My Little Kingdom: The Key to Harmony

Chapters

Arrival
Rebirth
Explanation
Heading Out
Meeting
Dusk
Getting Ready
Heading out
A dark reunion
Discorded
Return
Beginning of the End
Faith
The Strongest Bond
Return

Arrival

Chapter 1: Arrival

“Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia!”

A grey coated Pegasus, clad in golden armor, charged down the hallway of Canterlot Castle. The sunlight shone through the stain glass windows streaming a mix of pink, purple and more into the hallway, not that the Pegasus had time to admire the décor as he ran towards a large door. He almost burst through the doorway until he realized who was on the other side, he quickly regained his composure and gave the door three hard taps.

“You may enter” the bright white alicorn said, she gave a look to the guard who entered the room, bowing down to her as he approached the throne.

“Your Highness, it has happened again. There are more reports of strange, black, bulbous creatures with yellow eyes attempting to attack anypony that comes across them.” Princess Celestia stood up and walked down to the gold clad Pegasus.

“What is your name?”

“Wingbeat, your majesty.” The guard said as he bowed down to her again. Celestia smiled as she looked down to him, taking note of drops of sweat coming off of his snout as he panted quietly, clearly seeing how he must have ran to her in a panic.

“Well then Wingbeat, have the guards found out any more information on these strange creatures?” Wingbeat looked up at the princess and nodded.

“Yes ma’am, we already knew that they have the strange ability to become flat shadows and travel along the ground, this allows them to escape most attacks but by the reports that we have obtained, we have a theory that they never move on their own. They seem to send out two or three at first and then more start appearing while the ones attacking are distracted.” Celestia nodded in understanding then turned her gaze to the doorway in which Wingbeat had entered.

“I wish you to send this information to the all guards and my sister so that they are aware of the situation, there have been no attacks on the populace as of yet so please make sure that the guards are the only ones who know. We do not wish to panic any civilians over this if it does not affect them.” Wingbeat stood high and nodded, giving a salute before making his way through the hallway once more while the alicorn closed the door behind him. She made her way to the window and gazed out of it, looking as far as she could through the mulberry tinted glass before letting out a sigh.

“I wish I knew what was happening…I don’t want to alarm Twilight and her friends unless it’s necessary, but I have a bad feeling that things will get worse before they get better.”

XXX

Goofy was looking round at the lanes between, admiring it after realizing that him and his friends were the one of very few that would ever see it. He suddenly snapped back to reality however as another argument between his two friends had broken out while he was off in his own little world. “Awww come on Donald, I promise you I won’t crash it” the boy spoke out, his spiky brown hair was being held back from the ships controls by a white, feathered hand.

“That’s what you said last time, then we crashed into an ocean and the village nearby thought we was aliens!” Donald quacked at him, his blue hat flapped around as he struggled to keep the young boy at bay. Goofy chuckled to himself as he brought back the memory

“Hyuck, well you know Donald, they were technologically right.”

“It’s technically Goofy! Not technologically.” Donald yelled at him, only to get a laugh as a response from both Sora and Goofy.

As Sora tried to get to the ship controls he spotted the next destination a little ahead of the gummi ship “Uhhh Donald? You should probably take a-“ the duck raised an eyebrow at Sora before shaking his head while giggling, interrupting him mid sentence.

“A break? No, no, no Sora, I’m not going to fall for an excuse as simple as that.” Goofy followed Sora’s eyes and gulped before poking Donald on his shoulder.

“Errr Donald, I don’t think that was what he meant.” Donald looked at Goofy confused and frowned at him a little.

“Oh? Then what did he mea-“ Donald was interrupted this time by Sora who grabbed his head and turned it to face ahead, Donald’s eyes widened and his pupils shrank as he saw the incoming planet. His feathered hands shot to the controls as he practically slapped the buttons and grabbed the wheel.

“Hold on!” he quacked as he spun the wheel, not giving Sora any time to hold himself to his seat and barrelled around the cockpit of the ship, trying to get his black gloved hands on anything he could just to stop moving but unfortunately for him, there was nothing to grab onto and just kept rolling around.

“Sorry Sora!” Donald yelled back to him “but you’re going to have find something to grab onto soon because I can’t keep the gummi ship steady, you two better brace yourselves because we’re gonna craaaaaaaa-“ Donald never finished his sentence as sounds of him, Goofy and Sora screaming came from the cockpit while plummeting into the new world.

XXX

Twilight knocked on the cottage door while shifting the saddlebags on her sides, looking around as her ears were filled with the usual cacophony of noise that came with all the animals but this didn't bother Twilight at all, the sounds of all the animals just meant that they were playful and happy. The sound of a creak caused her attention to pan back to the now opened door where two big blue eyes and a flowing pink mane that lay beside a gentle smile on a butter yellow face looked back at her.

“Hi Twilight, thank you for coming round when I asked, it wasn't too much trouble was it?” the yellow Pegasus asked her while moving away from the doorway so the lavender unicorn could enter, her voice barely above a whisper compared to the sound of the animals surrounding her home.

“Of course it wasn't Fluttershy.” Twilight smiled, entering the small cottage that was inhabited with animals. It wasn't as large a group as outside but there were still plenty of them, some seemed to be bandaged while others ate herb filled food excepted from a certain white bunny who had hopped up onto Fluttershy’s head.

“So Fluttershy, why did you need me to come round, you mentioned something about an odd discovery?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy nodded her head slightly.

“Yes that’s right, I was in the Everfree forest to get a few herbs to make some more medicine. You see Mrs hedgehog was starting to feel a bit better and I thought that she would make a recovery before the medicine ran out bu-“

“Fluttershy…” She looked back at Twilight and shook her head.

“Oh right, well when I was in the forest I saw this strange looking animal.” Twilight tilted her head, she knew that Fluttershy had knowledge of every animal that lived in the Everfree forest so for her to say there was something new in there did nothing but confuse the unicorn.

“Ok then…what did this animal look like?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy put a hoof to her chin while recalling the odd creature.

“Well…it looked like a pitch black bunny but the ears were thinner, they looked a bit like antenna, they stood on their back legs whenever they moved as well as claws but they didn't use them when moving, they had big spherical heads and shocking yellow eyes…they were about two thirds the size of their heads.” Twilight tried to imagine the ‘bunny’ in her head and compared it to all the animals she ever read about…she drew a blank.

“Hmm, I've never heard of that sort of animal before, can you show me where you found it?” Fluttershy nodded and got up, heading towards the door with Twilight following. She gave a nod to Angel who understood that he had to look after the house in her absence.

Twilight was lead into the forest by Fluttershy, finding it a little backwards to be led by the shy Pegasus into the forest known to be filled with dangerous animals, as she looked around the forest to spot the strange bunny creature her head turned skywards and she saw something so strange it made her stop in her tracks. A star, a star was up in the sky during the middle of the day.

“Twilight?” Her friends voice brought her attention back to the ground. “I’m sorry Twilight, this is where I saw them but I can’t see any of them now.” Fluttershy said as she pawed the ground, she felt as if she had led her friend on a wild goose chase but she looked up to Twilight and saw her smiling.

“It’s ok Fluttershy, I’m a bit more concerned about the star in broad daylight.” Twilight said as she looked up and her mouth hung open. The star was no longer high in the sky as it had been a few moments ago, it was falling towards them, the two ponies looked up at the light with wide eyes and frightened expressions.

“RUN!” Twilight shouted pointlessly as they had both already started to gallop away, they got a little away from their previous position before hearing a loud boom and feeling the ground quake under their hooves, they stopped in place and turned to the direction of the noise. Twilight looked straight at the direction, seeing smoke rise above the tree line and started to take a few steps towards it.

“Fluttershy, go get the girls. I’m going to go see what that was.” Fluttershy backed away a few steps.

“Are you sure Twilight? It could be dangerous.” Twilight nodded.

“Yes I’m sure.” She had already started to wander into the foliage with the feeling of curiosity covering over the fear from before, the pegasus took flight and headed to Ponyville. Twilight kept going towards the landing site and felt a little fearful when she heard a strange moan coming from ahead

“Urrrrgh...” Sweat dripped from her head and she gulped heavily, the moaning getting louder the closer she got.

“Urrrrrrgh...”

She found a cleared area with a large object sticking out of the ground, whatever it was, it looked like half of it was stuck in the ground while the half that was out of the ground had two large angled plates sticking out of the side. She couldn't help think they looked like some kind of wings but her attention was snapped away when the clear half sphere in the center of the object opened up, releasing a bellow of smoke, then Twilight saw a shadow appearing in the smoke along with the moan again.

“Urrrrrgh...” She stepped back and then it came out, a rusty brown earth pony with a spiky, chocolate brown mane fell out and landed in front of her. He opened his eyes just for a moment to say.

“Urrrrgh, I think I’m going to be sick…” before closing his eyes once again, passing out.

Rebirth

Twilight slowly walked around the pony in front of her, trying to see if he was hurt while inspecting what he looked like. He had a rust brown coat and a chocolate brown mane with a tail to match, his mane was rather spiky and round his neck was a silver chain with a small crown shape attached. Twilight was rather confused by two things with this pony’s appearance, the first thing that stuck out was his cutie mark. His cutie mark was a key with a black handle and a grey shaft, a yellow guard that went round the handle and a crown shaped piece stuck out at the end of the shaft. The key of the pony’s flank was surrounded by stars with a white light linking them all together in a circle around it. The other noticeable attribute of the pony was on his hooves, there were golden bands around his hooves with the same insignia on them, a circle with two smaller circles poking out of the top of it but they were both different colors, the symbol on the right hoof was red and the symbol on the left hoof was blue.

After Twilight was satisfied with inspecting the stranger and saw that he was just asleep, she used her magic to hoist the colt onto her back, wincing under his weight a little but she decided to bear with it and take him back to Ponyville to make sure that he was ok. As she moved back through the forest there was rustling in the bushes around her, she started getting nervous as she made her way back to her home. She was strong enough to take many of the creatures that a pony could come across in the Everfree forest but protecting herself and an unconscious pony at the same time wouldn't be so easy. The rustling was now getting closer, the unicorn tried to pick up speed but the colt on her back restrained her from going as fast as she wanted to and then suddenly the source of the rustling jumped out in front of her. It was a small pitch black bipedal animal with claws, a bulbous head, long thin ears or antennae protruding from the top of its head and big yellow circles which Twilight assumed were its eyes. “Oh it was just you? Well aren't you a strange little thing, what species are you? Oh you must be what Fluttershy was telling me about earlier.” Twilight exclaimed while looking the new creature up and down, she was going to happily walk over to it and give it a good examination until a few more popped out of the bushes around her. “Oh you have friends with you?” she asked, not really expecting an answer. The curiosity in her however was wiped away and replaced with concern, they had kept coming out of the bushes around her until there were around twelve of them now and they had Twilight and the sleeping colt on her back surrounded. Before Twilight could voice any concern to herself, one of the creatures jumped towards her bearing its claws, trying to scratch but narrowly missing as she hopped out of the way.

She lifted the colt off of her back with her telekinesis and turned her attention to the animals “Sorry” she said “But I think I’m going to need a moment to stop these things before I can get you home.” She explained to him, knowing full well that he couldn't actually hear her, let alone give a reply. Twilight lowered her horn as it became coated with a purple aura and the creatures approached, it didn't take long for her to decide which one to target first as two of them jumped at her, swinging their claws at her but it didn't work well for them as a bolt of magic flew through them both, their bodies hitting the floor and disappearing into black wisps. Twilight could only spare about two seconds to wonder why they disappeared before another came at her, she blasted that one and sent it into some bushes near a tree then she turned her attention to two more that came her way. She kept blasting back the little creatures, causing them to burst into wisps where ever they fell but the strain of using the spell over and over starting to take a toll on her, making her head throb more with each blast. Eventually she lost balanced and was kneeling next to the colt, no matter how many she stopped, it seemed like another just took its place. “Sorry but I can’t keep going, my magic is running out” she said to the colt, not expecting an answer back as she hung her head. “No problem, I’ll take over for you.” She quickly spun her head round to see the new colt standing up on his hooves, grinning down at her. He walked in front of her and kept smiling. “How can you help stop them? No offence but you don’t look very strong, you can’t use magic and you can’t fly.” The unicorn exclaimed to him. “No magic? Then what would you call this?” The colt replied, a cocky grin on his face as he turned his head back to the assailants. Twilight was completely dumb founded when a stream of light appeared at the colt nose and then burst to reveal a key, the exact same as the one on his flank. He grabbed the handle in his mouth and charged at the creatures, swiping the key like a sword across three of them, bursting them into dark smoky wisps. ‘Moving on four legs isn't easy’ he thought to himself ‘but it’s a good thing I was a lion in the Pride Lands or I’d be useless right now’. He span round quickly on his hooves and flung the key from his mouth, it flew round the amazed unicorn and defeated each little monster one after the other, only to return to the colt as he hopped in the air, catching the handle in his mouth.

Twilight found herself absolutely speechless at this feat, this colt had beaten the remaining monsters in mere moments with ease as well as performing some sort of summoning magic despite being an earth pony. A stream of light coated the giant key and made it vanish just as quickly as it appeared as the colt walked over to Twilight, she got back on her hooves and all thoughts of her headache had vanished. “Are you ok Miss…?” she was asked. “Y-yes I’m fine, thank you for your help, my name is Twilight Sparkle.” The colt smiled at her, she began to think that the only expressions he had were various forms of smiling “Nice to meet you Twilight, my name is-“ he suddenly stopped in mid-sentence and the smile dropped from his face. “Watch out!” he yelled as he pushed by the now startled unicorn. She turned her head to follow him and discovered what had him startled, one of the weakened small creatures had tried to jump on her from behind but a head-butt from the colt blew it into wisps. Unfortunately as he tried to stop he tripped over an overgrown root and rolled across the ground, the side of his head colliding into one of the trees causing him to fall to the floor. Twilight shot to his side and looked down at him worried, checking his head for any bad injuries. “Oh Celestia…you don’t seem to have any cuts on your head, just some bad bruising by the looks of it.” She said to him. “S-Sora” he muttered. She looked at him raising an eyebrow and got a smile from the colt in his last few moments of consciousness. “My name is Sora."

XXX

When Sora opened his ocean blue eyes he was staring out of a window, he could see brightly coloured houses and could hear voices coming from outside in the streets. He lifted up his head off of a soft pillow and looked down at himself, he was tucked into a bed while surrounded by books on a few shelves and a desk in the corner. Sora pulled himself out of the covers before hearing a familiar inside his head “Sora! Sora! Are you ok?” the voice quacked at him. “Donald? Where are you?” he replied out loud, looking around the room to observe that he was the only one in it. “Hey Sora, I don’t know if you can understand this but we are inside you.” He then heard his friend Goofy explain which only served to give Sora more questions. “What do you mean ‘inside me’?” he said as he looked down at himself. “It’s hard to explain and we’re not sure why but do you see the bands around your feet?” Donald asked. “I think they’re called hooves Donald.” Goofy interrupted “Whatever.” Sora sighed at his two friends still staying themselves even though they were supposedly inside him, he looked down at his front hooves and saw the two jeweled bands round his front hooves, the jewels inside them were in the shape of the kings seal. “Where did these come from?” he asked, inspecting his new and unusual trinkets. “Well…” Donald began to explain “in order to blend in with this world, my magic turned us into these bands, we can’t move but we can still see what’s going on through your eyes.” When he finished the reply, Sora let out a sigh of slight relief, he was just happy that his friends were ok and there with him in a sense.

He wanted to talk to them more but he could hear voices coming from outside the room he was in “Ok guys” he started “I’m going to find out where we are and what’s going on, there wasn’t as many heartless around in those woods than there usually are in their groups.” So he hopped out of the bed and made his way to the door, as he opened it he could see shelves upon shelves upon shelves of books, enough to rival Belle’s library in Hollow Bastion. His attention was quickly recaptured by the return of the new voices coming from below him, he moved out of the door and looked down a flight of stair just ahead of him to peek down into a living room where there were 6 ponies, including the purple unicorn that he had met earlier. “Thanks again for helping me when you did girls.” Twilight said, getting a waving hoof from a blonde, orange pony with a Stetson. “No worries Twi’, was a bit of ah shock to see ya coming out of the forest panting while carrying that other pony on your back.” “Where did he come from anyway?” a light blue pony asked, Sora was surprised to see her mane was like a flowing rainbow as she hovered in the air slightly. “I’m not sure, I found him at this strange structure that looked like it was half buried in the forest. It looked like a few large orange blocks with a clear dome on top.” Twilight described. 'Large orange blocks with a dome on top? She must mean the gummi ship! At least I know where it is now'. Sora thought to himself.

The next pony to speak up was a white unicorn with a curled purple mane “Who would make a home out of orange blocks? It sounds absolutely tasteless, very much in need of redesigning.” Sora felt Donald growl in the back of his head at the insults of the unicorn, putting his hoof to his mouth to quieten a chuckle. “So if he’s new then we should throw him a party when he wakes up! Should we throw him a welcome-to-Ponyville party or maybe a you-saved-our-friend party?” The question was posed by a bright pink pony with a dark pink mane, she was bouncing around the group when she asked. A bright yellow pony with a soft pink mane raised her hoof as if she was in a classroom. “Uh...Pinkie?” she said “We don’t even know his name yet…” The pink pony turned towards Twilight. “What was his name again?” Twilight shook her head slightly “I’m not sure, it was an unusual name like Sara or Soar… Was it Seri?” She asked herself as she raised a hoof to her chin. “Sora, my name is Sora.” He answered for her as he began descending the stairs. All six mares spun their heads to see the brown colt getting to the bottom of the stairs, he tried to act cool and show a calm smile but that feeling left when the pink pony just appeared right in front of his face. “Oh my gosh, it’s so nice to meet you, I’m Pinkie Pie and I’m the town party planner, I work at Sugarcube Corner and we serve the best cakes and sweets their as you would know, then again I guess you wouldn’t know as you only just got here which reminds me that I still need to throw you a party, would you like your party before or after the tour of the town?” The bouncing mare said to him at a mile a second, he wanted time to try and understand what he just heard but he didn’t need to as the white unicorn pushed her out of the way slightly. “Please excuse her, she gets like this whenever there is a new pony in town. May I ask where you’re from Mr Sora?” she asked politely, Sora was able to think of an answer to this much easier but due to the rule of not telling one world about others, he could only muster up “I’m from… very far away, I travel a lot you see? And also just call me Sora, no need for ‘Mr’” The unicorn tilted her head in confusion from the vague answer, she wanted to get a more accurate answer but was stopped by the purple unicorn. “Now Rarity, don’t you think we should introduce ourselves now?” The unicorn nodded “Very well, allow us to introduce ourselves…”

XXX

That statue. The darkness flowing from that one statue in the garden made the few groups of nearby creatures hunger, no guards were in sight as they approached it, hopping and scuttling through the bushes and the flowers. They couldn’t detect anything from the other statues but this one was different, it was like an echo of dark energy pulsed from it and they were drawn to it like a moth to a flame.

The mind inside the statue sighed. ‘How long have I been in this pitiful position now? This land should belong to me, to be in that wonderful state of disharmony but instead it’s ruled by Celestia and guarded by those fools’. The mind sighed again, he wanted to be free again but it took so long to get free the first time, it could take just as long or even longer this time. He didn't know if he felt more melancholy, angry or simply bored of being in this state of petrification, what the draqueonicus statue did know was that he wanted out. Then he saw them coming, small black creatures with bulbous heads and glowing eyes. They began surrounding the statue, as if it was ritualistic for them. ‘What are these things? The statue questioned. What in Equestria do they want?’ Then they all completely stopped in place, all staring at him then they jumped on the statue in unison. Their bodies moving around each other to cover the entire statue then they began glowing with a dark violet mist before melting onto the statue. The mind inside began to panic. ‘What are they doing…it feels like they are trying to take me over, take control of my body…well I won’t let them!’ He resisted as hard as he could, managing to halt their possession of his body.

‘Hmmm, you’re stronger than I expected…’ A voice in his head stated. 'What in the? Who are you!?' The body’s owner demanded. ‘Oh me? My name is Malificent and you, my unique creature, are about to become my newest minion.’ The mere cheek of ‘Malificent’s reply made him laugh. ‘Me? Become your minion? That truly is laughable my dear, you think you can control me?’ He asked. ‘I thought I could but you are much stronger than I anticipated, instead of making you a puppet, how about I make you an offer that I expect you will enjoy.’ ‘Hah, what sort of offer do you think you could make’ he chuckled, feeling that this odd voice was merely over estimating themselves. ‘Simple, I let you keep control of your body, I’ll release you from your stone prison and give you powers beyond what you have now, I’ll even let you control the heartless and in return I ask of you one thing.’ The mind gathered that these things covering him must be ‘the heartless’ she referred to but didn’t give much thought about that, the offer of freedom and power was much more interesting. ‘Hmmm, you make an interesting offer but for so much reward, what is it you want in return?’ He expected something big as it was a lot she was offering. ‘It’s not much’ she replied. ‘Somewhere in your world there is a keyhole, this leads to the heart of your world. All I ask of you is that when you find this keyhole, you infect it with your dark powers by sending the heartless inside it.’ He was confused by two things, that Equestria would have such a unique keyhole and why she wanted the heartless inside it.

‘Where do I find this keyhole and what happens when it becomes infected?’ He asked in his response, it seemed too simple for such an exchange. ‘Alas, I am unaware of the keyholes placement, this is why I send my dear heartless minions to search and as for the reason, it will give you domination of your world, I detest the light in every world and wish it to be extinguished.’ He couldn’t believe what he was hearing, she wanted to help him rule Equestria just because she hated the light, he couldn’t tell if it was a trap for everything she said seemed too good to be true but he couldn’t let this pass by. ‘Very well then, I accept your offer.’ He finally replied, she laughed a little. ‘Good, now what is your name?’ ‘Discord, I am Discord.’ Malificent was rather amused at the name. The dark creatures sank into the stone and disappeared, everything was quiet for a few seconds before a violet light began cracking through the statue, starting at the base and leading up to the horns before shattering into tiny pieces, leaving Discord smiling in its place surrounded by a dark aura. ‘Go now mighty Discord and snuff out the light!’ She boomed in his head before leaving his mind. The draqueonicus smirked, feeling a little weak but very happy and admiring the creatures that appeared around him, practically bowing their heads to him. “With pleasure…”

Explanation

Sora put his hoof to his chin and let out a sigh, trying to store all the information that just entered his brain over the last ten minutes. “Ok, let’s see if I got this right now.” He looked over at the orange pony with the Stetson. “Your name is Applejack, you and your family run Sweet Apple Acres which is an apple farm and you live with your brother, sister and grandma.” Applejack nodded in her response “That’s right but it’s not an apple farm, it’s the best apple farm!” Sora smirked at her attitude and turned to the white unicorn “You’re Rarity and you run a fashion boutique in town, you also have a little sister.” Rarity smiled “That’s absolutely correct darling and I’d suggest you drop by, I’m sure I could find something better than those bands and that chain around your neck.” Sora felt a little discouraged as he liked his chain and as for the bands, he didn’t even know if they could come off but seeing as his friends were inside them, he didn’t want to risk it. “You’re called Pinkie Pie, you live and work at the bakery owned by Mr and Mrs Cakes and you’re also a party planner?” Pinkie bounced around him as he came to her. “Correct-a-mundo. Remind me that I have to throw your welcome-to-Ponyville party soon as well, ever heard of a chimicherrychonga? I think you might enjoy it.” She said with a smile pressed right into Sora’s face, he giggled at her enthusiasm “Sounds like fun and sure, I’ll give it a try.” She backed off happily as he turned his attention to the cyan Pegasus hovering in mid-air, it wasn’t hard at all to remember her name.

“You’re Rainbow Dash, you’re the fastest weather pony in town and you want to join a group of the fastest flyers around called the Wonderbolts.” Rainbow Dash nodded and beamed as he complimented her though he felt it had to be said, she did call herself the fastest flyer around about five times. Then he looked to a scared looking yellow Pegasus hiding behind the purple unicorn he had sort of met earlier. “Your name is Fluttershy and you look after all the animals that need your help, even to the point that you’d live next to a forest full of animals you’re scared of just so that your friends will feel comfortable. That’s a very admirable thing to do.” He said gently to her. She smiled while hiding behind her mane, not out of fear but embarrassment from the compliment. He smiled and looked to the purple unicorn that Fluttershy was hiding behind. “You, as you told me before, are Twilight Sparkle. You live in this library and you love books, the only other thing you love as much as a good book is magic. You are the star student of Princess Celestia.” Twilight nodded but then looked back at him quizzically. “That’s right but now you know about us, it’s your turn. You’re an earth pony yet you used magic to summon that weird key, the one on your cutie mark.” “Cutie what?” Sora answered, it was surprising to him that whenever he and Twilight seemed to converse, one question always lead to another. As for Twilight, she was very puzzled that the colt in front of her didn’t know what a cutie mark was. “You know, a cutie mark. The picture on your flank? Shows what your talent is?” She said, feeling like she was explaining it to a new born. Sora looked at all the ponies in the room and saw they all had a mark on their behinds, he turned his head and saw the kingdom Keyblade surrounded by stars linked together with a line of light.
He sniggered and turned back to Twilight “I see, well that oversized key you saw earlier is called the Keyblade and I’m the only one who can wield it.” Twilight looked at the ground confused while the other five mares threw him looks of disbelief, especially Rainbow Dash and Applejack. “Oh really?” The cyan Pegasus asked, not even trying to hide her tone that practically screamed that she didn’t believe him. He sat down on his haunches and held his fore hooves straight out, a stream of light appeared just above his hooves and then the light burst to reveal the key that was the same as the one on his cutie mark. All six mares looked at the key fall onto his hooves with their mouths hanging open, even Twilight was still surprised despite seeing it happen for a second time. “This is the Keyblade.” Sora stated, Rainbow Dash started edging closer to it until she was nearly breathing on it. “That looks weird but kinda cool.” She said, she then looked up at Sora and saw she was nearly nose to nose with him, her cheeks went a little red and she backed away a little. “So uh, what did you mean by only you can wield it?” She asked, trying to cover up her face by looking away slightly. Sora ignored the slightly flushed look on her face and simply replied “Take it.” Rainbow pointed to herself while raising an eyebrow and getting a nod from Sora. She moved towards him again and took the handle in her hoof, picking it up off of his forehooves and admiring it closely. The other mares started inspecting it closely as well, the seemingly magical object summoned by an earth pony was waved around a little by the cyan pegasus. Then without warning, it flashed in a stream of light and reappeared back in Sora's forehooves again, a grin pushed through onto his face. "That's what I meant, if the Keyblade is taken from me, I can just simply call it back.” The ponies were definitely impressed by the feat but it brought a question to Twilight’s mind once the impressed feeling had subsided. “So this is some kind of weapon, isn’t it?” Sora nodded as he made the key vanish in a stream of light. “That’s right, it’s what I use to fight against the heartless.”

