> My Little Pony: Friendship Hearts > by castillom2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > New friendships are magic > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- New friendships are magic Sora was falling. He had done it, He has defeated Xehanort along with the entire organization. The battle between the two sides of light and dark has gone on for years at this point but finally, it came to an end. Just as that though, Sora had to sacrifice himself in order to save a close friend. This was the price to pay for using the power of waking to chase hearts around. Sora was still falling through darkness but for some reason started to fall faster. The stars finally started appearing behind the keyblade wielder, along with the moon and the entire night sky. Sora was still falling, even faster as he started to heat up. He basically became a shooting star at this point and was showing no signs of slowing down. * * * At Sweet Ppple Acres, a nice little farm where the apple family spent their time bucking apple's for a living, there was a little filly with a cherry red mane and tail, pink bow and yellow body outside at night, looking at the sky with wonder. "Ah, Apple bloom, why in equestria are yah here by yourself at night?" said an orange mare with a blonde mane and tail along with a cowboy hat. "Oh, hey Applejack, Ah was just looking at the night sky for a little while." replied Apple Bloom. Applejack just smiled as she went to go sit next to her. "Alright but hurry up, tommorow we got lots of bucking for us in the morning." They both were looking at the night sky, until something caught Applejack's eye. "Looky here Apple Bloom, a shooting star, make a wish now." The filly closed her eyes and made her wish, the one thing she wanted out of her entire life. 'Ah wish to finally get my cutie mark.' The two sisters kept gazing at the sky until they noticed the shooting star was still coming. The shooting star ended up crashing near Sweet Apple Acres on a grassy field leaving behind a crater. Applejack and Apple Bloom saw this along with waking up a big red stallion. Applejack, Apple Bloom and the red stallion quickly went to go check it out. They looked inside the crater and saw a caramel pegasus with a spiky brown mane and tail, black clothes with colored highlights along with a silver crown necklace. "Big Mac, can ya carry him back home?" asked Applejack The red stallion simply replied with "Eyup." as he put the Carmel pegasus on his back with the three starting to go back home. * * * Sora started waking up, his sight was a little dazy at first but he quickly got his vision back. 'Uh, what happened to me- oh.' Sora was quickly hit with the realization of what he did. The one thing he was warned not to do. "The power of waking isn't for chasing hearts around." Sora mumbled to himself as he then started to stand up. He then realized that he has four legs as well as being a Carmel color. He then looked around and finally found a mirror, he looked at his reflection, outside he was now a caramel colored pegasus. "I guess this is what I have to look like to fit in this world, whatever this world is." He then noticed something on his flank that caught his attention. It was a small blue heart which caused him to yell in surprise. "WHY IS THERE A TATOO ON MY BUTT!?" yelled Sora as then a small filly entered the room. "Oh looky here, yer awake." said the little filly as she then went up to go talk to the stranger. "I'm Apple Bloom, and who might you be." she asked. The caramel pegasus replied to the little filly with "Sora, do you happen to know where I am?" "Oh, y'all in Sweet apple acres now." said Apple Bloom with Sora just standing there trying to not loose his head over the situation. "Apple Bloom, there ya are." said an orange mare as she then noticed Sora. "Oh, you're awake now. Good to see yah ain't have any injury's from last night." said the mare as she then introduced herself. "I'm Applejack, come down now, ain't want y'all to stay here all day." Sora and Apple Bloom quickly followed as they went downstairs into the kitchen where a Big red stallion and an old lime green mare where standing. Applejack then introduced them to Sora, "Alrighty then, The Big Red stallion standing over there is my big brother Big Mac, over there is granny smith and y'all already met Apple Bloom." she then waved her hoof pointing at her sister who was next to the pegasus. Granny Smith then decided to speak up while inspecting Sora "And just who might y'all be sonny?" Sora simply replied with "I'm Sora ma'am." with a goofy yet little worried grin on his face. Granny smith continued the conversation "And we're ya from Sora? It's not every day a pegasus just comes crashing down out ah nowhere." while still looking at him suspiciously. "Oh, I don't remember but really far away that's for sure." said Sora while still trying to keep the lie. "Where are yah going to stay then?" Asked Apple Bloom with a little frown. "I don't know. I'm sure I can find a place to stay, thanks again for everything." said Sora as he was going to go out the door before being stopped by Applejack. "Now hold on Sugar cube, if ya don't have a place to stay, why not here with us?" Applejack suggested. "Really, he can stay!" Yelped Apple Bloom while jumping up in down. "Eyup." said Big Mac Granny smith put down her guard, he wasn't anything to be suspicious of. "Ah shoot, what the hay." She said with a nice soft grin. Sora began to smile, "Really, you'll let me stay here?" said Sora with a nice warm smile. Applejack quickly spoke again "In exchange though sugar cube, y'all have to work on the farm with us." Sora only had one way to respond to that "Ok, I can agree to that. So where can I begin?" he asked Granny smith quickly sat him down before saying "We can start by fattening ya up, yer nothing but skin and bones." Sora quickly tried to defend himself, as being told that your not exactly strong looking hits pretty hard, "Hey, I'm not that skinny, I swear." Even though Applejack and Apple bloom haven't known him for too long, they knew they were going to have a good time with Sora being apart of the Apple Family. * * * After eating breakfast, Sora and Applejack went outside. "Alrighty, wait here now. I'm gonna go get the buckets for bucking. In the meantime, try familiarizing yourself." She then went off leaving the pegasus alone Sora then inspected himself a bit more. "If I have wings, that means I can fly, right?" said Sora. He then went back to get some distance and then started running forward as he then jumped trying to flap his wings, but instead of flying, he ended up crashing into a tree, hard. "Yeah, this might take some getting used to." Applejack came back with the buckets along with seeing Sora on the ground. "What happened sugar cube? If your trying to buck the trees then you have to use your head in a different way." said Applejack with a little bit of smugness in her tone. She then went up to a tree and kicked it with her legs causing the apples to fall and land on the buckets. Sora observed this and went to go try it himself, knocking a good amount of apples in his bucket. "Well I'll be, your a natural Sora." said Applejack. She was definitely impressed that the pegasus had that much strength on his legs. Sora replied with his typical smile, "Hey, compared to you, I'm a rookie." The two ponies spend the rest of the day bucking apples with Apple Bloom and Big Mac joining later in the day helping out. * * * They all managed a good harvest for the day. Sora and the Apples were taking a break before continuing on again, and what better way then by eating an Apple. Apple Bloom later than stood up and inspected Sora's Cutie mark. "So what does your cutie mark mean exactly Sora?" She asked with Sora quickly growing embarrassed. He turned around quickly and said with a few stutters "He-ey, pers-onal space please!!!". Applejack saw this and decided to scold her, "Apple Bloom, that was mighty rude of you!" She yelled before Apple Bloom quickly stepped back and put her head down. "Ahm sorry Applejack, I was just wandering was all." said Apple Bloom with Sora interjecting into the conversation. "It's alright Applejack, guess I was just startled was all." he said going back to being calm. "What's so important about these, um, cutie marks"? Asked Sora with Apple Bloom interjecting in surprise. "What! You don't know what a cutie mark is!! It defines what yah going to be for the rest of y'all life!! It shows what makes you special from every pony else!!". After hearing all that, Sora finally understood why they were such a big deal. "Oh sorry, guess I hit my head harder than I thought." said Sora looking at his Cutie mark. "I guess mine means that my special talent is just me being me, going around and helping however I can." Apple Bloom seem satisfied with the answer and went back to work with Big Mac. Sora went up to Applejack to ask her something, "Hey Applejack, why is Apple Bloom so interested in getting her cutie mark?". AppleJack responded with a sincere tone, "She just wants to find out what her specialty is. At her age, it makes sense. Don't feel bad about it, she'll get over it one day, at least ah hope." The four ponies continued to buck the remaining few trees. They all finally finished and went inside to go get lunch started. Granny Smith went up to Sora. "Hey, why don't yah go to ponyville and get to know the town a little. Wouldn't be best if we kept ya here now would it." Sora seemed to like the idea, "Alright, thanks Granny smith." as he went out the door. * * * Sora finally arrived at ponyville and was just filled with happiness. Every building is colorful and unique, the ponies that walked around were just as colorful as the town. Many of them had their own unique color, structure that truly made them look, well, special. It was like a little girls fantasy here, there were rainbows, bright colors and cheer everywhere. Sora continued to walk, looking all around him at the marvel of this place. Sora was observing all of Ponyville, enjoying his walk until someone or in better terms, somepony tackled him. She appeared to be a light pink mare with a dark pink mane and tail, along with blue eyes and three balloons for a cutie mark. "Hey, are you new here, cause I've never seen you before, I'm Pinkie Pie, what's your favorite flavor, favorite color, favorite dessert, oh I didn't give you my special Pinkie Pie greeting stranger!!!" Said the mare at an extreme speed. She later then got up and came back with a- weird looking wagon. She hit the red button on the wagon which caused it to sprout out flags, trumpets along with playing a nice toon and to cap it off Pinkie started dancing and singing. "Welcome, Welcome, Welcome A fine welcome to you Welcome, Welcome, Welcome I say how do you do Welcome, Welcome, Welcome I say hip,hip,hip hooray Welcome, Welcome, Welcome To ponyville Today"!!! The tune ended, Sora begun to stand up with Pinkie quickly showing up next to him and saying "Wait for it!!!" As a large amount of confetti came out of the wagon and blasted Sora in the face. Pinkie picked up Sora. With the introduction Pinkie put out of the way she then asked "So what's your name stranger, since I feel really bad for calling you stranger." Sora composed himself as he then wiggled his head, "Oh uh, I'm Sora." Sora was finally able to stand up straight and said "Thanks for the warm welcome Pinkie Pie." The stallion used his hoof and swatted his mane around to get the confetti out. Pinkie then began to talk again, "Oh no big deal Sora. I make sure to give all newcomers to Ponyville a nice warm hello. Oh, I need to throw you a welcoming party!!" Sora was shocked by the news, "Your going to go out of your way to throw me a party, just because I'm new"?. This honestly was surprising Pinkie simply said "Well duh, of course. My mission is simply to make as many ponies as I can happy and what makes a pony more happy than a party. Oh, I need to go get everything ready!" She then boosted off as Sora continued looking around. * * * Sora kept walking forward until he found a beautiful looking boutique. It had pink with little banners on top with white accompanying the color. Sora ended up walking inside and saw a bunch of gowns, tuxedos and bows hanging everywhere. "Whoever runs the place must really have a taste for fashion." mumbled Sora as he then saw a white unicorn with a purple mane, who was working on a white gown with silver linings. The mare then noticed Sora and put everything down. "Oh hello darling, I apologize for ignoring you there. I usually don't pay attention when I'm busy working." She then stood face first at Sora, "I'm Rarity and who might yo-". She interrupted herself as she then started looking at Sora with a key eye. Said person was starting to feel a little embarrassed. "Uh, I'm Sora ma'am." said Sora. Rarity then used her magic on Sora's clothes and started examining them. "Oh my darling, your clothes are simply stellar! Your jacket has so much personality, the checkerboard pattern, the red highlights around it and the belts, a little excessive, but still help round it out! Who made your clothes, I simply must know!" Screamed Rarity just eager to know Sora just Stood there and responded with "Well, Master Yen-Sid made these for me." "A Master is right darling, oh my apologies. I just get obsessive whenever I see new clothes. So what brings you here?" asked Rarity, straightening herself. Sora simply shrugged and replied with "I'm just looking around really, I'm new to Ponyville. I live with the Apples at Sweet Apple Acres. I figured it would be best if I got to know the place a bit better." along with finishing it off with his goofy grin. Rarity simply chuckled at the stallion. He was just so sweet, nice and well just a joy to be with. "I hope it's not to much trouble, but could I take a few notes on your clothing?" asked Rarity. The pegasus figured it wouldn't be too bad. "Ok sure, why not right". They both waisted the next 40 minutes just talking to each other along with Rarity inspecting and taking notes on his clothes. "Oh jolly, thank you so much darling." said Rarity. She then went to make a request, "I hope it's not a bother but could you please go retrieve something from a friend?" Sora decided why not, simply replying with "Ok sure, what is it?" Rarity said "Her name's Fluttershy, she lives outside of ponyville in a cottage. I lended her a teapot but she hasn't given it back yet." Sora agreed to it, going out the boutique. * * * Sora was walking forward, again (wow I really need to think of better ways to portray the scenario) to Fluttershy's Cottage. He continued walking on the dirt road until something stopped the Caramel Pegasus. He heard some ponies yell, not of fright but excitement. He looked up and saw another pegasus, a mare of teal color with a rainbow mane and tail. She was flying around and was about to do a loop de loop but failed and crashed into Sora leaving a small crater. "Hey, get off!" Yelled the mare as Sora did just that. "What?! Your the one that crashed into me!" Said Sora who was indeed very angry. The teal pegasus got up and rubbed her head, "Look, let's just say it was both our faults. Hey, I've never seen you before. You new to Ponyville Spiky?" asked the mare. Giving him that little nickname for obvious reasons. Sora scrubbed his head with his hoof and responded with "Yeah, I'm Sora, and you?" "Rainbow Dash. So were you going?" Asked Rainbow, getting up herself. "I'm going to Fluttershy's Cottage. A friend of hers, Rarity, wants me to go pick something up for her." Sora finally dusted himself by shaking like a dog would. Rainbow looked at Sora oddly before asking "Why don't you just fly over there?" Sora looked a bit embarrassed, bending his head down before saying "I kinda, don't know how to." This shocked Rainbow Dash, "What do you mean you don't know how to fly! That's like the first thing a pegasus ever learns, didn't your parents teach you!" Sora didn't really know what to say besides "I don't have any parents with me. I'm living at sweet apple acres at the moment." Rainbow finally saw the big picture. This pegasus was basically an orphan in her eyes. This gave Rainbow an Idea though. "Alright Spiky, how about this. I'll teach you the basics of flying." Sora looked a little shocked, "Really, we hardly know each other though." Rainbow later than said "Yeah, but you could really use it and it can also count as an apology for crashing into you." Sora simply smiled before replying "Alright then, let's go." Rainbow Dash and Sora were in a big grassy field. The mare did a few light stretches before starting. "First things first, when learning to fly, you first need to learn how to get off the ground. To do this you need to flap your wings with all your might. Then you need to flap them forward and when you finally get enough air, You let them out and glide through the sky. Watch and learn Spiky!" Said pony went up in the air flying, doing tricks and showing off as much as she could, with loopty loops, twirls and other tricks, she made sure that it was impressive. She finally came down, striking the landing. It was now Sora's turn. He flapped his wings with all his might but it ended up taking him too high, he ended up crashing down, not being able to stay in the air. "You used too much force when flapping!" Said Rainbow, disappointed. Sora looked up from the ground and replied with "You said use all my might!" "Ok forget I said that, just use most of your might, then push yourself forward and glide!" This time Sora tried it again. He mumbled to himself what he needed to do. He flapped his wings with most of his might, got up a good amount. He used his wings to flap himself forward and finally let them out to glide. "Hey, I'm doing it, I'm doing it!" Screamed Sora like a child learning to ride a bike. "Make sure you look where you're flying Spiky!" Yelled Rainbow Dash before Sora ended up crashing into a tree and falling down. "Not bad spiky, You're now at least 20% more cooler than before. Keep practicing and you might increase it by 20% more." Sora looked up still happy and said "Thanks a lot Rainbow Dash." He waved his hoof in that air, saying goodbye. The mare started flying up in the air and saying "Anytime spiky!" as she flew off. * * * At Fluttershy's cottage. The pink maned mare was feeding her birds, mice and rabbits. She moved a bowl of carrots in front of one bunny. "Here you go angel bunny, make sure to finish every last one" said the pinked mane mare before hearing a knock from the door. "I wonder who that is?" said Fluttershy as she opened it, and in front of her was a caramel Pegasus. "Hey there, are you Fluttershy?" asked the Pegasus. Fluttershy felt a little uneasy but managed to say "Yes, I-m Flutt-ershy. It's nice to meet you." with a few stutters here and there. Sora walked in and said "I came here to get a teapot from Rarity." Fluttershy was still a little unsure about this new face. "Oh sure. It's over here in the kitchen." Sora looked around the entire cottage, It was colorful and cozy, along with many animals eating or simply just relaxing themselves. "Wow, there's so many animals here. Almost as many as back in the pride lands. Oh crud." said Sora, just realizing he may have broken the world order, again. This actually made Fluttershy feel a bit more comfortable near him though. As in they both have a common interest to talk about. "Re-Really, what kinds of animals did you meet?" The mare asked. Sora replying a bit hesitantly "Oh, all kinds, like Simba a Lion oh there was also Bambi oh and Dumbo, an elephant who could use his ears to fly and, let's see who else….?" Fluttershy then asked Sora "How was he able to do that?" Sora responded with a smile, "Oh, apparently he has this magical feather that let's him." Fluttershy spoke again, "That's nice, he sounds like a good little elephant." Fluttershy started smiling and her tone was now nowhere near as low as originally. She was finally staring to warm up to Sora. But she had one question to ask him though. "What about Bambi, how is he?" Sora, still smiling answered "Oh, he's doing fine. When he lost his mother it was pretty bad for him, being alone for so long but now he's doing just fine." The last part got to Fluttershy though, "He lost his mother. How though?" She ended up going back to her low tone in voice. Sora responded with a sincere tone, "Oh, some hunters ended up shooting her. Bambi got away before they could get him though." Fluttershy looked down, her face said everything about how she felt. Sora seeing this decided to try and cheer her up. "Don't worry, it was rough but what matters is that he got to safety." This managed to work, Fluttershy got back her smile. Sora and Fluttershy got to talk about animal's they got to meet, what they've been up to and just getting along. Sora went up to check on a rabbit up close, "Oh, hey there. Who's this little gu-" said Sora before the bunny ended up slapping him, causing the pegasus to end up falling down to the side. Fluttershy quickly went to check on him, "Sora! Are you alright?" She asked with concern for his well being The pegasus replied with "No, not really." as he stood up on three hooves whith one on his cheek, thanks to the the bunny. "I'm sorry Sora. Angle Bunny doesn't really like meeting new people." Fluttershy later than went into the kitchen and brought back the tea pot. Sora and Fluttershy went out the door, going over to the town. "Sora, I hope it's not a bother but could you walk me to Ponyville?" Sora smiled warmly and nodded his head. * * * The two Pegasus we're walking back to Ponyville at night. It was different some how, not a single pony in sight really. "It's really quite here." said Sora Fluttershy responded with "Do you think that every pony is alright?" The two then noticed a sign with a big red arrow on it, Sora went up to it, The sign read "If you see this sign and are a Pegasus named Sora, follow it. If you are not Sora please still follow as you will miss a great party if you don't". Sora was taken a little bit back by this, "Well that's oddly specific but hey, what do we have to lose, right." * * * Sora and Fluttershy followed the arrows which led to a dark barn outside of Ponyville. "Hello, anyone there! Is there someone here who wants to attack us!" Screamed Sora before the lights finally turned on a revealed a bunch of ponies with Pinkie Pie in the middle coming out and screaming "SURPRISE!!!" Sora and Fluttershy were filled with happiness, though Fluttershy severely less than Sora, as the ponies have thrown Sora a nice welcoming party. Pinkie came up to Sora as she decided to start a conversation. "Surprise, how are you Sora. Did you enjoy the big Surprise we through you!?" Asked Pinkie Sora was still being taken a bit back, "Wow Pinkie, thanks a lot! This really is a great surprise!" Said Sora as went up to Pinkie to give her a hug. Pinkie hugged back Sora before going back to a Station where she brought back a white pony with blue hair, pink glasses and headphones. She then started playing some heavy music with a light show starting up. All the ponies started enjoying themselves, Sora was just having a good time until he saw three other ponies he got to meet today. Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack were also at the party. Pinkie and Fluttershy also came to join the four as they simply had fun at the party. Sora was blowing up balloons, competing with Pinkie pie and 4 other Ponies. He then went to try out limbo and just barely managed to make it under, He finally participated in breaking a piñata. With one lucky swing, it's candy guts spilled out. Sora was having a conversation with two mares, Lyra and Bon Bon. He then was seeing a big white pegasus called Bulk Biceps doing some heavy lifting. Another pegasus called Durpy came and gave him a basket of muffins, Sora could only really think of her durpy eyes but quickly shook it off and went back to enjoying the party. * * * The party finally was over as all the guests were saying goodbye. AppleJack and Sora were walking back home until Sora stopped to See the moon. "Yah coming Sugar cube?" Asked Applejack, Sora simply responded with "I've been to a lot of places but Ponyville is just so much fun, so beautiful and filled with life! I feel like I'm going to enjoy my stay here, no matter how long it is, thanks for everything Applejack." The mare simply nodded in agreement. "No need for thanks, You're a friend Sora and if you feel you like Ponyville, then we'll welcome you with open hooves." The two walked back home under the night sky. Sadly, tomorrow, the keyblade wielder will have to dance with a Princess under the pale moonlight. > Friendship is magic part 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friendship is magic part 1 It has been one day since Sora's arrival into Ponyville and Equestria in general. He's met many great ponies during his stay, such as Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity , Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Thanks to the last pony, Sora had a place to stay for the time being. Right now he was in Ponyville, inside the Golden Oak Library to go get some information on Equestria. He found a book with a golden unicorn emblem on the cover, the history of equestria in general. Apparently, The land of Equestria originally didn't exist. In its place were three tribes. The Pegasi, Earth Ponies and the Unicorns. There was a winter that caused many problems for the three tribes, The Pegasi could fly but could not grow food which led to them being hungry all the time. Earth ponies could grow food but could not fight against the weather so they were cold all the time and finally they were unicorns who could not fly or grow food but had magic which made them superior to the other races. Apparently the cause of the winter we're these things called windigos wich fed off their hate. The three tribes came together and defeated the windigos, leading to them coming together and helping one another. They then built Equestria as it is known today, along with having two sisters as there leaders. Both sisters are alicorns which have all the traits of the three races. The rulers are Princess Celestia, who rises the sun and Princess Luna who rises the Stars and the moon. They ruled for over 1000 years which got Sora to question just how old the Sisters are. Although something went wrong with the sisters relationship as Sora kept reading. Luna ended up infusing herself with an evil type of magic turning her into a dark creature named Nightmare Moon. In order to protect Equestria, Celestia ended up banishing her to the moon using the 6 elements of harmony. Sora had finally put the book down shocked, a purple pony came up to him as she asked "Sir, are you ok? You seemed a bit stressed." Sora only replied with "Sorry, I was just reading a, uh , Scary book." The carmel stallion exited the Library and saw all the Ponies of Ponyville putting up decorations as if they were celebrating something. Sora went up to a light brown body, Gray mane and tail along with glasses. He then asked "Uh excuse me ma'am, but what is everyone- I'm mean, every pony getting set up for?" The mare responded to the Pegasus's question. "Oh, we are just getting everything ready for the summer sun celebration." The pegasus never heard of this before, causing him to ask, "What's that?" The mayor explained the whole thing. "The summer sun celebration is when Princess Celestia herself comes to our town and raises the sun. It happens once in a lifetime really." Sora looked shocked at what the mare had said. Maybe this 'Princess Celestia' could help him out, tell him why he's here and anymore questions he may have. *** At Princess Celestia's castle, a purple and indigo unicorn with light purple and pink stripes in her mane and tail was riding on a golden chariot along with a baby dragon while reading a book. 'I need to make sure that everything goes as planned, I can't let Nightmare Moon return, not on today of all days' thought the mare as the dragon was reading out loud a message on paper. "..So please check on the preparations for the festival my dear student, From Celestia, and please try to make some friends while your there." finished the Dragon, looking back at the Unicorn now he then asked "Are you ok Twilight, you seem a bit down today?" Twilight then looked at the baby dragon and answered his question, "Spike, it's my responsibility to make sure that the festival is going to go as planned, and I need to study the elements of harmony so I don't exactly have time for 'fun." The chariot finally landed as the two got off. *** At Sweet Apple Acres, Sora and the Apples were preparing for the summer sun celebration. Sora was moving a bucket filled with apples with his head over to a waggon. Granny Smith came up and hooked up the waggon to Sora's back. "Now sunny, take this over to Ponyville. Then come back here to help us finish everything else before the festival starts." said Granny Smith Sora just smiled and replied with "No problem, I'll be back in two shakes of uh… How did Apple Bloom say it?" Before he just ran off with Granny just looking at him leave. *** Sora arrived at ponyville and left the waggon of Apples there as a few other ponies took them for the festival. "Oh c'mon Twilight, the Princess did say to try and make some friends." said a voice, Sora heard as he turned around to see the cause. It was a small purple dragon and purple unicorn walking around, having a conversation. "She said to check on the preparations and that's exactly what we're going to do, No distractions." said the unicorn, very strictly. "Look on the bright side. You get to stay at the library." said the dragon, The mare replied with "Yeah, I guess you're right, maybe making a new friend won't be so bad." She then went up to Pinkie pie and Introduced herself. "Hello there, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and who might-" she was quickly cut of by Pinkie due to her gasping and quickly running off to who knows where. "That was something." said the dragon scratching the back of his head. He was just as surprised as the unicorn. Sora finally came up to them to introduce himself. "Hi there." This caused the Unicorn to screech in surprise as she jumped back a little bit. "Oh sorry, I didn't mean to scare you there." said Sora with a little bit of guilt on his face. "Oh it's ok." said the Dragon as he then introduced himself, "I'm Spike, this is my friend, Twilight Sparkle." Sora and Spike shook claw and hoof, Twilight barged in and picked up Spike with her magic while putting him on her back. She said "Sorry, but we don't have time to chit chat. We need to stay on schedule." said the mare. Sora asked "Why, what are you two doing?" The mare sighed, responding to his question. "We're here to check on all the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, in order of Princess Celestia herself." They both we're going on their own way before Sora went up to stop them. "Sorry, I'm Sora. I was just wondering if I could help you. Ponyville is a big place so having someone around would be for the best." said the Spiky maned stallion. "I appreciate the thought, but we won't need it." said Twilight Spike interjected "C'mon Twilight, the Princess did say for you to make friends. He seems like a nice guy anyway." Sora then started to wonder why the Princess would want Twilight to make friends, did they know each other? "Spike, I don't need making friends as part of the routine today, let's just make sure that the celebration will go as planned." Sora then went up and said "Spikes right, there's nothing wrong with making a new friend right?" Twilight took a deep breath in and out. She looked back at Spike who just gave her a thumbs up, she looked back at Sora who was just smiling a little awkwardly at the mare. She had a dead panned expression before saying "Alright fine, you can come." She then looked at Spike and asked "What's first on our 'to do' list?" The dragon took out a piece of paper, "We are supposed to go to Sweet Apple Acres to check on the catering." After hearing that Sora then exclaimed "Oh, I live there! I can show you the way!" The mare just looked at him with a displeased face "Alright, C'mon." *** The trio made it to Sweet Apple Acres, the ponies were all hard at work preparing for the festival. "Yeehaw!!" Screamed Applejack, charging at a tree then bucking it. The orange mare then noticed a close friend, "Oh heya Sora!" She then went up to the Pegasus and noticed that he had two others with him. "Hey Applejack!" Said Sora waving at her as she came over to them. Sora then introduced the others, "This is Twilight and Spike, there here to check on the catering for the festival." Twilight came up and put out her hoof, "Hello there, I'm Twilight Sparkle-" she was then interrupted by Applejack shaking her hoof furiously. "Well howdy, I'm AppleJack, any friend of Sora's is a friend of mine!" The unicorn was taken a little bit back by this, she hardly met the new stallion, calling him a friend was a stretch. "Friend? actually him and me just-" she was interrupted again by AppleJack who let go of her hoof, she was still wiggling it up and down until Spike nudged her, finally stopping. "So, what can ah do for you?" Asked AppleJack. Twilight then said "Were just here to check on the catering for the festival. Sweet Apple Acres is hosting the catering right?" "You're right as rain, sugarcube!" Applejack then sat the three down on a table, "Would you like some samples, a small snack wouldn't hurt no pony right." said the apple farmer while bringing a bunch of Apple pastries. Twilight simply gulped and said "Well, as long as it doesn't take too long." A bunch of ponies quickly came in with even more food, they reserved No patience they quickly shoved the food into the trio's mouths. "Hey, have you met the family, here's Apple Fritter, Apple Bumpkin, Red Gala, Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Apple Bloom, Big Mac, Cinnamon Crisp…" Applejack still went on with Twilight growing more impatient before yelling "ALRIGHT, I GET IT!!!" Which caused them all to stop. Twilight quickly got up and brushed herself a little, "Well the catering seems to be in good hoofs, so I'll just leave you be." She said before a filly with a cherry mane stopped her. "Aren't yah going to stay for brunch?" She asked while using her most deadly weapon, her big blossoming eyes. "C'mon Twilight, how can you say no to a face like hers?" Asked Sora as he went up squishing Apple Bloom's face playfully. Twilight simply sighed before saying "Alright fine, I guess I can stay for a little while longer." Upon hearing this the Apples and Sora cheered as they got more apple related food for them, Spike proceeded to dig in without question but Twilight felt a little overwhelmed. Sora was sitting down with Apple Bloom with thousands of pastries in front of them. Sora has jolly eyes seeing all the delicious food around him, "Wow, this is a lot of food huh." said Sora. Apple Bloom looked up to him and said "Well yeah, It's the Summer Sun Celebration, we need as much food as we can harvest now." Before digging her entire head into an apple pie. She then had another question for the stallion, "Why don't yeh stay fur the reunion. Yer practically ah family member now." Sora had to refuse the offer though. "Thanks for letting me, but I think I should help Twilight out a bit more." The filly looked a little disappointed but the pegasus reassured her, "Don't worry, I'll be here for the next one. I promise." The filly looked cheerful, "Really! Ya really mean it"! The pegasus nodded his head with the filly quickly going ovrer and giving him a hug. "Oh thank you, thank you, thank you!" Screamed the filly hugging him. *** Twilight and Spike had finished there food and stood up, ready to get going. "Man, that was good." Said spike satisfied while tapping his stomach with his hand. The trio was close to Ponyville again. Sora came up to spike, giving him a little tap, "Glad to hear you enjoyed it." Twilight was holding herself. "I think I ate too much." said the unicorn trying to compose herself. Sora looked at the dragon and asked "Hey, what's next on the checklist?" The purple dragon brought up the piece of paper, "It looks like next is the weather. A pegasus names Rainbow Dash is supposed to take care of it." Twilight looked up at the sky disappointed, "Looks like she's a slacker. There's still too many clouds, I can't even see the sky." "Don't worry Twilight. Rainbow Dash will get it done, she's too prideful not to." said Sora. Rainbow was the pony that taught him the basics of flying in the span of 20 minutes. As if she overhead the conversation, Rainbow Dash ended up crashing into Twilight, causing the unicorn to fall into a bunch of mud. "Uh, excuse me?" Said Rainbow while Twilight was on the ground, groaning in pain. Sora helped Twilight up, he looked at Rainbow Dash very dryly. "You have a knack for crashing into pony's, don't you." said Sora. He had been at the receiving end of that just yesterday. "You must be Rainbow Dash." Said Twilight very unimpressed by the mare. "Sorry, here let me get that." She went off and brought back a cloud and placed it on top of her. Rainbow Dash then jumped on the cloud, causing it to start raining under it. The water splashed all over Twilight, she was soaking wet, even her mane fell down. "Oops, here let me get that for you." Rainbow Dash then started spinning around Twilight, leaving behind a rainbow trail as she ended up drying up Twilight. "My own patented Rain-blow Dry!" It left her dry as stated, but her mane was all over the place now. It was as bad as the three made it out to look. The three couldn't hold in their laughter and just let it all out. The laughs definitely did not amuse Twilight, she was just standing there humiliated. The unicorn looked at the three and said "Are you two done." Very bluntly. The three stopped with Rainbow being the first to speak, "Sorry, I couldn't help it." Twilight had a more displeased look while talking to Rainbow, "I heard that you were the one who was supposed to keep the sky's clear for the festival." Rainbow Dash looked unfazed by her remark, "Yeah, yeah I'll get on it when I'm done practicing." Twilight was dumbfounded and asked "Practicing, for what exactly?!" Rainbow put on her prideful face, "The wonderbolts! There going to put on a performance tomorrow, and I'm going to show off my skills!" Rainbow wasn't finished though, "When they do, they'll ask me to join In a heartbeat!" "The wonderbolts, the most talented flyers in all Equestria!" Asked Twilight. Rainbow reaffirming her, "Yep, them." Twilight ended up speaking her doubts "Oh, pfft. The Wonderbolts would never let a lazy pegasus who can't even get the clouds cleared on time, among there ranks." Rainbow looked at Twilight lazily, "Oh yeah, I can get it cleared in ten seconds flat!" "Prove it" Those two words were what finally got Rainbow Dash to zoom through the sky, she was clearing the sky faster then any of the three could make out, and when Rainbow landed, the sky was as clear as it could. "See, ten seconds flat!!" Sora and Spike were just stunned by what Rainbow Dash did. "She's amazing." sputtered Twilight Spike replied with "Yeah, no kidding." Twilight began to storm out in annoyance with Spike quickly following. "What's the matter with her Spiky." asked Rainbow directly at Sora. "I think she's just stressed a little bit. I'm sure she'll be fine by the festival." The stallion went of running to catch up the unicorn and the dragon. *** The next stop on for the trio was town hall. All the decorations looked very beautifully made. With ribbons and flowers making them up. "Beautiful" said Spike. "You said it." agreed the Stallion. Twilight was examining the decorations, "Hmm, seems the decor is coming along nicely, it should be finished in no time." The dragon then pointed to a familiar white unicorn, "I wasn't talking about the decorations." Sora then noticed it was Rarity, working on Which ribbons to use. "Oh hey it's Rarity! Over here!" Yelled Sora as he was making his way over to the white unicorn. Spike tapped Twilight a little and asked "How are my spikes?" Rarity finally noticed Sora coming up to her, "Sora! Oh glad to see you darling, I apologize. I need to finish these before tonight." Rarity finally chose one, hanged it up and faced the carmel stallion, "Now darling, I was hoping if you could help out with these-" she stopped just as she noticed Twilight's mane. She was as shocked as you would expect. "OH MY DARLING, what happened to you!!" Twilight looked at her very normally actually, "Long story, I'm just here to check on the decorations then I'll be out of your hair." Rarity didn't seem to take that as an answer, "Out of mine!! What about yours!! This simply won't do!" Rarity pushed Twilight out of the building they were in. "Wait, what are you going to do?" Asked Twilight. Rarity's only response was "We are going to fix that mane of yours darling." Twilight looked back at the two boys and yelled, "Sora! Spike! Help!" Sora only whistled and looked everywhere except towards Twilight while Spike was still In a trance Sora couldn't really just leave her hanging, "C'mon Spike, let's go catch up. Spike?" Asked Sora, he looked at the baby dragon, he was still standing there and somehow his pupils were that of hearts. "Spike, Spike?" Sora saw there was no way of bringing him out of his trance so we decided to just pick him up with his mouth and place him on his back. The two unicorns were now in Carousel Boutique. Rarity was doing more than just fixing Twilight's mane, she was basically going overboard adding as much stuff as she could. "So darling, tell me a little bit about yourself." asked Rarity to Twilight who could barely make out any words. "I'm from…. Canterlot.. I'm here under….. Princess Celestia's orders." Rarity then brought Twilight over to a place where she would try on many dresses. Rarity quickly flipped through many of them and forced Twilight to put on some. Sora Spike finally made it and came through the door. Sora just Stood there waiting for it already to finish while Spike just admired the white mare even more. "Canterlot, oh I'm simply envious! The fashion, the culture, the glamor oh it has been my life long dream to live there!!" Screamed Rarity in delight. The white unicorn finally noticed the Pegasus, "Oh Sora, sorry about earlier but I was actually asking for your opinion." Sora was a little bit taken back by this asking, "My opinion, on what exactly?" Rarity brought him over showing him some clothes with a similar style to Sora's, they had checker patterns, dark colors with vibrant colors for highlights and belts,Ike two or three on each. While Sora was stunned looking at them, Twilight took to opportunity to get out of the dress and grab Spike so they can leave, "Quick, before she decides she wants to dye my coat a new color!" Grabbing a still love struck Spike with her magic and placing him on her back while quickly exiting. Sora looked back and saw that they we're gone, "Sorry Rarity but I need to get going. Don't worry I'll check them out another time!" Rarity saw Sora run off and quickly yelled "Goodbye, see you both tonight!" *** Sora was wondering all over Ponyville looking for Twilight and Spike, "Twilight! Spike! Where did you guys go?!" Sora then saw a flock of birds fly off and quickly went to check it out. He saw that it was Twilight and Spike along with Fluttershy, it looked like my hey we're having a conversation. "Hey Spike, there you guys are" said Sora. Sora then asked "What are Twilight and Fluttershy talking about?" Spike's response was "Oh, that's her name? Well turns out that Fluttershy is in charge of the music for the festival." Sora's eyes widened out a little, "Really, I didn't know she could play instruments." Spike looked at the pegasus a little oddly, "What no, she's conducting the birds to sing." Spike looked a little disappointed, "To bad you couldn't hear it." Sora then asked a question towards the dragon, "Hey Spike, you said something about Princess Celestia right?" The dragon then remembered about that, "Oh yeah, Princess Celestia sent Twilight over to check on everything." Sora then asked "Why, do they know each other?" The dragon just put on a smile and said "Oh yeah, Twilight is actually Princess Celestia's personal magic student." Sora looked in awe back at Twilight who was still speaking, or at least trying to talk with Fluttershy. "So everything is coming along nicely?" Asked Twilight Fluttershy just replying "Uh, yeah, it's all good" with a very low tone. Sora then exclaimed his surprise, "Woah, she must be really powerful." The dragon then said "Oh definitely, she's incredible when it comes to anything magic related!" Twilight then made herself back towards Spike, along with noticing Sora. "Oh, your back" said Twilight very unenthusiastically. Sora looked at her trying to smile but showing a little bit of embarrassment in it, he knew that the mare wasn't exactly having as much of a good time as the rest of them. Spike then said "Don't worry Twilight, we're done checking on everything! Now you can go to the Library and relax until the festival starts." Twilight looked relieved, "That's good to hear. Thank you so------ much for the company but me and Spike should get going" said Twilight, still uninterested. Fluttershy looked back and noticed Spike, her attitude quickly changed as she flew over and grabbed Spike into the air while screaming "A baby dragon!" She ended up knocking over Twilight in the process who Sora helped back up. "I've never seen one up close before. He's so cute" continued Fluttershy. "Well, Well, Well….." said Spike, enjoying the attention. This Surprised Fluttershy, "You can talk, I didn't know that?" Fluttershy then came down and placed Spike back on the ground, "This is wonderful, oh I don't even know what to say!" Sora looked back at her along with Twilight who went up to pick up Spike and placed him on her back, "Well, we should be going." She strolled off with Sora and Fluttershy following. "Wait, what's his name" asked Fluttershy to Sora. "You don't have to answer that!!" Yelled Twilight but Sora just said his name. "Spike." not being able to hear the unicorn. Fluttershy went up to Spike and said "Hello Spike, I'm fluttershy." She then asked "What do dragons like talking about?" Spike then asked "Well, what do you wanna know?" Fluttershy's answer was simply "Everything!" This ended up striking Twilight with fear. Sora then made matters worse for her by saying "Yeah Spike, how about it." which ended up angering the unicorn more as she then let out a sigh. "Well, it all started when I was a little purple and green egg." The dragon had gone on for a long time, he was still going on even when they made it back to Ponyville. "And that's the story of my whole life, well until today. Wanna hear about toda-- Ah!" Twilight quickly cut Spike off by turning around to face fluttershy, "it's been a great time with both of you." Twilight was clearly lying, "But it is getting pretty late, and poor baby Spike needs his sleep." Spike looked at Twilight, "No I don---" Twilight cut him off again. Sora and Fluttershy actually bought her facade "Well, you should get him to bed" said Fluttershy Sora said his goodbye, "See you at the festival!" Twilight opened the door to the dark room and went inside "Well goodnight!" She went inside with Spike. A window was opened miraculously along with hearing a familiar voice "Hey, you two, over here." Sora and Fluttershy shared a look with each other and went inside. *** "That was rude of you." said Spike. Twilight just replying with "I'm sorry Spike, but we're running out of time." She kept walking inside the library, "I just need time to study. No crazy ponies getting in the way." "SURPRISE!!!" Yelled all the Ponies, seamlessly. