Greetings fellow readers and writers! This is my fourth Kingdom Hearts fic and I hope you like it! Okay, this is the next volume of my Beyond the Door to Light saga, taking place right where Volume 3: Rise of the Keyblade Alchemist, left off.
This fic is a crossover between Kingdom Hearts, and one of my favorite cartoons of the 80's; My Little Pony. The way I figure it, that show is just perfect to mix it up with Kingdom Hearts. Imagine a world full of joy and innocence. Now, imagine that dark forces have come to destroy that world, and the only ones who can save that world are a group of lost travelers. That's the general idea of this fic.
There's more. I'm also including elements and the main character from Rurouni Kenshin, Kenshin Himura. I'm making this so it takes place, from Kenshin's point of view, from a few days or so before the start of the anime/manga. Consider this as having Kenshin as a guest hero. Also, I'm using elements from one of the coolest anime's I have ever seen; JoJo's Bizarre Adventure. Check it out, it's good!
As I just said, this fic takes place just as Volume 3 ended, with Sora and the gang, now with newcomer Aiden Mackenzie, The Keyblade Alchemist, arriving in a strange yet beautiful world. At the same time, this story takes place in the MLP universe about 25 years after the first MLP special in 1984, 'Firefly's Adventure' or 'Rescue at Midnight Castle,' either one will do, making the year there 2009.
Another thing, i'm guessing that Destiny Islands is near Japan, like on one of the smaller islands. If i'm wrong, tell me and i'll repost this chapter.
Now I don't own Kingdom Hearts, Rurouni Kenshin, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure or My Little Pony. Nor do I own specific elements from other anime's that I'm borrowing from, specifically Fullmetal Alchemist , Rurouni Kenshin and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. I don't own any of them, so please don't sue me, I'm just trying to tell a good, possibly great story. What I do own are the original characters which you'll soon meet.
And now, without further delay, please enjoy…
Kingdom Hearts: Beyond the Door to Light
Volume 4: Nightmares In Dream Valley
By AndrewK9000
Chapter 1: New World, Same Problems
Once again, Sora and his friends, now with Aiden, found themselves somewhere they didn't expect. They thought they would be back at Disney Castle, but instead they were on another strange world.
"Something must have gone wrong again," said Riku, "the curse that got us lost in the first place, it must still be in effect."
"But The King said they fixed it!" said Donald.
"Trust Maleficent to come up with something that not even Yen Sid can fix," said Sora.
"Should I be worried?" Aiden asked. Aiden Mackenzie, The Keyblade Alchemist, was about Sora's age with short blue hair and green eyes. He wore a tan shirt and blue jeans with a brown jacket and boots.
Aiden came from a world where Alchemy was the dominant science. He and some of his friends showed a natural talent for Alchemy at an early age. Even more so, by the time Sora met with Aiden and his friends, they had enough raw talent to be called Adapts.
But the meeting wasn't exactly a happy one. The Heartless had invaded the world of the Alchemists, destroying several villages and turning thousands of innocent people into more of the dark creatures. Aiden's parents were among the few to be killed outright by The Heartless, and seeing his parents die left Aiden more than distraught.
He was so messed up by the experience, he panicked when Sora and the others arrived in his near abandoned village and shot at them. Fortunately for everyone, our heroes helped Aiden calm down and regain his sanity.
In all, Aiden and his friends helped Sora and the others, as well as a few local heroes, defeat the threat of The Heartless and forced the ones controlling the dark creatures, the Hakonians Reddik and Rakel, as well as the bumbling minion Pete, to retreat back to New Hollow Bastion. A result of the experience was that Aiden received his own Keyblade and was named an honorary State Alchemist, with the codename Keyblade Alchemist
When Sora and the others once again tried to return to their universe, Aiden asked to go with them, and here he was with Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy as they stood on an unknown world, once again thrown off course by Maleficent's dark magic.
"Probably," said Kairi as she answered Aiden's question, "but at least we're not in a hostile environment. In fact, this place is quite beautiful."