Looks of confusion were shared amongst the mares. “What in tarnation is a ‘heartless’?” Applejack asked, Sora was just about to explain when Twilight cut in. “Were they those small creatures that we saw in the forest?” Sora turned to her instead. “Yes they are but-“ he was cut off by her again, she turned to the rest of the mares and started to explain their appearance “They’re small, jet black animals with sharp claws and walk on two legs.” “Well they are more than just-“ Sora’s explanation was cut off yet again by Fluttershy who was no longer hiding. “Oh you mean the little bunny animals? Why would you hurt them?” She asked Sora with wide eyes, her pupils and iris had expanded dramatically and her lip quivered a little. Rarity petted her on the back “Fluttershy is right, how could you attack poor little rabbits?” Sora wasn’t even given the chance to begin again when Twilight replied. “They weren’t normal rabbits, they weren’t rabbits at all, they are vicious little monsters that surrounded and attacked us!” Pinkie Pie giggled at Twilight. “Rabbits aren’t monsters silly, they wouldn’t attack anypony.” Twilight opened her mouth to argue back but it was hastily plugged by a brown hoof, Sora looked at all the mares with the first serious expression he had shown since his arrival. “Please listen, these things aren’t rabbits, they are called heartless.” He took his hoof out of the unicorn’s mouth and continued explaining. “A heartless is a creature born from the darkness inside a heart, they work together to hunt down the darkness within a heart and pull it out, turning the owner into another heartless. The only thing they are truly afraid of is the Keyblade because it is the only thing that can release the heart trapped inside a heartless.”

A tense silence filled the room until Fluttershy raised her hoof a little “E-excuse me but if you’re telling the truth then you’re here to help right?” Sora looked at her and nodded, his normal warm smile returning to his face. “That’s right, I’m here to help!” That face and attitude ushered a small smile to her lips. He turned to make sure that he had the attention of all six mares. “Listen” he started “I need to warn you though, if the heartless are in those woods then it won’t be long until they try to come into your town…in fact, I’m rather surprised they haven’t tried to come in already.” A few gulps were shared in the group, Applejack came forward to ask the question on everypony’s mind. “So what are we going to do?” she asked, all of them felt rather concerned. “Heartless are attracted to very strong hearts as well as the Keyblade, if you could guess, who would you all say has the strongest heart out of all the ponies you know?” Only two ponies came to mind as the answer for such a question, Twilight looked at Sora and nodded “The strongest ponies that you could find anywhere would definitely be Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, no doubt about it. They don’t live very far either.” Sora was delighted at the news, he could find the strongest hearts in this world and the keyhole to this world couldn’t be far from it. “Right then! Shall we go?” He asked, so eager to get moving but there was one fact that he had neglected, it was pointed out to him by Pinkie Pie. “I hate to be a bubble bursting bearer of bad news Sora but it’s past everypony’s bed time.” She explained, pointing up at the moon through the library window. Sora looked up at the moon and saw all the ponies begin yawning, he had to let out a sigh as he realised that the visit to the princesses would have to wait until morning.

As all the mares started discussing the time for leaving to see the princesses, a fact dawned on him. Rainbow Dash tilted her head at Sora, seeing a confused look on his face. “What’s wrong Sora? I know you want to go to the princesses but we can’t go at this time.” She explained, the colt waved his hoof at her “No, I understand that and it’s ok, if the heartless aren’t here now, I don’t think they will attack, it’s just that…” Rainbow Dash and the other 5 mares looked at him confused, he looked up grinning and scratching the back of his head with his hoof. “Heh, I don’t actually have a place to sleep…” he said, getting a concerned look from the mares. “One moment dear.” Rarity asked of him, the mares then got into a huddle and Sora could hear suggestions being thrown around but just sat on his haunches, taking the opportunity to look himself over as a pony again. He then remembered that earlier, Rainbow Dash had picked up his Keyblade by its handle with her hoof so he trotted over to a nearby book and picked it up with his hoof. It was easy to do but impossible for him to understand how he was doing it, he simply imagined the feeling of his human hand clutching it and the hoof did so. Twilight came over to Sora while he put the book down, amused by the phenomenon that was his grasping hooves. He then looked up to Twilight who patted him on the shoulder “Well I’d let you stay here but the guest room is in a bit of a mess, my assistant, Spike, is out helping some little fillies get their cutie mark in ‘dragon caring’.” She didn’t hide her notion to believe that it was pointless. “So we’ve decided that you’ll be staying at Rarity’s boutique. I hope that’s ok.” Twilight explained, Sora looked over at the marshmallow unicorn and smiled. “Sure, thanks for taking me in for the night.”

Everypony gave their goodbyes to one another and trotted home, Sora following behind Rarity while looking round the town in the dark, it looked peaceful if not a little spooky. He followed Rarity into her fancy, multi-coloured boutique and looked around the inside of it while she closed and locked the door behind him. There were many coloured fabrics strewn about in the corners of the room, pony shaped manikins on stands near the centre of the room, his view was cut short when Rarity came up beside him “The guest bedroom is just through that door over there, I must retire for the night. One must get her beauty sleep before she meets royalty.” She said with a wink. Rarity started making her way up the staircase to her room while Sora giggled and trotted towards the guest room. As he closed the door behind him, he admired the clean and tidy room around him. Purple drapes were closed over the only window in the room, a light blue carpet lay across the white floor which led to the equally white walls. There wasn’t much else in this room besides a few more manikins by the farthest wall, Sora yawned and crawled into the bed, the bright pink sheets quickly and comfortably huddled his body while he collapsed his body on the plush, soft pillow. The last thought to go through his mind was the hope that he would be able to find and lock the door to the heart of the world before the heartless attacked the town, this was a good world and all its inhabitants were so kind, he couldn’t let this world blink out. He wouldn’t let this world blink out.

XXX

Earlier that day

Princess Celestia was pacing back and forth in the throne room, her sister trying to calm her down to no avail. “Dearest sister, you are going to were a rut into the floor, please calm yourself.” Celestia looked at Luna for a moment then shook her head. “How can I Luna? These attacks are becoming more frequent and they are getting closer to the towns, Fillydelphia have already had reports of these creatures roaming into the city on occasion and attacking pedestrians!” Celestia felt helpless, she couldn’t protect all her subjects in Equestria at the same time and she couldn’t just leave the castle, everypony would go into an uproar. Celestia collapsed on her haunches and stared at her hooves. “How can I protect everypony? I feel so useless on my own.” She was quickly hugged from behind by two obsidian coated hooves. “Celly…you’re not alone, you have me to assist you in any way I can. You also have the elements who would gladly help you as well as the other kingdoms.” Luna paused to hold her sister a little tighter. “It might be time we called an audience with them. This isn’t just us becoming affected by these creatures.” Celestia nodded to Luna and pulled away from her, walking over to the throne room door and just let her head out of it to talk to the guard outside. “Guard, I wish to speak to Wingbeat and Shining Armor urgently.” The guard nodded and left to gather the two ponies, the alicorn sisters didn’t wait long before a grey, armored Pegasus and the cobalt maned stallion trotted into the room and bowed their heads. “You wished to see us your highnesses?” Shining Armor asked, he lifted his head up and Wingbeat followed suit. Celestia nodded “Indeed I did.” She first turned her attention to Wingbeat.

“Wingbeat, as you know, the creatures have started to approach towns and cities, putting the populace at risk. I wish for you to send a message to the Griffon Kingdom, the Diamond Dog Camps and dare I say…the Changeling Kingdom as well.” Luna lowered her head at the thought whereas Wingbeat and Shining Armor had a much more shocked reaction. “But Princess! After what they did at the wedding last year, you wish to invite them to our doorstep?” Wingbeat asked. The Sun Princess placed her hoof on Wingbeat shoulder “I understand that it is undesirable but this will affect her if it does not so already. Please have faith in your princess for now.” She asked of him with a sad smile on her face. The Pegasus nodded with a sigh, he knew deep down that this wouldn’t have been asked of him unless it was absolutely necessary. Celestia smiled at him at took her hoof from his shoulder “Thank you, tell them that they may bring a few guards for their own protection but no more than three. This is going to be hard enough to explain to anyone that sees it, we don’t want it to seem like another invasion.” Wingbeat nodded again and followed it with a salute before leaving the room.
Celestia then turned to Shining Armor and gave him a sad smile too. “I’m sorry that I have to call her here but we have little choice.” The unicorn stallion just gave a simple nod, the right words couldn’t gather in his mind. Celestia sighed at the silence and continued. “We need you to keep the barrier around Ponyville and Canterlot going for now, me and my sister shall channel some of our magic into your spell to take some strain off of you.” He looked up at the princess with concern in his eyes. “Are you sure about this, I can handle it your highness.” Celestia shook her head and placed a hoof on his head. “No, we are telling you to do this so it is only fair that we assist.” She removed her hoof before lowered her horn down to Shining Armor’s and Luna came up beside her, doing the same. A golden and dark purple glow surrounded their horns as the auras flew down the stallion’s horn and he began to feel a magical strength enter him. The alicorns lifted their horns away as the glows faded. “There is one more thing we ask of you Shining Armor.” The dark princess said to him. “We wish you to come to the meeting along with Princess Cadence.” The stallion nodded and bowed before leaving the room, closing the door behind him. Celestia and Luna looked at each other in concern before looking at the door. Luna let out another sigh and turned to Celestia. “I feel this is not going to go as smooth as we wish.” Her answer was in the form of her sister shaking her head. “It never is.”

Heading Out

Dawn broke through the curtains in Rarity’s guest bedroom and streamed along Sora’s eyelids as he hung of the edge of the bed, tossing and turning in his bed was probably one of his worst habits. As he opened his eyes to see the morning light, he saw a bit too much for his liking and was blinded by the sunshine. He yelped and brought his hooves to his eyes while recoiling, the motion he made to get out of the sunlight caused him to tumble off of the bed and land with a thud. He rubbed the back of his head while having his back hooves wrapped in the blanket slightly. “Sora? Are you ok?” He heard Rarity yell to him. “Yeah I’m fine thanks Rarity, just slipped a little.” He picked himself up and tried to shake his hooves out of the blanket that just refused to leave him. Rarity came in with a beauty facial mask on herself. “Are you sure you’re ok?” she asked as she came in. Sora nodded and then turned to her slowly from looking at the persistent blanket. “Yeah I’m sure I’m-whoa!” he yelped as the facemask took him by surprise. He reared back in a little shock then the blanket decided to remove itself finally but tripping him in the process. Rarity rolled her eyes at the clumsy colt and removed herself from the room. “We are meeting everypony outside the library in half an hour so please get yourself stable and then come out here, I’ve got some breakfast ready for you.”

Sora laughed to himself and grinned, scratching the back of his head as he picked himself up again. He adjusted his chain to make sure the crown was hanging round his neck and skipped out of the room, taking a seat at the table at the edge of the room. “What’s this?” he asked Rarity while inspecting the sandwich in front of him. “Well it’s a dandelion sandwich of course Sora, what else would it be?” Sora gulped and gingerly picked up the sandwich. “Of course it is, my favourite.” He lied of course but he didn’t want to hurt Rarity’s feeling as she sipped her tea next to him. He opened his mouth and put some of the sandwich inside before chomping on it, he braced himself for a gag but it never came, in fact he rather liked the taste. ‘Huh? This tastes nice. How does that work?’ He thought to himself as he kept munching the sandwich and got a reply in his head from the spirit in his bands. “Maybe it has something to do with the transforming?” Goofy suggested, Sora tilted his head to think about it. ‘Is that possible?’ he wondered, only to receive a quacking from Donald. “You have been turned into a lion cub, a mermaid and now a pony and you’re wondering if the magic can change your taste buds? I am a great and powerful mage, you shouldn’t doubt me.” Donald exclaimed, Sora could pretty much feel the duck puffing his chest as he spoke, well, he could if the duck actually had a chest which he didn’t right now. The thought made Sora giggle and his laughter only increased as Donald went off on a tangent about his magic had saved them many times and that Sora should be grateful.

Sora stopped though when he felt the gaze of confusion fall on him, Rarity had looked over and raised an eyebrow to his laughter, he gulped and turned to her. “Heh, I just remembered something funny is all.” Rarity nodded slowly, taking the last sip of her tea with her eyebrow still floating above the other. She put the tea down and made her way to the door, using her magic to lift her saddlebags onto her back and turned back to face Sora. “You ready dear? It’s time to go meet the girls.” She informed him, he quickly gulped down the last of his sandwich and trotted up beside her wearing his usual playful grin. “Yup, I’m ready.” They walked out of the door and Rarity locked the door behind her before leading Sora back to the library. It was a lot busier now than it had been last night for obvious reasons, Sora looked round at all the ponies going around their daily lives. Some were buying goods, some were selling goods and others were just meeting up with their friends. The sight of such peace brought Sora’s promise from the night before back to his head, he would make sure that the heartless would not take this world. Rarity kept looking round with what was a scowl, a condescending look or a face of confusion. It seemed to give off a ‘what do you think you are doing?’ vibe but what confused the colt more was that it wasn’t meant for him but some mares that kept looking their way. Rarity obviously caught on that there were some mares admiring the new colt in town but Sora remained rather oblivious to it. A few minutes passed before they ended up with the other five mares in front of the library, Sora waved them as he approached and received three sheepish waves, one wild pink wave and a giggle from the purple unicorn. As they all gathered together, Twilight looked round at the six ponies with a smile. “Ready everypony?” she got a group ‘yeah’ and turned around, trotting off in Canterlots direction with the six ponies in tow. What they didn’t notice were the carriages high in the sky flying towards the castle.

XXX

A griffon with a long red cloak flowing down his back sat on a griffon drawn carriage seat as it flew through the air. He grumbled to himself as he looked out of the window then turned to his guard captain who was sitting opposite him, wearing an iron collar that went round the back of her neck then lead down to her chest from her shoulders. The griffon emblem of a pair of golden wings emblazoned on the point that rested on her breast. “Who does that princess think she is, summoning us out of the blue. She wants to talk about the attacks so she draws us away from our kingdom where we can’t defend them? For all we know she could be the one causing this.” The female griffon nodded. “You could be right sir, we all know those ponies can’t be trusted, their magic is far too unpredictable.” The griffon lord nodded at his captain. “Indeed, they could be summoning these things and just holding them back, waiting for such an occasion as this.” “I don’t trust them as far as I can throw them, they are traitorous losers and should be exposed as such.” The lord tilted his head at the guard captain. “You sound as if you have a personal problem with them.” She remained silent for a few moments before the lord started again. “Well I don’t mind if you do, just make sure that we don’t cause trouble unless they strike first guard captain Gilda.” The female griffon nodded. “Of course sir.”

A carriage being flown by two of Celestia’s guards followed a little bit behind the griffon’s transport. Three grey skinned creatures inside were tapping their claws together as the got closer. The short, stocky dog, wearing a ring with a purple jewel on it and jet black trousers was the first to pipe up. “Grrrr, I hate not having the ground below my paws. Being in the sky makes me feel sooo uncomfortable.” He moaned, each syllable was grating on the nerves of the tall, overweight diamond dog who bore a black band round his wrist and a tan, long sleeved jacket. “You’re right but your complaining is just as irritating, you’re not making it any easier to deal with it!” He yelled, the stocky little dog growled at him. “Well there’s nothing to take my mind off of it, what do you expect me to do Durge?” Durge growled back. “Well personally Skid, I expect you to shut up!” Skid scowled before Durge turned to the medium sized diamond dog sitting in the seat opposite them, he was looking out of the window while playing with the yellow jewel on his collar and was coated in a dark red, sleeveless jacket. “Hey Grit, tell him to keep his trap shut will you?” Grit let out a sigh but kept his gaze pointed out of the window. “You two should just think about the possibilities that this could mean, if we help the prissy princess ponies” he gagged a little on the thought of actually helping them “then we could be rewarded with great jewels or, if we have to, we could just steal them when they aren’t looking.” He chuckled to himself at his idea. The other two looked at each other before Skid started again. “But all this waiting is-“ Grit practically flew from his seat. “Shut up will you!” He quickly snapped. It was enough to make the other two diamond dogs jump a little. Grit sat down again and stared out of the window recalling memories of a certain marshmallow pony. “I hate whining…”

The next carriage was drawn by changelings flying through the air. The carriage itself was dark with green rims, inside was a large black mare with an oddly shaped horn and large fly-like wings. She had holes in all four of her hooves and looked out of the window as she stared out the window. A confused look sat upon her face as she pondered why she was invited to the pony kingdom. It had only been a year since the attempted invasion and she was completely sure that she wouldn’t be welcomed. She looked over the letter that had been sent to her, it clearly said that she had been summoned to Canterlot to discuss an issue that involved all the kingdoms. Princess Chrysalis had no idea how she was going to present herself to her hosts but what she did know was that she would be treated with hostility no matter what face she put on. She noted that in the distance, coming from another direction but still headed for the same destination, there was a bright pink carriage with yellow rims and flowers in the corners, such a transport would most likely be owned by Princess Cadence.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was sitting in her bright pink transport, looking over the invitation that her husband had sent her. As much as she wanted him to live with her, he had royal guard duties to Celestia for the time being. The alicorn just had to deal with it for now and make do with the occasional visit. The letter stated that she needed to join the audience with royals from all over world, she had adorned her golden crown and broach with matching horseshoes so that she looked her best for such a rare and important meeting. However it didn’t stop her daydreaming every few moments of skipping through the Canterlot gardens with her beloved, a small grin accompanying each little fantasy spawning in her love struck mind. She peered out of the carriage window to resume her imaginings of her and her husband when a dark, green rimmed, changeling drawn transport make a fire burn inside her. The mare who tried to take her Shining Armor and feed off of him had been invited to the meeting as well, it didn’t matter that it made sense for her to come, it burned Cadence’s insides so much that she had crushed the letter in her hooves without noticing. She quickly turned her head towards Canterlot and huffed as all happy thoughts where in the same condition as her letter, she had to remember this was all for the entire world and that she had to be professional, even if she didn’t like it.

XXX

The sun was bright in the sky, as if to tell everypony that the day would be perfect while it beat down on Equestria. ‘So why do I have a bad feeling?’ Sora thought to himself as he trotted behind the six mares. His face was looking down at the ground, he had a feeling that he just couldn’t shake, one that told him that the happy, shining atmosphere was nothing more than the calm before a storm. The mares that led the way were all in conversation about what they might spend the rest of their day doing in Canterlot, forgetting the urgency of their original objective. At the head of the pack were Rarity, Twilight and Rainbow Dash. “Twilight, what do you think of our guest?” Rarity asked, flicking her mane to the side a little to keep the sun out of her eyes. “Well he’s pretty strange but seems like a good pony.” Twilight replied. Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “Yeah and that key thing was so cool.” Rarity shook her head and lowered her voice slightly so that there wasn’t a chance of the colt hearing her next sentence. “Yes, yes but I meant something else. What do you think of him look-wise?” Twilight looked back at him and then to Rarity again, he didn’t notice as he was too lost in his thoughts while still eyeing the ground. “I guess he’s ok, not really my type to be honest.” Rainbow looked back too and a slight red flush surfaced from her cheeks, she kept looking but snapped back when Rarity giggled. “Appears he is your type though, is that right Dash?” Rainbow shook her head and tried to pull together a sentence to deny her but failed miserably while Rarity and Twilight giggled at her.

Behind them were Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie, bouncing along beside them. Their conversation had a slightly more serious tone. “Ah hope that keeping those heartless critters will go as smoothly as we hope.” Fluttershy nodded along with a concerned frown lining her lips. “I hope so too…It’s hard to believe that such small animals could be that mean.” “Well I’m sure that the princesses will help us! So there’s no need to worry.” Pinkie exclaimed in her usual happy attitude, her attitude managed to rub off on the butter yellow pegasus and brought a smile to her face. Applejack smiled at her friend then saw Sora look around out of the corner of her eye, she stopped and turned round to face him. “Uhh Sora, you alright? You don’t look a little agitated.” Sora darted his head round rapidly, as if he was trying to look everywhere at once. He quickly ran to the head of the group and stopped them all in their tracks. “What’s wrong Sora?” Pinkie asked as she tilted her head with a raised eyebrow. “The shadows…” Twilight looked around and saw shadows moving along the ground back and forth. “Huh, the pegasi must be working really hard today.” She responded but was shaken with Fluttershy’s next statement. “There aren’t any pegasi in the sky right now Twilight…” All the ponies looked up at the clear skies then back down at the shadows. The shadows then began rising off of the ground and showed their small statured but big headed forms.

“Heartless!” Sora yelled as he summoned his Keyblade to his mouth and charged towards a few of the heartless that were running towards them. He quickly swatted them to the side with his weapon and ran to the next few. The mares just stood there in shock until Applejack heard a twig snap behind them, there were some of the heartless behind them and one had made a jump for her. She yelped and lifted herself onto her forehooves and bucked the little creature away with her strong back hooves, it flew back and dispersed into wisps as it hit the floor. Applejack smirked as she saw it burst and turned to her friends. “Come on everypony, we can’t just let Sora do all the work by himself!” She called as she ran to Sora’s side and bucked one the heartless behind him. Rainbow Dash quickly followed suit and flew into the air only to slam all four hooves onto an unsuspecting heartless, taking off again and repeating the process as Twilight lowered her head and charged her horn with a lavender aura before firing bolts of magic at the little monsters around them. Fluttershy backed away from an approaching heartless that suddenly jumped at her, she let out a scared squeal but was saved by a blast from the miniature party cannon followed by a stomp delivered by Pinkie Pie. Rarity made sure she had a few of the heartless near each other before using her magic to pull out some tape, wrapping them together and then lowering her hoof down onto them. As Sora batted the last few remaining heartless into wisps, he was happy to see that his new friends were more than capable of taking care of themselves. After all the heartless were taken out, the regrouped and went on their way while Sora banished his Keyblade. “That was easy!” Pinkie spoke out through a smile. The group nodded but Sora still wasn’t happy.
“What’s up Sora? Wishing you had more of them to fight?” Rainbow asked, she expected one of his smiles to break through but instead he sat down and started looking round again. “That wasn’t enough…” He muttered, Fluttershy shook her head in response. “I think that was more than enough.” She answered, Sora got up and waved his hoof at her. “No I mean that heartless travel in groups like what we just saw but it feels like there wasn’t as many as a common group would have.” He walked to the head of the group while in thought. Suddenly Pinkie felt an uncontrollable shiver in her tail. “Everypony watch your heads!” She yelled, getting the attention of all. “What does she mean?” Sora asked, Twilight turned back to face him.

“Whenever Pinkie’s tail twitches, it means something is going to fall from the-” Sora heard a bang come from behind him. “Sky…” Twilight and the others backed away from the colt, causing him to gulp. “There’s something right behind me isn’t there?” Pinkie gave him a nod and he slowly turned round, looking up at a large, fat heartless on two stubby legs and two long arms with fat hands on the end. It peered down at him with its yellow eyes between its fat, spherical body and a small metal plate on top of its head, the plate as well as what seemed to be an outstretched breast plate covering it’s chest seemed to be the only armor it was wearing. “A big body…that seems about right now…” Sora muttered, he paced back a few steps before spinning round and running. “Quick! Get away from it!” He yelled as the big body jumped into the air a few metres and then slammed into the ground, causing the fleeing ponies to fall over themselves and roll along the ground.
“What is that thing?!” Twilight shouted, they all got up onto their hooves and Sora kept his eyes on it as he got back to the mares. “It’s a heartless called a big body, the little ones we fought were called shadows. This one is stronger than those shadows so spread out!” Sora recalled his Keyblade to his mouth as the ponies moved away in different directions. Sora ran round the fat heartless and attacked its side, he bounced off and didn’t deal any damage to the beast but at least he had its attention now. As it was turning, Applejack ran up to it and spun round on her front hooves, causing her back hooves to collide with the big body’s back. It raised one leg and quickly turned, slamming its fist into the orange mare and sent her tumbling to one side. “Applejack!” cried out all the ponies, Fluttershy and Rarity ran to her side to help her up. “Ah’m fine girls, just a little bruised is all.” Applejack explained as she winced while getting up. Twilight yelled to Rainbow Dash and Sora “We got to keep it away from the girls while they help Applejack!” They nodded in response but were too late to notice the heartless had slapped its stomach and become veiled in a dark violet aura. It charged at Twilight and knocked here away, the cyan pegasus quickly flew to her side. “Twilight! Are you ok?” Twilight got back up and nodded to her friend while Sora ran behind the heartless “I’m ending this before anypony else gets hurt.” He stood on his back hooves and put the Keyblade into his hooves, aiming the tip at the heartless’ back. The tip started glowing red and the shaft shined white as both his band started shimmering, the big body approached the unicorn and pegasus, the latter of which was growling and grinding her teeth at the beast, trying to intimidate it but in truth she was scared deep down. The blue and red symbols on Sora’s bands shined brightly as he lowered his weapon by his side, he charged rapidly behind the heartless just as it was about to strike and sent it flying into the air. He pointed the Keyblade upwards, aiming at the big body’s back. The light around the Keyblade’s shaft disappeared with his uppercut but the red tip began to shine even brighter. “Fire!” he yelled, a ball of flame flew from the tip and soared towards the heartless, blowing it into wisps on contact.

Meeting

Sora lost the adrenaline rush of the fight and fell back on his haunches, he panted heavily as he banished the Keyblade and looked at his hoof bands. The colt had barely anytime to think about what happened before he was bombarded by a group of ponies, eager to ascertain what he just did.

“What was that?!” Twilight asked. “You definitely just used magic and not just any magic, elemental magic!”

“Well I thought you knew I could use magic, I did say so before.” Sora stated. He scratched the back of his head and then got back to his hooves. Twilight just stood there with her mouth agape, she could believe that the summoning of his Keyblade was an ability of the Keyblade itself, but to be able to project a flame from the weapon was something else. It meant that this earth pony actually had the power of magic.

“But where in tarnation did that strength and speed come from? Ah bucked that thing as hard as ah could but nothin’. Then your weapon glows and you manage to run on your back hooves and send it flyin’ in one hit!” Exclaimed Applejack.

Sora simply shrugged in response. “Well I needed to stop it and I just…did. I’ve never really thought about it.” These ponies couldn’t believe it, Sora was breaking rule after rule of pony physiology and acting like he hadn’t done anything.

“Shall we continue then? We still need to get to your princess as soon as we can.” Sora pointed towards the nearby castle and all the mares began leading the way, giving him odd looks as they passed by him.