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie and this party is just for you! Were you surprised? Were ya?" Screamed the mare at the unicorn's face. "Yes, I was," said Twilight, even more annoyed than before "Aren't libraries supposed to be quiet?" Pinkie then went on another of her rambles. "Yeah, but what kind of 'Welcome to Ponyville' party would this be if it were quiet? I mean duh. Bo-ring!" Twilight then noticed a bunch of ponies along with Sora off all of them who was waving at her. Twilight was even more annoyed then she has ever been. Twilight went everywhere trying to enjoy the party but pinkie just kept on rambling on and on, "You see, this morning when I saw you, I noticed you were new here since I know all the ponies here. Which ment I never through you a party." And somehow, Pinkie still wasn't done, the unicorn was getting more and more irritated at this point "And if you never showed up here then that also ment that you didn't know anyone here. So I figured I would invite almost every pony here in Ponyville to your party, That way you can make a tons of new friends that you would have never made before, I didn't know your favorite food so I just got a bunch from strawberry blueberry chocolate vanilla and raspberry flavored cupcakes along with a big vanilla cake since I didn't know if you were allergic or not---" Twilight was done with everything that she ended up pouring a red substance into her chalice and started drinking from it. She quickly stopped though, after taking in a few gulps, her face started turning red , along with her sweating. "Uh Twilight, are you ok?" Asked Sora looking at her. Twilight was getting more and more red, she quickly went over to get some punch and gobbled it all up. Sora checked the label from the container that Twilight ranked from, "Hot sauce?!" Twilight was done, she couldn't take it anymore and went upstairs to go lock herself in her room. Though she was stopped again by the Pegasus who just couldn't seem to leave her alone. "Twilight where are you going, aren't you going to enjoy the party?" This was the last straw, Twilight finally snapped and lashed out by yelling "NO! You and every other pony in this town are crazy, Do you even know what time it is!" Sora looked outside, "Well the festival should start pretty soon. What's gotten into you, this party was made for you after all" replied Sora, not knowing what was happening with the unicorn. "I never wanted a stupid party! Can't you all just leave me alone! I just want to go up and study!" Sora was shocked, he started getting a little bit sad which his face did no favors to hide, he then asked with a low tone "Can't you just study some other time?" Twilight was not going to answer that question very lightly. "No! I can't! Mostly because today I've been having this little, no big deal, worry that on this very night, Equestria could end up being shrouded in eternal darkness forever!!!" Sora was looking more and more sad by the word, "Twilight, why not let us help you. In the end we can work this out, right." Twilight went back to expressing her thoughts, "I don't want your help! You have been nothing but a complete pain since the first time we met! You're the most incompetent, naive and flat-out dumbest pony I've ever met! If you want to be helpful, then just let me be!!" Sora was just sad, his cheery smile and attitude were shunned, every pony started leaving with Sora being the last. He was just looking down and walking away with the other's, being yelled at by a potential friend ended up hurting his poor Pegasus heart. Twilight simply went up into her room and opened a book, ready to start studying. *** The ceremony finally started, all the ponies, including Twilight and Spike, made it. They were all waiting to meet Princess Celestia in person. Sora mostly, he wants to find out some answers as to why he's here and why he's a pegasus. Sora was feeling a little bit bad though. Twilight's words really got Sora by the heart. He felt bad about it but he wasn't going to give up. He will help her out anyway he can. Pinkie pie came up to Sora, "Oh c'mon, no need for a frowny face! It's a party after all?" The pink mares words helped Sora a little. Rainbow then went up and shoved him a little, "Yeah, don't worry about Twilight. She'll cool down sooner than later." Mayor mare, the mayor of Ponyville came up to a microphone. "Hello Fillies and Gentle colts. It is my great pleasure, as the mayor of Ponyville to announce the start of the Summer Sun Celebration!" All the ponies in the audience cheered as loudly as they could. Mayor mare "In just moments, our town will witness Princess Celestia rise the sun herself here in Ponyville and now, it is my great honor to introduce to you the ruler of our land, the very pony who gives us the sun and the moon each and every day, the good, the wise, the bringer of harmony to all of Equestria…!" Fluttershy then started conducting the birds making beautiful music for all to listen while mayor mare finished her sentence "... Princess Celestia herself!" The curtains revelation was a disappointment. The Ponies were talking amongst themselves with the Mayor trying to get everyone in check, "Please stay calm every pony, I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation for this." Pinkie then said "Maybe she's just playing hide and seek?" Sora decided to say "I don't thank this is a game Pinkie Pieie" in a serious tone while looking around. A bunch of tendrils of darkness started spreading everywhere. A tall figure started to appear in the center of the room. It was a black mare with dark blue armor and tail along with green eyes. "My dear subjects, it has been so long since I have laid eyes on your precious, sun-loving faces!" The mare had a booming voice that scared all the ponies except one, being Rainbow Dash who demanded "What have you done with princess!?" The large mare looked down and asked "What's this? Has it been so long that you have all but forgotten me?" Twilight went up and said "I do, your the mare of the moon, Nightmare Moon!" The dark mare had a cynical smile on her face "Then you know why I'm here", the Dark mare then closed her eyes as a bunch of small black creatures started appearing, of which Sora knew all to well. "Heartless!" Yelled the carmel pegasus. "Now creature's of the dark! Remind Equestria about it's rightful ruler! Nightmare Moon!" Yelled the tall black mare. Outside lots of ponies were running around trying to avoid the heartless attacks. One was about to hurt a filly but Rainbow Dash came in and hit the heartless with her head. Applejack was bucking a few of them. A gray pegasus with derpy eyes was about to be attacked but Sora quickly sliced through the heartless, more were coming but Sora summoned lightning from the sky while screaming "Thunder!" Twilight saw this, Sora used magic. That should be impossible, a pegasus using magic, it was inconceivable. Sora kept slicing and dicing through all the heartless. He kept using as much magic as he could which helped out but he was quickly struck by a powerful blow of dark magic from Nightmare Moon. "Looks like my sister managed to bring the legendary keyblade wielder here after all, but your light will not be enough to stop me!" Nightmare Moon unleashed a large blast of magic which struck Sora, he was down mostly in pain. Nightmare Moon came up to him preparing an attack, "Goodbye keyblade wielder, face the wrath of everlasting darkness!" But before she could attack the pegasus a brown pony with a sand timer cutie mark hit Nightmare Moon, she was not hurt by any means but it was a good enough distraction for Sora to escape. At the Golden Oak Library, Twilight was looking for a book, she found the one she needed and took it. "C'mon Twilight, we need to stop- uh" said Spike before falling asleep. Twilight quickly got a blanket and covered him. "You need to rest Spike, your a baby dragon after all" said Twilight as she made sure he was well situated. Sora came into the library and showed a sign of relief. "Twilight, your ok- woah!" Twilight picked up Sora and slammed him I to a wall. "Who are you, what are you?!" Twilight yelled at Sora who didn't know what was going on. "Twilight, what are you doing?" Twilight just yelled back. "Tell me, what was that key? how did you use magic? Why are you here?" Sora was getting more and more overwhelmed. 5 other mares ended up entering the library, they were Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie pie and Fluttershy. AppleJack was the first to speak, "Twilight, what ah yer doin, put him down!" Twilight didn't budge though, "He's using magic, we don't know who he is!" Rainbow then yelled "Put spikey down! He's no bad guy, he couldn't hurt a fly!" Sora then spoke himself, "Please Twilight, I'm not a Badguy, you need to trust me!" Twilight looked at the stallion,"Trust you? Why in Equestria should I trust you!" Sora oh had one response, "Because we're friends, right?" Those words got to Twilight, this pegasus, after she yelled and mistreated him, still saw her as his friend. Why, she was unbearable towards him. She then let him down and asked "Alright Sora, what do we do?" > Friendship is magic part 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Previously on My Little Pony: Friendship Hearts. The unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle and her friend Spike the baby dragon were tasked with checking on the preparations over in the town of Ponyville. While on their way, they both were having a little discussion of the unicorn making friends, which she pushed aside. When they got their, they met the keyblade wielder, Sora. Twilight was annoyed by his nature but decided to let him tag along, thanks to Spike encouraging it. The trio went all over Ponyville to check on every little detail. Checking on the catering with Applejack, The weather with Rainbow Dash, the decorations with Rarity and the music with Fluttershy. Through out it all, Twilight grew more and more annoyed. When she got to the Golden Oak Library, she was shocked, seeing that Pinkie Pie through her an entire welcoming party. The unicorn grew incredibly angry at it all. The party, the ponies and especially the carmel pegasus. She ended up yelling at all of them, especially Sora, to just leave her alone. At the celebration, Sora was in a slump for what Twilight had said to him not too long ago. He quickly stopped, telling himself that he would be her friend, no matter what. As soon as Princess Celestia was supposed to show up, a swarm of black tendrils ended up barging in, revealing a dark being, Nightmare Moon. As too make matters worse, a bunch of black creatures made themselves known, the heartless. The residents of Ponyville started running around in a panic. Twilight Sparkle quickly went into a library, looking for a book to help her out. Sora of managed to find her, But the unicorn quickly used her magic to pin him to a wall, Not trusting him. The other girls Twilight met that day ended up showing up in the library as well, telling Twilight that Sora wasn't a bad guy but she refused to listen. It's not until Sora asked If she believed the both were friends that her sense's came back. The unicorn asked the keyblade weilder what they had to do. Now the continuation: Sora looked at her a bit confused. He was being pinned to a wall not to long ago but she was now showing a little compassion towards him. He finally asked, "What do you mean?" Twilight explained what she wanted to know, "I just want to know three things. What are those creatures, how did you use magic and who are you?" Sora saw he had no other way of getting through this. The world order may be important but a friend's trust matters more. "Those creatures are the Heartless, monsters that are drawn towards the darkness in people's hearts. Their main goal is to plunge a world in darkness by finding Its keyhole. They also follow orders from beings who's darkness is strongest." The six mares were taking this all in. Applejack asked the Pegasus, "How do we beat them then sugarcube?" Sora ended up bringing out his keyblade while holding it in his mouth, "This is the keyblade, a sword made of magic and light, it's the only thing that can beat the heartless." His words weren't clear but the six managed to understand what he was saying. Rainbow came up and asked "Wait, me and Applejack hit them which turned them into black dust. What's that all about?" Sora replied to the teal pegasus with "Things like physical attacks and magic can take down heartless but only the keyblade can take them out for good." Twilight then asked "Now for the final one. Who are you?" Sora was going to have to work his way around this one. While he didn't like it, he had to not reveal everything to them. Sora then got ready to answer the question. "I'm a keyblade wielder. Someon- I'm mean, some pony who has a keyblade. I go around and help defeat the darkness. As to how I could use magic, the keyblade lets me due to it being a magical weapon. That's how I can use it without being a unicorn." Sora finally answered as much as he could. The six seem satisfied with the answers they were given. Rarity looked worried and exclaimed her concern, "Not to worry any pony but how are we supposed to take down that horrid Nightmare Moon?" This was Twilight's turn to help out, "I've studied the legend of the mare of the moon for some time. Apparently long ago, she was defeated by mystical artifacts known as the Elements of harmony. The thing is I don't know where to start looking!" Sora came up with a book in his mouth, he mumbled "How about here?" He gave the book to Twilight. She examined the title and read it out loud. "The Elements of harmony reference guide? Where did you find this?" She asked, surprised Sora found something helpful. The caramel stallion coughed a little shyly and said with a low tone "It was under the E section over there." as he pointed with his hoof. Twilight just opened the book, she flipped through many of the pages trying to find something that could be helpful. "Let's see, c'mon. Ah, here! There are six elements of harmony. Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty and Loyalty." Twilight then looked a bit concerned before then stating "But the last one Is a complete mystery though. The last known location of the Elements is the old ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It's current location is the---" *** "The Everfree forest!!!" Screamed the ponies, minus Sora. The seven were now just outside of the horrid forest. It looked as horrible as the screams of the mares implied. There were weeds growing everywhere, creating an old and creepy looking imagery for the ponies. One of them was untouched though, "Woo hoo! Let's go!" Pinkie screamed as she jumped up and down with joy while going inside. She was quickly stopped by Twilight, "Hold it, Look, I appreciate the offer, but I'd really rather do this on my own." Sora came up to her and quickly shut down that idea, "No, it's too dangerous. The heartless are working with Nightmare Moon and its my responsibility to take care of them." Twilight was shocked, this stallion, The one who was annoying her senseless was showing determination and worry about the situation. It was surprising honestly. He was then promptly stopped by the orange mare. "Nah way sugar cube, friends don't leave no pony behind! So forget about going in there by yourself!" Sora was about to argue back but he figured it may be best to get some help with this one. Nothing wrong with having help right. He shook his head up and down, agreeing with Applejack, "Don't ya worry, we'll be closer than apple jam on toast!" Rainbow Dash looked at her confused with Applejack's statement, "That doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't 'stickin' to you like caramel on a candy apple' work better." Applejack was a little sheepish. She did find that a better term deep inside. "Ah darn it. Same idea though, nothen lost." Everyone seemed to agree with sticking together. The seven of them went inside, all of them had a look of worry. The Everfree forest looked like an attraction made for Halloween with all the branches, twigs, leaves and vines sticking out of it. Twilight then decided to ask the other ponies something. "So none of you have been here before?" Rarity just replied to her with disgust, "Oh, heaven's no! Just look around here! It's dreadful!" Applejack decided to add to the conversation with "And it ain't natural. Folks say it don't work the same as Equestria." Twilight was tookan a bit back by this, she then asked "What's that supposed to mean?" Very frightened of what that could probably be. Rainbow Dash decided that this would be a good time to try and scare the other six a little. "Nopony knows. You know why?" Rainbow started moving towards Sora, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie in a crawling like manner. The four ponies were starting to get scared, even the Keyblade wielder as they backed up a little. Applejack wasn't on board with the idea. She then said in a strict tone "Rainbow, quit it." This did not work though as Rainbow Dash continued with her tall tail. "Cause everypony who's ever come in has never come out!" Rainbow Dash's yell was just loud enough that it ended up causing the side of the cliff they were standing on to break off and fall. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy managed to fly up in time but the rest were falling at an extreme speed. Rainbow Dash quickly got her sense's back and gave a quick order to the pink maned pegasus, "Fluttershy, Quick!" The two quickly rushed down to catch their friends from meeting an untimely fate. Rainbow managed to catch Pinkie pie and Fluttershy catching Rarity. Applejack, Sora and Twilight we're still falling. Sora flapped his wings and managed to glide to the bottom of another cliff with a small crash landing down. Applejack quickly used her mouth to grab onto a branch on the side but Twilight wasn't so lucky. She was falling but managed to slow down at the very end with her upper body grabbing a hold of the edge of the cliff. She looked down and saw a long fall down awaiting for her with Sora at the bottom who was fumbling a little getting back up. "Hold on! I'm a-comin!" Yelled Applejack, letting go of the branch and going down nice and easy towards Twilight, grabbing her with her hoofs. She was almost up but instead of making it, she fell with Applejack not being able to grab her In time. Luckily, Twilight managed to grab onto a branch on the side of the cliff with her mouth, it was slowly breaking off though, not being able to support her weight. Twilight was scared, if she couldn't get back up then she might as well close the book on her life. She managed to mumble out "Applejack! What do I do?" Applejack looked around quickly, trying to find a way to help. She then looked below the cliff Twilight was hanging on, Sora was up on his legs, looking at the situation. Applejack needed for Twilight to do one thing, "Let go Twilight!" She yelled, but Twilight wasn't on for that idea. "What! Are you crazy!" Yelled Twilight not having faith in Applejacks advise. Applejack tried reassuring her, "I don't have time to explain but you need to let go! I promise you'll be safe!" Applejack was still a little worried, that pegasus was the important part of this whole plan. Twilight was still unsure, yelling "That's not true!" The branch was slowly breaking off more and more. Applejack then yelled at her to try and get her to listen, "Now listen here. What I'm sayin' to you is the honest truth. Let go, and you'll be safe!" Twilight's eyes became that of a puppies, growing large and wobbly. She knew that she had to trust her friends so she did what she needed to and let go. Back at the bottom, Sora saw Twilight let go, her safety was now up to him. He saw Twilight falling down more and more rapidly. He got up with a determined look on his face, his wings couldn't fail him now. "C'mon Sora, Remember what Rainbow Dash taught you. Flap your wings with most of your might! Push yourself forward! Then let out and glide!" Sora was doing all the steps in order, quickly flying up faster and faster, finally managing to catch Twilight in the process. The mare opened her eyes, she was flying. She looked up and saw that Sora had managed to carry her down, saving her from her doom. Sora couldn't keep it up forever, he ended up crash landing along with rolling on the ground next to Twilight. They both managed to make it down, joining their other friends. Sora and Twilight got up with Sora going over to check on the unicorn. "Twilight, are you hurt? Any bru-." He was quickly interrupted by Twilight going over and hugging him. He was surprised, and his face showed it. The girl who yelled at him a couple hours ago was now here hugging him. He didn't know what to do besides hug her back with a little smile on his face. "Sorry, I hope we're not interrupting anything." Said Fluttershy along with the rest of the mares looking at their friends. Twilight and Sora quickly let go of each other with an embarrassed expression on both their faces. The team of seven continued to move forward. Twilight's face was a little unamused due to Rainbow Dash talking about how awesome the safe was, "..and that part where you came in and catching her was awesome! You did a great job Spiky!" Said the teal pegasus while giving a small bump to the other pegasus. Sora could reply back to her with a nice grin, "Hey, you taught me the basics of flying. Without you, I probably wouldn't be able to catch Twilight in time." Rainbow Dash took those words to heart, she also took them to her ego. The rainbow maned pegasus then said "I guess you're right. I am a good teacher! It also makes me more awesome that I was the reason you can fly!" Twilight was getting a little bit tired of hearing Rainbow Dash go on and on about Sora saving her. "Yes, Rainbow, we were there, and I'm very grateful, but we gotta-." Twilight interrupted herself by noticing something in the distance, a large beast with many animal parts making it up. Twilight then yelled "A Manticore!!" The large beast roared, it being loud enough to shake the trees around it. Sora summoned his keyblade, along with the girls getting ready to fight it, minus Fluttershy. Twilight then said, determined "We've gotta get past him!" The Manticore came in trying to punch Rarity but she managed to dodge it and bucked its head with her legs. "Take that, you ruffian!" Rarity yelled at the Manticore who simply roared again. The roar was enough to mess up Rarity's mane, she yelled in shock "My hair! Woop--" while also moving away in a hurry away from the beast. Fluttershy said "Wait" but it was so small for any pony to hear. Applejack then on top of the Manticores back while yelling "YEE-HAW! Git along, little dogie." It then started jumping around trying to shake her off with Applejack just embracing the thrill of the ride. "Wait" said Fluttershy again, to avail. The beast roared again, managing to shake her off, Applejack then salueted Rainbow Dash who went in, making a small rainbow tornado around it but the Manticore struck her with her tail. It was now Sora's turn to take it on, he smacked it with a few good swings from his keyblade. The beast tried to hit him with his tail but Sora just ran around avoiding them, he then did a dodge roll back, took his keyblade, aiming it at the beast and yelled "Fire!" A large blast of fire came in and hit the Manticore in the face, pushing the beast back. "Wait" said Fluttershy again Sora went back to the other five as they then began to charge at the Manticore with fool force, until a familiar pegasus came in and stopped them in their tracks. It was Fluttershy who came in, yelling "WAIT!" The six stopped in there tracks, Fluttershy then made her way over to the Manticore who looked as if he was ready to strike again, this caused the six ponies to close their eyes and look away but Fluttershy just went up and nubbed her head on his paw. The Manticore then revealed it's open paw to the mare, who saw a large splinter logged in there, "Shhh... It's okay. Oh, you poor, poor little baby._ Said Fluttershy, calming the beast down. Rainbow replied "Little?" The others were just standing there in shock at what Fluttershy was doing. "Now this might hurt for just a second." Said Fluttershy as she then pulled it out with her mouth which got the beast to roar, it picked her up but instead of eating her, it began to lick her with a smile now on its face. She then giggled "Aw you're just a little ol' baby kitty, aren't you? Yes you are, yes you are." The other six just walked last the Manticore with no worth after seeing that Fluttershy had it under control. Twilight then asked her "How did you know about the thorn?" Fluttershy just replied to the unicorn with "I didn't. Sometimes we all just need to be shown a little kindness." Fluttershy continued along with the other's, Twilight just had a warm smile on her face as she went to go catch up. Without any of them realizing it, a dark blue mist came out of the splinter and flew off The seven kept on moving forward towards their destination. Rarity was getting really sick of all the dead life look of the scenery around her and said "My eyes need a rest from all this icky muck." They all then walked into a cave, very dark mind you. "Well, I didn't mean that literally." Pinkie pie then said "I could have sworn we already passed a tree on the way here?" Sora just looked confused, "I can't tell, All the trees here look alike, Dead, dull and droopy. Maleficent would love to have her castle here." Twilight then said "That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn't even know it." They all then started arguing a little about were they where, who stepped on who and what not. That blue mist from before was sneaking below them and made its way into a tree in the cave. Applejack ended up walking forward, as a splash was made. "Oh wait, I think I stepped in somethin." She said as she left up her hoof with something droopy on it Fluttershy looked around until something caught her eye as she then screamed "AHHHHHH!!" Applejack didn't see it as something to scream over, "Relax, it just mud." She then turned around and saw just what caused her to scream. It was the tree's, but they were all glowing and had scary faces on them. Spikey teeth and what not, this ended up causing the six to scream in union, "AHHHHHHHH!" "Hahahaha!!" They all hear. It was Pinkie pie! Giggling at the tree's. She was making faces that mocked the trees. The odd looking faces the trees had just didn't seem to faze her, she was just laughing which shocked every pony. Sora was the first to question her laughter, "Is she laughing, or screaming in fear so hard it sounds like it!" He was clearly mad but in a concerned way. He genuinely wanted Pinkie to try and get away from the trees, so did Twilight. She then yelled at Pinkie pie, "Pinkie, what are you doing?! Run!" Twilight and the others huddled back a bit more. Pinkie Pie looked back to see her friends. The pink mare then said "Oh girls, don't you see?" As soon as she finished that one sentence, a nice melody started playing. It was just coming from nowhere. This caused the carmel pegasus to look around for what exactly was making the sound by shaking his head back and forward until he looked at the other ponies asking "Where's that music coming from?" Pinkie started bouncing around everywhere, giddy as can be. She then began, to every other ponies surprise, singing a song. "When I was a little filly and the sun was going down…!?" Twilight felt the need to ask "Tell me she's not..". Rarity quickly chummed in a replied "She is." Anyway, back to Pinkie pie singing. "The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown! I'd hide under my pillow From what I thought I saw But Granny Pie said that wasn't the way To deal with fears at all!" Rainbow Dash interrupted the song to ask "Then what is?" Of course Pinkie pie was going to answer that question in the song. "She said, 'Pinkie, you gotta stand up tall Learn to face your fears You'll see that they can't hurt you Just laugh to make them disappear.' Ha! Ha! Ha!" When she laughed in front of the scary tree, it lost its face and went back to normal. Its creepy look was gone. The ponies were all shocked that laughing at the problem actually worked in their favor. All the individual ponies went up to a tree and made a goofy face. Fluttershy giggled while flying near a one, Rainbow laughed at one on the ground, so did Rarity, Applejack jumped up and to laugh as well. Pinkie moved Twilight in front of one, she laughed at it too. Finally Sora went up to one and did his traditional goofy grin. All of that finally got the scary trees to turn back to normal. "So, giggle at the ghostly Guffaw at the grossly Crack up at the creepy Whoop it up with the weepy Chortle at the kooky Snortle at the spooky And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he's got another thing coming and the very idea of such a thing just makes you wanna... hahahaha... heh... Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaauuuugh!!!" They all finally started going out of the cave they were just in. They all continued running until Pinkie pie stopped in her tracks leading to Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Sora ramming into her and falling on their behinds. Pinkie looked in front and saw that there was a heavy river flowing through where they needed to go. The pink mares asked "How are we gonna cross this?" Sora then heard something from far away, it was the sound of crying. "Do you all here that?" He asked, all of the mares then went to go. Check on it. They looked past some bushes and saw what, or rather who, was making the noise. It was a long, dragon looking person with purple scales and orange hair and mustache. The tall dragon thing was screaming "What a world, what a world" while sobbing along with shaking the water to an extreme force by slamming his hands on the river. Twilight went up and asked "Excuse me, sir. Why are you crying?" The dragon monster looked at the Unicorn. He then said "Well, I don't know. I was just sitting here, minding my own business, when this tacky little cloud of purple smoke just whisked past me and tore half of my beloved mustache clean off, and now I look simply horrid" while showing his torn up mustache. He then fell into of the water splashing the other ponies head to hoof. Sora looked at the mustache at little closer, "It doesn't seem so bad. Nothing to worry about really", he said with shaking like a dog getting his mane all spiky again. The keyblade wielder didn't exactly see it as something to be this sad about, let alone shake the water much that they can't even cross. Rarity looked at the stallion as if he had committed a crime, "Of course it's something to worry about! How can you be so insensitive? Oh, just look at him. Such lovely luminescent scales." The dragon seemed to love that little compliment by replying with a "I know." Rarity continued as they both had some back and forward. "And your expertly coiffed mane." "Oh, I know, I know" "Your fabulous manicure" "It's so true!" "All ruined without your beautiful mustache." The large dragon than three his hands in the air yelling "It's true, I'm hideous!" In disgust at his own appearance. Rarity than quickly put on a determined look on her face while saying "I simply cannot let such a crime against fabulosity go uncorrected." She then went up to the dragon and pulled of one of it's scales off. The Dragon screamed in pain yelling "What did you do that for?" The white unicorn then used her magic to straighten it out. This ended up scaring her other comrades, not knowing exactly what she was planning on doing. Twilight yelled "Rarity, what are-" before being cut of by the white unicorn slashing something off. The dragon creature yelped, before falling down. It was revealed that Rarity cut her tail with the blade made from the dragons scales. She then grabbed it with her magic and tied it around his other mustache, making him a brand new completed one. The dragon then said in gratitude towards rarity "Oh-hohohoho! My mustache. How wonderful." Rarity quickly said to the large dragon "You look smashing." Twilight quickly took a notice to what was left of the mares sacrifice, "Oh, Rarity, your beautiful tail…" The white unicorn just shook it off. "It's fine, my dear. Short tails are in this season. Besides, it'll grow back." She said, while it hurt her a little having to let it go, it was for the better of someone who needed it more. Rainbow Dash didn't exactly see it that way, "So would the mustache." Sora looked back at the lake, the water was no longer being shaken violently. "Hey, the waters clear. We can finally cross." Twilight was the first to go. Since the lake wasn't that deep, her upper body managed to stay on top of the water. She was then lifted by the dragons body who said "Allow me." His body made large bums that the ponies could walk on towards the other side. All of them made it except for Sora who stood behind and wondered something, "Wait, why didn't we just fly over…" The dragon quickly placed him down with his hand and ushering him on along with saying "Hurry up now, don't want to be left behind." Sora just shook it off and continued on quickly catching up with the other six. The mares finally made it to the other side, along with passing through some bushes with Applejack saying "Why does the forest have so many darn bushes." It wasn't really fun needing to go through so many just to exit out The six looked up ahead. It was the old castle of the pony sisters. Twilight quickly made haste, "There it is, the ruin that holds The Elements of Harmony. We made it!" She kept on running forward with no stopping. The others quickly gave chase with Sora yelling "Twilight, the bridge is not-" His words were brought to a halt by Twilight almost falling over the cliff next to the not so working bridge, she was quickly saved by the Teal rainbow pony. Rainbow Dash then told the purple unicorn "Easy there, we don't want spikey to have to save you twice in one day, right." Along with giving her a little bump with her hoof. Pinkie Pie looked across and asked "Now what?" finishing off with a small sigh. Rainbow Dash quickly perked up showing her wings with saying "Duh." She than quickly flew to the other side getting the rope ready. Sora than had an old thought from just a few seconds ago come back "Oh, right. That reminds me of something…." Rainbow Dash was holding it steady for the other ponies to quickly come over. Suddenly, the blue mist from before came back, it passed the pegasus and went into the fog from behind her. She then heard a voice coming from deep into the fog saying "Rainbow…." In an ominous tone. The teal pegasus yelped before saying "Who's there?" She looked around and couldn't see any pony. "I ain't scared of you! Show yourself!" She said while reading her hoofs up. The voice spoke again, "We've been eagerly awaiting the arrival of the best flyer in Equestria." Rainbow Dash still couldn't see who it was asking "Who?" The mist replied back to the teal rainbow maned Pegasus, "Why, you, of course." Rainbow Dash later than got giddy and decided to say "Really?! I mean... Oh yeah, me. Hey, uh, you wouldn't mind telling the Wonderbolts that, would ya? 'cause I've been trying to get into that group for like, ever." The voice finally came out of the mist, revealing three pegasi in purple and black bodysuits with lightning around them. "No, Rainbow Dash. We want you to join us, The Shadowbolts. We're the greatest aerial team in the Everfree Forest, and soon we will be the greatest in all Equestria, but first, we need a captain. The most magnificent, Swiftest, Bravest flyer in all the land?" Rainbow Dash was simply marveling in the praise, "Yes, Yes, Yes. It's all true" finishing out with a small chuckle. The Shadow bowl leader then flew behind Rainbow Dash, came close to here and whispered "We need…. you." Rainbow Dash simply loved that idea and said "WOOHOO! Sign me up. Just let me tie this bridge real quick and then we have a deal." She then went up to the rope to go get it ready for the others to cross. The Shadow blot leader went up to stop her from doing so, yelling back "No! It's them or us." Rainbow Dash looked a little conflicted. She looked over the bridge and saw her friends waiting for her. Twilight was getting a little worried, yelling "Rainbow, what's taking so long?" Pinkie Pie then yelled at her saying "Quick! Sora is still questioning why we didn't just fly over the river!" With the caramel Pegasus in the back still talking. Twilight finally noticed why Rainbow Dash was not tying the rope. "Oh no. Rainbow! Don't listen to them." Her last few words were fogged out due to one of the Pegasus a part of the shadow bolts making the fog denser. The leader asked Rainbow Dash "Well?" Rainbow Dash gulped a little, she had a small conflicted look on her face before saying "You... Thank you! For the offer, I mean, but I'm afraid I have to say no." She then flew over to the rope, tied it up and went back to her friends. The Shadow bold leader wasn't exactly happy with this. The three then turned into blue mist and left. Rainbow Dash made it back with her friends cheering her. The seven of them then started crossing the bridge with Rainbow Dash going up to Twilight and saying "See? I'd never leave my friends hanging." Another action that struck Twilight Sparkle. The unicorn was beginning to learn something, something she should have learned a long time ago. The group finally made it over to the castle. They were just outside a few feet away from it. Twilight took a look back, feeling like someone was watching her but she quickly shook it off and went to go join the rest. *** In the old abandoned castle, the ponies were all looking around. The place was messy, shattered glass, broken chandelier and doors as far as the eye could see. This ended up reminding Sora of a place he had been to before. "This place reminds me too much of the mansion me, Donald and Goofy woke up after our one year long nap" he said with a little laughter in his tone. Rainbow Dash was surprised at what the pegasus has said, "You got to tell me about your life story, all the way until you got to Ponyville" while flying next to him. Fluttershy was also interested in what he had to say, she had a warm smile while adding "Yeah, your life sounds so amazing." Twilight then looked forward and saw just what they were looking for, "The Elements of Harmony, we've found them. Careful, careful!" She said as the mares went up to get an element down. The elements were all these stone balls, which were the opposite of what Sora thought they would be. "That's odd, I figured they would be shinier." The girls came down along with the elements and placed them on ground next to Twilight. Pinkie Pie counted all the elements, "One, two, three, four, five.. were missing one." She was right, one element was missing. It seemed to be the element of magic that was gone. Twilight came in to clear things up, "The book said when the five are present, a spark will cause the sixth Element to be revealed." Applejack was confused from all the gibberish, "What in the hay is that supposed to mean?" She asked Twilight responded with "I'm not sure, but I have an idea. Stand back. I don't know what will happen." She wanted to make sure non of them would get hurt, no pony needs to be harmed so she's not taking a chance. Applejack and every other pony in the room understood this, "Come on now, y'all. She needs to concentrate." All of them went to the door to exit, Sora stood behind though. He looked back and called the purple unicorn by her name, "Twilight." He said in a very worried tone. The mare looked back at the stallion, she wondered what exactly he needed, asking "What is it?" very sincerely. The stallion looked down a little, he was thinking of what he wanted to tell her. He boiled it down to it's core and said what he needed to, "Be careful." Twilight was touched, the stallion stood behind for a little bit just to say for her to be safe. She had a nice warm feeling in her heart thanks to him saying that. She just smiled with a little red on her cheeks and said "I will, don't worry." The pegasus just smiled back and left to join the others outside. Twilight then started concentrating on the Elements, using her magic on them with her horn glowing. Suddenly, the blue mist came in and started to create a small whirlwind. It ended up carrying the elements up into the air. Twilight ended up noticing this as she opened her eyes screaming "Ah!" The blue mist ended up spinning faster and faster. It finally disappeared taking the elements and Twilight with them. The mares from outside ended up hearing the unicorns scream, "Twilight!" The six yelled. They went back to where they last left Twilight. She was gone along with the elements. "Twilight! Twilight, where are you!?" Yelled Sora as all the other ponies looked around desperately for their friend. Rarity looked outside one of the broken windows seeing a flash of light coming from a tower next to where they were, "Look!" Pointing with her hoof. The mares all quickly rushed to where their friend was. Twilight looked around, coughing a little. She looked around, processing we're she was now. She looked in front of her and saw the blue mist manifest into Nightmare Moon. Twilight gasped then quickly put on a look of anger on her face. Her and Nightmare Moon locked eyes with each other. Twilight then used her left hoof and started counting with it. Nightmare Moon looked down at the unicorn and let out an evil laugh, "You're kidding. You're kidding, right." Twilight wasn't, she continued to count while charging magic in her horn which let out glow. Both mares began to charge each other, showing no signs of stopping. As soon as Nightmare Moon was close enough to the Unicorn, Twilight teleported. Nightmare Moon came to a screeching halt while Twilight made it to the other side where the Elements were. "Where's the sixth!?" She asked in surprise. The element of Magic was still nowhere to be seen. Nightmare Moon then turned into blue mist and teleported in front of Twilight. The unicorn tried harder and harder to start a spark but was quickly shoved away by the tall black mare. Twilight showed a little smile though as the Elements were sparking. Nightmare Moon grew a look of worry She then lost it as the sparks were for nothing. Twilight was shocked, "Where's the sixth element?" It couldn't be, the spark should have done it. The elements were still left as useless. Nightmare Moon simply laughed at the Unicorn, "You little foal! Thinking you could defeat me? Now you will never see your princess, or your sun! The night will last forever!" She then jumped up, breaking the elements into tiny pieces for Twilight to see. Nightmare Moon continued to laugh as her blue mist flowed around. The heartless creatures then made themselves apparent as they came out from the shadows from the floor, surrounding Twilight. Nightmare Moon finished laughing, ordering her minions, "Now, take her heart! Leave her as nothing but an empty shell!" The heartless circled in, preparing to do exactly as they were commanded to do. One of them was raising its claw, ready to strike the unicorn. Twilight had lost all hope, she saw the situation as unwinnable. She could do nothing but close her eyes and wait for the pain. She then quickly heard a sound, that of a slash. She opened her eyes to see that Sora had cut through one of the heartless with his keyblade on his mouth. The other mares quickly came in and bashed the heartless. "Twilight! Yer ok!" Said Applejack in a happy tone as she then quickly bucked another heartless. Rainbow Dash zoomed in and slammed a few. One was coming from her back to attack Fluttershy who looked away in fear but Rarity used her magic to stop it midair. She then threw it near Pinkie pie who who pulled out a fruit cake from her hair and slammed in into the heartless. Applejack pulled a lasso. She did a few twirls in the air before yelling "Giddy yup!" She through the top part of it to round up all the heartless. Once they were all in one place, Rainbow Dash came from above and slammed them to the ground. Sora shot a few fireballs, burning the heartless. He then did a horizontal slash cutting to the remaining few. Leaving him and Nightmare Moon. They both faced each other with a great passion for taking out the other showing in their eyes. Nightmare Moon was furious, she looked down at the pegasus, "Why do you keep on fighting! You are doomed to fail keyblade wielder!" She let out a blast of darkness which Sora blocked in succession. The mare charged at Sora, slamming him across with her head. In the air, Sora flipped back and started flapping his wings. The mare summoned large pillars from the ground and threw them at him. Sora continued in flying closer and closer, shooting down the pillars with fire magic. Nightmare Moon charged another blast, ready for him. The stallion flipped forward with his wings over Nightmare Moon and landed behind her. The mare quickly turned around and unleashed her full blast, but Sora shot out a blizzard spell which let out a little trail of ice that he sled across on his hoofs, going across Nightmare Moon from below her. The mare looked back and slammed Sora across the room into a wall. She then herself came in charging, slamming Sora right through the wall. He was launched into the air, Nightmare Moon then picked him up with her magic and slammed him down to the floor were they just were. She went over to a bent up Sora and put her hoof on his body, pinning him down. Twilight saw all this, her friends all fighting beside her, for her safety. Just because they cared about her so deeply. Twilight finally had a grin, she called over to the mare of the moon, "Nightmare Moon! You think you can destroy The Elements of Harmony just like that? Well, you're wrong, because the spirits of The Elements of Harmony are right here." Twilight pointed to her friends behind her. The mare, while still pinning Sora under her hoof, looked at her. She then noticed the broken shards of the Elements flowing up. The mare could only scream "What!?" Sora quickly took this opportunity and got out of her pin. He flipped back, landing next to his new friends. Twilight announced the names of the Elements along with their user. "Honesty with Applejack." The shards of that Element flew around the orange mare, "Kindness with Fluttershy." The same thing happy with her, "Laughter with Pinkie Pie", Same thing, "Generosity with Rarity", Same, "Loyalty with Rainbow Dash", again the same thing. Twilight then looked over to Sora, who put his keyblade on his hoof pointing forward, "And Sora. The person who brought those Elements and people together, the connection. Together they make up the element of Magic!" The Elements started rotating around the ponies, finally attaching themselves towards their respective pony. Twilight then grew the element of Magic on top of her horn. She grabbed onto Sora's keyblade as they both pointed towards Nightmare Moon. A large rainbow then game out of the keyblade, turning into a large rainbow beam. The mare was screaming out "NOOOOOOOOOO!!!" As she was consumed in the large rainbow blast along with the remaining heartless. The ponies were all on the ground, seemingly unconscious. They all finally stood up groaning in pain. Twilight was the first to speak, "Is every pony all-" she was quickly interrupted though as Sora came in and hugged her. The mare had the same reaction he had when she hugged him after he saved her life. The other ponies went up to the two and hugged them yelling "Twilight!" They joined together in a large group hug. Sadly they couldn't maintain it and ended up falling on each other. They were all in a pile of fallen ponies. Sora looked up and saw Rarity was on top of him along with something new about her, "Rarity look!" He used his hoof to point at her The white unicorn looked back and saw what just he was talking about, her tail ended up growing back. "It's back! I'll never part with it again!" She said while cuddling with it. Though that wasn't what Sora was marveling at, "No, I mean that." He took his hoof and pointed towards Rarity's chest. She had a necklace with a purple gem in there, similar to her cutie mark. So did the other ponies as well. They spent sometimes just marveling and how cool their new jewelry was. Applejack looked at Twilight and said to the purple unicorn, "Gee, Twilight! I thought you were just spitin a lot of hooey, but I reckon we really do represent the elements of friendship." Twilight smiled at that, Sora then came up and said "It's not that shocking, you all showed it many times. Rarity with that dragon over in the river, Applejack with Twilight on the cliff, Fluttershy with the Manticore, Pinkie Pie with the trees in the forest, and Rainbow Dash on the bridge. You all deserve to represent the elements." Fluttershy looked at the Pegasus, "You were also a big part too, Sora" she said with a nice Smile. Pinkie Pie jumped in front of Sora, "Yeah, if it weren't for you helping us with the heartless, We wouldn't have made it here in one piece. Heck, you even helped us meet thanks to you showing Twilight around." The Pegasus grew a nice smell on his face. All of them saw him as a friend, and the reason they came together. He was proud to call them his friends. "Their right, you know." Said a voice. A large bright light showed up in front of the broken window. It was the sun! It finally rose from its slumber and shined upon the sky. From it's light came a small orb, it made its way inside and revealed itself as Princess Celestia. All of the mares bowed before her, except Sora and Twilight. The purple unicorn was all too happy to see her, "Princess Celestia!" She yelled as she made her way towards her teacher, hugging each other. The Princess of the Sun said to her, "Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student. I knew you could do it." As she let go and Twilight went back to standing. Twilight felt the need to ask her teacher something. "But... you told me it was all an old pony tale." The Princess simply smiled, correcting the unicorn, "I told you that you needed to make some friends, nothing more. I saw the signs of Nightmare Moon's return, and I knew it was you who had the magic inside to defeat her, but you could not unleash it until you let true friendship into your heart. Now if only another will as well. Princess Luna!" She looked over to where Nightmare Moon stood, their in her place was Princess Luna. She let out a small gasp as her sister continued walking forward to her. The princess only said, "It has been a thousand years since I have seen you like this. Time to put our differences behind us. We were meant to rule together, little sister." She was very sincere, almost happy. As if a pain that had lasted centuries had been cured. She then asked her sister one thing, "Will you accept my friendship?" Luna was crying tears of sadness. She quickly went up to her sister and gave her a hug only a sister could give screaming, "I'm so sorry! I missed you so much, big sister!" The two embraced each other. Two sisters have finally been reunited. Pinkie Pie then stood up and said, "Hey, you know what this calls for…..?" *** "A party! They were back in Ponyville. Ponies came running in. The sisters came in on a golden chariot being pulled by two white stallions. Spike finally woke up and came in, hugging Twilight. Sora was with Pinkie pie and Rainbow Dash. Sora decided to ask the pink mare, "Why did you just say that?" Pinkie Pie came in and explained herself, "Remember back in the castle when I said, 'you know what this calls for'. Well I was just finishing the thought." Rainbow Dash felt the need to ask why though, "Yeah, but you said that like an hour ago?" The pink mare with a love for pastries answered both pegasi with "I know, but imagine if you were an outside viewer who only saw pieces of the conversation." Sora then went up to Princess Celestia. The large white pony looked down, "Ah, the warrior of light. I'm happy my efforts to bring you here have worked out." Sora looked up at her and marveled at her. She was tall, majestic and beautiful. The caramel pegasus asked "Your Princess Celestia? You sure don't look 1000 years old." He said with a nice Smile. The Princess smiled at that remark. Surely the best thing to tell a woman. She decided to tell the stallion something, "I wish we could talk about everything at this moment but now's not exactly a good time. Tomorrow, if you can, please come to my castle. I will explain everything about your predicament over there." Sora had the need to ask, "Why though, wouldn't right now be better?" The Princess grew a nice little smile and said, "We could. But you would end up missing an amazing party." Sora looked back, she wasn't lying. It seemed to be an amazing festival. They had games, food but most importantly, ponies having fun. Also cotton candy but mostly the ponies. Twilight later than came over with a sorry look on her face. Princess Celestia asked her students, "Why so glum, my faithful student? Are you not happy that your quest is complete and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?" Twilight looked back at Sora and the others in Ponyville, "That's just it. Just when I learned how wonderful it is to have friends, I have to leave them". Celestia saw exactly what her student wanted, She then simply raised her hoof and said "Spike, take a note, please. I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that the unicorn Twilight Sparkle shall take on a new mission for Equestria. She must continue to study the magic of friendship. She must report to me her findings from her new home in Ponyville." All the ponies then cheered at what they had heard. Sora, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy came in for a nice big group hug. They let go as Twilight went up to Princess Celestia hugging her while giving all her thanks towards the princess, "Oh thank you, Princess Celestia! I'll study harder than ever before!" *** It was now night time. The ponies were still enjoying the party but one was missing, as far as Sora could tell. He saw Twilight sitting by herself looking at the stars. He went up to tell her Twilight something. He sat next to her and asked, "Twilight, are you ok? Your missing Applejack's lasso tricks." Twilight looked back at the Pony, "Oh sorry Sora. I was just looking at the stars for a little while." The Unicorn and the Pegasus stood their for a little while, admiring the night sky. Twilight then said what she wanted to say for a little while. "Sora. I'm sorry, I acted like a complete jerk to you. You were just trying to help me out and make a friend but in the end I just yelled at you. Your nothing even close to an incompetent pony, your so much greater." Sora was touched by all of her words. He wasn't exactly off the hook though. "No, I'm sorry. I annoyed you all day with my antics. I should have thought about how you felt instead of just passing it off." Twilight smiled back. She was happy she met him and every other pony here. "Let's then agree that we were both to fault." The stallion looked back at her with a smile and replied, "I can agree to that." They both started spending a few minutes of silence with each other under the night sky. It was truly a sight to see with these two. > The ticket to my answers > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ticket