Fragments of Harmony

by SpiritOfSnow

First published 5th of February, 2012

A MLP:FiM and Kingdom Hearts Crossover.

[A MLP:FiM and Kingdom Hearts Crossover]

A golden pony wakes up. He has no memory of himself, and no sense of identity other than a key and a heart on his flank. But his presence attracts the dark creatures called Heartless to the peaceful, light-filled world he lands on, threatening the hearts of ponies everywhere... and tempting the darkness of a certain lunar princess.

I: The Awakening

"The Elements of Harmony."

It was a simple subject, really. She had gone over everything about a million times, but nothing in the book could satisfy the burning curiosity that was roiling in her head.

"Elements of Harmony... Elements of Harmony," she mumbled, crushing the pages under her hooves to flip them faster than her magic would allow. At this hour, after all, she was growing too tired to use magic quickly enough for her liking.

There was nothing there. Nothing in the wretched book could explain what she was looking for.

Twilight Sparkle groaned in frustration, her nose slamming against the rumpled pages of her book. She recoiled right after, rubbing her injured nose with a hoof before returning her focus to reading the encyclopedia.

There had to be some reasonable explanation to this!

It was like going over Pinkie's unexplainable ability to predict things in the near future, but Twilight wasn't going to give up this time. Pinkie was Pinkie, but this was entirely different. This had to be explained.

It was like a gaping plot hole in an otherwise impeccable story, only much more serious than that could have ever been. It was Equestrian history. Something was missing. Something was awry. Something was not right in this tale.

The lavender unicorn wiped a tear from a burning eye and sighed in exasperation.

"...but as time went on, the younger sister became resentful," she whispered. She let out a great yawn before mumbling a bit more words from the book, blinking out the sleep from her eyes.

She paused in her reading and sniffed, shaking her head slightly and leaning back on her haunches.

"Doesn't make sense," she mumbled in protest to her sleepy mind. "How could Princess Luna... how could she turn into Nightmare Moon just by jealousy? There’s something else. Something must have… done something… something external...”

Her head nodded downwards towards the pages of her book, and her eyelids slowly began to droop.

“But… what kind of magic could possess an alicorn? Only the darkest of magic could do that… but that kind of magic hasn’t been in Equestria since..."

Her head tipped forward, but she didn't notice.

“It's not possible... it d-doesn't... make..."

She was asleep before her cheek even touched the book.

***

A golden pony was born.

His eyes were blue and his mane was blond. He was tall yet short and strong yet nimble, even though every time he tried to walk, he immediately fell over. It was strange to him that he had no knowledge of being able to walk.

Nonetheless, he got to his hooves once more and found that he was able to stand.

One hesitant hoof came after the other and the pony eased himself into a small walk. Only then did it come to him to take a look at his surroundings.

He was in a clearing of an oval shape and the night sky was bright and clear. He blinked at the stars in surprise, which glowed as a brighter blue and white than he ever could have imagined. The night cast a silver aura among the evergreen trees that surrounded him, making them take on a ghostly appearance.

He took a deep breath and stumbled forward.

As he walked and fell and walked again, he began to think. He discovered that he remembered almost nothing other than three things: his age, a name that wasn't his, and...

Two smiling faces peered through his memories and tickled his mind, spraying a variety of golden-brown hues across his vision. Their faces were flat and furless, but they still had manes- one of a silky black and one of a spiky red.

He frowned and sniffed. His slow walk was quickly developing into a brisk trot.

So he was somebody... somepony. Which was it? In any case, he had an identity, but he still did not remember who he was as a person... pony...

The golden colt gasped in surprise as bright lights disrupted the ambient scenery as well as his thoughts. He had to blink a few times before his vision was regained, but when it did come back, it was met by wooden cottages. Sun-like light filtered from their windows, chasing away the spiritual light that coveted the trees behind him.

He was tempted to turn back to the quiet of the forest, but something drew him to civilization. Maybe someone... somepony... was there? Someone that knew him?

He lowered his head in his discomfort, but went on.

As he trekked through the streets, he found himself becoming frightened by the houses around him, and each step challenged his will. His mind was begging him to return to the safety of the forest, to avoid confrontation... maybe he could just-

He stopped in his tracks and looked carefully up at the gigantic tree in front of him. It looked like a house... but it was tree... so maybe it meant safety.

He knocked on the door he had stopped in front of, but it simply swung open. He looked at it in mute surprise before peeking his head inside.

He could see another pony there- a lavender unicorn, he guessed- sleeping on a book. Two candles were burning on the edges of the desk her head lay on, and she was drooling slightly.

He looked around at the neatly assorted books on their shelves before slowly creeping inside. He turned and swung the door shut, making it emit slight clicks as he closed and locked it.

His blue eyes swept across the circular room before resting on the unicorn again. He wondered for a moment if he could move her, but she seemed pretty tired, and he didn't want to wake her up.

The golden pony crept up to her and took the book between his hooves, pulling it slowly from underneath the unicorn's hair. It came out neatly, but he found that she was drooling on her mane now...

He placed the slightly wet book on the floor and slipped his hoof in between the mare's neck and her mane. The hair slid from underneath her cheek to safety from her saliva.

The colt looked down at her, satisfied with his good deed. Hopefully she wouldn't be too upset to find her book a little soggy... but it wasn't his fault anyways, was it?

His ears folded against the back of his head, their tips tickling the slight fur that covered his body. He rubbed the disturbed areas with his hooves before standing erect once more.

With wide eyes and large pupils, he surveyed the dark room for a resting place. Would the unicorn mind him staying here? Maybe, if she did, he could tell her about how he helped her and she'd forgive him. In any case, he was tired and he felt safer in the warm, candle-lit tree than in the bright and cold streets.

The golden pony eyed the staircase and trotted over there without a second thought. Slowly, he lowered himself to the wooden floor, shifting his legs here and there to get comfortable. When he was satisfied, he leaned his head against the side of the stairs, dragging it down to his forelegs and fitting his muzzle in between his ankles.

Letting out a deep sigh, he closed his eyes and slept.

***

"Um... hello?"

The golden colt blearily opened his eyes. A haze of lavender blurred his vision, and he had to blink a few times in order to see clearly.

Why was that pony upside down...?

He then realized that he was still lying on the floor and that his head was in between the other pony's front hooves.

Startled, he scooted out from under the other pony's head and bumped the top of his head against the bookshelves behind him. This caused the shelves to shake precariously, but no books fell out.

The pony stared at him with wide, surprised eyes as he stumbled upright. He took the moment to really observe her.

As was obvious by her general appearance and the shape of her body, she was a purple, female unicorn. Her eyes were darker than her body, but her mane and tail were darkest of all, with two bright pinkish streaks as highlights. He also couldn't help but notice a marking on her flank- a magenta starburst on both sides, of which were identical to each other- but he then saw that a light blush was decorated on her face.

Did he stare too long? Did ponies even mind that? He was a pony, though. Shouldn't he already know that?

He looked away, mirroring her embarrassment.

"I'm, uh..." He placed a hoof to his chest uncertainly, but this threatened his balance and made him put it down again. "I'm sorry, I've... I don't know where this is, and I was wondering what that marking on your, um..."

"My cutie mark?" she said, giving him a quizzical look. "But... all ponies have a cutie mark, unless they're foals."

"T-they do?" the golden pony stuttered before immediately twisting his head to examine his own flank. There was black key printed on his back leg, which he stretched out to look at more clearly. He found it was difficult while standing up on his uneasy legs, so he sat down to give it a better look.

It was a key, but it was... different. It wasn't a regular key- he could tell that. It was simple, but there was a strange bar in the hollowed space that would be its handle, like it was oversized and meant to be held... or maybe he was just overthinking things. Behind it was a perfectly shaped white heart.

The purple pony cleared her throat, and the colt jumped up in surprise. His next reaction was to blush; the female pony was giving him a slightly unamused but mostly uneasy expression.

"I'm so confused," he told her. It was very true.

"Well, um..." The look of unease on the unicorn's face became almost panicky. "Huh... okay, why don't you have a seat?"

The yellow-colored colt looked around for a chair in confusion before the unicorn's horn began to glow. A pair of chairs floated down the staircase, knocking against the floor a few times before settling next to the two ponies.

"Sorry, I'm still kind of tired after last night's study session," the purple pony admitted before she made her way to one of the chairs. The colt watched how she seated herself and copied her motions, managing to comfortably sit down on his own chair.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle," she said pleasantly, extending a hoof. He recognized the motion and reached out with his own, and they shook hooves for a moment before pulling away.

"I'm... well... I don't know," he admitted rather quietly.

Twilight Sparkle looked surprised for a moment, but then her expression turned somewhat grave. "I've never met a pony with amnesia so serious that he couldn't remember his own name..."

"A-amnesia?"

"A partial or total loss of memory. In your case, it seems to be total," Twilight said apologetically.

The colt's ears folded against his head subconsciously. "But I still remember how to talk. And I still remember how old I am... and I still remember these two other people..."

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the word 'people'. "Don't you mean ponies?"

"Yes?"

"Well, hmm." The lavender pony twiddled with the fabric of the cushion of her chair unsurely before continuing. "Why don't you tell me everything you can remember?"

The colt frowned at her slightly before shutting his eyes in concentration. "Two peo- ponies. I remember, one was older than me, he had spiky red hair... mane. The other was my age. She had a short black mane. But their faces were weird."

"What do you mean?" Twilight leaned forward in curiosity.

"They were... flat, and they were this peach color. I can't really explain it," said the colt. He rubbed his head with a hoof in response to a headache threatening to afflict him.

"Sounds to me like you were dreaming of an old mythological creature, but I can't be sure," the lavender pony said after a moment of thought. "Your dreaming of a myth... maybe that's what your cutie mark means? A key, a heart... unlocking secrets of myths? Or..."

"What were the creatures called?" the young stallion inquired.

"Oh, they have many names. Too many to count," Twilight Sparkle said, waving her hoof dismissively. "Besides, they're almost never mentioned anymore, even in the oldest Equestrian literature. Anyways, what else do you remember?"

"Well... I know I'm somewhere in age between a colt and a stallion," the male pony offered, holding up a hoof in a shrug to punctuate his lack of sureness.

"It's usually only used technically nowadays, but- you mean a teenager, right?"

The colt nodded enthusiastically, happy at finally saying something that made sense.

"Anything else?" Twilight pressed, cocking her head with wide purple eyes.

"There's a name," he told her, leaning forward like her.

"Your name?" the unicorn asked somewhat excitedly.

"No, it's a girl's name," he said, eyes as wide as the pony in the opposite chair. "It's... it's, uh..."

Twilight frowned as the colt leaned back in his chair, pressing his hooves to his face in frustration. "Ugh... it's on the tip of my tongue. I just..."