As he followed behind, he looked down to his hoof bands and started talking to his friends inside them. ‘Donald, Goofy, are you there?’

“Yeah, we’re here Sora.” Goofy replied. “What d’ya need?” Sora responded with a confused expression.

‘What happened with my abilities? Why did these bands glow when I used them?’

“Uh, well I’m not too sure Sora, we knew that you wanted to use those attacks and we just wanted to help.” Goofy explained but this only confused the Keyblade wielder even more.

“Goofy’s right, we just wanted to help. I knew you wanted to use fire but for some reason, I felt like I had to help you do it.” Donald added.

‘Why would I need help, I’ve done it lots of times before so why do you think I’d need help?’ Sora replied.

“I don’t know. It just felt like you needed my help, kinda like I had to cast it with you.” He finished. Sora couldn’t understand anything he was being told.

‘Why is it when I talk to you two I end up with more questions than answers?’ He got the sense that they just shrugged which caused him to sigh. When he started to think about it, he had an interesting idea.

“Hey Twilight.” He called, there was a theory in his mind that said he was onto something. Twilight stopped in place as the other girls kept moving.

“What is it Sora?” The lavender unicorn asked.

“You can only use magic because you’re a unicorn right?” The sudden question with an obvious answer made her more confused than she had already been. She just gave a nod in reply and Sora nodded back, continuing further along the trail.

“Wait, why are you asking something so obvious?” Twilight quizzed, she just had to know now. To her, this colt was a mystery wrapped in a riddle. Sora just shook his hoof in response.

“No reason, just a little thought of mine.” Twilight gave him one more confused glance before heading back to the girls.

‘Hey Donald, Goofy, I think I’m on to something.’

“What is it Sora?” Donald quacked.

‘In this world, only unicorns can use magic and I’m an “earth pony” from what I’ve heard, I shouldn’t be able to use magic.’

“Yeah? Where are you going with this Sora?” Goofy interrupted.

‘Well I shouldn’t be able to use magic because I’m not a unicorn but I still can. I think it’s because Donald and his magic is inside this band.’

“Are you saying that I’m your ‘horn’?” Donald asked, feeling more confused than Sora now.

‘Yeah that’s exactly right. Goofy, I think that you are the same with my physical attacks, that’s why you guys became these bands, so that I could keep my Keyblade powers.’ The idea made complete sense but little sense at the same time for the trio. Sora’s theory worked however so they decided that they would stick with the idea unless something else came up. Up ahead, Applejack came up beside Twilight and nudged her slightly, getting the unicorns attention.

“Hey Twi’, you ever seen somethin’ like that before?” She asked, it was pretty obvious what she was referring to.

“No I haven’t, I haven’t seen anything like what he can do and I’d be lying if I said it didn’t bug me but I expect princess Celestia will be able to figure it out if she meets him.” Twilight couldn’t help but keep thinking about the magic and the way he moved, it was unlike anything she had seen before and she couldn’t just drop it from her mind anytime soon.

Fluttershy spoke up next as she increased speed. “Uhm girls, we’re nearly there…” She said, gesturing to the shining city just ahead. All the mares picked up speed with relieved smiles on their faces, happy that they could be sure that no more surprise attacks would happen while inside the city. A look of determination grew across Twilight’s face, she was going to make sure she got her mentors help on the creatures and the pony who was denying the laws of physics. Sora ran after them as they picked up speed, he knew that he really didn’t want to get lost in the town up ahead. His eyes caught the castle in the distance and the carriages that were closing in on it.

“Hey, are there usually fancy looking carriages going to the castle?” he asked. The other six ponies looked up at the transports landing near the castle as they entered the sparkling city. Rainbow looked at the castle with a raised eyebrow and an agape mouth, the timing seemed too coincidental.

“What is going on…?” She asked as all seven of them made their way to the fortress.

XXX

A carriage softly landed on the pathway just out the front of the colossal doors, the large patterned doors with guards posted either side were opened wide so that the invited guests could enter. The griffon lord, accompanied by his scowling guard captain, was the first to enter the large castle.

“This way sir.” One of the guards said, leading them towards another set of doors at one side of the large room. There was a large set of stairs that lead up to the next floor then split off to each side, allowing access to many rooms but the room that the griffons were lead to didn’t require ascending to the next floor. They veered right of the staircase to another set of large patterned doors, they weren’t as tall as the first but still reached high enough to allow most creatures through.
As they entered through the doors, the first and most noticeable part of the room was the bright white alicorn with a spectrum mane and a darker alicorn with galactic mane standing beside her. They were on the other end of a long, golden coloured rectangular table with small plaques lined along the side for each guest. Once the two griffons had entered the room and made their way to a seat, the guard bowed and took his leave from the room. The griffon lord made his way to where a plaque with his name was placed on the table, Gilda taking her position at his side but not right next to him, knowing her place.

“Lord Julian von Grifford. It is a pleasure to have you here today.” Celestia stated, making sure a welcoming grin had come across her face. The griffon merely shrugged at the welcoming.

“Yes yes Celestia, I’d like to know why you felt it so important to invite us all away from our kingdoms when we are trying to deal with the arrival of these little creatures.” He asked, not trying to hide an ounce that the whole situation was irritating him.

“It is that exact reason that I felt it necessary to arrange this meeting of royals so that we would be able to solve this problem.” The lord wanted to argue with her that it would be just a waste of time when they could have been trying to solve it on their own but his train of thought was interrupted when the doors opened again and a guard came through. This time he was followed by three gruff looking creatures that were instantly recognised as diamond dogs.

“Ahh princess Celestia, such an honour to meet you.” The diamond dog with a red jacket and a yellow stone on his collar, smiled as well as he could but it still looked rather unpleasant, he rubbed his paws together and bowed slightly as he addressed her. The two dogs behind him bowed in kind but the smaller one gave a grumble as he bowed, only to get a small rap on the back of the head by the largest one.

“Welcome to Canterlot, may I ask for your names?” Celestia asked, the camps of the diamond dogs had no actual leaders, they were established a rank depending on how many gems they had collected.

“Of course princess, my name is Grit.” He gestured to the large diamond dog to his left. “This is Durge.” Then to the smaller diamond dog on his right. “And this is Skid.” The two simply bowed again to the princess. Luna raised her hoof to the side of the table with the plaque saying D.D. Camps.

“Please come take up your space, you need not stand in the doorway through the meeting, you are our guests after all.” Luna stated with a smile. The three diamond dogs started making their way to their space when the griffon lord let out a slight huff.

“So why are you here? You have no actual kingdom to defend, you just have your tents and huts.” The griffon rudely exclaimed, the look on Grit’s face turned sour but Skid spoke up before he could reply.

“We have our land too and these monsters are affecting us as well as you!” The little diamond dog argued.

“Hah! Your little campsites can move around when you get in trouble, however we have a proper city to maintain.” The griffon scoffed. Durge and Skid growled before Grit put his paws in front of the two so he could speak.

“We may not have big walls and fancy houses like you but we are still under attack by those monsters, you aren’t the only ones being attacked!”

“Quite right. We didn’t call this meeting so that there would be arguing, we don’t know what these creatures are so we should work together to stop them.” Celestia interrupted, trying to stop the growing argument before it got out of hoof.
Just outside of the castle was Shining Armor. He had decided to lead his beloved into the meeting room personally as well as being her guard for the time she would be there. He smiled as her carriage landed and the beautiful pink alicorn stepped out of the transport. The smile on her face matched his once she saw him trotting towards her, she tried to look royal and professional but she couldn’t help picking up speed and running into her lovers hooves. She nuzzled into his neck and he replied in kind but unfortunately for them, the last guest arrived at the same time. Princess Chrysalis was just at their side, waiting to be lead to the meeting room.

Shining Armor swore he could hear Cadence growling at the changeling queen, not that he blamed her but he didn’t want her to try anything. Chrysalis looked down at the two ponies, she didn’t know what kind of face to put on in front of her past enemies which ended up giving her a look of indifference. Nothing was spoken between any of them, Shining Armor only nodded towards the visiting queen and led her, as well as his wife, to the meeting chamber. There was a silence as the three of them entered the room, Chrysalis was pretty sure it was everypony not wanting to speak in front of her due to their history.

As they stood in their places, Celestia tapped her hoof on the table to get the attention of all that was present and cleared her throat.

“Now we are all here, I think we should start with our meeting. As you all know, we have encountered a new type of creature and we can all confirm that they are indeed hostile. My sister and I have gathered you here so that we may discuss this problem.” Her statement was followed by a group of nods, some less enthusiastic as others.

“Do we even know what these are?” Princess Cadence asked. “It can’t be the first time that anypony has seen these creatures.” She added.

“We have searched all our bestiaries and found nothing relating to them.” Gilda stated for her lord, he still gave off the feeling that he felt it was all a waste of time.

“We haven’t seen any such creatures before, not even in the deepest tunnels we’ve ever dug.” Durge replied, getting a nod from the two next to him.

“We haven’t got a record of these creatures appearing in the Everfree forest either, it’s as if they just rose up out of nowhere all of a sudden.” Luna carried on.

“All we know about them is their looks, they hunt in groups and they have the ability to sink into the floor.” Everypony nodded except one.

“Well, the small ones do.” Chrysalis mentioned, suddenly getting all eyes on her within seconds.

“What do you mean? Small ones?” Lord Julian asked

“Well in our area we have come across two varieties of these things. There are the small ones, the ones that sink into the ground as you said but we have found another type, a bigger type. These were heavily armored bipedal creatures, they carried a shield with the face of a dog on it except the dog head had three eyes and it could bark and bite…the dog head was a shield but alive at the same time.” Everything went silent for a few moments. “The smaller ones weren’t too hard to beat but the bigger ones…Many changelings were taken by them.”
Gilda lent forward to whisper into her lord’s ear before he nodded in response.

“Are you sure about that?” He asked. All eyes then turned to him. “I mean, we all know of the small ones but suddenly you get larger ones?” The queen raised an eyebrow.

“What are you talking about?”

“I am simply saying that it seems rather convenient that suddenly you encounter bigger ones we haven’t seen. They also kill your changelings which would mean that it’d be perfectly natural for more of your changelings to ‘die’ and more of these creatures to appear in their place.” The statement caused the queen to growl.

“What are you insinuating?”

“I am saying that I don’t think these creatures may be unusual creatures after all, perhaps you’re changelings are the little monsters and this is just another one of your attempts at taking over. Except this time you took it one step further and decided to try invading all domains at the same time.” Chrysalis’ eyes widened as she yelled across the table.

“How dare you, my subjects are under attack by these things as well and you think that this is all some sort of plot!?”

“Well you haven’t given us reason to believe otherwise, have you?” Cadence answered instead.

“Look, I apologize for my actions a year ago but this isn’t an invasion plan! I’m under assault just like you!” She cried, hoping that the words she feared wouldn’t come next. Unfortunately she wasn’t that lucky as Cadence narrowed her eyes at her.

“Can you prove it?” Cadence asked. Chrysalis was taken back, looking round at the whole table waiting for her reply but attention was snapped away as the diamond dogs began sniggering.

“What are you laughing about you mongrels?” Lord Julian grunted. The sniggering died down as the Skid cleared his throat.

“We just thought it was funny.” He stated, earning a scowl from Chrysalis.

“You thought what was funny?” Durge sniggered again.

“We thought it was funny how you ponies accuse us of being uncivilized yet you’re all blaming each other five minutes after this meeting has started.” Lord Julian slammed his claw on the table.

“You dare call us uncivilized? You dirty mutts!” The snickering stopped and Skid growled.

“Quiet with your insults you overgrown pigeon!” The griffon opened his mouth but couldn’t find an insult to go back with before Gilda stepped forward.

“How dare you talk to Lord Julian in such a manner! He is a royal, much better than any of you dirt scraping, knuckle dragging mongrels!” The sky had grown dark as the whole room erupted into a land of insults and accusations. Celestia and Luna tried to calm each side with no success.

“Princesses! Princesses!” A guard yelled as he burst through the door into the meeting room. All the bickering guests had quietened down when he came in the room.

“What is it?” Princess Celestia asked.

“The elements of harmony plus one are here to talk to you but they are in the gardens under attack by a monster unlike any we have seen before!”

Celestia and Luna quickly shot up and ran out of the room, followed quickly by Shining Armor with Princess Cadence. The remaining guests looked around at each other before following suit. As they opened the door, they saw Fluttershy tending to Applejack just to the side of the door, Pinkie Pie was backing away from the beast panicking, Rainbow Dash was circling above it, Twilight and Rarity were trying to hold the monster’s giant claws down while an unknown colt with a large key in his mouth was charging towards it.

The monster was slightly larger the size of Celestia herself but it seemed to just be crouching at the moment, is was a mix of different shades of green and a large yellow horn protruding from it’s face, bulging eyes that wandered around out of synch with each other and a large tail curled up into a spiral. No matter how it was looked upon, it was a horned chameleon but the size was intimidating.

“I can’t hold it down much longer!” Twilight yelled.

“Me neither!” Rarity added.

“Ok then, get back quickly!” The colt yelled. The two unicorns hopped back as they released their magic. The creature roared for its freedom before the brown colt was in its face, quickly the chameleon span round a full circle and whipped him with its tail. He blocked the attack with the large key but was still sent flying backwards. As he looked up at the monster, one thing could be heard coming from his lips.

“I hate Stealth Sneaks.”

Dusk

A little earlier

“Come on everypony! It’s just up ahead!” Twilight yelled back, they had made their way through the bright city of Canterlot without trouble but as they entered the forest around the castle, a swirling vortex of black clouds had spawned over the area. A rough wind blew through their manes as they ran towards their goal as fast as they could.

“Rainbow Dash, is there supposed to be a storm at the castle today?” Rarity asked.

“I don’t think so, I’m sure that the skies above the castle are always clear because of Princess Celestia’s magic. What confuses me is that there isn’t a cloud in the sky above the town, all the clouds are centred over the castle.” She yelled through the howling wind. She turned to Sora who was trying to keep pace with them through the gale.

“Is this the work of the heartless? Can they cause storms?” Sora shook his head.

“If there was a heartless causing this storm then we’d be able to see it. Whatever is causing this, it isn’t a heartless.”

“So we are safe right?”

“Don’t be so sure, just because a heartless isn’t causing this storm doesn’t mean that there isn’t one nearby.” Rainbow gulped nervously, she turned her head forward and kept moving. It wasn’t long before the castle gates were in sight, the large doors that held hope not far behind them. A smile appeared on everyone’s faces as the approached the gates.

“Halt! Who goes there?” One of the pegasus guards at the gated called out. The group slowed down as they arrived at the gate, all trying to catch their breath.

“I…I’m Twilight Sparkle…I need to speak to Princess Celestia urgently.” Twilight forced out.

“I’m sorry Miss Sparkle but the Princess is in a royal meeting. I’m afraid she cannot see you at this moment.” The guard responded as the wind ruffled through his fur and feathers. Sora jaw dropped a little in disappointment.

“Aww come on, we need to see her right away.” The guard looked at him with an annoyed expression.

“I’m sorry sir but she must not be disturbed.” The guard stated. The guard on the other side of the door tilted his head slightly as he looked behind the group.

“Halt! Who goes there?” He stated. The group looked at him confused then turned round, in the distance were two white, glowing orbs with a light blue tint around the edges. No reply was heard as the lights got closer.

“I say again, halt! State your business here!” He repeated. The lights offered no response but grew larger as they got closer and closer.

“State your intentions or you will be detained!” He yelled, flaring out his wings to show he meant business. The lights got closer until they just floated in the air in front of the ponies.

“They’re just…lights? Floating balls of light?” The guard asked to nopony in particular. The guard holding the group of ponies started making his way by them.

“Wait here a moment.” He ordered as he passed by them, approaching the mysterious orbs. They were at the same height as the guards faces and moved left and right slightly at the same time. A strange growl could be heard as the guards looked at the lights closer.

“What in the name of-“ one of the guards said before he was suddenly flying along the ground, slamming into a tree and falling unconscious. The other guard jumped back quickly as the lights began floating higher into the air. Once in front of his face, they were now at twice his height and he felt as if they were peering down at him. Fluttershy had held a scream as she saw the unconscious lie by the tree but could no longer hold it. She screamed out for a few seconds, just long enough to bring the guard out of his shocked state. He ran back to open the gate so that everypony could get to safety while they all stared at the peering lights, they shone even brighter for a moment then flew forward towards the guard.

“Look out!” Sora shouted as he tackled the guard. The lights flew to the gate and exploded, sending the metallic doors soaring through the air and into the garden. The guard looked at the wrecked gate in terror as Sora helped him up.

“Quick! Get inside now!” Sora yelled. His call shocked all the frightened ponies back to reality and they galloped through the gates as quick as their hooves and wings allowed them to. The moment that Sora got through the gate after everypony else, the metal decorative arch that was over the gate ripped in half as the strange growl could be heard once more, echoing into the darkness that surrounded them. They watched the metal rip and looked around.

“W-w-what is it?” Fluttershy asked, trying to raise her voice but fear was gripping too hard at her vocal chords. The lights began glowing out of nowhere and shot in Fluttershy’s direction.

“Watch out!” Applejack yelled as she pushed the immobile pegasus out of the way. They tumbled out of the way but Applejack rolled away from the blast and slammed into the castle wall.

“Applejack!” All the ponies yelled. Fluttershy ran to the side of her saviour and helped her onto her haunches, leaning her back against the wall. Sora summoned his Keyblade to his mouth and everypony watched as the air in front of them became distorted. Two large claws appeared on the ground, a curled tail behind a body that grew to about three times their size, two long arms with claws on the end came out of the body and a lizard head with a horn protruding from its nose peered down at Sora as it appeared from nowhere. The creature raised its claw and threw it down on top of Sora, he managed to jump away and narrowly avoid being crushed.

“Hey! Go get help!” Sora yelled to the guard. He was gripped by fear and stuck to the spot, only called back when the order was thrown at him. The guard nodded and ran back to the castle. Sora looked back at the monster and gulped.

“Quick! Somepony hold it down!” Sora ordered. Twilight and Rarity nodded to each other. Their horns began glowing with a purple and turquoise aura’s, the same aura covering the front claws of the beast. The claws were dragged to the ground, the beast crying out as it became immobile and Twilight and Rarity made their way behind it. Sora nodded as they took cover in its new blind spot behind it and looked over to the cyan and pink pony.

“Ok you two, it can still use those eye blasts but I can block it, you two better keep moving so you’ll be hard to hit.” They nodded in response and just before they started, Sora gave one more instruction. “Also I’m going to really need your help. If any little ones show up then I’ll need you to beat them while I take care of our friend here.” They gave a nod and took their positions, Rainbow flew into the open air and kept an eagle eye on the situation while Pinkie Pie looked around while moving back away from the monster, panic still in her eyes from the creature in front of them. It was around now that nopony noticed the castle doors fly open to display the attack to the royals.

“I can’t hold it down much longer!” Twilight yelled.

“Me neither!” Rarity added.

“I hate Stealth Sneaks.”

The monster roared into the dark skies as it jumped into the middle of the garden, grabbing Sora in its claw and pulling the colt to its monstrous face, causing him to drop his Keyblade. The look of terror that had plastered itself to the colt’s face only lasted a few moments before a bolt of dark purple and shining gold slammed into the chest of the creature. The colt fell to the floor and took the chance to he summon his Keyblade to his hoof and take his stance. The key and the colt started shimmering white as he jumped towards it.

“Flash Step!” He yelled as his band with the red jewel shone brightly. He gave a high jump and swung the Keyblade skywards, delivering an uppercut to the giant lizard. As he landed the lights didn’t fade, he then pushed on his back hooves to jump right in front of the creature.

“Slapshot!” He swung his Keyblade into the creature, landed hit after hit after hit. Everypony watching was amazed by the colt’s stamina. After slamming the key a final time into the Stealth Sneak, he jumped backwards into a flip and threw the Keyblade at the lizards face.

“Spark Raid!” The Keyblade slammed itself into the monsters face. The creature yelled in agony and put his claws over his face as a pointed yellow object fell to the ground and burst into dark wisps. The monster yelled at them with a roar so loud that it shook everypony present to the core, it displayed its broken horn for all to see then span round and fled into the forest just outside, turning itself invisible to avoid any followers. As the beast fell from sight, Sora banished the Keyblade and fell to his knees and panting heavily.

Applejack finally came to and thanked her butter yellow nurse who replied by hugging the orange cowpony tightly. Twilight and Rarity helped Pinkie Pie calm herself down while the cyan pegasus went to thank the brown colt and help him up. All the group then turned to see the shocked royals and their guests standing in the doorway, one after another the six mares bowed leaving a rather confused colt to be dragged to a bowing position by the rainbow maned pegasus next to him. The Princesses approached the bowing ponies and looked down to each one of them.

“Arise my little ponies, there is no need for you to be so formal.” Celestia told them, a smile growing on her face as she spoke. The ponies got back up onto their feet and Twilight stepped forward.

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we have important information to tell you!” She stated. A dark obsidian hoof came up to her face.

“In due time Twilight Sparkle but as for now, you and your friends need rest. Guards!” Luna called out. Three guards came out of the castle and lined up alongside the one who had been brought them out there. “I want you four to search the forest and flush out that beast, I expect it is weak and can be taken down swiftly.”

“No, that won’t work against a Stealth Sneak.” Sora pointed out. All the ponies turned round to the brown colt.

“You dare question the orders of a Princess?!” One of the guards snapped, only to be silenced by the moon Princess’ hoof.

“How do you mean that will not work? And what is this “Steath Sneak” of which you speak?” Luna quizzed the new pony.

“The Stealth Sneak was that monster we just saw, it’s strong and can turn invisible. If you go into the forest to chase it, it’ll just trap you.” He replied.

“Then seeing as you know more about that creature than we do, what would you suppose we do?” The lunar alicorn asked him. The brown colt put a hoof to his chin.

“Hmmm, I’d say just stay alert for now. Place guards at the doors to let you know if it shows up again. That’d be the safest option.” Sora explained. The Princess of the night nodded and turned to her guards.

“Then that shall be done. You must guard the entrances to the castle and report any suspicious activity the moment it occurs.” The guards gave a salute to the Princess then took off to their positions. Luna turned to the colt and mares and gave them a warm smile.

“Please come in and rest, we must be ready in case that monster comes back. We can’t send you away in such an exhausted condition.” She said as she placed a hoof round the colt and motioned him towards the castle. Sora moved forward a little but waited for the other mares to move ahead so he could follow, all the ponies walked through the doors and between the astounded royals.

As they all returned to the castle, a guard showed the ponies the way to a spare room where they could rest whereas the guests made their way back to the meeting room, Twilight pulled Sora towards Princess Celestia just before she entered the room again.

“Princess please, we need to talk to you straight away about some strange monsters.” The white alicorn nodded to the little unicorn.

“Yes Twilight Sparkle. I am well aware of the situation and we are discussing a way to handle it.” Celestia informed her. The griffon lord came up behind her and huffed.

“Precisely, we do not need little brats to tell us what to do.” Twilight frowned at him but Sora stood in front of her and frowned at the griffon.

“Well I didn’t see you do anything when that heartless attacked!” He exclaimed, he felt a little proud of himself for one-upping the griffon but he received confused looks instead.

“What is a heartless?” The alicorn asked.

“That monster out there was a heartless, so are the little ones that have been around town. They are creatures formed from the darkness inside a heart and they are very dangerous.” Sora explained.

“This is what we wanted to tell you about Princess.” Twilight added. The griffon scoffed and walked back into the room, Celestia nodded at the ponies and ushered them inside.

“Come in and tell us what you know of these ‘heartless’.”

The ponies came through into the large room to become greeted by the many stares of the royals that were settling back into their places. Twilight noticed Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, she trotted over to them happily leaving Sora a little bewildered as he looked at the room of unfamiliar creatures.

“These two will join us in our meeting, they have very important information to share with us regarding the monsters.” Princess Celestia stated, Luna nodded and looked at the brown colt.

“Please, little pony, what is your name?”

“My name is Sora Princess” He replied with his signature grin, Luna smiled back in kind.

“Now Sora, please tell us what you know of these creatures.”

Getting Ready

The wind rustled through Sora’s new wings as they were flared out and ready for use. The dust had settled around him and both his bands had turned into a glimmering red. The scowl that was aimed at the monster in front of him made it get into what seemed like a defensive stance, crouching low and holding its claws on the ground in front of itself.

The mares all looked at Sora with bewildered expressions, he turned them and gave them a small grin before leaping forward. He ran forward on his hind hooves, using his wings to propel him towards the beast. The monster yelled and swiped at Sora but with a beat of his wings, he jumped over the monsters claw and towards its stomach.

“Sonic End!” He yelled as his Keyblades began shimmering. He unleashed a flurry of attacks, striking upwards with the Kingdom Key then to the left with the Oathkeeper. He followed it up with a downward strike with the Kingdom Key before giving the beast a stab with the other. He placed both hooves onto the monsters stomach and then kicked off, landing on the floor then jumping towards the beast’s stomach once more and swung both his Keyblades in an X shaped slash.

The creature screamed out in pain, clutching a claw to its injured stomach before snarling at the colt as he landed on the ground once more. Its eyes started glowing and it shot blasts of light at him only for him to spin round on a hoof and slap the blasts back into its face. It brought its claw up to its face while moaning in pain, bringing round its tail and launching barbs at Sora. He jumped into the air and dodged the barbs, nearly getting caught off as the monster swung its tail round to slam into him. Sora quickly beat his wings a few times and span round, recovering from the hit and swung the Oathkeeper into an uppercut on the monsters tail, cutting it clean off and causing it to fall to the floor and burst into wisps.

It grabbed hold of its dismembered tail and gave an ear splitting shriek that echoed throughout the streets. Sora winced a little from the scream as he landed on the ground again. The monster threw itself onto all fours then roared at Sora and charged at him, its mouth wide open and teeth ready to crunch the pegasus. Sora jumped back a little and swung both Keyblades down onto the monsters head, slamming it into the ground.

“Brave Shot!” Sora cried as both Keyblades shimmered a light red. He attacked the creatures face, slapping it left, right, up, down then down again. He finished the combo by unleashing a wave of red energy from his weapons and pushed the monster back onto its back legs then ran up to it and jumped, giving an uppercut into the monsters chin. Sora jumped off the tip of the creatures face as it fell onto its back, turning in mid-air to face the monster and his whole body began glowing.

“This is the end…Omega Finale!” Sora threw the shining Oathkeeper downwards, the blade piercing through the monsters chest slightly. The monster arched his back and watched as the shining Sora flew down towards it and used the Kingdom Key to hammer the Oathkeeper straight through the beast. It roared and threw up its legs for a few moments before going limp and collapsing on the ground, its body dissipating into dark wisps and vanishing to reveal the pegasus holding his Kingdom Key in one hoof and pulling the Oathkeeper out of the ground with the other.