to my answers After the fiasco with Nightmare Moon yesterday, Sora had been invited by Princess Celestia herself to vhave a talk with her at the royal castle in Canterlot. Sora, being accompanied by Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, were at the train station, waiting for it to arrive. "I still can't believe that Princess Celestia invited you to her castle. It must be a real honor!" Said Pinkie Pie while jumping up and down. Twilight then stopped the pink mare by putting a hoof on top of her head. The unicorn looked at Sora and asked, "Are you sure you don't want us to come with you? Canterlot is a pretty big place." The pegasus shook his head, "No need. I'll be fine Twilight, Princess Celestia just invited me to talk over some Keyblade wielder business, really" he said with his jolly tone. Sora looked at Applejack to apologize, "Sorry I can't help you today at the farm." The orange mare put on a smile, "Don't need to be sorry, ya just go and do what ya need to do. Twilight will help out, right?" Applejack looked at the pony in question. The unicorn replied happily, "Of course. Me and Spike would be happy too." The dragon didn't seem to mind. He got up on Twilight's back and laid down. Spike then said, "No problem. If I can be your assistant, farming a few apples will be a piece of apple pie." The train finally arrived. Sora looked back to see it in all it's multi colored glory. It looked like a toy made for little girls with how beautifully colorful it was, maybe enough to send your eyes in a sugar rush. The other ponies were getting on, Sora looked back at the six and Spike, saying his goodbyes. "I'll see you all soon!" He then walked over intoo the kart, inside Sora saw many ponies taking their seats, talking to each other and what not. As soon as he found a seat, he looked out a window and waved goodbye to his friends, so did the mares and dragon with the train starting to leave. Finally, Sora would get some answers as to why he was here, Why he is a pony and why Celestia exactly needed him. The pegasus laid down on the seat as a pony would. He felt a little sad with a mixture of boredom. Sora looked to the seat next to him and saw an old looking stallion. The stallion was red with a gray mane and tail, along with a cutie mark of a monkey. He said while looking at Sora, "Hello there younging, How are you?" Sora figured it was for the best to maybe start a conversation to pass the time while making his way to Canterlot, "Oh, just fine sir." The pegasus then went back to sitting in silence. It was a very awkward silence as none of them said anything for a little while. The old stallion decided to start the conversation again, "Did I ever tell you about the time I got a muffin without using any of my own money?" Sora looked back at the old Stallion. He couldn't have thought that was something good to start up a conversation with. "No sir, we just met." The old Stallion then explained the story, "I was walking to the bakery to get some, but then I realized I didn't have any money. When I got to the counter, a nice blue mare came in and gave me my order. I was about to tell her I couldn't pay but then a few bits came into the counter by the wind. It was the luckiest moment of my life. I should have brought the muffins with me though, you see….." and at that moment Sora started blocking the noise the old koop was making as he looked outside the window. Hopefully the girls back at Ponyville were having a better time then he was. Sadly he was wrong. *** At Sweet Apple Acres, Twilight and Applejack have harvested a large amount of apples. They were walking back to the barn as Spike was looking through the apples on Twilights saddle. Sadly the good looking ones weren't good looking enough for him so he just tossed them out while saying, "Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope." The mares continued walking forward, not noticing the dragon dropping the apples. "Thanks again for helping me out, Twilight. Since Sora's not here, I sure love the help." Twilight was happy to hear that. The purple unicorn replied to the earth pony, "No problem at all Applejack. I'm glad the goal is lunchtime. All this hard work is making me hungry." Twilight was thinking back to Sora. Eh, he could take care of himself. Right now she should probably focus on working and food. The dragon looked back and said, "I know, right?" While continuing to look throughout the saddle. The unicorn didn't like that. Mostly because he didn't do anything, "Please Spike. You've been lounging on my back all morning while we worked." She was right. The baby dragon did nothing all day but lay on her back and toss out apples. The dragon was still digging, "Exactly. You two are taking so long, I missed snack-time." he said a little smugly. All that time spent working definitely did something to the purple unicorn. Twilights stomach rumbled, she looked a little embarrassed. "Eh, I guess we better get some food. We didn't get anything to eat ever since we went to go see Sora off this morning." Spike was still digging, finally he found what he was looking for. "Aha!" He pulled out a big, shiny, juicy apple out of the saddle. Twilight looked in cheer. Finally she could ease her hunger. "Oh Spike, that looks delicious!" She said while licking her lips. Sadly, Spike ended up eating the whole thing in a couple of bite's. Twilight yelled at the dragon, "Spike!" The dragon looked back at her, he only responded by moving his shoulders up and down. After he finished the apple, he covered his mouth. He let out a small burp of fire. The fire manifested into a scroll with a little gold emblem on it. "It's a letter from Princess Celestia." Said Twilight. She wondered what could Princess Celestia need of her? Spike opened the scroll, cleared his throat and read it out loud, "Hear ye, hear ye. Her Grand Royal Highness, Princess Celestia of Equestria, is pleased to announce the Grand Galloping Gala to be held in the magnificent capital city of Canterlot, on the 21st day of, eh, yadda yadda yadda, cordially extends an invitation to Twilight Sparkle plus one guest." Spike didn't really seem enthusiastic about that. Both the mares were a different story, they both yelled "The Grand Galloping Gala!" They then cheered as loud as you would expect a girl to. The dragon then burped again. This time the fire turned I to two tickets. The dragon quickly got them in the air with his claws. Twilight took the tickets with her magic, "Wow, great! I've never been to the gala. Have you, Spike?" she said in, giddy. Spike didn't exactly care about the gala,he shook his head, "And I plan to keep it that way. I don't want any of that girly frilly frou-frou nonsense." He said while making a little choking motion. Applejack didn't see it that way, "Are ya kidding! It's more then that! I would love to go." She said. She then started to daydream of what she could do there, "If I had an apple stand set up, ponies would be chowin' our tasty vittles 'til the cows came home. Do you have any idea how much business I could drum up for Sweet Apple Acres? Why, with all that money, we could do a heap of fixin' up 'round here. We could replace that saggy old roof, and Big Mac could replace that saggy old plow, and Granny Smith could replace that saggy old hip. Why, I'd give my left hibd leg to go to the gala!" Since Spike didn't want to go, Twilight thought it would be better to use the ticket for the orange mare, "Oh, well in that case, would you like to—". She was interrupted by Rainbow Dash performing a crash landing on them. While they were all in a pile, Rainbow Dash asked "Are we talking about the Grand Galloping Gala?" The others quickly got back on their legs. Applejack later then said "Rainbow Dash. You told me you were too busy to help me harvest apples. What were you busy doing? Spyin'?" The orange mare came up and gave her a little stink eye. The rainbow pegasus looked calm and said "No, I was busy napping, and I just happened to hear that you have an extra ticket?" She pointed with her hoof to the tree she was napping in to prove herself valid. Twilight looked a little shooken "Yeah, but—". As always, Rainbow interrupted her again and similar to Applejack began to day dream. "YES! This is so awesome. The Wonderbolts perform at the Grand Galloping Gala every year. I can see it now! Everyone would be watching the sky. Their eyes riveted on the Wonderbolts, but then in would fly Rainbow Dash! I would draw their attention with my Super Speed Strut. Then, I would mesmerize 'em with my Fantastic Filly Flash. And for my grand finale, the Buccaneer Blaze! The ponies would go wild! The Wonderbolts would insist that my signature moves be incorporated into their routine, and then welcome me as their newest member." The Rainbow mare went up to Twilight's face and grabbed it close to hers, "Don't you see, Twilight? This could be my one chance to show 'em my stuff. You gotta take me!" Applejack came in and bumped Rainbow Dash. The orange farm girl said, "Hold on just one pony pickin' minute here. I asked for that ticket first." Rainbow Dash got up close to Applejack now, "So? That doesn't mean you own it." Applejack then challenged the rainbow pony, "oh yeah? Well I challenge you to a hoof-wrestle. Winner gets the ticket." They then went up to a tree stump and placed their hoofs on it, they both started to arm wrestle but Twilight quickly blew it off. "Girls, these are my tickets, I'll decide who gets it, thank you very much. Whoever has the best reason to go should get the ticket, don't you think?" The other two mares went back and toward over who should have it. "Drummin' up business for the farm?" "chance to audition for the Wonderbolts?" "Money t' fix Granny's hip." "Living the dream." Twilight was torn at the moment, "Oh my, those were all pretty good reasons, aren't they?" Her stomach was still grumbling this time louder than before, "Listen to that, I am starving. I don't know about you, but I can't make important decisions on an empty stomach, so I'll, uh, think about it over lunch and get back to you two, okay?" Both mares agreed to that, "Okay" they said as Twilight left with Spike. As soon as she was gone the two mirrors and went back to their little macho match. *** Back with Sora who we left with the old stallion not too long ago. The pegasus and the old guy were getting off the train as it finally arrived at Canterlot. "... And that's how I saved my village from an attack, oh there's my daughter. Gotta go kid." Said the old stallion as he went off leaving Sora alone. He was so irritated by him during the ride, good thing he no longer has to deal with it. Sora looked over to see if he could find some pony to help him out. He then heard a voice coming from in front of him, "Hey, you there. Are you Sora by any chance?" The pegasus looked in the direction of the voice, seeing a big white stallion. He had purple armor with gold and blue highlights. His mane and tail were blue as well along with haviy a horn, making him a unicorn. Sora looked at the white unicorn and answered his question, "Oh, yes I am." The white stallion greeted the pegasus by shaking his hoof. "Hello there Sora. I'm Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal guard. Princess Celestia ordered me to come here and accompany you to the Castle." Sora finished shaking the Captaina hoof, "Alright, lead the way." Both of the stallions began to make their way over to the castle, passing through the other ponies. Sora and Shining Armor were walking past the homes and shops of Canterlot. Shining Armor inspected Sora a bit more, looking at him from head to toe. "Don't take this the wrong way, but I figured you would be taller." He said jokingly. Sora looked at himself, "Why is that?" He asked the unicorn. Shining Armor replied his thoughts. "Oh, well when Princess Celestia said I was to bring the hero of light over, I figured he would be bolder, stronger looking and would have eyes with thousands of years of wisdom, but seeing that he was just a kid was a little shocking." Sora let out a little chuckle, "Yeah, that's almost how everyone reacts when they find out." Sora and Shining Armor continued to walk forward. The pegasus then started getting many stairs from the locals of Canterlot, all whispering little things about him. "Is that him?" asked a blue mare? "I figured he would be taller?" said a brown stallion. "He looks kinda cute." said a little filly mare. "He battled someone like Nightmare Moon?" asked a knight. "Was he trained at a young age?" asked another knight? "Maybe he was blessed by a goddess at birth?" said another? "Is he the descendant of a former knight?" asked another. "Do you think he can shoot pure light out of his eyes?" asked a pink mare to her green friend. "He doesn't really look like hero material, maybe they got the wrong pony?" thought another one. Sora wasn't really used to people talking about him like this. "Huh, looks like you started quite the reputation here" said Shining Armor. "People are really that impressed by me?" Asked Sora a little shyly. Shining Armor chuckled a little before replying. "He-he, well yeah, not many ponies can say that they're the hero of light. I still can't believe that you were able to go hoof to hoof with Nightmare Moon! She's Princess Celestia's sister and you managed to give her a challenge! Any pony who could do that is definitely otherworldly." The pegasus grew a nice little smile on his face. He was otherworldly, quite literally. They finally made it to the castle doors as two other knights opened them along with bowing before Sora, with both said it in union, "Oh hero of light. You praise us with your presence." Sora wasn't exactly feeling it though, "It's ok, no need for formalities." Both stallions then proceeded to walk inside the castle. Sora later than took notice of a look on Shining Armor's face, that of sadness. "Shining Armor, what's wrong? You look a little down." The captain quickly put on a smile and looked back at the Pegasus, "I'm fine. It's just, my little sister used to live with me here in Canterlot, but yesterday she had to go live in Ponyville since Celestia ordered her to learn about friendship. I'm just worried about her a little." Sora, oblivious to who his sister was just said "I'm sure your sister's doing fine, Don't worry about it." Those words were just what Shining Armor needed. His sister was Princess Celestia's student for a reason. Speaking of which, let's go back to her *** Twilight was now in Ponyville with Spike and the two tickets. Spike asked the purple unicorn, "Who are you gonna give the ticket to, Twilight?" She didn't know who to give it to. Both of her friends had really good reasons to go. Her stomach started to rumble again, "I don't know Spike, but I really can't think straight when I'm hungry, so where should we eat?" As soon as she finished. A familiar mare came crashing through a door and into Twilight and Spike. It was Pinkie Pie, while both were on the ground, the two tickets fell on Pinkie's face. "Gah! Bats! Bats on my face! Help!" She was running around screaming for help until she finally stopped and grabbed what was on her head. "Wait, these aren't... tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala?!" She yelped in happiness, her eyes showed her excitement with how big they got. She then decided to say her reasons as to why she would like to go. "It's one of the super duper shmooperest parties ever held in all of Equestria! With the decorations, games and all of the above!" She then went to go hug Twilight senseless, "Oh thank you, Twilight, it's the most wonderful-est gift ever!" Twilight try to clear things up with Pinky but it failed, "Um, actually—". And just like that, another one of Twilight's friends overheard them. It was Rarity, She gasped and then said, "Are these what I think they are?" While looking at the tickets that Spike was holding. Pinkie Pie came up to Rarity, "Yes, yes, yes! Twilight's taking me to the Grand Galloping Gala in Canterlot." Rarity, like the other mares, began to day dream a little herself. "The gala? I design ensembles for the gala every year, but I've never had the opportunity to attend. Oh, the society, the culture, the glamour! It's where I truly belong, and where I'm destined to meet him. I would stroll through the gala, and everyone would wonder, 'Who is that mysterious mare?' They would never guess that I was just a simple pony from little old Ponyville. Why, I would cause such a sensation that I would be invited for an audience with Princess Celestia herself, and the princess would be so taken with the style and elegance that she would introduce me to him, her nephew: the most handsome, eligible unicorn stallion in Canterlot." The stallion she was thinking off was a tall white one with a blonde mane and tail. "Our eyes would meet, our hearts would melt. Our courtship would be magnificent. He would ask for my hoof in marriage, and of course I would say, 'Yes!' We would have a royal wedding, befitting a princess, which is what I would become upon marrying him, the stallion of my dreams." The white unicorn went out of Twilight with a look on her face that shows disappointment, "Twilight, I simply cannot believe you would invite Pinkie Pie so she can... party, and prevent me from meeting my true love. How could you?" Spike was in the back, watching the mares talk amongst themselves, "Hey!" He yelled as a familiar bunny came in and stole the tickets from his hands. Angel bunny was the one if you didn't find out. He brought the two tickets to Fluttershy. She was ecstatic about this but with her tone ,you wouldn't figure it out. "Angel, these are perfect." Fluttershy said very thankful. Twilight decided to tell the mares what was going on, "Uh, listen guys, I haven't decided who to give the extra ticket to." Both were shocked at this and yelled, "You haven't?" Fluttershy then made herself clear to every pony. "Uh, excuse me, Twilight. I would just like to ask, I mean, if it would be all right, if you haven't given it to someone else…?" Rarity was surprised at this, "You? You want to go to the gala?" It was shocking. Why would Fluttershy, the most shy pony in Ponyville, want to go to a party where there are thousands of ponies she's probably never met. "Oh, no. I mean, yes, or, actually, kind of. You see…". Just like the others, she had a personal reason as to why she wants to go. She started to daydream just what she would do their. "It's not so much the Grand Galloping Gala as it is the wondrous private gated garden that surrounds the dance. The flowers are said to be the most beautiful and fragrant in all of Equestria. For the night of the gala, and that night alone, would they all be in bloom... and that's just the flora! Don't get me started on the fauna. There's loons and toucans and bitterns, oh my! Hummingbirds that can really hum, and buzzards that can really buzz. White-blue jays, and red jays, and green jays, pink jays and pink flamingos!" Twilight didn't exactly know what to say about that, "Gee, Fluttershy, it sounds... beautiful…?" "Wait just a minute". It was Rainbow Dash, she quickly came down to confront the purple unicorn about the ticket fiasco. Twilight wasn't exactly happy about this, "Rainbow Dash! Were you following me?" Rainbow Dash being herself, responded In the most Rainbow Dash way, "No. I mean, yes. I mean, maybe. Look, it doesn't matter. I couldn't risk a goody-four-shoes like you giving that ticket away to just anybody." Applejack also came into the conversation. "Wait just a darn minute" Applejack said, "Yer trying to take my ticket, aren't you." Rainbow was taking a back by this. All the five ponies started arguing about who should get the ticket. Twilight was being driven crazy from all of it. She tried her best to block it out but finally she had to yell, "QUITE!" All of them finally stopped and stood their listing to Twilight, "Girls, there's no use in arguing. This is my decision, and I'm gonna make it on my own, and I certainly can't think straight with all this noise..". Her stomach grumbled, still she had nothing to eat, "Not to mention the fact I still haven't eaten. I'll make my decision soon. I just need time." All the other mares went off and left her alone. Spike and Twilight we're outside on a table, next to a restaurant. Both were looking through their menus as to what they would order. Twilight's head was laying on the table, "Spike, what am I gonna do? All five of my best friends have really good reasons to go to the gala. Applejack, or Rainbow Dash? Pinkie Pie or Fluttershy, Rarity... Oh, who should go with me?" she asked while taking off pedals from the flower in front of her. She the used her tongue to lick them all up and swallow them. A waiter with a fancy mustache and accent came up and asked "Have you decided yet"? Twilight, of course, yelled in an over the top fashion, "I CAN'T DECIDE!" The baby dragon looked at her strangely along with the other ponies there. Spike cleared everything up for Twilight, "I think he just wants to take your order." Twilight looked a little embarrassed before finally ordering what she wanted, "Oh. I would love a daffodil and daisy sandwich." Spike then placed his order, "Do you have any rubies?" The waiter didn't look amused. "No? Okay. I'll have the hay fries, extra crispy." said the dragon, a little disappointed. Twilight quickly went back to thinking who she should give it to, "What do you think, Spike?" She asked the dragon Spike however didn't think she was talking about the ticket, "I think we have to try another restaurant. How hard could it be to surf any dishes with jem's? It's not like their rare or anything." Twilight was a little annoyed by that, "No! I mean what am I going to do about this ticket fiasco?" Spike pondered for a little while, "Why not Sora, he seems like a good guy and- you would have 5 friends who would be mad at you." Yeah, there was no easy way of choosing who. The waiter from before came back with their order, "Your Food." He said as he went back. The dragon and mare started to dig in. As soon as Twilight began though, all the Ponies outside quickly ran inside the restaurant to escape something. The waiter asked Twilight from the door, "Em, madam? Are you going to eat your food in ze rain?". Twilight was tookan back by that question. She looked around her area, "It's not raining…" She then heard a thunderclap and looked up and saw indeed, it was raining. Though there was a little open area with sunlight instead of water coming out. This was due to a rainbow mare from before, "Hi there, best friend forever I've ever ever had. Enjoying the sunny weather?". Twilight grew a scowl on her face. The unicorn looked up and asked Rainbow Dash, "Rainbow, you're not trying to get extra consideration for the extra ticket by doing me extra special favors, are you?" She had just told them to give her sometime to think about this and Rainbow Dash was doing the exact opposite. Rainbow Dash tried to make it seem like she wasn't doing it for said reason, "Me? No no no, of course not." Twilight decided to tell Rainbow Dash to stop, "Rainbow, I am not comfortable accepting unwanted favors, so I'd appreciate it if you close up that rain cloud right now." Rainbow Dash did just that, "Ugh, Fine." As soon as she closed it though, a large amount of rain came down and splashed all over her head. Her mane fell down along with her sandwich. Out of nowhere, however, she taken away by Rarity, "Come with me before you catch a cold." The three were now at Rarity's boutique. Twilight smiled back at the mare, she thought 'This could not go wrong in any way' in a jolly tone. She was wrong. Twilight shook like a dog to get the water out. Sadly she got the other mare in the room wet, she looked a little embarrassed before apologizing, "Heh heh, oops, sorry." Rarity tried her best to act as if it didn't bother her. Her face certainly showed it. "Oh no, it's quite all right." She then went up to Twilight, moving around her in a caring way, "After all, we are... the best of friends, are we not? And you know what the best of friends do?" She asked the purple unicorn. Twilight didn't know how to take this question, "Ugh". Rarity jumped up, answering the question for Twilight. "Makeovers!" Rarity then pulled a room separator. Twilight was struggling with Rarity, if the noise was anything to tell from. Finally, Rarity was finished as she gave Twilight a nice little dress. The unicorn didn't know how to feel about it. Rarity praised Twilight in her new gown, "There. Oh, you're simply darling." Twilight looked at the dress on her closer. She had to admit, it was spectacular, "Uh, yeah, it is kinda pretty, isn't it?" Spike was looking from afar, out of nowhere, Rarity came in. "And you. Oh Spike, I have a dandy little outfit for the dashing gent." She then grabbed him, bringing him behind the divider. She ended up putting a nice little suit with puffy pants, puffy shirt and blond wig. "Oh, forgot the hat." Said Rarity as she grabbed a large black one with her magic and placed it on his head. Twilight was chuckling at the dragon. He didn't exactly like it and quickly ran off. "Oh, who needs him. This is all about you, and how fabulous you'll look at the Grand Galloping Gala." Said Rarity as she brought a mirror for the mare to look at herself. The Gala was what got Twilight to think twice. "Wait, the Gala?" Questioned the mare. Rarity went back to her rambling while grabbing on to Twilight. "And oh, what a coincidence. I happen to have an ensemble of my own that matches yours." She said as if she was surprised. "We would be the belles of the ball, All eyes would be on us, and then everyone would finally know, the most beautiful, most talented, most sophisticated pony in all of Equestria is Rarity the unicorn." Twilight gave Rarity a stern look. "I mean you, darling." Twilight quickly got back and started moving forward towards her, "I see what's going on. You're just buttering me up so I give you the extra ticket. Well it's not gonna work. You're going to have to wait for my decision just like everyone else. Now if you'll excuse me, I've been trying all day just to get some lunch." She said while taking off all of her clothes that Rarity gave her. As soon as she uttered her last word, A familiar orange mare came in, "Did some pony say lunch?" Applejack grabbed Twilight as she pulled her outside, along with having a large amount of food in front of her, all apple themed, "I got apple pie, apple fritters, apple tarts, apple dumplings, apple crisps, apple crumblers, and apple Brown Betty. Uh, the dessert, not my auntie. What do you say there, best friend?" Applejack tried her darn best to persuade the unicorn. Twilight's stomach grumbled again, she tried her best to escape the temptation, "No. I don't know who I'm giving the ticket to, and all these favors aren't making it any easier to decide. In fact, I'm less sure now than I was this morning. Ugh!" Twilight was making her way back home to the library. She mumbled to herself, "And here I thought Sora was annoying on my first day here." She finally arrived at the Golden Oak Library, just outside the door. She went inside to find Fluttershy and her animal friends cleaning her living quarters. Fluttershy was humming to herself a little jingle, fit for a TV show opening. Fluttershy looked down at Twilight, "Oh, hello Twilight. Me and my friends figured it would be a good idea to do your spring cleaning for you. Since your such a good friend." Twilight didn't fall for it, "It's summer." She said, very blatantly. Fluttershy looked a little, well, shy at this. She replied, still trying to cover rip her real reason, "Oh, well, better late than never, right? It was Angel's idea." She pointed to the bunny who was preparing a salad for the unicorn. Twilight, with a bored look, said this. "Your doing this for the ticket. Aren't you." Fluttershy tried her best to hide it, "Oh no. I'm doing this for my best friend." She looked back at Angel bunny who gave her a stern look. "I mean yes, I am doing this for the ticket." The bunny went up to Twilight with a prepared salad, handing it over to her. She turned him down though. "Well this was very nice of you and angel." She said while walking over to the door. "But I'm not going to expect any favors until I have made my final decision". As soon as she took one step outside, a pink mare came up and carried Twilight outside. It was Pinkie Pie along with five other mares with her. The mares were tossing Twilight up and down while Pinkie sang a song. "Oh Twilight, my best and closest friend. She's the smartest, strongest and prettiest pony I've ever met. She's a great student and has an owl for a pet. (I think) I'm making up this song so the writer doesn't put in the real one. He's lazy but hey, he has to get this story done before daaaaaaaawwwwwwnnn!!! And that is why Twilight, (that's you) will give me the ticket for the Gala! Yeah!" "Pinkie!" Yelled Twilight at her as the mares quickly put her down. "At least the other ponies were trying to be subtle. How many times do I have to say it. I JUST WANT SOME TIME TO EAT AND THINK ABOUT WHO I SHOULD GIVE THE TICKET TO!" Yelled Twilight out loud. Sadly every pony around heard this and quickly started surrounding her. Many upon many start coming surrounding her asking her what they could do to buy her affection and ticket. "Wait, what ticket? What gala?" "Have I ever told you how much I love your mane?" "Would you like any help with your gardening"? All of them were growing larger and larger in numbers. Twilight just grew a shocked eye while being surrounded. *** Back with Sora and Shining Armor. The two stallions were making their way up to Princess Celestia in the throne room. There she was, atop on her throne with two other guards on the lower area in a ready stance. Shining went up to introducing the pegasus, "Your Highness. I present, Sora to your acquaintance." Sora made his way up to greet the Princess, He bowed before her to show his respect. Princess Celestia went down the staircase of her throne to meet him face to face. "I wish to speak to the hero of light in private please." She said in a demanding voice. The guards and Shining Armor obeyed her command and went outside the large door, closing it on the way. Princess Celestia went back to her normal tone of voice, "Sorry about that. I just figured talking by ourselves would be best." Sora smiled, "It's ok. Just never seen you talk in a demanding voice." Celestia chuckled at his reply. "He-he, Many get used to it over time." She began walking to the balcony of her window with Sora following her. The ruler of Equestria opened the large window and jumped off. She used her wings to glide over to her garden, looking back to check on the pegasus. Sora tried the same but he still wasn't 100% a master at flying so he stumbled a little with another crash landing, but this time he didn't leave a crater. Celestia chuckled a little, "You seem to still fumble around in your new body." Sora laughed a little embarrassed. He got up and shook himself, "Yeah, not used to having wings." Sora then looked up and sked his first question. "That reminds me. Why am I a pony?" Celestia and Sora began to walk around the garden, Wich was a beautiful sight with the blossoming verity of flowers and bushes and trees all around. Enjoying their stroll, Celestia began her explanation. "I am the reason you are a pony. I sensed a lost heart one night." Sora looked a little confused. Until he put together who she was talking about. "He seemed sad, hurt inside. I also sensed a special light in him. One more powerful than I have ever sensed. I figured that heart could help me with a problem. My student, Twilight Sparkle, was a very by the book pony. She was only ever focused on studying, making friends to her seemed like a waste of time. I also sensed the arrival of my sister once again. With your help, the two of them could receive the help they needed. So far, it seems I was right. I used a transformation spell on you in the process." Sora took all that in. It was a lot to comprehend. "So, can you turn me back in anytime?" Celestia shook her head though. "I'm afraid the spell I used was a little undeveloped. I'm surprised it worked at all, really. I don't have a way to turn you back." Sora was stunned. Though it surprisingly didn't last very long. "You don't seemed very worried about this." Sora put on his smile and said, "Well it's not the best of new. I'm just fine here in Ponyville. Though I do miss my friends, I met so many here already. I have a place to stay with the Apple family. I even made friends with Twilight, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and others here. I don't feel like need to go anywhere anytime soon." Celestia smiled at that. It was good to hear that he was enjoying his stay here in Ponyville, not matter how long it would be. Sora finished by saying, "The Heartless are still around to. I would need to close this worlds keyhole before they stop being a threat." The pegasus had another question for the monarch though. "How do you know about other worlds?" Princess Celestia thought back to her discovery on the subject. "It was long ago. Some odd beings came to Equestria. They possessed the power of darkness, the same darkness your familiar with. The group were searching for something here in Equestria, a key of sorts but I never knew to what. Chasing them down were keyblade wielders, same as you. With their help, we were able to banish them far away from Equestria. They informed us on other worlds during their stay and the consequences if the secret was ever revealed to the wrong hearts." That sounded like quite the story, but it led to an idea. "Princess Celestia, do you have any way of communicating to other worlds. A way to reach them, anything like that?" The Princess was answer was disappointing, "No, I'm sorry Sora but we don't. The best we have is a mirror but even then, it can in no way take you back home." Sora began to pout a little, his hopes got up by the smallest of margins only to plummet down once again. "I promise you, I will try everything in my power to find a way, but while you are here, loathing will not help you. I hope you understand." Sora thought as much, she was right. Him being sad like this was more hurtful then beneficial. His mind turned to another thought. "How is Luna, I haven't seen her anywhere in the castle since that whole Nightmare Moon incident yesterday?" Now this one was a simple one to answer in Princess Celestia's case. "Luna is still recovering from before. Nothing to worry about, she just needs to rest for a bit." Sora sighed in relief, nice to know that anyone who fell to darkness can find the light once again. Princess Celestia figured she could probably use this for a little joke. "Why do you wish know? I hope your not developing feelings for my sister." The pegasus cheeks turned red at her statement, "Wh-at? N-o. I was just hoping she would be fine. Besides, she's probably way older then me." He scratched his head while trying to look away from the princess. Celestia began laughing at the keyblade wielders expense. "I jest, I jest. I apologize if I startled you like that. Though I am the responsible one, I do find fun in immature activities every now and then." Sora was glad that was the case. Who knew a Princess would have a sense of humor. He looked up at the sky, it seemed they wasted a bit of time here. "I should get going, it's getting pretty late." The Princess quickly stopped him however by teleporting in front of him. "Hold on keyblade wielder. I actually have something to give you." She summoned two golden tickets as the pegasus grabbed them out of the air, "Tickets?" He asked Princess Celestia explained this, "There for the Gala. It's a party held in my castle every once and a while. I figured you would like to come. The other is for a guest of your choosing." Sora took the tickets and put them in his bag. "Thank you Princess. I hope I can see you again. Your definitely more fun to hang out with then King Trident." This did bring up something else. "Actually, there is once last thing I need to tell you." The pegasus stopped as he looked at the Princess with all eye and ears. "Your situation of you being from another world along with your true form and knowledge of other worlds must stay between you and I. This includes Twilight and the other elements." Sora wasn't expecting this, "I can't tell any of my friends about other worlds or who I really am." "Indeed, I fear that if knowledge got out, then the consequences could be dire. It's not that I don't trust Twilight or the other elements, but these kinds of measures must be taken until I can make this information public. I do hope you understand." Indeed Sora could. The world order exists for a reason. "Alright, I promise you Princess Celestia. I really should get going though. I wonder what Twilight has been up too?" Celestia put on a nice Smile, "Knowing Twilight, she probably just spent the entire day reading. No adventure for her." *** "AHHHHHH" screamed Twilight as she was running away from a large hors of ponies chasing her through town. She ran along with Spike to hide under a bridge. The ponies went over it not noticing her. They begin to run again with the Ponies noticing her and chasing them again. Twilight and Spike were in a baby and mother costume. As soon as the ponies pass them again, Twilight took it off and went off running with Spike. The ponies notice them again and the chase began once more. Twilight and Spike were finally cornered, all the Ponies were talking over each other for what they could do for the ticket. Twilight couldn't take it anymore and teleported her and spike out of there. They both made it inside of the Golden Oak Library. "Quick, lock the doors!" She yelled as the dragon went to go barricade them. He also turned off all the lights. Twilight's sighed in relief. As soon as she did though the lights came back on and she noticed her friends in the room with her. She couldn't take it anymore and yelled, "I can't decide, I just can't decide! It's important to all of you and I just can't stand to disappoint any of you, and giving me gifts and doing me favors won't make any difference, because you're all my friends and I wanna make you all happy and I can't, I just can't!" All of the ponies just had sorry looks on their faces. Applejack was the first to go up and apologize, "Twilight, sugar, I didn't mean to put so much pressure on you, and if it helps, I don't want the ticket anymore. You can give it to somepony else. I won't feel bad, I promise." Fluttershy flew up and apologized as well, "Me too. I feel just awful that I made you feel so awful." Pinkie pie was next, "And me too. It's no fun upsetting your friends." Rarity apologized as well, "Twilight, it was unfair of me to try to force you as I did." Rainbow Dash didn't though, "Yes! The ticket is mine!" She then noticed the ugly stairs coming from her friends. She quickly flew down to comfort Twilight instead. "Oh- I mean, I haven't perfected my signature moves for the Wonderbolts anyway. I don't need that ticket either." Twilight smiled, she was happy to see her friends were actually sorry about how they treated her. She saw that their was one thing left to do, "Spike, take down a note. Dear Princess Celestia, I've learned that one of the joys of friendship is sharing your blessings, but when there's not enough blessings to go around, having more than your friends can make you feel pretty awful. So, though I appreciate the invitation, I will be returning both tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala." the others just yelled 'What'! Spike sent the note with his dragon breathe with Twilight explaining just why she did this though, "It's okay, girls. I couldn't possibly enjoy myself without my best friends there with me. So I'd rather not go at all." The others went up to Twilight to join in a group hug. Spike was in a corner making a barfing motion. That fake barfing motion though quickly became real as he was quickly trying to release something from his mouth. Applejack didn't exactly see it this way and went to go scold him, "Well wallop my withers, Spike. Isn't that just like a boy? Can't handle the least bit of sentiment." The dragon then barfed fire as it manifested into another note. Spike took it and read it out loud, "My faithful student Twilight, Why didn't you just say so in the first place?" The dragon then looked inside to bring out what was inside "Six tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala!" Twilight and the others just yelped in happiness. While doing so, Sora came in through the door at just the right time with seeing all the others cheering. "I know I left for a long time but it was for at least 22 minutes." Rarity came up to the pegasus and hugged him harder then she probably should. "Darling, we get to go to the Grand Galloping Gala!" She put him down though, just realizing that He couldn't go. "Sorry you can't come with us, Sora" said Fluttershy in a low tone. Soda just smiled and said, "What are you talking about?" He then looked into his bag and brought out two tickets, "I was invited too." Twilight jumped up and said, "That means we can all go!" The cheers began again. Twilights stomach though quickly shut it down. Rarity decided to fix this problem, "Don't worry darling. Allow me to treat you all to dinner." All of them went out the door cheering again. Sora went out to Rarity, asking her, "Celestia said I could bring an extra. What should I do with the second ticket?" Rarity decided to give him the best answer for this scenario. "Take my advice darling. Burn the second one in a fire." Rarity quickly began to follow the others. Sora was going to follow as well but he then noticed Spike in the corner sulking a little. He heard the baby dragon mumble, "How come I don't get a ticket to the gala?" Since Sora had an extra one. He knew exactly what to do with it. "Hey Spike. Princess Celestia gave me an extra ticket while on my visit. I was wondering if you wanted to come?" He said while showing him the ticket in his hoof. Spike quickly took it and screamed in excitement, "For real! I mean- I have to go too? Ugh!" As soon as the dragon went out the door, Sora followed as they all went to go round out the day with some food. > Applejack's Applebuck season....? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Applejacks Apple Buck Season…? It was day time here in Sweet Apple Acres. Sora, Applejack and Big Mac were looking at the grand landscape filled with apple trees which had, well, apples. Sora stood there enjoying the view, along with the other two ponies. "Look at it". Sora said as he let out a little whistle. "Ya said it, sugarcube" said Applejack, she stretched a little before finally standing straight again. "I sure got my work hand out for me. This has to be the biggest batch of apples I ever have seen." Big Mac quickly shut down the idea. "Eyup. Too big for you to harvest on your own." Sora was shocked that the big red stallion actually said a sentence. He usually said no more words than just 'Eyup' or 'Nope'. He quickly pushed that thought to the side as of now. Sora agreed with Big Mac though, "He's right you know. Doing something this big all alone isn't exactly a good idea." Applejack didn't agree to what the other two thought about her decision. "C'mon y'all. With Big Mac's broken leg, there's no way he can help." She said while pointing her hoof at Big Mac's front leg which was in a blue cast. Sora wondered how he didn't notice that at first but then thought as to why he couldn't help out. "Why not me. I'm free all day, you and I could probably get it done in no time." He said with his big grin. Applejack still didn't want to accept that offer though. The orange mare replied, "Nah, you already work too much here. Let me do it, I can handle it. Unless you think I can't for some reason." She said, starting to think that could very well be a possibility. Big Mac confirmed that thought. "We think you're biting off more than you can chew." Applejack was starting to get frustrated that her big brother didn't think she could get the job done. She went up to the big stallion to give her a piece of her mind. "This is your sister, I can handle any job yah hear. No matter how big the orchids are this year, I'll harvest them all before dawn." She then went up to a tree to go buck it and harvest the apples in some wooden buckets. The red stallion started to leave while advising Sora to do the same. "C'mon Sora. Yah got a delivery to make at Ponyville." The caramel pegasus followed him while speaking in a low tone, as far as Applejack could hear him at least. "Alright, but why don't you talk a lot. I feel like you……." His voice finally faded away as Applejack went back to her job. Sometime has passed as Applejack has harvested a few trees already. She stopped to swipe some sweat off her head with her hoof. "Goody, I already harvested 32 tree's and it's only been 15 minutes." She then went back to harvesting the apple trees At Ponyville, the residents have been doing their daily routines. Sora was pulling a waggon of apples for an order some pony made. He left it in front of a bakery while a blue mare with a dark pink mane and tail came out to take the apples inside. Sora took the waggon off and sat down for a little while. He soon felt something, the ground was shaking. In the air, Rainbow Dash looked far away and saw a bunch of dust fly everywhere, it was a bunch of cow's running in a herd and they were coming straight to Ponyville. She quickly yelled "STAMPEDE!!!" Every pony in Ponyville was running around like crazy. Some were closing their windows, taking their welcome matt's inside and what not. Pinkie Pie was just bumping up and down while talking. Her voice was shaky though, "He-ey. M-y vo-ice sou-nds re-ally fu-nn-y." She kept shaking up and down until Sora quickly came in and grabbed her to the side. Twilight along with Rarity were in the panic as well. Mayor Mare tried to calm down the residents, "Calm down every pony. There is no need to panic." Sora went up to the mayor. He then asked, "But what are we supposed to do about the cow's?" Sora, along with other ponies looked over to the cow stampede and saw something, it was Applejack along with a dog, running with the cow's. The orange mare screamed "Yeehaw!" The ponies looked over to see Applejack along with the dog start to do something. "Move aside, Winona. Put 'em up, girl!" Applejack was in the far left of the stampede and Winona at the right. Both were leading the cow's somewhere nice and easy. All the ponies watching had a look of concern on their faces. Pinkie Pie on the other hand was eating popcorn while smiling, "This is the best rodeo show I've ever seen." Sora then took a hoof and put it in Pinkie's mane, he pulled out some popcorn as well to start eating, Twilight saw this and just rolled her eyes a little. Applejack was bumping into a cow but it didn't really work out. She then got a brilliant idea, she quickly called over her dog, "Winona, put 'em up!" The dog quickly followed her lead as she went in front of the stampede of cow's. Applejack went on top of a one, then took a lasso out and started spinning it around in the air. She then quickly wrapped it around a cow's neck while Winona started leading the stampede away from Ponyville, avoiding it entirely and into a grassy field. The ponies all cheered for Applejack, saving them from the large herd of cow's. The orange mare went up to one of the cow's and asked her "Now what was that all about?" The cow she was talking to let out a "Moo!" She then cleared her throat and began to actually talk. "Oh my! Begging your pardon, Applejack, but Moo-riella here saw one of those nasty snakes." At the mention of the snake, the cow's quickly moo'd again. "And it just gave us all the willies, don'tcha know." Applejack shook her head up and down, "Completely understand. Just next time, try and steer clear of Ponyville." The cow's started to make their way back. The one cow Applejack was having a conversation with just said "We certainly will, Applejack. So long, Winona!" The dog barked with a smile as the cow went to go join the herd. Applejack and Winona stood in front of the ponies. All of them cheered again for her as the orange mare went off along with her dog. Pinkie Pie then started to imitate what Applejack just did, "Yee haw! Ride 'em, cowpony!" While jumping back and forward. Mayor Mare was amazed by Applejack's performance. "Applejack was just... just…". Sora came in and spat out a bunch of adjectives "Amazing, Stupendous, Spectacular, Sensational." All the ponies gave him a stare of confusion. The pegasus pulled out a book from his bag, "I borrowed a dictionary from the library." Every pony quickly shook it off and went back to their business. Mayor Mare than said "We must do something to thank Applejack for single-hoofedly saving the town." Pinkie Pie quickly came in and yelled just what to do. "I know!" She said as we then cut to the ponies putting up ribbons, confetti and banners for a little celebration. All of it was apple themed for obvious reasons. "...A party." Finished Pinkie Pie. Twilight, with Spike on her back, came up to Sora. He had some decorations with him that he was supposed to hang up on the trees. "C'mon Sora. The decor is not going to hang itself." She said to the stallion, playfully. Sora grew a grin before summoning his keyblade and saying "Oh, isn't it." he then summoned a little vortex of wind that formed, thanks to areo magic, under the decorations as they flew up and landed nicely on the trees. Twilight was not exactly amused, "They still didn't put themselves up, your magic did." Sora slumped a little at that remark. Mayor Mare oversaw Rarity putting the finishing touches, along with her using her magic to lift a banner with an apple on it. She places it on top of two support beams. "Now we're ready." Said Rarity. Twilight looked around but didn't find the mare of the hour. Twilight asked the ponies "Has any pony seen Applejack?" Sora came in to tell her the bad news, "No. In fact, I haven't seen her all day. I think it's because of her job back at the farm." Sora quickly shook off the sense of worry though. "I'm sure she'll be here in time. It's Applejack were talking about." He then flashed his signature smile as him and the mares went off. The time for Applejack's celebration has finally come. The ponies from Ponyville arrived all in one big group in front of a stage while Twilight was in front of a little desk for the Mayor with a stack of cards. Twilight began her speech, "Welcome, everypony! Today we are here to honor a pony we can always count on to help in matters great and small. A pony whose contributions to--" she was promptly interrupted by Rainbow Dash. The rainbow mare spoke about her side of Applejack, "Did you see Applejack's slick moves out there? What an athlete. This week she's gonna help me with my new flying trick, and I know it's gonna be so awesome." Twilight looked a little annoyed, "Exactly. And…" she was interrupted again, this time by Pinkie Pie. "This week, I get to run Sugarcube Corner for the first time." Said the pink mare. Twilight was confused, "What does that have to do with Applejack?" She asked as to why that was exactly important to all this. Pinkie Pie answered with "Applejack, one of the best bakers ever, is gonna help me. Applejack makes everything great, so free samples for everypony!" the ponies of Ponyville cheered at this news. Twilight began to speak again but was interrupted, again, by Fluttershy. "I just wanted to mention that Applejack is also helping me this week with the official bunny