The lavender pony placed a comforting hoof on his tense shoulder. "Don't push yourself. After all, you can't remember that much, and I think that an amnesia victim-"

"There's another name!" the male pony suddenly blurted out. Twilight jumped back as his hooves slammed into the base of his chair.

"Y-yes?" she asked, startled.

"Accccssss..." the colt said, but his blue eyes began to cloud over in confusion. "I can't..."

"It's... okay," Twilight said breathlessly, this time placing both her hooves on the young stallion's shoulders- perhaps to steady herself as much as him. The colt stopped himself and looked at her, suddenly noticing the bags under her eyes and how tired she seemed to be. Didn't she mention something about a late-night study session...?

"It's only just after dawn, and I bet you need some rest. You are an amnesiac after all," she said, sounding almost motherly, or as if she was letting him down. It was fairly obvious she had used that tone of voice for someone else in the past.

In any case, she actually was letting him down a little. "But I'm not really that tired- and I just got up, I want to learn about everything here-"

"Twilight? What are you-"

The pair of ponies froze in place, their eyes slowly shifting towards the staircase. There stood a small, lizard-like dragon, with purple scales and green cat-slit eyes. Said eyes were wide in surprise as he stared at the equines.

"Well I'll just leave you two alone now!" he eeped out before stiffly walking back up the stairs.

It was a few moments before Twilight drew away from the colt, making sure to avoid eye contact.

The golden pony tilted his head in confusion. What was so embarrassing? He was more wondering about why there was a dragon in the house... tree... library.

"I'm... going to go take care of him," Twilight said awkwardly, springing to her feet. Her words gradually began to spill out more quickly. "And then I'll get some sleep. You sleep too. Then we can work on your memories more when we get up. Get an expert. And- you don't know how to fly, do you? Well if you don't, maybe Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy can teach you-"

"Fly?"

Twilight pointed at his sides before she made her way over to the stairs. The golden colt looked over himself and discovered that he had a pair of wings folded against his back and sides. Experimentally, he stretched them out and flapped them.

It felt right, but so unfamiliar at the same time...

He looked back up at Twilight, whose tail was the only thing visible at the top of the stairs.

"Twilight... Sparkle, um, but I-"

She turned around a moment. "Sorry, I really need to get to Spike before he gets the wrong idea," she said before rushing up the stairs.

"Spike?" the colt thought out loud, tilting his head in curiosity. "Is that the dragon's name?"

He then realized what the rest of Twilight's words implied, and he turned a brilliant shade of red.

***

Pale blue hoof guards clapped against the tile floor as the princess strolled through the halls of Canterlot’s castle. She always liked wandering through its vast chambers after a long study session. After all, there was much to learn about the new Equestria, and so much to take in could really make a pony’s head hurt.

Princess Luna blinked slowly, filtering the sunlight away from her dark eyes. Her ears were perked and her mane swirled gracefully behind her, even without an actual breeze.

Grace was in her namesake after all, but she was by no means fragile. Her power was great. There were few things that could rival her nighttime magic.

The Heartless were one of them.

Heartless. Creatures not of the night, but of pure, solidified darkness. Creatures that stole the hearts of any innocent creature their claws were set upon, feeding off darkness and ripping the light to shreds.

But then again, she thought to herself, she had been under the burning influence of jealousy. The Heartless had fed that jealousy and offered her their darkness, and she had consumed that darkness unknowingly to the point where she had lost her heart.

Luna could now reflect upon her alter ego with only minimal pain, though. Celestia had helped her recuperate and regain her magic after the Elements of Harmony had returned her heart.

Yes, there were few things that could rival her nighttime magic. Luna couldn’t imagine the Elements of Harmony turning to darkness- they were denizens of peace, after all- but they could have waged a war against her powers alone. Then there was Discord- only she and Celestia’s powers combined could defeat him. Few things indeed…

But no matter how much she healed from her time as Nightmare Moon and no matter how much magic she had already regained, she already knew that there was one force that she would eternally fear. She could only hope that they would never touch her heart again, and never again tempt the darkness that lay within her forever…

She hoped she would never have to encounter a Heartless again.

But then again, how could she ever hope for that when she was destined to live so long…?

Princess Luna had unknowingly broken into a brisk trot during her distressing thoughts. Her heart beating like the drumrolls of war, she nearly ran through the halls, her sense of calm abandoned if only to bring her back to the safety of her sister.

After all, Celestia was full of so much light... so devoid of petty fears…

But as she ran from her memories, the darkness of her harrowing fear sprang from her hoof steps like the sparks of newborn magic.

The inevitable happened long after she had fled. From Luna's darkness, a Shadow, the first of the Heartless, formed in Equestria for the first time in a thousand years.

***

Roxas...? Is that you?

II: Curiosities

In Ponyville's library, two purple beings stood stubbornly, staring each other down and trying to talk the other into their respective mindset. One was a unicorn, and one was a dragon.

"I know it's weird to have a pony just show up in the library, and I know that if he were any other pony, I'd agree with you, Spike," said the lavender unicorn, "but he seems genuinely clueless. He can't even remember his own name."

"How do you know he wasn't lying?" the purple dragon argued, drawing his crossed arms closer to his chest.

"He didn't even know what a cutie mark was," Twilight said in exasperation, lowering her neck and shaking her head slowly before continuing. "I don't know how or why, not exactly, but I just know he was telling the truth."

Spike's hardened gaze softened a bit, and he sighed to himself before relenting.

"Just... be careful, Twi," he said before glaring slightly at the wall behind the lavender mare. "I mean, if he just snuck in here like a-"

"I know. But I'm alright now, aren't I?" Twilight said with a sigh, placing a hoof on the baby dragon's forehead to placate him.

He took her leg between his clawed hands and looked up at her with wide eyes. "I just don't want to see you hurt, you know?"

Twilight looked down at him, tilting her head at the little dragon and smiling softly. She opened her mouth to respond, but she cut herself off as a thought appeared in her mind.

"Wait a minute... I'll be right back, okay?" She took back her hoof, scrambling down the stairs and poking her head around the corner.

Her suspicions were confirmed; the front door to the library’s main room was wide open. The clueless pegasus, wanting to "learn about everything", had gone exploring Ponyville on his own.

***

"This place is so... nice in the morning!" the colt exclaimed to himself, trotting happily down the street.

The sun had just recently lifted from behind the horizon, but there were already a sizable amount of ponies milling about the streets. The yellow pegasus swung his head back and forth as he took in the sights. A few ponies did a double-take when they saw him, wondering who the unfamiliar face was and why he seemed so happy.

It was like a totally new place to the colt. At night, the small buildings all seemed foreboding with their harsh and angry lights, blocking out the stars and blinding him. But by the sun, the place wasn't scary at all. There were too many ponies around to make him feel alone, and the colorful surroundings were all too pretty to intimidate the young pegasus.

He didn't take the time to memorize the names of various shops that he passed, as he didn’t care in particular about what they held due to his lack of money. However, one thing managed to make him stop in his tracks: the scent of something freshly baked.

He immediately turned on his hooves, surveying the building before him. In two words, it looked like a gingerbread house. It was larger than the houses around it, but it didn't frighten him. He looked around and spotted a name: Sugarcube Corner.

He cocked his head. Why was it called that when it clearly wasn't on a corner?

He didn't let that bother him; the scent was too attractive to spend time loitering around, and he couldn’t even remember the last time he had eaten. Well, of course he didn’t…

He passed by a red unicorn with green eyes and a spiky mane as he entered, but didn't really pay much mind to the stranger pony.

But the stallion paused in surprise and looked back. However, the golden colt had already gone past the doors, both of which quickly closed behind him. The fire-colored pony frowned thoughtfully as if he were trying to recall something important before mumbling to himself.

“…Roxas? Is that you?”

He rubbed at a teardrop marking below his eye before sighing and walking away.

***

The colt stared at the tasty-looking sweets. He was making a conscious effort to not drool.

He had been standing there for about five minutes, just staring at the cupcakes and candy canes on display. It wasn't like he could just eat them, though. After all, he had no money, and he was pretty sure that there was another pony in the room that knew he had come in.

So he stared.

And stared.

And stare-

"Hey there!"

The young stallion jumped in surprise, whipping his head around to see the pony that had just snuck up on him. It was a pink mare with a curly mane and blue eyes. His eyes automatically went to her flank, which had three balloons on it.

"Whatcha doing?" she asked with her high-pitched voice, smiling avidly in his face. He was forced to lean back a little, or else their muzzles would touch.

"I, uh, ah-"

"I've never seen you before!" she said joyously, prancing back a couple steps. "Who are you? I'm Pinkie Pie!"

"I don't know who I am," the colt said awkwardly.

"Oh." The pink pony's face went blank for a moment, but then her expression erupted into cheeriness once again. "Oh, oh, oh! Can I name you then!?"

"Huh?" He gave her a look of confusion.

"You know, a name! I can't just go around calling you 'No-Name', can I?" said Pinkie, bouncing up and down in anticipation. “And I can’t throw a welcome party for a nameless pony. What am I supposed to put on the banner? Just ‘welcome’ isn’t welcome-y enough!”

The colt opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off by the mare, who went on anyways.

"Here, let me see your cutie mark!" she said enthusiastically. The pegasus stumbled a little farther away as Pinkie began to invade his personal space some more. She observed the black key and white heart on his flank for a few moments.

"...it's a key and a heart," she stated before stepping back and pointing a hoof at the winged colt dramatically. "What do you mean you don't know who you are!? It's so obvious!"

"H-huh?" said the colt, who eyed Pinkie's hoof nervously. He was feeling as if she were accusing him of something.

"Keyheart!" she nearly shouted. "Your name is Keyheart!"

The colt blinked in surprise. He already knew it wasn't his name, but he wasn't really sure how to respond.

"It makes sense! You have a key and a heart as a cutie mark so you must be Keyheart!" she said at him and his lack of speech. "And you want those cupcakes but you have no bits to spend on them!"

"Bits... you mean money?" The colt blinked at her in surprise. He was also a bit thrown off by the sudden change of subject. "How did you...?"

"I know a hungry pony when I see one, and you're a hungry pony!" Pinkie exclaimed, scooping one of the cupcakes into her hooves. The colt nearly drooled at the sight of it, but then Pinkie held it out to him.

"R-really? But I have no money... bits," said the pegasus. He took the cupcake anyways. He was hungry enough that he took the top part into his mouth all at once. As he chewed, his eyes grew progressively wider, a smile subconsciously spreading over his face.

"Good, huh?" Pinkie asked, although it was more of a statement than a question. "You're gonna pay it off by working here for a while!"

The blond colt would have spat out his cupcake, but it was far too delicious.