He banished the Keyblades and began approaching the mares who had all gathered together during the fight. The mares could only stand and stare as the former earth pony, now pegasus trotted over to them and tilted his head.

“What’s wrong?” He asked them. Twilight just began stammering, trying to push out what she was thinking but all the questions just wanted to escape at once. Rarity was leaning slightly against Fluttershy to stop herself from fainting while Pinkie had a grin growing on her face due to excitement. Applejack kept blinking and gulping, her mouth going dry every few seconds from keeping it open in shock whereas Rainbow Dash had a red blush strewn across her nose. Sora grinned as he saw their faces until they became blurred and his legs felt weak. He wobbled a little and could only just about make out their faces turn from bewilderment to concern as he blacked out.

XXX

Princess Celestia came back out of a pair of small doors into the guest room where the six girls started approaching her. Twilight gulped nervously.

“How is he?” She asked. Celestia smiled softly and nodded her head.

“He will be fine, he just needs rest for now.” The mares all let out a simultaneous sigh of relief then smiled to each other.

“Thank you Princess, we really appreciate your help…Did you find what we were talking about?” The Princess shook her head.

“No Twilight, I didn’t find any signs of wings. No feathers, no cuts, no growths. If anypony else told me that they saw an earth pony transform into a pegasus, I’d call them mad but with you and your friends…” Celestia smiled and gave a small chuckle.

“Well trouble seems to have a way of finding you six doesn’t it?” The mares smiled and laughed with their Princess before she nodded “I must be off now, the other royals are leaving and I need to see them off.” With that, the Princess left them in the room.

They were back in the same guestroom that they were in before, the door led to a small bedroom where Sora was resting. Pinkie bounced up to Rarity, giddy with excitement.

“Did you see it?! Did you see it?! Did you see it?! Did you see him turn into a pegasus?! It was amazing!” Rarity smiled and nodded.

“I know dear, it was rather shocking at first but it was a sight…and that dark red was definitely a good colour on him.” Rainbow then burst into the conversation, eager to share her opinion.

“Who cares about what colour he was? He grew wings right in front of our faces! Then he used two of those Keyblade things to beat the crap out of that monster, smacking it in every direction and those special moves were incredible! That red energy move and that big combo he used to hit the things stomach, not forgetting that finishing move! He just jumped high into the air then hammered one of the Keyblades into another and it went straight through!” Rarity had tuned out a little in the middle of the pegasi’s rant then came back as it ended.

“Yes Rainbow, I know. We were there too remember?” Rainbow just huffed and pouted until Applejack came up behind her.

“Oh Rarity, be nice. She just wants to talk about the colt she’s fallen for.” She said with a grin and a giggle. Rainbow became flustered and shot her head round.

“I have not fallen for him!” She exclaimed. Applejack just smirked in response.

“But you love to talk about him don’t ya sugarcube?” Rainbow blushed more and frowned.

“I just think he looked really cool, that’s all.” Rarity smirked at her denial and spawned an idea.

“Oh but you can’t deny that he isn’t a bad looking colt is he? I saw your face as you watched him fight.” Rainbow span her head back around and frowned at the unicorn but failed to realise that her face had gone beet red.

“I-I was not, well I was but only because I couldn’t take my eyes off of him…because he was fighting that monster, not because he looks hot.” Rarity and Applejack looked behind Rainbow and sniggered.

“So you do think he looks ‘hot’?” Rainbow ran her sentence through her mind and her face became so hot that she was worried she’d start letting out steam.

“You must really like him Rainbow, look at your back.” Pinkie said. Rarity and Applejack smirked at the flustered pegasus as she slowly turned her head round. Rainbow Dash blushed furiously and threw her head into her hooves as she noticed that her wings had become fully flared out during the conversation. As the three mares giggled at their friend’s embarrassment, Twilight had wondered to the guest room’s balcony. She was looking out at the town as guards and work ponies were repairing shop windows, carts and anything else that were damaged in the fight.

There was large tarps and scaffolding set up where the once was a café and bowling alley. Twilight sighed as she looked over the damage caused by the battle and received a light pat on the back, she turned slightly and saw Fluttershy come up beside her and give her a warm smile.

“What’s wrong Twilight?” The unicorn sighed as she turned back to the town.

“I don’t know what’s bugging me more Fluttershy, the fact that he transformed into a pegasus or the fact that we were barely any help in that battle.” Fluttershy patted Twilight softly on the back and looked to the town with her.

“It is strange that he become a pegasus all of a sudden.” Fluttershy said softly, only to see her friend shake her head.

“Not strange Fluttershy, it’s impossible…he’s an earth pony that can turn into a pegasus and use magic. In two days he has broken the physics of Equestria. I may have given Rarity wings before but you saw it too, those were real wings not magical ones.” Twilight sighed and rested her head on the balcony railing. “And in that fight…we may have made a few scratches on that monster but let’s face it, we were barely any help.” Fluttershy stroked down the back of Twilight’s neck to try and comfort her.

“Maybe there is something we can do Twilight.” Fluttershy spoke softly. Twilight looked at her friend with a confused look. “He may be super strong now but Discord is still Discord, maybe the Elements of Harmony can still help us beat him.” Twilight’s face seemed to light up at the idea.

“You’re right, the Elements of Harmony helped us beat Discord last time, maybe they can help us again now.” Fluttershy nodded with a smile as Twilight made her way out of the room. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”

XXX

Thanks to her knowledge of the castles layout, it wasn’t long before Twilight found her way back to the entrance of the castle to find the Princess. She was waving goodbye to the Diamond Dogs and Griffons before turning round to see Twilight.

“My dear Twilight Sparkle, is something wrong?” She asked. Twilight shook her head and looked up at the Princess.

“No Princess Celestia, I was actually wondering if we could get the Elements of Harmony? We thought that even though Discord has gained all this power, the elements might still be able to help beat him.” Princess Celestia smiled and nodded, starting to make her way to the courtyard.

“A very good idea Twilight but don’t you think that your friend can beat him? He did stop that monster after all.” Twilight nodded and looked down at her hooves as she followed the Princess.

“It’s not that I don’t think he can. It’s just that we want to help him but in the fight with that monster, we would have lost if he hadn’t saved us. It also bothers me that he is fine with fighting Discord and all those monsters even though he only just got here and doesn’t even know what he is trying to save, as if it’s all just another day for him.” Twilight couldn’t tell what she was feeling as she spoke. Was it sorrow because she didn’t seem to be able to save her own world? Was it guilt that someone else had taken up the role as protector even though he didn’t even know much about where he was? Maybe it was concern that he was getting hurt from helping them and they couldn’t do much to help him back.

It wasn’t long before they were out in the courtyard, making their way towards the tower where the elements were kept. The courtyard was very large and filled with many different varieties of flowers, all the grass was a beautiful shade of emerald green and the garden was bordered by a large iron fence painted a clean white colour. Twilight turned to her mentor as a thought crossed her mind.

“Princess, what have the royals decided to do about the heartless?” Twilight asked. Celestia seemed to sigh a little in disappointment.

“Well because your friend said he would beat them and proved he could do it by defeating that monster, they thought it best to protect their own cities and let him do it, we took a vote and we won but that Lord Julian threw a fit and accused us of letting Discord out on purpose.”

“Why would he think that?” Celestia shook her head.

“He said that we had probably made a deal with Discord to let him rule whatever we didn’t want if he helped us. It really upsets me that in this time of crisis there is still one who can be so selfish, the diamond dogs wanted to get back to their camps due to the fact that they don’t have any defences, only themselves.” Twilight nodded, understanding that they must be in trouble given the situation. A thought then spurred in her mind that confused her deeply.

“Wait, you said you won the vote and there were five of you, if the two who voted against you were the diamond dogs and Lord Julian then that would mean…” Celestia saw where Twilight was getting and nodded.

“Yes, Queen Chrysalis had voted with us in helping to stop the monsters.” Twilight looked up at Celestia with a deeply confused look on her face. “You see Twilight, Queen Chrysalis and Luna and me have been sending messages for the past few months. She is trying to get back in good standing with us since the incident a year ago but it hasn’t been easy, many ponies are wary of changelings and for good reason. But with this incident now, we need to band together and I believe we may be able to establish a connection with the changelings.” Twilight thought hard about it for a few moments, she didn’t trust the Queen but she did trust the princess to know what she was doing.

The tower they was approaching wasn’t extremely high, it was about as big as a normal house but it was big considering the whole thing was only one room. It had a golden cone for a roof and the door had a lovely golden pattern round the arch.
As they entered the room the light flooded in through the stain glass windows, each window had a memorial to key events in their history. The two Princesses rising the sun and moon, the rise of Nightmare Moon, the six mares defeating Nightmare Moon and the six mares sealing away Discord. They were lined out chronologically as if telling a story in four short scenes. Twilight and the Princess made their way towards a large door on the other side of the room and Celestia pointed her horn towards the lock on the front of the door, she inserted her horn into the lock and it began to glow. There was a click as Celestia pulled her horn out of the lock and the door opened, revealing the box with the elements of harmony inside.
Princess Celestia took out the box with her magic and opened it, slightly worried to see that Discord pulled the same trick as last time but she let out a sigh of relief as all six elements were still inside. She gently floated them to Twilight and she gripped the box with her magic, a smile of gratitude appearing on her face.

“Thank you Princess, I assure you that we won’t fail you.” The Princess smiled and nodded.

“I know, now I hope this will help you find him. Discord announced where he was going next while you were fighting that monster but it wasn’t very clear.” Twilight nodded and began to listen as Princess Celestia relayed the message.

XXX

The eyes of the five mares all shot to the bedroom door as Sora slowly made his way out of it. He was limping a little whilst wobbling with each step, he then started to fall to his side but Rainbow made sure she was there to catch him.

“Careful, you look like you should rest a little more.” She told him. He only shook his head in response and got back onto his hooves.

“Nahh, I’ll be fine, just a little dizzy is all.” He looked round the room. “Where are we?”

“We’re back in the castle, you passed out after the fight with that monster.” Sora nodded and kept looking round the room.

“Oh ok. Where’s Twilight?” He asked. Fluttershy stepped forward a little.

“She went to get the Elements of Harmony.” Sora looked at her confused, the expression asked the question for him.

“The Elements of Harmony are five necklaces and one tiara, they are what we used to beat Discord when he got free last time.” Rarity explained.

“Twi’ thought they might be helpful this time too.” Applejack added. Sora smiled at the five and they smiled back.

“Well it’s good to see that I’ll have a lot of help beating him, I know we can do it now.” He said confidently. The door opened and Twilight entered the room with a case.

“Hey Twilight, are those the elements?” Pinkie asked quickly. They all seemed to notice that Twilight had a troubled look on her face.

“Twi’? What’s wrong?” The cowpony asked. Twilight let out a sigh and looked up at her friends.

“Princess Celestia just told me where Discord is headed next.” All of them looked to her in anticipation. “He said to the royals while we were fighting that he plans to bring back the dark side of the moon…It’s pretty clear who he means.”

“Nightmare Moon…” Rainbow muttered. All the mares looked down at the ground while Sora watched them.

“Nightmare Moon?” He asked. Twilight looked up at him.

“When Princess Luna became jealous of her sister one thousand years ago, her anger, jealousy and hate turned her evil. We call this evil version Nightmare Moon, she came back a few years ago but we managed to beat her…it was how we all met. I don’t know how or where he plans to do it though.” She said with a defeated look.

“If she was the Princess’ dark side then he may use the powers of the darkness to bring her back as a heartless.” The mares all looked at him.

“He can do that? How?” Rarity asked. Sora shrugged a little.

“I don’t know how it works but to make a being as strong as a Princess, he’d need to go to where the darkness left the body. In other words, we need to go to where you beat Nightmare Moon.” The mares looked around and smiled a little.

“Then we know where we need to go now. Girls, take these.” Twilight said. She took out the pendants and gave one to each of the mares, keeping the tiara for herself. “We ready?” She asked.

Sora summoned his Keyblade and smiled. Suddenly his Keyblade and the elements began shining brightly, everypony looked at them all confused. The light from the Keyblade burst out from the tip and flew into the crystals in each element, there was a flash of light and everypony quickly closed their eyes. When their eyes opened again, in front of each mare floated a different Keyblade. Sora looked at each Keyblade and then his own, tilting his head.

“Well…I wasn’t expecting that.”

Heading out

All seven ponies were shocked. The elements of harmony had disappeared and in their places were six new Keyblades. Twilight just stared at the weapon before her then at the ones her friends had, the only thing they all had in common was their respective element of harmony was hanging off the hilt. Twilight’s Keyblade had a dark purple handle and a sword blade reaching out from the hoof guard. The sword was spiralled by purple streams with a star on the side of the end the resembled the star on Twilight’s cutie mark.

“What’s going on Sora?! What happened to the elements?” She said at him. He looked around at the Keyblade arsenal around him and then back to Twilight, giving her a shrug.

“I-I don’t know, this hasn’t happened before. I didn’t even know it could happen.” He replied. Rainbow had already begun swinging her Keyblade around, mimicking what she had seen Sora do in the battle before. Her Keyblade had a polished white handle and a golden guard that lead from the bottom of the handle to a pair of blue wings the spread from the top of the handle. A pillar like shaft came from the wings and stretched to a white cloud at the top. A rainbow coiled from the bottom of the pillar into the cloud at the shaft’s top, a rainbow coloured lightning bolt was sticking out the other side of the cloud.

“This is so awesome! Discord won’t be able to stop us now!” She gloated. Letting out a squee of excitement as the admired her new weapon.

“Rainbow has a point Twi’, we could beat Discord now.” Applejack exclaimed. Her Keyblade had a horseshoe shaped guard like Twilight’s with a very dark brown handle. The shaft looked like it was a stack of barrels that lead up to a green cloud like shape with apples on it, resembling an apple tree and a small picket fence protruded out of the side of the tree top. Applejack had given the Keyblade a few swings while it was in her mouth.

“Thish doeshn’t work well weally.” She mumbled through the weapon. She placed it on the ground trying to figure out which way to hold it best before settling with using her tail. Rarity looked at the cowpony now swinging the weapon with her tail with holding her own with her magic.

“These weapons seem to be matching us very well.” She said, getting a nod from the orange mare. Rarity’s Keyblade had a white handle and a golden hoof guard that started from the bottom of the handle and reach halfway towards the base of the shaft, the rest of the guard was as white as the handle was. The Keyblade’s shaft went into a rectangular shape, two diamonds surrounded by a purple stream went half way up the blade whereas two diamonds also came down from the top in the same manner, at the top of the shaft were three large diamonds resembling her cutie mark moving from face upwards to facing to the side.

Pinkie had adopted the same attitude as Rainbow, swinging around her Keyblade while giggling. Her Keyblade had a slightly diamond shaped golden hoof guard with a pink and light pink striped Keyblade handle. The shaft was striped like the handle and was shaped like a candle, an orange flame at the top with three balloons sticking out from the side of the candle. Every now and again, Sora thought he saw Pinkie using the Keyblade like a guitar. He wasn’t sure what to be more confused about, the fact that ponies knew what guitars were or that he had never done it himself.

Fluttershy gulped as she kept the Keyblade in her hoof but held it outwards, as if she didn’t want it near her. The bottom of her Keyblade was a blooming pink flower, the gold hoof guard and handle seemed to sprout out of it, vines slightly covering them. At the top of the handle were pink petals with vines sprouting out of them, the vines tangled round each other and sprouted into small pink flowers. One of the vines reached to the top and sprouted into a large flower bulb. Sora walked up next to Fluttershy a little concerned.

“What’s wrong Fluttershy?” He asked.

“W-well it’s just that I…” She began to mumble and trail off.

“You can tell me.” Sora replied, putting his hoof on the mare’s shoulder.

“I-it’s just that this looks pretty b-but it’s still a weapon…I don’t think I could hurt anypony.” Sora smiled at the pegasi’s innocence.

“That’s understandable but you wouldn’t be hurting ponies. The Keyblade is used to defend others, it wouldn’t come to you if it knew you was going hurt innocent ponies.” He told her. She smiled and brought the Keyblade closer to herself.
Sora smiled as all the mares looking over their new weapons and he tapped his Keyblade to the ground, getting their attention.

“Right, I know this is all pretty fun and interesting but we better get going to stop Discord. I’ll teach you the basics along the way.”

XXX

They had made their way through the streets of Canterlot and were just arriving back in Ponyville. Everypony there was going about their daily business as usual, no one reacting to the attack on Canterlot.

“Why isn’t everypony more worried?” Rainbow asked to nopony in particular. All seven of them looked round and thought to themselves.

“Maybe they haven’t heard about the attack yet?” Pinkie asked. Twilight shook her head.

“Surely there would have been monsters forming around here too?” She asked. Sora looked up at the dark cloud hanging over a part of the forest and a thought clicked in his head.

“Remember the dark cloud over the castle when we got there? Did anyone see where it went?” He asked. All the mares looked at eachother while heading closer to the Everfree forest.

“Now yah mention it, I don’t know.” Applejack replied. Sora nodded at her then looked at the cloud over the forest.

“I think he’s travelling in that cloud over there, it would explain why it keeps appearing where ever he does.” Sora explained. He barely knew whether he was right or not but weirder things had happened that day. The forest approached quicker than they thought, the idea that heartless and a powered up Discord were inside it made it that much more sinister. Fluttershy cowered in front of the forest’s entrance, her whole body shaking as she fell to her knees.

“D-D-Do we have to go in there…?” She asked the group. They all glanced around at each other and Applejack walked to Fluttershy, placing a hoof on her back.

“Now now sugarcube, we’ve been in the forest plenty of times haven’t we?” The cowpony asked her friend. Fluttershy nodded then gulped.

“B-but the monsters in there could be even stronger now because of Discord.” The mare exclaimed. Applejack gave a look to her friends that asked for help, Sora thought for a moment then trotted beside Fluttershy.

“So you’re pretty scared huh?” He asked, Fluttershy just nodded in response. “I don’t blame you, the darkness is a scary thing, not knowing what’s lurking inside the shadows.” Fluttershy let out a small eep and Applejack rolled her eyes at him.

“Do yah have a point? We are trying to make her feel better.” She moaned at him. He nodded and flicked his hoof in a shushing manner before turning back to the frightened pegasus.

“Fluttershy?” She looked up at him. “Do you know the secret of how a Keyblade chooses the ones who can use it?” She shook her head. “It can only be used by someone with a strong light in their heart meaning that all Keyblade users have enough light to beat the darkness, that you have enough light in your heart to beat the darkness.” Fluttershy looked up at Sora, she stayed on the ground but didn’t realise that her shivering had subsided.

“And if you don’t feel like your light is strong enough then that’s no problem either” he continued. “All the friends you have around you right now will lend you their light and when that time comes, no amount of darkness can beat you.” The pegasus felt her fear wash away from her, it was replaced by a warm feeling, the feeling you get when you know you’ve found a friend that’ll stick by you. She smiled warmly at him and got back onto her hooves, he smiled reassuringly at her before turning towards the forest. Fluttershy felt her cheeks get a little red and then lowered her head in embarrassment as she saw Applejack and Rarity giggling.

“Looks like you might have a rival Rainbow Dash.” Rarity teased. Rainbow frowned a little and just followed behind into the forest, not making clear what part she was upset about. They walked a little way into the forest and the woods around them seemed to get darker. They all darted their eyes around, waiting for something to try and jump out at them.

“It seems that they don’t know we are here yet…” Pinkie whispered as she creeped across the ground.

“Pinkie…why are yah walking like that?” Applejack said quietly. Pinkie just looked back and shushed her.

“I’m trying to be sneaky.” She whispered again before going back to creeping forward. Sora looked around and into the trees as Rainbow stuck close to his side and Fluttershy stayed right behind him, he remained oblivious to how close they were as he frowned.

“Something wrong Sora?” Rainbow asked him. He kept looking round the group while frowning.

“I don’t like this…” He said softly.

“What do you mean? There’s not a heartless around us.” She replied. He just shook his head a little.

“That’s my point, the heartless should have started to try and attack us right now but they haven’t.”

“Doesn’t that just mean they haven’t found us?” Fluttershy asked.

“Maybe…Or maybe they found someone else before us…” He suggested. As if on cue, some screams echoed through the forest and rang in their ears.

“Come on!” Sora yelled as they charged forward into the darkness of the forest. They eventually came to a clearing where the heartless surrounded three little fillies and a small purple and green dragon. Applejack and Rarity grimaced as they saw their sisters being closed in on, Twilight felt the same about her number one assistant and Rainbow Dash about her biggest fan. All seven of the ponies called their Keyblades and charged into battle with the monsters.

The heartless turned to face them, they were as tall as the ponies but were bipedal, they were thin with skinny arms and legs but with sharp looking claws. Antennae came out and flowed down the back of its body.

“They’re called Neoshadows! They aren’t one of the strongest but they are fast so watch out!” He warned. Rainbow quickly swooped down and swiped her Keyblade across one of the monsters faces, sending it flying into a few more and knocking them down. As they regained their footing, they only saw a glimpse of a blond tail and a tree like Keyblade slam into them, causing them to burst into wisps. A heartless made its way towards the children with its claw splayed out, swinging to the little ones but didn’t make it to them as Rarity quickly darted in between the two parties, getting a scratch along her side.

“No pony..hurts…MY SISTER!” She yelled as she aimed the Keyblade at the heartless and fired a blue crystal, causing the creature to explode into wisps in an icy haze.

“What was that?” She asked. Sora came over to her and stood firm with his Keyblade as he batted some of the heartless away.

“That was a blizzard spell.” He stated. “The Keyblade has magical powers like how you saw me use the fire spell before, it has others too.” Fluttershy quickly flew down to Rarity’s side and frowned at the cut.

“Are you hurt Rarity?” She asked. Rarity just shook her head.

“Not at all dear.” She said before wincing a little. “Ok, maybe just a touch.” Sora just hit another heartless over the head and made it burst before looking to Fluttershy.

“If you want to heal it, you can use a cure spell.” He told her. She looked at him a little confused. “It’s a healing spell, Rarity’ll be fine once you use it. Just point the Keyblade at the one you want to heal and concentrate.” Fluttershy followed his command and point the Keyblade at Rarity, concentrating on the idea of healing her friend. A green light shot out of the end of the Keyblade and hits Rarity, the cut faded in a second or two and Rarity felt no pain on where she had been hit.

“Absolutely marvelous.” Rarity said before hugging the yellow pegasus. Sora smiled at the two ponies then turned his head to the dwindling numbers of heartless.

“Let’s finish them off!” Sora said. He pointed his Keyblade at the group of heartless and the tip began to glow a bright yellow as his blue band shimmered. “Thunder!” He yelled as a bolt of lightning appeared out of nowhere and struck the creatures, creating a small explosion of dark wisps.

“Phew, are you all ok?” Twilight asked as she made her way over to the little ones. They were scared for a few moments more before calming down and nodding.

“What in tarnation are ya’ll doing in the forest?” Applejack asked. The children all decided to hide behind Applebloom as if electing her the speaker.

“W-well you see sis… We were sitting in the clubhouse wondering what our cutiemarks might be and though to ourselves that we might be good at taking care of animals and since Spike was with us, he decided to come along and see if we was doing well, he did say he had to read about animals for taking care of Pee-Wee.” She paused to take a deep breath. “So we were watching the animals at Fluttershy’s place and everything was going fine until we thought we saw some of the animals run into the forest. We didn’t know for sure that they were animals but we thought they were little black rabbits so we followed behind. We kept following the rustling noise until we eventually found the rabbits but it was when we found the rabbits that we saw they weren’t rabbits and they started chasing us. Scootaloo and Spike then saw that we were near the edge of the forest but then those big monsters surrounded us. We thought we were gonners until you guys showed up.” Scootaloo was the next to speak up.

“You guys looked really cool, what are those things?” Scootaloo asked, motioning towards one of the Keyblades.

“Oh these?” Twilight responded. “These are Ke-“

“New types of swords! The knights at Canterlot are using them for a little while and we’ve got to clear the area of those monsters using them.” Sora interrupted. All the mares looked at him a little confused but he just gave them a look that asked them to play along.

“Yeah…He’s right, that’s why we were at Canterlot before.” Twilight lied. She didn’t feel comfortable lying to them but Sora’s look told her that she should.

“Ok…Who are you?” Sweetie Belle asked him. He gulped and scratched the back of his head.

“Well I am…One of the knights at Canterlot. I had to come along and help.” He said, hoping that they would buy his lie. “Don’t you think that you should make your way out now? There’re still monsters around and we got to stop them.” The fillies looked up to their elders who nodded in agreement, Spike quickly walked up to Twilight.

“What does he mean?” He whispered to her. Twilight gave a small sigh.

“I’m not sure but he’s right about it being dangerous Spike, can you please get the girls out of the forest? I’ll explain later.” Spike looked at her and nodded before turning toward the three fillies.

“Come on then, those animals won’t take care of themselves.” He said to them, they looked towards each other and nodded. All four of them made their way out of the forest as Sora and the rest of the group turned the opposite way, walking deeper into the dark woods and towards the castle ruins.

A dark reunion

The ruined castle was coming up in the distance. The seven ponies were running as fast as they possibly could, the dark cloud above the broken fortress was reaching down. Discord was starting.

“So we can all use spells with the Keyblade?” Applejack asked Sora. He looked over to her with a nod before looking back to their destination.

“Yes but there are only certain spells we can use, not like the magic you all have here.” Applejack gave a nod in return as she kept listening. “You’ve already seen four of them. Fire, Blizzard, Thunder and Cure. The others are Aero which blows enemies away from you, Reflect which creates a shield, Magnet which pulls enemies towards you and Gravity which pushes the enemies around you into the ground. There’s also the spell Stop which freezes the enemies around you for a few moments but that doesn’t work on the more powerful ones.” Applejack gave a little sigh as Sora finished the list.

“That’s a lot to remember.” She replied. Sora just gave a small smile.

“Yeah but you’ll all remember it easier than you think.” The cowpony gave a smile back then turned her head forward. The castle was getting closer now and small lightning strikes were lashing out at the castle grounds. As the approached a small clearing outside the castle, a dark mist materialized in front of them as a creature that could only be described as a conglomeration of different animal pieces appeared from the mist. The six mares looked up at the creature scowling.

“Discord!” Twilight yelled. Discord smirked a little then sighed.

“Yes hello Twilight.” He started. “Hello to you too Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and… who are you?” He said as he stared down at the brown colt in the group.

“Sora, my name is Sora.” He replied.

“Well Sora, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I’d like to get to know you but I have a world that I need to rule but on the other hand…” Discord took a careful look at Sora, a little bit of confusion on his face. “Why are you here? You’re not an Element of Harmony.”