They were in a large valley surrounded by tree-filled mountains. The valley floor was filled with flowers of all shapes and colors. The sky was a perfect blue that was darkening towards dusk as the sun was setting in the west.
"This definitely is an improvement on The State," said Riku as he sat down on the carpet-like grass, "no offense, Aiden."
"None taken," said Aiden as he sat down as well, "this place is almost like paradise. If we weren't supposed to be somewhere else, I wouldn't mind staying here for a while."
"I'm sure that King Mickey and everyone else is working really hard to find us," said Sora, while Goofy bent down to smell a nearby rosebush, "But since we're here, we might as well relax for a change."
"You said it," said Kairi.
But then, as the sun dipped behind the mountains and nightfall settled in, Sora, Riku, Kairi and now Aiden, sensed that something bad was about to happen.
"Now what?" Riku asked.
As if in answer first one, then two, then four, then dozens of New Shadows appeared around, as well as Darkball and Invisible-type Heartless.
"Apparently there's trouble in this paradise," said Aiden as he, Riku, Sora and Kairi summoned their Keyblades, while Donald and Goofy pulled out their weapons. They took up defensive positions as the throngs of Heartless surrounded them and began to close in.
"Why can't we just get a break for once?" Sora asked as he slashed and destroyed a Dark Ball, then shot a Fireball at a Neo Shadow.
"Things would be boring otherwise," said Kairi as she blocked a thrust from an Invisible, then countered and destroyed it.
"I'd probably still be working at the village general store with my folks," said Aiden as he slashed at a Dark Ball, but it changed into smoke and moved out of the way, then appeared behind him and hit him. Aiden wasn't seriously hurt, so he struck back and destroyed the floating Heartless.
Riku destroyed a pair of Neo Shadows with a Dark Aura blast, then blocked an Invisible with his Dark Shield. Donald blasted it with a Blizzard spell, then Goofy finished it off with a shield slam.
Just then more Heartless appeared. "Don't they have better things to do than to pick on us?" Aiden asked. He aimed his Keyblade at the ground underneath several Neo Shadows and transmuted it into mud, trapping the Neo Shadows up to their waists. He then beheaded them.
Sora and Kairi fought back to back as wave after wave of Dark Balls and Neo Shadows attacked. "We can't hold them off forever!" shouted Kairi as she stabbed and destroyed a Dark Ball.
"Well," said Sora as he deflected a slash from a Neo Shadow, "at least we're together."
"You got that right," said Kairi as she destroyed another Dark Ball, then destroyed a Neo Shadow.
Just then several Fireballs came out of nowhere and destroyed several Dark Balls and Neo Shadows that were about to attack Sora and Kairi.
"Did you do that?" Kairi asked as she and Sora destroyed the remaining heartless around them.
"No," said Sora.
"Don't look at me," said Donald as he swatted and destroyed a Dark Ball, then used a Stop spell on an Invisible.
Just then what appeared to be several spheres of water came out of nowhere and smashed into several Invisibles and destroyed them.
"Who's doing this?" Riku asked as several Dark Balls were destroyed by several spheres of white light, destroying them.
A group of Neo Shadows were then crushed by several levitating rocks, while more Neo Shadows were ripped apart by concentrated gusts of wind.
"Well whatever's going on," said Aiden, "I'm not one to not take advantage of a golden opportunity." He struck and destroyed an Invisible, while one next to it was engulfed in flames.
"Me neither," said Riku as he destroyed a pair of Dark Balls, while several more were smashed by rocks and balls of water.
Sora saw the Neo Shadow he was about to attack was destroyed by a sphere of white light, while an Invisible was ripped apart by the wind.
"Now I know I want to meet whoever's doing this," said Kairi.
"Me to," said Donald as he used a Thunder spell on several Dark Balls.
"Me three," said Goofy as he smashed a Neo Shadow with his shield.
Another minute later and the area was free of Heartless, for now. As Sora and the others caught their breath, they heard a rustling from a nearby grove of trees.
