While Sora enjoyed his ride as best as he could before being imprisoned for trying to save the day, he looked out at the posh city through the small window in the carriage. He watched as the social elites go about their daily lives, lifting their snouts up in the air, practically hearing their necks crack the moment they lift their heads like that. He half expected some of them to run into other ponies or into a wall with their eyes focused on the sky.

The ride ended all too soon as the carriage made a stop, reaching the castle where he would be flung in the dungeon. The doors opened up, the captain dragging the teen out, making him fall hard on the cobblestone road.

"Get up," the unicorn guard captain ordered.

"Is the ride over? I was kind of having fun." Annoyed at Sora's choice to be comical, the captain kicked him, only for the teen to block it with his forelegs. Seeing it as an act of defiance, the other guards aimed their spears at the pegasus as a warning. "I'm getting up! Sheesh. Grow a funny bone."

He got up on his hooves, shoved forward harshly by the irritated captain of the guard, nearly making Sora lose his footing. Being flanked on both sides, front and back, by the golden armored stallions, they escorted him into the magnificent castle. As they walked through the many corridors, surprisingly not heading downstairs to the basement, Sora took a look around at the elegant interior of the castle. It was pretty welcoming, almost like King Mickey's castle, only everything wasn't so warped as to make it look big and wacky. The floors had red carpeting, flowers tended to with care in vases on small tables along the halls, but what really caught his attention were some of the glass murals on the windows as they were approaching what looked like the throne room.

They seemed to depict events in the world's history. One of them showed what looked like two ponies with both wings and a horn, one white and one blue, defeating a dark unicorn stallion in front of a kingdom made entirely out of crystal. Another one showed a strange looking creature that was a mismatch of every type of animal found in a zoo, its paw and talon controlling three ponies, one of each race, like puppets. The next one showed the same two mares from the first one stopping the being as its body began turning to stone, a rainbow light shining down from six mystical gems above them. The last one he saw confused him, the same two winged unicorns depicted again, only they seemed to be fighting against each other. Those same gems used against the multi-parted chimera were on the white pony's side, and in the background was the full moon, showing that same etched in mare like the real moon.

"Keep moving!" one of the guards shouted, snapping Sora out of his awe as he pushed him forward.

"Easy! I can't admire the artwork?" Sora asked, only receiving another hard shove. "Guess not."

The guards in front of the teen opened the throne room doors, where he spotted what appeared to be a living version of the white winged unicorn from the murals. She was busy going through some documents, too busy to hear them come in. Sora figured this must be their ruler, but there was no way she was some kind of princess with her figure. Before he could question who she was, he was kicked forward, falling flat on his face as the guards saluted to their ruler.

"Your highness, we have captured the pegasus," the stallion announced as Sora sat back up, rubbing his sore nose.

"I call guard brutality!" Sora pleaded, his face slammed back down to the marble floor by the captain's aura. "See!?"

"Still your tongue!" the unicorn shouted.

"Relax, captain." The tall equine stepped down from her throne and approached Sora, lifting his head up to look at her. "He has already been captured." Sora couldn't look away from the mare's flowing mane, wondering just how she was making it move like that with no wind inside. "I will hand down my judgement, but I would like to speak to him alone."

"Yes, your highness." The guards bowed to the mare and left the room, leaving Sora alone with this world's ruler.

As the doors closed, the teen got back up on his haunches, looking around the room and leaning over to see if anyone was behind her. "...So, uhh...where's the princess?"

"You're looking at her," she said with a calm smile.

"...Seriously?" The mare nodded, baffling the Keyblade wielder. He inspected every bit of her, finding it hard to believe someone this elegant, this majestic, and quite possibly wise, was a princess. "...You sure you're not a queen and you have a daughter hiding somewhere in here?"

"I am quite sure." The princess levitated a scroll out in front of Sora. "I'm sure you might be aware of your arrest?"

"I think, but it's not what you think," Sora explained.

"Well, somepony claimed to have seen you summon 'black creatures', use magic no pegasus can actually wield, and has a dangerous key shaped sword." The mare unfurled the scroll, revealing the description of Sora. The teen stared at it, his eyes slowly squinting into a leer at the terrible mugshot of himself. "I think you and he are a pretty close match. But, I believe you are not exactly sinister in any sense."

"Close!? That looks nothing like me! And I sure as he-" Sora froze, looking back up at the princess as he replayed the last thing she said. "...What?"

"I said you are innocent." She rolled the scroll back up and made it disappear. Sora was confused, scratching his head with both his forelegs, still chained together. "I would like to see this sword of yours, if you don't mind."

"...B-But, wasn't I just...And the guards...Here..." She waited patiently as the teen's brain began to suffer from a meltdown, giving up finding the answers to the impossible questions he was bringing up and sighing in defeat. "Alright...But I'm warning you. Don't freak out if it comes back to me."

