Author's Note

Okay, so this story sort of popped into my head late at night one night, and I'm not entirely sure if I will finish it, or where I'm going to go with it. However, I've been wanting to write something KH-related for a very long time, and it's a decent side project while I'm re-working the first 3 or so chapters of 'Crossroads' (whatever route I decide to go with the re-works). So, I plan on having a good time with this.

So, some ground rules, this takes place after KH3's Re:Mind DLC on the 'Kingdom Hearts' side. On the MLP side, this starts in Season 4, specifically a week-and-a-half before the events of "Bats!"

And also, this will go into slightly headcanon-y territory with the character of Sora, mostly just in the Keyblades he has and the route he took as a fighter. I think it will be fun, since as a character, he's simple, but there's a lot you can do with him.

Anywho, I've rambled on long enough. Enjoy.

The First Night

“I will save you.”

Those were the last words he remembered hearing before the blinding light overtook him.

And they left him with so many questions when he woke up.

Honestly, for a while, Sora had legitimately thought he had died completely. But waking up to the feeling of vaguely uncomfortable leather and wool had convinced him otherwise. When he opened his eyes, he found himself in a dimly lit living room, a book opened on the floor, and a simple and poorly maintained couch beneath him.

He tried to stand up and found his center of balance was far off. A fact he learned the hard way, as he landed face-first on the hardwood floor.

Placing his… hands? On the ground and pushing off of it, Sora brought himself back up to a sitting position, and let out a groan of annoyance.

“Ugh… what the heck?”

He stopped and opened his wide open upon hearing what was supposed to be his voice. But what came out was a much lighter and more feminine sounding one. That did not bode well, and he knew it. Couple that with the glasses he could clearly see before him, and finally getting a feel for why his body felt wrong, and it clicked.

Wherever he was, he’d been sent there, and transformed.

‘Okay, I can work with that,’ he said to himself, crossing his arms and closing his eyes – a little tic he had for when he was deep in thought. ‘I’ve been a lion before, I can handle being… huh, what am I, now that I think about it?’

Getting up and trying a four-legged stance, Sora could feel his feet flat on the ground, with no digits for him to wiggle. His mind went to hooves, which helped to paint some of the picture. He could feel a large tail behind him, so that ruled out being a goat or a deer.

‘A horse, maybe?’ he asked as he wandered about.

Finally, he stumbled upon a mirror in the corner, and got a good glance at what he was. Sure enough, before him stood a horse. But not like any horse he’d ever seen.

Most horses he’d ever seen were dark muddy colors – with the exception of Maximus, of course – but the one before him was… unreasonably colorful. Its light cream-colored coat was contrasted by a deep red mane, held upward by a clip in the front, with two highlights, both a different shade of purple, as well as a horn atop its head. Staring back at Sora were massive, expressive eyes, a deep dark purple in color, hidden behind a pair of glasses held together by tape. And upon its body was a dark bluish turtleneck, explaining the feeling of wool Sora woke up to.

But even with some knowledge of what he was, Sora couldn’t help but voice his confusion.

“What the…?” He stuttered, taking it all in. “Am I a Dream Eater or something? … Wait a minute, am I a girl!? Yozora, what did you do to me!? And how the heck does this save me!?”

His thoughts were interrupted by a cursory glance behind him, seeing something in the background of his own reflection. He recognized this something, for it was on him at almost all times, despite what anyone else knew. On the lone coffee table sat his bag, the one he carried all of his items in, and Sora had never been happier to see it.

It was a simple satchel, but one that had been enchanted several times over by Donald over the course of their journey, including a Mini spell for easy storage, and even more elemental resistances than his original outfit. Not only was it where they stored all their Synthesis Materials initially, but it was also their storage for extra armor, battle items, and of course, all his extra Keychains.

And right now, it was looking noticeably full.

That little detail gave Sora some hope, as he’d gathered a lot of things over the course of his adventure. And as he went through the bag – a harder feat than one would think now that he had hooves – the sights before him were enough to put his mind (mostly) at ease. He was happy to see it all, his keychains, his armor and accessories, his main outfit, his belt full of Elixi-

“Hang on, what the heck!?” He asked, looking to his 2 remaining battle items incredulously. “I had like 7 of these things! Where’d they all go?”

Taking that question and promptly placing it into the ‘for later’ segment of his mind, Sora was happy to see the various Keychains were still there. He’d put a lot of work into upgrading the Keyblades as far as he could, so to lose them would have genuinely made him sad.

Suddenly, a loud crash was heard outside the nearby window, and on instinct, he rushed toward it, and saw a sight that made him especially glad he had all his stuff. Something that would have been almost comforting, were it not an immediate sign of danger.

“The Heartless are here too!?” He asked, readying his Keyblade. “Dangit… guess I’ll have to figure out how to fight on the fly.”

Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Sora defaulted to the strongest Keyblade he had on hand; the Ultima Weapon. The ornately designed sword materialized in his new maw, and he gripped down on it much like he had when he was in the Pride Lands.

And without a second thought, he rushed out the door. The only thing that stopped him remotely was a Pegasus in golden armor zipping past him, spear at the ready.