“I’m here to stop the heartless which means I’m here to stop you too.”

Discord sighed. “Another ‘mighty hero’ right? I’m going to win anyway so why do you keep trying to resist?” He said with a slight giggle. Suddenly the playful nature on his face washed away and only left confusion. “Wait a minute little Sora… The heartless are from another world, how do you know about them?” When Sora didn’t reply for a few moments, Discord caught on. “Oh I see” He smirked. “You’re from another world too aren’t you?”

Before Sora could utter a comeback, Discord looked behind himself then turned back, clapping his claw and paw together. “Well I’d like to stay and chat a little more but I’m meeting an old friend of yours. I can’t have you all interrupt us while I’m helping her back however so I’ll give you some friends to play with.” With a snap of his claw Discord vanished into a dark mist, Neoshadows began coming through the mist where Discord left. The ponies called their Keyblades and got ready to fight, Twilight came up beside Sora and frowned at him.

“You lied to us about where you’re from.” She said.

“Yes I know I did, sorry but I’ll explain myself later. We got bigger problems right now.” He replied. Twilight sighed in defeat and started charging towards the heartless as they responded in kind.

XXX

Discord approached a black veiled portal at the end of the castles decrepit chamber, he thrust his arms out towards it and they became cloaked in a black aura. Dark wisps flowed out of the walls and floor, collecting inside the black portal as Discord started chuckling to himself.

“Those fools. The elements may have stopped me last time but they will not be enough to stop this time around. I will get my Equestria back and return it to a beautiful state of chaos, those ponies won’t be able to stop me this time.”

‘Aiming high aren’t you Discord, it’s good to see that in a leader’ Maleficent spoke inside his mind.

“Well Maleficent, if you’re going to do something wrong, you got to do it right.” Discord replied, smiling as more dark energies poured into the portal.

‘Very true indeed. Bestowing the powers of darkness on you was not a waste.’ She chuckled. He smiled proudly in return.

“It won’t be, no one can stop me now. Not Celestia, not Luna and not those mares. I must ask about their new friend though, he knew about the heartless.” He said. Maleficent was quiet for a few moments.

‘What was his name…?’

“He said his name was Sora.”

‘WHAT?!’ Discord winced as she screamed in his mind. ‘How could you not have mentioned this already you fool?! He is not one to be underestimated, do you understand?’

“He is a small little earth pony, what danger could he pose to the plan?”

‘He carries a powerful weapon called the Keyblade, it is the one thing that the heartless fear and, as much as I don’t wish to admit it, he knows how to use it well’ Discord just shook his head and laughed.

“A key? I’m supposed to be threatened by a big key? That’s a good one Maleficent.” He heard her growled.

‘I’m not joking you idiot!’ Discord cringed.

“I’m no idiot witch! He will be under my control once I rule Equestria just like everypony else.”

‘Not ruled! He mustn’t be ruled, he must be destroyed!’ Maleficent wailed. Discord shrugged.

“Ok ok. I’ll make sure that our friend, the mare of the moon, won’t leave a trace of that pony.”

‘You better…’ Then Maleficent disappeared from his mind. Discord frowned for a few moments, feeling that it was him that was being underestimated but the thought didn’t last long as the last wisp of darkness entered the portal and a pair of turquoise eyes with black slitted pupils opened inside the vortex. Discord grinned evilly as Nightmare Moon stepped forward and bowed to him.

“Shame you’re not the full thing.” He said as the grin remained. “But we can make up for that with a few alterations.” He brought his talon to the mare’s horn and grabbed hold of it, laughing as he pumped dark energy inside the alicorn.

XXX

Sora brought his Keyblade down onto the last of the heartless, bursting it into wisps. He panted and looked up at the castle, gulping as he thought of what they might find inside. They all grouped back together before looking up at the archway.

“We ready?” Sora said. Everypony nodded and they all walked forward, into the castle. As they made their way under the archway and towards the door to the main chamber, shivers ran down their spines. They could feel the dark intent behind the door way, it was subtle but strong, they were sweating slightly and Sora gulped as he pushed the door open.

“Oh I’m so happy you all made it.” Discord said, greeting them into the chamber where he stood at the far end. “It wouldn’t have been very fun if that had been enough to take you down, in fact I would have been rather disappointed.”

“You won’t find the heart of the world Discord, we won’t let you!” Twilight announced. Discord just laughed.

“Oh I will Twilight Sparkle and when I do, this world will belong to me.”

Sora stepped towards Discord a little. “You do know that if the heartless find the heart of the world, they will destroy it right? You won’t rule it.” Discord shook his head at the colt.

“It won’t get destroyed little colt. Once I find the keyhole to the heart of the world and send in the heartless, Equestria will be plunged into chaos and I will rule as I rightfully should. Maleficent told me herself.” Sora narrowed his eyes and growled.

“So Maleficent is the one who gave you the control of the darkness, don’t you realise you’re only being used?” Discord laughed loudly then turned the joyous expression into a twisted scowl.

“You know nothing little pony. She has noticed my power and increased my strength, all I need to do to help her is to take down the light of this world and allow darkness to take it.”

Sora began yelling at the god of disharmony. “No! That will destroy the entire world. I’ve stopped her and her minions before and I’ll stop you too!” He called the Keyblade to his mouth and grabbed hold. The mares behind him followed suit, calling their Keyblades forth and getting ready for a battle. Discord simply sighed and looked to the seven of them.

“I wish I could make you see the chaos I’d create when I win little Sora but I’m afraid Maleficent has been rather forceful with the idea that I must be rid of you completely.” He stepped to his side and a dark portal rose from the ground. “So without further delay, I’d like to meet your doom little ponies. I give you the third coming of the powerful princess, the darkest ruler of the night, the queen of the moon. NIGHT-MARE MOON!”

The dark alicorn’s horn was the first thing to pierce the veil of the black portal. Her head emerged and those cold turquoise eyes pierced the souls of the ponies that saw her. Her wings spread out as she entered the room and then her lower body came through, her pitch black tail and mane with a violet tinge flowed with the breeze as the portal dissipated behind her. Discord enjoyed the look of fear that came across the faces of the elements of harmony.

“What’s wrong little ponies? I thought you’d enjoy seeing an old face, it’s a shame that she isn’t her full self, just a dark servant of mine if anything but that could be better, no chance of her getting her own ideas this way.”

Twilight glanced at Discord while making sure the alicorn was still view. “What do you mean by ‘she isn’t her full self’?” Discord just smiled at her as Sora began to explain instead.

“Heartless are made of all the darkness inside a heart, they feed on it and that’s what gives them form but this isn’t made from all the darkness inside your Princess’ heart. It’s just filled with whatever left you Princess when you defeated Nightmare Moon before, all the empty parts are just filled with dark magic. It looks like Nightmare Moon and may have her powers but it isn’t really her, just a shadow.” Discord started clapping and laughed.

“100 points to the colt! You’re absolutely right but even though she isn’t the full Nightmare Moon from before, she still has great power, even more with my dark energy imbued with her.” Sora looked at him as Discord began dissipating into a dark mist. “Well I’m off to pay a visit to your lovely little town, might find a few ideas as to where the keyhole is there. Have fun now.” With that, he was gone and only the alicorn remained.

It wasn’t even a few moments before the alicorn splayed out her wings and dove for the group, her horn sparking as black lightning fired at the ponies. They jumped out of the way as the magical lightning made an impact on the ground, cracking the floor.

“Don’t hesitate, just attack!” Sora yelled. He jumped back and span round, throwing the Keyblade towards the alicorn. “Spark Raid!” The Keyblade smacked into the alicorn’s side with less effect it had on the Stealth Sneak. He called it back to his mouth and ran round the mare, she glared at him and fired another few bolts of black lightning at him. He managed to deflect the first couple of bolts with the Keyblade but tripped and skidded along the floor as the last bolt flew towards him, it would have hit him but Pinkie came out of nowhere and held up her Keyblade.

“Reflect!” A transparent shell appeared over the two ponies and blocked the last bolt as it exploded over the dome. She quickly helped up the brown pony and he nodded in thanks as they made their way away from the shadowy mare. The alicorn growled at the two and was too distracted to see the fireball that struck her horn, she screamed and turned with a scowl to see Rainbow Dash pointing a Keyblade at her. The pegasus smirked as Applejack and her tree shaped Keyblade came from behind Nightmare Moon and slammed into her hooves causing the alicorn to whinny and rear up. Fluttershy grabbed Twilight and threw her towards the reared alicorn and slammed her Keyblade into the evil mare’s chest before teleporting away.

Rarity threw her Keyblade towards Nightmare Moon. “Spark Raid!” The Keyblade span towards the alicorn but she’d had enough. She spread out her wings and jumped over the weapon, opening her mouth and firing a ball of dark energy towards the fashion pony. Rarity just managed to jump out the way of a direct hit but the force of the blast sent her skidding across the floor and into the wall, forcing a yelp out of her mouth. Fluttershy quickly flew to Rarity’s side and Rainbow Dash dove in front of the two and used her reflect spell as the alicorn continued to fire dark blasts at them.

Twilight and Pinkie simultaneously fired Blizzard spells into the alicorns back. The dark mare yelped as she took the hits, she span round and fired the black lightning from her horn. Sora blocked the stream of lightning with his Keyblade but felt the power of the lightning begin to overpower his block.

“We need to find a way to beat her and quickly!” Sora cried as they spread out.

“How’re we supposed t’do that?” Applejack yelled to him. Sora’s block managed to outlast the stream of dark magic and he jumped back. He stumbled a little and Applejack supported him, allowing him to stay on all four hooves.

“We haven’t hurt her much except when Rainbow hit her horn, everyone aim for her horn!” All the ponies nodded and got faced the dark mare. The alicorn growled and began tensing up as a dark aura started at her horn then spread across her whole body. All the ponies were blown back as the black aura exploded outwards, pulsing across the whole room.

“Ok…now I’m mad!” Rainbow Dash said as she got back up and flew towards the alicorn. The alicorn looked up at Rainbow Dash as she swung her Keyblade, Nightmare Moon reared up and took the blow to her chest, wincing a little but not reacting much. She was about to slam her hooves down on the pegasus but Pinkie jumped up behind her and swiped the Keyblade across her horn. Nightmare Moon yelled out in pain and took into the air with a flap of her wings.

“A few more hits should do it.” Twilight said as she kept blasting Fire magic in an attempt to hit her horn, each attempt missing. Sora ran under the alicorn and held out his Keyblade, giving Applejack a boost as she used her strong back legs to jump into the air. She struck the dark mare’s horn with her Keyblade while she was too distracted by Twilight’s constant assault. She landed while Nightmare Moon gripped her horn in pain, a loud crackle of magic could be heard as the dark alicorn blasted black lightning bolts wildly. Rarity held up her Keyblade and used a reflect spell to protect herself and Fluttershy, blocking the lightning blasts while Rainbow Dash did the same for Sora and Pinkie. Twilight was also using her reflect spell to protect Applejack from any attack, she looked over at Sora while holding the spell.

“She’s going out of control!” She yelled. Sora started to yell back.

“It because she’s weak, I expect the next hit will be the last one! Everypony try to hit her horn one more time, it should stop her.” They all nodded and prepared for the final attack. Nightmare Moon eventually stopped and panted in exhaustion, the others quickly dropped the spells and charged towards the alicorn. Rainbow picked up Pinkie and threw her towards the area under Nightmare Moon, she was quickly joined by Rarity and Applejack and they all crossed their Keyblades as Twilight ran and jumped onto the crossed Keyblades. They pushed her high into the air where Fluttershy caught her, Rainbow Dash then held out her Keyblade while on the ground where Sora jumped on and pushed off. He jumped up and swung at the alicorns back, getting her attention as he wanted so that when Fluttershy dropped the purple unicorn on Nightmare Moon, she was able to deliver the final, powerful downward strike onto her horn.

Rainbow caught Sora as he fell back to the ground and Fluttershy flew down, catching Twilight before she hit the ground. They all watched as Nightmare Moon fell to the ground with a thump, they shared a sigh of relief and grouped up again, walking towards the exit.

“Now we got to get out of here, Discord headed back to Ponyville and I doubt he will be quiet when he gets there.” Twilight stated. The other six nodded and started making their way out. However Sora looked back at the fallen alicorn and frowned, trotting back towards her. Rainbow noticed and followed behind him as they re-entered the main chamber while the others waited.

“What’s wrong Sora? We got to hurry.” She told him. He just shook his head in response and when he saw the alicorns eyelids start opening, he tackled Rainbow Dash the side. Before she could even ask what he was doing, Nightmare Moon rose to her hooves and let out a shriek. Her horn crackled loudly and she fired a bolt of black lightning at the top of the door way, causing it to collapse. The alicorn started to shake and hiss as Sora and Rainbow Dash ran to the collapsed door way, hearing the others on the other side.

“We’ll try and get you out!” Rarity said.

“No.” Sora responded. “Nightmare Moon isn’t defeated yet and Discord is heading back to Ponyville, I’ll finish Nightmare Moon while you go protect the town.” Rainbow Dash then spoke up through the wall.

“Yeah, you guys go on ahead. We can take care of her.” Sora looked over at the mare.

“There’s a hole up where the stone came down, you can get out now you know?” Rainbow just shook her head.

“I can’t leave you in here alone now can I?” Sora smiled and heard Fluttershy’s voice through the stones.

“A-are you sure about us leaving you?” She asked softly. Sora grinned at Rainbow Dash and replied.

“Yeah we can handle it, go make sure everyone else is ok.” He heard their hoof steps as they ran away from the tower. They turned back to face Nightmare Moon who was beginning to change. She hissed as her teeth turned into sharp fangs, each side of her shoulders started growing long appendages and they ripped open at the heads, a single row of sharp teeth in the mouths made them look like snakes with bear teeth, both with a mane flowing down them the same colour as the alicorns. Her tail split off and began solidifying into tendrils and her eyes turned fully yellow as she stared at the two ponies.

Rainbow grimaced at the foul monster and turned to Sora. “What will we do? She looks stronger than she was before.” Sora nodded and smiled a little.

“Then so will I.” His blue band shone brightly and enveloped his entire body, Rainbow quickly shielded her eyes as she smiled, remembering what happened last time. When the light died down, there stood Sora with his mane still the same but his coat now a navy blue. A horn protruded from his head and he called his Keyblade. A light blue, oval shaped guard with a dark blue handle. The shaft was dark blue like the handle and lead up to a slightly axe shaped head with circular patterns on it, a star in a circle was on the back of the Keyblade behind the axe shape. Sora smirked as he looked up at Nightmare Moon.

“This is the Spellbinder Keyblade and this…” he gestured to his new body. “is my wisdom form. I hope you’re ready…”

Discorded

“Are they going to be ok in there? They are against Nightmare Moon after all!” Rarity yelled to the four remaining mares as they charged through the forest.

“I hope they will be, Sora sounded like he had some sort of plan to beat her.” Twilight replied.

“Don’t forget that he has Rainbow with him, she wouldn’t go down without a fight.” Applejack added. “They are fighting Nightmare Moon so we can stop Discord in Ponyville, we can’t waste that chance.” They all agreed and kept heading towards the town. Heartless started to rise from the ground in their way, determined to stop the ponies but they were just cut down by their Keyblades instead.

“Uhm…not that I’m complaining but why aren’t the heartless very strong? Discord doesn’t want us coming so you would’ve thought he’d send stronger ones to stop us.” Fluttershy asked the rest of the group. Twilight shook her head in response.

“I have no idea, it could mean maybe he’s weak, maybe the stronger ones are in town I don’t know. I just hope we won’t be too late.” They all hurried faster, eventually breaking through the bushes and entering the town. A look of horror washed over their faces as they saw a mix of shadows and Neoshadows running towards the town, ponies screaming and running home at the mere sight of them.

“Come on, we gotta stop ‘em!” Applejack yelled as she began charging towards the heartless. The others quickly followed behind as they charged towards the horde, yelling at the top of their lungs.

XXX

Black tendrils flew across the room and impaled the ground where the navy blue unicorn once stood, he had quickly rolled to the side and the black bolt of lightning that shot towards him was then blocked by another lightning bolt that was cast by the Rainbow Pegasus. As the alicorn monster looked over at Rainbow Dash, Sora fired a blast of magic towards the side of her face only to watch it get eaten by the dark snake protruding from her shoulder. The snake’s mouth leaked a little bit of a dark aura before re opening its mouth, firing a blast of dark magic back at the unicorn. He managed to block the attack but winced as he felt the impact of the attack, he jumped back and motioned Rainbow Dash to come closer.

“We got to find a way of stopping those heads! I could do a lot of damage with my magic in this state but those snake things keep eating it and firing it back.” Rainbow looked at the creature and dodged as it struck out with its tendrils.

“I know but we tried to cut them off before, they just grow back! How do we beat something like that?” She asked. Sora frowned and threw up a reflect barrier as the mare of the moon continued her barrage of attacks.

“We don’t have long…” Sora started. “We need to help the others and the longer I’m in this form, the higher the chance I’ll pass out again after the fight and won’t be able to help the others in town.” He stated. Rainbow gave a nod as she remembered what happened when he was a pegasus. She looked around for anything that could help and got an idea, whispering it to Sora as he kept the barrier up.

“Do you think we could break them?” He asked her. She shook her head and pointed to the dark mare.

“I don’t think we could but she might.” Sora looked at their opponent with a confused expression. It took him a few moments but a grin grew on his face as he understood Rainbow’s idea. He nodded to her and waited for the attacks to stop. The moment Nightmare Moon stopped, Sora dropped the reflect spell and ran to one side of the room while Rainbow Dash flew to the other side. Sora ran round the side of the room, firing blasts of magic at the dark alicorn. She just caught the blast with the dark snake coming out of her shoulder, firing it back and smashing the wall behind Sora as he kept moving.

Sora reached the back of the room, still having the blast follow behind him at each step. As he reached the back of the room, Rainbow flew down to the alicorn and slashed off one of the snake heads. The creature roared and fired off a stream of black lightning, Rainbow dodged the attack easily and flew along the wall edge, the lightning ripped through the wall behind her and followed behind. She flapped her wings harder as the lightning closed in, the end of her tail getting slightly singed. Rainbow let out a small eep and hurried her pace, eventually she managed to reach Sora and nodded to him. He nodded and jumped up in the air. Rainbow flew and grabbed him, flying up in the air as the lightning blast met where she had ripped through the wall chasing Sora. The wall groaned as it started to shake, falling forward and nearly crushing the alicorn but she just managed to hold the wall up with her magic, avoiding her defeat.

“We were so close!” Rainbow yelled as they watched Nightmare Moon slowly push the wall upwards, Sora scowled until an idea spawned in his head.

“Drop me!” He yelled up at Rainbow.

“Are you nuts?!”

“It’s arguable now do it! Trust me!” Rainbow hesitated for a few moments. She gulped nervously and nodded, letting Sora drop down towards the slowly rising wall. He flew down towards the wall, grasping his Keyblade in his hooves and the tip began glowing a black colour. He pointed the Keyblade downward as he approached the fallen wall and stopped as the power of his spell forced him to stay in mid air.

“Gravity!” He yelled. The force added onto the wall caused it to slam into the ground, a loud slamming sound echoed outwards as large black wisps shot up from under the collapsed wall. Sora landed on the debris and his colours faded back to brown, his horn disappearing from his body as he fell onto his stomach panting heavily. He spluttered a little and the rainbow maned pony flew down to his side, pointing her Keyblade at the brown earth pony and releasing a burst of green energy onto him. He smiled up at her and slowly got to his hooves as she let out a sigh of relief.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?! What if that hadn’t worked?” She moaned at him. He grinned at her and shrugged.

“Well it did work and I’m alive so it’s ok.” He replied. She huffed before looking over at the doorway, the rubble had fallen down during the collapse of the castle walls. “We better get moving. The harrd part still isn’t over.”

XXX

Pinkie brought down her Keyblade on a small heartless that was scratching at the door of Sugarcube Corner.

“Are you ok in there?” Pinkie shouted at the door. She pressed her ear up to the door to listen out for any reply.

“We’re fine, what’s going on out there?!” She heard a female voice yell. She smiled and let out a sigh of relief.

“It’ll be ok Mrs. Cake, just make sure you all stay inside and you’ll be safe.” Pinkie waited for an ok and left once she heard it. She ran back to Twilight and helped her defeat a few heartless that surrounded her.

“The Cakes are ok!” She told Twilight. The unicorn nodded back with a smile and shot a fire spell at an approaching heartless, she squinted a little and waved as Applejack speeded towards them.

“Ah managed to get the little ones and their parents inside the barn. It should be safe in there, the walls are pretty thick and it’s hard to get inside. The heartless don’t seem to be around the barn either.” She explained. The heartless were starting to grow thin but the dark cloud still hovered over the town. “Where’s Rarity and Fluttershy?” She then asked.

“Fluttershy went to get the animals at her cottage to safety and Rarity went with her to keep her safe.” Twilight explained.

“So what do we do while they are there? Any clue where Discord is?” Applejack asked, Twilight just shook her head.

“No idea…”

XXX

“I never thought that I, Discord, Lord of chaos and disharmony, would be looking through a library to look up history…” Discord whined and he threw books across the floor. He dragged books out of their shelves and stared at their covers before throwing them behind them.

“No. no. no. no. no! no!! NO! Why am I looking through these books when I could be out their spreading the darkness across the world?” Discord moaned.

‘Simple, the keyholes are usually in places of great importance and they are date back to as far as anyone can remember.’ Maleficent stated.

“And you expect me to find a reference in one of these books? Wouldn’t it be better to just go around until I find it?” He asked her.

‘You’ve felt it for yourself, he’s beaten your creation and it’s highly likely that he’s on his way here. You need to hurry and find that keyhole!’ She ordered him. He sighed as he flicked through the book Equestrian history for children. His eyes suddenly widened as he flicked back a few pages and compared the information. He groaned loudly and placed his paw to his forehead as a grin spread on his face.

“Of course…I really should have guessed it from the beginning…” He muttered.

‘You’ve found it?’ The witch asked him. He nodded a little before wondering if she even knew he nodded.

“Yes dear Maleficent, I believe I’ve found it at long last.” He said as he got back up. Maleficent didn’t like the way she was addressed but ignored it for a better idea.

‘Good but before we head there, I believe I’ve thought of a wonderful way to stop those wretched fools. I’m aware you have a rather unique ability that we may be able to increase greatly…’ Discord listened to the dark witches plan as she unravelled it inside his mind, letting out a loud laugh once she had finished.

“Oh Maleficent” He said. “We were made for each other…”

XXX

Fluttershy and Rarity made a joint strike through three Neoshadows as they made their way through to the others. They let out a sigh of relief as they saw the earth ponies and the unicorn easily holding their ground against the dwindling numbers of the enemy.

“Hey girls, did you manage to get the animals to safety?” Pinkie asked the two approaching mares.

“Yes we did, they’re either hiding underground or in the caves in the forest, the heartless don’t seem to be around those areas.” Fluttershy explained.

“Probably because they are scouting for the keyhole.” Twilight added.

“You think Sora and Dash are ok?” Applejack asked. Twilight smiled with confidence and nodded to the cow pony.

“I doubt they’d be beaten by an incomplete copy of Nightmare Moon.” Applejack felt herself become filled with confidence and nodded back in agreement.

“Well well well… Someone’s getting rather confident now aren’t they?” A gruff voice stated from behind them. The five ponies turned slowly and readied their weapons as Discord stood further down the street with crossed arms and a cocky smirk painted on his face. “You know, I’m sure this town looked like there were more ponies in it before, where did they all go?”

“Discord! What are you trying to gain from this?!” Twilight yelled to him. The Lord of disharmony facepalmed and sighed.

“Oh Twilight… I want Equestria, we already covered this. For the brightest of Celestia’s pupils, not so good with the listening are you?” He teased, grabbing his own ear to add emphasis to his point. Twilight growled at him and would have likely charged at him then and there if Applejack hadn’t put her hoof in front of the unicorn.

“Why attack Ponyville? There’s nothing for you to gain from it.” She stated. He just chuckled to himself.

“I needed to know something, the information was here, I came to get it and now I have it. By the way, you might need to clean up your library Twilight, someone has made a large mess in there.” He let out another laugh as he revelled in his jokes. Twilight just scowled as he injured her pride again. “Oh, did I hit a nerve?” He said with his cocky smile.

“Yeah right, you couldn’t hit the side of a barn door!” A familiar mares voice rang through and caught his ear, he looked behind the group with a look as his cocky grin became a look of disdain when he saw Rainbow Dash and Sora run towards them. The other five gave a sigh of relief as their group became complete again.

“Hmph, you didn’t want to play with the mare of the moon anymore?” He asked as he kept an unsatisfied look on his face.

“We would of but we were a little pressed for time.” Sora said with a proud grin on his face. Rainbow just facehoofed with a smile at the cheesy joke while Discord raised an eyebrow unimpressed, a few moments later he sighed and shrugged.

“No matter, I blame the fact that she was incomplete.”

“I’d blame the fact you’re not as strong as you think.” Sora replied. The creature grinded his teeth in frustration. “You rely on tricks and others to break down your opponents for you. We rely on the strength of our friendship and our hearts, that’s why we won’t ever lose!” Discord placed his talons together, opening and closing them repeatedly.

“Blah blah blah friendship, blah blah blah light, blah blah blah ‘we will win’, SERIOUSLY!” He complained. “All you good guys sound like stuck record players, do you have some kind of book that you memorise or is it in a kind of chant?” He placed his paw in the air and put his talon to his chest. “I solemly swear that I will use the same lines when facing my enemies. I mean if you’re trying to bore into submission then please continue, it just might work!” Discord winced and put his talon and paw to his chest, feeling an odd mix of pain and fear shoot up inside him. He eventually managed to calm himself down and the feeling in his chest subsided.

“Sorry about that, a good and true ruler must remain calm and collective at all times.” He stroked his beard as he peered down at the ponies. “Now, it’s time I take my leave but first, a little gift.” He grinned as he disappeared into a veil of black smoke. All seven of them looked around for him until they heard Discord’s voice speak up from behind. “Now you see little Sora.” They turned to face him and moved back a little.

“I realise that your friendship is indeed strong, as is the fact that when you’re all united I have little chance of beating you. It isn’t easy to beat all seven of you, especially when you’re the leader of the group and wielder of the Keyblade so this begs the question. How can I stop you leading, take away the Keyblade away from you and get rid of you all at the same time?” Then Discord shot him a wicked smile. “Simple…”

Sora looked at the Lord of chaos and disharmony confused and was completely caught off guard as Discord flew forward and grabbed the colt by his throat.