Since his hooves were a bit tied up, Sora summoned his Keyblade in his mouth, the flash of light not surprising the princess. He felt it being gently tugged away from his teeth, the mare grabbing the weapon in a golden aura. She looked over every detail of it, even the chain hanging off the end of the pommel.

"...So, this is what a Keyblade looks like," she said out loud.

"Yeah, it's a sword shaped like a-" For the second time, Sora did a double take as he heard her call it a Keyblade. "...W-What did you just call it!?"

"A Keyblade. A sword of light that can destroy darkness and unlock any keyhole, no matter what size or shape." Sora's jaw dropped, his eye and ears twitching as this mare somehow knew everything about what a Keyblade could do. "Am I correct?"

"...H-How...?" Panicking, Sora called his Keyblade back to him, the princess unfazed by the weapon's teleportation back to its owner and him unlocking the magical chains binding his limbs together. "How do you know about the Keyblade!?"

"I believe your master, Yen Sid, had described to me what they were while we communicated with each other. A while back, I discovered one of the mirrors given to me as a gift several centuries back had some magical properties, and when it was finally active, I met an...odd creature, who happened to be a wizard." Sora's mind went blank, dropping his Keyblade out of his mouth as it clattered to the ground. "I'm glad to finally meet one of his pupils after waiting for a week for your arrival. I am Princess Celestia, ruler of this world. Welcome to Equestria, Keyblade wielder."

"...I'm sorry. I need to knock myself unconscious. Please hold." Grabbing his weapon in his hoof, Sora flung it up high into the air, letting the flat end of the Keyblade smack into his head hard, knocking himself unconscious.

Celestia stared at the unconscious teen, his leg twitching as a comical bump appeared on his head. "...Well, he was right about one thing; his attitude is far different than I expected." She approached the unconscious stallion, poking the bump on his head. "He didn't mention him to be so...goofy."

After Sora woke up from unconsciousness, he found himself in Princess Celestia's personal bedchambers, the ruler of the world sipping tea across from him. She began explaining to him everything she knew about other worlds outside of her own and what Yen Sid had described to her whenever they spoke to each other. It's like they were long-distance friends, and outright so since Equestria and the Mysterious Tower are several days apart from each other via gummi ship. As much as Sora tried to hide everything about the outside worlds, his master broke that important rule. Celestia must have broken the wizard just from her radiance alone.

"...So...you know about the outside worlds," Sora blandly said, the princess nodding her head as she took another sip of her tea. "And everything about the Keyblade and the Heartless?"

"The Keyblade, a little bit...but these Heartless...I was told about them, but never in my life had I ever seen them." Celestia lowered her cup back down on the table between them, looking at Sora with worry. "Those black creatures are those Heartless, aren't they?"

"Sadly, yeah. Apparently, one of your subjects thought I was summoning them, but they come up out of nowhere," Sora explained. "The Heartless are dangerous. They steal the hearts of living beings, infect that heart with darkness, and create another Heartless. Depending how strong their heart is, that's how strong their Heartless will become." Sora moved a hoof to his chest, resting it over his heart. "Every heart has light and darkness in them, but all the Heartless care about is spreading darkness.

"But the Heartless aren't the only dangerous creatures that may appear. When one loses their heart, they leave behind an empty shell, becoming white husks called Nobodies." Celestia gasped at the mention of another dangerous creature that could be as worse as the Heartless. "Nobodies aren't supposed to exist, yet they do. The same rule applies to their strength; a strong heart, inside of a strong body. Some of them with incredibly strong hearts, they can look exactly how they were as Nobodies, far stronger than the grunts. And what's worse is that Nobodies are smarter than Heartless. In combat, they're more strategic than the Heartless, even in large groups."

"...My goodness..." Celestia looked down, her mane shrouding her face from Sora as she stared at the ground.

"But don't worry about the Nobodies. There hasn't been any sign of them much after I took care of the Nobody group Organization XIII. And the Heartless will all come after me, as long as I have this." Sora summoned his Keyblade, Celestia looking up as she heard him call his weapon. He spun it around in his hoof and hefted it over his shoulder. "The Keyblade is the Heartless's weakness, and they fear it. As long as I'm stuck here, I'll gladly defend your kingdom, your world, from anything that'll threaten to turn everything to darkness."

Sora gave the princess a big, toothy grin, highly confident in his abilities and intending to stay true to his promise. Celestia smiled, believing his words.

"...Your master knew exactly who to send. What is your name?" she asked.

"Sora," he responded.

"Sora..." Celestia nodded her head. "Yen Sid wanted to send you here, because I am in need of...assistance with some issues that may arise in the future."