"W-what? But I-"

"Mr. and Mrs. Cake aren't here today, so I'm all alone, but being alone is boring, and not as many ponies come here on Mondays!" said Pinkie, bouncing up and down as she sang out the words. "So you can work with me and I'll give you your own pay and then you can use the bits to buy things like more cupcakes or maybe a candy cane because they're on sale today and so are Rarity's dresses although I'm not really sure why a colt would want to wear a dress but still-"

The winged pony had tuned out at about ‘your own pay'. Little did he know, it was quite a feat that he managed to get that far anyways considering Pinkie Pie's average rambling speed.

He mulled it over for a moment. He could probably just reject and hightail it out of there, but he would have to leave behind the cupcake... and it would be mean to just leave her alone, anyways. And the cupcake was delicious; he really wanted to finish that cupcake...

"How long do I have to stay?" He asked, looking up at her curiously.

"Oh, just a couple hours," she answered, seemingly unbothered by his interrupting her.

"Okay..." he said unsurely, but he managed a smile. He gulped down the rest of his cupcake before sitting up straighter, looking the party pony in the eyes with newfound determination. "What do I have to do?"

Pinkie grinned.

***

The red stallion strolled leisurely down the streets of Ponyville, ears perked but eyes half-lidded in relaxation. The area was pretty tranquil, after all, if you didn’t count the occasional tourist or business pony bumbling around.

He smiled slightly as he came into the town plaza, where there were numerous food stands around. Despite the time of week, many ponies were there that day, ordering carrot dogs and vegetable burgers and... ice cream?

The ice cream stand certainly caught his eye, especially the type of ice cream on its front sign. Its symbol appeared to be his favorite: sea-salt ice cream.

...that was his favorite, right?

He shook his head vigorously. Of course it was his favorite ice cream. He might have had to always double-check everything that went on in his mind since entering this world, but he should know better about his favorite ice cream, for goodness sake.

He walked up to the stall. The mare there, a pink unicorn pony with a curly light yellow mane, poked her head up from behind the freezer that supposedly held the ice cream. She squeaked in surprise and sprang to her hooves.

"I'm so sorry to make you wait, sir!" she exclaimed, pulling up a bowl of a creamy light blue substance with her. The red-colored unicorn just raised an eyebrow at the semi-solid before looking back at the mare.

"It's okay, I just got here," he told her. "What's that?"

"A new recipe," she said in surprise, as if she was expecting to apologize some more. "I've been trying to get it for my entire ice cream-making career."

"Sounds... interesting," the spiky-maned stallion said. Deciding he had time for small talk, he continued on. "What's it for?"

"The ice cream on our banner," she said, tapping the sign with the blue rectangular ice cream on it above her head. "For years, I've been trying to get the salty-sweet combination of the legendary sea-salt ice cream!"

"Oh? You mean-"

"Yes!" she interrupted him, slamming her hooves down onto the portable freezer. A few nearby ponies looked over at her in surprise, but she didn’t notice them. "It hasn't been in Equestria since before Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon! Over a thousand years! The recipe just disappeared, but the ice cream was so famously wonderful that it's still mentioned as a modern myth. I'm trying to recreate it."

Mythical ice cream, huh? The corners of the redhead unicorn’s mouth began twitching upwards. "Well, it does taste pretty good."

"W... what?" The mare looked at him bewilderedly. "You mean you've tasted it?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I used some sort of spell to carry one around with me in case I got hungry," the stallion said nonchalantly. "Let me figure it out..."

The mare's expression was skeptical until her line of vision was met by a spontaneously spawned and floating bar of perfectly made sea-salt ice cream.

She gaped and he smirked triumphantly, going as far to wave the ice cream bar in her face using his magic. But his lack of knowledge caused his magic to falter for a moment; he dropped the bar by accident.

But the pink unicorn was quick, and she managed to catch the ice cream with her own magenta magic before it could touch the ground.

“Is this really… sea-salt ice cream?” she asked breathlessly, marveling at the ice cream with sparkling eyes as she inspected it. In any other situation, a pony would think that she was looking at the Sapphire Stone from the first Daring Do book.

“Of course,” said the green-eyed stallion, sounding a bit disgruntled at having dropped the salty-sweet popsicle.

The mare gave it an experimental side-lick, tilting her head as she precariously touched it with her tongue. Her face slowly elevated into an ecstatic expression, and she began jumping up and down like a giddy schoolfilly.

“Thank you thank you thank you!” she squealed, unknowingly making the bowl with her old recipe tip over the freezer as she reached over and began shaking the fire-colored unicorn’s leg vigorously. He couldn’t respond; he was too busy trying not to lose balance and fall over.

“It’s delicious!” she went on after taking back her hooves. “The flavor! The perfect amount of salt mixed with inner sugar! The temperature, perfect for any season!”

“I guess so?” the unicorn suggested, too busy rubbing his abused front leg to realize that he had just accidentally given a random pony his only bar of sea-salt ice cream.

“I promise, I will decode the recipe within this wondrous bar of ice cream,” she said dramatically, pressing a hoof to her chest for extra effect. “I will experiment until I match this exact flavor, and when I do, when this great recipe brings me riches of the greatest, I will give you as much free ice cream as you can eat for the rest of your existence!”

The pony furrowed his eyebrows down, trying to figure out what exactly the mare had said (she had spoken quickly) until the last sentence. He heard the words ‘free ice cream’ quite selectively.

“Free ice cream sounds perfect,” he said, deciding that going without the ice cream for a little while would be worth it when an endless amount of bars would be given out to him in the end. “Tell me when you’ve got it down, huh?”

“Sure! Oh, but what’s your name?” asked the quirky unicorn, who had already packed the ice cream in a safe place inside her freezer. “I’m Sweet Dreams- oh, sorry, I mean Sweet Cream, and my husband is Ice Cream. We were married recently and I decided to change my name to match his, if you’re wondering.”

The stallion raised his eyebrows at the sudden lack of Sweet Cream’s theatric speech, but he answered anyways.

“Axel,” he said, turning and preparing to walk away, but smiling back at the mare.

She had a clear view of his cutie mark. It consisted of a dark red and circular weapon that appeared to have spikes on it, which was on top of an orange and golden flame.

“Got it memorized?”

***

“Batter up!”

The male yellow pegasus and the female pink earth pony let out a simultaneous battle cry before pounding their hooves against the treacherous dough.

Needless to say, it had no chance.

The colt had had his fair share of fun baking with Pinkie Pie. She had never called him ‘Keyheart’ again, thankfully. Either way, he found her antics kind of entertaining. Granted, some of them got a little annoying after the some amount of time, but in all he didn’t mind. In short, she was the kind of pony he found to be quirky and fun, but not someone to hang around for overly extended periods of time.

He was, sadly, terrible at baking cakes, cupcakes, muffins, or anything else related to them. However, he was surprisingly good at baking cookies, and he was definitely adept at kneading dough. Pinkie had even gone as far to call him a master of it. It certainly helped his ego, which was bruised after continuously failing at almost everything else. Except for cookies.

Maybe his cutie mark represented making heart-shaped cookies?

…Nah.

A bell went off somewhere in the shop. The messy-maned colt jumped in surprise, but continued kneading his dough.

By the time Pinkie had returned from checking the bell, the blond pegasus had finished his share of the dough. He leaned back on his haunches, looking upon his work with satisfaction. Pinkie nodded happily beside him.

“Well, that’s it for today!” she sang out.

“It’s been that long already?” asked the colt, looking at the pink pony in surprise. He ducked his head and pulled off the chef’s hat Pinkie had randomly stuck on his head earlier. He then patted his rat’s nest of a mane, as if it were possible for him to tidy it.

“Yep! It was really fun baking with you too!” she exclaimed, grinning at him. “Maybe you can come back next time! Then we can bake more cookies- or maybe you can bake more cookies while I make some cakes and stuff that you can’t! Then you can earn more bits so you can spend it on stuff like maybe even more sweets like I do, especially on the weekends when-“

Sensing a Pinkie ramble coming on, the golden colt cut in mildly, “Sure, I’ll come by some time again. It was fun.”

“Oh yeah! Your bits!” Pinkie nearly shouted, unfazed by the pegasus colt’s interruption. She rushed over to the register and pulled out fourteen shiny gold coins, not even bothering to count them before she handed them over to the colt. He took them in surprise, inspecting them carefully.

“How am I supposed to carry these around?” he inquired.

“Oh! Uh…” Pinkie’s face went blank, but then she waved her hooves around as inspiration struck her. “You could carry them around in your mane, like I do!”

“My… mane?” the colt said confusedly, but he did as she suggested anyways. However, as soon as he turned his head, three coins fell out and clattered onto the tile kitchen floor. His mane may have been messy-looking, but it was still too smooth to entangle something like a coin in it.

“Hehe, sorry,” Pinkie said as the colt pulled the rest of the coins out of his hair. At least, he tried to; it was difficult to do so with hooves.

Pinkie ended up helping him pick out the bits with her mouth. At least she didn’t get his mane wet. That would have been awkward.

“I don’t know how pegasusesuses carry around their bits,” said the party pony, “or really anypony in particular. I never asked. Manes are the best pockets!”

She took the chef’s hat from the colt, who then considered asking to wear the hat around the town with his bits under it. However, he then dismissed the idea, figuring that he would look too ridiculous and attract too much attention walking around with a hat like it.

“Oh, I know! Why don’t you ask one of my friends? Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy- they’re both pegasus ponies!” Pinkie said as if she had just had a life-changing epiphany.

“Do they know how to fly?” asked the colt.

“Of course they do, silly!” said the filly. “Do you want to try and look for them?”

The flightless pegasus thought it over for a moment. Even if he didn’t find either of them, he could still take the chance to explore his current residence some more before returning to Twilight’s library.

He then frowned, wondering if Twilight had gone back to sleep or not. He hadn’t considered the possibility of her going out and looking for him. In any case, if she did notice that he had left, he would have to apologize to her later.

“Are you okay?” Pinkie asked. The colt looked at her questioningly.

“Oh, you were frowning. Sugarcube Corner runs on happy faces!” the female pony said, grinning.

The pegasus smiled back, but it was quickly overshadowed by a foreboding feeling that churned in his stomach more than his heart. It was strange, really; he had no idea why, but Pinkie’s last sentence was very strangely familiar.

“Come onnn!” Pinkie said encouragingly, placing her hooves on the colt’s cheeks and pulling the sides of his face up. When she drew away, he was laughing. Pinkie had that effect on other ponies, he guessed.

“So!” She said. The colt sensed a topic change and pricked his ears.