census, where we count up all the new baby bunnies that were born this season. She's gonna help gather them using her wonderful herding skills." she then stepped down. Twilight was getting more and more annoyed at this routine. She looked around to see if any other pony was going to interrupt her again. She saw the coast was clear and began to speak again, only to be interrupted again, This time by Sora, "I just want to say all the things Applejack has done for me. She's a great pony and all….." he then noticed Twilight's glare that would kill him by how much anger it had. "......but it can wait for another time." Said Sora as he stepped back down. Twilight was looking over the ponies again, making sure no one else comes up and interrupts her. "Anyone else? Anyone?" She asked. All the ponies just looked around in silence. Twilight put on a smile again, "No? Well then, as I was trying to say.." she looked over and saw Mayor Mare next to her. At this point she surrendered, "..Urgh! Never mind." She then threw her cards in the air as they all fell down. Mayor Mare took to the stage and began to say her words of gratitude. "Ah-ahem. And so, with no further ado, it is my privilege to give the prize, Pony of Ponyville Award, to our beloved guest of honor, a pony of the utmost trustworthiness, reliability, and integrity. Ponyville's most capable and dependable friend, Applejack!" The crowd cheered as the curtains behind the Mayor opened up. Sadly, Applejack was not present behind them. Spike, not noticing, started clapping and cheering. "Cool! Way to go Applejack, that was awesome! I mean-- heh." He quickly realized what he was doing and stopped. He and every other pony there was in silence. They looked around and scratched their heads a little, fidgeted around with their hooves and looked around the area. Spike decided to speak up, "Awkward." Sora, next to the dragon, felt the same way. "Yeah, like when you say goodbye to someone else but you both end up walking in the same direction." Most of the ponies agreed with that, saying 'yea', 'that's true', 'I hate when that happens'. They all then heard the orange mare, "I'm here. I'm here." she said while walking through the crowd of ponies with two saddles filled with red and green apples. She accidentally bumped into a few on the way to the top though, "Sorry I'm late--whoa--I was just... whoa... Did I get your tail?" she finally made it to the top of the stage while greeting Mayor Mare. "Miss Mayor. Thank you kindly for this here... award thingy." she let out a yawn while looking at the Golden trophy, she was wobbling her head around, making goofy faces. "It's so bright and shiny and, heh, heh heh, I sure do look funny heh. Ooo-ooo." All the ponies paid more attention to Applejack's features, her eyes had bags, she was yawning a lot and her mane was messy. Applejack was joined by Pinkie Pie in making faces, "Woo-ooo." Said Pinkie while performing the same actions as Applejack. Twilight came up to greet Applejack with Sora next to her. His face had an expression of confusion just like before with the other ponies. It did make a little sense, considering what they are looking at right now. "Okay. Well, thank you Applejack for saving us from that scary stampede, and always being there for everypony." Said Twilight. Applejack accepted the thanks, though yawning more than usual. "Yeah. I like helping the pony folks and….." she yawned in the middle, "and stuff." She fell asleep just as she finished, Sora went up and tapped her a little, waking her up. "Oh! uh, yeah. Uh, Thanks". Applejack started dragging the trophy through the ground, making screeching sounds thanks to the metal, while passing through the crowd again. All the ponies, especially the five elements and keyblade wielder, looked at Applejack shockingly. Twilight was the first to speak up about it, "Was it just me, or did Applejack seem a little--?" "Exhausted, fatigued, worn out,?" Sora said as he got another look from the ponies. The surprised Twilight responded to it with "Huh, that dictionary is really something special." Sora walked in the same direction that Applejack was going, followed by Twilight. Back in the orchid with Applejack. The mare was bucking more and more tree's for the apples, filling up the buckets. Sora and Twilight finally made it to where Applejack was. The orange mare fell asleep though as they both saw. "Applejack." Said Twilight, trying to get the mare's attention. It didn't work though as the mare was still bucking apples. "Applejack." She tried again to no succession. "APPLEJACK!" She finally yelled, causing Sora to flinch a little. Her screaming did work in the end as Applejack finally woke up. "Oh, heya Sora, Twilight." She went back to her business as usual, ignoring the two ponies. Twilight and Sora saw a tiered Applejack go around and buck more tree's for apples. Twilight looked at Sora to ask "What is Applejack doing?". Sora decided to tell the unicorn what this was all about. "It's applebuck season here." Said Sora as he and Twilight walked over to where Applejack was. Twilight asked "Apple what season?" She never heard about this type of thing happening. Sora explained just what it was. "It's what the apple family here calls harvesting season." Sora and Twilight saw Applejack move on to another tree and they followed her again. Sora continued to explain what it was "They gather all the apples here in the orchid so they can sell them for business." Twilight asked why Applejack was doing this by herself, "Why is Applejack not getting any help for this then?" Sora didn't have an answer for that one. "I'm not sure, I tried helping her this morning but she just told me and Big Mac to let her do it all alone." Twilight decided to ask Applejack herself about why she was doing this as a one pony job. "Hey, Applejack! Why are you doing this all by yourself." She then teleported in front of her. Applejack, while still working, replied with "Cause Big McIntosh hurt himself." She bucked the tree and went over to another one. Twilight followed her to the other tree. She asked "What about all those relatives I've met when I first came to Ponyville? Can't they help?" Sora came in front of Applejack and answered that question. "They were relatives here for the family reunion. They all have their own farms spread all across Equestria." Applejack went up to another tree to repeat the process. She looked in front of her as Sora and Twilight moved out of the way. Sadly, she didn't see them move as her eyes went cross. "Could you two move out of the way." Sora and Twilight looked at each other, with the same look of confusion in their faces. "Uh, we already did." Said Twilight. "Applejack, you really don't look so well." Said the purple unicorn. Sora went up next to the orange mare, "Why don't you let us help you. C'mon, there's no way you can get it done all by yourself." Said the caramel pegasus. This didn't exactly get the right response out of the cow girl though. Applejack went up to Sora while sticking her eye out in front of his face. "Is that a challenge?" She asked. Sora was tookan back a little. "Well…..no." he said with a little fear. Applejack strutted away and pride. "Well, I'm gonna prove to you that I can do it! Now if you'll excuse me, I've got apples to buck." Twilight went up to Sora in concern. "Is Applejack going to be ok?" She asked the keyblade wielder. Sora replied, "Eh, I'm sure I'll get to her somehow. At least I hope." The next day, Applejack was running late to meet Rainbow Dash and help her out with her trick. "There you are!" Yelled the rainbow pegasus while standing on top of wooden pink fence. Applejack, while trying to catch her breathe, was apologizing to Rainbow Dash for tardiness. "I'm a mitey sorry, Rainbow. I was busy applebuckin' and I guess ah, I closed my eyes for a second and, when I woke up, I was late. Now, what's this new trick a' yours?" Rainbow Dash pointed her hoof at a giant construction of wood. "See this contraption." Said Rainbow Dash. Applejack nodded her head up and down. Rainbow Dash explained just how her trick was to work. "Well, I'm gonna stand on one end, then you're gonna jump down from that platform, launching me into the air faster than I can take off on my own. Once I'm in the air, I'm gonna do some amazing flips and spins that are sure to impress the Wonderbolts." After Rainbow Dash finished her incredibly long explanation, Applejack questioned the safety of this trick. "Isn't that a mite dangerous?" The rainbow mare shook it off as if it was nothing. "Pfft, Heh, not for a pony who can fly." "Well, all right-y then." Replied the orange mare. She got on top of the wooden contraption while Rainbow was on the catapult. Applejack jumped off, trying to hit the X but missed. She failed miserably. She tried again, and again, and again ,and again. If it wasn't obvious, she failed a lot. Rainbow Dash got tired of Applejack's failures, so she spoke up about it. "Applejack, what the hay is going on? I mean, I thought I was working with Ponyville's best athlete!" Applejack was trying her best to stay up. She closes her eyes for a few seconds but quickly opened them back up. The orange mare shook her head and replied with "You are. I'm okay." she then woke up and thought of something, "I have an idea. Watch this." She went up to the other side of the seesaw. She got on it and yelled "Tada!" It had no effect of sending Rainbow Dash flying into the air. The rainbow mare let out a groan. Applejack put on and embarrassed smile before thinking of something else. "Okay, one more try. I'm sure to get it this time." She got of the wooden seesaw, which caused Rainbow Dash to fall in her belly. Applejack was finally at the top of the wooden contraption again, She jumped off with a not prepared Rainbow Dash growing a shocked expression. "Here I go!" Yelled Applejack on her way down. The orange mare hit the X spot on the seesaw, "Wait, Applejaaaaack!" Screamed Rainbow Dash while flying through the air, far away from where she was originally. In the woods, Sora with his keyblade in his mouth was practicing a spell. "C'mon, one more time." He mumbled, he tried again, pointing his keyblade up as he yelled "Flare!". He finally managed to get it right. A large amount of fire works came out of the keyblade, flying all around the air and exploding in the sky. "Alright!" Screamed the keyblade weilder. He then heard a yell all too familiar to him coming closer and closer. "AHHHHHH." Rainbow Dash came flying in at rappid speeds. She finally crashed into a large branch of a tree, hanging on to it body first. Finally getting control of herself, she looked down to see the other pegasus. Sora looked at her, "Rainbow Dash? What are you doing?" He asked to the teal, rainbow mare The teal pegasus replied to him with slightly sarcastic tone, "Oh you know. Just hanging around." Sora started to think more about this and finally came to the rightful conclusion. This happened because of Applejack, and Sora's face showed it. Sora was accompanying Applejack to help Pinkie Pie in Sugarcube Corner. From what he could tell from its name and what Pinkie Pie said, it sounded like a bakery for pastries. Just the name alone sounds like it would give you a sweet tooth. Applejack wasn't exactly happy about Sora coming along with her though. "Ah don't understand why you gotta come with me to help out Pinkie Pie?" Asked the orange mare towards Sora. The pegasus looked at her with an annoyed and disappointed expression. "After what happened yesterday with Rainbow Dash, I think me coming along is better for everyone." Sora kept on walking with Applejack on his tail. She was a little confused as to why he said 'one' instead of 'pony'. Better yet why do ponies flip flop between them. Irritated, she continued the conversation, "It was just one little thing. No pony was hurt." The two finally arrived at the shop, and just as Sora thought, it was indeed a bakery, actually it was the bakery he had delivered some apples to this morning. The building was pink with chocolate fudge on top. It also had frosting on top of that with a cherry on top of that. Inside Sugarcube Corner, the blue mare from before along with a tall yellow stallion. They were packing things while having a conversation with Pinkie Pie, "Now Pinkie Pie, are you sure you're up for baking the muffins and running the store this afternoon?" Pinkie Pie moved her head up and down, reassuring her. "Don't worry Mrs Cake, I got the best pony helping out." The pink mare looked around seeing that Applejack wasn't there. "Huh, that's odd. She should have been here by now." Sora and Applejack finally came in through the door. "Sorry I'm late, I was busy bucking the……" Applejack was close to falling asleep but managed to wake up in the nick of time, "... Cow's! I was bucking the cow's." Applejack stood in place, waiting for Pinkie Pie. The pink pony looked at Sora and asked him, "What are you doing here. I thought you already delivered the apples. Did you forget one." Sora, with a worn out look, responded with a little attitude. "No, but an apple did forget something." Obviously talking about Applejack. Mrs and Mr Cake finally got everything ready to go. They waved goodbye to the ponies before finally going out the door. Applejack was still asleep however. Being no help like this, Sora tapped her as she woke up again, shaking her head in the process. Pinkie Pie came in and brought the two for a hug, "Stop with the shakin', it's time to get bakin'." Pinkie Pie went over to a cookbook. She flipped through a few pages before finally landing on the muffin recipe. "All right-y! I'll get the sugar and the eggs. Can you get me some chocolate chips?" she asked. Sora went to go get them but Applejack didn't exactly hear it right. "Chips?" The mare asked in confusion. She decided to not question it though, "Tater chips, a little salty and dry, okie-dokie. What next?" she grabbed the chip bag with her mouth and dumped them into a bowl. Sora came back with some chocolate chips and poured them in the same bowl, not noticing the chips in there. Pinkie Pie then asked for the next ingredients. "Baking soda." Sora shook his head up and down, "Baking soda, got it." He then went off to go get it off the shelf. Applejack only heard half of it though. "Soda. Perfect. That'll get the tater chips nice and wet." She went up to the fridge and got the sugary liquid out. The mare went up to the bowl and poured it in. "Now what?" She asked as Sora put in some baking soda, again, not noticing the other ingredients. Pinkie Pie told them the next ingredient. "A cup of flour." Sora went off to go pour some flour in a cup, and brought it over to the bowl and poured it in. Applejack heard Pinkie wrong though. "Cup o' sour? Well, lemons are sure sour. One cup o' sour, comin' up." She went off and brought some lemonz. She squeezed the juice into the bowl, again with Sora not noticing. "Anything else, Pinkie?" "One last thing. Wheat germ." Said the link mare. Sora went off to go get the ingredient. He mumbled to himself 'Wheat germ, Wheat germ' trying to find it on the shelf. Applejack heard it wrong again, this time getting the most horrid thing to put in, "Wheat worms? Oh, that must be fancy talk for earthworms." She went outside and dug under the grass to pull out some worms. She came inside and poured the worms inside the bowl. Sora came in next and powers the wheat germ. Thanks to all the things mixed in, Sora couldn't tell what was in it, not even the worms. "Now that's gonna be delicious." Said Pinkie Pie while putting the bowl into tray's in order to cook them in the oven. Sora was proud of the orange mare for her work. "Nice job Applejack. I thought you were going to screw it up but you ended up doing a pretty good job." The cow girl smiled at that. Sadly he didn't know just how bad it was. "We came as soon as we heard." Said Twilight, along with Spike, coming in to check on the emergency. They saw all the ponies who went to go get muffins were in hospital beds. Barfing into buckets or just having green faces and being in pain, it was a dreadful sight. Sora was helping out already, giving some water to Pinkie Pie while she was lying down. Twilight asked the keyblade wielder "What happened here?" Sora looked back at her, he responded in a disappointed tone, "Applejack happened." Sora then went off to go check on the orange mare. Twilight saw Sora run off and was tempted to follow until she was stopped by Spike who had a half eaten muffin. "Want one?" Said the baby dragon while chewing on a cupcake. Applejack was getting her last promise done for the day, that is helping Fluttershy with the baby bunnies. Both mare's along with Winona were walking on the dirt road to their destination. "Oh Applejack! Thank you so much for offering your herding skills for the annual rabbit roundup." Fluttershy was ecstatic about this. The same could not be said for Applejack though. She was looking far more tired then ever before. "Fine. Can we just get on with it?" Fluttershy wasn't tookan back though and was still relatively herself. The pink maned mare decided to warn Applejack about the baby's though. "Certainly, but remember, these are bunnies we're dealing with, not cows. They're a timid bunch and need to be treated gently." Applejack was getting more grumpy by the minute, " I do NOT need any direction on corralling' critters. Right, Winona?" She said while looking at her dog which gave her a bark in return. They had finally arrived at their destination. All the bunnies were sniffing around and all over the place, being their adorable little self's. Fluttershy tried to get them all in one place, "Okay, little bunnies. I need you to all gather here in the middle." She asked nicely. Applejack took a different approach though, she stopped her hoof in a demanding manner. "That's right! Let's go, bunnies. In the center. Hop to it." Her yells sadly ended up scaring the bunnies. They scattered around the place, annoying Applejack. "Swell. Just swell. Put 'em up, Winona!" The orange mare and dog were running all around, doing their best to capture the bunnies to no succession. Fluttershy in her usual low tone tried to stop the cow girl. "Applejack! Winona! Stop! You're scaring them." Applejack refused to listen to her cry. "We know what we're doin'. Get along, little bunnies." Her and Winona finally managed to corner them, but instead of stopping, they were frightened even more and began to run off. Far in Ponyville, the residents were going above their daily routine, again. Rainbow Dash was in the air, again. While in that air she saw dust fly around. The difference this time around was that it was a bunch of baby bunnies coming in hot. The rainbow mare yelled "STAMPEDE!" All the residents of Ponyville started running around in a panic, closing their windows, taking in their doormats and whatnot. This time around, Applejack didn't come to help them out. One mare was in the middle of the stampede, she quickly wanted hitting the ground. The baby bunnies just ran around her though. It wasn't the end of the problem though as the baby bunnies came in and devoured all the plants, and grass and flowers of all the homes. Sora and Twilight finally came in to Ponyville, seeing the mares on the ground, screaming " The horror, the horror", "This is horrible", "A disaster. A horrible, horrible disaster." Sora and Twilight looked around Ponyville to see it was completely fine. Nothing was ruined or destroyed as far as they could tell. "I don't get it." Both Sora and Twilight exclaimed at the same time. They quickly looked around and saw just what the mares were talking about. All the gardens and grass was completely eaten by the baby bunnies. They could tell by seeing Fluttershy running around trying to stop them. Both Sora and Twilight had enough of Applejack's antics thanks to her overworking herself. At Sweet Apple Acres, the orange mare was kicking and apple tree with one leg while mumbling to herself. Sora and Twilight made it. The keyblade wielder was the first to scold her, "Alright Applejack, So far you have over launched a pegasus who knows miles away, probably injuring her." "Food poisoned many ponies." Followed up Twilight. Sora finished off with, "And probably scared many baby bunnies for the rest of their two year life's. We don't care anymore about what you have to say, you need help." Applejack was still not letting them though, that mare was just not passing it through, "No, I don't. Look, I did it. I harvested the entire Sweet Apple Acres without your help. How d'ya like them apples?" She said on her last legs. She pointed to a large amount of trees already harvested. Twilight and Sora looked unamused, "What about those apples?" Asked Twilight very sternly while pointing to the other batch to the left side. Applejack just mumbled and went to go get them done, she grabbed an apple and took a bite while throwing it behind her. The partially eaten apple landed on Sora's head though. The keyblade wielder asked, "Where are you going?" The orange mare replied, "To go get that side done." She went off walking very tiredly to the apple trees. Twilight couldn't take it anymore, "Ugh, how do we get a pony who won't listen to listen?" She asked Sora. The carmel pegasus started to ponder as a little caterpillar came out of the apple on his head. "By….." suddenly he got an idea with the caterpillar on his head glowing, "...Not listening back!" Exclaimed Sora. He got some buckets and boosted off to go over to the apple trees, putting his plan into motion. Applejack saw Sora dash off and he was doing just what she had said not to do, he was bucking the apples at an extreme speed, "Hey, what are you doin?" She asked as Sora quickly blitzed over to another tree. Sora yelled back, "What's that. I can't here you." In a mocking tone. He went over to more tree's buck them for the apples, annoying Applejack even more. "Ah say quit it." She yelled while trying to chase Sora. She was going left and right but the pegasus was winning for one major reason, she was getting dead tired. She tried going, she really did but the cow girl couldn't as she fell down and fell asleep. "Applejack, Applejack." The orange mare heard her name being spoken as she was waking up. She saw Sora and Twilight right in front of her. The unicorn finally did what she needed to do. "I completely respect the Apple family way's. You're always there to help anypony in need, so maybe you can put a little of your stubborn pride aside and allow your friends to help you." Applejack took those words to heart, she really has been pushing herself to far, "Okay, Twilight." She stood up and saw her two friends face to face. "Please. I could really use your help." Sora and Twilight smiled, happy to see everything work out. Later on in the day, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Sora along with Twilight we're getting down the apples from the tree's in their own unique way. Twilight monologue to herself about just what lesson she had learned, or rather knew about thanks to an orange mare, 'Dear Princess Celestia, My friend Applejack is the best friend a pony could ever have, and she's always there to help anypony. The only trouble is, when she needs help, she finds it hard to accept it, so while friendship is about giving of ourselves to friends, it's also about accepting what our friends have to offer. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle' Applejack came in with some applejuice for her friends, "How about y'all take a little break? I got some fine apple juice waitin' for ya!" They all came around and say on a wooden table. The orange mare had to finish this off in one way though, "Girls, I can't thank you enough for this help. I was acting really stubborn. I'm awful sorry, Now, I know the town gave me the Prized Pony award, but the real award is having you six as my friends." All of them were touched by that, accepting her apology. Rainbow Dash's stomach starts to grumble reminding her of something, "Phew! That applebucking sure made me hungry." Spike came in with some half eaten muffins, The same ones that gave everyone food poisoning. "And I've got the perfect treat." He said, he showed all the ponies there the horrid abominations they were. Pinkie Pie, of all ponies, felt the need to ask "Eeew... Spike, I threw those all away. Where'd you get them?" The baby dragon replied "In the garbage can." The ponies yelled 'Eww' in Union while walking away. Spike tried to get them to try it but they all didn't want food poisoning so they obviously rejected the offer. Sora finished it off with "You know they have worms, right? How did I not notice." The ponies finally ended there day walking off into the sunset, until another, hopefully more hygienic adventure. > Griffon Brush Off > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Griffon Brush Off Day time here in Ponyville is a peaceful time. No danger, no problems and hardly any noise. This made it a perfect place for Sora to have some lunch, a daffodil sandwich and hay fries which should be a good meal, for a pony. While Celestia did state he was mostly a pony now, he wasn't sure if he had the taste buds of one. Although he did have a weird craving for meat in the Pride Lands and as a mermaid, or man, he didn't feel like eating meat. 'Maybe this is a similar scenario?' he questioned himself. Sora took a small, hesitant bite from the sandwich, and it was amazing. The flavors all mixed in together so well with the bread and vegetables, he was enjoying it, actually enjoying it. He continued to eat the sandwich and fries with a warm smile. He then heard something, it was Pinkie Pie. He looked over and saw her going around and asking ponies questions. "Hi, I'm looking for Rainbow Dash. Have you seen her?" she asked a group of mares who nodded their heads left and right. She went over to another few to ask the same thing, "Hi there, have you seen Rainbow Dash?" It was the same response. Sora was wondering why she needed Rainbow Dash at the moment. The pegasus then heard a noise from above, he looked up and saw the mare Pinkie Pie was looking for. He saw her digging into the cloud she was on, trying to hide, probably from Pinkie Pie. The pink mare came up to him, "Hey Sora, have you seen Rainbow Dash?" The teal mare grew a look of worry. She hopped that Sora wouldn't give away her position, if he knew she was there at all. Fate wasn't on her side though, the caramel pegasus told Pinkie Pie, "Yeah, she's up there in that cloud." Rainbow Dash quickly bolted out if the cloud as she was flying at supersonic speeds, far away. Pinkie Pie noticed this and quickly chased her down. Rainbow Dash managed to hide behind the Apple family barn, as she saw Pinkie Pie pass by. She let out a sigh of relief while walking away. "Hi!" Rainbow Dash heard as Pinkie Pie was in front of her, face to face. She quickly dashed off again trying to get away from the pink mare. Pinkie Pie was skipping her way over to where the pegasus was flying off too. Rainbow Dash ended up flying into the Golden Oak Library leafy part on top. She let out a another sigh while relaxing, she didn't realize where she was sitting though, or better , who. "Hi again." Said Pinkie Pie under Rainbow Dash, the pegasus quickly yelled again while flying out of the tree with Pinkie Pie going after her again. Rainbow Dash finally lost Pinkie Pie, getting away far enough from the pink mare. She landed next to a lake and fell down, resting. She catches her breathe on the nice ground, unitil Pinkie Pie made herself known again by coming out of the lake with scuba gear. She spit out some water into the lake, "I need a favor" She said. Rainbow Dash quickly got back up ready to run off again, "AAAHH- oh what's the use?" She asked herself before giving up entirely. The pink mare went up to her, while looking down to see Rainbow Dash In a more positive view, "I promise it will be really fun!" Rainbow Dash didn't have any other options, it was either this or running away and trying to hide which would be pointless as Pinkie Pie would just find her again. "Fine." Rainbow Dash answered, defeated. Turns out what Pinkie Pie needed help was with a cloud. Rainbow Dash, with an annoyed look, was moving it around while being instructed by her friend. "Over to the right." Pinkie Pie motioned her hoof to which side as Rainbow Dash followed her order. "No, a little to the left now." Rainbow Dash again moved the cloud. "One more smidgimeter to the—." "Pinkie Pie!" Yelled Rainbow Dash, furious as to how back and forward the whole scenario. The pink mare decided that maybe ending things here was for the best. "Uh, I mean, perfect." Pinkie Pie looked inside a tall building through the window. Spike was inside, grabbing some scrolls. "Now wait for my signal." Pinkie Pie was next to the front door to the building. Spike was exiting out with his scrolls, walking forward casually. As soon as he was a few steps out, the pink mare gave the signal, Rainbow Dash quickly bucked the cloud making a thunder crackle sound, causing Spike to yelp. He ended up dropping his scrolls in the process while standing completely still, until he let out a hiccup. He continued to hiccup like crazy, trying to pick up one after the other with very little succession in each attempt. The mares were enjoying every little bit of this, giggling which turned into uncontrollable laughter. "HAHAHAHA!" both were now in the ground trying their best to stop but no luck. Spike finally put the picture together, and joined in in laughing, "Hahaha, good one girls." Spike went up to go and grab another scroll, he let out another hiccup though letting out a bit of fire which we all know are sended to Princess Celestia. The mares finally got control and stood up. "Have you ever seen anything more hilarious?" Asked Pinkie Pie to her Rainbow friend. The pegasus was quick to answer, "I can think of one." She flew up and jumped on the cloud again, letting out another crackle. Pinkie Pie yelped herself while also catching the case of the hiccups, quickly laughing it off in the process. "I didn't take you for a prankster, Pinkie Pie." Rainbow Dash came down to see her friend face to face. The pink mare was answering her with a few hiccups in her sentence. "Are you -- kidding?-- I love to pull pranks. It's all- in good fun, and Pinkie Pie lo--oves to have -fun!" Rainbow Dash let out a nice little chuckle. Turns out, Pinkie Pie was a great person to be around. "You know Pinkie Pie, you're not as annoying as I thought, wanna hangout?" Rainbow Dash asked. Pinkie Pie let out more hiccups, bouncing around in the process, "That'd be-- I'd really---- When do--- I mean-- When would you." Rainbow then put her hoof in front to stop Pinkie Pie from bouncing even more. Once she placed her hoof down again, Pinkie Pie asked her something. "So, Who do you want to prank now?" Rainbow Dash had the perfect idea as to who, "Ooo, a very special pegasus." She took her hoofs and rubbed them together while growing a large, evil smile that spread across her whole face. "Pinkie Pie, I'm going to need your help for this next one." The other mare shook her head up and down as both went off to strike there next target. Sora was walking through Ponyville. The stallion wasn't exactly going anywhere, just enjoying the scenery. He was stopped though by Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, who had a basket filled with cookies. "Hey Rainbow, Pinkie. How are you two?" Sora asked the mares with his jolly tone, not knowing what was waiting for him. The pegasus decided to play him into her trap, "Oh just fine Spiky. Say, we made a batch of cookies. Since you're such a good friend, want one?" Her tone was that of an over the top supervillain, with the smile to boot. The stallion didn't notice however, seeing it as a friendly jester. "Sure, I don't see why not." He put his hoof in the basket and grabbed a cookie, his hoof was slowly bringing the cookie to his mouth as he took a bite. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie started to chuckle a little, trying as hard as they could not to fully laugh out at him, thankfully it was small enough that Sora wouldn't hear them. "How do they taste?" Pinkie Pie asked while still chuckling. Sora was tasting every single crumb in his mouth to savor it. After he met the little chef in Twilight Town, he felt he has a good taste for amazing food, despite not cooking on his own will. "It's pretty good, Nice blend of chocolate with cinnamon. Ooo, and a touch of AHHHHHHHHHHH!" He opened his mouth due to the pain his tongue was feeling, along with fire coming out. Turns out, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie ended up putting a to of hot sauce in the cookies. Speaking of the mares, they both finally fell to the ground and started laughing at the stallion's misfortune. He was running around, looking for some way to cool off his tongue. Sora went left and right trying to find something anything, he finally managed to find a large tub of water and jumped in. Both mare's finally got back up, "That's for ratting me out to Pinkie Pie!" Yelled Rainbow Dash. The pink mare felt the need to ask, "Wait, what do you mean by that?" The teal pegasus put herself into a corner, "Oh, uh, forget what I said. It was a long time ago." She was trying to hide the actual reason she was avoiding the mare, trying to mostly enjoy the prank she and Pinkie Pie just performed. The mares went off, probably to go prank some pony else. "This means war." Sora came out of the water and shook himself, getting the water off and giving him back his messy mane. The stallion then went off, planning his revenge. Later that day, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were making their way down Ponyville. The pegasus and earth pony looked down at the floor and noticed something, two banana split's. They were just laying there with no pony claiming them. "Yum!" Both mare's licked their lips as they rushed over to them, as soon as they got close enough, a rope came out and tied them up from their back legs. The both were now hanging upside down, along with hearing some laughing. "Hahahahah!" The culprit came out, revealing himself. It was Sora and he was enjoying every second of this. "Hey, I see you two are 'hanging around'. Hahahahah!" Rainbow Dash wasn't impressed by his little joke. "Really, this is it? I expected more from you, honestly." Her tone was filled with attitude. The teal pegasus wasn't going to fuel the stallions pride any more then she had too. Pinkie Pie was just trying her best to grab the pastry. Sora picked up the two banana split's with his wings, similar to how someone would with their hands, and slammed them into both of the mares faces. He went back to laughing, this time even harder then before. Rainbow Dash's expression became even more irritated while Pinkie Pie just licked her face, filled with Ice cream. It's now Sora's turn to be pranked. The two mares were overlooking the stallion, asleep on a bench near many trees. This one was a classic prank to pull off, Pinkie Pie took out the supplies for this one from her hair. Rainbow Dash placed a white creamy substance on the stallions hoof, with Pinky getting a feather out. As soon as the pegasus finished, she got back a safe distance with the other mare moving the feather gently around Sora's nose. The caramel pegasus is twitched a little, the mare tried again getting a bigger reaction, with him shaking a little. One last time, Pinkie Pie tried again with Sora finally smacking his face with his hoof. "Ah!" He screamed, surprised. He then licked the substance, tasting it. "Shaving cream? Rainbow Dash!" He yelled, not being able to see the mares, laughing at his expense. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were on another stroll through Ponyville. They quickly got notice of Sora, setting up two ropes with banana splits near them. The stallion finally noticed the two mares, but not losing his confidence. Rainbow Dash felt the need to call him out, "Really?" She quickly zipped and grabbed the Banana split's with the trap not catching her. "I know your a lot of things Spiky, but repetitive wasn't one I thought of." She picked up the silver spoon, ready to dig in. Boom! Rainbow heard a thunder crackle. She looked up and saw a cloud placed on top of her, which dropped an enormous amount of water on her, completely soaking her wet along with her ice cream. It was all according to plan on Sora's part. He fell down and laughed as hard as he could. "Did you forget I'm a pegasus too?" He went back to his chuckles with Rainbow Dash letting out a small groan. Sora was asleep again, justike the lazy bum he was to take a nap twice in the same day. He heard something, waking him up. It was…..waves? He decided to check what it was, getting up as he finally noticed what the noise was. Turns out he was on a river, just to make sure this was Rainbow Dash's doing he checked in front to see if there was a waterfall in front, sure enough their was. While falling down he yelled "RAINBOW DASH!" He finally hit the bottom as a large splash was made. The two mares responsible for this were watching from near the river, again, laughing at the mischief they have created. "Man, that one was our best one yet." Pinkie Pie exclaimed as both mare's bumped hoofs. "I hope he's alright though." The pegasus shook of the thought, "It's Sora, I'm sure he's fine Pinkie." Both went back to laughing, while doing so, Sora finally came out if the river and fell down next to the mars. "Sora! Are you ok?" Pinkie Pie inspected him from head to toe, seeing if he was hurt in any way. The stallion then started laughing, "That one was the best prank you and Rainbow ever pulled off today!" All three then laughed together, enjoying their time. "This was great. It reminds me of when……" his sentence came to a screeching halt as he thought back to his friends. Riku, Kairi. How the three played as kids, running around and pulling pranks on one another. The same prank he played on Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie was the exact same one he played on Riku and Kairi. It took him 15 minutes just to get everything ready. He started to feel…… sad. Both mare's saw his expression change, "Sora, are you ok? You look a little down." Pinkie Pie inspected his face, he looked as if he was about to cry, as if he lost something very valuable to him. The stallion's eyes got a little watery, much to his displeasure. He wiped them away and tried to stop thinking about it. "Sorry, I was just getting some memories back. Nothing to worry about." He looked up and saw that sunset was fast approaching. "Look at the time. I should head back to Sweet Apple Acres. See you girls tomorrow!" The Stallion quickly ran off with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie doing the same, going back home. The next day, Pinkie Pie was looking for Rainbow Dash once again so they could pull off more pranks together. She made it to a building made out of cloud's, Rainbow Dash's residence. "Rise and shine Rainbow Dash! It's a brand new day and we got a lot of pranking too-" she cut herself off as she noticed a new face, a hawk looking creature, presumably female. "Mornin', Pinks". Rainbow Dash finally flew down and hugged Pinkie with one hoof. "Gilda, this is my gal pal, Pinkie Pie." The other female came down to greet the pink mare. "Pinkie, this is my griffon friend, Gilda." The pony asked the Pegasus "What's a griffon?" Being unfamiliar with that kind of species, never running into one her entire life. "She's half-eagle, half-lion." "And all awesome. Raa. Heh-haa. Yeah, that's right." Gilda came in and bumped Rainbow Dash in a friendly fashion. Both of them then proceeded to do a special handshake right in front of Pinkie Pie. The mare was enthusiastic about a new friend, definitely a great way to start some good hearted mayhem. "It's so nice to meet you Gilda!" Pinkie went up to the Griffin and furiously shook her hand, causing Gilda to quickly pull it back in annoyance. The mare ignored that while going over to her pegasus friend. "Hey, you two wanna go pull some pranks on unsuspecting ponies?" The pegasus looked over to her friend. Gilda wasn't exactly what too, "Well, I groove on a good prank as much as the next griffon. But Dash, you promised me we'd get a flying session in this morning." she went off to go get ready for her little race against rainbow. The pegasus looked back to her friend to see if she was ok with accepting that offer, "Yeah, uh, well, Pinkie Pie, you don't mind, do you? Gilda just got here. We'll catch up with you later." The mare wasn't sure about it, but seeing how good of a friend Gilda is to Rainbow Dash she allowed her, "Um, well sure, no problem. Have fun you guys, I'll, uh, just catch up with you later." She saw the pegasus fly off along with the giffin, along with her blowing her party hooter, sadly. Rainbow Dash and Gilda flew through the sky at extreme speeds, passing through clouds left and right. Gilda landed on a cloud with Rainbow Dash coming in, crashing into her friend. Both now fallen over laughed at their antics. "Whoa, that was sweet. Just like old times." They got back up and fist/hoof bumped, "Yeah, only faster. So now what?" as soon as teal pegasus and griffin got up on their legs, a familiar face showed herself. "Hey there." Pinkie Pie's head came out from the bottom of the cloud's. She then fell down and came back up thanks to the trampoline under her. This got a laugh out of Rainbow Dash, happy to see her friend. "Pinkie Pie, you are so random." Gilda wasn't happy about it though, feeling bitter about seeing her friend hanging out with someone else. She then had an idea, "Hey Dash, think you got enough gas left to beat me to that cloud?" Both of them then boosted off, leaving Pinkie Pie behind. Sora was taking a little stroll, he quickly noticed Pinkie Pie, jumping up and down on a trampoline. He wondered what exactly was going on. The stallion looked over to his left and saw Rainbow Dash along with a griffon, talking about who knows what. While he wonders who she was, he noticed Pinkie Pie flying over to them with a stack of balloons carrying her. "Wow guys, that was really close, but I think Rainbow Dash beat you by a teeny weeny itty bitty hair, or a teeny weeny itty bitty feather." Pinkie said. Sora was looking closely at the situation, as to what was going on. "Okay... Dash, last one to that cloud up there is a gnarly dragon egg." Gilda pointed up to the finish. "Go!" She yelled as Rainbow Dash, well, dashed off leaving behind a small cloud. Gilda emerged, staying behind while confronting Pinkie Pie. "I think the high altitude is making you dizzy." She then used her pointy claws to pop the balloons, one by one with the mare losing altitude fast. Sora sea this, "Oh no." He was making his way over to Pinkie Pie, until she flew up again in a pink bicycle, helicopter thingy. She was flying higher and higher, going over to Rainbow Dash and Gilda. The pegasus and griffon landed on another cloud with Pinkie going near them. "Wait, guys! Oh wow, you guys almost got away from me that time." Gilda was getting more and more annoyed by the mare. She then had an ever better idea as to how to get rid of her. "So, Dash, got any new moves in your tricktionary, or are you 100% old school?" Rainbow Dash quickly flew up, "New moves? Heh, sit back G, this is gonna take a while." She flew away, going so she would be ready. As soon as the pegasus left, Gilda went up to Pinkie Pie's contraption. "Don't you know how to take get lost for an answer? Dash doesn't need to hang with a dweeb like you now that I'm around. You're dorkin' up the skies, Stinkie Pie, so make like a bee and BUZZ OFF." she then span the contraption, causing the mare to spin out of control, falling down, getting ready for a crash landing. As soon as Sora saw what happened, he dashed off as fast as he could, trying to fly over an rescue his friend, although he knew the basics of flying, he still had some learning to do, so staying in the air was a little difficult. He still managed to get up to Pinkie while grabbing her out in time. The contraption hit the ground, thankfully not hurting any pony from below. As soon as the two ponies made it to the ground, Sora told his friend "I saw everything." The two were now in Ponyville, sitting in a round table eating some ice cream. "...and as soon as Rainbow Dash leaves, Gilda comes in and tells me to buzz off! No matter what I do she just keeps trying to steal her away! Griffons are never this mean, well I only ever met her, but still if I met others they wouldn't be that bad!" Pinkie slimmed down while eating some of her Ice cream, trying to figure out what to do. Sora was thinking about how to deal with the griffon, "I don't know Pinkie Pie, she's a horrible person no doubt, but dealing with her is tricky. We can't just call Gilda out with her and Rainbow Dash being long time friends." He took another bite of ice cream. It was no sea salt ice cream that's for sure but it was still Ice cream. "Maybe……. I got it!" He exclaimed, getting the perfect idea. "What? What is it!" Pinkie Pie asked, jumping up and down on top of the table. The pegasus told the mare his plan, "We prank her!" Pinkie Pie went back to sitting down while hearing Sora out. "If we can irritate Gilda just enough until she bursts, right in front of Rainbow Dash, then she can see just how terrible of a person she is!" Pinkie Pie didn't see eye to eye with his plan though, "I'm not sure, I mean, she's really bad but going so far just sounds mean." As if her timing was right, Gilda made her way to Ponyville, going around, looking for a bite. She then jumped inside a waggon, filled with many fruits and vegetables. Sora and Pinkie Pie noticed this and paid attention to what she was up to. Gilda then stuck out her tail right in front of an old mare, turns out it was Granny Smith who thought it was a snake, she tried her best to run off but thanks to her old age, she wasn't going very far very fast. Both ponies noticed this, Sora looked over to Pinkie Pie, "Aw, poor Granny Smith, she didn't know it was a joke! How mean!" She quickly realized Sora's facial expression, urging her to agree to his plan. "No, it's just a joke right, no pony was hurt." Gilda then moved over to a new kart and ended up stealing an apple, sneakily, leaving no sense of regret. Sora gave Pinkie Pie another look with the mare trying to deny the fact that she does want to knock the griffon a few pegs. "No, I'm sure she just didn't know she had to pay for it." The mare was trying her best to not want to, but it was becoming harder and harder. The final straw was coming though. While Gilda was walking strutting, Fluttershy was helping some ducks walk through Ponyville, "All right little ones, this way, this way. Mama duck, you're free and clear." She ended up bumping into Gilda. The griffon took this small mistake very poorly, "Hey". Fluttershy noticed what she did and quickly apologized. "Oh, um, I'm sorry. I-I-I was just trying to…" As soon as she began though, Gilda mocked her, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Why don't you just watch where you're going, doofus?" Fluttershy was loosing her courage and tried her best to get out of this situation. "B-b-b-but I... I…". Before she could finish though, Gilda let out a roar that the birds in the sky could hear it, causing Fluttershy to run away crying. This was what finally got Pinkie Pie to finally agree with her pegasus friend, "She's a grump, and a thief, and a bully! The meanest kind of mean meanie-pants there is! I can't take it, no one treats Fluttershy like that. No. One. This calls for extreme measures, Pinkie Pie style!" Sora got up and cheered. "Woo hoo, Glad to hear it, so what do you have in mind?" The mare went over to Sora and whispered into his ear as to what she has thought out. Turns out, Pinkie Pie had a party set up, so Sora questioned, "I don't think this is what 'I' had in mind." Pinkie Pie gave him a 'Trust me' smile as she went over to the door to welcome some ponies into the party. Finally, Gilda, along with Rainbow Dash came in to the bakery, seeing the festivities. "Gilda, I'm so glad you're here!" Pinkie Pie went up and sahked her hand feriously. Gilda was slightly annoyed but she couldn't show it right in front of her old friend. Sora went up to the three. "Hey, you must be Gilda. It so nice to meet a friend of Rainbow Dash." He put out a hoof for Gilda to shake, as soon as she did though, she felt a little shock go through her body. "Oh, sorry. I forgot to take this off." The stallion's tone was anything but subtle. The griffon started getting annoyed, so far so good. The mares laughed at this little joke. "Joy buzzer, good one Spiky." Rainbow went up to Sora to give him a little friendly bump. "Gilda, this is Sora, a new friend of mine." The teal pegasus then made her way into the room asking her friend to come along, "I'll introduce you to some of my other friends." "Right behind you Dash." The griffon took this opportunity to do something, grabbing Pinkie Pie close to her face, "I know what you and that spikey maned dweeb are up too." "I'm still here you know." Said Sora, he then looked up to see his mane. "I've got my on you two, you hear!" Threatened Gilda, though Pinkie Pie and Sora didn't feel like they were, they saw Gilda as nothing more but a bully. All the ponies now circled around an area, with many treats. "Ooo, Vanilla lemon drops. Don't mind if I do." Gilda took one and tossed into her mouth. Sora and Pinkie Pie gave each other a wink while Gilda chewed on her lemon drop. The griffon then felt the taste, it was sour, and it got more and more sour, "Ah, too sour!" She yelled, trying to get the taste off. "Quick the punch!" Rainbow Dash said while Gilda went over to try and drink some but it ended up pouring all out. The ponies laughed at her misfortune. "Ha! Priceless, priceless!" The griffon managed to find some water, drinking it as fast as she could. The sourness finally went away, much to her relief. "Yeah, hilarious." The griffon was loosing her patience. Sora and Pinkie Pie were ready to put this plan into high gear. The pink mare came out and brought with her a large cake with six candles at the top, "Cake time, every pony!" Gilda licked her beak, the cake looked absolutely delicious. Sora quickly brought her over. "C'mon, why don't you blow the candles. You are the guest of honor." Gilda stood right in front of said cake. She took in a large gulp of air, and blew out the candles. As soon as they were blown though, the candles quickly lit back up. She tried again and again but the candles always just lit up again. This was just what the two ponies planned though, as Gilda started getting tiered. "Hahahahah! Relighting birthday candles, I wonder who thought of that one?" Pinkie Pie said with the griffon getting more annoyed. While the candles weren't blown,Sora still stuck his face in and chowed down while getting a disappointed look from the other ponies. Rainbow Dash looked at her friend directly, "C'mon G. You didn't take that prank to literally, Right?" "No way, Dash. Like I said, I'm down with a good prank." As soon as that little prank was over, Gilda snatched Pinkie Pie to where no one could see them. "Hey, I'm watching you. Like a hawk." Pinkie Pie didn't feel threatened, not even close really. "Why? Can't you watch me like a griffon?" She looked over to Sora for the finally, giving him a wink with him giving another wink back. "Hey look guys. It's pin the tail on the donkey!" Gilda went over and quickly snatched the tail in order to play the game. "Perfect, Gilda you should go first." Sora took a blind fold and placed it on Gilda with Pinkie Pie spinning