They galloped through town as a group.

“So how do we get to this… Appleoosa?” Sora asked.

“Simple, we go by train,” Twilight said.

“Trains? Cool!” Sora said as they made their way to the train station, as soon as they got there however heartless appeared.

Shadows, soldiers, and a big one.

“Company!” Goofy said breaking out the shield.

“We got this!” Sora said and they proceeded run forward fighting the heartless.

“I can fight too!” Twilight said as she fired a few blasts taking out the shadows coming at her, Spike hid over by the ticket booth.

Goofy threw his shield like a boomerang, hitting several soldiers and knocking them down.

Donald tried to use his hooves to buck a shadow that came at him but he missed and got struck by one sending him tumbling.

“You ok Donald?” Sora called as he held back the hands of the big one.

“Yeah!” Donald said as he got up and shot a fireblast taking down the heartless that hit him.

Twilight took to the air avoiding a soldier from grabbing her and she flew forward and fired a blast at the big one.

But it just bounced off his belly.

“Huh?!” Twilight flew up and avoided being grabbed.

“Hit him from behind!” Sora called to her as the big one flailed its arms angrily.

“Gotcha!” Twilight said as she swooped around behind the big one and fired a beam at its back and that did visible damage, it turned to attack Twilight but Sora slipped in and struck him down.

Finally the heartless were taken care of.

“Whew, we did it,” Sora said before continuing on.

“Alright, now we proceed into the train, I’ll set our directions,” Twilight said going over to the ticket booth where the ticket pony was cowering from the ordeal.

“Um… admit five please, Appleloosa” Twilight said.

Twilight sat down across from the others as the train traveled and stared at them carefully.

“So, we have time right now, tell me everything,” Twilight requested.

“Ooook… how to put this, this is one of many worlds and we’re travelers traveling to each world to save it from darkness and protect it from it, and we happen to not be ponies at all,” Sora said.

“Is that it?...” Spike said looking confused.

“I’m a duck,” Donald said.

“I’m a dog,” Goofy said.

“I’m human,” Sora said.

“I’m not in the mood for jokes, what’s the real story?” Twilight asked.

“....That is the real story,” Sora said.

“That’s crazy talk,” Twilight said.

“Crazier than a land of magic horses?” Donald asked.

“Has us there,” Spike said.

“So… there’s other worlds and you guys turned into ponies coming here?” Twilight asked.

“Yep,” Sora said.

“....And I thought Discord was the strangest thing around,” Twilight sat back in her seat.

“Who?” Sora asked.

“He’s a friend of my friend Fluttershy… speaking of which where is he? You’d think her being kidnapped would be a reason for him to arrive,” Twilight said.

“Maybe something happened to him,” Spike wondered.

“Maybe, I just hope Celestia gets the message soon,” Twilight said.

“Yeah, I don’t know this Celestia, but she sounds like someone important,” Donald said.

“More than important, she moves the sun and rules the nation with a fair hoof,” Twilight said.

“Well I don't know about you guys but when we find her we should-” Sora was cut off as something crashed into the side of the train and they all fell out of their seats.

“Aaah!” Spike flew out of his seat.

“What the hay?!” Twilight looked out her window and saw something that surprised her.

Dozens of pegasi were flying about the train, but they looked like heartless!

“What’s going on?” Twilight said.

“Heh, I was worried this trip was going to be boring,” Sora said as they ran out the door.

“Hey!” Twilight followed them before pausing and telling Spike to stay put.

“Ok!” Spike said as he tried to hold on as the train rocked again.

Twilight got out of the train and climbed up the ladder to join the others on the train's roof.

And what she saw surprised her.

It looked like an Ursa Minor but as a heartless and it was running beside the train.

It roared and fired spheres out of its mouth spawning new minions, they looked like pony-sized Ursa’s!

“What in Celestia’s mane!?” Twilight cried.

“Hyah!” Sora took out two Ursa heartless before rolling away from a pegasi heartless.

Donald used lightning to dispatch some more pegasi heartless.

And Goofy seemed to be holding the line further down the train from shadow heartless, he bashed several off of the train and ran forward to hold them off.

"I got ya covered over here!" Goofy called.

"Good work!" Donald said as he used an ice attack on a shadow that got through.

All this was pretty overwhelming but Twilight mustered her courage and climbed on to help out too.

She decided to focus on the big bear heartless.

“Hah!” Twilight fired several shots at the Ursa but it tanked it and responded by leaping onto the side of the train.

“Aaah!” Twilight yelped as the force of the attack nearly knocked her off.

“Got it!” Sora said as he ran up to the bigger Ursa and he struck it several times in the head where the heart insignia was.

The monster bit at him but Sora jumped back and used his wings to land safely.

