Cloudsdale, home of the wondrous pegasi who roamed the skies of Equestria and brought forth the weather and seasonal changes that helped the land prosper. A birthplace to many of the greatest heroes in Equestrian history, most notably the WonderBolts and its many stars throughout the years. Within the high-flying city lay the Cloudsdale Flight School where young pegasi colts and fillies learned to become true to their kind in learning the proper methods of flight and weather manipulation.
The school itself was usually rather calm, though the infamous competitive spirits of pegasi did rile up every now then. Even on a day like today, when certain rainbow-haired pegasus challenged colt to defend her friend from his taunting. A race to see who could complete the school obstacle course the fastest. One would think such a competition would be simple, but on this day, nothing could ever be such.
A bubble of magic tore open into a space just outside the obstacle track, a swirling vortex of temporal energy within it. From this opening came three beings: a pale pink unicorn with a slightly curled, purple and aquamarine mane, a violet coated alicorn whose dark navy mane sported a single striping of pink, and a young, purple dragon with green scales lining his head and back. The dragon rode on the alicorn’s back as they glared angrily at the unicorn who landed on a nearby cloud, said pony looking even more furious at the pair.
“You don’t know what it’s like to lose a friend because of a cutie mark,” Starlight Glimmer told them. She glanced off to the side as the younger version of the alicorn’s friend flew off to beat the schoolyard bully. “But once I stop the rainboom, you will!” she declared as her horn ignited. The teal colored magic latched onto the baby drake’s backpack and snatched it away, making it reappear in front of Starlight. From within it, she ripped out an ancient scroll that had gotten the three of them into this situation. “And when I destroy this scroll, there’ll be no way for you to change it!”
Twilight and Spike watched helplessly as Starlight began to rip the scroll apart, knowing that should it be destroyed, they’d all be stuck in the past, unable to return to the present that they knew.
“Starlight, you’re right! I don’t know what you went through! But I do know you can’t do this! I’ve seen where this leads, and so do you!” Twilight pleaded with the enraged unicorn. Her words rang true as all three had been witnesses to one terrible future after another, each one getting worse and worse as new changes were made to the timeline. The final one being the one burned into Starlight’s mind, seeing the destruction of not just Equestria, but all life within it as well.
But Starlight’s rage pushed her to look over what she say, unable to accept such an outcome. “I only saw what you showed me! Who knows what’ll really happen?”
“I’ve seen it a dozen times!” Twilight fired back, with a plea. “Things don’t turn out well for Equestria without my friends!”
Starlight growled under her breath. “What’s so special about you and your friends?! How can a group of ponies so different be so important?!”
Twilight watched as Starlight began to struggle with the concepts she’d been trying to show her. Taking this chance, she moved towards Starlight, looking up at the younger mare with hope. “The differences between me and my friends are the very things that make our friendship strong!”
Tears welled up in Starlight’s eyes as she looked away from the subject of her ire, memories of her past freshly opened from their visit to her home. “I thought Sunburst and I were the same. But we turned out different, and it tore our friendship apart!” she shouted at the young princess.
“So try again!” Twilight cried, jumping into the air above Starlight, her wings holding her and Spike aloft. “Make new friends! And if something you can’t control happens that changes things, work through it together! That’s what friendship is! And it’s not just my friendships that are important to Equestria! Everypony’s are! When yours ended, it led us here. But just imagine all the others that are out there waiting for you if you just give them a chance!”
The struggle inside of Starlight’s heart began to give way as a fresh light of hope began to grow, the crying mare looked up at Twilight, a question burning inside her. “How do I know they won’t all end the same way?”
“I guess it’s up to you to make sure they don’t,” Twilight told her. She landed directly in front of the mare, holding out her hoof. Starlight watched as little Rainbow Dash sped by, knowing it was only seconds away from the past being corrected. She hesitated as her worry and anger started to quell, slowly reach out her hoof until it met directly with Twilight’s. The two smiled as Starlight let go of the scroll. Thankfully, Spike managed to grab the ancient parchment before it could fall away completely.
