.
“This is going to be a fun adventure.” Sora told Riku.
“Yeah, I get to lock lips with a god princess. I hope it goes better then that time at camp halfblood, I’m not sure if I’m ever
going to get the memories of siren out of my head.” Riku said shuddering.
“You know if you’d have just put the wax in your ears you wouldn’t have had to wake up from kissing a siren that you thought was a princess.” Sora told him.
“Yeah, but then I wouldn’t have been able to save you from-” Riku was cut off by a loud bang as a cake hit him in the face.
“That’s your welcome to Equestria cake!” Pinkie said excitedly.
“Hey why didn’t I get one?” Sora asked before a cake hit him in the face. “Thank you.” He said muffledly around a face full of cake.
Just a little background on this, I was having a conversation with someone in the chat yesterday and they came up with a funny idea. What if Roxas could contact Sora and ask him to make food for him and the others inside Sora’s head? This can be considered non cannon, unless you want it to be… Also keep in mind I haven’t played past the second game…
Bonus chapter 1
As Sora and Riku explained the situation to Twilight and company the beings living inside of Sora’s heart sat around doing what they did to pass the time. Roxas was as usual daydreaming about Namine while wishing for some sea salt ice cream. Ventus was wondering for the millionth time how he’d gotten stuck inside someone else’s heart. Finally Vanitas and Sora’s darkness were leaning against the opposite wall while they watched the other two intently.
“So is anyone else hungry?” Roxas asked breaking the silence suddenly.
“Yeah, why?” Vanitas asked with a frown, he didn’t like Roxas; then again he didn’t really like people in general.
“Well I just thought that I would try something.” Roxas explained with a grin. Sora’s darkness looked up at once alert for trickery.
“What are you going to try?” Vanitas asked chillily.
“Well I’ve noticed that as Sora’s nobody I can occasionally influence our scenery here.” Roxas said with a small smile.
“Get on with it.” Vanitas said with a shrug.
“Ok guys you have to level with me on this or else I don’t think it’ll work.” Roxas said gesturing at Sora’s darkness and Ventus who had thus far not seemed to be paying attention. The Darkness crouched down and looked into Roxas’s eyes.
I to hunger even if I no longer need sustenance Sora’s Darkness told him in its creepy mental voice.
“I’ve been here for thirty years; any food you can come up with would be great.” Ventus told Roxas with a small grin.
“Ok now that I have everyone’s attention let’s get down to business. If we’re going to pull this off we need to get out of his heart and into his brain, this is a dangerous mission and all of you could be killed, I know tha-”
“GET ON WITH IT!” Vanitas told Roxas in annoyance cutting him off mid speech.
“Why don’t I get a chance to make a fellowship speech?” Roxas asked in annoyance.
“Because I don’t like you.” Vanitas told Roxas “Now get on with it.” He commanded.
“Fine you’re a buzz kill you know that? Anyways as I was saying we need to get into the brain and install a button that can allow us to produce food for ourselves here. Luckily I have such a button.” Roxas said reaching into his coat and pulling out a blue push button.
“Where in the hell did you get that?” Vanitas asked in annoyance.
“Muffin button.” Roxas replied with a grin, Vanitas slugged him in the face.
“Was that really necessary?” Ventus asked as he looked over at Roxas who was regaining his feet.
“Yes.” Vanitas replied simply. “So how do we reach the brain?”
“Well we there are two main ways we can either head down or up.” Roxas said, a spelunker’s helmet had somehow appeared on his head.
Down? The Darkness asked in confusion. Roxas nodded and went over to whisper something into the Darkness’s ear.
I may not be human, or nobody as the case may be, but I shall not accompany you if you go down. The Darkness said firmly.
“I didn’t think it would be the popular choice.” Roxas consented with a nod.
“So we go up, how?” Ventus asked, this was the most interesting thing to happen since Roxas had come along ten years ago.
“We follow the flow of happy thoughts; they all travel through Sora’s heart before they reach his brain so it’s a simple matter of grabbing onto one.” Roxas said with a grin before he gestured at a happy thought as it flew through Sora’s heart casting a bright pink glow as it went.
“Why did I never think of this?” Vanitas asked, he was speaking more to himself then the others but Roxas couldn’t help himself.
“Because you’re evil.” Roxas received another fist to the face. “Totally worth it.” Roxas said with a grin.
What is to stop us from simply hijacking one of these thoughts whenever we wish to influence Sora? The Darkness asked.
“It needs someone who has a pure heart to work.” Roxas answered.
“So how do you propose we do this?” Vanitas asked; he was beginning to become very irritated.
“We buddy up, I’ll take Darkness and Ventus you can take Vanitas .” Roxas replied, he reached out suddenly and grabbed Darkness’s hand before pulling them onto a floating pink memory. Darkness stared at him with blank yellow eyes but besides that did nothing.