In the waning twilight, Sora and the others could make out five teenagers walking towards them from the trees. Three of them were boys, the other two were girls.
The first boy looked to be about 16 and stood at about 5'7". He had a medium complexion, brown eyes and light brown hair. He wore blue jeans with a blue and green shirt under a blue and green jacket. He seemed to possesses an easygoing nature that hid a serious undertone, one of great passion for life. Sora guessed that this boy was the one who was controlling the Water attacks.
The second boy looked to be about 15 and stood at 5'11". He had a deeply tanned complexion with greenish blue eyes and dark brown hair. He wore a brown shirt with a green jacket and blue jeans. He had a calm yet serious nature about him, one that seemed as sturdy as a rock. Riku guessed this boy was behind the Earth attacks
The third boy was about 16 and stood at 5'8". He had a light skin tone, with hazel eyes and hair that was died sky blue. He wore a blue and white shirt under a leather jacket and wore blue jeans. A pair of aviator sunglasses sat atop his head. He seemed to have a playful personality, like everything was one big laugh to him. Kairi guessed that this boy was behind the Air attacks.
The first girl was about 16 and stood at 5'3". She had indigo eyes and waist-length fire-red hair and a pale complexion. She wore a yellow halter-top under a red and orange jacket and an orange skirt with red boots. She had a blazing aura about her, one of mixed emotions that could shift between anger and joy in a heartbeat. Aiden guessed that this girl was behind the Fire attacks.
The second girl was 15 and stood at 5'5". She had shoulder-length blond hair, blue eyes and medium skin color. She wore an orange and blue shirt under a yellow and green windbreaker, with blue jeans. She seemed to have the most balanced personality of the group. Sora, Riku, Kairi and Aiden guessed that this girl was behind the spheres of light.
All five of the newcomers could easily be models for teen fashion magazines, but it was the girl with blond hair that was the cutest, at least to Sora, Riku and Aiden.
But then Sora noticed that Aiden was looking at the blond girl in a strange way, like he recognized her, yet didn't recognize her at all. The feeling passed from Aiden very quickly.
"What is wrong with you people!" exclaimed the girl with long red hair, "it's dangerous to be outside at night in these parts, what with those horrible things running all over the valley!"
"I don't think they knew it was dangerous," said the boy with light brown hair, "they don't look like they're from around here."
"They certainly are strange ones," said the boy with blue hair. He then looked at Donald and Goofy, "to say the least."
"Maybe they're working with those things," said the boy with dark brown hair, "for all we know, they're spies for whatever is responsible for all the terrible things that's been happening."
"You may just be right," said the girl with red hair. She then conjured up a fireball in her hand and pointed it at Kairi, "just who are you people working for?"
"We're not working with The Heartless, if that's what you're asking," said Sora.
"And I'd thank you to put that away," said Kairi in a stern tone to the girl with the fireball, "before you hurt someone."
"Heartless?" the blond girl asked.
"They were ordinary people once," said Riku, "until their hearts were consumed by darkness. Heartless seek out people's hearts and corrupt them with darkness, thereby creating more of them."
"But why would they come here?" the blond girl asked, "there aren't that many humans living on this world to begin with."
"The Heartless go wherever their instinct to spread darkness pulls them," said Kairi, "not only to they go after the hearts of people, they seek to corrupt the hearts of worlds. When a world is covered completely in darkness, it ceases to exist."
"This sounds just like something your mom would have come across," said the boy with dark brown hair to the blond girl.
"You're probably right," said the blond girl.
"But if your mom faced what we're facing now," said the girl with red hair, "she probably wouldn't have survived."
"You may be right about that as well," said the blond girl. She then looked at Sora and the others, "it looks like we're all on the same side here."
"Anyone whose heart holds onto light is an enemy of The Heartless," said Riku.
"We are all in this together," said Aiden.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend," said the blond girl, "then let's be friends. I'm Sara Lancaster," she then pointed to the boy with light brown hair, "that's Nate River," she pointed to the boy with dark brown hair, "Lance Stonehill," she pointed to the boy with blue hair, "David Stratos," she pointed to the girl with red hair, "and Denise Emberson."