Beneath the trio, a large explosion detonated as the very first sonic rainboom occurred around them. The colorful waves rippled across the sky, being seen for miles across the entire country, enlightening several unique souls to find their destinies. One such soul went rocketing above the time travelers, just as the temporal spell activated and sending them home. Spike, Twilight, and Starlight held close as they were taken back to the future.
However, as they passed through the barriers of time and space, each set of eyes briefly glowed as images were burned into their brains. Before it could be dwelled on, they arrived back where they started in Castle Harmony, the time warp ripping the scroll from Spike’s hands and absorbing it into oblivion. For a brief moment, they looked at one another, a single question unspoken between them:
What did we just see?
“I missed you, Roxas,” Naminé’s voice echoed through the emptiness, rousing Roxas from his sleep. The young man lay there not far from her, as she sat there on the edge. Her blonde hair lay against her pale skin, covered only by a small white dress With a groggy groan, he sat up rubbing his eyes as they became accustomed to his surroundings.
“Naminé? Is that you?” he asked, still trying to regain his sight and bearings. Ruffling his golden blond hair, Roxas found himself one on of those strange mural pillars, this one depicting himself and those close to him. He looked at himself, seeing he was still wearing the black and white double jacket and similar matching pants. There was a small smirk as he was glad the old, black coat was gone.
“I'm right here Roxas.” He turned to see her sitting at the edge, her legs dangling off the side. Looking around, Roxas tried to take in their surroundings, but couldn’t see much.
“Where are we? How did we get here?”
She giggled, shaking her head. “We’re in Sora's heart. I told you we wouldn't disappear.”
“So this is what’s inside a heart?” Roxas stood up and started looking around, not seeing much past the pillar they stood on. He looked down, seeing the familiar stained glass he’d seen before. “I thought there’d be a little… more.”
“At least you have me,” she pointed out, giving him a shy smile.
“Yeah,” he said, getting a small smile as he sat down next to her on the edge. They looked at each other with matching smiles before looking out upon the abyss. “But, what do we do now?”
“I guess we just...talk,” Namine offered.
“Sure, we can do that.”
The pair talked and chatted for what felt like hours on end. The laughed, they comforted, even accepted what the other had done. They spoke of their pasts, of the dreams they held, and even what they believed was to come in the future. But even something so nice, does come to an end. When all had been said what needed to or wanted to be said was done, they simply sat there together in silence. Two beings who were never meant to be, never truly alive, couldn’t have felt more so in that moment just having a special someone to talk to.
But, like it was said, even nice things come to an end.
“Hm?” Roxas perked up, looking around at the endless darkness.
“What's wrong Roxas?” She asked, looking at him curiously.
“I could have sworn I heard something.” Cautiously, he got back to his feet and looked out again, scanning through the abyss for anything. Softly to the ears, even Naminé could hear tiny drip, as if a single drop of water had fallen into a pond. “There it is again.”
“Is it that other boy?” Namine asked, rising to her feet.
“No. I can feel him further in Sora’s heart, but this? This is much closer. Almost as if…” Roxas’ eyes widened as he turned around as another drip echoed across eternity. There, in the middle of the stained glass, was a shimmering little bubble. The bubble was odd, strange little designs resembling clocks flowing over its surface. Every so often it would make that sound again, echoing into Roxas’ being as if it were calling out to him. Slowly, he started to approach it.
“Roxas!” She reached out, grabbing his hand. “What are you doing?”
“It’s calling out,” he told her without glancing back. “There’s… something about this thing. I need to know what it wants.”
“I don't think that's a good idea,” she countered, shaking her head. She tugged on his hand, trying to dissuade him. Roxas resisted, though not enough to cause her any harm, trying to pull himself towards the bubble.
As the two Nobodies continued their back and forth, neither noticed that the subject of their conflict was beginning to grow. It was unnoticeable at first, but with every drip, the bubble expanded more and more. Within mere moments, it had grow to encompass the entire inner circle of the mural.