“Do you trust me?” Ventus asked Vanitas with a smirk as he offered Vanitas his hand.
“I will kill you eventually you know.” Vanitas replied but grudgingly grabbed Ventus’s hand and together they leapt onto one of the cloudlike thoughts.
The two groups rode in silence as they flew through Sora’s inner self. To Vanitas and the Darkness the place was a terrible light filled place full of the things that they truly feared the most. To Roxas and Ventus it was a relaxing if somewhat boring ride. After twenty preverbal minutes they arrived at the door to Sora’s mind. It was replica of the one that protected Kingdome Hearts.
“Of course.” Vanitas said looking at the door with a frown. “Now what?” he asked Roxas.
“Keyblade master remember?” Roxas said leveling his key at the door. A blazing beam of light shot out of the tip of the blade and the great door swung open.
“WHO DARES DISTURB THE MIND OF SORA?” A loud voice roared from within.
“We’re here to kick ass and chew bubblegum and I’m all out of ass!” Roxas shouted; Ventus and Vanitas facepalmed simultaneously.
I do not think that that is how it goes. The Darkness said cocking its head to the side in puzzlement.
“THEN YOU ARE A FOOL I HAVE NO GUM FOR YOU!” The voice shouted back.
“Come out and face us coward!” Vanitas shouted at the being behind the door. An extremely masculine version of Sora emerged from it and strode towards them.
“YOU HAVE TRESSPASSED ON SACRED GROUND, LEAVE AT ONCE AND I SHALL NOT BE FORCED TO STRIKE YOU DOWN!” The buff Sora shouted at them.
“Technically there isn’t any ground here.” Roxas pointed out with a grin, the buff Sora looked puzzled at that.
“YOU KNOW I NEVER REALLY THOUGHT ABOUT THAT, YOU MAKE A GOOD POINT…” Buff Sora admitted scratching his chin as he laid his giant keyblade (that more closely resembled a club then a sword) on the ‘ground’ in front of him.
“So can we go in?” Roxas asked hopefully.
“ONLY IF YOUR CHOSEN FIGHTER CAN DEFEAT ME IN OPEN COMBAT!” The buff Sora shouted.
“Alright we can work with that.” Roxas replied before turning back to the rest of his teammates. “Vanitas you and Darkness distract him while Ventus and I sneak in.” Roxas whispered.
Why should we be the ones to distract him?Darkness asked.
“Because I’m not letting either of you into Sora’s mind.” Roxas replied.
“Fair enough.” Vanitas said with a shrug. “HEY you the one with testosterone poisoning, me and my dark friend here challenge you to a bout of arms!” Vanitas shouted at buff Sora.
“TWO AGAINST ONE, THAT HARDLY SEEMS FAIR, FOR YOU!” Buff Sora replied before he charged them.
“If this doesn’t work I’m killing you in your sleep.” Vanitas told Roxas. Roxas and Ventus took off towards the door to Sora’s mind even as they heard the sounds of the epic battle behind them. They entered Sora’s mind and quickly found the right place to attach the button.
“Okay I attach this here, carry the two, divide by negative seven, multiply by the final digit of pie, and lastly calculate the flying speed of a swallow carrying a coconut.” Roxas said as he pressed a few buttons.
“African or European?” Ventus asked helpfully.
“Shut up, I’m done.” Roxas said drawing away from the computer.
“Okay now what?” Ventus asked.
“Now whenever the two of us want a meal we just ask politely and Sora’s brain will make them for us.” Roxas said with a grin.
“What about those two?” Ventus asked jerking his thumb at Vanitas and the Darkness.
“We’ll take their orders.” Roxas replied with a smile.
“Can we go now?” Vanitas shouted from outside, this was followed by a very painful sounding crunch.
“Yeah we’re coming.” Roxas called.
They made their escape rapidly and left the buff Sora completely confused. Once they were back inside Sora’s heart Roxas shouted.
“Yo Sora can we have some snacks?”
Sora was suddenly distracted in the middle of his lecture about heartless. Why am I suddenly thinking about cookies and sea salt ice cream?
The train coasted to a stop and the group prepared to depart. Riku and Sora led the way followed by Twilight and Rainbow Dash Fluttershy cam next in the center of the group with Applejack trotting alongside her, Rarity and Pinkie brought up the rear.
“So let’s go over this one more time, we’re heading towards the land of a group called the changelings. They can mimic the appearance of anything that has roughly the same body type with illusionary magic. Along the way we’re going to be fighting off waves of heartless and nobodies along with whatever else gets in our way. When we finally make it to the changeling lands we’re going to make a B line for the biggest hive and fight our way to this Chrysalis and interrogate her to see if we can find out where this nobody of Luna is.” Twilight said and Sora nodded.