“You see, Fluttershy usually stays around her cottage, but Dashie likes napping all over Ponyville’s clouds…”

***

Sugarcube Corner’s doors swung open. A looming figure stood at the door, blocking out the sun and casting a long shadow that stretched all the way to the counter. Pinkie poked her head up and smiled obliviously.

“Welcome… oh, hi Twilight! You’ll never guess what I did this morning!”

The bedraggled unicorn dragged herself inside, forgetting to close the doors behind her. She looked up at Pinkie with baggy eyes.

“Sorry, Pinkie, that’s going to have to wait a bit,” Twilight said apologetically before sniffing a little. “Oh, no… I hope I’m not getting sick…”

“Okay then,” she said, acting unusually mild. Twilight shook her head at the thought; it wasn’t possible for Pinkie to be tired.

“Why’re you here then?” asked the party pony.

“Have you seen a yellow pegasus colt? Key and heart cutie mark? Loss of memo-“

“Ohh, him!” The pink pony giggled. “Of course I know him! I’ve only been baking with him for like, three hours!”

Twilight’s eye twitched. “He was here… all that time?”

“Yep!” she said happily. “It was really fun! He just left a little while ago!”

Twilight’s other eye twitched. “He was here recently, too…?”

Pinkie nodded happy, unknowingly encouraging a fit from the cranky and sleep-deprived lavender mare.

But Twilight just sighed; she was too tired to get angry at Pinkie, especially for something she knew nothing about. Placing a hoof to her aching forehead, the lavender unicorn asked, “Do you know where he went?”

“Yep! I pointed him towards Fluttershy’s cottage,” the party pony replied, waving her hoof in the general direction she had implied.

“Oh, thank you so much, Pinkie,” Twilight said with obvious relief. Even if she didn’t find the missing pony right away, at least she had some sense of direction now.

“No problemo!” the pink pony called after Twilight, who had turned and began to trot out of the building.

Twilight smiled back weakly before going towards the general direction of the animal lover’s home.

***

“The first thing you need to know about flying…”

III: Silence

Her hoofsteps were quiet as her body led her to the Canterlot library.

Maybe there, after all, there would be answers.

As the princess of the night, she had no trouble at all adjusting to the sudden darkness that greeted her inside the large, expansive room. She simply peered inside and lit the area with a light from her horn.

It was the most extensive private library in Equestria, making lighting scarce because it had to be spread throughout the whole area. But in truth, it was only so dark because it was located inside the mountain Canterlot hung off of.

This was her private escape... her dimly lit sanctuary. This was where she went when she was sad, or bored, or angry...

She frowned, noticing a few things out of place since the last time she had come here. The only other pony that could have been in here was Celestia. She would have to ask her sister about it later…

The alicorn then looked around somewhat nervously. What if the Heartless could spawn from this darkness?

But then, Luna shook her head and banished the thought. Heartless didn’t come from physical darkness, like literal shadows. They could only come from hearts.

…right?

She snorted at herself. She still didn't know much about the Heartless, so she had to learn about what had been found during her time in the moon.

She shook her head, deciding it was best to simply find a book on Heartless and start from there. If there was one, that was… but she figured that Celestia would have done research after Nightmare Moon came into being.

She peered at the shelves as she passed them by before she found her target.

The soft blue glow of the book being encased in her magic bathed the otherwise lightless shelves. The book slid out easily, not disturbing any others around it as it left its home

She had opened it and was reading it before she even realized that she had levitated the book in front of her own face.

Nevertheless, the words inside were useful, and so Luna read on. She skipped the intro and made her way to the more informational part of the book.

What are Heartless?

It is a truly curious question. But before we can understand heartless, we must understand the heart.

The being is comprised of three things. These are, firstly, the heart, which contains the emotions and tells the body what to do. Then there is the soul, which carries out the heart’s orders and directs the body. Third is the body, which serves as a vessel to the heart and soul.

Without all three, the being will collapse.

When a being dies naturally, its heart goes to Kingdom Hearts, which is the heart of all worlds. However, there is a chance that, if there is enough darkness in the heart, a heartless will be born.

The remaining body and soul will do one of two things. Either they will wilt away together, or, if the heart was strong enough, the soul will take control of the body and become an emotionless shell. These beings are Nobodies, and they are called so because they do not truly exist.

Nobodies are usually more intelligent than Heartless, but there are exceptions. The most intelligent Nobodies with the strongest hearts and souls can retain the same form and memories as they did when they were whole beings, but do not possess emotion due to their lack of hearts.

“This tells us nothing about Heartless!” Luna whispered in outrage. Or, at least she thought she whispered the words. In reality, she had yelled so loudly that the shelves nearest to her shook violently, as if they were more afraid of her voice than toppling over. But for the time being, they were safe; the moon princess had continued walking on, engrossed with the book.

She shook her head at the next paragraph, using her magic to flip through the pages impatiently. She wanted to know about the Heartless. What had been researched about them in the thousand years she had been gone. What they were made of, what they could do, what attracted them…

If her petty jealousy could attract enough Heartless to feed her negative emotions, what could anger do? What about sorrow, or guilt, or…

Fear?

She nearly flipped over to the next page before she realized that she was exactly in the place she wanted to be. Her eyes bored into the paper, greedily sucking up the words that were printed in purposeful contrast to their white background.

Heartless are born from the darkness in a being’s heart. Usually, they are born when that darkness consumes a being’s heart. However, there are some known cases of Heartless being born for other reasons, but these are rare.

Luna couldn’t help but glance away from the book. She had thought that she had gotten over becoming Nightmare Moon completely, but…

She straightened herself, glaring down at the book. No, she wouldn’t let her fear take her over. Perhaps her heart could spawn the Heartless, but they would only if she let it.

Or maybe she was wrong? What had really attracted those dark creatures to Equestria? Could her emotions really bring a horde of the dark creatures to her beloved home? Was her heart really that full of darkness?

She read on.

Heartless are dark creatures. They are purely instinctual beings that seek to devour hearts in order to create more of its own. The stronger and larger the heart, the more they desire it.

When Heartless find their way onto a world, they search for a door unique to each planet that changes with the world’s current state. This door would be the door to the heart of the world. The hearts of worlds are the largest hearts of all, so Heartless seek to consume them over any other heart.

But how can a world be protected? It is almost impossible, but there are ways. One of the ways is through a powerful spell of light, which can only be created by a large source of light, like multiple light-oriented keyblade wielders. This spell usually repels the Heartless, but whatever added effects imbued within the spell also affect any otherworldly intruders.

Keyblade wielders. Luna stopped her slow gait and careful reading, looking up from the book to stare at some untouched shelves in front of her. She had heard that term before. But where?

She snorted in frustration, lowering her head and setting her horn aglow. The lunar princess subconsciously pawed the ground as she concentrated on the memories- memories that lay just below her reach.

Keyblade wielders.

She mentally held out her blue, steel-covered hooves to the memories, but they glowed far from her reach.

Her memories were in a chasm that had been split in her mind. A missing link in her mentality had dropped into a hole that was unknowingly dug in the recesses of her heart and soul, disrupting the continuity between her long chain of memories.

In other words, for some reason, the princess of the night couldn’t remember everything that had happened in the weeks before she became Nightmare Moon. Most notably, she couldn't remember anything about the familiar-sounding keyblade wielders.

Amnesia?

Luna continued her internal struggle to remember what had happened, but whether Nightmare Moon had erased her memories while she had taken over Luna’s body and soul or something else had interfered, there was a strong magic that prevented her from delving into her own mind that not even a powerful alicorn like herself could bypass.

She groaned, tilting her head back and glaring at the ceiling. What kind of alicorn couldn’t dispel something as simple as a memory block? Alicorns possessed the most potent kind of magic, after all. Only something like the Elements of Harmony and Celestia’s magic combined could cast something so powerful.

She made a mental note to ask Celestia about it later. For now, she had to learn more about this missing gap in her memory. She had to learn something about these ‘keyblade wielders’ of whom she somehow knew were important.

She bit down on her tongue slightly, not really knowing if it was right of her to search for this kind of information. But as she flicked through the pages, she realized that a strong sense of insatiable curiosity had always been with her. There was still that time where she wandered away from Celestia and almost gotten eaten by a Hydra… then the time where she accidentally swallowed a dragon’s gem while going on an adventure…

She paused her thoughts and her magic, realizing that she had completely missed the section on keyblades while she had been reminiscing. Quickly, she flipped the papers in reverse until those nine letters stared back at her in bold print at the top of their page.

KEYBLADES

Keyblades are mysterious. Not all information about them has been discovered, but there is still a great deal already known.

Keyblades are most known for their ability to lock a world’s heart, protecting it from the Heartless. They can also control the barriers between worlds if the barrier is shared between the worlds, but usually not if the world’s protection is individual to that world.

Keyblades are also weapons. They are the most effective against Heartless and Nobodies and have the ability to expel both creatures permanently. However, both of the keyblade’s potential victims recognize this- especially the Heartless. Heartless are known to follow any keyblade wielders to any world, even when the world has light magic protection, in order to eliminate the keyblade bearer.

Luna read the last sentence out loud to herself, her teal eyes growing larger as her voice lowered into a true whisper.

She remembered. Something had happened, sometime a thousand years ago when the Heartless had just begun to appear in Equestria. Something to do with these ‘keyblade wielders’.

Celestia had cast powerful light magic over the world using the Elements of Harmony in order to expel the Heartless, but Luna was sure there was something else involved, something else that she couldn’t remember. Because… Luna’s jealousy alone couldn’t have prompted the Heartless to invade Equestria. The protective magic was too strong. The Heartless had to have had a bigger motive. And then...

...there had to be a reason why she could only barely remember the keyblade wielders.

***

The golden colt trotted quickly towards Fluttershy’s cottage.

Or at least, he thought he was trotting to there.

He stopped for a moment, looking around confusedly. Which way was he supposed to go again? He shifted from hoof to hoof uncomfortably, itching to move on; he had stopped in a large, circular area surrounded by shops. But he couldn’t move if he didn’t have the right destination.

The colt craned his head up, looking almost longingly toward the sky. If only he could fly! He would bet that an aerial view of the place would make it much easier to find Fluttershy’s cottage. But there was no point in that; he was going to the supposedly butter-colored pegasus’ house to learn how to fly in the first place.

He checked the skies, looking for a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane. Nope, the so-called Rainbow Dash wasn’t there eit-

“Hey! I’ve never seen you around Ponyville before,” a voice called from behind. The colt jumped around before almost falling backwards at the sight of two magenta eyes boring into his own.

He leaned back some more, not used to the lack of personal space. However, the other pony seemed to notice this, so she flew a little back as well.

He tilted his head at her. Could pegasi really fly in place like that? Wasn’t that impossible? He realized that her wings were too small for true flight, and that the same was for his own wings. He looked at the pair of appendages folded against his back with a frown.