“I bring out the worst in you.” Discord’s claw that held onto Sora’s throat began glowing with a dark aura while his claw gained a grey hue. The hue, followed by the dark aura, latched onto Sora’s body and crawled along it, slithering all across his form. The elements of harmony could only watch in horror as their friend’s body turned grey then jet black before Discord dropped him on the ground.

Sora yelped as his body turned black. Once his body had changed colour, he stood slouched over on his back hooves, his knees going forward instead of back. His forehooves shook violently as the circumference shrank and claws grew out of them, his spiked mane grew outward and became unruly, starting to hang down his face. He looked over at the six mares and looks of absolute terror were plastered on their faces as they saw that his bright blue eyes had been replaced by yellow circles. He now looked exactly like the enemy.

Discord howled in laughter as Sora just stood there, watching his old friends. “This is amazing! Absolutely perfect!” He then started coughing as the small pain in his chest returned then faded again just as quick. “Well then, have fun now.” Discord snapped his talons and vanished into a dark mist as the cloud above began moving again. Fluttershy took a few steps forward as she cautiously approached Sora.

“Sora…Is that still you…?” He tilted his head and took a step forward. “Sora…?” He jumped forward faster than anypony had expected. Fluttershy shut her eyes as tears started forming in them, expecting to be hit but the attack never came. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Twilight holding up a reflect spell, keeping their recently made friend from scratching them to pieces. He jumped back after attacking the transparent shell and watched as the two ponies were joined by the other four.

“We aren’t going to kill him are we…?” Fluttershy asked as she looked up at her friends. Applejack shook her head and helped the pegasus back up to her hooves.

“Now we won’t. We will knock sense back into him though.”

Return

Sora's dark form charged at the ponies, his claws splayed open as he threw them towards Applejack. The cowpony quickly moved back and swung her Keyblade in front of her, allowing him to collide with the Keyblade. Even though he didn't have his Keyblade, Sora was still strong and he clearly wasn’t holding back. He pressed down on the mares Keyblade hard and tried to creep his claw over the blade to strike but it was to no avail. Pinkie Pie quickly came at his side and head butted the dark colt away from her friend, he stumbled back a little while clutching at his side that was hit.

“We can’t hold back our attacks or he’ll kill us!” Applejack said as she regained her footing. “We have to actually fight him or we don’t have a chance.” Sora jumped towards Twilight but was easily fended off as she released a reflect spell from her weapon to block his attack.

“I know but what if we really hurt him or worse?” Twilight said as she kept the barrier up.

“We can’t just let him go wild Twi’!” The cowpony yelled. The unicorn grimaced and gulped as she lowered the transparent barrier and took aim of the Keyblade right towards her friend.

“Aero!” The purple unicorn cried out as the air around the tip of her Keyblade became distorted then burst outwards towards Sora. He flew off of his hooves and tumbled across the streets of the town. He dug his claws into the ground, creating grooves in the dirt as he slowed his pace and returned to standing upright on his back hooves.

Fluttershy felt more fear in her life as she stared at the creature that was her new friend only moments ago and saw nothing. No joy, no anger, no sorrow, just nothing. She was quickly snapped back to reality as Rainbow Dash called out her name.

“Fluttershy! Wake up!” The pegasus yelled to her friend, finally grabbing her attention. “Hurry up and fly, he won’t be able to get you if you’re in the air and we’ll have the advantage!” The butter yellow pony nodded and flew up next to her friend.

“What are we going to do…?” She asked.

“We got to find a way to bring him back, I know we can do it!” Rainbow said as she glared at Sora’s new form. Fluttershy could see the determination and a slight hint of understandable anger as the colt glared back, tilting his head before turning his attention to Rarity and charging again. The marshmallow unicorn quickly jumped back and threw her Keyblade forward, barring the colt from getting and closer.

“There must be some way he can return to normal!” Rarity said as she tried to keep him away. Twilight looked at her hooves for a moment before turning her attention to Applejack and Pinkie.
“Can you girls help keep him distracted while I think? I might be able to figure out a way to get him back if we’re lucky.” Her friends nodded and ran towards Sora to fend him off. He had pushed Rarity’s Keyblade out of the way and was about to run his claw into her but another pink head butt struck him in the side and sent him stumbling just as Rarity’s Keyblade took aim and blasted him with an Aero spell point blank. Sora flew back again and barrelled across the floor, eventually slamming into wall and letting out a horrible hissing sound as he collided with it.

He got back up onto his hooves and stared towards the mares, another hissing sound came from him and he charged forward again, he raised his claw high and jumped leapt over the three mares before bringing his claw down on them. No blood was drawn as his claw didn’t make contact with their bodies but purple hair was strewn across the street floor as Sora just cut off the end of Rarity’s mane. The unicorn began shaking as she watched the strands of her mane fall to the floor and she felt a rage she had never known before.

“You may be our friend Sora…” She whispered as she brought her Keyblade to her side. “But nopony…and I mean NOPONY. TOUCHES. MY. MANE!” She cried. Rarity launched herself at Sora and brought an onslaught of attacks down onto Sora. He was barely avoiding her strikes as the blade was thrown around. Rarity thought she heard a slight eep coming from her opponent but cared little for the mane killer.

“Twi! You thought of anything yet so we can stop Sora before Rarity kills him!?” Applejack asked as Sora just about fended off his attacker. Twilight strained her brain to recall some sort of information to help.

“Hang on!” She yelled back before she began muttering to herself. “Let’s see, Sora can’t use his Keyblade but ours are still here, Sora’s fighting but it’s like he still isn’t going as hard as he could, it’s as if he’s holding himself back but if that’s true then why? Unless… when Discord grabbed him earlier and turned him this way… he was turned into the opposite of his usual self like we were!” Twilight quickly looked over at Sora and narrowed her eyes before a thought came to her.

“Girls, he’s like we were back when Discord changed us. I think we need to make him realise that he can fight it!” They all nodded in response. Rarity was the first to try as she pushed Sora down.

“Sora, this isn’t you and you know it. You can beat this just like you’ve beat all the heartless before.” She said to him but her reassurance fell on deaf ears as he took the opportunity of Rarity letting her guard down and pushed her away. He managed to push her weapon to one side and threw his claw forward, nearly cutting her mane as she moved her head to one side, following up with ramming his shoulder into her and forcing her off. Rarity stumbled back and Applejack took charge next, throwing her Keyblade down on him. He just managed to catch it and held his ground as the cowpony took her turn to bring him back.

“We know you can fight this Sora! We still need to go beat Discord and the rest of the heartless!” She said while grunting from his resistance. He took little notice of her plea and kicked her in the side, sending her rolling away. Fluttershy quickly ran to her friends side as she struggled to get back up while the dark colt took the opportunity to go towards Twilight. She pointed her Keyblade towards him and created a reflect spell, holding steady as he batted away at the transparent shell.

“Sora we don’t have time for this, Discord is heading towards the Keyhole now and we need to stop him before he destroys Equestria.” His attacks began to slow a little but not completely stop. He scratched more and more at the shielding until he was hit in the side by a blast of air fired from a pink Keyblade.

“You got to stop this Sora, please! I still need to throw you a welcome to Ponyville party but I can’t do that if we keep hurting you!” She cried with a slight strain in her voice. Sora hesitated for a few moments before slowly taking off at Pinkie Pie with his claw balled up into a fist, he wasn’t as fast as he was before however and Pinkie managed to dodge the attack easier than before.

“I think it’s working!” Twilight said as she brought up a barrier around her and the pink pony, leaving a still attacking Sora on the other side. He didn’t get much time to hit the shield however before Rainbow Dash flew into his side and knocked him over. He rolled across the ground but quickly hopped back onto his back hooves before looking at his assailant.

“We know you’re still in there Sora. You turned into a pegasus and a unicorn, nopony has ever done that. If you can change your body like that then I’m sure you’re strong enough to turn back into your old self.” Rainbow called out softly, feeling herself welling up a little but in the moment where she closed her eyes to calm herself, Sora took the moment to charge at her.

“Watch out!” Fluttershy yelled as she pushed the cyan pegasus out of the way and took the full brunt of the attack. Sora grabbed hold of her and rolled with her as the momentum of the attack took its toll. When she opened her eyes, she saw the dark colt sitting on her with his claw held up high, as if ready to strike. He stayed like it for a few moments as he seemed to hesitate a little, Fluttershy saw him holding himself back and felt she knew what to tell him.

“Sora, remember what you told me before? The Keyblade chooses its wielder based on the light in their heart.” She placed her hoof on his dark chest, feeling how cold his body was in his present state. “You helped us even though we never asked for it, protected ponies you didn’t even know and beat dark monsters and left without even asking for thanks. You have enough light in your heart to beat this. So please…” A small tear streamed down her cheek. “Please come back to us…” The others could only watch as she pleaded with Sora. After a few moments of silence, Sora jumped off of Fluttershy and grabbed his head as he began hissing.

He started flailing his head around wildly as a small light shot out of his chest, white cracks forming from the light and covered his entire body. The claws that protruded from his arms shrank back into him, regular hoof shapes taking their place again. His knees cracked as they reset to their rightful position and the colt returned to all fours, he looked up at the concerned faces of his friends as they watched the black, cracking earth pony continue to flail his head slightly. A familiar light shone in front of Sora’s form and the Keyblade appeared from it, he slowly inched his face towards his weapon and grabbed it in his mouth. The light cracks shone brightly and emitted a high pitched sound before the dark form shattered in a burst of white light, causing the mares to all shield their eyes.

When they opened their eyes again, smiles grew all round as Sora’s chocolate brown coat had replaced the black one he had before and the yellow circle eyes had been replaced by his usual sky blue eyes. He gave a cheeky grin.

“Miss me?” The only smiled in return. He nodded and span on his hooves to view the dark cloud float over the Canterlot castle once more. “Come on, we have a world to save.”

XXX

Celestia’s guards pulled out their weapons and started cutting away at all the heartless that began slipping through the enormous front doors, they tried to concentrate more on pushing the door closed as the number of heartless steadily increased. The two Princesses were in the main chamber, anxiously waiting for good news.

“Dearest sister, do you think that the elements failed in their task to stop Discord?” Luna asked sadly. Celestia looked at her with a sombre look then back to the door.

“I still hold hope, I feel that the task is not so much failed as it is incomplete.” She said as she kept her head held high but on the inside, Celestia felt so much grief. The monsters were close to them now and whatever it is that they wanted, they would flood the entire castle with their darkness to find it. Her worried thoughts were quickly interrupted by a guard bursting into the room only to add one more concern.

“Your Highnesses, the rest of the guards are doing their best to hold the door but we fear it will not be long until they break through. We must get you both to safety immediately.” He explained as he bowed to the royal sisters. They looked at each other for a moment before nodding, already knowing what the other was thinking.

“No, we shall wait here and stop the monsters ourselves if they come through.” Princess Celestia stated. The guard gulped and raised his head to view the two alicorns.

“B-but Princess! We cannot allow you two to put yourselves in danger!” Princess Luna shook her head and walked forward.

“And we cannot abandon our subjects just to save ourselves. We will not give Discord the satisfaction.” The guard looked at the determined looks on their faces and knew that he wasn’t going to be able to persuade them.

“V-very well your highnesses. What shall we do for now then?” He asked.

“First.” Celestia began. “Put up a barrier around the door way, divide the unicorns in the guard into two groups. One group will hold the barrier and when they get tired, the other group shall take their place and swap back when they begin tiring out as well. Any other guards are to watch carefully for any of the monsters that make it through and stop them on the spot.” The guard nodded and ran down the corridor to the door, already barking the orders.

“They will not be able to keep that up for too long.” Luna stated as she watched the guard disappear down the hall way.

“I’m aware but we must try to gain some more time, at least until Twilight and her friends get here.”

XXX

It seemed like a warzone when the seven ponies arrived back at the castle, the gates that had just been repaired were completely demolished and flattened. The ground leading from the gate to the main doors was over turned and kicked up, as if a stampede had just barrelled its way through.

“Come on, we have to hurry!” Twilight said as she began running towards the main door way. The doors had been smashed open and pieces of wood were strewn across the floor on the castle. As they made their way inside there was fighting all around. The guards were going hoof and sword to claw with the heartless that had invaded their sanctuary. It wasn’t long before Sora ran in with his Keyblade in his mouth and attacked the heartless, slamming his weapon into their chests and sending them bursting into wisps.

“T-Thanks.” One of the guards said. The colt smiled happily at him and took off to help another. All seven of them were quickly able to take down the heartless that was plaguing the main hall, Sora walked over to one of the guards and helped them up.

“Thanks for all your help.” The guard said. Sora just smiled again and nodded.

“No problem, are there any more of them?” The guard sighed and hung his head.

“Yes.” He pointed his hoof down a corridor. “They went that way to the Princess’ main chamber. Both the Princesses are there with a few guards but I can’t help worrying. I’d love to go help myself but I feel that me and my men here are too injured or fatigued to move.” Sora looked at the guard admirably and placed a hoof on his shoulder.

“No problem. You’ve done enough, we’ll take care of the rest.” Sora said cheerfully. “Applejack! Rarity! Pinkie!” He called, they quickly appeared in front of him. “Can you three guard the front door and help round up the injured guards. Fluttershy!” The pegasus nodded and hovered in front of him, next to the other three. “You help take care of healing the guards, they’ve deserved it.” She smiled and nodded before all four of them went off to help.

“Twilight! Rainbow Dash!” They came up next to him and waited for his instruction. “We’re going to go help the Princesses and their guards. I have a feeling that’s where Discord is.” They smirked and gave a nod before making their way down the hall to the Princess’ throne room. Sora gave one more glance to the guard. “What’s your name?”

“Wingbeat, my name is Wingbeat.” He replied.

“Well don’t worry Wingbeat, we got this covered.” He said before he ran off, following behind the mares.

Beginning of the End

“Where is it!?” Sora heard a voice yell as he ran down the hallway with the two mares. The voice sounded like Discords but he seemed panicked, furious even. He ran as fast as his hooves could carry him down the royal hallway. A few heartless that were lurking just up a head, the three ponies called out their Keyblades and quickly dispatched them. A few more were running around frantically just before they were taken out by the ponies weapons, Rainbow looked far ahead before tilting her head.

“Why aren’t they reacting? We attacked a few but they don’t seem to care at all, like they’re distracted.” She stated. Sora looked back and gave her a quick nod before turning back, banishing his Keyblade to speak.

“You’re right, I have no idea what’s going on with them.” Sora replied. They kept running through the hallway, lifting their heads up when they could hear another shout from further on.

“Come on you little ingrates! I know it’s close by so hurry up and find it! You’re all absolutely useless!” The voice yelled again.

“That’s definitely Discord’s voice, he must have found out the Keyhole is nearby, would explain why the heartless are running around distracted. They just don’t want him to keep yelling at them.” Twilight explained. Sora furrowed his brow and kept looking ahead.

“That can’t be it. The heartless are more animalistic, they don’t have emotions so they wouldn’t be scared of his yelling.” He explained back, Twilight gathered her thoughts and came up with another idea.

“Maybe they just really, really want to get to the Keyhole and don’t care about us?” She suggested.

“I don’t think so.” Sora answered. “They feed on the hearts of others, the stronger the heart then the stronger the desire to want it.”

“Then why wouldn't they want our hearts if we so close to them?” Rainbow asked. Sora thought for a few moments before an idea came to him.

“It can’t be… Remember what I said before when we were back in the Everfree forest and no heartless were around?” He asked, the mares just looked at him puzzled. “The only reason they wouldn’t want us… is because they found something they want more… and we have two Princesses up ahead.” Twilight gasped as the realization hit her and Rainbow put a hoof over her muzzle at the thought. “Come one, we got to hurry!” Sora said and with that, they took off as fast as they could towards the throne room.

XXX

The heartless had herded the worn out Princesses into the corner of the room with only a couple of guards protecting them. The little monsters had surrounded them and were just standing there, barring the ponies from getting away. Discord had torn off a few of the beautiful paintings and strewn them across the floor in his search, remaining heartless hopping around the room to find their precious worldly meal. Discord gritted his teeth with each passing minute, letting out an exhausted and infuriated groan as well as giving the occasional passing heartless a kick up the backside.

“For a hoard of evil, darkness spreading, world possessing monsters, you’re all so useless! We’ve been here for hours and not a single clue as to where this Keyhole is, how is it possible that you were able to outnumber and overpower the Princesses of the sun and the moon yet you can’t find the one thing you search worlds for.” He yelled at the shadows, as if expecting an acceptable reply but getting nothing. He knew the heartless couldn’t talk back but the fact he got no answers angered him further, to the point where he summoned a dark aura around his talon and fired it at an unsuspecting heartless, bursting it into wisps instantly.

He yelped and fell to one knee, clutching his chest with his talon and paw, growling as a larger pain than before started up for a few moments before dying down again. He panted heavily for a few moments and lifted his head, seeing some of the heartless just standing there looking at him. He felt his heartbeat grow as he felt them staring into his eyes, into his soul. He quickly stood back up and snarled at them, charging a dark aura into his talon once more.

“Get back to work!” He yelled as he threw another blast of dark energy towards them. They quickly dodged out of the way and moved off to continue searching.

“Not able to control your minions well Discord?” Celestia asked him. He looked over at the scowling alicorn and huffed.

“I have perfect control of them, not my fault they can’t follow the orders they are given.” He replied. Celestia just stared at him, a constant frown on her face that only made him angrier with every second he saw it. “Oh don’t act all high and mighty, this is MY KINGDOM!” He pointed at the throne. “That is MY THRONE!” He then threw his arms up in the air. “And this is MY CASTLE! It used to all be MINE!” His voice cracked a little as his whole body started growing with a dark aura. “AND THIS WILL ALL BELONG TO ME ONCE MORE!” The aura dissipated as quickly as it came up as he winced in pain, feeling the pain from his chest shoot throughout his entire body.

“T-These damn pains! Maleficent! What is going on?!” He yelled out into the air, confusing the ponies watching him.

‘It’s nothing you need to worry about, just your body adjusting to the darkness so you can use it easier. It will ease in time as long as you keep using the darkness, your body will eventually get used to it.’ She explained. Discord gave a small huff but smiled a little, looking back at the two Princesses and grinning.

“It seems I will only get stronger, I hope you and all your precious ponies are ready for my return.” He gloated. He began to snicker to himself, the snicker turned into a cackle and the cackle turned into a full blown laugh, echoing throughout the hallways.

“For somepony who has a tendency to fail over and over again, you seem to be having a good time Discord.” The brown colt at the door exclaimed. Discord turned to see Sora, Twilight and Rainbow at the doorway of the room. He gave a disgusted look before sighing.

“Why…Why are you still alive…?” He growled. Sora gave a shrug and grinned.

“Good friends, Keyblade and being a stubborn as a mule I suppose.” He chuckled. Twilight gave him a slight nudge and frowned.

“Hey, that’s racist you know.” She said. He gave an apologetic nod and turned back to the angry lord of chaos.

“You must know you can’t win by now. Why don’t you give up?” He asked. Discord gritted his teeth before shrugging off the comment.

“I won’t lose now, I know I’m close to the Keyhole and once I get to it then I’ll be able to control the entire world!” He boasted.

“You know… I’ve been meaning to ask you about that. How did you know about the Keyhole and my anti-form? Also who told you that finding the Keyhole would lead to you gaining control over the world?” Sora asked. Discord giggled and looked down at the colt with a cocky grin.

“Our mutual friend… Maleficent.” Sora scowled as soon as he heard the name.

“That explains everything…” He said. Twilight leaned forward a little with Rainbow just behind.

“Who’s Maleficent?” She asked.

“Oh she’s wonderful!” Discord started. “She has amazing powers and allowed me control of the heartless. She recognised me as her equal and decided to give me Equestria as long as I allow the heartless into the heart of the world. She’s intelligent, strategic, informative and-”

“She’s a witch…” Sora interrupted. All eyes were now on him except the heartless who had just stopped in their places as soldiers without command. “She uses others to get what she wants then casts them aside when she doesn’t want or need them anymore. She takes advantage of something that someone wants to use them for her purposes. She even ended up getting a dear friend of mine to succumb to the darkness then possessed by a madman!” He yelled to Discord. “I’ll gladly bet that she’s using you too, if the heart of the world is taken by the heartless then that world doesn’t fall into chaos, it gets destroyed!”

“Blah blah blah, nice try but I won’t fall for it. She gave me the power to do all I have done and even more power will be on its way soon, I’ll be stronger than both goddesses combined and nopony will be able to stop me!” Discord cackled. Sora gritted his teeth for a few moments then looked up at Discord with a stern expression.

“We will stop you. You won’t get away with this!” He called his Keyblade to him and grabbed hold of it in his mouth, the two mares behind him felt the oncoming battle and called their Keyblades to them as well. Discord shrugged and motioned his claw forward.

“Heartless! Attack!” All the heartless except the ones guarding the Princesses quickly sprang into action and charged towards the trio. Shadows and Neo-Shadows held the front of the force, jumping towards the three ponies only to be quickly cut down. Sora jumped ahead of the other two and swung his weapon round, slamming it into two Neo-Shadows and sending them flying into a third, quickly finishing them off with a blast of fire. Twilight swung the Keyblade wildly, trying to keep anything from getting too close. She spotted one of them jump into the air above her and just held her Keyblade up straight, the heartless landing and impaling itself onto it before bursting. She then turned her attention to the heartless to either side of her and threw her Keyblade upwards once more, calling forth a barrage of lightning bolts to annihilate her foes.

Rainbow was dealing with a strange, gliding type of heartless. They donned leathery wings that connected from their arms to their sides with a leather cap on their heads, a small propeller attached to the tips of the hats. They quickly span towards her, nearly scratching her across her sides but they were no match for the fastest flyer in Equestria. She barrel rolled out of the way and flew up behind them, running her Keyblade in the backs of two of the gliders before spinning and slapping it across the face of another that shot towards her.

It wasn’t long before all the shadows and Neo-Shadows were dispatched. The gliding heartless quickly followed in their defeat. Discord growled as he placed his paw on the ground, his paw glowing with dark energy before a dark portal appeared out of the floor. Out of the portal emerged a black, three eyed dog head with a metal plate surrounding the back of its head. A suit of armour with large arms and hands emerged behind it, carrying the dog faced shield. The dark portal vanished behind it and Discord panted heavily.

“It’s a defender, just get behind it and attack.” Sora said. The two nodded. Rainbow flew behind the armour and struck. It yelped slightly and the three eyes on the dog head began glowing red, it opened its mouth and shot out a fire ball towards the pegasus. She lead it round for a few moments to get some distance then span round in the air, whacking the fire ball with her Keyblade and sent it into the side of the armours head. It screamed in pain and was about to retaliate but stopped and looked down at the pain in its chest. Two Keyblades had pierced through the monster as it was distracted, it dropped the shield before bursting into wisps, its shield following suit. Sora looked at Discord and grinned, grabbing his Keyblade in his hoof to speak.

“That all you got Discord? You must be able to see that no heartless can beat us.” Discord growled at the statement before both his arms began glowing with a dark aura, the whites of his eyes turning into a dark purple tinge as he gathered power.

“These stupid creatures, I should have done this from the start…” His two wings unfurled and shot out behind him, his body lifting into the air slightly. “Enough relying on these idiots to stop you, if you want something done right then do it yourself!” Discord threw his head back and shrieked before looking back down at the thorns in his side, throwing out his talon and firing a blast of dark energy towards them. They gasped and threw themselves to the side, just dodging the attack.

“I’ve had enough of you spoiling my plans, this time I will be your opponent. Enjoy your last moments!” He yelled, following up his statement with another blast of dark energy. The blast shot towards Sora first, he quickly rolled out of the way as the blast cracked the ground where he was a moment ago. He grabbed his Keyblade in his mouth and faced towards Discord, Twilight quickly returning to his side while Rainbow Dash hovered just above him. Discord smirked and put the palms of his talon and claw together, he pulled them apart to reveal a black swirling ball and threw it at the three.

Rainbow held her Keyblade outwards and called forth a reflect spell, a transparent shield covering them all as Discord began to bombard the shell with attacks.

“How are we going to beat him?” Twilight asked as Rainbow kept the barrier going.

“It’s not hard, we just got to beat him up until he admits defeat.” Sora said with a smile. Twilight looked at him with her mouth agape and an eyebrow raised.

“B-But…he won’t just surrender, he never will.” She explained. Sora just shrugged.

“Then we attack him until he can’t attack anymore.” He said simply. Rainbow looked down at him and smirked.

“I like the sound of that, how do we get him on the ground?” She asked. The colt looked up at her confused.

“We have a pony that is great at flying, a pony that is great at magic and a pony that knows how to throw a Keyblade. Where’s the problem?” He asked her back. She giggled to herself slightly before facing forward, determination on her face. “Ready?” He asked. Rainbow nodded and Twilight put a hoof to her face before nodded herself. “Ok, go!” He yelled.

Rainbow let down the barrier and Twilight followed up by firing a blast of ice towards Discord, he quickly moved out of the way and watched the shot barely miss him. He looked back just in time to see a flash of the light spectrum before he felt her Keyblade run into his side. He groaned and fired a small trio of dark energy balls at the mare, she lead them round the room until they were close to each other then slapped them back at him. Unlike the last result of the manoeuvre, Discord grabbed the dark energy and pushed them all into one another, creating a large ball of energy and throwing it towards Twilight. She ran to the side but the orb just followed behind.

The unicorn began to panic slightly which caused the chaotic deity to grin, he fired another ball of dark energy towards the unicorn. She saw the second ball of energy and ran towards it. As she got close, she spun on her hooves and ran towards the first ball, jumping over it and causing the energy orbs to collide and explode. Discord shielded his eyes and growled.

“Enough of this…” He muttered. He quickly sped up towards Twilight and grabbed her by the throat, throwing her into the wall behind and knocking her to the borders of unconciouness.

“Twilight!” The remaining ponies yelled. Rainbow turned to face Discord but couldn’t see him anywhere.

“Rainbow! Above you!” Sora yelled. Rainbow looked back at him confused until she felt a hoof collide with her back. She yelped as she was pushed into the ground and panted heavily, unable to move.

“Now it’s just you and me colt!” Discord growled, darkness spreading over his entire body.

“You won’t get away with this!” Sora yelled. Both his hoof bands began glowing as a golden aura enveloped Sora’s body. The light seemed to penetrate the colt’s body, his coat turning from brown into a dirty blonde. His stood on his back hooves and held out his front hooves as a light expanded from his body, causing Discord to shield his eyes. As Discord opened them, his eyes laid upon a dirty blonde earth pony, standing upright on his back hooves with his usual Keyblade in one hoof but in his other was an black Keyblade, a chain pattern reaching up the shaft from a purple gem at the top of the handle that had bat like wings sprouting from it and reaching down, forming a hoof guard.

