Heart Of Equestria

The Heart Of Equestria

Chapter 1:  The Next Step

Lyle Dolorem was not new to hearing a person in trouble, nor was he all that unfamiliar with rushing to help them from whatever was putting them in peril.

Which probably also explained the familiarity with hospital.

But he had to admit, this was new.

He didn’t recognise the girl, she only looked to be in her pre-teens and didn’t look like one of the local children; her assailent on the other hand…

The closest he could possibly think was that of a giant ant with not enough legs standing upright, but that really didn’t describe it well; the small creature was barely bigger than the girl with a featureless body of pitch blackness, three ferocious looking claws ended each hand.

But it was the face that made it scary.

The creatures head was little more than an orb of pitch blackness, on which two bright glowing yellow eyes stuck out, glaring at the intruder; anger and hatred radiated from the eyes like physical waves washing over Lyle as the creature abandoned the screaming girl, who wisely ran for her life.

Lyle was not so fortunate; even as his mind still struggled to comprehend exactly what was happening the creature had buried its claws into his shoulders; he roared in pain and began thrashing his shoulders back and forth, swatting at the creatures arms with his own as its claws made for his eyes.

Thinking quickly, Lyle threw himself backwards and heard a satisfying (and painful) crunch as the creature connected with brick; pulling himself up quickly, Lyle felt the creatures’ claws release his shoulders. He wheeled back around to face the creature only to just barely have time to see it lunging right toward his face, toppling them both backwards from the impact of its surprisingly heavy form.

Dimly aware of several new holes in his chest, Lyle aimed a desperate kick at the creature, missing by several inches in his pain.

So, he thought dimly as his mind strangely cleared, this isn’t exactly how I planned to go out; was sort of hoping it would be a bit more heroic.

The Creature now standing above him twisted its claws causing Lyle head to shoot straight down in agony; he wondered vaguely whether this creature even had a sense of sadism, it certainly seemed so.

As his vision focused for what he believed would be the last time, he saw it.

Across the alleyway he had almost forgotten existed in his pain, he could see what reminded him of a pulsing black hole composed almost entirely of black shadow and purple mist. There and then he made his decision; he had no chance of surviving this but no way was he allowing this creature to wander around and claim more victims.

With the last of his strength quickly draining Lyle forced his feet to obey, dragging himself and the angry creature upright; ignoring the renewed slashes of the claws, he set off as fast as his feet would allow toward the portal.

Not exactly “go toward the light” then, Lyle thought bitterly as he half fell, half threw himself toward the opening.

The creature, still dangling from his chest, realised too late exactly what its intended victim was doing; almost immediately it made to dislodge itself and flee but found itself trapped as Lyle snapped his arms shut across his chest, before one final leap carried them both through, into the depths.

Lyle had one last view of the alleyway behind him before the opening closed itself and darkness surrounded him.

He sighed and slumped to the ground, content; the creature had taken his life, even now he could feel it draining, but he had stopped it from claiming anymo-

His heart turned to ice.

His veins burst into valleys of pure pain.

His very skin seemed to crawl and writhe, to escape, separate from its host out of sheer agony; nothing of The Creatures assault had been pain on this level, surely even the grasp of death could do nothing to rival this.

Lyle did not even have time to notice that his former attacker had vanished before the pain washed over him as the cloud of darkness gathering before him did the same, folding itself inward on his now limp form until Lyle Dolorem was no more.

****

“Sora!”

Kairi jogged along the beach of the small Islet that made up part of the Destiny Islands; even as she looked to give Sora the newest message, she couldn’t stop the smile that spread to her face being back here caused; she had sworn to herself that she wouldn’t come back here, to where they had all spent their childhoods playing, until she had her friends back home where they belonged.

Every time she thought of their newly restored bond she could not help but smile.

“Hey Kairi, you planning to wake up and tell us what that letter is anytime soon? Or do you want to plan the wedding in your head a little more?”

Kairi blushed furiously as she heard the ever snarky voice of Riku behind her; even though she couldn’t see his face, she could hear the smirk in his voice.

“I don’t know Riku, what would I do if I ever came between you two, I mean can you stand to not be together forever?” Kairi returned to her still grinning friend, a grin of her own appearing as Riku chuckled.

“Oh, I’m sure we can share him; his ego will make more than enough to share.”

“Oh yeah, coming from you Riku! Tell me, how’s our score right now?” Sora’s voice cut into their discussion, full of the same cockiness and cheery attitude it always seemed to hold, even in his darkest moments.