He then realized that the other pony was a female, light blue pony with a mane striped with six bright colors. He jumped in surprise due to a sudden revelation.

“You’re Rainbow Dash!” he exclaimed before the said pony could say anything to him.

She blinked down at him in surprise for a moment before her face spread into a grin. She leaned her head back and pressed a hoof proudly to a chest. “That’s me! Fastest flier in all of Equestria!”

“You are?” asked the colt, making Rainbow Dash deflate. “I mean… Pinkie Pie told me to find you.”

“Oh, really?” The pegasus didn’t land, but she tipped her weight so that she would be on all fours if she were on the ground. She twisted her neck, examining the colt with a single eye as if she were a bird. “Why?”

“Well, she actually wanted to know how a pegasus holds coins,” said the colt, “but I kind of, uh... I don’t know how to fly…”

Rainbow stared at him for a moment, before bursting into loud snickers. She still didn’t fall to the ground, though.

“What kind of pegasus pony can’t fly?” asked the chromatic pegasus. “At least, anypony by your age should know.”

But the colt didn’t care about how much he ridiculed himself at the moment; he just wanted to learn how to fly. “So, can you teach me?”

“Well… I guess it’s easier with older ponies,” said Rainbow Dash, who shrugged in her place in the sky. "Sure, I'll give it a shot."

"You mean, you haven't taught anypony before?" the colt asked, his brow furrowing in unsatisfaction.

"Well... not really. Just Scootaloo, but she's still a little filly, so she can't really fly well yet," the mare with the magenta eyes admitted, the beating of her wings growing slower as she let herself land on all fours.

"Has... Fluttershy taught anypony?" inquired the colt.

"Hah! Of course not, she's too shy," said Rainbow, waving her hoof dismissively. "She's probably taught her animals- the ones with wings, of course- but nothing like the real thing. If anypony at all, you're looking for me!"

"Okay then," the colt said, smiling at Rainbow Dash in a friendly manner.

A brief look of uncertainty flitted across the pegasus' face, but she seemed to banish the feeling as quickly as it had come. She straightened herself, a look of pride lighting up her renewed grin.

"The first thing you need to know about flying... is wind magic!"

"But I'm not a unicorn." It came out of the colt's mouth before he even realized he had said it.

The mare laughed quietly at him, shaking her head at his apparent ridiculousness before focusing on the topic again. "Obviously! All ponies have magic. Are you really that clueless?"

The colt bit his tongue to stop himself from immediately saying 'yes'.

"Pegasus ponies can fly and do stuff with clouds like walking on them and changing weather using their wind magic," said Rainbow Dash, before continuing in a somewhat arrogant manner. "If you ask me, that's the best magic of all!"

"Then what about... earth ponies?" the colt asked, ignoring the mare's last claim.

She seemed a bit miffed that he had ignored her last statement, but responded to his question anyways. "They're strong, they can grow stuff, and they're good with animals. Not so flashy. Unicorns can cast pretty spells, but that doesn't mean that all of them are good at magic. And they're usually weaker than earth ponies and pegasi."

"Oh," said the colt. His mouth twitched down in an indesicive frown; he wasn't sure what to ask next.

"Anyways," Rainbow Dash continued, unknowingly saving the colt from his dilemma, "flight magic. It's basically wind magic, but you don't really think about it when you use it. Or at least, I don't. So... try it."

"How am I supposed to know what it is?" the yellow colt asked with slight exasperation. "Can you tell me what it feels like or... or something?"

"Well, uh..." the pegasus with the rainbow mane closed her eyes, her face contorting into an expression of concentration. "It's like..."

"Uh-huh?" pressed the colt, who leaned forward in anticipation.

"...wind. It feels like, uh, the sky," she said, opening her eyes and rubbing her face. "I don't know! It might not even be the same for you. Look for it yourself."

The flightless pegasus sighed. This mare wasn't really good at explaining things. Nonetheless, he closed his eyes and searched for his own sky.

He began his search for the wind in his mind, but a thumping noise made his way to his ears. He subconsciously pricked them, but the noise wasn't from the outside world; it was coming a place deeper within him.

So his conscience drifted downwards, trailing away from his mentality and delving towards his emotion. Before he realized it, he was concentrating on a place slightly to the left of his chest. He let out a little gasp as he realized that the thumping sound was his own heart.

"Hey, um... are you okay?" asked Rainbow Dash. She waved a hoof anxiously in front of the colt's face, and when he didn't respond, she began to tap his shoulder with her hoof. But the yellow pegasus was long gone; he began to tip over at her touch before he abruptly fell to the ground.

"What the hay?!" the mare cried, eyes wide in panic.

***

The heart was unfamiliar. Once he realized it was there, it grew heavy inside him, as if it were not his own.

"This world is so pretty. So full of light," the heart whispered. "It's giving me some of its light. Once I get enough, maybe I can go back..."

"Back to where?" he asked it quietly, as if speaking too loud could scare the heart or shatter this invisible world.

"I'm not really sure," the heart murmured back to him. "I can't really remember... but wherever I came from, I remembered everything. And I want to remember things."

"I want to remember things too," he told the heart.

The heart did not respond, so the young pegasus paused hesitantly before he continued to speak.

"What'll happen if you leave me?"

"I'm not your heart. I think you're a Nobody. So I belong to someone else," it told him in a hushed tone, "so I guess you'll just lose the emotions I gave you, but not your memories. Your emotions aren't very strong already... I can see that... anyways, you won't be able to feel emotions anymore. Sorry..."

"Oh... that's sad," said the colt unhappily. "I like feeling happy."

"But then you don't have to feel sad," the heart breathed.

The colt waited for a moment, thinking it over to himself before he came up with what he felt was his best response.

"That's just balance. I can't be happy unless I'm sad sometimes... right?"

"I guess so," the heart told him before it seemed to laugh. It wasn't a true laugh, though. Instead of a sound, a warm feeling spread through his metaphysical body.

"Tell you what," the heart said. "I'll give you a little part of me. That way, I'll grow back the missing part, and you can build your own heart off of the piece I gave you."

"You can do that?" the young pegasus asked the heart.

"Yeah! And it's safe, too. Or at least I think it's safe," the heart said enthusiastically before it 'laughed' again. "I'm just giving you a fragment, so I won't be hurt. You just gotta take care of the piece until it grows enough, or else it'll get destroyed really easy."

"Okay," the colt agreed happily, before a sort of humbleness came over him. "Thank you..."

"It's just a fragment," the heart told him, still laughing in a good-natured way as if it were only doing so to warm him. "Don't thank me. After all, you're letting me stay within you for the time being. And it's up to you to make it more than a fragment... a fragment of harmony."

***

The colt opened his blue eyes, which watered at the sudden light.

He blinked once, twice. What had happened again?

He closed his eyes again, trying to recount previous events. He was trying to find his wind magic, yes... and then... he got lost? Something like that. He was going somewhere else, and then... he passed out...

He groaned and rubbed his eyes. He felt as if he had ran a marathon, and he couldn't remember anything after he had passed out. There was also something wrong with his chest; it hurt just enough to be constantly annoying, and it felt more hollow... but for some strange reason, he felt kind of happy.

The male pegasus slowly pried his own eyes open, but it was like a rusty door that was unwilling to budge. But the yellow colt was persistent, and eventually, his vision cleared enough for him to see the faces of numerous ponies worriedly looking over him.

He let out a noise of suprise, kicking out in front of him reflexively. The poines leaning over him leaped out of the way before he could harm any of them.

"S-sorry," he said, rolling over and stumbling to his feet. But he was still weak, and he was forced to fall back on his haunches.

"What in Equestria happened to you!?" a mare shouted at him. He pressed his ears against his head to combat the noise and shut his eyes at the sudden rainbow colors.

"I don't know," he said, his voice coming out in a tired sigh as he squinted at her. Then, he closed his eyes again, deciding that he would try searching for his wind magic once more.

"That never happened to me when I first tried out my flight magic," said the mare, looking at him with a puzzled look as his eyes slid shut again. "Or at least, I don't think so."

"Weren't you just a little filly then? How would you know?" a tangerine pegasus stallion inquired. The golden colt opened his eyes at the new voice and looked around, finding that there was a small circle of six ponies around him including Rainbow Dash.

"My parents, no duh," the chromatic pegasus responded, puffing her cheeks out slightly in indignation.

"Well excuse me," the stallion responded, looking like he was offended before he blurted out his next sentence. "How do you know your parents were sure?"

"Are you calling my parents liars!?" Rainbow Dash yelled at him.

"I wasn't. Why would you think that?"

"It sure sounded like it to me!"

"Well, I'm not."

"How do I know you're not lying, know-it-all?" She marched up to the stallion, who lowered his head angrily as well. Their heads met, rainbow clashing against red-orange as they glared each other down.

"Are you looking for a fight?" the stallion challenged.

The two pegasus ponies snorted and pawed at the ground, not needing any more words. They crushed their heads against each other, trying to drive the other backwards in a show of strength. However, they seemed to be evenly matched, so they remained in the same place, vainly trying to overpower their respective rival.

"I got it!"

The pegasus ponies jumped up, startled out of their fight. Their heads simultaneously whipped toward the one who had spoken. The other four ponies, who had been watching them in a confused stupor, broke out of their mindless stares and looked at the speaker as well.

There was the golden pony, who had his wings open and was gleefully jumping around. Instead of immediately sinking to the ground, however, he fell in a slow glide before touching the ground every time.

"It feels like the wind when you're standing on a cliff," he said breathlessly, although he seemed to be full of energy anyways. "It's like the air when you're falling, falling really far- but instead of being scared of hitting the ground, you know you won't get hurt. And it tastes like clouds and it sounds like..."

The four stranger ponies that had been watching Rainbow Dash's and the pegasus stallion's fight tilted their heads at the colt, but then began to disperse, making their way down the road. After all, they had only come over to see why the yellow colt had fainted, and he seemed perfectly fine now.

Rainbow Dash puffed out her chest and glared pointedly at the yellow-orange stallion. "I have to teach the kid how to fly," she told him. In other words, the mare wanted the stallion gone.

He took the hint, but nodded slightly at her before smirking.

"I'm Sunburst," he told her. "You've got guts. I like that. But you're really hot-headed."

She eyed him before her mouth turned into its own smirk. "Rainbow Dash. You've got guts. But you're an egghead."

He just laughed at her, all traces of anger wiped away before he spread his wings and flew off.

She looked in the orange stallion's general direction before her eyes were pulled back to the colt, who was still prancing around like a newborn foal that had just learned how to run. In a way, that wasn't far from the truth.

"Alright, kid!" she called.

He turned his attention to her and smiled. "I can fly!"