“Citizen, I must ask that you get inside!” The stallion told her. “This is a dangerous situation against a hostile foe!”

“I know!” Sora answered back, his speech muffled only slightly by the Keyblade’s handle. “I can help!”

The guard was dumbfounded at this, but for various reasons beyond some pony simply offering to fight a new threat. This mare, looking like she’d just woke up, comes charging out of the door wanting to assist in the battle, and carrying perhaps the strangest looking weapon he’d ever seen; not looking like it could cut through butter, much less whatever these things were.

Shaking off the confusion, he simply reiterated. “I cannot allow that. I must ask that you get yourself to safety.”

As he was about to move back into the fray, a Large Body charged toward him at incredible speed, knocking him into the concrete fence. Pain overtook him even through his armor, and the big Heartless belly flopped forward, sliding toward the prone Pegasus. Fear overtook him, as he tried to get back to standing.

With all the speed he could muster, Sora got in between the two, and blocked the strike with his Keyblade. It nearly sent him stumbling, due to not being used to this four-legged stance, but he found himself grounded, and unleashed a powerful upward slash in retaliation. The giant Heartless was flung through the sky, and Sora teleported upward to hit it with a downward strike.

It wasn’t nearly as elegant as his usual counter slashes, but it got the job done, as the Large Body dissipated, and the heart floated into the sky.

‘They must have already done some good damage,’ he surmised, knowing at a glance that the monster was close to defeat before he did anything. ‘That’s good. Wherever I am, they’re in good hands. … Hooves? Good hooves.’

“I can help,” Sora reiterated right back to the guard. “I know how to take down the Heartless.”

“The… Heartless? You know what these things are?”

He winced, a certain white duck’s screaming about ‘order’ coming to the forefront of his mind.

“I’ll uh… explain later, I promise!” Sora told him. “For now, we’ve gotta take these guys down!”

Before the stallion had a chance to respond, Sora rushed back into the fray, and attempted a jumping slash at the Soldier. It dissipated, and the follow through nearly caused the Keyblade wielder to stumble again. He didn’t know why, but this body felt… weaker. Significantly so.

As he spun around, catching at least 3 nearby Shadows with a strike, this weakness became abundantly clear. One of them lived, and managed to get a swipe in, ripping the turtleneck and leaving the slightest gash on his newly equine body. He winced, not at the pain, but rather at the fact that the hit happened at all.

Usually, he was quicker to recover than that.

‘Did Yozora steal my powers or something? What’s going on?’ he asked himself, blocking a Soldier’s aerial spin attack.

Seeing an opportunity, Sora let the magic flow through his Keyblade, and unleashed a powerful Firaga, that obliterated the Soldier in an instant, despite being obviously in top condition. This was a surprise, given his physical powers seemed off, but a welcome one, as it meant his magic was actually STRONGER in this form.

‘Well, that’s my out, then.’

Absorbing the dropped Magic Energy from his opponent, Sora rushed in, feeling the energy flow through him once again. Like it was second nature, the sparks ran from his body through to his weapon, as he threw it upward to unleash it. From the tip of Ultima Weapon, a spark shot outward, which in mere milliseconds summoned forth multiple lightning bolts, dealing massive damage to all the Heartless in the area.

In a flash, they were almost all gone, the remaining few stragglers being ran through by a few other guards in the area. Sora let out a sigh of relief, dismissing his Keyblade and scanning the area to see if anything else remained.

“You there! Madam!”

Turning around, he was greeted by a Pegasus stallion in ornate armor. Said stallion looked to Sora and smiled, though he caught the unease that the ‘mare’ was showing.

“Whoa now, no need to fear, madam,” he said calmly. “You’re not in any trouble. While reckless to jump into danger like that, one of my soldiers tells me you protected him from one of those beasts. For that, you have my thanks.”

A bit of the unease lifted as Sora heard his praises sung, but it was not completely gone. He still wasn’t exactly comfortable with being called ‘Madam’, even if some part of him knew he’d be stuck having to get used to it.

“He also stated that you referred to them as ‘Heartless’, and promised an explanation,” the Stallion continued. “I’m afraid there are still some who need immediate treatment, but we will still have to-”

“Where are they? I can help with that too.” Sora offered, summoning his Keyblade back.

“… That strange weapon of yours is certainly among our list of questions,” the guard said. “But we’ll put that on the backburner. You can help the injured mares?”

To this, Sora nodded. “Trust me. I’ve got something for that.”

“Very well. Follow me.”

Within a few seconds, he was brought before a few injured Unicorns, all of whom were unconscious, but their injuries were not beyond anything he’d ever gotten rid of before. And thankfully, he had the perfect spell for the job.

Raising his Keyblade to the sky, he exclaimed “HEAL!”

Suddenly, a bright green light enveloped the mares, small projections of flowers over their heads for a second or two, as their wounds miraculously closed in an instant. The guards’ eyes widened in shock, as the mares stirred from their sleep.

The first one to awaken was varying shades of blue, and let out a slight grumble as she got back to her sitting position.

“Yeesh,” she said with a slight chuckle. “That big thing sure packed a wallop.”