“Roxas, we have to get away from it,” Namine pleaded, taking a step away from it. “Please.”
Naminé’s pleas finally broke Roxas from the spell as he looked at her, seeing the look in her eye for him to stop. “Naminé, I.. I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.”
“It's okay.” She stepped back, pulling him along. Though as she did so, she happened to look over his shoulder and see that the bubble had grown much larger and was already about to overtake them. She moved up to the edge of the pillar, squeezing his hand.
Roxas stared down the bubble as they quickly ran out of standing space. Pulling on her hand, he pulled her close to him before turning his back to the bubble. “Don’t worry, Naminé, I’ll keep you safe.”
She nodded, glancing between him and the bubble. “I trust you Roxas.”
The edge of the bubble overtook them only moments later, both clenching their eyes shut as a blinding light forced them to look away. Once they were fully consumed, the bubble popped with a quiet pop, as if it had only been an ordinary bubble. But it couldn’t have been ordinary, as Roxas and Naminé were gone.
Author's Note
Hey everyone. Sorry that this has been so quietly lately, but maybe a fresh start will be just what we all need here. With more Kingdom Hearts hype coming up with 2.8 coming out soon and 3 hopefully on the way, now is the time we believe to breathe some new life into this. Fingers crossed we can keep this going for now. Anything you wanna say Shag?
I'm passing the time to KH3 with Noctis and the bros.
Well... alright then. We'll see you all next time.
It had been several days since Twilight Sparkle had been sent tumbling through timelines with her assistant. The aftermath, thankfully, was quite simple: Starlight would be under her watch to make up for her crimes against her fellow equine, starting by learning about the true magic of friendship under Twilight’s tutelage. The young princess was excited to have a student of her own that she could pass on the knowledge of friendship that she had learned from her time in Ponyville. Of course not all of her friends were for such an idea, as almost all of them held some grudge against the unicorn for her actions in Our Town. But with some convincing that it was much tamer than a life imprisonment and could have better hopes for the future, they relented and agreed.
Starlight was understandably worried about her punishment, but upon hearing it, she couldn’t have been more ecstatic. Being welcomed into the castle didn’t hurt much either, since she had been living in Whitetail Woods since her exile from the town she had created. Her first day had been more than hectic, having had to spend the day with all six of the Ambassadors of Harmony. From modeling a dress for Rarity, the local fashion designer, to helping the baker, Pinkie Pie, in the kitchen of her workplace, and even assisting Fluttershy, the animal caretaker, in feeding all of the many critters she watched over, both big and small.
Though it was rough, she smiled on the whole time. And Twilight couldn’t have been happier for her once all her friends had told her of the day they’d had. It was wonderful that her brand new pupil was already off to such a start. It led for plenty of possibility for her future.
Yet despite all that, Twilight simply couldn’t sleep. For the past few nights, she’d kept revisiting that scene she had seen from their travel back to the present she knew. It wasn’t that it was horrible, thank Celestia, but it just kept nagging at her. A vision unlike any she had ever seen before. And one that left greater questions for may lie ahead.
And so it was because of these thoughts that the young Princess of Friendship lay awake in her four poster bed, not even able to toss and turn as her mind kept on turning. She had attempted to look into what she had seen, but she had no starting point, no place to begin her search to find out what could lead to such a vision.
“What was it?” she whispered to herself, gazing up at the top her bed covers. “What could lead to such an event? Unknown creatures, new heroes, strange stars? What could it all mean?”
Twilight repeated these questions to herself time after time as she lay there, eventually questioning herself into a dreamless sleep. What seemed like only moments later, the light of her former teacher’s, Princess Celestia, sun worked its way into her bedroom, shining through her drapes. With a small groan, she crawled out of bed and made herself decent as she descended down into the dining area of the castle.
Once there, she saw her little assistant busy at setting the table for three. Meaning to say ‘hi’, Twilight yawned as she moved to one of the chairs of the table.
“Good morning, Twilight!” Spike greeted with a wave. “Breakfast is almost ready. I was just about to go get you and Starlight.”