“Yeah, it sounds like this is going to be a fun trip.” Sora said with a chuckle.
“I can hardly see anything ‘fun’ about this.” Rarity whispered to Pinkie in annoyance.
“Rarity you’re only whining because you got shot down by your own scheme.” Pinkie told her with a giggle.
“I am a lady Pinkie and I’ll have you know that we do not whine, we politely discuss the implications of our situations and point out those things which we find lacking.” Rarity said icily.
“So whining?” Pinkie asked with a grin and Rarity snorted in disdainful annoyance before turning her head away to look at their surroundings. Up in the front Sora Riku and Twilight were completely unaware of the discussion taking place behind them and instead were talking about history.
“So you got corrupted and then Sora had to save you?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, it’s not my proudest moment.” Riku confirmed with a sigh.
“It’s alright Riku everypony has done something that their not proud of, what matters is what you do to make things right.” Twilight told him with a compassionate smile.
“Thank you Twilight.” Riku replied with a slight grin. “Although the worst part was having to be saved by this guy, it took me a full year to get my dignity back.” Riku said punching Sora lightly in the shoulder.
“What’re yall talking about anyways?” Applejack asked from behind them, Rainbow Dash was floating upside down above her (Riku’s left eye twitched slightly as he pondered how she flew like that).
“The past.” Sora replied with a shrug and a small chuckle at the annoyed look that crossed the cowpony’s face thanks to his enigmatic answer.
“Fine don’t tell us, Twi’ll tell us later anyhow.” AJ said with a shrug. The doors of the train opened and revealed that the train platform was deserted. Not only that but what should’ve been a peaceful village on the fringe of the changelings’ land was instead a burned down hovel. Twilight and her friends let out a collective gasp of shock while Riku and Sora surveyed the wreckage with grim expression as they scanned the area for hostiles.
“What was the name of this town?” Sora asked Twilight breaking her out of her shocked silence.
“M, Mar, Marehood.” Twilight stuttered as she looked over the wreckage.
“It doesn’t look too virginal to me.” Riku said idly as he stepped out of the train car and onto the blackened platform.
“Was that supposed to be a joke?” Rainbow asked incredulously before flying in front of Riku face and shouting. “This town is destroyed and you’re making JOKES!”
“Have you no sense of respect?” Rarity asked coming closer to Riku with her horn glowing.
“I oughta buck you back ta Canterlot!” AJ said dangerously.
“Would you like the rest of your world to end up like this?” Riku asked them quietly.
“Of course we don’t!” Dash said angrily.
“Then I suggest that you let Sora and I prevent it, I’ve seen worlds much more powerful than yours reduced to nothing but shadows in less time then has already passed here. So please stop threatening me because we don’t have the time to argue with each other.” Riku continued turning his back on the ponies and striding into the destroyed town. Sora looked after him with a worried expression on his face and sighed.
“Sorry girls Riku and I are used to travelling either alone, or with people who have experienced as many horrors as we have so at this point… well when things get grim the best thing to do is where a grin and try not to become depressed.” Sora told them with a small shrug before he started after Riku.
“Twi I don’t like this one bit nopony should make a joke outa this.” AJ said darkly.
“I agree that it’s in bad taste, but it’s their copping method.” Twilight said with a sigh. “Alright girls let’s move out, stay together and look for threats.” They all exchanged a worried glance before setting off after the two stallions.
“I told you that they’d slow us down.” Riku said with a frown.
“Trust me they’ll come in handy, besides having locals along should make things much easier for us.” Sora replied with a matching frown as he spotted a dark red bloodstain as they stepped into the destroyed town’s square. “The real question is what caused this.” He added. A sudden roaring filled the air, Riku shot Sora an annoyed glance and both drew their keyblades.
“That sounded like a manticore.” Fluttershy said softly.
“How much you want to bet that it’s a heartless?” Riku asked Sora. Before Sora could answer a black shape darted out of the shadows and launched itself at him.
Sora raised his keyblade up and deflected the shape to the side where it landed perfectly balanced on its feet. It had a lion’s body along with a pair of sinuous black bat wings reared out of its back and a long silvery scorpion’s tail twitched left to right as it looked at them. Dark flowing fur had covered its body and a blood red mane swayed around its head as it snarled at them. Displayed prominently across its chest was the red heartless symbol and glowing yellow eyes took in the heroes with the malevolent gaze of a predator. Two more of the earth pony heartless flanked the beast who began to paw the ground.
“Heh and they say I don’t get any pu-” Sora started before Riku hit him in the shoulder.
“Sora if you complete that clichéd joke I’m going to throw you into its jaws.” Riku said with a frown. “Do any of you know a manticore’s weaknesses?” Riku asked looking over his shoulder at the mares.