Without muttering a word, Sora quickly threw the Keyblades up in the air towards Discord. He watched it carefully, waiting for whatever trick Sora had planned but didn’t notice as the colt ran up to him, land and spin round on his front hooves and thrust his back legs into Discord’s stomach. Discord winced and recoiled a few steps, looking up to see Sora catch his Keyblades in his hooves before bringing them next to each other and using them to deliver an uppercut into Discords chin. Discord flew back a little before spreading out his wings, spinning and recovering in mid-air before flying back at Sora. He waited for Discord to get close then ran towards him, sliding under the flying beast at the last moment and placing the ends of the Keyblades into Discord’s chest and simultaneously firing a blast of fire and ice into him.

Discord screamed in pain and flew upwards into the air, wisps of smoke coming from his chest as he went up and landed on the ground, a sickening crack could be heard as Discord’s back collided with the marble floor. He groaned in pain and rolled over onto his front, staring up at the colt ahead of him before slamming his talon into the floor. His ears twitched as he heard sounds coming from behind him, he looked behind him for a moment to see the four ponies that had been guarding the front of the castle charge into the room and run to their friends. They helped the two barely conscious ponies get together and began healing them before staring at the blonde colt and the dejected Discord strewn across the floor. Discord growled, feeling the pain grow again in his body but ignoring it, trying to get back up.

“WHY!? WHY WON’T YOU LOSE NO MATTER WHAT I DO?!” He bellowed. Sora just looked at him with a pitiful expression.

“It’s because you fight for your own selfish reasons. I won’t lose because I’m fighting to protect my precious friends.” He said simply. Discord scowled and rose to his hoof and claw, clutching his chest with his talon as it throbbed in agony.

“DON’T MAKE ME LAUGH! Friendship?! How could I be losing to friendship again?!” He shouted. Sora just kept staring at him, the pain growing more and more. “MALEFICENT!” He bellowed. “WHERE IS THIS POWER YOU SAID I’D GET?!” He heard a loud cackle in his mind.

‘You think I’d waste giving more power to you? You’re a pathetic fool, I always thought of you as such and I still do now.’ She said simply. Discord looked up in the air, a sorrowful expression on his face.

“What…?” He asked quietly.

‘You couldn’t even beat a bunch of pathetic, pastel ponies and you expect me to give you more power? It’s truly laughable.’ She began laughing to herself inside his mind. Discord snarled as he heard her remark before an expression of defeat replaced it, he fell to the ground and felt the pain grow now more than ever.

“AAAAAAAAARGH!” He yelled. Heartless sprouted from the ground and began closing in on him. “W-What are you doing?! Get away from me!” He cried but to no avail. Looks of horror spread all around as even the heartless that had been guarding the Princesses and their guards were now advancing towards him.

“Maleficent! What are they doing?!” He yelled out, only hearing her cackling grow louder in his mind.

“They are doing as they always have been…” Sora stated, Discord looked up at him confused. “Those who control the heartless must have a lot of darkness in their hearts. They only stay in control as long as they remain strong but if they begin showing weakness then they just become another meal for the heartless they control…” Sora explained sadly. Discord looked up in horror and then tried to push the creatures away.

“Get away from me!” He yelled to no avail. “No…NO…NOOOOOOO!” He screamed as the heartless covered his body, a dark mass replacing it. A few seconds of the act passed before a loud, low growl could be heard emanating from the mass.

‘I told you at our first meeting that you were my minion and you always have been, you just couldn’t see it. Now you are under the control of the darkness, find that Keyhole and destroy that wretched world!’ She commanded. Another growl came from the mass as it took form. A large hand with five, clawed fingers grew from the mass, another hand that matched the first came from the other side. Large hooves grew out from the back of the forming monstrosity as it began to stand up. A long neck came up from it’s large, dark body and it’s face was long, much like the face of the creature it was possessing. Two misshapen horns protruded from the top of it’s head. A long, curled tail with spines sticking out from it came from behind the monsters body and at the sides of it’s mouth were two tusks that slightly curved out, leading and finishing next to its cheek. A look of sheer terror formed on everypony’s face as the beast opened it’s eyes to reveal a purple shade replacing the corneas and blood red iris’ around slitted pupils. It let out a roar that echoed through the soul of everypony present, Sora gulped before putting on a determined expression and readying his weapons.

“Are you really going to try and fight that thing?!” One of the guards asked him. Sora shrugged and stared into those dreadful, soul crushing eyes.

“It’s what I do.”

Faith

The beast that stood before barely resembled the lord of chaos it grew from. It towered over the ponies, being around one and a half times the size of a Stealth Sneak. Its only feature that gave away its origin was its face, long with a small beard at the end. The rest of it had become pure monster, the dirty yellow pony gulped ass his eyes laid upon his new enemy. Everyone else who resided in the room looked at it as if it was the end of the world itself. The beast let out a low growl before raising its claw and slamming it down, attempting to crush Sora. The colt rolled to his side as his wits returned to him, he recovered from the roll quickly and charged towards the creature’s claw, slamming both Keyblades down onto its wrists.
It only growled in response, sliding its hand sideways to slam into the colt and sending him into the wall then collapse to the ground. Their companion slamming into the wall caused the six ponies to snap out of their fear filled states and realize what they had to do.

“Applejack! Rainbow! Rarity!” Twilight yelled, quickly getting their attention. “You three distract Discord, Pinkie!” The mare quickly shot up to the unicorn’s side and saluted. “You make sure that the Princesses don’t get hit by any of Discord’s attacks and Fluttershy, me and you will go help Sora!” All the ponies nodded and shot off to their stations.

Rainbow flew up to the side of the monster Discord’s face as his claw balled into a fist to crush the colt. She swung across the beast’s face but just gave it a scratch, only causing to redirect the anger of the monster from the colt to herself. He turned and brought his fist towards the pony, she just managed to swerve out of the way to notice that his claw was following close behind. She tried to get away but was quickly caught by the shadowy hand, she struggled in its grasp, gasping for breath as she felt the grip tighten. The beast yelped in pain and released the pegasus, looking down at the earth pony who had stabbed her Keyblade into its leg.

Rarity took advantage of the situation and caught Rainbow with her magic, easing her towards the ground while the pony coughed and hacked. The pegasus gave an appreciative nod before taking to the sky again. Applejack was able to jump out of the way as the dark Discord tried to crush her under his massive hoof. Rolling back upright she attacked the stationary hoof once again, ushering a growl from the monster. He repeated that same move, lifting up his hoof to crush the cowpony but did not expect it when Rainbow Dash swooped by and struck the lifted hoof while Rarity attacked the grounded one. The monster lost its balance and fell forward, using it’s claws to catch itself off of the ground while the three attacking ponies took the chance and began attacking the monsters face.

While the three ponies were distracting the monster, Pinkie had taken her place in front of the Princesses, holding out her Keyblade in case the beast decided on them as its next target. As Pinkie kept her eyes locked onto the enemy, she heard Princess Celestia begin talking to her.

“What is going on Pinkie Pie? What happened to Discord and where did that…thing come from?” She asked. Pinkie began answering but kept her eyes on Discord.

“Well there are the heartless who are mean, nasty meanies and then there was Discord who is the meanest, nastiest meanie so the heartless obeyed him because of his meanieness buuuuut because Discord couldn’t handle or control all the mean nastiness that the heartless were pushing onto him with each heartless summoning or something, he lost control of all the nastiness and some witch who seems to be the meanest, nastiest meanie of all nasty meanies made the heartless combine with him, turning him into a sup-mega-ultra nasty meanie!” She explained at such a high rate that the speed of light was like a snail’s pace. Celestia blinked and waited for her brain to catch up with the pink pony’s explanation of the events. Once she assumed she had pieced together the information in a way that made sense to her, she turned to see her favourite student and her butter pegasus friend healing the wounded earth pony.

“Miss Pinkie Pie…who is that?” Princess Luna asked. Pinkie looked at the gesturing obsidian hoof and followed it to Sora’s location.

“Oh that’s just Sora, it looks like he transformed again.” She said with a slight shrug. The two Princesses and the guards blinked a few times.

“Excuse me Pinkie Pie, did you say transformed…again…?” Celestia asked. Pinkie smiled and nodded.

“That’s right, he was an earth pony but then he became a red pegasus when we fought the big lizard thing. Rainbow Dash said that when fighting against the fake nightmare moon, he turned into a dark blue unicorn and back in Ponyville he turned into a dark evil Sora because of Discords power.” She stated.

“B-But how is such a thing possible?” Luna asked. Pinkie just shrugged.

“I dunno, magical key weapon?” She replied. The Princesses gathered that she had no idea to it either but if it helped their current predicament then they wasn’t going to argue against it.

Meanwhile Twilight had her Keyblade up much like Pinkie to guard the fallen earth pony behind her while Fluttershy held out her Keyblade at Sora, firing a stream of green energy into him. Eventually his eyes began fluttering, eventually opening and looking up at a relieved pegasus.

“Are you ok?” She asked him, he nodded while getting back on his hooves.

“I’m fine, how are we doing?” He replied. Twilight looked back and sighed in relief at hearing the sound of his voice again.

“We are doing ok for now but he’s stronger than any other heartless we have faced, our attacks seem to be doing next to nothing but get on his nerves.” The unicorn told him. Sora picked up his Keyblades and stood on his hind legs once more, walking next to his friend and looking back at Discord as he battled their friends.

“I underestimated him a little, I won’t be doing that again” He said with a smile and a sigh. Spinning his Keyblades around a few times before getting a good grip, Sora took his stance and narrowed his eyes. Twilight looked up at the dark Discord while Fluttershy came up to Sora’s other side, both of the mares took their eyes off Discord and looked up at Sora, seeing a determination they hadn’t seen before. It didn’t last long as Sora ran forward to join the fight, Twilight following behind and motioning Fluttershy to take care of the Princesses alongside Pinkie, the pegasus nodded and moved to their aid.
Rarity jumped over Discord’s tail as he swung it round, she landed and quickly took aim at the tail, firing a blizzard spell at it and making a direct hit. It did little but make the monster snarl, he moved his spiked tail up in the air and threw it down towards the marshmallow unicorn. She watched in fear as the tail flew towards her and shut her eyes, waiting for the fatal impact. Twilight jumped in from the side and smacked the tail with her Keyblade, sending it off target and slamming into the ground.

“Come on, we got to stop him quickly!” Twilight said as she helped the Rarity up.

“But how do we do it? Nothing we do seems to have any effect on him…” Rarity said disheartened. Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder and smiled.

“Don’t worry, Sora can do it. We just got to trust him.” They both saw a growing shadow on the ground and looked up to see the monsters tail come down at them again. Their mouths opened in shock as the spiked club plummeted in their direction. They were caught off guard as Twilight felt a weight quickly shift on then off of her back, seeing Sora jump into the air from her back.

He yelled as both his Keyblades were glowing with energy. He pelted the length of the tail with a flurry of attacks, swiping his Keyblades in every direction before slapping it upwards.

“Disaster!” He shouted. He span in mid-air, causing wind to gather round him and move into the tail as if cutting through it. He slowed his spinning down to a halt while still in mid-air, all the air that spun round him gathered to the tips of his Keyblades and he swung them forward, releasing a great force of wind to drill into the air made mark on the beast’s tail and pierce through, causing the spiked club along with half of the tails length to fall to the floor and burst into wisps.

The monster Discord threw its head back and released an ear piercing scream at the pain. It quickly spun round on its hooves to see Sora land on the ground, scowling up at him without moving a muscle.

“Twilight, Rarity. You may want to move out of the way or I won’t be able to guarantee you’ll be safe.” They looked at him with concern but the expression on his face was completely calm, cool and collected. That look made them feel that, with unknown confidence, Sora was about to fight with more power than they had seen so far. The pair quickly moved away while Sora looked down at the earth pony and pegasus on Discord’s other side.

“You two as well, I’ll take care of him now.” They gulped as they saw the determination on his face and ran to the other ponies in the room. Sora looked up at Discord who was snarling, the tip of his curled tusks glowing with dark energy that moved towards his mouth. As the dark energy moved into his mouth, the beast reeled his head back then threw it forward, a black and violet flame firing from his mouth and engulfing the pony as he threw his Keyblades into a X-shape in front of him. The others gasped as they thought their biggest hope had just been roasted alive and the end was near.

“Aeroaga!” They heard a familiar voice yell. The dark flame burst out in all directions, leaving a hole where Sora jumped up through. Able to look Discord right in his dark eyes, Sora threw both his Keyblades forward, the obsidian Keyblade cutting straight through one of the two tusks while the other embedded itself into the other tusk. While Discord yelled again at the loss of his horned appendage, Sora caught the black Keyblade and brought his back legs up as if crouching in mid-air, the air warped around Sora then covered him as he dashed into the air. After gaining a little more height above the monsters face, gravity took hold again and Sora took a nose dive towards his other weapon, grabbing onto it and spinning round the tusk, feeling his Keyblade rip through it before shooting up into the air with his recovered momentum. The tusk fell off of Discord’s face and burst just like the one before it, Discord’s eyes began glowing and then fired a twin set of dark orbs towards the colt.

He span in the air and slapped both orbs to either side of him, both of them hitting the walls and exploding, causing surprisingly little damage to the structure. Sora came down towards Discord and the beast threw his arm up to grab him. The air around Sora’s back hooves warped once more before he dashed again, quickly moving between two of the claws digits and running down his arm. Discord’s eyes widened as he saw the colt run down his arm and leapt towards his face, holding his Keyblades out towards the horns on Discord’s head. Grinning as he got in close to the horns, Sora swiped across the two appendages before channelling magic into his weapons and taking aim at the horns point blank.

“Blizzard!” A scatter shot of large shards of ice collided with the horns and blew them into pieces, causing Discord to grab his head and scream once more in pain while Sora landed on the ground. The beast turned to view Sora, his eyes wide with fury as he roared at the small pony, Sora gave barely any notice and crouched slightly, holding his Keyblades in a cross shape in front of his chest.

Discord threw both of his claws forward and fired a continuous blast of dark energy at the pony, Sora throwing up a reflect barrier to protect himself from the attack. He felt the strain of the attack as it seemed to start breaking through the barrier, small cracks forming in the transparent shell. His confidence fading a little as he felt himself being overpowered.

“You can do it Sora!” He heard a voice yell from behind. He managed to turn his head slightly to see all six of his friends staring at him with hope.

“We now you won’t lose!” Twilight yelled.

“We know you won’t give up!” Applejack cried.

“We know you’ll stick by our sides!” Pinkie shouted.

“We know you can save us!” Rarity screamed.

“We know you’ll beat him!” Rainbow bellowed.

“We know you’ll be there for us!” Fluttershy squealed.

“We know that you’ll win, we have faith in you because you are our friend!” They all cheered. Their Keyblades suddenly appeared at their sides and began shining brightly. In unison, lights fired from their Keyblades and flew through the reflect barrier and into Sora’s body. The dome filled with light as Sora felt immense power flow through him, his coat changing into a light grey while lights shone brightest out of his head and back. The light blinded all the ponies present.

“Reflega!” The barrier suddenly burst outwards, pushing away the dark blasts as streams of energy shot from the broken barrier and skewered Discord’s arms, causing him to stumble back in pain. As the light died down and everypony looked at the fighter, their jaws dropped at the sight. Instead of the dirty yellow earth pony that stood there a moment ago, there was now a brown maned, silver coated alicorn with silver streaks running through his tail. The alicorn ignored the shocked looks from everypony in the room and looked up at Discord, who just roared at the sight.

“Let’s end this…” Sora said. The Oathkeeper Keyblade from his time as a pegasus now accompanied the obsidian Oblivion Keyblade, appearing and hovering behind Sora’s back as he stayed mounted on his back hooves. Without another word, Sora shot forward and threw his hooves forward, his Keyblades following them in the air and slamming into Discord’s chest. He span round once while in the air then unleashed a barrage of attacks into the torso, slamming and stabbing his weapons into Discord. He plunged his Keyblades into the beasts chest and placed his back hooves onto Discord’s body, crouching onto the body before jumping off and pulling his Keyblades out with him before spinning round.

“Final Strike!” He pointed his body towards Discord’s shoulder as he span round faster and faster, air surrounding him as he shot forward and drilled onto the monsters joint. Discord screamed in pain before Sora shot through the arm, causing it to fall to the floor and disperse in black wisps before landing back onto the ground and turning to face his enemy again. Discord didn’t turn this time, he was too busy holding the area where his arm once was with his claw. Sora frowned at the steps he had to take to win but knew it had to be done. Sora jumped towards Discord’s back and threw his Keyblades out in front of himself.

“Blizzard!” Two large icicles shot out from his weapons and exploded into smaller icicles upon hitting Discord. Sora followed up the attack by copying his earlier motion towards Discord’s other shoulder.

“Fire!” A fireball shot out from the ends of the Keyblades. As Sora shot through them, the fire coated his spin causing a flaming tornado to blast through Discord’s other shoulder, his other arm falling to the floor and bursting into black wisps. The fire dissipated as Sora landed on the ground in front of Discord’s body. Sora slowly turned to see the beast growl and groan in agony, its eyes filled with unbridled fury that only ushered a sigh from the alicorn. He looked up at Discord gaze with a look of sadness.

“I’m sorry she used you...but I must end this now…” Sora’s Keyblades shone bright white as he flew right into Discord’s chest. He swung his Keyblades with great force, swiping them left and right, occasionally thrusting them into the monsters chest. He pulled back a little before flying straight into Discord’s chest.

“Final Arcana!” Sora’s Keyblades shone brightly as he slashed them in an X-shape, the bright light forcing its way into and through Discord’s chest, bursting out the other side. Sora landed on the ground and exhaled deeply, the beast before him began shrinking, the dark form turning into wisps and floating into the air before vanishing into nothing. The form kept shrinking at the loss of darkness until it was nothing more than the lord of chaos on the floor, shrouded in darkness. Sora’s form turned back into its normal, brown, earth pony self. His Keyblades vanished with his form only leaving his Kingdom Key their place. As Sora turned to go to his friends, he heard a shuffling behind him. He turned to see Discord getting back onto his legs, arms hanging down by his side and his tail slumped on the floor.

“I…Wont…Lose…” He muttered. Sora frowned and faced him.

“Give it up! You’ve lost so just stop!” His pleas fell on deaf ears as Discord’s tired but angry expression just stared at him. Discord took a deep breath and yelled out, throwing his claw and paw forward and firing stream of dark energy at the colt. Sora’s eyes widened and he plunged his Keyblade into the beam, splitting it up and sending it away from him.

“I will never lose! I will rule this world!!” Discord bellowed. Sora heard his friends cheer him on from behind.

“Go on Sora! You can win!” Twilight yelled to him, her Kerblade starting to shine brightly. Sora took a step forward while keeping his Keyblade facing the beam and the one firing it.

“You’ve beat him as a giant monster, there’s no way you can lose!” Apple jack shouted out, her Keyblade emitting a great light. Sora took another step closer towards Discord.

“We know you can do it!” Rarity yelled out, her Keyblade following suite. Sora took another step towards Discord, his Keyblade shining as if resonating.

“You can do it Sora! You can beat that meanie!” Pinkie cried out, her Keyblade shining as well as Sora took a step closer.

“You’ve got this Sora, we know you have!” Rainbow Dash yelled out, her Keyblade shimmering like the others. Sora stepped again, feeling his Keyblade getting stronger and even glowing.

“We trust you Sora, we know you can do anything!” Fluttershy cried out. Her Keyblade shone brightly as Sora’s copied, becoming engulfed in a white light.

“We have faith in you Sora, we know you can beat him!!” They all yelled out. Their Keyblades suddenly shone blindingly bright for a moment before all of them became orbs of light, flying towards Sora and into his Keyblade. Sora felt the dark energy he was pushing through now offer little resistance and he picked up speed, charging towards Discord with Keyblade in hoof. He reached the end of the stream and broke through Discord’s shadowy hands, the tip of his Keyblade at Discord’s chest before the light on the Keyblade shattered like a cocoon, leaving a new Keyblade with a golden hoof shaped guard, a marble white shaft and handle with the symbols for the six elements of harmony dangling from the chain at the end. At the tip of the shaft the pressed onto Discord’s chest was a heart shape made from a rainbow.

“I told you before Discord! We have something important worth protecting and that’s why you won’t ever win!” Sora yelled into the Lord of chaos’ face, he pushed the Keyblade into Discord’s chest a little more and felt power surge through from the elements on the chain into the tip of the weapon. There was a brief moment of silence before a loud bang echoed, the dark shroud that covered Discord’s body exploded out into nothing and the tip of the Keyblade shone like never before. A spectrum of colours flew out of Discord’s back and down the halls of the castle, spearing any heartless in the way before exiting the castle doors and flying high into the sky, penetrating the dark cloud and shattering it, a burst of colour taking its place that flew all across the land.

Sora took his Keyblade from Discord’s chest and watched as Discord turned to stone from the point of impact, spreading outwards and eventually covering his entire body. With the dark cloud vanishing and leaving a rainbow in its place as well as Discord being defeated and re-sealed, everypony hollered and jumped for joy, even the Princesses were dancing around. Sora turned towards his friends and smiled brightly, all of them smiling back. Sora took a few steps forwards but then felt his head grow heavy and his vision blurred, he blinked a few times but it did little to help. He felt himself topple over onto his side, his last thoughts in his consciousness being:

‘Aww, not again…’

The Strongest Bond

As Sora regained consciousness, his head pounded like someone was battering it with a hammer. He slowly opened his eyes to find he was back in the castle’s guest bedroom where he found himself before. Marble floor and walls surrounded him with a fashionable rug on the floor, Celestia’s golden sunlight was shining through the curtains, bouncing around the marble room and blinding Sora as he sat up on the bed. He raised a hoof in front of his face to block the light as his eyes adjusted. Once his eyes could take in the light, he hopped out of the bed and opened the door to a familiar room. As he walked across the room, he smiled as the memories of him and his new friends had pretty much started their little adventure in that very room. He looked round to see no one in sight.

“Where are they…? Did something happen while I was out?” He mumbled to himself, a terrifying thought then entered his head. “Oh no…Discord didn’t come back did he?!” He began to slightly panic, worried that his friends were in danger until the door to the room opened and a familiar pegasus guard walked into the room. The guard looked at Sora and smiled.

“It’s good to see that you’re awake, not surprising after your fight.” He spoke. Sora looked at the stallion for a moment before smiling.

“You’re Wingbeat aren’t you?” The guard nodded. “It’s nice to meet you again, how are you feeling after the attack?” Wingbeat raised a hoof to his mouth and chuckled.

“Heh, I’m fine thank you but shouldn’t I be asking you that question? You are the one that helped save Equestria from Discord and the heartless.” He stated. Sora just grinned.

“Oh I’m fine but I am wondering… Where is everyone?” Sora asked. Wingbeat smiled and walked out of the room, coming back in with a rack with a strange kind of suit on it.

“You’ll see them soon but before you do, you have to wear this. Princess’ orders.” He explained through a knowing grin. Sora walked over to the suit and looked it up and down, it seemed to be the top half of a tuxedo. A black blazer with a white, buttoned, long sleeved shirt as well as a black bow tie.

“Why do I need to wear this?” He asked. Wingbeat just kept that same grin.

“You’ll see. Here, let me help you put it on.” He said as he grabbed the white shirt first.
It took a few minutes and a lot of struggling as Wingbeat tried to help Sora into his garments. After the slight ordeal was over, Wingbeat motioned Sora over to a full size mirror. Sora walked over to the mirror and couldn’t help admire himself a little. The suit fit him well, the blazer tails split as it lead down the back of his body, giving his tail room to be free. The arms of the blazer and shirt were held together at the cuffs by two pairs of cufflinks, the blazer cufflinks shaped like the moon and a lovely shade of white while the cufflinks on his shirt that stretched down his hooves only a little more than his blazer were in the shape of the sun, a radiant but not blinding mix of yellow and orange. The bow tie round his neck complimented the suit perfectly, he may have been a pony but Sora felt that he’d never looked more sophisticated.

“It fits you well.” Wingbeat said. Sora spun on his hooves and smiled at Wingbeat.

“Thanks. So why am I wearing this exactly?” He asked. Wingbeat turned to face the door and motioned his head for Sora to follow.

“You’re about to find out.”

XXX

Sora followed the guard through the hallways of the castle, looking around at the beautiful tapestries that draped them. The light was shining through stain glass windows, releasing a multitude of colours into the corridors. Eventually the two came across a large door that Sora recognised as the door to the room where he beat Discord, just in front of the door were a few friendly faces, all in odd yet amazing dresses.

“Good to see you’re awake!” Twilight said with a smile as she spied the colt.

“I must say you look very good, a suit really looks good on you.” Rarity said as she looked up and down Sora’s suit, quickly earning a frustrated frown from Rainbow Dash. She just smirked at the pegasus and shrugged it off.

“Thanks.” Sora replied. “You all look great too.”

“We know!” Pinkie replied excitedly. “We wore these for the Grand Galloping Gala a few years ago, don’t we look awesome?” Sora laughed and nodded.

“You sure do.” Fluttershy walked up to Sora and looked around him, walking a full circle round his body with curious eyes before smiling.

“Well you don’t seem to have any injuries, are you alright?” She asked. Sora grinned his usual silly grin.

“Yeah I’m fine. Can someone please tell me why we are here and why I had to dress like this?” He asked. They all smiled and motioned towards the door, Sora walked over to it and was about to it before Twilight chimed in.

“All you got to do is walk over, kneel, let her speak, say ‘I thank you for this privilege’ then turn around and enjoy the moment.” She said. Sora looked at her confused and Applejack put a hoof on his shoulder, causing him to turn to her.

“You’ll get it.” She simply stated. Sora nodded slowly before opening the doors. As he took a few steps into the room, he looked around and dropped his jaw a little in awe. There were guards and citizens on either side of the large room with the two Princesses on the other side of the room by their thrones. The six mares, followed by Wingbeat, walked through the room as he stood there dumbfounded, getting amused stares from all the ponies surrounding him. He eventually snapped out of it and looked over at Twilight, she smiled and moved her head in a motion telling him to move. He remembered her advice and followed, walking over to the Princesses.

As he approached the Princesses, the seven ponies guiding him split off to either side as he kept moving forward. He recognised a few of the ponies in the crowd, the siblings of his friends as well as the small dragon. There was also the large bug like pony alongside the white unicorn stallion and pink alicorn that Twilight was with during the meeting. He eventually arrived at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they smiled at him before raising their heads to the crowd.

“We are here today to honour this pony. We faced a peril that we had no idea how to battle, it seemed to grow and beat us at every turn, the threat was even able to resurrect Discord. It seemed like our troubles were getting out of hoof when the darkness crept across our lands but then this pony that stands before us right now came out of nowhere and ,without us even asking, began to fight the darkness.” Celestia ended her part of the speech for now and Luna stepped forward.