"If they're anything like the Heartless, then I'll do whatever I can to help keep your world safe, your highness." Sora bowed in respect, causing the princess to chuckle.

"I am a bit curious, Sora. I was expecting you to arrive a few days earlier. What kept you from making it to Equestria?" Celestia asked, making the teen chuckle nervously as he sat up straight, putting his forelegs behind his head.

"Uhh, well...My ship kinda blew up just before I could even fly it down into the atmosphere," he explained. "I crash landed in Ponyville, which is why I said I'm kinda stuck in your world. You wouldn't happen to know what gummi blocks are, do you?" Confused, Celestia shook her head, making the teen sigh. "Of course. I figured as much.

"Oh. And about what I told you and what Master Yen Sid said, you can't tell anyone else about the Heartless, or the fact I'm from another world," Sora added.

"Otherwise, it would affect the world order," Celestia finished. "Don't worry. My lips are sealed...Until anypony else finds out and pesters the truth out of you. Don't expect me to have me bail you out of everything."

"Oh, you won't have to worry about that. I get in trouble all the time!" the pegasus laughed. "I can easily get myself out of any sticky situation!"

"Then couldn't you have just escaped captivity from my guards when they caught you?" That caught Sora off guard as he groaned, falling out of his seat comically.

"That would have gotten me in more trouble with your guards!" Celestia giggled as the teen got up, grumbling to himself as his words were twisted around. As Sora leaned back in his seat, he wondered what other dangers were in Equestria aside from the Heartless that were now appearing in this world. "So, since Master Yen Sid has assigned me to come to this world for my own training, I guess that means I'm going to be working for you, Celestia. Whatever you need me to do, I'll obey you like the rest of your guards: angry, violent, and always feeling like a stick's shoved up my butt!"

Sora mimicked the gruff expression of Celestia's royal guard and saluted with his tongue sticking out, causing the princess to laugh at the teen mocking her serious soldiers. "You're quite the comedian, Sora."

"Well, you can blame two of my friends for that," Sora said, dropping his serious guard impression. "They're a bunch of goofs, and one of them is actually named Goofy."

"How coincidental." Using her magic, Celestia made a scroll appear and wrote something down on it with a quill. "Whenever I need you to be on alert for anything, Sora, I will write to you. Though, I can't exactly explain everything in full, it'll be up to you to figure out what it is." Sora nodded, given the scroll with her writing. "Show this to the guards in case they try and stop you. We don't want you to rot in the dungeons."

"Heh. I'll probably just unlock the door myself with my Keyblade." The Keyblade wielder took his leave, bowing to the princess before leaving her room. As he rounded the corner, trying to find an exit, he accidentally bumped into someone. "Whoops. Sorry about-"

"You!" With Sora's unfortunate luck, he ended up running into the guard captain. The stallion slammed the teen into the wall, pinning him tightly. "How did you get out of your bonds!? My spell was unbreakable!"

"Hey, easy! I'm innocent!" Sora pulled out the scroll Celestia gave him. "I'm not a villain! Look! Celestia gave this to me to show you and your guards!"

"That's 'Princess Celestia', you ungrateful little-!" He snatched the scroll in his aura and read what was written. His eyes widened after he finished reading, growling angrily as he rolled it back up and shoved it in the pegasus's face. "I have no idea what kind of magic you have, but if you manipulated her highness-"

"I would never do anything like that," Sora said, remaining calm. "All I did was be completely honest with her. No lies. No manipulation." Just saying the word manipulation angered the teen. After he, Riku, and Kairi were separated when their world was destroyed, Riku had wound up with Maleficent, his best friend believing her lies and forcing him to side with the darkness. It was worse when Ansem possessed his heart, making the troubled teen suffer more and more as he now blames himself for his mistakes, unable to forgive himself for the pain he caused. Sora looked at the unicorn stallion with an angry gaze, not directly at him, but to the wicked witch who tricked Riku. "I almost lost my best friend to someone who fed him lies, making him think I didn't care about him...I'm not that cruel, and I never will be."

The two stared each other down, neither stallion wavering. Eventually, the captain released Sora, giving him a warning glare.

"Cause anymore trouble, and we'll make sure to lock you in a cell for the rest of your life," he warned, going back to his patrol around the castle.

"I never did." After watching the guard captain disappear around the corner, Sora continued on his way out of the castle, wanting to head back to Ponyville and get some rest. He found the entrance and freely left without anymore trouble, flying over the walls and over the city. From the distance, he could see Ponyville down below, the castle and the city he hovered above resting on the side of a mountain. He looked down at himself, realizing just how dirty he was after his tussle against Rainbow Dash. "Well, guess my clothes need another wash...And I need a shower."