Twilight was standing at the ready with her horn glowing, AJ stood beside her preparing to buck, Dash had her hooves up as if she was a boxer. Rarity also had her horn glowing but Sora couldn’t imagine what she was going to do with it. Pinkie had appropriated a small canon… (best not to think about that one) Sora decided. Predictably Fluttershy was cowering behind Pinkie and her canon.
“Umm the base of the tail is weak; but please try not to hurt it!” Fluttershy said softly and Riku nodded in acknowledgement.
“Sora do you want the cat or the-” Before he could get any farther one of the earth pony heartless charged him forcing Riku to teleport away just before impact, the other three lower level heartless blitzed.
Twilight unleashed a wave of force that threw the heartless backwards but it recovered quickly and charged again eager for another attempt. Riku popped out of nowhere and preformed a single downward strike from above the heartless cutting deep into the black fur and mane that ran along its neck before he once again vanished. The heartless let out a voiceless scream of rage and struck out at Twilight who deflected the blow with a magic shield but she was sent reeling by the force of the impact. Sora meanwhile had avoided the deadly blitz and headed straight for the manticore heartless.
The massive cat heartless leapt at Sora and unleashed a rapid combo of slashes that Sora managed to block before he responded with a swift keyblade slash that sliced into the manticore’s leg. The heartless’s tail suddenly came swooping down at him and Sora was forced to roll away from it. The tail smashed into the ground where he had been standing and left a foot deep hole before rising up and striking out again forcing Sora to roll again.
Applejack met one of the oncoming heartless with a buck that sent it flying into the wreckage of one of the houses but it came running at her again until Pinkie launched a shot of cake towards it. The cake impacted against the heartless’s face rendering it blind, Riku took advantage of this and popped into existence long enough to open up a deep gash that leaked black mist along the beast’s side. It staggered to one side but stayed standing as it glared at AJ.
The second oncoming heartless chose Rainbow Dash as its target. Dash took a second to steady her breathing as the black ball of rage charged her, she hovered stock still as it came ever closer. Then just as it was about to ram into her she gave it a wicked uppercut sending its head flying back on its neck.
“You call yourself an earth pony? Don’t make me laugh I’ve seen unicorn fillies stronger then you!” Dash shouted at it as she unleashed three rapid blows to the heartless’s cranium.
In response the heartless reared up on its reared up on its hind legs and hit Rainbow with a hard strike that sent her tumbling to the ground in front of it. The heartless was about to finish her when Rarity came out of nowhere, a long needle like blade in her magical grasp. She slashed the blade across the heartless’s side drawing a thin black mist. It turned to confront the white unicorn who glared at it.
“Leave my friend alone you ruffian!” She shouted at it as her blade slashed at the heartless again drawing more mist, unfortunately her blade wasn’t doing very much damage. On the bright side Rainbow had recovered her wits and charged the heartless from behind delivering a very potent blow… The heartless cried out in pain and turned to confront its assailant.
The third and final heartless charged towards Fluttershy and the meek pegasus dived to the side with a terrified squeak. The heartless carried on running and smashed through the remnants of the building before charging at the yellow pony again. Twilight appeared in a flash of purple to defend her friend and unleashed a ball of purple fire at it. To her considerable surprise the heartless just charged through unharmed, although now it was on fire! Twilight cursed mentally before teleporting out of the heartless’s way, and right into the gaze of Fluttershy’s staring eyes. The heartless momentarily stopped its charge and returned her stare unable to look away. To Twilight’s surprise Fluttershy looked away first, she’d never seen that happen, ever! The heartless shook its head before it charged again.
The first heartless was almost dead thanks to Riku’s constant chipping away at its defenses and with a final swing of the keyblade Riku decapitated the monster which vanished into a puddle of black goo which quickly evaporated.
Sora on the other hand was still having significant difficulty defeating the manticore which had proved to be extremely fast and powerful; Sora now had several scars to attest to this all of which ran red with blood. Sora did a backflip away from the manticore before casting a quick cure spell to erase the worst of the damage and let out a slightly relived breath as his wounds closed. Before he could do anything else the cat jumped forward and let out an incredibly strong roar that sent Sora stumbling backwards. Suddenly a light bulb lit up in Sora’s head. What better way to fight a lion then with a lion?
With a small effort of will Sora transformed himself into his lion form which had grown significantly larger then when they’d defeated Scar’s ghost. With a great roar of his own Sora leapt forward and grabbed the heartless in a rolling leonine pounce sending the two of them crashing to the ground as they tried to kill each other. The heartless tried to bite and sting him as Sora slashed deep gouges into its hide with his keyblade while they rolled. After a few seconds the roll ended throwing both lions apart. Sora was the first to his paws but the heartless wasn’t far behind and they circled each other growling dangerously.