Kairi looked down again at the letter she held in her hand; it had been a great temptation for her to simply tear the letter up on the way to her friends, or else to bury it somewhere no one would find it. The seal holding the letter shut, blazing red with an all too familiar mark emblazoned on it, would surely spell the end of the tranquillity and peace she longed to spend with her friends for the rest of her days.

But at the same time, she knew what rested upon them; like it or not the three of them held a great deal of responsibility, not just on their own world but to all worlds, every person in every worlds safety could (and knowing their lucky probably did) rest on their shoulders depending on what was contained within this letter.

She sighed.

“Sora, Riku; this was in my house today. It’s from The King.” She tried to keep her voice optimistic but from the look in Sora’s eyes she could tell some of her worry slipped through.

Riku noticed none of this; he had already snatched the letter from Kairi’s hand and ripped it open. Riku and The King had always been close, closer perhaps even than Sora and his own companions, and the glint in his eyes only spoke of his joy at possibly hearing from his friend again.

Sora gently laid his hands on Kairi’s shoulders and turned her to face him, his eyes full of apprehension.

“Kairi… I know what you might be thinking but I promise; no matter what The King wants from us, I don’t care if he wants us to walk into Kingdom Hearts itself and take it down bit by bit, me and Riku? We’re coming back, always. Got me?” He finished his promise with a grin.

Kairi couldn’t help a smile as she gently hugged him.

“And you know that if you two idiots don’t come back I’m coming to kick your butts right?”

“Wouldn’t have it any other way, right Riku?”

No answer.

“Riku?”

Sora and Kairi separated and looked at their friend for the first time since he had opened the letter. What they saw amazed them.

Riku’s face was positively glowing with joy as he read from the letter, still held open in his hands; his eyes were wide and his grin growing by the second.

“Riku? Riku? RIKU!”

At last Riku turned to his friends and, with no change in expression or any kind of explanation.

Now extremely curious, Sora unrolled the letter again and began to read aloud for Kairi’s benefit.

Dear Sora, Kairi and Riku

I hope this letter finds you well, I do hope you’ve been enjoying your time at home; it’s been long overdue for you three to earn some peace.

I’m sorry to bother you again but this is very important: I’m sure you were sorta dreading me writing again, thought I would drag you away from your lovely beaches huh?

(Sora glanced at Kairi and Riku with a slightly guilty look).

Don’t worry, I wouldn’t write you guys if I didn’t have a really good reason, Donald and Goofy have been holding down the fort for you guys since Sora and Riku defeated Organisation XIII.

I’ve been keeping myself busy too you know; even though you guys stopped them from threatening worlds again, I still thought we should do something about The Heartless.

I think I might be onto something, at last; I’ve been hopping around worlds in the Gummi Ship, just taking glances at a bunch of different worlds, always just long enough to get a look at what it might be like.

Welp, remember, how Goofy once said if we could get everybody’s heart full of light we could get rid of The Heartless? I know, it seemed like that was way too simple but thing is, I think I might have found us a world that’s exactly what we need. It’s a world called Equestria, I know, I’d never even heard of it either, but it seems like exactly what we need right now.

I’d really appreciate it if you three would be willing to come along with me, Donald and Goofy just once more guys; if this Equestria really is as pure as it seems to be, we could honestly end the Heartless forever.

I’ll be around with the Gummi Ship, along with Donald and Goofy, tomorrow in the afternoon; even if you don’t want to come with us, we’d love to see you guys again, it’s been months.

Hope you’ll consider it guys.

Best Wishes

King Mickey

Sora finished the letter and faded into a shocked and hopeful silence; he heard no noise from either of his friends as the Kings’ words sank in.

No more Heartless… ever. Peace…

***

It was no secret in Ponyville that the Cutie Mark Crusaders could be honestly called a walking disaster area with no exaggeration, not that they were the most disastrous thing to ever happen in Ponyville.

But still most of the inhabitants of the small rural village couldn’t help a certain affection for the three fillies on misadventures for their cutie marks, they had all been there once and it was nice to see three friends helping each other with the coming of age tradition and having fun with it.

The crusaders though took it more seriously.

“Come on Sweetie Bell! Just take it to the top; it’s only a bit further!” The orange  egasus named Scootaloo called up to the scared alabaster unicorn on top of their amateur scaffolding.

Sweetie Bell was sitting on her flank, forearms covering her eyes as she shivered in fright from her perch on the metal structure; Scootaloo was many things but encouraging wasn’t one of them. She wished more than ever that she could use her magic properly right then, just one flash of light and she could be up and down in a snap.