her around and around. "We're spinning you around and around and then you can pin the tail on the pony. Now just walk straight ahead and pin the tail." Gilda wasn't falling for it this time. "Now just walk straight ahead and pin the tail." She said mockingly. "Hmph, yeah, right. This is another prank, isn't it? I'm going this way." Though it wasn't, she was walking in the complete wrong direction. Pinkie Pie tried to stop her, this wouldn't end up well if she did. "Wait. The poster is this—." It was too late though as Gilda need up slipping on a piece of cake, crashing into a bunch of presents. As soon as the dust cleared, She was messy from head to toe, along with the tail around her nose. The ponies started to lightly chuckle at her expense, Sora the most. "Gilda, I think the tail is supposed to go somewhere else." He then went back to laughing his 'tail' off. This was all just what was needed though, Gilda finally let out a large roar that all the ponies could hear. "This is your idea of a good time? I've never met a lamer bunch of dweebs in all my life! And Pinkie Pie, you! You are queen lame-o with your weak little party pranks! Did you really think you could make me lose my cool? Well, Dash and I have ten times as much cool as the rest of you put together! Come on Dash, we're bailing on this pathetic scene." Despite her calling her friend over, The pegasus didn't comply. "Come on, Rainbow Dash. I said, we're leaving." Rainbow Dash finally saw just what kind of person Gilda was. She stood her ground this time. "You know Gilda, I was the one who set up all those weak pranks at this party." "What?" The griffon was shocked by this statement. "Come on, Dash, you're joshing me." "They weren't all meant for you specifically, it was just dumb luck that you set them all off." Gilda still tried to deny accepting that fact, "No way, i-it was Pinkie Pie and her stupid friend! They set up this party to trip me up, to make a fool of me." Sora didn't let that insult get to him this time as he was eating cake in the background. "When Sora and Pinkie Pie came up too me and told me what you did, I didn't believe them at first. Now that I saw the real you, I made myself an idiot for thinking my friends would lie to me, just like how you made and idiot of yourself today." Rainbow Dash made herself clear. At this point, Gilda didn't care. At least, that's how she tried to make it out. "Rrgh... yeah? Well you, you... you are such a, a flip-flop, cool one minute and lame the next. When you decide not to be lame anymore, gimme a call." she then flew out the door, exiting out. Rainbow Dash felt a little hurt about what happened, her childhood friend turned out to be nothing but a jerk after all this time. Sora went up to help her out, "It's alright Rainbow Dash. Gilda might have been a jerk but that's no reason to feel bad." The pegasus tried to hide her feeling's. "What? No, I don't feel bad at all…..". "Hey, I know what it's like loosing friends. It hurts a lot, but thinking that other people's faults are yours isn't the way to deal with it." Rainbow Dash sighed, he was right. She knew she could trust him and Pinkie Pie, unlike Gilda, they were true friends. The three ended this little episode the best way friends could, by being there for each other. > Call the boast busters > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Call the boast busters Morning time in Sweet Apple Acres is something Sora has gotten pretty used to. It was a simple routine, wake up, eat breakfast, brush teeth and go outside to do whatever the apple family needed. Right now he was covering for Applejack and Big Mac, who went off to make a delivery at Ponyville. The Pegasus was left to buck the trees with Apple Bloom as company. "Wow, yer getting better and better at the job every day Sora." The filly marveled. She really started to admire him, seeing Sora as a big brother. She did have Big Mac but the pegasus just displayed a different effect. He was strong, brave along with his smile that could make any pony happy just witnessing it. The job for Sora wasn't completely a cake walk though. Kicking a tree and pushing buckets full of apples for so long does something to a stallion. "Yeah, a little more time and I'll be just as good as Applejack." He wiped some sweat off his head and continued his job. The curious filly asked Sora something, "I hope you don't mind me asking but what was yer home like." This struck a chord with him. Sora has been gone for a good amount of time, Equestria was a great place but he still misses his friends, his home. The pegasus still remembers what he promised Celestia, he couldn't break it. "Oh, it's a small group of Islands. It's not that interesting though." He tried to buck some more apple's, this time Apple Bloom moved the buckets to the side with her head. "We do have something special, it's called a Paopu fruit. It only grows on our Island's." He then remembered that he still has one, the one he and Kairi were going to share, it came with him after he dusted away. The stallion put it in his room for safe keeping, maybe one day he will eat it, share it with someone but as of now no. The filly was more interested in said fruit. "Wow, what makes it so special?" The pegasus then told her the legend behind the fruit. "There's a story behind it. It's said that if two pe-, um, ponies share one, their destinies become intertwined. They will be a part of each other's lives forever." Apple Bloom wanted to know, "Were you going to share one with any pony?" "I was, but time fell short for me." Sora still couldn't get it out of his head. He had no way of going home or seeing his friends again. It was a pain feeling alone. Apple Bloom looked at his face, it was starting to get somber. She suggested something, "Hey, why don't we call it a day. You have been working pretty hard." That did sound nice, maybe a break would help get his head off the subject. It was nice to remember while he had none of his old friends with him, his new ones are still here. On a dirt road, Twilight along with Spike on her back, were on their way to Sweet Apple Acres. Spike felt the need to question his friend's decision. "Why are we asking Sora for help, I can be the test subject for you to practice magic on." The dragon suggested. The unicorn, though, had a different reason as to ask the pegasus for help. "It needs to be Sora, Spike. He is a keyblade wielder, so therefore he most likely can take magic head on." That wasn't her actual reason though. The baby dragon knew for a sure fact that Twilight wanted to ask for Sora to gain something else. "You want to study his Keyblade without telling him." Twilight put on a worried expression, the dragon knew exactly what her reason was. As soon as she was about to ask how he knew, the dragon answered her question. "You're as easy to read as the books you have back in the library. I still don't get why you can't just ask him like a normal pony." Twilight let out a sigh, "Because if I do, he might say no and start to think I'm crazy or something close to it. The keyblade is an object I need to study, there's nothing like it from any book I read in my life that comes close to it. " Ever since after the day Nightmare Moon returned, Twilight has been trying to look for Information on the Keyblade and heartless but no luck. The baby dragon thought that just asking would be better but if Twilight thought this was the best way, then might as well let her try. The two finally arrived at the farm. They walked over to the barn where Sora and Apple Bloom had been eating a few apples. Sora quickly took notice of his friends, he went over to greet them. "Hey guys. What are two doing here?" Twilight was the first to speak. "Well you see, I have some magic spells I need to learn, since I am Princess Celestia's student." The stallion was paying attention to her reason with Spike just laying back. "And you have a keyblade, so I figured you would be the perfect pony to try them on." She let out a smile, Which was clearly being forced, as she was trying her best to keep up the lie, "Please?" Sora thought about it. It couldn't be that bad, just helping a friend. "Sure, I'll see you later Apple Bloom." He waved goodbye as the filly did the same, waving back "Bye Sora, take care now." The pegasus along with Twilight and Spike began to make their way over to the Golden Oak Library. 'It can't be that bad', the pegasus thought. "I take it back". Sora was now in the Golden Oak Library, being zapped by Twilight's magic with Spike sitting down, crossing out the spells Twilight had done in succession. For the pegasus the spells hurt a little, as If a bee has stung him over and over again. "Ah!" He screamed again. The unicorn decided to ask what was happiness. "Sora, what's going on? I thought you would have some kind of magic resistance." The pegasus accidentally spat something out, "I would if I still had most of my power left." At that moment he realized what he had said. Twilight asked, "What do you mean 'if you still had most of your power left?" Her tone was very strict, she wanted to know as to why he thought it was something to not tell her or anyone else for that matter. The pegasus decided it would be best to explain himself. "Alright, I didn't tell you because I thought you would act concerned about me. I used to have lots of other magic spells under my belt but ever since I came here I ended up losing most of them along with any other strength I had left." He scratched his head with his hoof. "Sora, we would worry about you but keeping things like this a secret won't do us any favors." She was very disappointed that information wasn't told to her or any other of the six elements. This also made Twilight's mission in trying to study the keyblade without Sora's knowledge harder, seeing him trying to keep that secret reinforced her thoughts. For the pegasus he felt bad too, one of the things about friendship is honesty and he wasn't doing a good job at portraying it. "Is there anything else you're keeping from us." Her tone this time was concerned. The pegasus hated lying, especially to his new friends, but he promised Celestia to not say a word. He started to think back as to his talk with the Princess in the garden. "I can't tell any of my friends about other worlds or who I really am." The princess nodded her head up and down, "Indeed, I fear that if knowledge got out, then the consequences could be dire." Sora put his head down hearing this. "It's not that I don't trust Twilight or the other elements, but these kinds of measures must be taken until I can make this information public. I do hope you understand." Her tone was somber, as if she knew lying was wrong but Sora knew Celestia was right, meddling was forbidden for a reason. He finally came back to consciousness. "No, I'm not keeping anything else. I'm sorry I kept it a secret." His frown was large, about the same as the day Twilight yelled at him. As fast as it came though, it went away as a smile took its place. "Oh well, guess I just need to gain it back again." The unicorn looked at him, he really wasn't saddened that he lost most of his power. "You seem oddly happy for losing a majority of your strength." Sora shook it off, "Eh, This happens so much, nothing really new for me." Both then laughed at it, he really was something. Twilight snorted a little, kinda like a pig. Quickly embarrassed she stopped, thinking Sora would find it weird but his face said otherwise, if anything he found it a little cute. Spike had a smirk on his face. If he didn't know any better he would say they were falling for one another, but he knew that probably wasn't the case. At face value, both were just good friends. The baby dragon picked up his quill and scroll, ready to check off some more spells. "Alright Sora, ready?" Asked the unicorn. He nodded his head up and down, giving Twilight to clear to begin. She let out another blast from her horn as it reached over to the pegasus. Her main goal was to secretly get Sora to bring out his keyblade in order to study it, by getting him to block a blast, it would be the perfect way to do so. As soon as it hit, the stallion did not block it. Something then began to happen as he felt some tingling in his upper lip. A large bushy mustache then sprouted out, taking the shape of a pare of swishes. Spike crossed it out, "Wow, hare growth spell! Nice one Twilight." A soon as the baby dragon looked at Sora, he marveled at his manly mustache. Twilight instead chuckled, thinking the pegasus looked silly with one. He quickly noticed this and felt a little bitter. "Hey, I think I look with a mustache..." He went over to see his new facial hair in a mirror, it was the opposite of what he envisioned. "... Though I guess it does make me look older than I really am." The unicorn zapped him again, removing the mustache. She still wasn't able to get him to bring out the keyblade. The mare now decided to try something else, Overwhelm him with magic spells until he decides to bring it out. She went over to Spike and whispered him some orders. The baby dragon still wasn't amused at this plan but he couldn't really do anything about it. "Alright." He whispered as the unicorn went back to her position with a pegasus in front of her touching his upper lip. "Rapid fire, ready Twilight?" "Ready." "Wait! I'm not ready!" Screamed Sora, it was too late as Twilight bombarded him with a bunch of magic spells, until he finally brought out the magical weapon. Twilight kept on shooting out more and more spells at a rapid speed with Spike crossing them out. "Obtuse, rubber goose, green moose, guava juice! Giant snake, birthday cake, large fries, chocolate shake!" All of the things the unicorn had mentioned didn't pop out as they were blocked by Sora, he was holding his keyblade in his mouth while having his eyes closed. A large amount of smoke was covering the stallions vision. "Warn Me next time you do something like that." As soon as it cleared though, he noticed a unicorn next to him, trying to view something on him. ".. Uh, what are you doing?" He was a little uncomfortable with the unicorn being this close. Twilights eyes shrunk, she was spotted. As soon as she realized the situation she was in, the mare backed up quickly. ".. I, uh, was checking on you. I wanted to make sure you were alright after all those blasts." Her excuse was as bad as her lying. Spike couldn't take this anymore. "This is too much. She was trying to study your keyblade without you knowing." The unicorn turned her head back, giving him the look a rage filled sister would give. Sora decided to asked her, "Why exactly, and better yet why not just ask me?" The unicorn let out a sigh of defeat. "I wanted to study your keyblade in secret since I figured you would say no or be weirded out by me. It's just so weird seeing something that let's a non unicorn use magic, and it's never been documented… " The pegasus stopped her rambles as he placed his hoof on her mouth. "I know the keyblade is odd, even I don't know everything about it. If you want help with something just ask, I'm your friend after all. There isn't anything I wouldn't help you out with." Twilight smiled at that remark. Spike had a smung grin though that just screamed 'I told you so'. "Oh, who could have possibly thought that." With a tone of sarcasm. The baby dragon checked the scroll, "Good news, were done, you managed to perfect twenty-five deferent spells!" After the pegasus heard that, he was beyond impressed. "Wow, good job Twilight! Glad to hear today wasn't a wast after all." The unicorn looked at him face to face. "It might be a little late but would it be fine if I could study your keyblade sometime?" "Sure thing, as of right now maybe we should call it a day." Suggested the pegasus. The three then decided to make their way out the door. He had to be careful though, if he let anything out that he shouldn't, things could come spiraling down. The trio were making their way through Ponyville. "Twilight. Twenty-five different kinds of tricks and counting. I thought unicorns were only supposed to have a little magic that matches their special talents!" praised that dragon. The unicorn replied, "True, for ponies whose talents are for things like cooking or singing or math. But what if a unicorn's special talent is magic?" "Like you, Twilight, and you know a ton of magic." "Spikes right, after what I've seen so far, you're incredible at it." Praised the keyblade wielder. The mare was a little flustered by the praises, "Oh stop, there are plenty of ponies here that are just as capable as me." "Gangway! Comin' through!" Sora heard some yelles. He looked towards his left and saw two boy's, probably the same age as Apple Bloom. They came in running pretty fast, accidentally hitting Spike. The baby dragon looked behind him with anger. "Augh! Snips, Snails! What's going on?" "Those are their names?" Exclaimed Sora. The two stopped and looked back at the trio, "There's a new unicorn in town! They say she has more magical powers under her than any other unicorn in Equestria!" Said Snips, at least Sora thought it was him condescending his cutie mark is a pair of scissors. He didn't believe that this unicorn was all she was claimed to be. "I doubt that's true, Twilight deserves that title more." He by no means thinks any other unicorn is inferior, just that Twilight was on such a high level, that someone else stronger than that was beyond imagination. The unicorn grew a little red on her face because of that remark but it quickly faded away as something else got in her mind. "Where is this unicorn?" "Ho, she's in the town square. Come on!" Snips and Snails went off as the trio followed as well. Over at the town square, ponies were everywhere, creating a large audience. The entirety of Ponyville seemed to be there including Rarity, Rainbow, and Applejack. Sora, Twilight and Spike made their way into the front of the crowd to see what this new unicorn was all about. In front, a little waggon was there, just lying around. It quickly then started to transform as it folded out, creating a small little stage. It was all ready, a cloud of smoke appeared. As the cloud faded, it revealed a blue unicorn with a white mane and tail, dark blue cape and magician hat to finish the look. "Come one, come all! Come and witness the amazing magic of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" The audience 'Oohed' at the mares words. The mare continued her boasting, "Watch in awe as the Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats of magic ever witnessed by pony eyes!" As soon as she finished, fire works blasted off from the waggon, going into the air and exploding, leaving out large, colorful explosions. Rarity wasn't into how self indulging the unicorn was being. "My, she seems to have a high opinion of herself." "C'mon, no pony has more magical talent then Twilight." Said the baby dragon. He quickly realized that he was talking to the pony he was crushing on and started to stutter in his words. "..I- mean. H-ey, Ra-rity. The Mustache!" He then quickly ran off back with Twilight. "Is there something wrong with a pony being talented?" Asked the purple unicorn. She started to feel worried about something related to that. Sora tried to reassure her. "Well no, of course not. Though It doesn't give ponies the right to go around acting like it makes them the king, or in this case queen, of the world." He did feel the same way as the rest of his friends, Trixie is acting in such a way. "Just because someone is good at something doesn't mean they're better than any other pony." "Yeah, especially when I'm already better than everyone else." The rainbow mare was the one to say that. This phrase was what got Applejack to give her a disapproving look that Rainbow Dash noticed. "I mean…, Yeah, equality and all that stuff. Boo!" Trixie overheard the ponies conversation. "Well, it seems there are some 'neigh' believers in the audience." She put extra emphasis on the 'neigh'. "Do they not know that they're in the presence of the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria?" "Just who does she think she is?" Said Rarity. Spike continued. "Yeah! Since we all know that Twilight here is—." The purple unicorn grabbed him with her hoof and dragged the dragon out of the crowd. "What? What's wrong?" Twilight looked down, telling him her reason. "You see the way they reacted to Trixie? I don't want anyone thinking I'm a show-off." They both looked back and saw some fanfare play, along with more fireworks. Rainbow Dash flies over to Trixie. "Pfft, what makes you so 'great and powerful' Trixie?" The magic mare was scoffed at the remark. She then proceeded to tell her as to why. "Heh, why, only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish the dreaded ursa major!" All the ponies gasped as to this revelation, all except for the keyblade wielder. Sora had no idea what and Ursa Major was, it did sound like it was a huge threat. Trixie continued her tall tail, as fireworks exploded into the air, with the Sparks morphing into characters to represent the scenario. "When all hope was lost, the ponies of Hoofington had no one to turn to, but the Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in, and with her awesome magic, vanquished the ursa major and sent it back to its cave deep within the Everfree Forest!" All the ponies were left stunned by her supposed feat. Snip and Snails began to praise her, which the mare appreciated dearly. She looked back at the audience who all had a blank expression now. "Don't believe the Great and Powerful Trixie? I then challenge any pony from Ponyville, Anything you can do, I can do better." As soon as she finished, more fanfare and Fireworks came out from the stage, once again. "How many does she have?" Questioned the caramel pegasus. Spike went over and pleaded to Twilight. "Please! She's unbearable! Ya gotta show her! Ya just gotta!" Twilight wasn't budging though. "There's no way I'm going to use my magic now, Spike. Especially since—." Trixie looked around the audience, her eyes finally landed on Twilight. "Hmm, how about you?" The purple mare gulped. "Well, how about it? Hm? Is there anything you can do that the Great and Powerful Trixie can't?" Twilight couldn't respond back, fearful of what the outcome would be. She didn't have to worry any longer as Applejack came in to accept that challenge. "That's it! I can't stand for no more of this!" She went up to the stage and brought out a lasso and proceeded to do her act. The cow girl had her lasso on her tail, spinning it around and around with the ponies 'ooing'. She then made the little opening bigger and jumped through them back and forward. Finally, the mare then lassoed a far off apple on a tree, she brought it towards her and ate it all up. Every Pony cheered for Applejack's performance as the mare bowed. "Top that, missy." The cow girl said, thinking she outwitted the unicorn. Trixie was not taken back in anyway, "Oh ye of little talent. Watch and be amazed at the magic of Trixie!" She then took off her hat, showing off her horn, with her magic. The mare then took control of a rope, wiggling around like a snake. It was…. Hypnotizing. Applejack could only look stare at it, and followed it's movement with her head. While this was happing, Trixie used another part of the rope to get down another apple from the tree. She then used the hypnotizing part of the rope to tie Applejack legs together and put an apple in her mouth. The orange mare came back to her senses, seeing What has happened to her. The crowd laughed at her misfortune, causing Applejack to grown and jump off the stage, going back with Spike, Sora, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Twilight. The baby dragon tried to think off what to do about the blue unicorn. "We need another magic user to take her head in." "Like a unicorn." Suggested Sora "One that can show her who's boss." Rainbow Dash agreed while playfully shoving Twilight. "A real unicorn on unicorn rumble." Finished off Applejack. If it wasn't obvious, the group wanted Twilight to go up there and teach Trixie a lesson. Rarity on the other hand thought she was the one chosen for this task. "Enough. Enough, all of you. I take your hint, but Rarity is above such nonsense. Applejack may behave like a ruffian, but Rarity conducts herself with beauty and grace." Trixie wasn't going to take no for an answer. "Ooo, what's wrong, are you afraid that you'll get that rat house of a mane messy." At that moment, Rarity was going to lose it. "Oh, it. Is. On!" she went up to the stage to show her who she's dealing with. "You think that power is the only thing a unicorn can excel in. Well, wrong." Rarity used her magic and brought down a curtain, covering her up. She then appeared with a beautiful dark blue address with golden highlights along with her mane being all gussied up. "A unicorn needs to be more than just muscle. A unicorn needs to have style." The crowd 'Oohed' once again at the beauty that was Rarity. As soon as the unicorn finished, Trixie zapped her with another blast of magic. All the ponies gasped at what had happened. "Quick! I need a mirror! Get me a mirror! What did she do to my hair? I know she did something terrible to my hair!" Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Sora all tried their best to not let her know what had happened to her mane, for the best. "It's beautiful." "It's majestic." "It's alright." "It's not bad." They all said in order until Spike said the one thing they tried their best not too. "It's green." This ended up with the four giving him a stern look, especially Twilight. The unicorn cried as she saw just what had happened. Her mane was all but fine, it was horrendous. The mane appeared as If it was nothing but seaweed holded together by moss and germs. "AAAHH-!" Rarity screams her loudest scream, running off to avoid the embarrassment. Spike tried urging Twilight to go up again. "C'mon Twilight. Show her what your made off!" She did not budge again, her fear for her friends hating her for being the same as what Trixie was still held over her. "No Spike, I'm not better than anyone." Sora came in to try and help out. "Yes you are." It was brought to an end as Trixie intervened. "Hah! You think you're better than the Great and Powerful Trixie? You think you have more magical talent? Well, come on, show Trixie what you've got. Show us all." Twilight was becoming more and more stressed, all the ponies in that crowd were looking at her, ready for her to jump in but she couldn't. In the end, the unicorn ran off, not able to handle the pressure. The other unicorn laughed it off. "Haha! Once again, the great and powerful Trixie is unmatched! Was there ever any doubt." As soon as she finished, all the ponies began to leave, but they came to a stop when they saw a pegasus go up to the stage. "Why don't you try me then." It was the keyblade wielder, Sora himself. After what happened with Twilight, he was ready to take on this unicorn. Trixie wasn't interested. "Why, have you not seen what Trixie has done so far." She thought about it, and came to her conclusion. "If you wish to be humiliated then by all means, Trixie is willing to accept." The pegasus was ready, he looked towards her and proposed his challenge. "How about a one on one magic duel, right here. First to be knocked off the stage loses." This managed to get a laugh out of Trixie, "Really, I mean you're a pegasus." "So, you scared you'll actually lose?" Trixie was enraged by that little remark, getting her to accept his challenge. "Hmph, well then." She got her magic ready, as she lifted up some ropes, trying to catch the pegasus. Sora knew that flying wasn't going to help, still being pretty inexperienced. Along with losing most of his magic spells, he only had Fire, Thunder, Blizzard, Aero and Flowmotion. Hia best chance was to jump back, and so he did, avoiding the ropes. Trixie then tried to catch him again, a little frustrated her first attempt didn't work. Sora saw them coming for him. He got out his keyblade and shot out a fire spell, burning up the ropes. The unicorn tried something else, she grabbed some wooden sword's with her magic and threw them at the pegasus. Sora just blocked them with his keyblade and retaliated with some thunder. The bolts didn't hit Trixie but they managed to put her in a closed space. At that moment, he let out a Aero spell, creating a vortex under her, but the unicorn just used her magic to bring herself down nice and easy. She still wasn't done, Trixie picked up some more rope, along with balls, Magic wands, fireworks and other things to try and hit him. Sora saw all the things around him, floating. The rope came in and tried to tie him up but he jumped out of the way in time. Fireworks came after him as well but he used some more wind magic to redirect them. Mora and more objects came after him, which led to Sora shooting out a trail of ice. He sled across the stage near Trixie, surprised by this, she tried to grab him with her magic but Sora then started to bounce around with Flowmotion, making it so the unicorn couldn't catch him. "What's wrong Trixie, I'm going as slow as I can." He let out a quip, enraging the unicorn more. She finally managed to pick him up, leaving him defenseless. She finally threw him out of bounds, or so she thought. When Sora was bear the ground, he summoned another vortex under him, bringing him back to the stage. As soon as he was he made the floor of the stage nothing but ice, leaving it to the unicorn to have trouble moving. The pegasus walked over to her, with Trixie slipping back, she was close to the edge but not out. Sora changed that as he tapped her a little, causing her to fall. "I win!" The crowd cheered at this amazing display, as Sora bowed before them, enjoying all the attention. The unicorn was infuriated though, she got back up and pushed him off her stage, causing him to land on his flank while letting out a small "Ow." The while stage then turned back into normal as Trixie fled, riding off. The ponies didn't care as they were happy to see what the pegasus just did. "Wow, Spikey! That, was, AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash said, coming in and shoving him playfully. The pegasus was proud of himself as much as the others were. The crowd all came cheered for the pegasus for his little show, as Snips and Snails watched from afar. "I can't believe that spikey maned idiot up showed Trixie." Explained snips. " She's supposed to be great and powerful. How do we get them all to see that?" Questioned the other. "Hmm, I got it!" Snips then ran off as Snails quickly followed, going off to initiate the plan. In the Golden Oak Library, Twilight was reading a book with Spike over to the side. "Twilight, would you put down that book and just listen to me?" The mare did not, "Didn't you see how they hated Trixie's bragging, Spike? If I go out there and show off my magic, I run the risk of losing them as friends." "It's not the same thing, Twilight. You'll be using your magic to stand up for your friends!" Twilight didn't budge, deciding to not think about it. Back outside in Ponyville, it was night time. After the whole thing with Trixie, Sora decided to go check on Twilight and see how she's doing. On his way over there, he felt the ground shake, and the sound of a roar. It was just loud enough that all the residence of Ponyville came outside to see what all the commotion was about. Twilight and Spike did so as well, looking for what was causing it. The pegasus ran off too the edge of the town and heard something else, screaming? He looked if and saw Snips and Snails again being followed by something, a large, giant bear looking animal with dark blue fur that could easily be confused for the entire galaxy. "AHHHHHH!!" They passed through Sora, who was left face to face with the creature. It let out another "Roar!" Which blew all of Sora's mane back, "You gotta be kidding me." He said as he and the creature locked eyes with each other, with Sora bringing out his Keyblade ready to take a swing at this. Snips and Snails ran off to Trixie's waggon, with Snips knocking furiously on the door. "Trixie thought she said the Great and Powerful Trixie did not want to be disturbed!" She came out and looked them both dead in the eye. "We have a- small, not big, problem." Snips said. Trixie shook her head, it was late at night and she was being disturbed this late. "What is so important that you cannot wait until morning to disturb Trixie?" She looked off and saw the beast come into Ponyville. It was a dreaded Ursa! The beast started to rampage all over with Sora trying his best to keep it a bay. Twilight and Spike were making their way over to see what the commotion was all about. "What's going on!" They both then took notice of Sora fighting off an Ursa Major, along with the rest of the town witnessing this battle. "Great and powerful Trixie! Vanquished the dread ursa!" Yelled Snails, encouraging her to do so. The unicorn wasn't doing anything though, Instead standing in fear. "Wait, you brought this here?" She questioned as she looked back at the two. "Why would you do something like that!" Snips then said, "But, your the great and powerful Trixie, why don't you just vanquish it look before?" She looked back at them and yelled, "I never defeated an Ursa! That's an impossible feat to accomplish! I only said that to try and make me look better!" Snips and Snails stood there, taking all of it in. The pony they thought was the greatest and most powerful turned out to be nothing more but a fake. To make matters worse they brought an unstoppable Ursa to Ponyville! Twilight came over to the two to ask, "What's going on here!?" Snips replied in the exact way he would. "Oh we brought an Ursa over to Ponyville." "You what!?" She screamed at the both, it was the most stupid, idiotic thing any pony could ever do. Snails tried to bring some light into this though. "Don't worry, that sword key guy is kicking it's butt." They all looked over and saw Sora swinging his keyblade around and landing some pretty good hits on the Ursa Major, with the beast just trying to swat him away with no succession. "I can do this all day." said the stallion, very proud of himself for being on the winning side. He ended up leaving himself wide open as the Ursa managed to land a good hot on him, slamming him to the ground, leaving him dizzy. "Though a breather…... might be …...nice." The Ursa slammed him again and again and again and again, and again. It finally picked him up and threw it far across, with the pegasus slamming through a bunch of trees, finally stopping after he hit a rock, cracking it. "Oh no….. my dress… Now no one will want to dance with me at the gala." He said, daisily, finally just lying down. The others all saw what had just happened to the pegasus, fearing what could happen now. Twilight had to do this all on her own. She summoned a rubber goose so the Ursa could play with it, she then focused her energy into making a large chocolate shake, as the Ursa finally noticed it, grabbing it and chowing down. Every thing was setup perfectly for Twilight to carry the Ursa back to it's cave, this wasn't easy though as the unicorn had to use a ton of energy to do this. All of the residents cheered for Twilight, Sora came back to join the crowd, still being a little dizzy by what happened to him. "Wow! That was awesome Twilight!" Spike praised, with Twilight looking back at Sora, she put her head down, do to still having her thoughts. "That was the coolest thing I've ever seen! Would have been better if it wasn't knocked out halfway through it." Said the carmel pegasus. The unicorn was a little surprised by his reaction. "You don't hate me? What about with Trixie this morning?" "Why would I hate you? The reason we didn't like her was because Trixie was just a loud mouth." The unicorn realized what her mistake was, she felt a little dumb now, seeing what she could have avoided. "So, it is possible to beat an Ursa Major." Spike was surprised that it could be done, more that his friend managed to do so. Twilight cleared things up. "It wasn't an Ursa Major, it was a baby, an Ursa Minor." All the poinies were shocked, shocked, well not that shocked but it was still something to be surprised about. Sora was more surprised then the others because it ment that he got his tail kicked by a baby. "It wasn't rampaging, just angry someone woke it up from its nap." She looked over to Snips and Snails, the culprits off all this. "Um … were sorry we woke the Ursa up " said Snails with Snips following it up. "We deserve whatever punishment you give us." Sora was the one to decide that. "If you are sorry, then you can show us by picking up the mess that Ursa made." They both went on to do just what they were told. "Now about Trixie…." He looked back and saw she was gone. "Why that little…." "It's ok Sora, she'll learn her lesson one day." Twilight said as the ponies all went back to there homes. A few minutes later, Twilight was looking up at the stars again, loosing her thoughts in the beauty of the sky. Sora came up in and sat near her. "Hey Twilight, looking at the stars again?" "Yeah, they're just so beautiful tonight." Both of them sat down again. "How is Snips and Snails punishment coming along?" "Their almost done." He looked up at the stars as well. "Hey, I was wondering if you were free tomorrow? I would love to get started on studying that keyblade of yours." "Oh, yeah. I'll have to check with Applejack though. Is that ok? "Yeah, just fine." Sora then left, going back home to Sweet Apple Acres. His thoughts started to get cloudy as he began to remember of his last few seconds as a human, back in that little Paopu tree. His last moments with……. Her. "Kairi…" > A Pegasus to study Part 1 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the mind of the carmel pegasus, Sora was thinking about a certain event in his life, back to him and his childhood friend, Kairi. Both of them were sitting on the long branch of the paopu tree. They had their hands overlapping on top of each other's, with both of their eyes locked tightly, staring into each one's own. At that moment in time, Sora told his friend about what he did, and what was the consequence for doing so. Kairi cried her eyes out in the time they had. She was sad that her friend would just disappear. That Sora would be gone, forever. She couldn't accept it in any way but she had no say in the matter. The keyblade wielder wasn't happy about his fate either. He would leave everyone behind. Riku, his best friend since they were kids. Donald and Goofy, his two companions that have been with him since the first time he left the islands. All of it, left behind. Just then, Sora disappeared, turning into dust as he left behind his home and his friends. Sora The pegasus heard a voice in his head. Sora He heard it again, and again and again and it just wouldn't leave him alone. He didn't know what he was feeling. Guilt, sorrow, loss? It didn't feel right. His heart was aching like crazy and the pain wouldn't end. He kept hearing that voice, just screaming 'Sora' 'Sora' 'Sora'. It wouldn't stop. He couldn't take it, he couldn't help it, the voice wouldn't quiet down, it wouldn't leave him alone. Just as it seemed as if the voice would stop, it instead decided to say some other things to tick Sora off. Sora didn't know what the voice was talking about. 'Who' didn't care about him? You're not there friend Was the voice talking about the ponies he met in Ponyville? What did it mean? What was it trying to say? You lie Keep secrets from them You don't belong here The voice was getting louder, more rapid. Sora refused to believe that. His friends do care about him. They 'are' his friends. Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, they do see him as one. Do they? He hasn't told them the truth. He never told them about who he really is, where he really comes from or anything like that. He didn't even tell Apple Bloom, Big Mac, Applejack or Granny Smith, the ponies that gave him a place to stay anything about it. Wasn't one of the things about friendship honesty, do they truly think of him like that? Is believing that they are his friends nothing more but a lie in his head? 'Sora' 'Sora' 'Sora' * * * "Sora!" The pegasus finally woke up, hearing a voice he was all too happy to hear, Twilight's. The keyblade wielder had woken up from what appeared to have been a bad dream as he quickly noticed the unicorn with Spike, who was carrying some supplies with him. They both had just gotten back from Ponyville, getting everything required. "Are you ok? You were shaking all over the floor just now." Asked Twilight as she was very worried, hoping to get a response. Sora remembered what was going on. Just yesterday he agreed to let Twilight study the Keyblade for her own reasons. He figured it wouldn't hurt anybody so why not. When he got there, Twilight told him to wait inside the library while she and Spike went out to go get some supplies for the tests she had in plan. The pegasus must have fallen asleep while waiting. Still, that dream haunted him. He didn't know how he was feeling at the moment. The things he was being told, or dreaming, really started to have an effect on him. Spike went up to Sora, inspecting his face. "You don't look too good, is something wrong?" The caramel pegasus didn't know what to say. He wasn't feeling well, and the reaction Twilight and Spike had proved how obvious it was so hiding it wasn't looking easy. "I'm fine, really … just a bad dream, that was all." Sora shook his head a little before standing up on his four legs, then shaking a little to loosen up his joints. "Should we get started?" Twilight wasn't sure if they should do the tests today, deciding to try and shut down that thought. "I don't know Sora. Like Spike said, you don't look so good-" "I'm fine, I swear. It was just a nightmare." Twilight was getting a bit distressed. Seeing Sora like this, but as long as he was fine, she didn't see why not. Still, something about him denying any other possibilities was what got her senses tingling. He couldn't be… No! Sora wouldn't lie, right? Twilight then proceeded to start worrying herself with these thoughts. Could Sora possibly be keeping something? Was he hiding some kind of super important secret from her, was he hiding anything at all? Maybe, but this is Sora, what could he possibly be hiding? The unicorn decided to lose that train of thought and continue the day. "Alright, only if you're sure though." Spike got all the materials out, though he felt the same as Twilight, Sora just wasn't himself. The baby dragon decided that it was just better to focus on the tests then on Sora's condition, at least for now. Both Twilight and Spike continued with their tasks, though they quickly stopped after hearing Sora again. "Twilight, Spike." The pegasus called out, with the two looking back at him. Sora asked them something, a little worried as to what their responses would be. "Do you two... see me as a friend?" The purple unicorn was confused at his question. "Huh, what are you talking about?" She asked. Spike, again, felt the same. "I mean, do you two see me as someone you can trust? Someone you like being around? Someone you can talk to? Someone who can be there for you no matter what? Like… a 'true' true friend?" Spike and Twilight didn't need to think any longer as to what their answers were. "C'mon Sora, of course we do. Why wouldn't we?" Said the baby dragon. "Spikes right." Twilight continued on as to her reasons. "You've been here for every pony so many times. From helping us with the Heartless, to finding the elements, to Nightmare Moon and so much more. After all that, why wouldn't we consider you a friend?" The unicorn decided to ask her own question, wondering about the reason it was asked. "Why are you asking this? Did we do something that made you think we didn't?" The keyblade wielder scratched his head with a hoof, pouting a little "What, no. You guys didn't do anything like that. It was just… never mind." As soon as Sora finished, his smile and attitude came back. The keyblade wielder was back to what appeared to be normal, relieved that the stupid voice in his head was wrong. His face, attitude, mannerisms and thoughts returned to how Sora normally felt. Twilight grabbed a quill and scroll with her magic in order to take down any answers Sora had for her. "Alright, let's get started. Can you give me the keyblade?" The keyblade wielder was ready to begin. For this first question, it was an easy response. "I can't." Twilight was outright confused by his response. "What? Why? C'mon, you promised you would let me study it today." "No, I mean I 'can't' give it to you." He summoned the weapon out on his hoof in the same way it always popped up, with a bunch of light materializing into the solid object of the keyblade, sticking it out for the unicorn to grab. Twilight was curious as to where this was going. She asked herself why he wouldn't give it to her then, but now signaling her to grab it? The unicorn reached over to his hoof in order to grab it herself. As soon as she did, holding the weapon with her own hoofs, the keyblade turned into bright dust as it reappeared on Sora's hoof again. "Yeah, it kinda has a mind of its own." Twilight didn't know how to react to this, "But... that's impossible. Out of all the magic in Equestria, nothing can work like that. Furthermore, how does an inanimate object have a mind of its own, how does this thing work? Is there a spirit in the thing? Does it magically have a concessions…"Twilight kept on mumbling. She didn't understand a single thing about the keyblade or how it was able to do stuff like this. It was a solid object that somehow had a conscience of its own, that decided on who was worthy of wielding it. Spike and Sora were watching Twilight's tiny freak out, weirding them out a little. The two didn't even think they saw Twilight breathe once during that time. Sora went up to the unicorn and tapped her a little to get her out of it. "Twilight, are you ok?" Thankfully, it was just what she needed. "Huh, Oh Sorry about that. Don't know what got over me?" She said, a little embarrassed. "Can you bring out your keyblade again? I want to try out something else." She asked. The pegasus did just what he was asked too, bringing out the weapon out on his hoof once again. This time, Twilight used her magic to try and grab the Keyblade. It was working, for a little while, with the weapon disappearing then reappearing in Sora's hoof once again. The unicorn placed a hoof near her chin, thinking of other ways to study this thing. "Hm, Alright. Magic doesn't work either. Sora, can you tell me some other things about the Keyblade?" The pegasus was thinking as to what could be helpful, though he had to make sure he didn't let out anything about the other worlds or who he really is. "Well, let me think…" Sora was trying to compile a couple of things he could tell her with Twilight Sparkle grabbing the quill and scroll from before with her magic, ready to take down any more notes that could be helpful. "Let's see, well it's magic powers are harnessed by the wielder's own power. Whenever I shoot a fireball or summon lightning, it's brought out from my own energy." Twilight was writing all this new information down as quickly as possible. "If I ever use too much of it, then I need to wait for it to recharge over time. I can gain more powers through bonds my heart has made, though I don't really know how. Also for some reason, the keyblade and I have an odd connection." Twilight was inclined to ask "What kind of odd connection?" "Well, it's kind of like me and the keyblade share... I don't know how to say it but it's kind of like a feeling of being together." The unicorn had a good amount of information, "Alright, this is all good. I think I found a way of studying the keyblade without holding it." "Really, how?" "If you and the keyblade are connected in a strange way, then by studying you more closely, I can gather Information on the Keyblade!" The unicorn cheered while throwing her hoofs in the air. It was the best conclusion she could come up with. If Sora's own energy powers the thing along with the weapon being connected to Sora, then she could easily study the wielder to gather information on the item. The pegasus wasn't sure if this idea was going to work. While it is true that the Keyblade and him have a special connection, could studying him work in favor of studying the Keyblade? "I'm not so sure about this Twilight, is that really a good idea?" "Well it's the only thing I can come up with." She looked at her friend while smiling. If her face could speak it would be screaming 'please' without a hint of subtlety. The unicorn really hoped that Sora would be on board. "So, what do you say?" He had to think about this. 