“No need,” said unicorn yawned as she walked in as well. “‘Mm already up.” She took a whiff of the scent that rolled out of the kitchen as she sat a couple seats down from Twilight at the rounded table. “Oh, that smells good.”
“Thanks! It’s my special banana nut muffins. They should be ready in just a few minutes,” he replied with a fair amount of pride.
“Can’t wait,” she said with a yawn.
“Morning, Starlight,” Twilight groggily greeted, rubbing a little dust from her eyes. “Seems like you’re still tired.”
“Yeah, it’s nothing though. Just a little insomnia is all.”
Twilight yawned again, covering her mouth with her hoof. “I’ll be honest, I haven’t been sleeping too well myself. I keep thinking about our time loop.”
Starlight winced, now feeling nothing but shame for the incident, plus maybe a little something more. “Look, I know just saying I’m sorry won’t fix every-”
“No, no, not what you did,” Twilight interrupted, waving her hooves to wave off the very thought. “I know you’re sorry about it, but it’s not your involvement that has me restless. It was when we finally came back to this present here. On the way, I… saw something. I’m not sure what, but I think it was some kind of a vision.”
“A vision?” she asked, her eyes widening.
“Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but-”
“I saw one too!” Starlight suddenly interrupted.
“Wait, what?!” Twilight nearly shrieked. “Why didn’t you say anything?!”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I thought it was crazy!”
“Well so did I and I already seemed crazy enough as it was! Just suddenly telling you I was having visions of the future? I was afraid you’d put me up in some mental house.”
Twilight winced at the insinuations. “Starlight, I’d never do that to anypony. Such a thing would be a last resort at best. And no, I don’t think you’re crazy, since I had a vision as well.”
“You guys too?” Spike casually asked as he walked back in with a plate of steaming muffins. “I thought I was the only one. It was really weird that it just came so out of the blue.” Placing the tray on the table, he looked up see both mares staring at him. “What?”
“You had a vision, Spike?” Twilight asked with a hint of worry and wonder. “When we finally ended the time loop?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think much of it,” Spike replied with a shrug. “It was really weird that it just came to me. Though it didn’t seem important.”
“‘Didn’t seem important’?! How could seeing strange creatures becoming Equestria’s heroes and the changing stars not seem important?!”
“Wait what?” Starlight and Spike both asked.
“That’s not what I saw,” Starlight said with a shake of her head.
“Me either, Twi.”
“Wait, you didn’t?” She looked between the two as they shook their heads. “Then what did you see?”
“I just saw life as normal,” Spike replied with a shrug. As they spoke, he passed muffins to the two, figuring that if Twilight went on a rant, she’d at least need something in her belly. “Just typical Ponyville life moving on as it always should.”
“Starlight?”
The unicorn shook her head again. “Didn’t see that either. What I saw was… horrible.” A shiver went down her spine as she recounted the vision. “I saw destruction and darkness, spreading over the entire world. Everything was black, including the night sky. It was if everything had been painted over with a black brush. The only other thing I saw were these strange little creatures, kind of like imps, running everywhere, little beady eyes that stood out in the dark. It was almost like they were made out of the stuff.”
Twilight and Spike both shivered. “That’s haunting,” she replied.
Starlight nodded. “Yeah. It gave me nightmares that night. It’s been getting better, but it still nags at the back of my mind when I lay down to sleep.”
Silence fell over the three as they all began to bite into their muffins. A quick compliment from Starlight over the taste was enough to lift the spirits slightly, yet Twilight remained focused despite her cheeks bulging with food.
‘Three visions. Three futures. And none of them match in anyway. What was the time loop trying to tell us? Were they just passing glances at possibilities we had yet to see? Or… could it be they are the possibilities that still lie await?’
A small groan escaped Roxas’ lips as he slowly returned to the waking world. His eyes opened just a bit before snapping shut from the sudden influx of light. Gently, he eased his eyelids open and turned his head to look around. From he could tell, the area was grassy with a few trees decorating the area as a brilliant sunlight shone down upon him.