"Not yet, you're just gliding." The colt began to deflate, but then Rainbow Dash clapped a hoof on his shoulder encouragingly. "You're not really flying until you start jumping off buildings!"

The colt gulped subconsciously, but then closed his eyes in an internal debate. Either he would probably get hurt but learn how to fly, or avoid pain but not learn how to truly fly.

He opened his eyes and grinned.

***

The breeze spoke in a cold whisper despite the fact that it was the dawn of a sunny afternoon. Perhaps the wind only told such tales to her because it knew she couldn't understand.

Her eyes were bright- too bright. Her face was constantly masked. She never showed emotion because she didn't know what it was. She survived, but did not know what living was.

She couldn't remember.

The female unicorn instinctively perked her ears at the sound of approaching footsteps. Her face, framed by a short, dark mane, turned slowly toward the door. At the sight of a butter-colored pegasus, the black filly relaxed and placed her head between her outstretched hooves.

The pegasus mare walked quietly up to the younger filly, carefully placing the tray she held in her mouth on a desk next to the black unicorn's bed.

The unicorn continued to stare ahead, not bothering to look at the pegasus because she had no reason to.

But the pegasus mare was unsure, so she scuffled her yellow hooves on the wooden floor, peering at the planks under her through her long pink mane. She hesitated before lifting her head to look at the female unicorn.

"I-I hope that you like t-the b-bed," Fluttershy whispered almost silently.

The unicorn sensed that the pegasus was speaking. Mechanically, she lifted her head and turned it to look at Fluttershy, who let out an unsure whimper before she continued to speak.

"I t-thought you'd like the w-window," the pegasus stuttered, her voice gradually decreasing in volume as she began ducking her head in anxiety. The unicorn's blue-eyed stare was unnerving, but...

Fluttershy looked back at the younger filly. She had found the unicorn in a clearing of the Everfree forest a few days back, but she was unconscious. But even after the butter-colored mare had prepared a small bed by a window for her to sleep, the unicorn hadn't spoken a word.

She just stayed there, eating and drinking whatever came to her and only getting out of bed to do her business. It was unnerving, but Fluttershy knew that she wanted to nurse this pony back to health. She wanted to teach the black filly how to feel again.

And yet, what was she doing now? Nothing Fluttershy could do would make the silent unicorn do so much as stir a little inside. The pony with the pink mane sensed no feelings from this young black-colored mare, and the very idea just made her so sad... it was like the filly was stuck in an endless half-sleep.

"I hope you wake up soon," she said, speaking so softly that she may have just as well been mouthing the words. Fluttershy dipped her head and turned slowly around, going downstairs and outside to give her animals a midday munch.

But even after she left, the unicorn filly did not make a move to lay down again. For the first time, something inside her stirred.

Wake up.

Her mouth moved slightly as the words echoed through her head... but they were words that did not belong to the pegasus that had been in the room just moments before. Something murmured inside the unicorn filly's chest, speaking of something- or someone- that would do just that.

Someone would help her wake up.

Soon.

***

"Who is she?"

IV: Identity

At that moment, it seemed that one heart beat more quickly than the hearts of anypony else in the small town.

It was like that for the golden pegasus colt. He was running, stretching his wings, defying the sky with the strength of his feathers. His hoofs beat against the rooftops with the steady rhythm that matched the speed of his physical heart.

The colt’s feathers quivered as he came to a sudden stop, looking straight ahead with the pose of a strictly trained dog by Rainbow Dash’s command. He heard the words telling him to jump once again. He did so, pounding at the sky with his remaining strength.

“Alright kid! I think you deserve a break,” came the cyan mare’s decisive words.

The colt nearly collapsed on the spot.

For the past hour, Rainbow Dash had been coaching him. He had been jumping across the rooftops of Ponyville, improving the amount of time he could continuously use his wind magic. He was sure that he could begin flying already, but instead, Rainbow had him going at the same routine for the whole time.

He guessed that it was going to help him in the long run. Over time, the chromatic mare had settled into a rhythm of stopping and moving him on. It was really helping him control his magic, and out in the sky where that magic was what kept you alive, he would have to know that control.

But really, in the end, he felt that it came to him like giving correct commands had come to Rainbow Dash. Despite her ego and temper, he thought that the mare would probably make a good coach someday.

She landed right next to him, standing strong and proud while he was keeled over and desperately trying to catch his breath. His cheeks colored a slightly darker shade of red due to the great contrast of their postures and he tried to straighten himself, but he was still too busy trying to haul as much air into his lungs as possible.

She was giving him a look that was a half-smirk and a half-grin, but she seemed pretty satisfied, and that’s what really mattered in the end. He looked up at her once he was sure he wouldn’t heave out Pinkie’s cupcakes and smiled feebly.

“You did a good job,” she told him, leaning forward and ruffling his already messy mane while she praised him. He beamed at having done something good, and already he felt refreshed and ready for another round.

“Well, I guess you did. After all, I’ve never known a pegasus pony your age that can’t fly,” said Rainbow Dash, taking the hoof she had touched him with and placing it to her muzzle thoughtfully. At this, the colt’s heart sunk a little and he visibly drooped. That was right; he should have already known how to do this.

Rainbow Dash gave him a worried look before the corners of her mouth quirked up again. Her words made her sound like she was trying to be encouraging.

“Still. You’re a quick learner, and that’s a good thing! You should give yourself more credit. After all, by learning so fast, you’re doing something good in the name of pegasi!”

The colt cocked his head and smiled up at her before he leaped to his hooves.

“Well, I just gotta learn how to actually fly now! I only fell once that last time!” he said enthusiastically, lowering his chest to the ground like a playful puppy before he pranced over to the edge of the roof of the tall shop they both stood on.

But the mare’s face twisted into an expression of uncertainty. She didn’t want the kid to get hurt, after all. And then there was the fact that she would probably get blamed if he did break something in the process…

She opened her mouth to speak, but the colt was already balanced on the edge of a wooden plank that stuck out of the roof. It was clearly meant to hang a sign, but Rainbow Dash couldn’t read it from her angle.

“Wait-“ she began, trying to scramble over to his place in time.

But the colt, drowned in his enthusiasm, had already launched himself off the building.

***

A redheaded stallion took one lazy step after the other, enjoying everything around him. The gentle breeze, the generic yet unique buildings around him, and the paved streets under his hooves… yes, this town was a pretty nice place. Maybe he should move here…

He frowned, stopping his already slow walk to think over what he had just thought. What was that called again? Metacognition?

There it was again. Since he had entered this blasted world, he would always veer off track about what he was trying to think about. Something was trying to scramble his mindset in order to mess up his memory, but he was trying his hardest not to let it overcome him.

Still, he was pretty sure he was missing something… and most important of all (or so he thought), he couldn’t remember why he was here in this unusually peaceful world dominated by multicolored ponies.

Why would he ever come to a place like this…?

The fire-colored unicorn sighed and pulled at his cheek, showing off the bottom of his eye to nopony in particular. It wasn’t like anypony around here cared. And as the seconds ticked by, he found that even he cared less and less.

What did it matter, anyways? He could just forget everything and stay on this world. It didn’t really seem important anyways… or was it?

What was he looking for again? There were just too many unanswerable questions to be thinking about this...

Axel paused in his slow stride, feeling something amiss. He had stopped in front of a particularly large and tall shop that was just big enough for its size to be notable. The stallion squinted upwards, trying to see what was above him despite the bright yellow sun attacking his eyes. Was that a shadow? By the hair alone, it looked oddly like a pony version of-

His thoughts were rudely cut off when the shadow suddenly barreled into him, shoving the air out of his lungs as the figure cried out. Axel instinctively flailed out with his hooves, catching the figure as they rolled across the pavement.

The red stallion already wasn’t looking forward to waking up the next day.

He released the offending pony and crawled from under it, letting out a grunt as he pawed at the pavement to let himself up. Was it just him, or did it get a lot more slippery? This was exactly why he wasn't thrilled with losing his fingers.

The figure- a yellow colored pegasus colt with… unique hair- immediately went to his hooves and began spluttering apologies. Axel only raised an eyebrow, which climbed a little higher for every nonsensical word that came bursting from the colt’s mouth.

“It’s… okay?” he eventually said, and (thankfully) the young pegasus finally shut up and just stared at Axel.

After a few moments of the colt’s blue eyes boring into the red stallion’s, Axel was shuffling his front hooves in his unease. Did the kid have mental problems? And why did he look so much like Roxas?

Something in the back of his mind poked the thought that maybe the colt actually was Roxas, but he dismissed the thought as absurd. Why would Roxas be a pony?

Okay, he became a pony when he came to the world, too, but… okay, he really needed a break from thinking. His memory being screwed up was already a big enough problem to think about.

“Woah, geez! Are you okay?” a female voice cried from above. Axel looked up in surprise to see a blue mare with a rainbow mane flying from the tallest shop’s roof.

“I’m alright,” he said before realizing she was talking to the golden colt.

“My leg hurts more than anything,” the yellow pegasus said quietly, dipping his head and frowning. He sounded more disappointed than in pain.

“Trying to teach him to fly,” the rainbow-maned pegasus said suddenly, turning to Axel. “You’re alright, aren’t you?”

“Yeah,” he said, dismissing the fact that she had not heard him at all earlier.

“Okay." She turned back to the colt. "Which leg hurts?”

The colt got up to his four hooves clumsily, making sure he had his balance before slowly lifting up his back right leg and wiggling it a little. Rainbow Dash patted the leg down, but it wasn’t until she touched his ankle when the colt visibly winced.

“Not good,” said the mare. She sat back and frowned, kneading her forehead in thought. “I can’t pay for a doctor, so… you’re going to Fluttershy.”

“Okay…” said the colt with an expression of confusion before he looked sadly at his injured leg. “Does this mean I can’t learn how to fly anymore?”

“Depends on how much you hurt yourself. Geez, you’re so enthusiastic. But not as much as I was!” Rainbow knocked her hoof against the younger pegasus’s forehead in a mix of chastisement and endearment, but he flinched anyways.

She frowned at this and drew back. “Well, all that roof-jumping’s got us closer to Fluttershy’s, anyways. So come on, we’d better start flying- or in your case, walking.”

“Limping,” Axel corrected automatically, feeling a bit left out of the conversation depsite himself.

Rainbow Dash glared at him a little, but the uncertainty was clear on her face. She was unnerved at the colt getting hurt, and Axel guessed that she was too afraid of getting blamed to be angry at anypony. He was observant enough to pick this up before she turned around and walked away.

However, the colt was a little more hesitant. He stayed and gave Axel a somewhat awkward look.

“Thanks for catching me,” the colt said, sitting down slowly as he looked at Axel expectantly.

“Sure,” the older stallion said back nonchalantly even though he already knew that it was more like the colt had crashed into him.