Rarity and Dash had worked out a rhythm and they were now doing some real damage to the earth pony heartless. Rarity darted forward and swept her blade in a diagonal cut across the heartless’s face causing it to roar in pain and sweep a hoof out wildly catching Rarity across the lower jaw. The unicorn’s teeth clacked together audibly and she was sent stumbling backwards. Dash let out a shout of rage and a bolt of lightning smashed into the heartless sending it to the ground where Dash began to wail on it with all four hooves. After a few seconds of this the heartless vanished into black mist.
Twilight and Fluttershy were not faring as well, whatever had happened to Fluttershy when she had challenged the heartless to a stare had affected her negatively and she was now curled up in a ball on the ground whimpering slightly. This had forced Twilight to switch to defensive tactics so she could protect her friend from the oncoming heartless, and of course
the heartless was still on fire…
It charged again and Twilight created a barrier between herself and it. To her surprise the heartless carried on its charge and smashed through the barrier and would’ve trampled her into the ground if not for Riku’s sudden appearance. The white maned unicorn appeared in a flash of black light and swept out his keyblade in a diagonal cut. The keyblade slammed into the flaming heartless’s side and sent it tumbling to the side. Riku darted after it and smashed his blade through the heartless’s throat in a dark spray of black mist causing the heartless to vanish.
Pinkie Pie was having a great time she led the heartless after her on a merry chase around the small square where they were fighting as her mind absently noticed the fact that Sora had transformed into a large brownish black lion. Suddenly Pinkie ducked and AJ’s rear hooves slammed into the heartless’s face sending it tumbling backwards howling in pain. Pinkie let out a giggle before she took a cupcake out of her personal pocket dimension and shot forward to jam it into the dazed heartless’s mouth and down its throat. The Pinkie reverse summersaulted away with a smile on her face as the heartless suddenly exploded in a burst of pink light.
“Pinkie what in tarnation was that?” AJ asked in shock.
“Oh that? That was just a cupcake from my exploding cupcake recipe, it was supposed to make the customers explode with joy and happiness, it didn’t work…” Pinkie said trailing off with a frown but then that was replaced with her usual grin. “But I got better!”
“Pinkie you’re so random.” AJ said with a shake of her head.
Sora had the enemy manticore in a death grip with his teeth locked firmly around the other beast’s neck. As it died the heartless began to scream a ghastly sounding cry that sent shivers up Sora’s spine causing him to momentarily release his hold on the manticore which used the opportunity to slice into Sora’s stomach repeatedly with its sharp claws. Sora sprang backwards bleeding heavily and standing with a slight limp.
The manticore heartless pounced at him but when its claws swept down to burry themselves in Sora’s back it found that the keyblade master was no longer there. The manticore looked around in confusion its soulless yellow eyes darting around the square searching for its quarry. Sora leapt silently out of a group of shadows once again in pony form and buried his blade deep in the heartless’s neck. The cat let out a loud cry of rage before it vanished into black mist and disappeared. Sora slumped to the ground in slight exhaustion and was met by the unbelieving eyes of six ponies.
“You can turn into a lion.” Twilight said flatly.
“Yeah, it’s great; except for the hairballs and the desire to play with mice.” Sora replied with a comical grin. Despite herself Twilight burst into laughter and she was soon joined by the rest of her friends except Fluttershy who was still shivering with fear. One look at Fluttershy and they all sobered up.
“What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Dash asked softly as she placed a comforting hoof on her friend’s shoulder.
“I saw its soul.” Fluttershy said softly.
“What?” Dash asked in confusion.
“I saw the pony’s soul trapped within that monster screaming and kicking for release, it begged me to help it, to save it, but I couldn’t.” Fluttershy said with a sob before she broke down weeping. Dash rushed forward and grabbed the other Pegasus in a close hug.
“It’s okay Flutters it’s okay.” Dash whispered softly as she tried to comfort the other pony.
Riku and Sora exchanged glances and the elder keyblade master sighed but closed his eyes resignedly knowing that they wouldn’t move any farther until the situation had been resolved. The rest of the friends joined the hug and together they helped Fluttershy ride out her grief. When she’d dried her eyes Fluttershy turned to Sora and Riku, her eyes were red and puffy from crying but there was a new hardness and determination in them.
“We’re making whoever did this pay for it.” She said softly catching her friends off guard; that kind of statement just didn’t match up with the Fluttershy they knew. A small understanding smile touched Riku’s lips and he nodded.
“Yes, yes we will Fluttershy you have my word on that.” Riku replied softly.
***
“Are you kidding me? They killed them all!” The hole covered figure of Queen Chrysalis raged as she unleashed a wall of green flame that impacted harmlessly off of the wall behind her.
“Calm yourself Insect, they cannot comprehend the forces that they are dealing with, and once we’ve eliminated the Key Wielders they will make excellent members of our counsel.” A second voice said. Chrysalis turned to confront the other being in the room.