He questioned his new surroundings, swearing that he had been in darkness, not meadow. And he had been with…
“Naminé!” he shouted in a hushed tone as he sat up in an instant. Adrenaline started coursing through his veins as he look around rapidly, looking for his companion. Thankfully, he spotted her only a few feet from, laying curled up on the soft grass.
Letting out a breath of relief, Roxas crawled over to Naminé and gently shook her shoulder. “Naminé? Naminé, wake up.”
Roxas took the moment to look her over for any wounds. She looked rather peaceful, her chest rising and falling. After a few more shakes, she groaned, cracking an eye open.
“Roxas?” She asked softly, looking up at him.
He sighed as he sat back on his rear, looking up at the clear blue sky. “Thank goodness. We’re both okay, but I have no clue where we are.”
Naminé sat up, blinking the sleep from her eyes. “How did we get here?”
“Had to have been that bubble,” he replied, getting to his feet. With a soft smile, he held out his hand to her. “But don’t worry, as long as we’re together, there’s nothing that can get the jump on us.”
She took his hand, pulling herself to her feet. She brushed her dress off, adjusting it to her satisfaction. “Do we explore?” Part of her hoped he would say yes, her short life had been full of nothing but cages.
Roxas looked around a little, not seeing much more than grass and trees. He shrugged a little before replying, “We might as well. Standing around here isn’t going to do us much good.”
“I wish I had my sketchbook with me,” she lamented, looking at the flowers around them. “Come on Roxas, we can't just stay here all day.” She took his hand, tugging his along in a random direction.
Roxas stuttered as he was pulled along through the meadow. “H-hey, I know you’re excited, but still!” he laughed as they ran along.
“Don’t tell me you're afraid,” she teased, grinning at him.
He smirked as he started picking up his pace. “Me? I’m not afraid of anything!” The two kept pace as they kept running, reaching the crest of a hill. But what they saw caused them to stop and stare out. “A town?”
Indeed, down below there was a quaint little town. The buildings were of varying purples, blues, and pinks, thatched roofs everywhere, and most shockingly were the creatures roaming about. Everywhere they looked, little pony-like creatures of all shapes and colors walked about the little town, going about their days.
“I don't think I know this world.” Naminé blinked, watching a pair of the creatures trot by.
“Which means we should be careful. We don’t have any magic here to blend in like Sora does. Nor do we know how they’ll react to us; they could get violent.”
“I think we should ask one.” Naminé pulled away, stopping a trio of smaller creatures. She knelt down, giving a smile. “My name's Naminé. My friend and I are a little lost, do you think can tell us where we are?”
“Naminé, what are you doing?” Roxas hissed, trying to hide back where they were while keeping an eye on her.
The three little fillies stared up at Naminé in awe, three sets of eyes wide at her. “Woah,” the little yellow pony with red hair for a mane and tail and a pink bow in said mane. “What are ya?”
“Are you from the Everfree forest?” squeaked the little, light grey pony with pink and purple swirled mane and tail that were perfectly maintained. She even had a horn on her head, making her stand out obviously from the group.
“Don’t be stupid!” retorted the little orange pony with wings. Her purple mane and tail were a complete mess, looking as if they’d gone through a wind storm. “She came from the Whitetail Meadow; how could she be from the Everfree?”
“Don’t call me stupid! It was a legitimate question!”
“Don’t use words I don’t understand!”
“Girls!” the normal pony shouted at them. “Let’s jus’ let ‘er speak! She obviously can!”
Naminé didn't seem bothered by their bickering. “We’re from far away. We’re just trying to find our way back.” She gave another smile. “Do you know where we are?”
“Yer in Ponyville!” the normal pony responded. “Where’re ya from? An’ why ya sayin’ ‘we’? Are there more o’ ya?”
“I'm from Castle Oblivion,” Naminé explained, looking back towards Roxas. “My friend is being a little shy.” She waved him over, coaxing him with another smile.