“This brave young colt fought with the elements of harmony and faced down every challenge that came to pass. With abilities and a weapon that we cannot even comprehend, he defeated the darkness as well as Discord, even sealing Discord away so that we need not fear him again.” Whispers could be heard from the crowd as they announced Sora’s deeds but the whispering stopped as Luna looked down to Sora. “Please kneel.”

Sora nodded and awkwardly knelt down on one his front hooves while bending the other. He then lowered his head as the Princesses came up either side of him.

“Sora.” Celestia started. “We are here to honour you deeds to us. Your bravery and kindness to help us in our time of need shall be remembered through history, your act creates a debt we are not sure we can repay but we shall start with this, please tell us where you are from.”

“Destiny Islands.” Sora answered. They lowered their heads in unison and placed a horn on each of his shoulders.

“Then by the powers of us, the sun and the moon goddesses, we knight you Sir Sora of Destiny Islands, do you accept?”

“I accept this privilege.” Sora replied. The two Princesses smiled and raised their heads.

“You may stand Sir Sora.” Luna announced. Sora got back up on all fours and smiled at the two. They smiled back and ushered him to turn round. He turned to face everypony that had gathered and blushed a little while grinning.

“Please congratulate our hero, Sir Sora of Destiny Islands!” Celestia stated. The whole room exploded into the stomping of hooves, whistles and messages of congratulations. Sora couldn’t help but feel embarrassed and proud at the same time from all the praise.

XXX

Sora followed the two Princesses and the six mares into the courtyard.

“You really didn’t need to do that, I just did what was right.” Sora said. The blush was still on his face from the ceremony. Luna turned round and smiled at the colt.

“But we did, you helped us when we really needed and showed the utmost bravery, even when you faced that giant monster Discord.” Luna explained. Sora chuckled sheepishly before getting a hug from Rainbow Dash.

“You were awesome, we had to celebrate it!” She explained. Twilight giggled a little before looking over to Princess Celestia as the tower where the elements were to be stored came into sight.

“Princess, did you ever figure out why the elements on harmony turned into those Keyblades?” She asked. Celestia turned her head to view Twilight, her horn glowing as the carried the box with the elements inside, back to their usual shape.

“I’m afraid I didn’t Twilight but the elements are ancient, nopony knows their true power.” She explained.

“The Keyblade is the same.” Sora continued. “Even the Keyblade masters don’t know everything about it…but I do have one idea why.” Twilight turned to Sora, obviously waiting. “Well the Keyblade can only be used by someone who has a lot of light in their heart as I’ve said before. Maybe the light in your hearts changed it.” Celestia turned to look at Sora.

“The elements of harmony are old, magical items that unify the friendship that connects its wearers. The stronger the friendship between the elements then the stronger the power that is created from them.”

“Then that could mean that the friendship between us, along with the light that we all have inside our hearts, were channelled into the elements and reacted with your Keyblade?” Twilight suggested. Sora put a hoof to his chin before shrugging.

“Something like that I suppose but for whatever reason it happened, it allowed us to beat Discord and save Equestria, that’s the important thing.” They all nodded in response. They entered the chamber and saw the safe just up ahead. Sora looked round at all the stain glass windows, each one showing the elements of harmony saving Equestria but there was one window in particular that caught his eye.

“Hey…is that…?” He asked. They all looked over at the window and smiled. The window had a multitude of colours. Near the top of the window was a black cloud with claw-like shapes emerging from it, it could easily be seen that Discord was hanging out of the bottom of the cloud. Below it however were seven ponies, six of them around one in the centre. There was a pink earth pony with a poofy pink mane in front of a blue balloon, a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane in front of a red lightning bolt, a white unicorn with a purple mane in front of a blue diamond, an orange earth pony with a blond mane and a Stetson on top of it in front of a red apple, a yellow pegasus with a pink mane in front of a pink butterfly and a purple unicorn with a dark purple mane with a pink streak in front of a magenta star. All six of them, as well as the symbols behind them, were inside a gold ring. The gold rings all had a gold string that lead to the pony in the centre, a brown pony with a dark brown mane pointing a key upwards, two rainbows leading out of the key and into the Discord and the cloud.

“T-That’s us isn’t it?” Sora asked.

“That’s right, it marks the triumph over the darkness.” Celestia stated. Sora just stood there for a moment before he was ushered towards the safe.

“So Sora, will you be staying with us?” Rarity asked him. He shook his head in response as Celestia placed her horn into the hole in the safe.

“I’d love to but I can’t, the heartless is still out there and I need to fight it.” Sora explained. They all looked to their hooves in disappointment. A certain pink pony walked over to Sora with her mane deflated.

“You can still stay for your party though, can’t you?” She asked. Celestia and Luna were putting the elements back into the safe, just starting to close it.

“I think I mi-” Sora was cut off as a light starting shining from the lock on the safe.

“W-What’s going on?” Twilight asked. Sora knew the feeling and called out his Keyblade. They all watched as Sora jumped back and grabbed his Keyblade in his mouth, pointing the tip towards the safe’s lock as a keyhole shape made of light surrounded the hole. Small stars floated around the tip of the Keyblade before closing in on it, a burst of light flew from the Keyblade and into the hole as the stars hit the tip and the sound of a lock echoed throughout the room, the keyhole shape then vanished and Sora dismissed his Keyblade.

“What just happened? What was that?” Fluttershy asked. Sora sighed with a smile before looking at Pinkie.

“Sorry Pinkie but looks like I won’t be able to have that party after all, not for now at least.”

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Well that little light show is the Keyblade’s way of saying that I need to go somewhere else and I need to go now I’m afraid.” A sad look grew on everyone’s faces.

“S-So you’re just gonna leave? Now?” Rainbow asked. Sora only nodded in response.

“But what about that thing you came in, your gummi ship? It wasn’t there when the guards went to retrieve it while you were asleep.” Twilight stated.

“It probably up in the sky now, ready and waiting for me to go.” Sora replied. He looked down at his hooves for a moment before feeling something squeeze him, he turned and saw Pinkie hugging him.

“Y-You’ll come back…won’t you?” She asked, her voice cracking as if she was about to cry. He smiled and hugged her back.

“Of course I will, you’re all my friends and friends never say goodbye.” He said softly. She smiled and hugged him a little tighter, it only took a few seconds before he felt the hooves of his six new friends wrap round him and hug him tightly.

“We’ll miss you.” He heard Applejack say as they let go. He took a couple of steps away.

“Thanks, I’ll miss you too.”

“Take care of yourself ok?” Fluttershy said. Sora smiled at her.

“I will.”

“If you’re going to save the world, make sure you look good doing it too.” Rarity stated. Sora giggled a little.

“I’ll make sure I do.”

“Make sure you come back again, I still need to throw you that party.” Pinkie said with a wave. Sora grinned and nodded.

“I look forward to it.”

“Give those bad guys a good beating from me!” Rainbow ordered through a slightly forced smile. Sora laughed a little.

“You can count on it.”

“Please… don’t forget us…” Twilight asked. Sora smiled and nodded slowly.

“I promise, I never will.” He stood back and waved towards his new friends, all of them waving back as a light appeared around him, enveloped him then disappeared, Sora gone with it. A few tears stained their cheeks as they waved goodbye to their strange new friend. Silence took over the room for a few minutes as they all just stood in their place. Eventually Rainbow wiped the tears from her cheek and let out a sigh before walking towards the door.

“Where are you going Rainbow?” Applejack asked. The cyan pegasus turned round and grinned.

“I’m going to go train.” They all looked at her dumbfounded. “You heard him! He said he’ll be back and I bet that when he does come back, he’ll be even stronger than he is now. I gotta go train so I can keep up when I see him again. See you guys later!” With that, Rainbow Dash took off into the skies. They all smiled as they saw Rainbow go, Pinkie’s mane quickly returned to its poofy state as she gasped.

“Wait! This gives me more time to throw him a party! I can throw him a ‘welcome to Ponyville’ party, a ‘saving the world’ party, a ‘congratulations on being knighted’ party and a ‘welcome back’ party all in one! It’ll be the biggest party EVER! I gotta plan it right away!” Before anypony could say a word, Pinkie was replaced by a pink blur that lead as far as the eye could see. They all laughed to each other before Fluttershy headed towards the door with a smile.

“I should really go check on all the animals, I left Angel Bunny in charge of everyone else. Oh I do hope he’s ok.” Fluttershy waved to her friends as she flew off towards her cottage. Rarity quickly gasped and turned to Applejack.

“Applejack, do you realise what we’ve done?!” She asked. The cowpony looked at her confused.

“What do you mean…?” She replied.

“We’ve done the one thing we never should have done! It’s the MOST! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!!” Applejack just shook her head.

“What are you talkin’ about Rarity?” The orange cowpony’s shoulders were quickly grabbed by a pair of marshmallow hooves.

“We left Sweetie Belle and the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders alone! In Canterlot Castle!” Rarity yelled. Applejack chuckled back at her.

“Awww shucks, is that all? Even they couldn’t have…” A short flashback played in Applejack's head where the terrible trio had had an unfortunate incident inside her home where they tried to be Cutie Mark Crusader Cleaners… she didn’t enjoy washing all that three day old rubbish out of her mane.

“Let’s go!” Applejack and Rarity waved to Twilight as they shot off back to the castle. Twilight walked over to the door before an idea formed in her head, she quickly turned and looked up at her mentor. “Princess? Would you mind if I gave you my friendship report now?” The alicorn smiled and shook her head.

“Of course not my dear Twilight, go right ahead.” Twilight smiled and cleared her throat.

“Dear Princess Celestia. Today I learned that sometimes, your friends can come from the strangest of backgrounds. Although they may seem odd and sometimes you may not even be able to understand what they mean, say or do, they will always be a friend that you know you can rely on and even if they leave you, which they may have to, they have only left your sight, they will never leave your heart.” Twilight looked up at the ceiling, remembering something the strange, smiling colt said just before he left. “After all… friends never say goodbye…”

End

Return

The guard opened the door for the 5 mares to enter the room, he nodded and closed the door as they began to settle down. The room had four velvet lined chairs and a pair of two seated couches all centred round a table, there were an assortment of tea, water and coffee on the table with a tray lined with sandwiches. The rest of the room had shiny marble floors and a glass doorway leading to a balcony at the other end of the room. Purple drapes lined the glass door from baby blue wallpaper that covered the room with portraits of a forest and a sunset over countryside was set on the walls.

Fluttershy helped Applejack towards one of the couches and moved the cushions towards one end, allowing the cowpony to rest her head and lay down. The pony smiled and nodded towards the pegasus.

“Thanks Shy, ah really appreciate your help.” Fluttershy nodded and sat down, looking at some bruising on Applejack’s side. “Don’t worry ‘bout it sugar cube, ah’ll be fine.” She said, putting a hoof on her friend’s shoulder with a reassuring smile. As she spoke, the marshmallow fashion pony admired the paintings on the walls with Pinkie Pie muttering away about how the paintings needed more bright colours. Rainbow was circling around in the air with crossed hooves, she wouldn’t stop grumbling to herself until she quickly landed with a huff.

“What’s wrong Rainbow Dash?” Pinkie asked as she zipped in front of the pegasus with a concerned smile.

“It’s just that…” Rainbow looked over to Applejack and sighed “We are they elements of harmony, we are supposed to be able to defend Ponyville from any trouble but if it wasn’t for Sora…we wouldn’t of had a chance against that thing.” The pegasus pawed at the ground with her hoof. She had always felt that her and Applejack were two of Ponyville’s physically strongest ponies but this new monster was easily capable of swatting them aside. Pinkie smiled and stood on her tip hooves for a few seconds.

“I know! Sora was amazing wasn’t he? That thing was huuuuge and he just grabbed his big key then he was all like wooosh, zooooom, pow! When he threw his Keyblade and hit its horn, he sent that thing crying to its mama!” Pinkie exclaimed, waving her hooves around for emphasis when it came to the movements and her voice getting a little gruff at the end from the lack of breath she had for her sentence. Rainbow thought back to when she watched Sora’s athletic ability and smiled softly.

“Yeah…He was incredible.” Rarity caught her friends praise and turned her head before smirking.

“Oh Rainbow, did I just hear you give a pony a compliment without comparing him to yourself?” She asked teasingly. Rainbow darted her head up to face Rarity’s and blushed, turning away and beginning to stutter.

“W-Well he was great but of course he isn’t as great as me!” She argued. “I-I-I just uhh…didn’t want to take his moment of glory. Yeah, that’s it!” Rainbow wouldn’t dare show the teasing unicorn her flushed face but she unfortunately forgot about her happy pink friend.

“Hey Rainbow, why have you gone all red?” Pinkie asked. Rainbow hid her face in her hooves, ushering a giggle from the two ponies. She kept her head in place for a few moments, blocking out her friends giggles, until she had finally calmed down and her face returned to its usual cyan colouring.

XXX

Sora was getting odd looks from all around the room. The leaders of the world he had now delved into where staring at him intently after he had finished his explanation of the heartless. The chocolate colt could see their minds at work as they processed what he had told them.

“So…” Grit started. “These creatures are all born from the darkness in someone’s heart?” He asked. Sora
nodded in response and the changeling Queen cleared her throat.

“And these creatures are trying to find a ‘keyhole’ so that they can reach the ‘heart of the world’ but you can defeat them by using your ‘Keyblade’?” Sora nodded again, rather happy that they had understood him straight away. Well, all but one.

“And you expect us to believe you? A little colt who we have never heard of?” Lord Julian asked, scowling at the earth pony. The griffon king got a few annoyed glances from around the room but Sora just looked over to him and nodded.

“Well…yeah.” He replied simply. The griffon scoffed and glared at him.

“You’re only a little earth pony with a big key and ludicrous ideas, give me one reason why I should believe you.” He demanded, the others in the room rolled their eyes and then his captain of the guard approached Sora with a sour smile on her face.

“Yes little one, why don’t you give us a reason to believe you? Better yet, why don’t you tell us why we need your help? We can easily stop these monsters on our own, especially the one that was outside.” Gilda said and she pushed her face in front of his with a grin that showed she had considered herself victorious already in the argument. The other royals were all waiting for a chance to tell them to be quiet but Sora just rolled his eyes then raised an eyebrow at Gilda.

“Oh yes, you could easily beat them couldn’t you? I could definitely tell you were ready to burst into the action by the way you two were staying in the doorway with your quivering legs and wide open mouths.” He replied. Gilda immediately backed up a few steps away from him and kept her mouth shut, as did her sire. A small sigh of relief and a small titter could be heard from the diamond dogs and Chrysalis as Gilda returned to behind her lord with her head held high to try and give off the impression she shrugged off the statement. Her flushed face and the tail between her legs said otherwise.

Shining Armor smiled at Sora and nodded his head in thanks for shutting them up, Princess Cadence put her hoof to her mouth to hide a smirk on her lips. Princess Luna coughed and cleared her throat to break the silence.

“So, Mr Sora, you said that they are looking for a keyhole to get into the heart of our world, how do we stop them?” She quizzed him. He turned to her and smiled.

“All we got to do is find the keyhole and then I can use my Keyblade to lock it.” He replied.

“Very well, so where is this keyhole?” She asked. Sora hung his head and let out a large sigh.

“Unfortunately, I don’t know. The keyhole will only appear when the source of the heartless is defeated, it’ll remain hidden until then.” Shining Armor leaned forward slightly.

“Didn’t you say that the heartless come from the darkness in our hearts, how can we defeat that?” He quizzed. Sora looked up at him and shook his hoof.

“No not like that. The heartless just wander aimlessly around, when it’s at such a point then finding the keyhole is easy…But when I say a source, I mean some sort of leader. The fact that what we fought outside was a Stealth Sneak, the big lizard thing, it means that the heartless have found a leader in this world and he is fuelling them with dark energy.” Everypony in the room looked at one another then Princess Cadence looked at Sora worryingly.

“A leader? What could lead those things?” She asked.

“They don’t need much when they decide on a leader, they usually just go for a being that is strong and evil. The fact that the darkness seems to gather around here might mean that the leader was nearby, does that help in telling who it is?” Sora asked. The ponies all looked at each other with panicked looks on their faces, Twilight turned to Sora and gulped.

“He is the lord of disharmony and has the power to cause chaos. He is even a mix of many different species. Discord…His name is Discord.”

As if planned, a loud booming noise echoed throughout the room. It sounded like some sort of beat and everypony looked around for the source of the noise. As the cacophony became clearer, the beat eventually changed into a loud, booming laughter that seemed to sink into everypony’s bones.

“It’s about time you realised who was pulling the strings. I must say that you all figured it out slower than I hoped, I’m rather disappointed to be honest.” His voice echoed. Twilight looked up at the ceiling and growled.

“Where are you Discord?! Come out and show yourself!”

“Oh puh-lease, you think I’d appear right in front of you? You really have gotten worse since our last battle haven’t you dear Twilight? I’ve got better things to do right now, like searching for a certain keyhole that’ll allow me to rule the world!” He explained. Sora couldn’t help wonder why the villains always got so cocky that they would explain their plans to the ones trying to stop them, he shook his head then got back to the matter at hand.

“What do you mean ‘to rule the world’? You’d destroy it if the heartless got into the keyhole.” Discord only laughed in response.

“Well I’d love to talk more but I must be on my way to the keyhole now. I hope you have fun with the friend I left for you.” Everypony looked round the room then to each other. “I mean it, he’s waiting in town for you but he’s probably already trying to play with the other ponies down there.” He let out another laugh and the sound slowly dissipated into silence. Everypony immediately shot out of the room and looked out of the window at the city of Canterlot which, filled with ponies shopping and going about their daily business when the group arrived, was now filled with ponies screaming and running into every hiding place available as the Stealth Sneak rampaged through the streets.

The other five mares that had gone to rest then burst into the room.

“Ponies are in trouble down there!” Rainbow yelled as she came through. Sora nodded and ran towards the door.

“Where are you going?” Twilight asked him. He turned round with a determined smile on his face.
“They need our help so I’m going to go beat it.” He replied. He made his way out of the door and all the mares but Twilight followed, she turned to her brother instead.

“Please, we can take care of them so ask the guards to get all the ponies they can out of there safely.” She pleaded. Hey brother gave a confident smile and nodded, Twilight smiled back then followed her friends.

XXX

Ponies were running and screaming through the streets in the city of Canterlot as the monster rampaged. Shop windows were smashed, carts were torn in half and strewn across the road, some broken carts were used as hiding places for cowering ponies until they were escorted to safety by the guards. The creature roared in joy as it smashed all it could. Sora was followed by six mares as they all charged down towards the monster. As they got closer, Sora could tell that the Stealth Sneak looked a lot different than it had before. Its body of multiple shades of green had become a mix of shades of green and shades of orange. Its claws had grown and it now had very sharp teeth, it had wings that were too small to let it fly but still big enough and it had dark red fur leading down the back of its neck. The biggest difference was its tail, it had turned dark purple and had a scorpion sting on the end of it.

“Is that a different type of lizard heartless?” Applejack asked. Sora slowly shook his head.

“No…I don’t know how but that’s the one from earlier.” He replied.

“But the one from earlier didn’t have all those other features.” Fluttershy said. Sora pointed up at its face as it turned its head to the side and saw the fracture where it used to have a horn.

“Look, its horn is broken. It’s definitely the one from earlier.” Sora explained. The monster saw its old attackers and roared, the fangs in its mouth dripped with saliva as it kept its mouth open to threaten the ponies. “I have a feeling it wants to end the fight it started with us before.” Sora said. Suddenly the beast swung its giant claw down and smashed the ground, it would have hit Sora too if he and the others hadn’t jumped back quickly.

Sora felt that he had dodged it pretty well and this fight would go as easy as it had before but the creature jumped forward, doubling its speed with a strong flap of its wings and sent Sora flying by ramming into him. Sora rolled quickly across the floor and into a cart, he struggled to get back on his hooves but when he did, he saw the beast already in front of him and about to slam its claw down on top of him. Twilight quickly teleported Sora next to her and out of the monsters hit, she, Rainbow and Fluttershy had hidden in a small alley out of its sight. Applejack and Rarity were behind some carriage debris and Pinkie had hidden in an alley on the other side of the street. Sora sat down on the ground, the appearance of the Stealth Sneak and its new found strength has given a shock to his system. The realization that he could’ve been killed there and then had set into his mind, he had been ready to fight to the end at any time but the feeling that it nearly happened still shook him to his core.

“Hey Sora, wake up…SNAP OUT OF IT!” The voice cried. Sora came back to his senses and looked up Rainbow Dash who had concern written all over her face. “Are you ok?!” She asked him quickly. He nodded and got back onto his hooves.

“Sorry, I wasn’t expecting it to be that fast or strong. Wait, where is it?” Sora asked. He got a purple hoof on his mouth as Twilight replied.

“It’s in the street looking for us I think, it seems pretty upset that it didn’t get you.” She said in a hushed tone. Sora nodded then looked round the alley corner, the monster was searching for them in the shop window, under boxes and anywhere else it could think of.

“What did it become?” Sora thought out loud. He then got a small tap on the shoulder and turned to see Fluttershy standing in front of him.

“Um, I think a lot of its appearance is similar to a manticore.” She suggested. Sora tilted his head.

“A manticore?”

“Yes, a manticore. It’s a lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail. The adult ones are able to shoot venomous barbs from their tails.” Sora looked at Fluttershy confused then to the Stealth Sneak.

“So that Stealth Sneak was fused with a manticore and got stronger because of it?” Sora asked himself out loud again.

“Can that happen?” Twilight asked him, only to get a shrug in response.

“I’ve never seen it happen before, didn’t you say earlier he had chaos powers and is a mismatch of creatures?” Twilight shook her head.

“Close but they’re not chaos powers and yes he is. It represents the disharmony he causes.” She explained. Sora just tilted his head and shrugged.

“Ok then but he still has powers to cause disharmony right?” Twilight nodded. “Then they must have been powered up by the darkness, it would explain why he can make something like that.” Sora attempted to explain, all the mares grimaced at the thought of a stronger Discord.

“Then what do we do about this guy then?” Applejack called out. All the ponies were surprised when a cocky smile appeared on Sora’s face as he stepped out of the hiding place and the monstrous hybrid caught sight of him.

“We beat it of course” He announced simply. There were shocked faces all round as the monster began approaching Sora. Rainbow gulped down her nervousness and stepped out next to him, giving him a small nod. He nodded back then turned to his other side to see the orange cowpony and the bubbly pink pony standing by him. It wasn’t long until all seven on them had lined up ready to fight, Sora called his Keyblade to his mouth and charged forward to the beast with the six following behind.

“Spread out!” Sora yelled through the Keyblade’s handle. Twilight and Pinkie Pie ran into a bowling alley on the left of the street while Rarity and Applejack ran into a multi levelled cafe on the right. The creature shrieked and span round while dragging its tail along the floor, Rainbow and Fluttershy grabbed hold of Sora and lifted him into the sky to dodge the attack. Once they had gotten a good distance above the monster they dropped the colt, he flew downward and swung his weapon once he was close enough to it. The beast yelped as the Keyblade delivered a hard swing onto the top of its head, it growled and looked down at the colt about to swing at him before a bowling ball slapped him across the face. Twilight and Pinkie high hoofed each other before the unicorn loaded another bowling ball in Pinkie’s party cannon and fired the projectile for another shot at the creature’s maw.

It growled and turned to the two ponies on the bowling alley rooftop. Its eyes started to glow, brighter than they were before but the attack was interrupted when a table flew into the back of its head. The creature span round to face the new threat and could only watch for a second before the yellow pegasus threw Applejack towards it, slamming all four of her hooves into the monsters chest and jumping off. She landed on the shaft of the Keyblade and Sora threw her skywards, allowing her to deliver an uppercut into the lizards jaw and get caught by Rainbow Dash before she fell back down.

“Alright! We can do this” Sora muttered confidently to himself but the confidence didn’t last long. Fluttershy, who was cheering for the attack, was caught off guard as the monsters claw slammed into her and sent her rocketing into a grocery cart. Sora ran to her side, he saw red liquid ooze from her mane and drip onto the floor while she lay there unmoving.

“FLUTTERSHY!” The ponies cried. Twilight and Pinkie were too distracted to see the monster fire light blasts into the building, causing their footing to crumble and collapse beneath them. They began screaming, Twilight’s horn started glowing as they plummeted into the wreckage.

“NO!” Sora yelled back as he saw the collapse of the building. Rainbow foresaw what he was likely to do next and set the cowpony by Fluttershy and Sora before speeding off to grab Rarity, just getting to her in the nick of time before the monster ran his tail through the first floor of the café, causing that to collapse too. They quickly returned to the unconscious pegasus who began to stir back into life, Rarity ran to her side as Applejack looked at what was once a bowling alley.

“Ah’m gonna go get the girls out of there, you tend to shy!” She said, Rarity giving a small nod and looked over the butter pegasus as she woke up. Rainbow quickly ran to her side.

“Are you ok Fluttershy?!” She asked. Fluttershy smiled a little and nodded while Applejack was clearing the rubble to find a light purple bubble protecting the unicorn and earth pony from the wreckage.

“We’re ok” Twilight said as she and Pinkie got out from the wreckage, already knowing that Applejack would ask. Sora bit his lip as he saw the damage to his friends and their town while the monster had been laughing after the attack had been stopped.

“How dare you…” He muttered. The creature turned to him and looked like it was grinning. Sora took his teeth from his lip and gritted them as his band with the red gem started shining.

“How dare you…” He said again but louder. The band shone a bright red colour and radiated a power that everypony around could feel. It couldn’t help but catch the eye of all the ponies around. The monster backed away a step, concerned at the power it could feel pulsing from the colt. He shot his head up and looked the monster in the eye.

“HOW DARE YOU TRY AND KILL MY FRIENDS!” He bellowed. The light suddenly spread over his entire body, dust gathered round him and the pony shaped red light shone brightly around his back in particular but the dust obscured what was happening to everypony as it swirled around him. A loud yell was heard just before the dust and light burst outwards, causing everypony to shut their eyes tight and blinding the monster for a few seconds.

When they opened their eyes again and the dust cleared, their jaw dropped when they saw their friend break one of the biggest facts of their world. Sora now had a dark, rusty red coat of fur, in one forehoof he had the Keyblade they had seen before but he had another Keyblade in the other hoof, it had a silver handle and wings for hoof guards. The handle spilt into two shafts that were parallel to each other before meeting at the tip and a start shape poking out at the tip. What shocked them the most was that on Sora’s back now were two wings with the same colour as his coat. Sora looked up at the monster and frowned, getting into a fighting stance and spreading out his wings.

“Valour form”