Standing before her was a mare whose fur seemed as black empty as the area beyond the stars. Silvery eyes looked out from behind a lean and noble face while a mane of ethereal white hair flowed down her neck. The mane was not white, instead it was an absence of any real color and the very air around it took on a bleached look. A long sharp horn reared up out of her forehead and her pointed ears twitched slightly as the air flow in the room took on a slightly heavier quality. She was taller than Chrysalis and much more heavily built, almost as big as Celestia but not quite. A pair of black wings speckled with silver rose up out of her back but they were currently at rest tucked carefully against her back.
Chrysalis snorted in annoyance at being called an insect but she subsided, she knew that her partner (really master at this point) was far more powerful then she could ever hope to be. Instead Chrysalis sighed and placed a gentle peck on the side of the mare’s muzzle. The mare regarded her with those soul entrapping silvery eyes and gave Chrysalis a small smile. Chrysalis still wasn’t sure when the hugely powerful mare was actually happy but had already decided that she would do anything to stay in her favor.
“Thank you my little insect.” The mare crooned and Chrysalis was suddenly swept up in a symphony of joy that almost outweighed how much she despised the fact that she’d been forced into mental servitude; almost, but not quite.
“Thank you mistress, I have to go watch my children.” Chrysalis said with a tiny bow to the mare before she walked out of the room.
“Hmm… my my my are you actually showing emotion on me now?” Discord mentally asked the mare who laughed lightly.
“Discord what a surprise; I suppose that you’re here to offer me advice?” The mare asked with a small smirk.
“Why yes I am actually, be careful with Chrysalis she’s chafing against the edges of your spell and she knows very well that it is there. Honestly I’d suggest releasing her, it’ll mean less heartache on your part” Discord replied with a mental shrug.
The journey through the destroyed village went quickly with Sora and Riku leading the group around the worst of the damage although they did have to wait while Rarity puked her guts up after seeing a particularly nasty corpse of a foal that had had its head slashed into tiny pieces and its legs cut off.
“What kind of monsters could do this?” Twilight asked softly from where she was standing with Riku and Sora.
“Heartless.” Sora said softly before turning away from the corpse with a grimace marring his usually carefree face.
“We need to move, we’re too exposed out here.” Riku said looking around the edges of the buildings warily.
“Who else would be out here? It’s abandoned!” Rainbow exclaimed gesturing around at the destruction.
“I really hope I don’t have to answer that.” Riku muttered to Sora.
“You need to lighten up just a bit Riku. This is their first experience with heartless of course they’re going to be naïve about it.” Sora replied with a sigh.
“I still think that dragging six untrained women around a war zone is a bad idea.” Riku said with a slight scowl at some of the other ponies.
“Oh so besides just being a brute you’re also a sexist!” Rarity said angrily.
“Not at all, I know plenty of women that could kick my ass. You seem to have missed the part about you being untrained.” Riku said dryly.
“I’ll have you know that I come from a military family thank you very much.” Rarity said bringing her needle like blade up to hover near Riku’s face. Riku just snorted clearly unimpressed by the slim blade in front of him.
“Can we please just focus on getting to safety?” Twilight asked with a frown.
“Did you miss the part where we’re heading towards an enemy stronghold to fight a god possibly more than one? The only safety we’re going to have is temporary at best.” Riku replied.
“You know what I meant.” Twilight said rolling her eyes causing both Sora and Riku to chuckle at her tone.
They walked in silence for around an hour until they were far beyond the destroyed town and they came across a grass plain that stretched on as far as they eye could see.
“This area is known as the Empty Grasses, it’s the only thing separating Equestria from the changeling deserts.” Twilight said as she looked around the apparently never ending expanse of grass.
“Hey yall I think we’ve got trouble.” AJ observed from her position near the back of the group. Before they could react a black shape dove out of the sky and slammed into Riku who was thrown to the ground in surprise. Before the shape could do any more damage Sora sliced it in half with his keyblade with a simple horizontal slash. The heartless dissipated into a fine mist that dissolved.
“Gods I hate flyers.” Riku muttered as he got back to his hooves.
Enough heartless to temporarily blot out the sun streaked out of the sky keening out high notes that made the ponies stagger. Sora and Riku withstood the onslaught of noise and got their first look at the new breed of heartless. They were a warped version of pegasi with tattered feathers and slim almost emaciated bodies. Their feathers despite the ratty appearance seemed to have been sharpened and out of the corner of his eyes Sora caught sight of several dozen thin lines of blood running across his friend’s body from where the heartless had impacted. Their faces had been twisted into vaguely vulture-like smiling faces that looked down at them with rows of sharp teeth.
“They’re fast but go down easy once you get them, how much you want to bet that they work mostly with the bigger ground based ones?” Sora asked as he deflected an incoming flyer to the side before slicing through one of the wings.