Roxas stared at her in disbelief before scratching at his head with both hands, trying not to get too overly upset. He took a deep breath before stepping out of the brush. “Hey there,” he greeted with a small wave, not sounding too happy about meeting these creatures.
“He’s tall!” the winged one said, walking over to look at the nobody who towered over her. “So tall.”
“Why’s his hair all spiky like that?” the horned one asked, tilting her head rather cutely.
“What’s wrong with my hair?” Roxas asked back, sounding defensive.
“Nothing, I just wanna know why it’s spiky,” she huffed in return.
“It just is,” he replied rather grumpily.
Naminé giggled at the exchange. “This is my friend Roxas.” She kneeled down, getting to eye level with the creatures. “Can you tell us your names?”
“Ah’m Apple Bloom!” The yellow one explained.
“I'm Sweetie Belle!” The horned one introduced, pressing against Apple Bloom’s left side.
“I'm Scootaloo!” the winged one said, pressing into Apple Bloom’s other side.
“And we’re, the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” they shouted, their voices blending together into a single, shrill shout.
Roxas immediately covered his ears, the screech ringing deep in his eardrums despite his best efforts. Slowly he peeled his hands away, tapping his ear afterwards to make sure it was still working. “You might wanna work on that slogan. You’re liable to make someone bleed doing that.”
“We get that a lot,” Sweetie admitted, giving a sheepish smile.
“Then you may want to take that advice,” he groaned, tapping his other ear to restart the hearing.
“So what are you two?” Scootaloo asked, looking between them. “Are you some kind of hairless diamond dogs?”
“Or mutated minotaurs?” Apple Bloom piped in.
“Maybe they’re some unknown beings from a far away land with amazing powers that could wipe us out in seconds if we anger them!” Sweetie threw in… leading to all of them staring at her. “What?”
“Ah think ya’ve been readin’ too much o’ Spike’s comic books, Bell,” Bloom so elegantly put it.
“Have not!” Sweetie defended with a blush.
“Roxas and I are Nobodies.” Naminé stood up, brushing the front of her dress off. “What are you?”
“We’re ponies duh,” Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “What do we look like, horses?”
“Well, yes,” Roxas replied with a blunt smirk.
“Hey!” Scootaloo rebuked, but Bloom happened to interrupt her before things escalated any further.
“How can y’all be nobodies?” the filly asked. “Ya certainly look like somebodies ta me.”
Naminé exchanged glances with Roxas, shaking her head. “That's a rather complicated answer.” These were obviously children, she doubted they'd understand the concept.
“What’s so complicated about it?” Sweetie asked with a small squeak in her voice.
“Yeah, it can’t be that hard to tell us what you are. Don’t need to be so cryptic about it,” Scootaloo added in.
Naminé frowned, trying to think of a way to explain it to a child. She gazed at Roxas, as if to plead for his help. The young man let out a soft sigh, moving his hand to scratch at a sudden itch on the back of his head. “Well… I suppose the best way to put it is that we’re missing pieces of ourselves. I know that probably doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but it’s the basic gist of it.”
Scootaloo tilted her head at the pair, giving them an incredulous look. “‘Missing a part of yourselves’? How does that work?”
“Yeah,” Sweetie interjected, “you both look completely fine. Or, I think so… huh, how can we even tell?”
“Whatcha mean?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Well, how do we know they’re completely whole? We’ve never seen… whatever they are before so how do we know this what they normally look like?”
The other two fillies blinked at Sweetie’s proposal before looking between each other dumbfoundedly. “Huh, never thought o’ that.”
“Hey, I know! Who’s the best pony to go to when you have a knowing problem?” Scootaloo said, looking at her fellow crusaders. Apple Bloom and Sweetie stood there for a small moment before the gasped and smiles beamed on their faces.
“Princess Twilight!!” they nearly screeched, causing Naminé and Roxas to put their hands over their ears.
“Who’s Princess Twilight?” Namine asked, carefully removing her hands.
Sweetie looked up at her with a bright grin, which for an odd reason gave Roxas a sense of dread. “She’s a good friend of ours and knows everything about everything!”