“What’s goin’ on; is Sweetie Bell still up there? Come on Sweetie Bell, ah promise you’ll be fine!” Applebloom, the final crusader, called up to Sweetie Bell as she arrived with drinks and cupcakes for the crusaders.

“Yep, and she won’t come down either.” Scootaloo sighed.

“Should ah get Applejack?”

“Nah, she’ll just be angry we borrowed Big Mac’s tools.”

Applebloom thought that over; her siblings were pretty understanding considering everything she and her friends got wrapped up in but Big Mac angry…

She shuddered; that was not a sight she or her friends ever wanted to see again.

“Naw, we can get ‘er down ourselves, right?”

Scootaloo looked again at the rickety scaffold, roughly 20 feet high, looking and sounding like it was held together with duct tape and a lot of good luck.

Then again, it was.

Before any of them could think on what to do, they all jumped as they heard a tremendous crash from somewhere else on the apple farm. Scootaloo and Applebloom both leapt in fright and stared in the direction of the noise, oblivious to Sweetie hitting the ground with a thud behind them.

“Come on, somepony’s causing a ruckus on mah family farm!” Applebloom called, galloping toward the noise, Scootaloo and a very dizzy Sweetie Bell on her tail.

The source of the noise was clear to see; a strange lump of black cloth lay on the ground, with a dirt path behind it as though it were a comet from space. Before any of them could get around to approaching it, Sweetie shrieked as the lump of cloth started moving and stood up.

As one the girls tilted their heads, unsure of exactly what they were looking at; whatever the thing was its features were all hidden by the billowing black cloak it wore, the huge zip on the front done up all the way. It had four limbs like the fillies but it stood on only two of them and the other two were way further apart than theirs; it didn’t seem to have hooves either, but had five weird stubby things at the end of each of its forearms.

“Mister,” Applebloom began, then hesitated, “uhh, it IS Mister, right?”

The creature looked over at the fillies and visibly jumped as it laid its eyes on them for the first time, before it started acting very oddly; it pinched itself on its own forearm then trod on its own hind leg with the other before it looked back at the fillies, then around the farm, all very fast.

“Uhh, no offense but why are you horses, erm, talking?” The Hooded Creature asked gently, still looking around as if expecting the farm wouldn’t be there if it checked again.

The three crusaders looked to each other; was the creature stupid or did it honestly not know about Ponies?

“Why shouldn’t we be? Why are YOU talking?” Sweetie seemed to have found her voice, and her courage, as she spoke up and gently poked the edge of the creatures’ cloak.

The Creature looked down in what they could only guess was shock from the way it moved at its own clothes; it didn’t seem to have noticed them. It ignored that for now and turned back to the fillies.

“Why shouldn’t you be talking? Okay, weird question, but you guys do know you’re horses right?”

“Not horses, PONIES.” Scootaloo chipped in, emphasising the last word.

The Creature sighed.

“Okay, “ponies”, don’t usually talk where I’m from.”

The three looked at each other in shock; what bizarre land was this creature from.

“Okay,” The Creature spoke again, “let’s start again; my names Lyle and I’m not from around here. I’m not too sure how I got here to begin with but anyway, what are your names?” Lyle’s tone had become considerably friendlier.

The three friends grinned to each other and stepped forward in turn.

“Ah’m Applebloom!”

“I’m Sweetie Bell!”

“I’m Scootaloo!”

AND WE'RE THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!!! They finished together.

Lyle snapped his hands to his ears and nearly fell backwards at the last shout but the three crusaders took no notice.

“So, we’re you from?” Scootaloo asked, still curious.

Lyle, still rubbing where his ears presumably were under the cloak, answered.

“Well, I’m from you know, Earth?”

The three fillies gave him blank looks.

“You came out of the dirt?” Sweetie asked.

Lyle raised an eyebrow, and then remembered they couldn’t see it.

“No, you know, Earth, the planet, the place where we live and which I just realised now I’m probably not on anymore and this is just nonsense to you and now I’m rambling aren’t I?”

The three fillies nodded together.

Lyle restrained himself from face palming.

“Okay look, kids,” he paused, “err, you ARE kids right?”

Scootaloo shook her head, “I still say we’re not fillies anymore but that’s all anyone ever tells us is “we’re too young to build rockets” or “fillies shouldn’t play with zip lines”; as if I was playing with it!”

Lyle quickly decided to not follow along with any plan of the crusaders.