“I would have hurt a lot more than my leg,” the young pegasus said thoughtfully, eyes going unfocused as his leaned back a little. "Are you sure... are you sure you didn't get hurt, either?"

“I’m going to feel this in the morning,” said the unicorn stallion, “but meh. I’ll be fine. Good luck on your leg; you seem like you really want to fly.”

“I do,” the golden colt said passionately, eyes sparkling with enthusiasm as the new topic came up. “You’re a unicorn… right? Well… pegasus magic is just… wow. I really, really want to learn how to use it the best I can. What about you?”

“Well…” Axel looked away at a nearby sign as he thought. “Not really.”

The colt frowned a little, obviously not satisfied with the red unicorn’s response.

“Don’t get me wrong. It’s cool,” the pony with the greenish eyes began, somehow bringing a front leg behind his neck without losing balance and ‘scratching’ there absentmindedly. “But… you kind of get used to it after a while. You know?”

What are you talking about? You haven’t even been a pony for that long, let alone a unicorn. Look, you're scratching yourself without fingers. How do you even do that?

Axel pushed the voice back into the cracked pits of his memory, but he pulled his hoof away from his neck uneasily.

“Well, I don’t think it’ll ever get old for me,” the oblivious colt said, laughing out the words he spoke. “So, uh- what’s your name?”

“Axel. Got it memorized?” he blurted out quickly, still unnerved by that little tidbit of memory.

Strangely enough, the colt hesitated after Axel spoke his name. His clear blue eyes clouded over for a moment, and his face twisted into an unidentifiable expression. But the moment was as gone as soon as it had come, and after it passed the young pegasus looked only a bit confused.

“Something wrong?” Axel asked, wondering if the colt had injured a little more than just his leg.

“N-no, I’m okay,” said the yellow pegasus. “I… I got it memorized, I think.”

“Good,” the unicorn mumbled, letting out a small chuckle despite the sick look on the yellow colt's face. He reached over with a hoof and ruffled the colt’s hair comfortingly.

The young blue-eyed stallion peered up at him with newfound happiness- happiness that seemed wrongly familiar, as if the unicorn knew that the pegasus shouldn't have been able to experience emotion- and began to laugh.

It didn’t occur to Axel that the colt hadn’t told the red unicorn his name until long after the young pegasus had gone.

***

“Hold on a second,” the cyan mare told the yellow colt, holding out a hoof to stop him from limping along any farther before she snapped out her wings and began to fly quickly towards the cottage ahead of the pair.

The colt looked after her enviously for a moment, but then he decided to take advantage of the situation and observe his surroundings.

The first thing he took note of was the fact that there was a lot of wildlife going on here. And not just the animals- there was a lot of flora as well. The place was covered in long grass, large bushes, tall trees, colorful flowers, and everything else a pony could think of. It was like a miniature forest- but a lot more subdued than the wild.

And then there were all the animals. Mostly small mammals like bunnies and mice pranced around the area, poking their heads out of the tall grass and looking at the young stallion curiously. Otters and frogs kicked around in the stream under an earthen bridge that was a part of the path the colt currently stood on. The colorful feathers of birds streamed out of their tree perches like the rays of a kalidescope sun.

That was when he realized they were all staring at him.

For some reason, he expected all the animals to immediately dart away as he looked at them, but on the contrary, one white rabbit appeared from the bushes and hopped straight up to his hooves. He stared down at it and cocked his head in confusion before the rabbit gestured towards the cottage.

Taking the hint, the colt got to his hooves, almost tripping over due to not wanting to use his injured leg. He walked slowly to the cottage and sat down before he raised a hoof to knock on the door.

A couple knocks later, the door swung open and a sky-blue leg dragged him roughly inside.

“Fluttershy’s shy- obviously- and she's also kind of in shock from me popping up with the... news, so don’t say a word unless she asks you something,” Rainbow Dash commanded as she bucked the door closed and began pushing him across the room.

The colt just nodded bewilderedly, but couldn’t help but notice Rainbow’s rushed and almost scared demeanor. She looked like she had seen a ghost, and he could swear that the fur on her face was a few shades paler.

“I’m not going up there again,” she told him hastily, gesturing towards the stairs. “I mean… you’ll be fine without me. I’ll wait down here.”

The colt gave a worried glance at the loss of her cool disposition, but he began his ascent anyways.

He expected the climb to be hard and full of tiresome hopping, but they weren’t so bad, actually. Having three legs really beat having just one.

He paused before he took the last step, wondering where that thought had come from.

But the young stallion couldn’t think about it at that moment; he had reached the second floor and now stood in front of another yellow pegasus. She was a much lighter color than her, though, with a long pink mane and tail, both of which barely grazed the plank floors.

“Hello,” she whispered, her head lowering as she hid behind her mane. He copied her, slowly sitting down to make himself shorter. After all, the mare seemed to be quite surprised at his appearance. He figured that she was this shy perhaps because she was used to seeing ponies she at least recognized.

“Hi,” he said. “Uh, are you going to…”

“Yes,” she stuttered, slowly turning around and heading towards one corner of the room. The male pegasus peered after her, but she turned around almost immediately and whimpered.

“Is something wrong?” he said, forgetting about what Rainbow had told him about not speaking very much.

“Oh… I just… I didn’t… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to confuse you,” she squeaked out. “It’s just that… Rainbow Dash saw her and she got spooked and I didn't think you would want to see her either…”

“I-it’s okay,” he told her politely, straining to hear her words. He then frowned slightly at his own stuttering.

"Actually... now I'm kind of curious. Who is 'her'? Can I see 'her'?" he questioned softly.

“Well, alright,” she said uncertainly, moving a little to reveal something black behind her.

The colt gradually got to his hooves and limped over. Fluttershy nodded at him, seemingly regaining her bearings and losing some of her timid stature, and stepped aside.

There was a black unicorn filly, about his own age, sleeping on a bed by a large square window. A gentle breeze breathed through the window, gently caressing the short black mane that framed her face. He couldn’t see the rest of her body, however, because she was covered by a pink and yellow blanket.

“Who is she?” the colt whispered to himself.

“I... I don’t know,” Fluttershy admitted, pawing at the ground behind him nervously as if she expected strict disapproval. “I’m sorry… I just found her, and she doesn’t remember anything. Not even how to talk.”

“Oh… that’s sad,” the golden colt mumbled. "That's kind of... worse than me. I only remember a little bit, but at least I remember how to talk..."

The pegasus mare nodded absentmindedly, looking away even though he was too focused on the black filly to see her.

“Can I see her, uh... cutie mark? Maybe I can help her out when she wakes up or something,” the younger pegasus requested, looking towards Fluttershy for direction. She flinched at the sudden movement of the stranger colt, but then nodded.

The colt slid a hoof under the blanket, but his touch did not make the unicorn filly stir. He pulled it back and looked curiously at her back leg.

Her cutie mark was a gold key with a white heart behind it- a flipped version of his own mark, only the key was a different color.

“That’s almost like mine!” he exclaimed, leaping to his hooves and making Fluttershy jump in surprise. But then he cried out in pain; his back right ankle gave out from under him and he collapsed belly-first against the floor.

“Oh dear, are you okay?” Fluttershy whispered, but the colt didn’t respond; he was too busy looking at the young black mare in blatant astonishment.

The butter-colored mare quickly made her way over to a cabinet, pulling out a medicinal kit. She leaned over the colt's leg, which was stretched out behind him on the floor, and began tending to the sprained ankle.

But the colt didn’t notice, for the unicorn filly had opened her eyes.

***

They were big blue eyes.

His coat was this pretty yellow-gold color and he looked quite silly sprawled down on the floor, but she couldn't help but draw her attention to his eyes.

They were staring at her own, of course. She peered back, sharing the gaze and smiling a little for no apparent reason. Her head shifted slightly as she looked at him. Big blue eyes. Rounder than hers, but lighter in color. She knew this as well as she knew that her own eyes were blue, although she wasn't really sure how she knew what she looked like.

She looked around, thoughts flooding her mind as she lifted her head. She was too absorbed with the colors to notice that both the blue-eyed colt and the yellow pegasus mare behind were giving her a look of surprise.

How could she have ever dismissed that color? It was so beautiful... blue, it was her favorite color. There were birds with bright, shiny feathers of all the colors. And then there were the designs. Everything formed a shape and pattern, everything was wonderful.

How could she ever describe these things? She needed to know what to call them, first. And after a moment of silent pondering, she found that she knew how to speak.

She looked into the colt's blue eyes and spoke her first word.

"Roxas," she said, tipping her head and smiling sweetly. She had no idea where the word had came from, but it didn't really matter, did it? This colt was now known to her as Roxas.

But then she frowned. What was wrong with the colt? He was twitching a little but his eyes were wide, but they were the surprised and scared kind of wide. He was bewildered, she decided from her strange point of view.

Was he scared by her smile or something? And, why did she feel so happy, anyways? It was so strange... like she had just woken up from a fantastic dream she couldn't remember.

The butter colored mare was staring at her with eyes just as wide, but more in shock than any kind of fear.

"W-who is she?" the colt suddenly asked in a confused voice. "Who are you?"

She pricked her ears and took in the sound before cocking her head in her own befuddlement.

"You know what? I have no idea," she said mildly, then frowned in a shadow of sadness.

"You have the same cutie mark as me, almost," said the colt she knew was named Roxas. He pointed at her flank and twisted her neck to examine her back leg.

There was a strange marking there- a white heart and a gold key over it. Her eyes then flicked over to the young pegasus' flank, which was adorned by a similar heart but a black key.

"I guess so, but they still look different. They're not supposed to be the same, are they?" Her eyes trailed back to the colt's as her mind, now flooded with all the things she could possibly think about, raced and thought about other subjects. "But they're similar... hey, can I ask you something?"

"S-sure," he said, obviously thrown off by the change of subject.

"What's my name, Roxas?" she asked, swinging her front legs over the edge of the bed and giggling due to the strangely placed feeling of ecstasy in her stomach. She was so indulged in her own glee that she didn't even notice the paralyzed mare behind him.

His face scrunched up, and he leaned back in his sitting position.

"Is that my name?" he asked her slowly. "Roxas? It sounds... really familiar. How'd you know what it was?"

"I don't know, really. I just looked at you and thought it," she told him truthfully. "So what do you think of when you look at me?"

"Oh! Well..." He stuck out his tongue for a moment, and she laughed at the gesture. "...huh. I think... Xion. That's what I think."

She spoke the name experimentally even though she knew there was no need. The name rung in her head easily and she smiled as it clicked into her mind. Her name, her identity- yes, she was Xion.

"I am Xion," she finally said, and at the same moment she noticed the mare behind Roxas.