“That’s right,” Scootaloo added with a happy buzz of her wings. “There’s not a single thing we’ve asked her about that she didn’t know. She’ll definitely be able to help us learn about you two!”
Roxas scratched his cheek with a finger for a moment, the dread growing ever more. “Um, I’m not so sure that’s a good idea-”
“Come on!” Apple Bloom shouted at them, jumping behind Roxas and pushing him. He was practically thrown off his feet from how strong the little filly was, unknowing beginning to walk in the direction she was forcing him to, otherwise he’d end up being thrown of his own feet. “Naminé, a little help here?!”
Scootaloo meanwhile was pushing her head against the back of Naminé’s leg, trying to get her to follow. “Come on, her castle isn’t too far from here anyway.”
“Don’t worry about the princess thing, though,” Sweetie dismissed. “She’s not into all that royalty and privilege junk; she’s just like any other pony.”
Naminé frowned, looking down at Scootaloo. “If you think she can help.” She started to walk, using the time to simply enjoy the outdoors. The sun felt quite nice.
Roxas, however, was not enjoying his trip, grumbling to himself as he was “guided” by a pony that wasn’t even a quarter of his size. ‘Man, am I glad no one is here to see this. Axel would never let me live it down if he knew.’ With his displeasure thoroughly internalized, his quick tour of the town continued.
Twilight sighed as she closed another book, disappointed that she was no closer to solving her conundrum than when she started. She levitated the book back to its spot on the shelf as her mind continued running around in circles trying to understand her vision as well as the others’. A glance at the remaining pile of books she had pulled out didn’t make her as eager as she would have liked to continue this research. She had no real leads, nothing to look back on, and not even a true sense that what she saw was what she saw.
And it irritated the young princess to know end.
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, using the trick to calm herself like her former foalsitter and sister-in-law had taught her. It didn’t make the situation better but it did help to settle herself a bit to focus. Steeling herself once again, she grabbed the next book and opened it up to the index, hoping to have a quick clue pop out to her.
As her skimming continued, a loud gong sounded through the castle. For the first few months of her life in the crystal castle, the sound had scared her out of her wits each time. But now, she’d become quite adjusted to the unnaturally loud doorbell. Her ears twitched as she heard the pattering of Spike’s claws as he rushed to answer the door; he more often than not liked to be the one to greet any visitors. It brought a smile to her face as she briefly thought of her assistant and how helpful he could truly be.
Speaking of said assistant, his voice echoed out through the castle, “Twilight? I think you’ll want to come down here!”
“Hm?” Twilight hummed to herself, blinking as she looked to the door. “Now why would Spike need me at the door?” She mentally and physically shrugged before marking her place in her book and closing it up. “It’s probably nothing too terrible. It’s only Ponyville after all.” Her horn lit up brightly with magic before her form popped out existence before reappearing at the front door in a bright flash of magenta magic. When Twilight reopened her eyes, she was surprised to see Spike staring out the door with wide eyes. “Uh, Spike? What’s wrong?”
Spike’s claw slowly lifted as he stuttered, “Th-th-th-th-th-the-the-the-”
Twilight’s brow quirked up in confusion before she turned her head. At first she didn’t understand her assistant’s bewilderment as she saw her friend’s three little sisters, well more like apprentice in Scootaloo’s case. However, there was something odd immediately behind them. It looked… two pairs of… Twilight’s eyes trailed upwards as they slowly started to match Spike’s until she was looking full on at two creatures she’d never laid eyes upon… in the real world that was.
One of them lifted a hand of all things and waved at her before speaking. “Hey there. How’s it going?”
Author's Note
Alright, sorry for the wait everyone. Getting settled into hopefully some better conditions to move my life along better. Motivation is starting to build so hopefully you'll be seeing more of my stuff in the future. So hope you enjoyed this continuing build into a fun adventure, but before I go, a quick message from shagohad:
Kingdom Hearts is getting waaay too complicated. Like freaking seriously!!
Thank you for those endearing words my friend. Anyway, see you guys in the next chapter!