“Well okay then, kids, do you know where there’s an adult I can talk to?”

Applebloom nodded, “mah sis is just up at the farmhouse, you can talk to her if ya need help.”

“That would be brilliant Applebloom.” He made to leave then noticed he couldn’t see the farmhouse from the field.

“Uh, Applebloom, d’you mind giving me directions?”

Applebloom beamed.

“Yeah, this way CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS STRANGER GUIDERS YAY!!!”

The three fillies took off toward the house, leaving Lyle and his battered ear drums to bring up the rear.

****

In the grand city of Canterlot, the royal palace towered over the city as a truly majestic sight to behold; home to the rulers of the land Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the palace was always calm and serene even in times of crisis, at least it seemed so to the outside observer.

The higher ups of the Canterlot Elite had much to gossip about therefore when earlier in the day Princess Luna had zoomed overhead, challenging the sound barrier to crash right through the front castle doors, worry etched into her face.

Inside the tension was almost tangible; Celestia, for the first time since the escape of Discord, seemed deeply troubled, while Luna seemed worried but also angry.

“THEY DARE TO INVEST OUR KINGDOM, WE SHALL SEE WHO IS LAUGHING BY THE END, WE SHALL TAKE AWAY ALL THE FUN OF THEIRS AND RUN THEM OUT-“

“Luna dear, you’re doing the voice again,” Celestia said, unable to help a small grin at the embarrassed look on her little sisters face as she returned her voice to normal volume.

“Tell me though, dearest sister, is it a sign of his return or is it something worse?” Luna now seemed scared for the first time.

Celestia sighed.

“Luna, my dear sister, I won’t pretend to know; as much as my little ponies wish it were so, I am not omnipotent, I don’t know why they are here or if he has returned. Though I will admit, I don’t see how he could be back after Twilight and her friends defeated him.” As she said this she glanced behind her to the most recent stain glass window added to the castle.

“Sister, he has survived us once before, surely we should take precautions to ensure we eliminate any chance of his return?”

Celestia nodded.

“Agreed, please send word to Cadance and Shining Armour; I believe a meeting is required.”

Luna nodded, “And what of the Element Bearers?”

“I will see them myself; they have proved themselves more than worthy of being allowed to know.”

Luna wrapped her wings around her sister in a quick hug before taking to the air and flying at high speeds to the south, toward the Crystal Empire.

“Phalanx!”

The current captain of the guard bowed.

“Yes your majesty?”

“Please fetch Discord for this meeting.”

Phalanx visibly gulped.

“Y-Your majesty?”

Celestia patted his shoulder with a foreleg encouragingly.

“I trust you Phalanx, Discord knows the fate that awaits him if he harms anypony ever again. Now please, fetch him.”

Phalanx saluted and trotted with perfect composure through the huge double doors of the throne room.

Celestia looked once again at the many stained glass windows around the throne room, detailing the history of Equestria; her eyes lingered particularly on the image of a young dragon, vanquishing a ferocious looking armoured unicorn with the light from a heart carved from pure crystal.

“Sombra… if this is your doing I swear on my mothers’ life, I will destroy you once and for all. I will see you thrown to Tartarus myself.”

****

“Applebloom, what in tarnation are you and your friend doin’ bringing strangers to the house, ESPECIALLY strangers you don’t even know what they are! Y’all said you just found this sidewinder out in our fields and ya bring him back with ya?”

“Hey, I asked them if they had anyone who could help me Miss, forgive them for being a little confused to what to do. And speaking of that d’you have any scissors?”

The non-sequitor briefly baffled Applejack but she recovered quick, used to it courtesy of Pinkie Pie.

“And just why do you need scissors?”

Lyle stood by the kitchen sink tugging at his black cloak, Big Macintosh right beside him and keeping an eye on him. Lyle looked back at Applejack and the fillies, still sat at the kitchen table.

“Well in case you haven’t noticed, this cloak is very, very annoying and I Can’t. Get it. Off!” He punctuated each word with a tug at the zipper or hood.

“Big Mac, give ‘em a hand.” Applejack sighed.

Big Mac put both forelegs onto the hood and yanked suddenly.

“Ahh!” Lyle was pulled along with the cloak and smashed into the kitchen cupboard as Big Mac’s pull did nothing but fling him across the room.

Big Mac stared in surprise at the “human”, as he had called himself, now clambering to his feet.

Applejack glanced at her brother, “That all you got in ya?”

“Eeyup.”

And you can’t pull the zip up either?”