"Who are you?" she asked the female pegasus, who squeaked in surprise and hid behind her long pink mane.

"I'm Fluttershy," she whispered, peeking up at Xion with a look that screamed anxiety. She was probably still in shock from Xion's 'awakening'.

"And I'm... oh wait, you've been here all this time, haven't you? Sorry about that," Xion laughed in slight nervousness like a past sense of timidness was overshadowing her excited demeanor, before she suddenly stopped smiling and her face went blank.

"Are you okay?" the colt- Roxas- asked after a few worrisome moments. Xion nodded her head at him, but she was frowning deeply.

Roxas opened his mouth to speak again, but then the unicorn filly's eyes went wide again as if she had just had an epiphany. She crawled out of the small bed with her front legs touching the ground first, and her hooves clicked against the plank floor quietly as she walked past Roxas and toward Fluttershy.

"You're the one that helped me before... well, right now, aren't you?" Xion asked as she watched the female pegasus, sounding as if she was realizing the fact as she spoke.

Fluttershy bobbed her head up and down. The older mare lifted her head from its position near the ground and looked up at Xion significantly less feebly.

"Thank you," Xion said warmly. "Now I woke up! And you helped so much."

Fluttershy smiled reservedly back at her, but then a bird flitted by the window behind Xion's small bed. Startled, the pegasus mare leaped backwards.

Xion flinched backwards at the motion and ended up backing up into Roxas, who yelped as she hit his injured leg. His wings sprung out and he began flapping them in order to regain balance, but the wind startled the animals inside the room and he ended up crashing into the bed anyways.

All three ponies immediately began spluttering out apologies.

It went on like that for a minute or two before the rambling died down. After a few moments of awkward silence, the three found the humor of the situation and suddenly broke out into laughter of varying volumes.

They only began to stop when Rainbow Dash crept up from the first floor, poking her head up from the opening of the floor that led to the stairs.

Xion noticed her first, cocked her head, and laughed a little more at the cyan pegasus' startled expression. She didn't seem to realize that her own zombie-like demeanor had unnerved the blue pegasus earlier.

The chromatic mare shook her head slightly at Xion before calling to Fluttershy, "I think I'm going to go now."

"Bye, Rainbow Dash," The yellow mare called after her fellow female pegasus as the cyan mare ducked her head back down again. One could hear her wings beating outside as she quickly flew away.

"Well," Fluttershy finally said, still smiling shyly and speaking quietly despite the earlier laughter, "I think... I think I'll make some tea. I think we should all think about what's going to happen, and what you want to do, X-Xion... if that's okay with you, of course..."

Roxas and Xion both nodded vigorously at the mention of something to drink. With quiet steps, Fluttershy made her way down the wooden stairs, making a clip-clop noise. The steps barely creaked as she moved to the base floor.

Xion turned to Roxas and smiled. His grin reflected her own, and they looked at each other before nodding and grabbing each other's hooves and shaking each other's forelegs.

The two very naive ponies shared a comfortable moment before the male pegasus broke the silence.

"So I guess I know you from somewhere if I know your name," the colt suggested after they drew their hooves back.

"Yeah, I feel like I know you from somewhere," Xion agreed. "I mean, our cutie marks are so similar, and you look so familiar. And then, we both don't have memory."

"I'm glad I know my name now, though," Roxas said thoughtfully, his eyes drifting to the ceiling. "And you, too... Keyheart and Heartkey aren't very good names, and it would get confusing."

"Uh-huh... hey. Roxas?" she began, tilting her head as she changed the subject. "Where do you stay right now? I mean... we're friends now, right? So can I stay with you? I don't think Fluttershy would want me to stay for so long. She's so quiet... and I kind want to talk to other people, now that I remember how to."

"Well, I'm in a library with this one pony called Twilight Sparkle. Maybe I could... oh, no..." The pegasus' eyes widened dramatically, and he began to tap his front hooves against the floor anxiously. "I've been outside for so long... I bet that Twilight Sparkle's up now! What if she's looking for me!?"

"H-huh? Someone's looking for you?" Xion asked, looking befuddled.

"Somepony," Roxas corrected automatically, frowning and pressing a hoof to his cheek. "Well, um... maybe you can come with me. I've got to go back to the library! I don't want to make her worry..."

"Sure!" the unicorn filly agreed, leaping to all four of her hooves determinedly, although she was rather clueless about what Roxas was talking about. "We gotta go quick, if... uh... she hasn't woken up yet, I guess?"

"That's right," Roxas confirmed, getting to his hooves as well, albeit much slower. He then looked at his newly bandaged leg. "But... my leg hurts still, so I can't walk that fast."

Xion beamed at being right, but her face fell at his second sentence.

"Well, I guess we can just walk," she suggested quietly, ears drooping a little.

"Don't worry, I bet there's some kind of unicorn magic out there that'll help it heal faster. Hey- maybe we'll see Axel on the way back to the library. He might be able to help."

"Axel?" The young mare's ears went straight up at the name. "That name... it sounds really familiar."

"It did to me when I heard it, too," the golden colt remarked, his head tipping curiously to one side. "Huh... maybe he knows us, too. We can tell him our names now that we know them, and even if he doesn't know us, we can all hang out as friends!"

He paused and looked at Xion contemplatively. "Well, at least I think we're friends. He really saved me; if it weren't for him, I'd be really hurt right now. And then we talked, and we both laughed. It was fun... does that make us friends?"

"I think so," the unicorn filly said decisively, smiling at Roxas as she spoke. "If you have a lot of fun with someone-"

"-somepony-"

"-somepony, then I would say you're friends."

Roxas thought about it for a moment before he looked at Xion and smiled.

"Then you're a great friend already, Xion."

***

A bedraggled unicorn huffed, holding back a frustrated grunt as she knocked on Fluttershy's door.

It opened almost immediately, surprising Twilight as it almost swung into her face. Her dampened reflexes just barely got her out of a wooden faceplant.

"Hello, Fluttershy," the lavender mare greeted the butter-colored pegasus with an obviously exhausted tone. "Have you seen a yellow-gold pegasus colt? Messy hair, blue eyes? Key-"

"Oh, do you mean Roxas?" Fluttershy said politely, opening the door even further and beckoning Twilight in as she spoke.

"What, is that his name? Did he remember it or something?" Twilight asked in a drawl, speaking almost lazily as she walked in. She could already tell that the golden colt wasn't here, but she was too tired to walk further at the moment, so she uncouthly collapsed on Fluttershy's couch.

"I think so. Well, there was a black unicorn filly I found in the Everfree forest a couple days ago. She barely did anything, and she couldn't even talk- but then that yellow pegasus colt came, and she said his name, and he said her name... and they started talking," Fluttershy said in her usual hushed tone. She went into the kitchen, letting Twilight process the information as she collected some tea.

"Wha... who was this filly?" the purple unicorn inquired, lifting her head in alertness despite her lethargic state.

"The colt said her name was Xion, but while I was making tea, they decided to go before I was done," the pegasus mare explained, flying over to Twilight with her front hooves occupied by two teacups. "Would you like some?"

Twilight nodded happily, levitating the tea over to herself. But she was too tired to use her magic correctly, and some of the precious brown liquid tipped over the edge. Shakily, she took the cup between her hooves and quickly sipped it before realizing that she had spilled some and apologizing.

"It's alright, really," the pegasus pony told the unicorn as she cleaned up the small mess with a napkin. "So... how do you know Roxas?"

"Well, uh... he kind of appeared in the library this morning. I never thought to ask where he came from," Twilight said, speaking the last sentence mostly to herself. "But now he wandered off, and I've been trying to find him. Who knows what an amnesiac with such a severe case could get up to?"

"Oh, my," Fluttershy whispered, not knowing what else to say.

"Thanks for the tea, Fluttershy. I feel a lot better now. You should really try selling this," Twilight said honestly, setting down the prettily made teacup on a small table. It was true; something in the pegasus' tea was so relaxing, and yet energized the drinker when they were having an off-day.

"Oh, I don't know if I could really do that... it would be so... demanding. But thank you," the butter-colored mare murmured, taking the empty cup and bringing it to the kitchen.

Twilight just laid there for a little while, dozing as the tasty drink settled comfortably in her stomach. Before long, however, she knew that she had to resume her search, so she hauled herself to her hooves and made her way to the door.

"By the way, do you know which way they went?" the lavender mare remembered to ask before she opened the front door.

"Oh... well, they were going to your library, but they started to head towards Sweet Apple Acres before I could stop them," Fluttershy admitted. "I'm sorry..."

"That's alright. Maybe they'll find Applejack and stay there until I can finally catch up to him," Twilight remarked, although her voice was in more of a groan due to the thought of walking so far. It would all be worth it in the end, she reminded herself.

"Thanks, Fluttershy," she called before exiting the cottage.

***

There are now two keyblade wielders awake on this world.

The Heartless were beasts at the simplest definition. They were dark creatures made from the ink that stained the hearts of all beings. Even the purest heart would have to experience darkness at least once in their lives, and that darkness could very easily be manifested into these beings.

They had no rational thought, as they were beings of instinct, but that instinct did direct them somewhat. Consume hearts to create more of their own. The nature of survival included reproduction, but it was hard to argue that Heartless were natural.

They roiled in the shadows but they could not rise. This world was, currently, too protected by light and too peaceful to be disturbed. At a world of that state, most of the world's Heartless would be boiled by the light of the sun and the moon's controllers, but there was still just enough darkness in the ponies' hearts to allow quite a few of the beasts to seep through the barriers.

And so they lurked.

Keyblade wielders threatened their survival, so the Heartless hunted them like hungry predators- which, essentially, was what they were. The few that had found their targets watched from the darkness created by the shadows of Ponyville's houses, setting their starving, pupiless eyes upon the darkness that lay within the pair of amnesiac ponies.

They were all Shadows- short, humanoid creatures with crooked black antennae that made them look almost like bugs. They were the lowest tier of Heartless and the weakest, but they were still able to be a deadly threat. Their ability to melt into the ground allowed them to slip and slide through light more easily than other Heartless.

They had been spotted by one of the keyblade wielders as the pair walked along the empty street. They shrunk back, but their glowing golden eyes could not blink.

"Roxas?" they heard the female ask, and they shuddered at her voice, at the source of their killers. "Something... doesn't feel right."

"Yeah... and I thought I was just feeling weird," the male agreed, turning his head towards her.

The female was looking around suspiciously, and although they did not know how to plan, the Heartless knew that they had to strike at that moment or else they would completely lose their element of surprise.

They sunk into the pavements with ease and crept towards the pair of keyblade wielders.

Vicious and bloodthirsty, claws sharp and bared and all ready to strike in unison, they lunged.

***

"A... key?"