“I’ll take that bet.” Riku said before he unleashed a blast of dark energy that slammed into two of the flyers who didn’t see it coming causing them to disintegrate into mist. Rainbow Dash recovered first and took flight charging straight at the heartless.
“Get out of my sky!” She shouted as her hoof smashed into the first heartless’s head pulping it to misty blackness.
The other heartless all dived at her spinning around her in a confusing whirlwind of bladed wings and infernal laughter. Sora jumped into the air and quickly boosted himself even farther with a spin that sent him into the crowd of heartless. With a flash of light he sent his keyblade slashing through four of the heartless who had surrounded Dash and reduced them to murky darkness.
Despite being outnumbered Dash was still holding her own fairly well having only suffered a few minor cuts along her muzzle and across her chest. With a battle cry she smashed her front hooves together and a bolt of lightning shot out of the nearby clouds and vaporized several of the heartless in a flash of light.
More of the heartless dove out of the sky and streaked towards rest of the group. Twilight raised a quick shield causing several to be destroyed upon impact as their week bodies came into contact with the powerful magical barrier at top speed. The others pulled up and began to slash at it with their razor sharp wings.
“I can’t hold this for long so get ready.” Twilight shouted over her shoulder.
A few seconds later her shield fell apart and the heartless zoomed in at her. Applejack leapt forward and sent two heartless to inky oblivion with a flying buck. Twilight nodded to her in thanks before sending out a magic missile that sliced through several more heartless.
Rarity had drawn her sword in time to deflect one of the heartless to the side and slice through its throat with a simple flick. Another two flew towards her and she ducked allowing the razor wings to zoom right over her head. One got lucky however and a thin trickle of blood began to flow into her right eye from a newly opened cut on her forehead. Rarity growled in frustration and leapt to the side narrowly avoiding another pass.
Pinkie saw her friend’s predicament and took out her cupcake bazooka. With a happy whoop she pulled the trigger and sent several high velocity cupcakes flying towards the Heartless. The cupcakes impacted against the heartless pegasi’s faces hurling them to the ground with confused looks on their faces as they vanished.
Fluttershy stood her ground unflinchingly as the heartless dove at her before letting out a high pitched eagle call. The heartless ground to a halt in midair as the unexpectedly high-pitched noise assaulted their ears before renewing their dives. Two golden streaks of light flashed out of the sky as a pair of golden eagles swooped out of the sky and tore into the heartless with long sharp talons quickly reducing them to black mist. Fluttershy nodded to the eagles gratefully and they gave each gave her a one winged salute before flapping back into the fray.
Riku and Sora stood flank to flank slashing out with their keyblades as a swarm larger than the one that had attacked Rainbow Dash encircled them. Sora sent his keyblade flying out of his mouth with a well-placed throw which killed several of the heartless before he teleported it back into his mouth and continued to deflect and slash more heartless. Riku sent burst after burst of dark energy at the circling heartless in-between slashes reducing those who came towards him to dust.
“I’m getting the distinct feeling that they don’t like us.” Sora said as a heartless slashed him across the side of his neck opening up a thin cut.
“You know I never would’ve noticed if you hadn’t pointed that out.” Riku replied dryly. “Do you want to do a limit?” He asked as a heartless nicked him on the cheek drawing blood.
“I was waiting for you to ask.” Sora replied with a grin.
“Together!” Sora and Riku shouted together and the two began to glow with an ethereal light that sent heartless flying away in pain as the two keyblade masters jumped forward.
Sora and Riku moved in time with an unearthly rhythm slashing out to the left and the right dashing heartless to black mist as they went then Sora leaped onto Riku’s back and launched himself into the swarm that circled angrily overhead. He arrived among them and spun around in a circle clearing a small section of the air. Riku teleported behind him and they used each other to launch one another at the rest of the heartless each one a light shining through the almost impenetrable darkness steadily clearing the sky.
“Can I play to?” Pinkie asked suddenly appearing on top of Sora who looked up in surprise as the pink party pony leaped off of his airborne body straight towards the heartless and with a whoop pulled a party-cannon out of nowhere. She pulled the string and a with a loud blast a cake streaked out of the cannon and smashed into a heartless where it exploded in a shower of icing and cake pieces that showed other heartless dissolving them into mist.
“How the hell did she do that?” Riku asked as he and Sora joined hooves and started to spin shooting out bolts of magic left and right while they cut through the heartless closest to them with their blades.
“I’m not going to worry about that.” Sora replied with a slight chuckle.
Twilight and Applejack were oblivious to the struggle going on overhead. Instead they were standing side to side with Twilight laying down a thick spray of suppressing magical fire and Applejack smashing any who made it through with judicial bucks to the face.