'Well, I did promise her that I would let her study it for a bit, and what's going to happen if I do let her? Well, it can't be anything too bad. Anything's better than being hit by a bunch of random magic spells.' With that, he made up his mind. "Eh, alright, why not." "Woo Hoo!" She screamed as she went to go get everything ready. * * * A few minutes passed as Sora was sitting down on a short stool, with Twilight holding a hammer with her magic. Sora didn't know If he would like this very much. "Um, Twilight. What exactly are you going to do with that?" He asked, very worried for his own safety. The unicorn was looking over at Spike, watching him get everything ready in order to calculate the whole thing. The dragon also wondered just what Twilight was going to do, "Yeah, I don't see why we need a hammer?" Twilight went over to sort some more things out, "It's nothing to worry about, I'm just going to test Sora's reflexes." She went over to the pegasus with her getting the hammer ready, putting it just a few inches from Sora's knee. He closed his eyes, waiting for the pain to surge through his body. Instead, it was just a little tap. "Huh, that wasn't what I was expecting." Twilight then pulled back and hit his knees with far more force this time, "AHHHHHH!!!!!" * * * Some more time passed as Sora was shaking his leg around, still feeling a little pain. He tried his best to walk it off but it was proving to be harder then he thought. Twilight had a sad look, feeling guilty of what she did. "I'm so so sorry Sora! I swear, I didn't want to hurt you in any way. I really thought you could handle it! Heck, I saw you take worse hits and shake them off like nothing, I'm sure you can do it here! You're the strongest stallion I know! It can't be too bad, I hope. Again, I'm really sorry…" Sora stopped shaking his leg, finally getting the pain out of his system. With that he stopped Twilight's rambling. "It's ok, really. I just wasn't expecting it, that was all." That was a little lie on his part. It honestly hurt a ton, and that was just from a hammer. That hammer swing was towards his knee joint so it wasn't exactly like he was weak or anything. The pegasus decided to ask, "So, what's the next test?" He was hoping it didn't involve his knee. The unicorn recomposed herself, coughing a tiny bit to try and hide her embarrassment. She picked up her scroll once again as she examined it. "Hm, next I would like to see the keyblade actually using magic. See if there's more to it, ya know." * * * Some more time passed as Sora was now wearing a large helmet like object with flashing lights, along with his hoofs being strapped onto another machine that had a screen, showing the pegasi's heart rate. "Um, Twilight I'm not so sure if…" "Quite down, I need full concentration." Said the unicorn as she put her hoof on Sora's mouth. She checked some more things on her scroll, before handing it to Spike. The unicorn was checking on the machine, making sure all was working well. "Alright, you can start now." The pegasus summoned his keyblade in his mouth, starting to charge it up as a bright light at the end of the key's teeth glowed. The machine's readings started to go a bit loose, with the lights starting flashing at a rapid speed. Spike was worried about this, "Um Twilight, is this supposed to happen?" "Don't worry Spike, it's completely fine." The unicorn replied. The machine started to go even crazier with Sora charging up the magic. "Twilight, I really don't think this is going to end well." Twilight was starting to get a little bit annoyed with being told about the 'supposed' problem. She may be smart but sometimes her knowing that can lead to problems. "It's alright Spike, nothing bad is going to happen." She replied, this time with a little bit of a growl and her eye twitching. The machine started to go more and more crazy. Sora still continued to charge up his keyblade, without noticing the lights flashing over and over again, even more rapidly than before. Twilight's face started to grow a large smile, waiting for the results to appear. The machine's lights were flashing more and more along with it shaking around and making faster beeping sounds. Twilight's grin was somehow becoming larger and larger as time went on. The machine continued on flashing, becoming more wild and wild, until- BOOM! The machine exploded, causing a small mess inside the library. Sora Twilight and Spike were covered in black dust, along with the room inside having books scattered around, fallen shelf's and other things slightly destroyed. Spike was the first one to speak, "It didn't work-" "I know it didn't work!!!" Screamed Twilight, while facing the dragon face to face. "Are there ponies around here saying that it worked!? Because if there are, you let me talk to them in order to let them know things didn't work out the way we wanted!!!" Her mane was becoming more messy, her left ear and right eye were twitching, along with her teeth getting more gritty. Sora felt a little uncomfortable. Seeing how mad his friend was getting at the situation being a bust, from first the durability test and now the magic test, it didn't seem to be working. "Maybe you're right, today probably isn't a good day to do this…." The pegasus tried to exit out without letting Twilight know that he wasn't feeling up to co with the unicorn losing her mind. "NOO!!" She stopped Sora, causing him to jump up a little in shock. As soon as Twilight realized that she yelled at him, the unicorn recomposed herself. Her mane was still messy but she was mostly back to her original state of mind. "I'm sorry, what I mean is... look, let's try this one more time." She pondered a little, thinking as to how to fix this problem. "Ah ha, I got it!" She went off and grabbed more materials along with picking up Sora with her magic. * * * A little more time had passed and Sora was being strapped to a chair with leather belt buckles. Twilight was the one strapping his body down, with Sora's expression showing how he was feeling uncomfortable. "Twilight, is this really…." "Yes, it's absolutely necessary." The unicorn finally tied him up pretty good. She used her magic and picked up another giant silver hat with lights, along with a wire attaching it to another machine. Twilight then placed the hat on top of Sora's head, with it also being strapped to the pegasus with another leather belt. The unicorn flipped a switch on the machine as it, along with the giant hat, started to glow with flashing lights. "Alright, let's see what we're working with." The machine's readings showed Sora's heart rate, brain waves and blood pressure. Twilight was focusing on it all, needing to make sure everything was in order. "Alright, I'll bite. What's this one supposed to do?" Asked the Pegasus. The unicorn was quick to answer, "It's supposed to show your body's functions, like how your brain waves are doing or your heart rates speed." Twilight was trying to make sense of them but the readings she was getting didn't make any sense. They were all wobbly and inconsistent. "It's saying here that your heart is moving incredibly fast, now your brain waves are making rabbit shapes... and now your heart rate is going back to normal?" Spike went up to his purple friend to point out the problem, "Um, Twilight." He showed her that the machine was missing some parts, being the reason the machine wasn't working well. A few wires were loose, some lights were broken and a bunch of other stuff they probably couldn't make out. "Do you two know what this means?" She asked in a cheerful tone to both Spike and Sora but both nodded their heads left and right. "It means that this darn thing doesn't work at all!" She yelled, as she kicked the machine with her legs out of rage. The unicorn then started to walk around, furiously as she mumbled to herself. "I knew that price was too good, what am I supposed to do now?" Sora, while still on the chair, tried to call the unicorn. "Um, Twilight." "I can't remake it, I don't have the right parts and I no longer have any bits at the moment. Maybe I can try another form of testing to find how the keyblade works." "Twilight." The pegasus tried again. "But what can I do in order to get any actual helpful results. I can try maybe… a coconut and an apple! They can help out… Oh what am I saying?" "TWILIGHT!!" Sora yelled as loud as he could, along with finally being able to get out of the chair himself. His scream actually managed to get Twilight's attention, even Spikes though not for the right reasons. His yell actually managed to scare the two of them. They never heard him actually mad like that before, not even once. Sora realized what he had done, and immediately tried to explain himself. "I'm sorry, it's just… I'm a little uncomfortable with these tests and seeing you so angry." He moved up closer to the two in order to continue. "I don't want to be the reason you're getting frustrated. What kind of friend would I be if I was?" Twilight took a few deep breaths in and out. She had been acting up today and she ended up worrying her friend because of it. The unicorn thought hard and came to the rightful conclusion. "You're right, today I have been acting up. You can go." That last part is what surprised Sora. "Huh, what do you mean by that?" "I know the way I treated you today with all the tests was wrong. I don't want to keep you here just to treat you any worse then I already have. Besides, me and Spike have some cleaning to do around here." She pointed to the mess that was made today. The keyblade wielder figured it was for the best. There was no reason to keep on making this day any worse. With that, Sora made his way to the door as he opened it, exiting out of the library along with saying goodbye to his friends. * * * A couple of hours had passed since Sora left. Twilight was sweeping the floor with Spike, picking up any remains from the experiments. The unicorn was slouching a little, looking very unpleasantly. Spike, being the good assistant he was, talked to her about it. "Twilight, what's the matter? You look a little down." The unicorn stopped sweeping as she directed her attention towards Spike, letting out a 'sigh'. "I'm sorry Spike, I'm just not feeling like myself at the moment." She quickly went back to cleaning up the mess. "I was just so excited about today, studying the Keyblade, finding out it's secrets, but in the end I got little to no new information. Not to mention I treated one of my friends like a lab rat." As soon as she mentioned that, a small piece of cheese hit her head. Twilight looked down and saw a rat, who gave her a disapproving look before it went out the front door of the library. Spike didn't exactly know how Twilight was feeling as he has no experience with being disappointed in such a way. Still, it didn't mean he couldn't comfort her, "Don't feel bad, Sora still likes having you for a friend." The dragon then went back to sweeping, until he got an idea. "Hey, why don't you just ask Princess Celestia about the Keyblade! She seemed to know somewhat about them when she and Sora were talking during the Summer Sun Celebration." This immediately reignited the spark in Twilight from before, as she went back to being giddy. The unicorn grabbed Spike and hugged him tightly, "Spike, you're a genius!" She then went over to write a letter for her teacher, grabbing a quilt and a scroll to write on. As soon as she finished it, Twilight gave it to Spike. "Here, now send it." The baby dragon blew out some fire right in the scroll, as it disappeared. The two then waited for a little while. They waited for Before any of them could say anything, another letter appeared with Spike burping it out, grabbing it midair. "Wow, that was fast." He commented while he opened it up, reading the contents of the letter. "What does it say?" The baby dragon read out loud everything from the note to Twilight, "It says 'Dear Twilight Sparkle, I apologize but I do not know any more than you do about this mysterious item." We all know this was a lie, except for Twilight and Spike of course. " all I can say is that it's relationship with the heart is much stronger than it appears'. What do you think she means by that?" The unicorn was stumped once again. Any possible new information she could have received is now gone out the window. Twilight sighed again, "Ugh, we're back at square one." The unicorn whined. She truly didn't have a single way to figure out the Keyblades secrets now. She didn't have Sora, Celestia or the keyblade itself. Why keep fighting it, unless… "Wait a minute, I got it!" She cheered, getting a new idea. "What, what is it?" Asked Spike before Twilight ran past him. She ran out the door, going off to go get some of her closest friends. * * * Back inside the Golden Oak Library, now much more clean then before, Twilight and Spike were sitting on the ground, being accompanied by the other elements of harmony. Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie, who was fiddling with a cupcake. "Ah'm not one ta make a fuss over nothin' but why did ya call us here Twilight?" Questioned Applejack. She was supposed to be bucking apples at the moment so this had to be important "I agree darling, and where is Sora? Shouldn't he be here if the matter requires all of us?" Asked Rarity. Twilight was ready to answer that question. "The reason I brought you here Is because 'the matter' is Sora." The unicorn brought over some of the notes she took when she and Spike were studying the pegasus, lifting a bunch of papers and placing them down with her magic. "It's about his keyblade." Rainbow Dash was quick to take the notes from the unicorn to check them out. "You mean that giant key thing he uses like a sword. What about it?" Twilight took the notes back with her magic from the pegasus, who pouted because of it. "Rainbow Dash, that 'Giant key' is more than just a sword. It has a mind of it's own that decides who can wield it. If it doesn't think you're worthy then it just disappears like dust right back into Sora's hoofs." The unicorn gave the notes to Spike, who gave the notes to the other mares. "I tried studying it but since I couldn't even hold it, I had to study Sora instead, but the tests…. Well, they didn't go as planned so I couldn't figure out anything I didn't already know." The orange mare's question had still yet to be answered. "That's dandy and all but why exactly do y'ah need us?" Twilight was ready to answer. "I need you all to study Sora behind his back." The elements were all a little shocked. Twilight wanted them to study Sora, a close friend, behind his back. That sounded wrong to them. It would be like if someone close to you would suddenly be cautious that you were up to something that wasn't good, as if you weren't the good person they saw you as. Fluttershy was quick to bring attention to the scenario, "You want us to spy on him?" Pinkie Pie ate the cupcake that she had before then adding to the conversation. "Yeah, that doesn't sound like something a friend would do." The pink mare was then imagining the different outcomes. "What if he found out? He could stop being our friend, or worse? We could hurt his feelings really badly, or we could make him or we could-!" "Pinkie, that's all if." responded Twilight. "I know it's a little risky but I'm all out of options." She was also developing another reason in her head, that maybe Sora could purposely be lying to them, especially after he didn't elaborate any further to his bad dream. Her trust in the pegasus was wavy at the moment. Spike didn't like the idea. He felt the same way the others felt about it, not wanting to go through with it. "C'mon Twilight. Can't we put this on hold? I'm sure there's nothing to it. We can figure things out some other time if you're really that curious." Twilight quickly dismissed that thought, "Spike, the keyblade isn't something I can put on hold. We are dealing with magic not even recorded in any of Equestria's history. Magic that we've only seen one pony use." The unicorn then looked over to her friends. "I mean, aren't you girls a little suspicious that Sora hasn't really told us anything about himself. We don't know where he comes from, if he has any family or even when he was born." Applejack was the first to respond. "Well shoot, when y'ah put it like that." "It is a little weird he never told us about stuff like that. I don't even know his birthday, How am I supposed to throw a party for him now?" Pinkie Pie continued. "Not what ah' was thinkn' off, Maybe ah' can ask him about it. Hopefully he won't be touchy on the subject." The girls were convinced that Sora was indeed keeping something from them. The thing they wanted to know the most was 'why' more so instead of what? Twilight proceeded with the discussion. "Do you girls have any plans scheduled with him?" The others in fact did, "Yeah, him an' me are going to be harvesting apples over at the farm." Said Applejack. Fluttershy was next, "I invited him to help me out with a few things." With Rainbow Dash, "I planned a flying session for us this afternoon." With Rarity, "Him and I are going to go over my new line inspired by his clothing." Finally, Pinkie Pie, "And he's going to help me over at the bakery to make some new pastries." The mare found bit kind of odd that they all had something to do with him the day they needed to. "Huh, how convenient." Twilight was reviewing the scenarios the girls presented. "Alright, I can work with this. I have assignments for all of you." Rainbow Dash was quick to wonder. "Well, what are they?" "I'll tell you when they are ready. Me and Spike will be near in order to document any new discoveries." As soon as Twilight finished, the girls all agreed on the plan to find anything out about Sora. * * * Over at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was behind the barn along with Twilight and Spike accompanying her. "Now could y'ah tell me what ah'm supposed to do?" The unicorn brought out some of her supplies along with Spike reading through a few things. "I was getting to that. Applejack, I need you to check on Sora's stamina." Twilight then picked up all the things, making sure everything was there and accounted for. "Get him to work as much as you can and see how long he goes before getting tired." Finally she ran off along with Spike to go hide in a bush. Applejack walked over to Sora and Apple Bloom. She hopefully didn't have to explain why Twilight invited her to the two of them though as lying isn't the strong suit of the element of honesty. The filly appeared to have been asking Sora questions throughout the entire time she was gone. "Wow, Ah never knew you were so good with a sword." Apple Bloom admired the pegasus who had a playful grin. "Yeah, I would always kick my best friend's butt whenever he and I played with wooden ones." Sora was obviously talking about Riku, as to him 'kicking his butt'. "Uh huh, Sure." Apple Bloom didn't believe Sora by how he said it. "Hey, maybe ah' can get my cutie mark in swordsmanship? Do y'ah think ah' could borrow your key-thingy so ah' can- "Sorry but no. My key-thingy isn't a toy." 'What's with girls today and wanting my keyblade?' Sora thought. "Please!! Ah' promise ta be really careful with it." "No Apple Bloom." The pegasus said playfully. "My keyblade is a weapon, and fillies shouldn't be allowed weapons, let alone super crazy powerful magic weapons." "Yer startin' ta sound alot like Applejack." Just as she mentioned her older sister, the two finally noticed Applejack coming their way. Apple Bloom was the first to run over to the cow girl. "Heya Applejack, glad to see y'ah back." The orange mare smiled as she hugged her little sister. "What did Twilight need you for? We were waiting all morning for you to get back." Sora asked. Applejack knew she couldn't tell him about what they were doing, otherwise that would complicate the whole operation. "Oh, Uh? We were just talking about some….. Uh…. Apple pie recipes! Yep, that's what it was." The pegasus had a look of confusion on his face, though it quickly faded as he stopped thinking about it. Nothing for him to worry about. Applejack went over to the apple trees, motioning the other two to follow. "C'mon y'all. The trees ain't gonna harvest themselves." Sora and Apple Bloom went over with the orange mare. Some time has passed and Sora Applejack, Apple Bloom along with Big Mac have been working outside for quite some time. Twilight and Spike had been hidden in the bushes the entire time, bored since nothing had really happened. The pegasus was still up and ready. Bucking apples wasn't testing him in any way. The orange mare was thinking to herself of just what to do. She had few ideas, none of them useful. The pegasus had bucked another apple tree. This one was one of the taller ones, and by a large margin. It was covered with apples all over and with just one mighty strike, he managed to get all the apples down and into the wooden bucket effortlessly. Apple Bloom was beyond impressed, "Wow, that was amazin' Sora!" She cheered for the pegasus. "Really, you think so?" He responded. "Ah know so." She continued as to why she thought so, along with jumping up and down. "Yah managed ta' knock down all them apples with one hit!" Sora turned his head a little to the left while scratching it with his hoof. "Oh C'mon, it was nothing special." "It was incredibly special! Why, ah think no pony here could even come close to doin' it." A red stallion was unintentionally listening in to the conversation. Big Mac was getting a tiny bit annoyed at the conversation. He didn't know why but it had something to do with what Apple Bloom was saying. The next thing the filly said though was what struck a chord in him. "Yer probably the strongest pony in all Equestria!" That one sentence shattered Big Mac's pride. His sister who knew him for years thought that Sora was the best pony, the strongest one in Equestria, even though she only knew the pegasus for around a few weeks. Apple Bloom probably wasn't wrong though, he was told about who Sora is. A keyblade wielder, a hero of light who saves ponies all over from the darkness. Big Mac thought he couldn't really compare to someone like that. He didn't feel angry at Sora or Apple Bloom, more so disappointed in himself. Applejack noticed the stallions facial expression, "Ah shoot Big Macintosh, why ya' looking so bent up?" The orange mare then looked over to Sora and Apple Bloom. The two were talking, laughing and having a jolly time. As soon as she saw, Applejack knew what was bothering her brother. "Oh, Ah' see now. Yer jealous of Apple Bloom admirin' Sora, aren't ya." Big Mac grumbled a little before replying with, "Nope." He was obviously lying with his tone of voice. "Now don't fiddle around like that. Just because Sora did somethin' mighty impressive, don't make ya any less of a pony yah hear?" Big Mac grumbled again, not believing that statement for a second. The orange mare thought of a great way to use this opportunity. "If ya don't believe me, why not challenge him to a little competition? See how fast either of y'all can harvest them apple trees." The stallion thought about it, maybe? There was nothing wrong with a competition, one that can even move along the work around here. Big Mac decided he would do so, and just like that, he went over to the pegasus. "Hey, Sora." The stallion called over. "Huh, oh hey Big Mac. What's up?" Sora asked as he and Apple Bloom stopped. "I was wonderin' if ya wanted to have a race through the orchid? See which one of us can harvest the most apples." Sora thought about it, and yeah that sounded like a fun idea. It reminded him of the races he had with Riku back at Destiny Island's. "Sure, I don't see why not. Though what about Applejack? I don't think she's going to enjoy us goofing off." "Ah' actually like the idea." The cow girl entered the conversation. "Nothin' wrong with addin' a little fun 'into work. You two have at it." "Really, thanks. Though, who's going to be the referee?" Apple Bloom jumped up and down in front of the older ponies, waving her hoof up in the air. "Ooh, ooh! Can ah' be the refra-refirord- whatcha-macolet! Please!" The filly's older sister decided to let her do just that. "Sure thing, sugar cube." Applejack went over to a spacious enough area and drew a line in the dirt with her hoof that both stallions went behind. Apple Bloom was standing right in front of both Big Mac and Sora. Both had their eyes steady, legs spread and body's narrow. "Alrighty then, on the count of three!" Screamed the filly as Applejack was watching from afar. "1…..2……… 3!!!!" She waved her hoof in air as the two then sprinted off at an extreme speed. While the two ran off, Apple Bloom went over to Applejack so she could watch with the two. Sora was quick and nimble, bucking the trees and passing the apples around into the buckets. The pegasus was putting his agility to use, as soon as he filled one bucket, he managed to grab another one and buck another tree repeating the process. Big Mac was doing well, but was falling a little behind. The pegasus was using his energy better, more strength for the trees while using less on pushing the buckets. Big Mac on the other hand was using a bit too much strength in some areas. Apple Bloom and Applejack were cheering for the two as much as they could, "Keep going Sora, yer doin' great!" Apple Bloom yelled. Applejack was trying her best to keep her brothers high spirits up. "Hurry up Big Macintosh! Yer fallin' behind!" The red stallion kept on trying and trying, putting every ounce of effort he could into this race. Big Mac managed to catch up, thanks to Sora getting a bit tired. The race was still going as the two stallions were doing an incredible job at bucking the apple trees. In just a few minutes they had managed to buck a good amount of trees. Both were getting more and more exhausted as time went on, and only a few tree's remained. Sora was still going though more out of breath then when he was starting. Still the pegasus wasn't letting up. After all he did spend most of his time running back on the island's so him being able to go for so long was no wonder. Big Mac was almost completely out of breath. He was tired and felt like giving up. Though he didn't, he wouldn't let himself give up. As soon as he felt like he was, he stopped himself and kept on going. He kept bucking trees, filling buckets with apple's and repeating the process. The two stallions kept on going, as Big Mac finally passed Sora. He was actually beating him, winning. It wasn't because he was strong then the pegasus, Big Mac simply had more motivation. One tree was left, and Big Mac reached it. With that, the two stallions fell on the ground together, managing to harvest practically every tree in the farm. The two mares went up to help lift the boy's up from the cold hard ground. Apple Bloom helped up Big Mac by picking up his upper body with her head. "Wow, ya' really put yer all into that race." She exclaimed. Her brother's response was one he commonly used, "Ey-up." Though this one came from a tired throat. Applejack laughed a little as to how serious her brother took this little competition. The orange mare figured that telling her sister why he took it so seriously was for the best, "Hahaha, Ta believe, the reason ya' worked so darn hard today was just cause' ya were jealous of Sora." The filly was surprised to hear that. She looked down at her brother. "That's the reason you an' Sora did all this?" Big Mac realized that the cat was out of the bag. The red stallion nodded his head up and down as his response. Apple Bloom gave her brother a stern look, one of disappointment. "Now why would y'ah think that?" The stallion picked himself up, as he looked below in order to see his sister, face to face. "Ah heard everything you said. How you thought he was the strongest pony y'all ever met. I guess I thought I was nothin' compared to him." The filly looked down for a little while as she listened to her brother. Big Mac was thinking all that just because she admired Sora a teensy bit? "I thought even more so that it was true when my little sister thought the same thing." Apple Bloom was quick to stop her brother from thinking that was the case any longer. "Well stop thinkin' that. Yer my big brother, no matter what." She went over to hug his leg, thanks to the filly being relatively short compared to the others. "Ah might think Sora is amazin', but Ah'll never replace you with him, Big Mac." The big red stallion was at an awe, his sister was hugging him, telling him just how important he really is to her. It was all he could ever want at the moment. Applejack was watching the whole thing unfold. She knew deep inside that Apple Bloom does care about her brother. Big Mac and the filly were still hugging things out as time went on. Applejack picked Sora back on his legs as he brushed himself off. "Glad to see Big Mac in a good mood." The pegasus coomented while the cowgirl brushed his mane. "Don't take it personally. Macintosh still likes ya'." Sora grew a warm smile while looking at the two Apples hugging. "You three are lucky to have each other, I always wanted siblings when I was younger." "Only child, huh." Applejack coomented. "Say, y'ah wouldn't happen' to have any family elsewhere would y'ah? Maw or paw wait'n for y'ah ta get back home?" The keyblade wielder was hoping the subject wouldn't get back to him. Yeah, he did have mom waiting back at the island for him. He still remembers when she called him for dinner, it's probably gone bad now. His mind drifted to other people, he had no idea how many times he thought about his old friend's. He couldn't deny it to himself that he was feeling homesick. He missed the sunny days, the sand on the beach next to the waves. He missed sword fights with Riku. Spending time with Kairi, hearing Donald yell at him or seeing Goofy act… goofy. Heck, he would give anything for some sea salt ice cream with the gang back at Twilight Town. "Sora, y'ah still in there?" The pegasus was taken back to reality by Applejack calling his name. "Huh, oh sorry. Guess I got some weird thoughts popping back up." "Oh, was it cause' ah mentioned…?" "No, well maybe a little." He interrupted. "I guess I'm just getting a little homesick. I'll get better, don't worry." The cow girl let him be as Sora went over to celebrate Big Mac winning, leaving Applejack alone again. She looked left and right, trying to find Twilight. Her search came to a quick end as Twilight and Spike teleported right in front of her. "Great job, Applejack! I would have never thought of something like that!" Said the unicorn. The orange mare was scratching the back of her head, "Well shoot, thanks Twilight." The unicorn was smiling as happy as she could, but Spike wasn't. He still felt terrible about what they were doing. If Sora wasn't telling them something, it had to have been for a good reason, at least that's what Spike believes. Twilight then asked what the orange mare's results. "So, what did you discover? How long did he last?" This was what got Applejack in a twist. "Uhh…. What do y'ah mean…. Exactly?" The mare was trying to act as If she didn't know, even though she really did. "I mean what did you find out about his stamina. You know, like I asked you too." Applejack's face had a desperate smile on her face along with her eyes moving left and right, sweating a little bit too. "Well ya see, ah' kinda… forgot about that part." Crack! The orange mare heard that sound as she looked at Twilight's smile. The unicorn's face turned into that of a crazy ponies. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU FORGOT!?" Yelled Twilight at the cow pony. Applejack quickly shoved a hoof in Twilight's mouth. Thankfully Sora and the others didn't hear them. The orange mare herself was a little embarrassed that she forgot such an important deatil. Though you couldn't really blame her, the competition between Big Mac and Sora was pretty intense. "I'm sorry sugarcube. I just got a little distracted, that's all." The unicorn recomposed herself, able to think straight once again. "No no, it's ok. It was my fault too for not staying closer to the action." Twilight decided to go over to the next pony, not wanting Sora to catch on to them. "I'm gonna go over to Rainbow Dash. Spike, I want you to accompany Sora, see if you can find anything else, alright?" The baby dragon was a little hesitant to do this, "Well… I don't know Twi-" "Great, meet you there." The unicorn interrupted as she glowed purple, finally teleporting out of the farm. Spike was left alone with Applejack and his assignment of tagging along with Sora. Speaking of which, the pegasus noticed Spike and decided to make his way over. They tend to do that alot when convenient for the writer. "Hey Spike." Sora greeted. "Glad to see you again. What are you doing here though? Shouldn't you be with Twilight." "Um actually…" The baby dragon was about to try and come up with a lie but Applejack interrupted. "Spike wanted ta' spend some time with y'ah. Ah' said he could do just that after y'ah finished workin' at the farm." That excuse seemed to have worked for the pegasus. "Well seeing as I finished my work two minutes ago, sure thing. I just have to go clean myself up, I'll be back." As soon as Sora went inside the house, Spike thanked Applejack. "Thank you so much. I thought I was going to mess it up for sure." "Don't thank' me Spike." She replied as she ruffled his hair a little. "Really, please don't. It felt all weird an' wrong havin' ta' make up a lie. Ah'm surprised ah' made a good one at that." * * * In the middle of a grassy field, under the sky filled with clouds, a pegasus and a unicorn were having a conversation. "So, what do you want me to do again?" Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight shook her head in annoyance. "Ugh, Alright, I'll explain one more time. Your main objective is to test his flying skills." The unicorn then dashed forward, face to face with the pegasus while having a serious look. Rainbow Dash flinched a little, surprised by this. "And don't mess up, got it?" Twilight said with a strict tone. The rainbow pegasus gulped a little, being a tiny bit scared. "Yeah, yeah. I won't, don't worry." The unicorn stood back, no longer interrogating the pegasus. Twilight teleported away to a place close to the action in order to check on the progress while Rainbow was awaiting her other pegasus friend to arrive. Her wait wasn't long as Sora, along with Spike on his back, had arrived at just the perfect time. "Hey Rainbow Dash." Greeted the caramel pegasus. "Well it's about time. I was thinking you forget all about today." The rainbow mare took notice of the baby dragon on Sora's back. "Huh, why is Spike with you?" The other pegasus began to explain himself. "Oh, Spike wanted to tag along. Hope that's ok with you." "Pfft, of course it is. The more the merrier, right." Rainbow Dash turned around, ushering the other two to follow. The three continued on walking forward, until they stopped as Sora and Spike became amazed as to what they saw. "You see this contraption I made." The pegasus and baby dragon were shocked by it. They saw clouds all over the place, along with pathways leading to trees and other things such as rock formations. The trail lade out also had other things such as many obstacles, including thundery clouds, tree's with different sizes and a bunch of snow clouds as well. "When did you find time to make all this?" Asked the baby dragon. "Please, I'm the fastest pegasus in Equestria. Getting it set up was so easy I had time to take a nap and talk with Twi-" Rainbow Dash stopped herself before she could let out any details she didn't want Sora to know about. "-lights pet owl that she definitely has! Ha-ha?" A somewhat close save. Sora's confusion returned but just like before, he didn't seem to linger about it for too long. He didn't even know Twilight had an owl, Probably because she didn't. Still, Rainbow Dash decided to move things along. "Anyways, I made this obstacle course in order to see how well you can do. It's quite simple really." the rainbow mare took to the sky in order to help illustrate how it would go. "We start right here in this line I drew-" she pointed to it before moving higher, "-then we will fly past that pile of thunder clouds, which will lead us all the way to that area filled with tree's as we then fly circles on top of that mountain, which leads us to the ice clouds we have to maneuver through and finally, we circle back here we're we cross that line right next to the one we started at." She then landed down once again before checking on her friend. "Any questions?" "What part of that was simple?" Asked Sora. "C'mon, it's not too hard." Rainbow Dash said. The two pegasi got prepared. Both stood next to each other as Spike went in front of the line Sora and Rainbow Dash were behind. The baby dragon cleared his throat before beginning. "Alright, I want a good clean race. I don't want to see any cheating. Not that I would be able to see what you're doing…. Or where you two are flying through…. Look, just don't cheat. I really don't have a way of keeping track, just make it easy for me and don't……" "One two three GO!!" Yelled the Rainbow mare as she quickly dashed off into the sky while maneuvering https://youtu.be/Z43aGvagI-o (Dare - Transformers the movie) Sora was knocked back a little bit by wind, along with Spike. The pegasus grumbled a little, wondering just how he was supposed to go and catch up to the rainbow mare. He then remembered that he couldn't fly, but maybe he could fall with style by using an old trick he learned. Twilight from afar, was wondering why Sora wasn't flying with Rainbow Dash, then she was reminded that he doesn't know how to fly, not being familiar with his wings. She was quickly surprised when she saw the carmel pegasus shoot into the air, he was glowing blue while he jumped from cloud to cloud in order to get higher and higher. Sora then in mid air, let out his wings as he flew through the skies. Well, not necessarily flying per say, but more so gliding. The unicorn knew she had to at least try and document something, fearing what happened with Applejack could happen here, using a teleportation spell in order to get close to some of the action. Rainbow Dash started to take a nice little flight, while looking back. Sora wasn't even close to her, she was wondering if she possibly left him behind. As soon as she slowed down a little, the pegasus shot past right in front of him. "Hey! Nice moves, Spikey!" Sora felt a little nice after hearing that complement. "Wow, Thanks Rainbow Da-" "For a rookie!" Rainbow Dash then proceeded to fly faster as she passed Sora. The rainbow pegasus was getting close to the large amount of clouds but she wasn't able to react to it fast enough and crashed into it, though being a pegasus, she could shake it off just fine. Something felt off though as the cloud was harder, along with the feeling of breathing. Rainbow Dash then pulled something, or rather some pony from the cloud. A familiar purple unicorn. "Twilight!? What are you doing here?" Twilight seemed to be a little dizzy, thanks to Rainbow Dash ramming into her. Sora managed to catch and even pass the rainbow mare. Rainbow Dash decided to get back into the game, no longer wasting any time. She dashed faster and faster, getting more speed as she was finally able to get closer to Sora, until she herself passed him once again. She knew that the Keyblade wielder would lose some clouds, so his jumping would come to an end. Both managed to get close to the thunder clouds, Sora knew he couldn't glide under these so he decided to jump on top of the clouds, managing to avoid the lightning from below. Rainbow Dash didn't think of that so she ended up having to dodge the lightning from below the clouds. She dodged every single thunderbolt, passing through the entire pile of them. Both Sora and Rainbow Dash continued on over, both starting to reach the tree's. Twilight finally managed to get back on track with her head no longer spinning around. She quickly looked over to her far left, seeing the two pegasi getting closer to the trees. "Oh no no-no-no-no-no-no!" The unicorn teleported over to the trees, needing to catch up and get her own research. Sora and Rainbow Dash continued racing on. She was able the tilt left and right in order to dodge any trees in front of her. Sora instead used his keyblade and flowmotion in order to latch on to their body's and spin around, until he let go and moved on to another tree, continuing the process until both him and the rainbow mare finally made it out. Rainbow Dash was still far ahead, until she heard a Pop! sound right in front of her. She ended up crashing into Twilight once again as the unicorn came out right in front of her. Both of them rolled on the floor, stopping Rainbow Dash and leaving Twilight dizzy once again. "Oh C'mon!!" Whined the pegasus. She looked back and saw Sora was getting closer. Quickly, she looked around and found a bush which she rushed too, tossing Twilight inside. Before the caramel pegasus could catch up, Rainbow Dash managed to get back to flying before he could. Both of them were now getting close to the mountain. Sora had no way of using flowmotion here, so he had to resort to gliding with his wings as well as he could and good old fashioned running. Rainbow Dash was still ahead of him, with her passing through the mountain very easily. Sora on the other hand, was struggling. He managed to get a few feet forward until he fell down, not knowing how to keep himself in the air. The pegasus looked from afar as he saw Rainbow Dash getting farther away from him, so he decided to keep on running, seeing that trying to get off the ground again would be nothing but a waste of time. Rainbow Dash managed to pass the mountain but Sora was falling back. She decided to perform a few somersaults in the air in order to show off, but came crashing into Twilight once again as she teleported in. The unicorn was going to fall from the sky, but Rainbow Dash managed to catch her and place her down nice and easy. She was mad that Twilight ended up crashing into her again thanks to her teleporting where she shouldn't. Still she had to hide her again, since if she didn't, Sora would start to get 'too' curious. Rainbow Dash quickly threw Twilight's dizzy body over to a tree, hopefully not harming the unicorn as she went on, continuing the race. Sora was able to catch up somewhat, noticing the snowy clouds on top of him. He knew he could use these, just like the thunder ones before. So he activated flowmotion to jump up to them, getting a good amount of momentum, rushing to more and more clouds. He finally got high enough to where he let out his wings to glide down, though it was very difficult as he wasn't able to stay very steady, moving too far to the left or right. The Pegasus was close to the end, seeing Spike over at the finish line, deciding to pick up his pace. Rainbow Dash was coming from the far back, flapping her wings as fast as she could in order to catch up. Sora was getting close to the end, he kept going on only to fall back to the the grassy ground. No longer having any more room to glide, He began running faster and faster, along with Rainbow Dash flying over, trying her best to pass Sora. Both were getting closer to that finishing line, until…. Both finally crossed it. Rainbow Dash gained enough speed to catch up to the line at around the same time Sora did, where he had to run as fast as he could, sticking his hoof out in order to reach it in time. The two pegasI slid across the grass, stopping right in their tracks. (Stop song) The rainbow mare quickly got up and shook like a dog, dusting the dirt off herself. She was up, nice and ready. Before rushing over to a tired, out of breath Sora, she grew a large and giddy smile. "That, was, THE MOST AWESOME RACE I'VE EVER HAD!!!" Screamed Rainbow Dash in excitement. The rainbow pegasus had a blast flying left and right over and under all those obstacles. The thrill, the rush and the wind in her mane all helped make an amazing experience for Rainbow Dash. Sora on the other hand was tired beyond belief, running for so long left and right was exhausting. "Still, you can do better. In the race, you barely used your wings to fly. I know you can't use them as well as me, but you still need to at least try. Otherwise, you won't get any better." The pegasus managed to breathe easy again. Still, he felt a little worn out. "So, any other suggestions for the whole flying thing?" He asked. Rainbow Dash didn't have anything to really add at the moment. "Nah, at least not right now. The best I can tell you is to keep on trying. Practice makes perfect after all." She put on a nice smile while she raised a hoof, waiting for Sora. He was a little confused, not knowing what she wanted. "C'mon, don't leave me hanging." Sora quickly remembered what she was talking about, a fist bump, or rather in this case a hoof bump. He still remembers how he learned it, Baymax taught it to him back at Sanfransokyo after defeating the heartless. It's supposed to be a way of celebrating after doing something, he guessed. Sora raised his hoof and did just what he needed to while the both of them made an explosion sound. "Booooooom!!" Yelled Rainbow Dash "Ba-la-la-la-la!" Said Sora, confusing the mare a bit. "What was that?" "We fist- hoof bumped, isn't that what you wanted to do?" "Well yeah, but what was that weird sound you made?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Someone I met before showed me, he did it the exact same way. Was it wrong or…?" "No. I mean, it's a… perfectly fine way to do a hoof bump." Rainbow Dash and Sora heard the sound of footsteps. They both turned around and saw Spike coming up towards them. The baby dragon cheered for both of them. "Wow, you two were so awesome up there! Who won?" He asked, not realizing he was supposed to be the one to check on that. Both didn't want to tell him that though, so they both decided to call it a tie. "Eh, we couldn't tell. How about a tie?" Suggested Sora. "What? Oh please, It's pretty obvious I won." Rainbow bragged. "You did a good job and all, but still no match for my flying." Sora was a tiny bit ticked off at her statement, though at least she gave him a little credit. While he looked at the sun far off in the sky, he remembered something else he was supposed to do. "Oh, I'm supposed to go help Rarity with her clothing line! Sorry, gotta go Rainbow!" Sora waved goodbye while picking up Spike and placing him on his back. The baby dragon stuttered as he heard just who Sora mentioned. "Wait! R-Rarity?!" Sora didn't hear Spike though as he was to busy rushing off. When Rainbow Dash was left alone, she turned around to go back home until Twilight needed her, which sparked a thought for the pegasus; Twilight was still stuck in the tree. Rainbow Dash was quicy about to fly back though she never left the ground as she was immediately stopped by a purple unicorn popping in front of her. Speaking of the devil, Twilight appeared right in front of her incredibly enraged from the look on her face, emitting an incredibly frightening aura. She was covered with bruises up and down, along with having a bunch of twigs, branches and leaves in her mane. "Oh, heeeeeeeey Twilight. How are you?" Rainbow Dash was incredibly, actually no word could express just how scared she was. "Do the bruises hur-" "I don't want to talk about it." She expressed her thoughts in a very threatening tone. Rainbow Dash didn't know how to carry the conversation on any further. She tried to ask about what was next for Sora but she was quickly shut down by the unicorn asking, "Did you discover anything new?" The rainbow mare only replied by shaking her head left and right, which was a clear sign of a no. Twilight then somehow brought a large tree and planted it right in front of her with her magic. She then went over to the tree and repeatedly slammed her head into it, over and over again. Slam! Slam! Slam! Rainbow Dash flinched and closed her eyes a tiny bit for every single hit the unicorn did to herself. Twilight finished her little episode. She didn't say anything else to Rainbow Dash until she teleported away. > A Pegasus to study Part 2 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sora and Spike had been making their way over to Rarity's boutique. It has been a few minutes since they were with Rainbow Dash, but the two haven't talked to each other since they left. The baby dragon was a little nervous about going over to the white unicorn's living space. After all, he did feel quite attracted to her. Everytime he was near her, Spike felt as if his heart could flutter away. 'Don't worry, you can do this' Spike thought to himself. Sora felt the need to ask him something. "Hey Spike. I hope you don't mind me wondering but why is it when you're around Rarity, you get so…. Um…. Well…. Distracted?" Spike knew exactly what he was talking about but he didn't know how to respond. How did he truly feel about the white unicorn? Even Spike didn't know the answer. Maybe it could be he….. No, that couldn't be it. "I- Don't know what you're talking about." He pretended to not know what the pegasus was implying. He Still maybe he did feel a certain way about her. * * * Rarity was getting everything set up. She had all of her clothes, inspired by Sora's own, ready for the pegasus to judge. Though that's not the reason she's waiting for him to arrive. Rarity finished the finishing (Ha!) touches on the outfits, but as soon as she did, she heard a pop-like sound. The white unicorn turned around to see who made it, finding out it was her good friend. The white unicorn decided to greet her. "Oh, Hello there Twilight. What brings you here-" Rarity quickly noticed something about her. She had branches, messy hair and bruises all over her. "-Sweet Celestia! Darling, what happened!" She shrieked as loud as she could. Twilight didn't have anything to say about it. The unicorn wasn't interested in the matter of her look. "Nothing, I just got a little messy on the way here." She stated before beginning to tell the unicorn about what she needed to do. "Oh right, I came here to tell you that I need you to check on Sora's clothes. See if you can find anything else about them." "Alright, if you insist." The white unicorn replied. Twilight then teleported away once again, leaving Rarity by herself. Just in time too. Sora, with Spike on his back, entered the place right after Twilight left. Rarity had to make sure to accomplish her task correctly. That means no letting out anything about Twilight, the other girls or what her goal was. She went over to greet the two. "Sora, I'm glad to see you could make it." "Oh, hey Rarity. Sorry I'm a little late." He apologized as Spike got down from the pegasi's back. As soon as his legs hit the floor, he turned around to see Rarity face to face. "Oh, hello Spike. I wasn't expecting you to come here as well." The unicorn greeted He tried his best to not lose himself once again. He tried his best not to think about… Her amazing diamond blue eyes. Or her… Majestic mane or even her... fabulous tail. Spike started to become lost in thought, thinking about Rarity. The two ponies saw Spike in his little state of mind. Both didn't know what to make of it so they decided to just leave him as such. Sora then turned his attention to the new clothing line Rarity had laid out. The clothes were all on mannequins which had the same autonomy as the ponies. "Wow, you really outdid yourself with them. I only got a small look at them last time, but they look even better then before." Complemented the pegasus. The white unicorn was pleased that he thought so. "Oh darling, you jest. I'm sure these are nothing compared to what Master Yen-Sid has done." Maybe Sora could reveal a little bit more about him. "So, which pieces of them work for your particular eye? The colored highlights? the color coding? The fabulous stitching work? The patterns?" Sora didn't know what exactly any of that was. He knew what he preferred to wear but not the reasons as to why. "Ugh… I really like the….. colors." The white unicorn wasn't amused by his description. "Well, what do you think Yen-Sid's opinion would be ?" Sora began to think as to what his master's master would think about them. Yen-Sid wasn't exactly a fashion person or maybe he was but Sora just never picked up on any signs. The keyblade wielder figured to just answer how he thought master Yen-Sid would in this scenario. "Well, I guess he would think they're pretty good. After all, you managed to get the style down, not to mention you put in your own touches on them too." The clothes had more belts then an average piece of clothing though used more sparingly compared to Sora's clothing. An average of two or six belts, along with more jewels such as diamonds or sapphires. "Why thank you." Rarity accepted the complement. She decided to start and try to get any more research on his clothes. Still she had to make sure to do so in secret so Sora wouldn't get too suspicious. "Why don't you try them on?" She asked. "Okay, if you say so." The pegasus moved on over to the clothes and grabbed some of them from the mannequins they were on. "So where can I change?" He looked around to try and find a changing room. Rarity was a tooken back a little by the pegasus asking. "Why not just out here? You wouldn't mind if I saw you clothless, would you?" The unicorn knows that some ponies do prefer some privacy but why would a pony like Sora mind? He is very social and sometimes a bit oblivious. "Well, I just want a little privacy." The pegasus knows that not all ponies here have clothes. Not even the unicorn in front of him had any, though him being mostly naked made him feel a little awkward. He did let her take notes on his clothes before but he was fully clothed then, and sure he was naked during the Pride Lands or Atlantica, him having clothes right then and there then being told to lose them was a stretch for his comfort. Rarity tried to make him feel a bit more comfortable. "You don't need to be frightened. I just want you to try them on." The unicorn went up to him, trying to take off Sora's clothes herself with magic but the pegasus stepped back a bit more. "I D-on't know. I don't think I can- you know." "Oh don't be so reserved. There's no need to feel uncomfortable. Here, why not try on some of the ones closer to your style " The unicorn brought over some of the tuxedos from her line for the pegasus to wear. Sora decided to ably. He took off his clothes, while still keeping his silver crown necklace. Rarity picked them with her magic as she placed them over on a table. The white unicorn then began to look at them more closely, using stuff such as magnifying glasses in order to examine them for anything peculiar. The pegasus tried one of the tuxedos on. When he finally put the whole thing on, it felt a little itchy. The bow tie wasn't as comfortable as he wished it was. A little too stiff for his liking. The pegasus began to take it off as he put on another one. Rarity took closer inspections on the clothes. She couldn't find anything odd, except a little spark. This is what got the unicorn interested. The clothes had something about them that seemed familiar yet odd. Something she was sure she felt before but never on clothing. She decided to try and get a closer look into this. Sora was getting tired of not having them on though, and being patient wasn't always his strong suit. "Hey Rarity, can I have my clothes back now?" He asked only to be stopped by the unicorn with her blue magic. She tried her best to try and buy herself some more time. Rarity hid some of the signs that she was examining the pegasi's clothes. "Huh, that can't be. Have you tried all of them already?" She was a little confused, that couldn't have been the case. "No, it's just that they're a little uncomfortable for my liking- Woah!" He yelled as he was carried away by Rarity. Sora was forced into a dress of some kind, while being buckled down extremely hard with the belt on the outfit. The unicorn left the struggling pegasus in a spot where he wouldn't see her studying his clothes. "Here you go try this one on you, tell me how you feel about it after a few minutes ok? Ok! Hahahaha…?" The unicorn said all of this very fast, trying to not seem suspicious. She then left as fast as she could back to study the clothes a bit better, leaving Sora struggling on the ground, trying to take the dress off though it was difficult for him. Rarity continued to keep on trying to study that little spark she took notice of. The unicorn finally got just what was on the pegasi's clothing. It was magic, though none of which Rarity was familiar with. She had never seen this kind of magic used in anything she has ever seen. Was this master Yen-Sid a type of wizard? She had to gather more information. Spike had just started to get out of his Rarity admiring state. The baby dragon continued to look around for where Sora and Rarity had gone off too. He quickly heard the sounds of…. Struggling? Spike went over to see just what was causing it, he ended up finding his friend Sora on the ground in a dress, struggling to take it off. "Sora what's going on?" He asked the pegasus while he was struggling. "Spike!!" Sora cheered as he noticed him in front. "Quick, get me out of this thing! It's way too tight, I can hardly breathe! And my tail feels like it's being shoved all the way up my-!" He was interrupted by Spike going over to him and unbuckling the belt, allowing the dress to fall off of Sora. "Ugh, few. Thanks Spike, I owe you one." He began to stand up on his legs once again while breathing in and out. Spike had no idea what to say about what he just saw. His friend was wearing a dress that was too tight, not to mention 'he was in a dress'. "Why did you have one of those on?" He asked the pegasus. Sora told him about what had happened. "Rarity asked me if I could try on her new clothes. After I tried the tuxedo, she forced me into one of her dresses with her magic." "That's odd, why would she do that?" He asked. The two went over to the unicorn who was studying Sora's clothes more closely. She quickly noticed the two again. "Oh my done already here try another one!" Rarity exclaimed as she used her magic on Sora to put him inside of another one of her dresses. Leaving Sora to struggle on the floor once again. Spike was left in his delusional state of mind when he saw Rarity once again. The exact same thing happened over and over for quite some time. Sora was struggling, Rarity was examining his clothes and Spike wasn't focused until he heard Sora's struggling noises that broke him out of it. He went over to help him out of the tight clothes, which caused the two to go and check on Rarity again which led to her going to place Sora in new clothes, along with Spike being lost in thought. This continued for quite some time, until the cycle was broken. Rarity had been checking on his clothes for one last time, finding out that a special type of magic spell was placed on them. Allowing for extra protection against magic attacks. Her realization had come short though as she heard Sora's voice again. "Rarity, please can I….." "No I'm still not..!" She yelled incredibly loud at him before she stopped herself from finishing that sentence. Rarity looked all at the stallion in his new set of clothes which looked so amazing on him, it left Rarity speechless. His outfit had a white undershirt that covered the front part of his body, along with a red bow tie on his neck and a black jacket. It was nice and loose though without giving the impression of some sort of 'bad boy'. Sora looked simply amazing. "..... Darling, what in Celestia's name are you wearing!?" "Huh, This? Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know.." "It's magnificent! It works absolutely perfect for you, it just works together with your style so flawlessly!" She completely forgot about her other discoveries, just so joyful to see him in her outfit. Rarity then had an epiphany. "Wait a minute, why don't you take it? Since we all have tickets for the Gala, it can work perfectly as your outfit!" Sora was a little shocked. He believed that the unicorn was ferrous with him for having a dress she put hours into without permission, turns out her loss of words was just because of how he looked in it. "Really, are you sure? I mean this did take you a long time to make." The pegasus questioned the unciors generosity. "Oh pish-posh, it's the least I could do for letting me study your clothes." Just not the second time she did so without permission. "Oh, here let me get them for you." She grabbed them with her magic and returned them back to Sora. He quickly took off the new duds Rarity gave him and placed his old ones back on his body. Rarity was packing the tux in a bag for Sora to take with him. After Sora finished putting them on, he dusted himself off a little. "Thanks Rarity. C'mon Spike." The pegasus called his friend over. "We need to go with Pinkie Pie, I promised to help her out at the bakery." The baby dragon went over and got on his friends back, resting. Rarity heard what Sora said about her pink friend. "Wait, you're going over to Pinkie Pie's." She asked, trying to hide the fact that she already knew where the two were going over. She went over and grabbed a few jem's in a basket with her magic. "I was saving these for future projects, but I figured I could give a few to you." She passed them over to Spike who grabbed them out of the air. "Thanks Rarity." Spike said, until his loving daze returned once again. "....You really are the element of generosity." Sora already knew the drill so he picked the dragon on his back. "Thanks again Rarity." Sora said, finally going out the door while the white unicorn waved goodbye. As soon as that happened, Rarity had forgotten her discovery, hopefully Twilight wouldn't be disappointed with her. * * * Pinkie Pie had been getting things ready for Sora to come over. Thankfully Twilight came over to tell her about what she had to do. Apparently the purple unicorn wants her to see what kind of food Sora likes to eat. With her and the pegasus planning on making some pastries, this was the perfect opportunity for what Twilight had in mind. Mrs Cake was finishing up a two layer cake by putting some blue frosting on the top. The mare began to bring out a box in order to place the cake inside of it. "Alright, I'm off Pinkie Pie. Now dear, please make sure not to make a mess while I'm gone." She told her daughter. Mrs Cake knows that Pinkie is special, very special. She could be quite chaotic at times with her party planning. Pinkie Pie reassured her mother that nothing would go wrong. "Don't worry Mrs C. I got everything under control. Me and Sora will be reeeeeeeeally careful." Mrs Cake was not all too familiar with Pinkie's friend. She got to see him for a little while when he and Applejack came over, which resulted in the 'food poisoned muffins' incident. Hopefully that was just because of Applejack being tired. "Oh well, if you think you can handle it." She was just about to make her way out the door with the cake, before the pegasus both she and her daughter had been talking about entered, along with a familiar baby dragon on his back. "Oh my, talk about good timing." She moved back into the bakery in order to let Sora and Spike in. "Hello, Mrs Cake right?" The pegasus greeted. "Is Pinkie Pie here?" "Oh, she's almost done. Just setting up a few things for your two's little cooking day." Mrs Cake then began to remember fond memories of a close friend. "I still remember when I was younger, me and a dear friend of mine would always bake together. It was messy for us, sure. In the end we always had fun, oh how I miss you Pear Butter." Sora thought that was very nice of her to share. Though he wondered, who is Pear Butter?' "Wow, that sounded like some good times. What happened to her? Did she move or something?" He asked. This brought out some dark feelings inside of Mrs Cake. "Well, I don't know how to say this but... Pear Butter isn't exactly with us anymore." Sora finally realized just what the mare was implying. "Huh, oh. I'm sorry I didn't know…" "It's quite alright. It was my fault for rambling out of the blue. So tell me a little bit about yourself. I'm pretty sure you're at least new to Ponyville, otherwise Pinkie would have had a folder filled with things about you, Hahahaha!" She laughed, making a small joke that ponies who only know Pinkie Pie personally would understand. Sora decided to break the ice with Mrs Cake a little. "Well let's see. I'm pretty good with a sword. I even had an exam not too long ago." "Oh, that's nice. Are you training to be a knight of some sorts? I know it's never too early to start practicing but I don't think the royal guard accepts ponies as young as you." "Well not really a knight but something like that. Still, even if I did try out for them I would probably fail like I did my other exam." He said a little jokingly. Sora thought back to his Mark of Mastery. It was supposed to be a test to see if Sora could become a keyblade master. Just like he said though, he failed. His best friend Riku took the test as well and actually managed to pass with flying colors. Sora had to admit, he was a little bummed out he didn't succeed, though he was still proud of Riku for passing even if he himself didn't. His best friend deserved the title way more than he did. "Don't feel bad. People fail time and time again. You never get it right the first time." Said Mrs Cake. She can relate to not succeeding with something. Still the more you try, the better you get. She really thought Sora shouldn't be so hard on himself for failing one measly test. "Do you know anything about baking? Just want to make sure that I don't come back finding the kitchen on fire." She asked jokingly. "Actually, I know my way around a recipe or two. I can thank 'little chef' for the help. He can make amazing food out of anything, like that 'tarte aux fruit' he made for me and my friends. He even has a famous bistro at a nice little town…." "Wait a minute!!" Yelled Pinkie Pie as she came up to both her mother and friends. "You never told me you worked with a famous chef before!" The pink mare grabbed the pegasus and brought him over to the kitchen. Mrs Cake felt the need to chuckle a little at her daughter's antics. She then looked at the time, getting herself ready to leave. "Well, I better get going. You three have fun!" She said as the mare went out the door with her delivery. Sora had finally been brought over to where Spike and Pinkie Pie were. The pegasus saw all the ingredients laid out. Flower, chocolate chips, milk, eggs and sugar. Along with fruits such as Mango's, strawberries and cherries. Sora also noticed the jem's that Rarity gave Spike on the corner. "Wow, there's so much to work with!" He exclaimed. "I know right!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed herself. "What should we make first?! A cake, an ice cream frosted cake…?" The pink mare gasped before Christmas coming up with a better suggestion. "..Or what if we made a Cherrychanga!!" Sore didn't know what this dessert was about but it sounded quite tasty. "I've never heard of a Cherrychanga. What's it supposed to be?" "What! You've never ever ever tried one before?! C'mon we need to get started!" The pink mare yelled while pulling Sora over. "So, what are you two making?" Spike asked the two ponies. "Well, since you asked-!" Pinkie explained. "I created an entire list of things Sora and I can cook. We'll start off with small things like cookies and cupcakes, then move up to bigger things, like actual cakes!" The pegasus was impressed that Pinkie was able to make a list of things they could make by the respective challenge of each. "That's all well and good, but it sounds like it's gonna take forever." Sora commented. "Oh don't worry, i know the perfect way to pass the time." The mare went over behind a table to gather an old radio that could read cassettes. "Nothing helps work go by faster then an 80's montage." https://youtu.be/HgzGwKwLmgM (Don't stop me now - Queen, Jazz Album) Pinkie Pie put in the cassette and hit play while turning the volume up to eleven. "Ok, ready?" She asked as she looked over to Sora for a response. He motioned his head up and down. Pinkie smirked back as she began listing things she required. "Flower!" She yelled as Sora quickly got some and tossed it to her. The pink mare catched it and poured some into a bowl "Sugar!" The pegasus went over to get some of the shelves as he tossed it over to Pinkie. The mare rushed over to get some more ingredients while shouting, "Take over!" Sora did just that he poured some milk into the bowl while grabbing a wooden spoon to mix it all. Spike was amazed at how well they were working together. He decided to get in on the action with his own side project. Rairty's gems would come in handy. The pink mare came back with more things and played them on the other side for either of them to grab. She decided to cut a few strawberries into slices, along with washing them in the sink. She put them over to the side to dry a little before passing them over to Sora. The pegasus was continuing to mix the bowl. He put his hoof inside of it to get a tiny bit of the mix in order to taste it. He decided he needed something to make it a bit sweeter. "Hey Pinkie-" he was about to ask if she could cut some strawberries for him, but all it took was looking over next to the sink for him to notice that she already did. Sora proceeded to grab them and mix them into the bowl. As soon as he tasted it again, he got the taste he wanted. Now what was left was to put it into the oven to bake. With that done, the two went on to the next thing. (Stop song) A could hour's passed and with that, the two's little Song came to an end. The two cleaned up everything they had out. Both Sora, Pinkie Pie and Spike decided to sit down while they enjoyed all the food they made. Sora was trying out that Cherrychanga Pinkie Pie had told him about. It was a long piece of bread with some cinnamon on top of it. The bread also had a bunch of cherry jelly filled inside of it. Sora started to try it out, he picked it up with his hoof and placed it in his mouth before taking a bite out of it. He could see why Pinkie Pie was so insistent on bin trying the thing out. It was so sweet and savory. The sugar mixed with the cherry helped it out a ton when bringing out the taste. "Wow, Pinkie Pie, this is incredible!' exclaimed Sora as he proceeded to dig in into it more and more. The pink mare was happy to see him enjoying it fully. "I knew you would love it." She then proceeded to dig in into some Ice cream frosted cake, which was just as fantastic as Pinkie Pie knew it would be. "Here, try some of the cake, it's delicious!" She said as she passed some towards Sora. Instead of using a utensil to eat, he decided to slam his face into the cake, eating every single nibble he possibly could have. "Mm, frosty. But good." "Really good." Said Spike while he chomped down on some of the cake himself. He also ate a few of those jem cookies he made. "The Cherrychanga ended out better than any of the ones I've made before, how did you do it?" Questioned the Pink mare, trying one of them herself. Sora then explained how. "Well Little Chef always showed me that when baking, you just need to find a good way to blend all the ingredients together to make a new flavor." "Wow, that's amazing. No wonder he has a famous bistro." She then went back to eating her own food, enjoying every second of it. Sora was looking across all the desserts they had made through out the day. All exemplary, though he kinda wondered if he could have cooked anything with a special ingredient he has. "I'm a little bummed out that I didn't bring my Paopu fruit though." "Hm?" Pinkie Pie made said noise, as she slurped up any remains of the ice cream she was eating. "Paopu fruit? What's that?" Sora then proceeded to explain what it was, again, carefully leaving out details that he couldn't talk about. "Oh, they're a special kind of fruit that only grows where I come from. There were so many dishes we could have made with them." He said as slimmed down, disappointed he didn't bring it. Though maybe waiting to share it with someone was better. Pinkie Pie was even more curious to know about what they were. "Really, they sound so good! What makes them so special?" The pegasus figured he could tell her. "Well, it's actually a legend the fruit has. It's said that if ponies share them, their destinies will become intertwined, They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what." The pink mare paid close attention to the legend. It sounded like a fantasy people would have on their final day. Something that could only exist in fiction. "Do you know if it works? It would be super duper amazing if it did!" She asked him. "Well.." Sora scratched his head with his hoof before answering. After all, his last shot of sharing one didn't end so we'll. "... I don't know, but maybe one day I'll be able to find out." He figured maybe one day he would, maybe one day he would share it with someone. "Why are you asking me so many questions today anyways? I never figured you'd be that curious about a friend." Pinkie Pie was a little nervous to actually tell him about the actual reason. Keeping the secret was part of her assignment. "No reason, I'm just curious. Did you two ever cook anything besides just desserts?" She asked in an attempt to change the conversation. "Oh yeah, tons!" Sora continued. Not lingering any longer. "From tomato soups, Mushroom Terrine, Carrot Potage, oh and Ratatouille!" "Ratatouille?" Asked Pinkie Pie. She wasn't sure she ever heard of something like that before in her life. Though she had to admit it sounded a little funny. "The name sounds a little weird. It's like taking the words Rat and Patootie and just mashing them together. Doesn't really sound tasty when you think about it." After hearing the way Pinkie Pie described it, Sora couldn't help but start laughing at it. "Pfft-Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!! Pinkie, you took the words- an- an- but- Ha-ha-ha-ha!" She thought back as to what she said, and couldn't help but giggle along with Sora as well. "Ha-ha-ha-ha! I guess it is really funny!" Both of them then proceeded to laugh as some more time had passed without either of them realizing how much. They decided to call it a day, afterall Sora does have one more stop to make for the day. Spike got his cookie's in a basket as he began to make his way over to Sora. Pinkie Pie came in and interrupted him, "Hey Spike, whatcha got there?" She asked with the baby dragon replying, though he was a little tired as he yawned. "Oh, it's just some diamond cookies I made. I'm gonna see if Sora wants any." He then went over to the pegasus in question. Pinkie Pie was ecstatic to hear that. "Aw, isn't that nice- wait." She stopped herself as she heard about what Spike just said. She went over to try and stop him from doing so but it was too late as Spike already made it to Sora "Wow, thanks Spike." Said Sora as he took a bite from the diamond cookie, chowing down. Pinkie was very concerned, biting her hoofs. Dragons might find gems delicious for a nice treat, but that didn't include ponies. Sora chowed down and swallowed the cookie. He might has well been in slow motion with how Pinkie Pie saw it. With that, the cookie had been devoured. "Mm, crunchy. Thanks a lot, it was great…" Zzz zzz Sora looked down to thank his friend but he was fast asleep, on the ground hugging his gem cookies. He remembered just why he was fast asleep, apparently baby dragons need to sleep more than other creatures. Pinkie Pie came over and picked the dragon up. "Don't worry, I'll take him back to Twilight. See ya later?" She asked. "Really? Thanks." He opened the door as he waved goodbye to his pink friend. The pegasus began to run through the sunset over to his last stop. Pinkie Pie was left with the dragon, so now she had to take him back to the purple unicorn, just so long as she cleaned the mess she and Sora made so that Mrs Cake wouldn't freak out. * * * Fluttershy had been waiting inside her cottage for quite a while. She was tasked to see if she could find out any new information about Sora by socializing with him, though she was a little scared that such a burden was placed on her. It couldn't be all that problematic. After all this is Sora, he's no wrong doer, he couldn't hurt a fly. Unintentionally of course. Fluttershy had been feeding most of her animals such as her pet rabbit, Angel Bunny and her birds. Those were just the small ones, not mentioning the others such as the bears, racoons and squirrels. She was looking over at her clock, still no sign of the pegasus. Fluttershy was still worried that maybe he wasn't coming. What if she didn't accomplish her task? What would she do if she failed her friend? What if- Knock-knock Fluttershy heard the sound of someone knocking on her door. She rushed over to it in order to let the pony in. As soon as the pink maned pegasus opened the door, she was greeted by the stallion she had been waiting for. "Hey Fluttershy, Sorry I'm late. I kinda lost track of time, again." He took some steps into the cottage. Fluttershy stepped back in order to let Sora in, not wanting to stop him. "It's ok. I wasn't worried or anything." As soon as Sora came in, she closed the door before turning around to face him. The carmel pegasus had been examining the place as all the animals were relaxing. He managed to lay his eyes on a familiar rabbit. "Oh Sora, I hope you remember Angel Bunny." Fluttershy said while trying to ease the two in. The little bunny had his eyes squinted while staring at Sora. The pegasus had been doing the same, "Yeah, He's the one that slapped me across the room, right." He replied with the hint of edge. Angel Bunny gave Sora an 'I'm watching you' signal as he left to go do his own thing. Fluttershy felt a little sorry for her pets behavior towards Sora on his first visit not too long ago. "I'm really sorry for how he acted. I'm sure he'll learn to warm up to you." Sora stopped her, "No, it's ok. Besides, I've taken worse hits." He rubbed his cheek a little, still remembering the pain he felt when he was slapped. The pain went away no problem, as quickly as it appeared. "So, what do you need help with?" He asked "Well, there is one animal that got hurt." Fluttershy explained. She went over to her table in order to get a little red bird. She brought it over to Sora in order to show him what happened. "He accidentally crashed into a tree this morning. I need help placing a cast on his wing." The bird's wing did appear pretty badly. It was twisted in more ways than one, along with some feathers that were falling off. Fluttershy placed it on her couch as she left the bird with Sora. The pegasus figured he should try and comfort the bird. Sora had no way of healing it, maybe he could have used cure on it but thanks to his transportation to Equestria he lost that spell. Maybe he could have brought a potion or maybe an elixir but he left them back in his room over at Sweet Apple Acres. Ethers and Panicas probably wouldn't have helped as one was for restoring energy and the other was for getting rid of negative effects like burns, freezing temperatures or poisonous attacks. The pegasus was making sure that bird was nice and relaxed as Fluttershy made it back with a cast. "Hold him steady." She told Sora as he started to do just that. The pink maned mare was slowly placing the cast onto the birds little wing, being careful not to hurt it. Just as soon as she started, she finished placing it onto the wing. The mare let out a little sigh of relief. "Good job. You sure know how to take it easy." Sora complemented. "Oh, it was nothing, really." Fluttershy turned around as she twirled her hair with a hoof. "I still have a few more things to take care of. You wouldn't mind helping me with them, would you?" Sora shook his head in response. "Of course I wouldn't. I'm here to help after all." Both pegasi began to walk outside as Sora saw even more animals resting outside. None of them looked hurt or sick so it was probably just doing the norm with Fluttershy. She had done a really good job at making a good environment for a lot of them. The pink maned mare had some little coops for the chickens, along with a few bushes and birdhouses and a few other things. "Let me see," Fluttershy pondered with her hoof on her chin. "I still haven't fed the chickens. Sora, would you mind gathering them up while I get their seed's?" She asked. "Not at all. Wrangling a few chickens can't be any harder than trying to fly." He scratched his head a little. He still remembers how tired he got from jumping on all those clouds while trying to fly. Maybe not the best thing to compare it to. The pegasus made his way over to all the chickens. There had to be at least ten of them. The chickens all had been walking around aimlessly, not really doing anything. Sora tried to walk easily towards them, trying his best to not scare them. "Hey guys, how are you all doing?" He asked, trying to not alert them. He moved in a bit closer, trying to grab them. Sadly, he failed as the chickens began to run away from him in a hurry. The pegasus grumbled a little before he started to chase the chickens. The little animals were faster than he was expecting as they split up into teams of three. The chickens ran away to different sides. Sora was having trouble keeping up with the chickens, not knowing what to do. He then got the idea to try and corner them with his magic, but it didn't seem to be working as the chickens managed to avoid every single shot, leaving him with no progress. Fluttershy came back with the seed's, along with seeing Sora chasing the chickens with little success. "Wait, um Sora." She said, It didn't end up working though as Sora was still running around, chasing the chickens, again, with no success. "Um, Sora." It again didn't work, Sora was still chasing them down with no avail. Her final yell was what managed to capture his attention. "SORA!!!" As soon as she yelled, the pegasus came to an immediate stop in his movement. The chickens also stopped themselves, shocked at hearing Fluttershy yell at all. The mare herself realized this and quickly apologized, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell at you." She said in her normal tone. The pegasus himself stopped, not wanting to anger his friend. Sora was standing completely still, as much as he could at least. Fluttershy began to fly up with her wings a little bit, hovering above the ground. She grabbed the seed bag and made a linear trail of seed for the chickens to follow. They did as they ate one after another, making their way over to the chicken coop. Fluttershy poured a bit more corn inside of the coup for the chickens before making her way out, closing it's door and then placing the corn bag down before she herself got back on her four legs. Sora was surprised by how well she handled the situation. He was just wasting time with his method but with hers, she was able to get it done in a couple of seconds. Fluttershy went back over to Sora in order to continue their day. "Sora, it's alright. You can move again." He let out a little sigh as he slouched down a little, feeling his body loosen up. "How do you do it?" He asked Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus didn't know what exactly he was asking about. "Huh, what do you mean?" "I mean how is it you're so good with animals? When I first visited you, I noticed that there were lots of them here but how did you manage to make them all feel so comfortable around you?" Fluttershy didn't really know that answer to his question. She's always had a great time with lots of the animal's she met but she never knew the reason as to why that was. "Well, I'm not really sure why. Most of the time when I try talking to one, I imagine how I would feel if I were them. So, I just do what would make me feel comfortable if I was in their situation." Sora pondered on her explanation. Maybe, if he could just see how the animals sae him, Sora could manage to get on their good side. "Alright, I'll make sure to try that out." The pegasus thanked her. "Anything else you need help with?" Fluttershy thought as to what else she needed help with. "Well, the last thing I really need to do is feed Harry." She said as she began to walk over to him Sora was curious as to who he was. "Who's Harry? A hamster or something?" His question was soon answered for him as a large bear showed up in front of the two. The bear was incredibly tall, towering over both of the pegasi. Sora got a little startled at first, jumping back and summoning his keyblade in his mouth. This caused Harry to get scared, running behind a tree in order to hide from Sora. Fluttershy quickly went over to Harry trying to calm him down. "Oh no-no it's ok Harry. Sora's not going to do anything bad to you." The pegasus in question un-summoned his keyblade, feeling a little bad for scaring the bare like that. Though, this might be the perfect opening to try out Fluttershy's advice. He began to imagine how he would feel if someone or something pulled out a weapon on him. Sora believed that he would feel saddened, that something saw him as a threat without even knowing each other. He didn't like something seeing him in that light. He had to admit, it kinda hurts him. So, he decided to take a more simple approach when going up to the bear. Sora walked over very quietly, trying not to make any sounds that would scare the bear. "Hello there, my name's Sora." Fluttershy noticed what Sora was doing, so she decided to step back a little bit. The caramel pegasus continued making his way over to the bear as he placed his hoof in front. Harry made his way carefully over to Sora as he shook his hoof. Harry was slowly starting to warm up to the keyblade wielder, feeling a light eluting from him. He grabbed and hugged him tightly. Probably for the worst though as Sora felt like he couldn't breathe a single bit. The bear was incredibly happy to see how well it was getting along with the pegasus. Harry's stomach began grumbling a little bit which got Sora's attention. "You're hungry. Here, let me go get you something." Harry let Sora down on the ground as the caramel pegasus went over to go get something for the bear to eat. * * * A couple of minutes have passed as Sora and Fluttershy had been sitting down outside, sipping a few cups of honey tea. The animals were all enjoying themselves, especially Harry, who was eating a bee hive filled with honey that Sora managed to get for the bear. His experience doing the same for another bear came in handy when doing so. Fluttershy took another sip from her cup of tea while looking over the animals. "Good job today Sora." The yellow pegasus said. "I'm happy you managed to get along with Harry so well." She ended up finishing her tea, so she grabbed the teapot and poured some more of the liquid for herself. Sora was still admiring the other animals, before he stopped and looked back at Fluttershy. "Yeah, though even I have to admit, I didn't think I would have so much trouble." He took another sip of his tea before placing his cup down again. "I hope you don't mind me asking but how did you get the honey without the bee's getting mad?" Fluttershy asked. Sora chuckled a little before replying. "Ha-ha. Well, Harry isn't the first bear I've met. I had to get honey a bunch of time's for him." Sora motioned Fluttershy to pour him some more tea. She did just that as the mare then asked her own question. "Who was he? I hope he was nice." "Oh, well I know his name but I always just called him Pooh Bear. I met him in this place called the 100 Acre Woods. No matter what, he always wanted some hunny. I don't think he even went a few minutes without his stomach grumbling. So, I ended up having to get Pooh honey a lot of times. I guess doing it so many times just made it easier." Fluttershy was happy to hear about that. This 'Pooh Bear' sounded like a friendly one, maybe just like Harry. "He sounds nice, though I've never heard of the '100 Acre Woods.' Where is it?" Now that was a question Sora was hoping not to hear that day. Still, maybe he could get away with a tiny little lie. Not that he hasn't been doing it already. "It's… a forest where I'm from!" He quickly yelled, trying to get the question out of the way. Fluttershy was a little sceptical about his answer, curious as to why he said it like that. The yellow pegasus shy nature stopped her from asking that. "Alright, but that makes me wonder…. Why don't you ever talk about your home?" Sora knew as to what Fluttershy was asking about but he decided to act upon his foolishness, playing dumb. "Huh, what do you mean?" He asked. "Well, it's just, you never talk about yourself all too much. Ever since we and the girls met you, all you ever told us was just about you being a keyblade wielder, nothing else…" "Look…" Sora immediately stopped her, not wanting to keep it up any longer. ".. Can we talk about something else? I'd rather not talk about… that right now." Fluttershy figured as much. Her shy nature got the better of her again as she rapidly began to apologize, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to talk about something so personal with you…" The carmel pegasus stopped her once again. "It's ok Fluttershy. I know you didn't mean to." He shined a smile towards her, as bright as the sun. Fluttershy herself couldn't help it. She ended up forgetting about what just happened and decided to laugh a little instead of focusing on gathering any other information on Sora. Her laughter was getting contagious as Sora himself began to laugh incredibly hard. The two began to waste a few minutes laughing with each other. A few more minutes had passed. Sora and Fluttershy went inside her cottage as the twilight sky turned into a beautiful night sky with the stars and the moon showing up. "Thank you so much for the help today." Said the yellow pegasus. She was very thankful for all of the stallion's help, even if he did stumble a little bit. "No problem, what are friends for." Sora was walking around Fluttershy's house, looking around for a little while. He ended up laying his eyes on the clock, "Wow, look at the time, 9:30 already." He was a little amused that he spended the entire day doing nothing else but hanging out with the girls. Fluttershy was a little shocked hearing that. "Wh-What? 9:- 30?" The mare stumbled a little bit when hearing the caramel pegasus mentioning that. She remembered Twilight's word's back ago at her library. She and the other girls had to meet up with each other in order to discuss what they had all found out. She needed to get a move on, fast! Fluttershy was actually trembling, which Sora caught attention to. "Hey, Fluttershy. Why are you sweating so much?" He asked but she didn't give an answer. The mare decided to quickly head over to Twilight's library. She needed to distract Sora in some form in order to not seem suspicious. "Hey Sora, do you mind closing my cottage for me? I need to go somewhere." She mumbled incredibly fast, letting her shy nature take over. Sora didn't understand a single thing she said, asking "Huh, what did you say?" "Ok thanks, bye." As soon as she said, she boosted out the door as fast as she could, huffing and puffing. She was never under so much pressure before. Thankfully, she managed to get it over with as fast she could. Now all she had to do was go over and meet up with Twilight. Sora was left behind as he saw the pink maned mare take off, acting more suspicious than the pegasus could imagine. This was something that stayed on Sora's mind. All the girls had been acting weird today. Applejack seemed as if she was making up an excuse when he asked her what she had been doing at Twilight's. Rainbow Dash was stumbling a little when describing what she had time to do. Rarity kept forcing him into new clothes over and over while doing something he didn't even know about, Pinkie Pie was asking questions she never seemed to really care about before and now Fluttershy was acting odd? The yellow pegasus never acted like this around him. Maybe a little bit when he first met her but that was it. Just what was going on today? His suspicion finally skyrocketed. Desperate for an answer. He proceeded to follow Fluttershy over to the Golden Oak Library, making sure not to be spotted. He didn't hide like running behind bushes or things like that, more so keeping his distance to not be noticed. * * * Back at Twilight's library, all the girls along with an awoken Spike had been discussing their findings on Sora. They were all sitting down in the same way they had been in the morning. All the girls and Spike were a little scared at Twilight's expression as the purple unicorn was, let's just say, a little annoyed at her friends. Twilight Sparkle had been stomping around, trying to calm herself down. Her mane was incredibly messy, her eyes twitching as she made sounds with her teeth, scratching her lower set with her upper set. "So let me get this straight…" The unicorn began to speak. "....NONE OF YOU FOUND OUT ANYTHING NEW!!" She yelled as loud as she could. If she yelled any louder, then she probably would have woken up every pony in Ponyville. The rest of the girls and Spike stunt back a little bit. Twilight's yell was just that surprising. Applejack decided to explain herself to her unicorn friend. "Ah'm sorry Twilight. Still ya gotta admit, that race Sora and Big Mac got into was mighty intense." Twilight was still not amused. "Hey, at least I managed to find out how well Spiky was doing on his flight!" Rainbow Dash interrupted, trying to look as if she did a better job then the other mares. "I'm sorry darling, my train of thought was just interrupted when I saw him in those clothes. I must say, I really outdid myself." Rarity said, praising herself. Pinkie Pie was next to make up an excuse. "I actually did learn some new things about Sora. Though, It wasn't much." Fluttershy finished off with "I learned that he was friends with a bear." Twilight was starting to get infuriated. "What does that have to do with anything!?" She yelled at Fluttershy. "I just thought it would be interesting to share.'' The mare explained herself, showing a worried smile. Twilight decided to go over to a wall of her library and repeatedly hit her head, over and over and over again. The books started to fall off but Twilight was just that annoyed that she couldn't even care about the books. Thud Thud Thud The others were getting very worried for their friend's sanity, seeing just how stressed Twilight was getting over this whole day. Applejack was the first to try and calm her down. "C'mon Twilight, it's nothing to beat yer-self up about…" "When you think about it, knowing those things wouldn't have really helped you with anything." Rainbow Dash commented. Twilight stopped her head smacking for a while. "What do you mean?" "Well, what was knowing what he likes to eat going to help you with figuring stuff about the keyblade?" "Yeah, that didn't really make sense to me." Pinkie added. Rarity continued, "The magic clothing wouldn't have helped any better, dear." "The racing and bucking ones I get, endurance and what not. The rest, not so much." Rainbow Dash said. "Yeah, those were all mighty odd tasks but ya'h shouldn't beat herself 'cause…" Applejack said "It's everything to beat myself up about!!" She yelled back. As soon as she did, the banging continued as the unicorn continued to smack herself in the head. "I could have finally gotten SOME answers for that stupid keyblade, but in the end I got a whole load of nothing!!!" Twilight continued on yelling as she planted her head in the wall. Spike went up to Twilight in order to see if he could reason with her. "It's not so bad Twilight. It's not like today was a complete bust." He figured that this might just be what she needed to hear, but like Applejack's attempt, it was not. "WHAT? Spike, we didn't figure out a single useful thing! All we managed to find out is that he had a bear as a friend! No new information on the keyblade, on Sora or anything like that!" She began to walk forward left and right, back and forward, in circles as her friends saw her crazed state. "Spying on him was nothing but a waste of time! We have no idea what kinds of secrets Sora is keeping from us! We don't even know if we can trust him fully!" She yelled at the top of her lungs. "Ah wouldn't go that far Twi-" Applejack started to try and argue back but was quickly interrupted by a voice, one of which they wished wasn't there. "You were all spying on me?" Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Spike and Twilight all turned around to look behind them, seeing the stallion this whole situation was about. It was easy to notice that he overheard the conversation the elements had been having. His face had a mixture of many expressions, from disbelief, to anger, to fear. Finally, ending with a face of sadness. "So, this whole day, everything we did was because you all… You really think I'm not a good..." he couldn't even finish the sentence. His heart was damaged, hurt. Every single thing they did today was out of distrust. If this was the true reason as to why, what else did they think about him? What did all of them think about him? Furthermore, is the voice in his head really right all along? They all really did think he wasn't a good friend. All of the girls and Spike knew that the cat was out of the bag. It was to go downhill from there. The secret was out, their friend was probably sulking in pain because of this. They all blew it, they failed, all of it was to blame on them and no one else and they knew it. Twilight out of all of them was the one to turn her head the fastest in this whole situation. She was the one at fault out of all of them. The unicorn was the one who set it all up, after all it was her own curiosity that led to this mess, if anything it was her fault from the beginning. That was what Twilight kept repeating to herself in her head. The unicorn kept trying to blame herself and only herself for what was going on. She tried her best to try and approach Sora. The purple unicorn moved over to the caramel pegasus easily, trying to explain herself. "Sora I- " The caramel pegasus ended up backing off as he moved away from Twilight. "I-I gotta go." The pegasus said in his own sense of disparity. He ended up running out the door as fast as he could, turning his back from the others while trying his best not to cry in the cold of the night sky. He ended up failing at that last part. As he was crying, he constantly tried to wipe his tears away as he made his way over to the deepest parts of the forest. As soon as Sora ran far enough, Twilight and the others lost sight of him. She was shocked beyond belief, seeing her friend just run off like that. It was clear as day, Sora was deeply hurt and the girls all knew it. They had no idea what to do, they all just stood there and tried to absorb it all as well as they could. Spike on the other hand thought deeper than the others. He knew from the beginning that this idea was stupid. He hated what they had done, he hated how Sora looked when the pegasus found out, but more importantly he hated himself. Spike dragged Sora along throughout the whole day like that. He could have spoken up at anytime he wanted but he kept his mouth shut about the whole thing. He tried to push his thoughts about it away during the day but he couldn't anymore. The baby dragon had had enough about not doing anything about it. "Sora, wait!" He yelled as he himself made his way out the door. Spike started to run as fast as he could throughout the night sky, trying his best to catch up to his friend. He himself had ran beyond the view of the rest of the girls back at the library. Twilight stretched her hoof in front of her as if she was going to try and bring him back, but she quickly gave up putting it back down. The purple unicorns eyes looked down at the floor in shame as her face grew a look of sadness. Her ears fell down as she turned around to go lay down on the floor, feeling terrible about everything she did. The rest of the girls followed in Twilight's actions as they all grew their own faces of sadness. Everyone in the room didn't know what to do, just lumping around. Twilight, while on the ground, decided to break the silence in the area by speaking. "I really messed up, didn't I?" She asked the rest of the mares while trying to hold her own tears. Applejack herself responded to her purple friend on the ground. "We all' did sugar cube." The orange mare went up to Twilight to try and pick her up. "We must be the worst friends ever." Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she herself slumped on the floor, staring at it as if it was the most Interesting thing in the room. Her cheerful personality had seemingly left, leaving only a sad pink pony. Rainbow Dash was feeling as bad as the others along with Fluttershy. The rainbow mare thought, "I don't even know why we thought Sora was keeping something bad. He's not a bad person, not at all." She herself fell to the ground thinking about what to do. Rarity decided to chime in to the conversation. "Seeing as how we are friends, we should have known that from the start." Fluttershy wished she could have thought of an idea as what to do in order to fix this mess but nothing came to mind. "I-im sure we can figure something out though. There has to be something we can do." She suggested. There had to be a way to get Sora back. Twilight shook her head. "There's nothing we can do. How can I fix this?" She pondered, still blaming herself for the mess of that day. Applejack put a hoof on her friend's back to comfort her. "Now, now. Ah'm sure y'all think of somthin'" Pinkie Pie jumped up. "Actually, I think I might know how. Hey Applejack, is your barn open?" She asked the orange mare. "Well yeah, of course it is. It's my home' after all." She said. Pinkie Pie replied with a "Perfect!" The pink mare then proceeded to explain her master plan for the best apologie party in the history of Ponyville. * * * Spike was running as fast as he could through the forest. He looked left and right for Sora but he couldn't find him. "SORA!" Spike yelled, but he got no response. "SORA!" He yelled again, no response, just like before. Spike continued running through the forest, trying and hoping he could find his friend. The look on the pegasi's face was what told Spike just how hurt he was. Sora was completely destroyed inside, hurt. Spike knew he had to help him no matter what. The baby dragon continued to look for him, trying to find any sign of the pegasus' whereabouts. He looked more and more, but he found nothing. Spike decided to give up, right then and there. He sat down on the cold floor of the night, with only the moon's light to keep him company. Spike knew he and the girs were to fault. They knew what could happen if Sora found out, and they still took that chance. What kind of friends can go behind someone's trust and expect things to be okay. He still agreed to doing it, he could have told Sora like an actual friend would, but he didn't. Spike was ashamed in the role he played in this plan. While he sat down, he managed to hear something. It was the sound of…. crying. Spike could even hear the small, tiny little tears hitting the river. The baby dragon decided to get up on his two legs to go check it out. When he went over to the sound's location, he found the pony he was looking for. Sora had been sitting next to the river, crying heavily. Spike decided to go over to him. "Sora! There you are! I was looking everywhere for you!" Spike stopped as he got close enough. The pegasus looked over at him, finally noticing the baby dragon. He wiped his tears away before speaking, as he 'Sniffed' a little. "Oh.. hey Spike." Sora was trying everything he could to not cry any more then he already has, though it was becoming harder to do so. Spike quickly started on his apology, "Sora I'm sorry. We didn't want to hurt your feelings, we were just a little suspicious about you not telling us too much about things…. "No, don't apologize for that." Sora interrupted. "You and everyone else had every reason to be suspicious. I kept secrets from all of you, one of the things about friendship is honesty." He went back to crying, as more and more years hit the river. "I-I just feel hurt. R-Rem-ber this morning when I-I asked y-ou and Twilight if you two saw me as a friend? I was thinking that you and the others really didn't. I knew what I was doing and I still didn't do anything about it." Spike heard him loud and clear. "C'mon Sora, I-" "No, you don't." Sora interrupted once again. "I know you're trying to help but you don't understand, Spike." The baby dragon knew that deep down, he really didn't. "You're right, I don't. But, that doesn't mean I can't at least try to understand." Spike started to sit down right next to Sora. "Tell me how you feel. Anything you want to tell me, I'll listen." Sora stopped his crying as nice again. Talking about it was worth the effort at least. He had to make sure not to tell him anything that could expose the other worlds to him though. "I used to live on a little group of Islands. Destiny Islands, it was my home for a long time. Me and my friends did everything together over there. One day, we decided to build a raft and see the world beyond the islands. Until one night, when I first confronted the heartless. After that, I got the Keyblade. It's become my responsibility since then. Throughout the past few years, I had to fight for what felt like forever. When me and friends finally won, I came here to Equestria. I don't have a way to go back to them, or a way to tell them I'm fine. I thought I could at least make some new ones here, but I couldn't even be bothered to tell the truth." Spike took it all in, listening to everything Sora had to say. He really had been through a lot. The pegasus had been through such a long journey and now he couldn't even be with his friends. "Wow, I'm Sorry. But, why can't you tell us? What kind of secrets are you keeping?" Sora answered as honestly as he could. "Ones I promised I wouldn't let out." The pegasus looked down at himself. Celestia is right, the world order can't be broken but Sora was wondering if it was even worth it anymore. "All I can say is that if I did, some bad things would probably happen." "You know what, I'm alright with you keeping secrets." Sora looked over to Spike who stood up. "If you have to keep them, it's for a good reason. I know who you are though. Your Sora, a keyblade wielder, the hero of light-" The baby dragon paused, before finishing off. "-and my friend. I'm sure the girls think that too. We've only known each other for a few weeks, but I know that deep down we are friends." The pegasus smiled a little, he was happy, just tinsy but. He still wanted to know. "Do you really think so?" Was Spike really speaking for all of them? The baby dragon didn't know much, but he knew it was the case. "I know so. Let's go back to the others if you're doubting me." Before he turned around to go off with Sora back to the girls, he was stopped by the pegasus who out of nowhere, started hugging him. Spike didn't know what to do while being hugged, except going along with it and hugging him back. "Thanks, Spike." Sora whispered as the two ended the hug. The pegasus kneeled down to let the baby dragon get on his back as they both made their way back. * * * Sora and Spike had finally made it. Night time at Sweet Apple Acres was the scenery that the two were under. Sora was still a little bit saddened, not because of what he friends were doing but more so as to the why. Ever since that nightmare, he has been feeling as if it might be true that they didn't trust him, that they didn't see him as a friend. Still if Spikes words have any meaning behind him he might as well see. The two arrived at the barn. Sora opened the door in order for both him and Spike to get inside. The baby dragon and pegasus couldn't see anything though, the barn was as black as imaginable. The two were looking for a source of light but they couldn't find anything. They could have sworn that something was off about the place. As if something, or something, was lurking in the shadows. "SURPRISE!!!" The two heard the yells of six familiar mares. All of them where right inside the barn, revealed by the bright light that had finally lit the place up. Sora and Spike also noticed some other things inside, such as different foods laid out, a pinãta with a red, blue, green and yellow pattern along with a banner on the top that reads 'We're Sorry'. All that didn't matter though as what really got the two's attention was the ponies that showed up. Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were all here with the biggest smiles they ever had. Sora questioned the mares. "Wait, what's going on here?" "Well…." Applejack explained. "We know how we made ya feel sugar cube. So… we all decided ta throw a little apology party." "There is no way in Celestia's name we can say just how sorry we are." Said Rarity. Pinkie Pie quickly came in and continued. "That's why we wrote it on a cake!" She wasn't lying, the cake she was carrying literally had the phrase 'We're Sorry' written on it. With frosting no less. "It's vanilla flavored, since you still haven't told me what your favorite flavor is." Twilight, the pony who needed to apologize the most out of any other one there, went up to her friend in order to do just that. "Sora, I'm sorry. I know what I did was wrong. Involving everypony here was also wrong. I understand I let my curiosity get the better of me, but I don't want our friendship to end just because of my stupid mistake. Please, do you forgive us?" Her head was down while she said everything. She was disappointed in herself and all she could ask for was forgiveness. Sora was on the break of tears, his friends were all apologizing. But for what? This was all his fault, he was the one who didn't tell them anything. If all it's his own fault for them being suspicious of him. Though, it didn't matter to him as of now, he was just happy that his friends do see him as well…. A friend. That was the little push that he needed to start crying. One tear fell from his eyes, then another and another follow led that one up. The girls' somewhat happy expressions fell and turned into worried frowns. Twilight out of all of them was worried that the tears meant 'no'. "It's ok, I understand why you wouldn't." She said while her eyes stared at the ground. Sora stopped his tears a little bit, whipping them away. "Are- you kidding? I'm not- you know. I'm just a little.. a little." His tears came back again as he moved over to Twilight and hugged her as much as he could. The hug felt warm, nice and kinder. The hug felt just right for both of them. Sora's tears had slowed down little by little until he was finished. Finally, he was smiling once again. Twilight continued hugging him right back, closing her eyes and enjoying the moment. She wasn't the only one though. The other mares along with Spike went over to the two and continued the hug. The moment felt right, and that's all they cared about at the moment. "Now take it easy, Spiky. I don't want you going all sappy on us." Said Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy still wondered though. "So, does this mean you forgive us?" The hug finally came to an end as all of them let go of each other. Sora wiped his tears away with his hoof once again. "Sure I do." He stopped as he pondered for a little while. He ended up getting the perfect idea. "Though, only on one condition." Sora said. Twilight nodded up and down. "Of course, whatever you want." As soon as Twilight finished, the pegasus made his way out of the barn. Sora ran as fast as he could, opening the door to the house. He quickly went up the stairs and over to his room, making sure not to wake up Big Mac, Apple Bloom or Granny Smith. The pegasus finally made it to his room. He went over to a drawer and opened it. Inside was a couple of things that belonged to him, Some Potions, Elixirs, Ethers and what not but the most important one was still there. A certain yellow star shaped fruit. Sora picked it up and made his way back outside. The girls and Spike had been waiting for a while for their friend to come back. Their wait quickly came to an end as Sora finally made it back, huffing a little bit. Twilight went over to him in order to see just why the pegasus went off. "What is it? What did you get?" Sora quickly showed her as to shat he got. He placed his hoof forward, revealing the Paopu fruit he brought with him. Pinkie Pie jumped up and down, knowing just what it was. "Ooh, Ooh, I know what this is! This is that Paopu fruit thingy you were talking about, right." "A what fruit?" Asked Applejack as she and the others went over to examine the star shaped fruit. "It don't look like anythin' Ah've seen before." "Indeed." Rarity said. "Just what makes it so special?" She asked. "It's actually because of an old legend behind them." Sora explained. "It's said that if peo- ponies share them, their destinies will become intertwined. They'll remain a part of each other's lives no matter what. I figured that since we're all friends, why not use this to make it official." The group all found that legend quite interesting. A fruit that could do that was unheard of. "Really, you want to share it… with us?" Asked Twilight. "Yeah, you only have one of them. Isn't it really special?" Continued Spike as he heard when the two were at Pinkie Pie's. "Well those are the only kinds of things worth sharing with those you care about." Sora replied. Though his line was pretty cheesy, they all couldn't help but admit that he was right. Then it was all in agreement, they would end up sharing this fruit together, as a way to solidify their friendship. Rainbow Dash came in order to explain her view. "While this is all great and all, why don't we save it for the end of the day. After all, we threw this awesome party for you, so why waste it?" The next few seconds passed as the entirety of them had a blast of a time in the barn. Many events happened in that little space of time. Applejack had been competing against Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash in a pie eating contest, it was as messy as you would expect. When the three finished, Sora had them been blind folded and was spinned around rapidly getting dizzy trying to pin a tail on the picture of a donkey. After that they enjoyed who knows how many different types of food. The party turned out to be a blast for all of them. While the group was enjoying their time, Twilight was watching from the sidelines along with Spike. She then looked down at a scroll she had been writing on, using her magic to write down a special letter to her teacher. 'Dear Princess Celestia Friendship has been something I have been missing out on for most of my life. When I came to Ponyville, I received the greatest friends any pony could ask for. Though… today I risked losing one of them. Sora might be an anomaly I can't even begin to understand, but I shouldn't have betrayed his trust for that reason alone. I let my own curiosity get the better of me, without even thinking about what could happen. Friends respect, love and care for one another and no possible answers will ever change that. From your faithful student: Twilight Sparkle' She gave the letter to Spike as he used his fire breath in order to send it to Princess Celestia. With one little swoosh, it was gone. "Hey, you two aren't gonna spend the entire party just standing in the corner, right?" Asked the carmel pegasus. Twilight giggled a little because of his response, she stopped as she went over next to him. Sora began to apologize for his side, "Twilight, I'm sorry. I know lying to you was wrong and keeping secrets was-" "Stop." She said as she put her hoof on his mouth. As soon as Twilight stopped him, she took off her hoof, explaining as to why she did so. "You don't have to apologize. You not giving us the whole story isn't something I should be beating you up about. SI screwed up a ton." She took a deep breath as she stopped. The pegasus chucked a little bit thanks to her remarks, along with a realization he made. "Ha-ha. You know, you and I should stop making a habit of apologizing to each other at night." Twilight herself began laughing a little too. "Ha-ha. I guess you're right. Though I wouldn't mind if we did. I actually really like spending time with you." "Yeah, me too." Sora responded. The unicorns smile grew larger after what Sora said, him loving spending time with her. Twilight didn't know how it felt to be appreciated in such a way. The rest of the girls came over to Sora and Twilight in order to end the party by sharing the Paopu fruit. Sora grabbed it out of his pocket and threw it into the air. The caramel pegasus then summoned his keyblade in his mouth as he sliced the fruit mid air into eight equal pieces for each of them. The girls and Spike along with Sora each grabbed a piece from mid-air on their hoofs. All of them then took a bite out of their piece of the star shaped fruit. For the girls and Spike, whom never tried one before, it tasted quite…. Well they didn't even know how to explain it. Each had their own views as to how the fruit tasted but they could all agree it was delicious. Applejack took a few more bites out of her piece as she tasted the fruit more closely in her mouth. "Mmm, Ah gotta say, It's pretty juicy. Kinda like a mango but with a little sugar." She commented before taking a few more bites out of it. Sora was happy to hear that she enjoyed it and by the lake okay on the others faces, it seems as if they all enjoyed it too. It seemed as if all of them were pretty content with the fruit. He decided to get a move on and try and finish his part of the fruit. Pinkie Pie was enjoying it as well, far more than she thought she would. The mare couldn't really complain about anything. "Wow, it's really, really good! I can't believe a fruit so good can even exist!" She was really enjoying the fruit, really she was. Which made knowing the fact that she would ever eat a Paopu fruit once in her entire life all the more heartbreaking. "It's too bad we can't use them for more. Imagine all the desserts we could have made!" She yelled ecstatically. Twilight was ashamed too. "I know Pinkie, still it's not like we can just grow new ones." She said. The last part of that sentence did manage to spark an idea in Applejack's head. "Wait ah minute. Spike, can ah see yer Paopu fruit?" She asked the baby dragon. Spike decided to do just that. "Oh, sure thing Applejack." He went over towards the cow pony as he gave her his chunk. The orange mare grabbed it out of his claws with her hoof as she inspected it. Sure enough, she found exactly what she needed. "Ah got it!" As soon as she made her realization, Applejack boosted out of the barn and into the night sky. "Hey, wait for us!" Yelled Twilight, though not as loud as before. The unicorn quickly gave chase as she was accompanied by the rest of the group, making their way outside. All of them followed quickly, trying to not get left behind in the rush. The group finally stopped dead in their tracks as they found Applejack. They had all made it to a place around the farm where there weren't any trees, but there was atill plenty of land. The orange mare used her hoof to dig up a small hole in the center. She finally took that piece from the Paopu fruit Spike gave her and took out the seeds from inside of it. The seeds were pretty small but it didn't matter how big they were honestly. Applejack finished by placing the seeds inside of the hole she made. The mare then took the dirt from before and placed it on top of the seeds, along with giving the piece she had borrowed from Spike back to that baby dragon who gladly took the fruit back and chowed down on it. The orange mare then looked over to her rainbow maned friend. "Hey'a Rainbow Dash, bring me a rain cloud now, will ya." Applejack ordered. Rainbow Dash saluted Applejack by putting a hood near her head then throwing it back down. "You got it, partner!" She replied as she zoomed off into the sky with her signature speed, understanding just what Applejack was planning on doing. In 10 seconds flat, she came back with her rain cloud as well. Rainbow Dash made a ' stand back' motion with her hoofs as the group followed her command. The rainbow mare then kicked the rain cloud with her back legs, causing the cloud to create a thunder crackle along with it now pouring tons of water out of it, all landing on the area with the seeds. Sora looked closely at the area, witnessing all that was happening. Him and the others finally realized what Applejack was doing and all saw her as a genius. The orange mare might as well have been one with her idea playing out in front of them. The carmel pegasus noticed a little bit of a base starting to spread out of the dirt as two little leafs on each side sprouted alongside it. Sora marveled at the display. "Great idea Applejack. I'm surprised I didn't think of this." The keyblade wielder completed the cow pony. Twilight was also marveling at the sight of seeing the soon to be large tree just start off so small. "Ha-ha. Guess the Apple family is moving into the exotic fruit market too huh." Joked the purple unicorn. She knew that the seeds were one day going to grow into a tall and amazing tree that will be the gateway for many ponies in Equestria to enjoy such a fabulous fruit. Though, she and the rest of them would remember the tree as the day they all made sure they would be a part of each other's lives, forever. Not so bad a destiny in their eyes. * * * In the middle of a grassy field during the night sky in Equestria, a dark portal opened. This was something familiar, a corridor of darkness, a way to travel throughout the worlds though it was only available to those who allowed their hearts to be filled with darkness. Two figures began to walk out of the corridor. As they made it to the other side, the corridor behind them closed. The two figures appeared very villainous, reeking with evil. One was a tall woman with large pointy horn-like appendages on her head, a black cloak with a bit of purple, green skin and a staff with a green ball on top. The other person was a large, big black cat-like person with a blue and red outfit filled with belts and buckles. He had large big shoes and gloves, covered in belts as well. The large cat-like creature looked around the area, seeming all too familiar to him. "I don't get it! Maleficent, just what are we doing in this world?" Asked the large cat. "And what about those goobers with the creepy deeky animal masks? They're going to get their greasy hands on that black box if we don't do something about it!" "Silence fool!" Maleficent yelled at Pete, immediately shutting him up. He even stumbled back a teensy bit. "They will not be able to find it's secrets in time. The worlds each have their own time cycles, one year in one world may be ten years in another." She stepped forward, observing the world itself. She felt a sense of dread as she saw all of it once again. "Never in all my years did I believe I would return." "You and me both, I can't stand the cutesy cuddly feeling this place has. Still, just why are we here?" The dark mistress began her explanation. "In order to open the chest, we need a key. Since neither you and I wield a keyblade, we must rely on something else. Do you remember our last visit here?" She asked the large buffoon. "Uhh, I think?" Pete pondered on about it, not being able to remember. Maleficent was sick of waiting for his response, "Ugh, we came here in order to find a key. One that can open any lock, possibly even the one of the chest. Unfortunately, that 'wretched' Princess Celestia and those keyblade bearer's put an end to my plan!" "Oooooh, ok now that sounds more like it! But, um, how are you going to find it?" Maleficent started to laugh, filling the night with her evil pleasure. "Hahahahaha!! Simple, we search. We will walk over every last inch of dirt until we find what we are looking for. Not a single heart will be able to stop me. I Maleficent, the mistress of evil, shall show the land of Equestria my eternal wrath!! Hahaha!!!!" She started to walk into the night sky along with her companion, waiting until the perfect moment to give Equestria some much awaited havoc. > Dragonshy > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the outskirts of the Ponyville, and by that I mean outside Fluttershy's cottage. The mare was attending to all her animals outside. Her first task was gathering some fish from her river to feed the racoons with. Fluttershy jumped down and grabbed some fish with her hooves. She then tossed them to where the raccoons had been waiting, they started eating the fish up. Next, she went up to the dirt and stuck her whole head under it to grab some worms with her mouth. Then after brushing aside all the sicknesses she would get by doing so, she tossed them to the baby birds on a nest, all who grabbed one and swallowed up whole. The mare drank a little water from a cup, using her hoof to do so. As she relaxed, Fluttershy commented on her work. "Let me see. I fed the animals, cleaned out the chicken coop, refilled the water and did all the chores around the house. Now, what else is left-" she immediately stopped her train of thought as a small leftover carrot piece hit her in the haid. She turned over to see who threw it, finding out it was her rabbit, Angel Bunny. "Oh, I'm sorry Angel. I thought I fed you already." She flew over to where she had left the carrots, inside her cottage. After a few seconds, she came out with a pile of carrots and placed them next to her bunny. "Here you go, now I should be-" Angel Bunny stopped her again, as he pointed up to try and show Fluttershy what he saw. The mare shocked by what she saw. "Oh my goodness!" She yelled as she flew over there. "I had no idea the water was still running." She said as she closed it. Angel Bunny was annoyed about it as he pointed again as to what he was seeing. Fluttershy looked over again, noticing something. "Angel Bunny, I already gave you enough carrots…" Angel got tired of her not seeing it, so he jumped and tackled her out of pure rage. While on top of her, he grabbed her head and turned it himself. Fluttershy finally saw what Angel tried to show her. Fluttershy stumbled as she tried to process it, "Oh, a large cloud of scary black smoke is going over to Ponyville. Why didn't you say anything?" She said in her shy manner. * * * Over at Sweet Apple Acres, the Apple family was still in bed. Thankfully they didn't have many chores that day so they could afford to be a little more lazy. Though one member wasn't resting. He was instead cooking up a meal for them all. If you couldn't figure out who it was, Sora was the one cooking. He was preparing something special for them all and he was giddy as to see everybody's reactions. Apple Bloom was under her blankets, all snuggled up. She was turning and twisting in bed, smelling something incredible A room over, Big Mac did the same. Granny Smith followed along with Applejack. The filly got up on her four hoofs and walked downstairs with the rest of her family. Apple Bloom rubbed her eyes and yawned, "Hey, what' smells so' good?" She asked as she looked over to Sora. "Good morning everyone, I hope you're all hungry." The pegasus grabbed a few plates and placed them on the table while the Apples sat down. They saw that Sora had made them pancakes, with an extra ingredient they couldn't really make out. Apple Bloom was the first to try one. After one bite, she gobbled the rest as fast as she could. The filly locked her face along with the syrup on the plate. "Mmm, yummy!" Sora got her another batch which she proceeded to gobble down on too. The rest of the family deg in, and no surprise, they loved it. Granny Smith was very impressed, "Well ah'm stunned, how'd y'ah learn' ta cook this good?" She asked while continuing to eat. "From a mouse, or was he a rat? He was blue and had a pink tail but some mouses…" as he rumbled, Granny Smith looked at him as if he was a crazy person. She didn't linger on it any longer, being around as long as she had made things like this not as surprising. Sora was happy to see them enjoying it. "Glad to see you all like it. It is the least I can do for you all." "Mmm, what's in it?" Big Mac asked. "Well the usual. Egg's, flower, butter and all that. I also added some cinnamon and applesauce to give it a bit more sweetness." "Thanks' a bunch sugar cube, ya'h really outdid yerself'." Applejack complimented. Before Sora could sit down and start eating, Someone showed up at the door, a familiar purple unicorn. The door slammed open as a determined Twilight Sparkle entered the house. The family turned over and saw the unicorn, all wondering just what she was doing here. "Sora, Applejack. I have urgent news from…" she stopped and sniffed something in the air. " *Sniff* *Sniff* Are those applesauce and cinnamon pancakes?" * * * Fluttershy was quickly rushing towards Ponyville. She had to warn everyone about the smoke coming over. She could probably have flown all the way over, though she doesn't usually use her wings due to her fear of heights. Ironic given she's a pegasus "Hello, um…." She tried to get the locals attention but her quite voice made it so that no one could here her. "Everyone, please… there's…. Um… smoke coming…." "Everypony, listen!" a loud voice said. Twilight had arrived with the rest of the of the mane six (I'm gonna start calling them mane six now since repeating there names every time they show up is going to get tiresome.) And Sora. "I have been ordered by Princess Celestia to warn everyone that a large cloud of smoke is coming to Ponyville." This news caused everypony to start worrying. Mumbling and screaming started to fill Ponyville with the rest stuck in the middle. "What… SMOKE!!" "WE'RE DOOMED!!" "NOO!!! "AHHH!!" "I am also afraid." Sora tried his best to stop everyone from panicking but he had no luck. The keyblade wielder decided to try one thing, "EVERYBODY CALM DOWN!!" Surprisingly, it worked as everyone had calmed down. Twilight was shocked that it actually worked but brushed it aside to focus on the rest. "Princess Celestia has told me that the smoke is not coming from any fire…" everypony was happy to here that, especially Fluttershy. "... It's coming from a dragon." "I'm sorry, what?" Fluttershy said. * * * At Twilight's library, the unicorn was gathering things in her bag with the rest of the gang. "A dragon, near equestria? I thought they lived farther then here." Rarity said. "They do, but this one is here because it wanted to take a nap, not exactly stay. Still, if he keeps making smoke then…" Rainbow Dash interrupted, "Yeah, yeah. We know, now what exactly is your great plan to kick it out?" "Hmph, I was getting to that. We're going to travel to the top of the mountain and convince him to take his nap somewhere else." "What? Are you serious?" The rainbow mare argued. "We should be kicking his tail out of there, not asking politely. You really think it's going to listen to us if we just ask?" Twilight was putting her annoyance aside in order to try and provide a counter argument. "Not me, I'm planning on someone else doing the convincing. I'll give you a few points if you can guess who." Rainbow Dash was pondering as to who Twilight was talking about. As soon as she thought about it for two seconds, her answer was "It's Fluttershy isn't it?" "Wh-what!?" The pink maned mare screamed in terror. "Your animal expertise is our best shot at convincing it to leave." Twilight Sparkle explained her reason. Before Fluttershy could try and speak up, she was interrupted by Twilight's orders. "It's going to be a long journey, so everyone go home and pack up anything we'll need. We meet up in a few minutes." "Twilight… I…" "Let's go." The rest of the group exclaimed * * * (A-team theme) https://youtu.be/wyz_2DEah4o At the Apple farm, Sora strapped a saddle bag, containing apple's, water and rope onto himself. Applejack strapped one for similar as well. In the clouds, Rainbow Dash paintied rainbow markings on her face, similar to war paint. With Pinkie Pie, she grabbed tons of different pastries and confetti so she could stuff it in her saddle bag. Rarity grabbed different clothes to pack for the trip. She looked at herself in the mirror in order to check on her outfit. It was perfect, except for the hat, which she swapped out for a more stylish one. Finally, Fluttershy came out of her cottage with a football helmet, kneepads and pillows tied to her belly. * * * Outside of the Golden oak library, the team stood outside while staring at the large smoke filled mountain. "Alright, everyone." Twilight said while taking out a map. "I would like to go over the path. We'll start off from here…" Fluttershy wasn't listening though as her fear was taking over her mindset. She was terrified, scared of what she was going to face. A fire breathing dragon was just so… so big and mean and terrifying. How could she even convince something like that to go away? "... And that's it. Anything else?" Asked Twilight to her team mate's, all whom nodded no. Fluttershy was going to tell Twilight about her fear, though the unicorn didn't hear her friend. With that the team moved on. "Wait." Rarity halted her friend's. "I actually have a couple of things I would like to give you all." The white unicorn passed over knitted beanies and scarfs, each in the color of the corresponding owner. "I made them for occasions where we would have to go somewhere colder." All if them appreciated them. Twilight thanked the white unicorn for her gift, "Thank you so much, how'd you get the idea?" "Oh, long story, you see it all started when…" "Can we hear this some other time?" Rainbow Dash in her typical manner interrupted. "Smoke's still coming." "I'm with Rainbow, we should get moving." Sora agreed. Fluttershy tried again to stop her friends in order to get them to hear her out but it was in vein once again. "Wait…" * * * A couple hours have passed while the team continued to walk. Everything had been going well so far though the ponies' appetite was getting the best of them, with the exception of Sora and Applejack who had already eaten. 'rumble' "Oh, how much longer? I'm already regretting skipping breakfast." Pinkie said while rubbing her stomach. "Didn't you pack food for the trip?" Asked Twilight? "It was only little stuff, how am I supposed to fill up on only two muffins?" Rainbow was getting annoyed. So to save her mind, she joined the conversation. "I keep telling you all, we should have taken the left by the dusty boulder." "And I keep telling you that there is no way on Celestia's mane that I am getting dirt on my new outfit." Rarity interjected. "It's just dirt!! You can wash it when we get back!!" "If I do let dirt get on it, the color will start to wear off! Do you want my magnificent outfit to look muted and lifeless?" "If it gets us to the mountain peak faster, then yes!" While the others talked amongst themselves. Well except for Rarity and Rainbow Dash which could just be summed up as arguing, Fluttershy was keeping silent to herself. While nothing particularly new for her, Sora felt that something a bit larger was dwelling on her mind. The pegasus went over to Applejack to discuss the matter. "Hey, Applejack, do you think something's going on with Fluttershy? She seems so scared." "Ah'm sure it's nothin'. She's always been quiet." The cow girl saw that Sora was still worried for his friend. "Don't worry, if Flutters was worried bout' somethin', she'd tell us by now." While Applejack walked off, Sora looked back towards Fluttershy. He wasn't satisfied with what he knew, so he continued on to figure out why she was acting more frightened then normal. "AHHH!" Fluttershy screamed as the ground beneath her cracked wide open. She started to fall down, but before she could hit the ground, Sora rushed in and grabbed her tail with his mouth. He still has some ground to stand on but he was quickly being pulled by Fluttershy's weight. Both pegasus could do nothing at the moment, to stop their fall. Sora tried to flap his wings, though like most times he's tried to fly, it was for nothing. "Ohh, STUPID WIIIIIIINNggggssss!" The two fell for a hot minute before landing on top of some slanted rocks. Both of them befan to slide further and further down, before Sora finally grabbed Fluttershy close to his chest as to shield her from the impact of the ground. Falling and possibly breaking something, for Sora at least, wasn't anything too bad. The path back up to meet with the others being blocked by the rubble would certainly be. "Sora, Fluttershy!! Are you two alright?!" Twilight screamed, hoping yer friends are ok. The keyblade wielder stood up, shaking himself to get the ruble off. "Yeah, we're fine. Just a couple bruises is all." He saw Fluttershy on the ground, so he naturally went over to help her up. Rainbow Dash looked up, down, left and right for a way to get the two but nothing. Similar thing in the others end, though Sora and Fluttershy had another path to take. While it did lead a bit under the mountain, it was still better than then being stuck with no way out. "Girls, Fluttershy and I have another road down here! Keep going on your end while we take this one! We should meet up soon!" "Got that, y'all on the move." Applejack said. Though her accent made Pinkie think she said something else. "Wait, who's Joel?" "She's talking about me." Sora said, though for some reason his voice got a bit deeper. "C'mon Fluttershy, upward and onward right, I guess this would be downward and onward but that just doesn't sound right." While he looked back, Fluttershy was trembling and shivering in fear though the pegasus was none the wiser as to why. Sora was a tiny bit confused though he tried to keep her on the move. "Um, I said we should keep… moving?" She still wasn't going, what's up? "You-you mean…. Go on the icy, slippery, shaky road? With.. nothing to catch us." "It's alright, we'll be fine." Sora went behind Fluttershy as he tried to move her along. "You just need a little boost." As he tried to push her, he stopped as he bumped into her. He didn't even move her an inch. The pegasus was shocked, stunned and other adverbs I don't know about. Sora then took a deep breath as he pushed her harder, and he made some progress, enough to get her to walk. As the two pegasi went off, someone from afar was watching them. He was surprised the two actually survived. Should he send the heartless after them now? No, he thought, not yet at least. "Ohh, great. Maleficent ain't going to be happy about this." Before he went on a tangent, he thought about the positives of the situation. "Emm, no matter. I still got the heartless and that dragon, and as long as those twerps don't get in the way, finding that key is going to be easier than taking candy from a baby. Hahahaha" * * * Sora and Fluttershy had been on the move. No sign of the others. The two hoped that the worst hasn't happened. Sora wasn't worried though, having faith that they could take care of themselves. However, the pegasus was worried about Fluttershy. She hadn't said a word the entire time they were down there. Fluttershy was still very worried about the dragon. Her fears were growing and growing more rapidly, with every step closer to the dragon they took. "Fluttershy, I hope you don't mind me asking but you've been really quiet this whole trip." Stated Sora. "Is there something on your mind?" Unbeknownst to the two pegasi, a couple of dark creatures had been lurking from behind. One of them was reading it's claws, the others were preparing their weapons, the larger more round ones had been preparing for the perfect strike. "Well, it's just that…." Before Fluttershy could answer, a small shadow tried to attack her. "Look out!" Sora quickly summoned his keyblade and ran over to slash the heartless in half. Fluttershy quickly gasped as to what had just happened. A brute came charging over and slid belly first at the two. Sora quickly blocked but the impact broke his guard. He quickly grabbed Fluttershy and jumped over the heartless. Sora then lunged his keyblade at the heartless' back. He called it back and spinned it around, lunging it once again as in circled around sawing them all. More heartless came, these one's equipped with crossbows. Sora found a large rock to leave Fluttershy so she could take cover. He quickly blocked the arrows, thinking of a plan. "Fluttershy, stay here! I'll handle them." While scared, the pink maned mare would at least try. Sora leaped into the air and casted his thunder spell, striking the archer's. He missed a few, so he turned around and struck the ground, creating a shockwave to eliminate them. Sora casted a blizzaga spell which froze a brute as well as creating an ice rail to grind on. Carrying the momentum, he slammed right through the remaining few finishing them off. More were making their way and Sora knew that he was going to need a good plan of attack. He didn't get the opportunity though as the heartless had claimed and tackled him. He tried pushing and fighting them off but there were too many. Fluttershy wished she could help. All she was doing was standing there, but she wished she could do more. Though fear was stronger and overwhelmed her. She wished she could help, she wished she could do something, but she couldn't. Sora was going to do something stupid just now, even he knew it was stupid. He aimed his Keyblade near a rock on the mountain, casting a thunder spell. A rock slide happened and crushed some of the heartless, which allowed him to escape. "Fluttershy! Run!" He jumped and used the rocks to get some hight while Fluttershy did the same. Sora leaped and grabbed the ledge, though he was starting to slip. Moving his hoofs all around in order to try and grab something to hold onto but it was fruitless. Though before he fell, Fluttershy ran up to him and grabbed him, pulling the pegasus up. The mare painted heavily. Both were out of breath, and needed to rest. Fluttershy looked over at her friend, "Sora! Are you ok?" The pegasus spit out a bit of rubble and dirt while coughing a little. "Yeah I'm good." He stood up and dusted himself off. "We need to hurry, if that many heartless were here, there could be more with the others." * * * The other elements had been resting and waiting for a while for Sora and Fluttershy to make it back on the pash, but not a sight of the was near. Pinkie had been writing in her journal. 'To whomever finds this journal. It has been far too long since I have seen my friend of legend and friend of healing. I feel nothing but cold, fear and unending hunger. I have now learned to have never skipped breakfast. My back is cold, my nose is stuffy and this scarf is becoming itchy. I can no longer bear this injustice upon whick my stomach faces. To survive, I must sacrifice one of my friends, I must sacrifice the most marshmallowy one of us. Today, I EAT Rarity.' "Pinkie, it's only been 30 minutes, are ya' really resorting to that?" Applejack said as she hopes to snap the pony back to reality. Rarity was also put off, "And what was that about me being a marshmallow?" Pinkie Pie was clearly joking when writing that, but she wasn't joking about her hunger. "I'm sorry. I just want to eat something. I can't even find a good rock to eat. It's times like this I wish I had my sister." Twilight heard some footsteps, the sounds were getting closer and louder. Just as she hoped, Sora and Fluttershy had finally made it. She rushed over to the two, "Sora, Fluttershy! I'm glad to see you two made it." "C'mon, you didn't think a little ruble would get us down." The pegasus responded. "Though, we did run into a couple of heartless on the way here." "Heartless! Last time they showed up was when Nightmare moon came back. What are they doing all the way out here?" "I don't know, but we should stay alert." He looked forward, and there it was. The cave of the dragon. "Can't believe we're here already." Rainbow responded. "Now then, Fluttershy. It's time for you to convince him to get out." Twilight looked over to see the mare, but she was shivering in place. Her legs were trembling and shivering with fear. "Fluttershy? C'mon, let's go." She tried to push her along, but Fluttershy would budge. Fluttershy decided to tell them the reason as to why. "Um, Twilight. I'm, I'm afraid, I'm afraid of dragons" The others couldn't hear her at all. "What?" "I'm afraid of dragons!" All of them felt as if they were kicked in the gut. The whole reason they came up here, all the walking and danger they had to go through and now there are in the hole was too scared. Twilight, out of all of them, was the most shocked. "What! But we need you too Fluttershy!" She kept trying to push her, but again, no luck. "We need- you too- or- or- ponyville will be stuck- in smoke- forever!" "I- I can't!" Fluttershy screamed as she moved away from the unicorn. Rarity was the first to try and convince the pegasus. "But I thought you were fine with all creatures dear, even horrific ones like that Manticore." "And what about Spike? He's a dragon too but you were really excited to talk with him when the two of you first met."Sora added. "Yes, because neither of them were large, terrifying, fire breathing, sharp teethed, long clawed, smokey and mean Dragon!" Fluttershy stated. Rainbow Dash was annoyed at the circumstance. All that traveling and now they can't even do anything about the smoke. Twilight decided that if they couldn't get Fluttershy to convince him then one of them would need to be the ones to try. "Ok, I understand. I will go in and try to convince him." 'He can't be to hard to convince… I'm sure he just didn't know that ponyville was near" "Twilight wait!" Sora catched up to the unicorn. "I'm going with you. You don't know what could happen." The two proceeded to make their way inside the large cave. As the two made it in, they took in the view. It was a huge area with purple stalactites and a huge pile of gold and jewels. Unsurprisingly, the dragon was laying on top of the pile, sleeping. The unicorn composed herself, taking a deep breath in and out. She tried to make sure that nothing would slip her out of focus. "Um, excuse me. Mr dragon? Hello!". The dragon did not respond as he continued to sleep. "Um, hello! Mr dragon!" She raised her voice a tiny bit more. Thankfully, this woke up the large beast. "Oh, your awake. My name is Twilight-" she was interrupted by the dragons loud rumbling. "-Twilight Sparkle. My friends and I live down here in ponyville, and-" she was interrupted again as the dragon paid her no mind. "-and we want to ask if you could go and sleep somewhere else. You see, your snoring has been causing lots of smoke to be heading deep into our village so most of our residents can't see it breathe and if it continues then Ponyville would be stuck in 100 in smoke. You understand?" She asked with a large, worried smile. The dragon nodded yes. "So you'll move somewhere else?" She hopefully asked. The dragon responded by blowing a large amount of smoke and wind towards Twilight. Thankfully, Sora rushed over to catch her and used his keyblade to create and areo spell to move away the wind. The dragon's eye catched the spikey mane. It seemed as if he was furious. As soon as he saw Sora, he stood up and tried to slash them with his claws. Sora managed to move out of the way but still got caught by a little bit of the dragon's finger. The two ponies were blown out of the cave, tumbling and rolling. The group looked over at the two, with Applejack asking, "Did it work." Her question was quickly answered as the dragon came out of his cave, busting through and shooting fire at the group. They all managed to move out of the way fast. The dragon continued to attack and fight them off but the ponies kept evading and trying their best to not get attacked. Fluttershy was scared, even more so than when Sora was being attacked by the heartless. She saw her friends being attacked, and as if in something broke within her, fear was replaced with anger. Fluttershy took a step down, and with fury, flew up to stop the dragon. "How dare you…. How dare you!!" The dragon stopped and was taken aback. "Listen to me you big meanie, you might be big, strong and scary but that doesn't mean you can come in and hurt my friends!!! You aren't going to stay and breathe smoke and fire on anypony anymore!! You got that?" The dragon was crying. He was actually crying. Fluttershy managed to face her fear and stand up to him. The dragon kept crying and crying, before doing the unthinkable, apologizing. "I'm sorry… I'm sorry I'm sorry!" He continued to ball his eyes out as he cried, even covering his eyes with his arms. Fluttershy did feel a tiny bit bad for what she did. "I'm sorry, your not a bad dragon. But you should know better than to attack my friends." "But- but their evil." "Wait what?" Fluttershy asked. "Yeah, a big, large cat told me that the guy with the spiky mane was coming here to take me away." Sora was tooken aback by that. He would never hurt anyone, well not anyone who didn't deserve it. The description of the guy who told the dragon that was what got his attention. "Sora wouldn't hurt a fly." The pegasus said as to clear her friends name. "That guy was lying to you. We're not here to hurt you, but we do need you to move somewhere else. If you stay here and sleep, then ponyville will be stuck in smoke." The dragon sighed as he said, "Ok… I'm sorry I attacked your friend." "Hey, no worries." Said Sora. "No harm no foul, right." Of course he didn't mean it exactly. The hit from the dragon still hurt quit a bit. As the Dragon left, the team cheered for a job well done. The rode was long, but they all had finally made it. Ponyville isn't going to be stuck in never ending smoke anytime soon. Though, something else was near. The ponies could hear it. A bunch of tiny little steps and squeaks. Though the biggest sound was large and terrifying. *Rumble* "Did any of you hear that?" Twilight asked. "Well we did skip breakfast this morning, so." Pinkie said. Suddenly, a swarm of heartless bursted through the mountain side. As if a whirlwind of nightmares had just appeared, the group of ponies knew that they needed to escape. https://youtu.be/EYp-i_SDOw8 (Be cool, be wild and be groovy) "AVALANCHE!!!" Pinkie yelled at a large hird of rocks was coming down, as well as the heartless hord. Sora looked around and grabbed a piece of wood from a fallen tree. "Everyone grab a piece." He then hopped on and began to slide down the mountain. The mares decided it was the best plan they had at the moment. Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack grabbed a makeshift board while Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew down. The avalanche was making it way closer so the ponies had to sled down with precision. Sora saw the heartless come up from above as they sent out small amounts to attack. Sora dodged them and used a ramp to get some hight, slashing the horde. He turned around, while on the board, and casted some fire spells in order to keep them of his back. Twilight caught up and picked up some rocks and stones to use as projectiles. The heartless' attention was caught as they made their sites on the unicorn. Twilight was almost hit, but Applejack came to her rescue. The cowgirl used her board as a shield in order to block the attack. She was quickly caught by Rainbow Dash, who flew up higher. "Few, thanks fer the help." Fluttershy simply makes her best effort to not get caught by the avalanche. Sliding left and right in the air with lick doing the rest. Rarity tried to blind the heartless by picking up some dirt with her magic and throwing it at the horde. Though it did make it so that she got a bit on herself. The creatures were not affected though. Sora quickly used another ramp to get himself in the air, performing a couple air tricks in order to catch Rarity from being squished. He made it just in time and grabbed her. Placing her on top of his board. "Fantastic, I ruined my outfit for nothing." "Sora, we can't shake it off!" Twilight yelled as nothing they did worked, besides maybe chip a couple off. "I know, we need to hit them with something!" The caramel pegasus said. Pinkie Pie caught up and suggested an idea. "Ohh, ooh! I have an idea!" She pointed downwards to the left. "Does every pony see those trees down there!" "Yeah!" "If we take that route, those meanies will slam into them!" "Great idea Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash yelled. "But how the hey are the rest of you going to get passed them!" Applejack thought up off an idea. "Ah got it!" She reached into her saddle bag and tossed a lasso so the every pony could grab a hold onto it. "Rainbow, take the best route yah' can't find!" The pegasus did just that, swifitnibg past all the trees, pulling the others along with her. The group was either having a blast passing through the trees at spectacular speeds, or holding onto dear life and hoping they wouldn't hit anything. The plan was working however. All of the heartless had been crashing into the trees, turning into black smoke as small pink hearts popped out. The crew cheered and laughed at nearly escaping being crushed by an avalanche or losing their heart to a heartless. "Woohoo! Take that you yellow eye beaded losers!" Rainbow Dash yelled. The girls and Sora stopped and got off their boards and fly down from the air. Pinkie Pie caught hear breath, "That was the best, escape, EVER!!" Celebration their victory. "You know, just because we made it out alive. I'm going to let you have that one." Said Twilight. "Ooooh. No, no, no!!!!" The ponies heard a growly voice come behind. A large, big cat with a purple and red jumpsuit. His ears were pointy, along with a large jaw and two teeth sticking out. "You all should've been crushed! Maleficent's going to have my neck for this." "Yeah, that's great to hear cat boy." Rainbow Dash retorted. "So I'm guessing you're the guy who caused that avalanche." "Pete, what are you doing here?" Sora asked, knowing this guy all too well. Of all the people he's known for the past few years, he had to be the one he saw again. "Well, my reputation precedes me. Yeah it's me, Pete! Now then.. wait. How do you know about me? Me and Maleficent just got…" he stopped himself as he looked at the pegasus' mane. A spiky brown set of hair. It finally came to his mind just who he was. "Wait! You… you're that twerp who works with the king!" "Glad to see you too." "Sora, you know this guy?" Twilight asked. "Him and me have a complicated history." The caramel pegasus walked closer to Pete. "What are you and Maleficent doing here?" Pete wasn't going to let him know that easy. He may be stupid but not completely stupid. "Humph, wouldn't you like to know. All I'll tell you is that when we're done with this little world, our job is going to be so much easier." Sora wasn't taking that for an answer. "What are you two doing here!? I'll go easy on you if ya tell me." "Ha! You!? You ain't any stronger than the last time we met. You have a bad habit of losing everything you get. You're nothing but a joke and without those other goobers, you got no chance in beating us!" Sora was planning on retorting but he knew he had a point. He had lost all his power again, and he would need time to get it all back. "That's not true!" Fluttershy stated as she stepped up. "He may not be as strong as before, but he's not alone. He's had us the entire time. Even if we're scared, we're never going to leave each other's side. So your going to take your heartless and leave!" Pete was a little impressed, but not intimidated in the slightest. "And why would I do that?" Before he could even react to what had just happened, Fluttershy came up to him and bucked him in his stomach, sending flying across. Fluttershy answered his question. "Because I'm not asking you to." Pete was scared, but being his usual self, he tried everything in his power to not show a single sign of it. "Hmm… you'll see. When we find that key, you'll all see! It was great catching up twerp, but I need to get going!" He then snapped his fingers to open a corridor of darkness and proceeded to leave. "Wow, that was amazing Fluttershy!" Said Sora. "When I heard him say that about you, I wasn't going to let him get away with it." "While I'm happy we're all still alive, what did he mean about finding a key?" Twilight asked. "I don't know, but knowing Pete, it's not any good." Sora responded. "But at least we have a clue." Still, Maleficent was back. Looks like hoping for an easy journey is out the window. The Elements of Harmony and the Keyblade wielder must now prepare, for one of their greatest challenges is near. *** Back at ponyville, the group was enjoying their time, playing a nice game of hood ball while Twilight was writing a letter. 'Dear Princess Celestia The dragon has agreed to leave and find a new place to sleep. Fluttershy was able to overcome her fear and convince the dragon to leave. Through this adventure, I learned that I should never lose faith in a friend as they can be and help you overcome any fear Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.' Sora was thinking about what had happened. While he was happy that the dragon left and that they could go back home, Maleficent was now in Equestria and that woman brings nothing good with her. She has the tile of Mistress of evil for a reason. Though while they were enjoying their time, they now needed to be on alert with this new threat on the horizon. The Elements of Harmony and the Keyblade wielder must now prepare, for one of their greatest challenges is near.