She was about to say something else, but her attention was completely given to her savior once she noticed the familiar cream coat. She gasped upon seeing an equally familiar face, and felt a huge smile adorn her features.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Sora said, “I’m glad you’r-”

“Moon Dancer! It’s so good to see you! How long has it been, you old so-and-so?”

Any words that the young Keybearer might have had dissipated as he heard that unfamiliar name. “M-… Moon Dancer?”

“Aw, come on, no need to play coy,” the mare continued, still smiling eagerly. “Your old pal Minuette never forgets a face! So, don’t spare the details, what have you been up to? We never see you anymore, and judging by that weird sword you’ve got, you’ve been hard at work on something HUGE!”

Said weird sword vanished from Sora’s mouth, mainly due to the fact that it now hung open in abject shock. It didn’t take a genius to figure out the implications of Minuette’s words, and they made his stomach drop further than he thought possible.

There was a brief silence, stopped only by the fact that Minuette pushed on.

“Moon Dancer?” She asked, her grin never leaving her face.

Realizing he was still in the middle of a conversation, Sora shook himself from his stupor, and let out a nervous chuckle at the scene.

“Oh, sorry about that,” he finally answered. “I’ve just… uh, been busy lately! But then those things showed up!”

“The Heartless, as I recall you calling them,” one of the soldiers piped up.

“The Heartless?” another mare asked, this one mostly yellow, but with a green mane and tail. “Is that what those things that attacked us were called?”

‘Okay, this is bad! Come on brain, come up with a way out of this!’

“Uh…” he stuttered, trying to find a way out. “L-listen, I’d love to tell you more, but I really should be getting back inside. I was… just about to cook dinner, and I can’t leave the stove unattended for too long!”

“Well, there is still the issue of our questions, Miss Moon Dancer,” the lead guard said, approaching Sora. “We’ve much to go over, clearly, given what you’ve both said and shown tonight.”

“And I’ll answer, I promise,” Sora told him. “But can it please wait until tomorrow? I really can’t wait tonight.”

“… Very well. We shall return to your abode at Noon tomorrow, and we expect honest answers about your knowledge on the subject.”

“You’ll get them. You have my word.”

With a few more cordial goodbyes, the guards left the vicinities, and all that was left was Sora, Minuette, and the other mares. Before they could even get a word in edgewise, Sora rushed back into the house, and closed the door behind him. The three were shocked by the sudden action, though they understood it.

“Well,” Lemon Hearts began. “Seems somepony’s studying some really amazing things.”

“I know,” Twinkleshine added in. “Did you see that sword of hers? It was so ornate, and so strange looking.”

“It almost looked like an oversized key to me,” Minuette joked. “Wonder where she got it. Maybe we should invite her out for donuts and ask about it.”

The three mares discussed this little plan of theirs a little further before they wandered off, leaving the premises behind. Meanwhile, inside, the very pony they thought they were talking about paced back and forth, panicking like they haven’t panicked before.

The name ‘Moon Dancer’, the new form that these talking ponies recognized, this house that he woke up in…

He hadn’t just turned into a pony. He had taken over someone else’s body!

The very thought sickened him to his core, as he remembered his fight with the Xehanort-possessed Terra. Even if he’d not intended to steal someone else’s form, he did; he was Moon Dancer right now, walking around her house, wearing her clothes, talking to her friends.

And worst of all, he had no idea how to separate himself from her.

He’d already lost the Power of Waking, so that was off the table. Maybe there was someone in this land who could help? If his magic was enhanced because he was Moon Dancer, that meant there was magic in this world, right?

Sitting down on his new haunches, Sora glanced back to his bag, and pulled out his old garments, given to him by the three fairies what felt like ages ago. Now that he knew he was in another being’s body, it made sense why he felt so sluggish earlier. He was no stranger to ‘power-downs’, as he liked to call them, but this certainly hadn’t felt like one in the sense he’d felt them previously. But that just made sense. Poor mare has probably never trained with weapons, if he had to guess, but it was clear her capacity for magic was immense.

It wasn’t a power-down, so much as it was a new skillset to learn.

One that, at least until he found a way out of this, it seemed he had no choice but to learn.

“I don't know how long I'm gonna be stuck like this… maybe I should see if I can have these refitted,” he told himself, already forming a list of goals in his mind. “Can’t be caught with my guard down if the Heartless are here. And if Moon Dancer’s friends are here, then maybe I can learn more about her, and I can act like her while I’m stuck like this.”

While the idea still left a bad taste in his mouth, Sora knew he didn’t want to mess up this pony’s life just because of his circumstances. He would still fight the Heartless, and he intended to train this body so that he could wield his Keyblade in it, but if it meant giving Moon Dancer an easy time once they were separated again, he’d make sure he understood her.

But for now, he felt the call of sleep working against him. Probably a good thing too, given he had to be up and prepare for an interrogation.

And so, searching the house until he finally found a bedroom, Sora rested on the bed, a plan in his mind and a goal in his heart. After about 15 minutes of empty waiting and considering a few more questions that came to mind, he finally drifted off to a mostly dreamless sleep, mentally prepared for tomorrow.

Starting tomorrow, he would get a better grasp of who Moon Dancer was.