Suddenly a neoshadow burst from the ground underneath Twilight and tossed her into the air while slashing at her with long serrated claws. Twilight let out a cry of pain as long bloody slashes appeared across her right side and with an effort of will she created a small forcefield around herself forcing the heartless’s claws to scrap off the invisible barrier. Applejack jumped into the air and delivered a buck that sent the neoshadow tumbling out of the air. She also managed to catch the bleeding Twilight and set her gently on the ground before turning back to the face the incoming heartless.
“Come on Twi get up, ah can’t take em all.” Applejack said quietly as she smashed another heartless into oblivion. Rainbow Dash was flying through the enemy swarm smashing and electrifying them as she went when suddenly Pinkie hopped onto her back.
“Pinkie what are you doing back there?” Rainbow Dash asked in surprise while she nimbly dodged to the side of one of the heartless’s bladed wings.
“I’m baking some cupcakes!” Pinkie replied as she hoisted a large cupcake machinegun between her hooves and opened up on the swarm that had begun to chase Dash. Cupcakes streamed out of the barrel of the gun slicing through the ranks of heartless like a hot knife through an ice-cream cake.
“This is ridicules!” Dash shouted as she was forced to do a barrel roll to avoid a group of heartless, she felt Pinkie’s legs tighten around her stomach as she did so in order to keep from falling off.
Rarity stood surrounded by five neoshadows who continuously shifted towards her feinting to the left and the right in an attempt to distract the white mare from the one who would actually attack her. It was times like this that Rarity was happy that she’d gone through the five years of guard training that her father had insisted on. She’d hated every dirty, muddy, sweaty, bucking miserable moment, but she had to admit that it had proven remarkably useful over the years since she moved to Ponyville.
The neoshadow who was actually going to attack her swept in from behind her as two others charged from the front. Rarity put the two in front of her out of her mind for the moment and instead focused on driving her thin needle like sword through the chest of the neoshadow charging from behind. The sword pierced its chest and it dissipated into mist without a sound leaving Rarity with four of the monstrosities to face.
Riku and Sora’s combo ended and they were both sent falling landward with varying amounts of control, Sora who had the advantage of being able to glide naturally after his stay in Neverland soared down to land next Applejack and the bleeding Twilight. Applejack looked over at him and nodded before turning to buck a heartless in the face. Sora readied his keyblade and unleashed a rapid series of slashes and cuts to the next heartless to attack sending it back into the darkness without difficulty.
Riku on the other hand had never gotten the ability to glide (or fly for that matter) so he plummeted towards the ground right as the four neoshadows converged on Rarity. Seeing the mare’s predicament Riku quickly teleported in front of two of the heartless leaving only two for Rarity to deal with. His keyblade slashed out vivisecting one of the heartless while he simultaneously sent out a wave of dark energy at the other who was sent flying back under the force of the attack.
Rarity noticed Riku taking the other two down in the back of her mind while she swept her sword out in a low swing that cut through one of the heartless’s legs sending it falling to the ground where it dissolved. The other’s right claw gave Rarity a shallow cut along her muzzle and she killed any sense of triumph the heartless felt (that is to say none whatsoever) by driving her sword through its throat causing it to vanish into mist.
Fluttershy was surrounded by the noble predators of the plains and to her left a lion slashed a heartless to pieces while a hawk swooped down from the sky and sliced into pegasi heartless with minimal effort. Suffice to say that she hadn’t as of yet suffered an injury…
After a few more minutes of intermittent fighting the heartless disappeared just as suddenly as they’d arrived leaving the heroes (minus Sora and Riku) gasping for breath and exhausted. That’s when the others noticed Twilight lying on the ground in a small pool of her own blood.
“Oh my goodness what happened to her?” Rarity asked as she caught sight of her friend.
“Looks like neoshadow work, I’ll get a potion in her.” Riku replied pulling out a red bottle, uncapping it, and forcing it down the blood covered unicorn’s throat.
“What are you doing she needs medical attention not a drink!” Dash shouted trying to bat Riku’s hand away.
“This will heal her, trust me.” Riku replied before turning back to the task of force feeding the potion to the unicorn.
“Fine, but if something happens to her…” Dash said glaring at Riku.
“Then you’ll attack me and I’ll knock you unconscious.” Riku replied with a shrug. “Oh look she’s waking up.” Riku said turning back to Twilight who began to stir in his arms.
“I feel like I’ve had my internal organs torn apart and spliced back together by a monkey.” Twilight said with a groan as she rolled out of Riku’s arms.
“Yeah that sounds about right; but at least you have your health.” Sora replied with a grin. Before Twilight could reply she was pulled into a large group hug by her friends and they spent the next several minutes just holding each other.
“I love a good group hug, mind if I join?” Sora asked with a grin.
“We need to keep moving.” Riku said with a worried look at the horizon.
“Riku shut up and join the hug.” Sora told his friend with a grin.