The monster leaped off of the train and back onto the grass as it continued to run beside the train and it fired more spheres onto the train spawning more Ursa heartless.

“Hah!” Twilight fired several beams and managed to take one out but the other one ran forward an struck her with its claw knocking her down and injuring her.

“OW!” Twilight cried.

It moved to strike again but Sora got it from behind with a keyblade swing and it took it down.

“You alright?” Sora asked extending a hoof.

“Yeah, just a scratch,” Twilight said.

“I gotcha!” Donald said using Heal on her to restore some of her health.

“Huh? Wow, how did you-” Twilight said.

“Talk later!” Donald said gesturing to the big Ursa leaping onto the side of the train again.

“AAAH!” Twilight had to roll away from a slamming paw and she righted herself before blasting it in the face with a beam from her horn.

“Keep it up!” Sora said before he jumped forward and slashed it in the face.

Suddenly two pegasi heartless flew down and struck Sora back.

“Agh!” Sora grunted.

“I got the skies!” Donald said as he fired electricity and took out the pegasi heartless above Sora.

“Heads up!” Goofy shouted as he continued to hold the shadow heartless at bay.

“Keep it up Goofy!” Donald called.

The Ursa heartless jumped back again and began ramming the side of the train multiple times.

“I think it’s trying to derail us!” Twilight said.

“Then we gotta take it down now!” Sora said before he used a block to repel a pegasus heartless and he shot several firaga blasts at the bear.

Roaring angrily the bear lunged onto the side of the train again and Sora rolled around a paw slam and he struck the bear several times with his keyblade.

“I can help!” Twilight shouted as she used her magic to fire several blasts into the face of the bear and the bear snapped at her.

But Sora got in the way and blocked with his keyblade and the Ursa threw its head to the side to throw him.

“Not so fast!” Sora said before spreading his wings and he flew through the air and swung back around and delivered a powerful slash to the side of the Ursa’s head.

The Ursa roared as a flash of light occurred and time slowed briefly.

The Ursa fell to the side and tumbled on the ground beside the train before disappearing.

Meanwhile the last of the pegasi heartless was taken out by Donald zapping them out of the air.

“Whew! I think we got them all,” Donald said.

“Done over here!” Goofy said as he trotted back to them.

“Yeah!” Sora said raising his keyblade in victory.

“Y’know, I was still doubtful back there, but now I think I believe you,” Twilight said sitting down to catch her breath.

“Let’s get back inside,” Sora said.

“Yeah. let’s see how Spike is doing,” Twilight said as they trotted back inside the train.

Spike was sleeping on Twilight’s lap by the time they got to Appleloosa.

“Time to wake up,” Twilight said to Spike who woke with a yawn.

“Whew, alright, let’s get moving,” Spike said as he hopped down from the seat.

“So, what can we expect here?” Sora asked.

“It’s a lovely place this time of year, as long as the heartless aren’t too plentiful here we should be ok,” Twilight said as they went out of the train.

And saw a ghost town.

“Huh?” Twilight looked around.

“Huh, seems like everyone skedaddled or somethin,” Goofy said.

“Why?” Twilight asked before suddenly they heard footsteps behind them and they turned to see Pete.

“Hahaha! Maleficent was spot on when she said you all were gullible enough to come here,” Pete said.

“Huh? Who's that?” Twilight asked.

“That’s Pete, he works with Maleficent,” Sora said brandishing his keyblade.

“Great I have some questions,” Twilight said getting ready “Like where are my friends?” Twilight demanded.

“You mean the other elements of whatever? They're safe with us, I’d be a little more concerned with you right now,” Pete said before snapping his fingers and all of a sudden multiple heartless appeared around them.

Including two Ursa’s.

“Crud, there’s more!?” Donald said getting ready.

“Heheheheheh! Nothing’ll stop us from taking this worlds magic for our own uses,” Pete said “Especially not colorful horses that trumpet ‘friendship’” Pete laughed.

“I’ll show you why you should be afraid of us,” A voice said and they all looked up and suddenly a powerful beam struck one of the Ursa’s and took it out.

“What the?!” Pete said as Celestia flew in from above with a contingent of guards.

“Whose this?” Sora asked.

“Celestia!” Twilight happily said.

“I came just in time it seems,” Celestia said.

“How did- we made sure you were distracted along the way!” Pete said in disbelief.

“Your distraction was quickly dealt with,” Celestia said recalling having to fight several groups of heartless along the way.

“How did you know to come here?” Twilight asked.

“I’ll tell you afterward, firstly, let us deal with this,” Celestia flared her horn.

“Tch! Attack!” Pete shouted summoning two more Ursa heartless.

“Let’s go!” Sora said.

Author's Note

Celestia has joined your party

I had fun writing this chapter, and don't worry, Celestia has her own big role in this story.