“Nope.”

Applejack held herself from growling in frustration; she didn’t like this sort of sudden change, it was Twilight who usually dealt with-

“Oh darnit, Ah’m being mighty dull today!” Applejack said, now smiling.

Everyone looked at her in confusion (or she guessed in Lyle’s case).

“Lyle, y’all wanna get out of that weird hoodie right?”

Lyle nodded.

“Well let me take ya to mah friend Twilight, she lives in town and she knows way more about magic than any of us, maybe one of her spells can get ya out of that thing!”

Lyle nodded, choosing not to question the presence of magic; after all, talking horses.

“Sounds good to me, sooner she can get this thing off the better. This thing is way too tight anyway; feel like I’ve been forced into my little brothers’ jacket over here.” Lyle groaned, tugging at the collar again.

Applebloom spoke up, “Oh ya have a bruther? What’s he like?”

Applejack wondered if she only imagined it but she could swear she saw Lyle tense at the question for the briefest moment before answering.

“We… don’t see much of each other anymore, not as close as you and your family Applebloom. Anyways, Applejack, should we go see about getting this grim reaper costume off?”

“Uh, Grim what now?”

“Never mind.”

****

Lyle had to admit, the library where this Twilight lived looked almost as cosy as it was bizarre; the room Applejack lead him into was rounded and cosy, the walls almost entirely covered by countless books in innumerable colours and size.

“Hey Applejack, what’s that with you?” A childlike voice piped up from behind the door.

Lyle turned back to see who had opened the door for them; the dragon he saw was small, about the size of the CMC, and was looking at Lyle with a look of confusion but also curiosity on his face.

Almost as soon as he saw the Dragon, dislike rushed into Lyle’s thoughts, a desire to insult, belittle the small dragon, even to physically harm him. Lyle pushed those thoughts aside and barely kept from giving an audible gasp, surprised and frightened by those thoughts, where had those come from?

“He’s a human Spike; not sure ‘xactly what they are but he’s got this darn coat stuck on him. We reckoned Twi might be able to help, she around?”

Spike shook his head.

“She had to go to Canterlot. It was so weird, Princess Luna just swooped right in and they flew off, didn’t even tell me why she had to go so fast.” It wasn’t hard to hear the slight hurt in Spike’s voice.

Lyle stepped forward.

“Don’t worry, Spike was it? I’m sure if this Twilight is as important as Applejack told me she just has a lot of jobs to do, she probably didn’t want to leave but it must have been urgent. Oh, I’m Lyle as well, I would say nice to see you but I don’t think you can really return that at the moment can you?”

“Nah, you kinda look a little freaky with that hood on.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.”

Applejack came back from the upstairs bedroom.

“Welp, she didn’t leave a note or nuthin’, who knows when Twi’ll be back. Say Lyle, it’s getting late; if you need a put up fer the night we could spare a room for ya.”

Lyle’s eyes widened and he was very glad neither could see it.

“A-Are you sure? I mean you barely know me and that’s gotta be really annoying on a farm to have someone who can’t help hanging around, besides I’m sure the Inn has a room-“

“And where, pray tell, are you going to get the bits to pay for one of those?”

Lyle faltered and let his shoulders slump.

“Hey come on now,” Applejack whispered as she put her foreleg on his shoulder, “it’s not a problem at all, Applebloom’ll be bouncin’ off the walls with you around, she loves meeting new people. Besides, ya’ll get more sleep on Big Mac’s spare bed; reckon it’s the only one that’ll fit you.”

“Wait won’t, y’know, Big Mac be sleeping in his bed?”

“Ah said “spare” bed; when ya live in the same house as Applebloom ya learn to have replacements handy. Anyways, we better head back, Spike ya gonna be alright by yourself?”

Spike nodded with a smile and waved them off, Lyle again had to fight inexplicable urges to kick the small purple dragon as he passed.

In no time the two had returned to the farmhouse; Applejack bid Lyle goodnight and headed for her room after pointing Lyle to the guest room.

The room itself was bland but the bed was thankfully big enough and designed right for a human to be comfortable; relaxing himself under the covers, Lyle couldn’t help but be amazed at everything that had happened in just one day. He was honestly surprised he hadn’t started babbling incoherently at some point or just stared in awe at any of the strange and wonderful things he had seen on his day.

Finally he let himself slip into dreams. It was not a restful slumber, booming voices, pitch black claws and glaring eyes haunted his dreams, providing no answers and no real questions, just more confusion as if more was needed.