Sora and the others introduced themselves and everybody shook hands.
"We've seen some crazy things since we first came to this world," said Lance Stonehill as he shook Donald's hands, then Goofy's," but you two take the cake."
"Cake?" Goofy asked, "I didn't know we were havin' a party."
"It's a figure of speech, ya' big palooka!" said an annoyed Donald.
"Just where are you guys from anyway?" Kairi asked as she shook Denise Emberson's hand.
"Planet Earth," said Denise Emberson, "specifically from Wyoming, USA. Where are you from?"
"Destiny Islands," said a surprised Sora, " near Japan, also Planet Earth."
"Never heard of Destiny Islands," said David Strattos.
"It's a small place," said Riku, "you'd probably need a GPS device just to know you passed it."
It was then that Nate river had a questioning look on his face, "who won the 2004 American Democratic Presidential Primary?"
"That's easy," said Kairi, "John Kerry. Who won on your world?"
"John Edwards," said Denise Emberson. "Let me guess, 'the idiot' won a second term anyway?"
"You better believe it," said Kairi.
"What are you guys talking about?" Aiden asked.
"Sara and her group are from a different Earth than we are," said Riku, "a parallel reality. Very similar, yet very different."
"I've always believed in alternate worlds," said Sara Lancaster, "especially this world. My mom told me so many stories of Ponyland and Dream Valley."
"Is that where we are?" Sora asked.
Just then there was another rustle from the grove of trees, followed by a girl's voice, "Sara! Are you and the others alright?"
"Galaxy?" said a surprised Sara Lancaster, "did you follow us?"
"We had to know that you were alright," said another girls' voice.
"We're fine, Heart Throb," said Denise, "but it's you we should be worried about. It's not safe for you and the others to be out at night."
"And what about you?" said a third girls' voice, this one was in a British accent. "You'd think we'd just let you go off and fight those horrible things alone?"
Not me," said a fourth girl's voice, "no way am I letting them do this alone."
"North Star?" asked David Stratos.
"Cherries Jubilee?" asked Lance Stonehill.
"Makes you wonder who else will show up," said Nate River.
"I knew they wouldn't be happy that we went after them," said a fifth girls' voice. Unlike the first four, whose voices were in high spirits, this one seemed to be rather pessimistic.
"Shady?" Nate River asked.
"You guys should come out," said Sara Lancaster, "those things, Heartless, they're gone for now."
"These guys are our friends," said Denise Emberson, indicating Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aiden, Donald and Goofy, "at least I hope they are."
There was then the sound of multiple hooves walking forward. In the failing twilight, Sora and the others could barely make out the shapes of five small female horses.
Sara then held up her left hand. Sora, Riku and Kairi sensed a surge of energy in Sara. A bright light came from Sara's hand, revealing that the horses, or rather ponies, had brightly colored pastel skin and hair. Even more so, two of the ponies had wings like a Pegasus, while one of the ponies had a horn like a unicorn.
The unicorn had medium pink skin and a multicolored mane and tail. On her hindquarters was a mark, resembling several stars in a constellation formation.
The first Pegasus had light pink skin and a dark pink mane and tail. On her hindquarters was a mark, shaped like several winged hearts.
The second Pegasus had pink skin with a purple mane and tail. On her hindquarters was a mark shaped like a compass.
The first of the 'normal' ponies had peach colored skin with a coral colored mane and tail. On her hindquarters was a mark shaped like cherries.
The second 'normal' pony had dark pink skin and a chartreuse colored mane and tail. On her hindquarters was a mark shaped like a pair of sunglasses.
Our heroes were surprised by the sight of the pastel colored ponies, but Kairi Donald and Goofy were the most vocal.
"Wow," said Donald.
"Gawarsh," said Goofy.
"Oh my!" said an awestruck Kairi.
Sara then pointed out the ponies to our heroes, "that's Shady," she indicated the one with the sunglasses mark, "Cherries Jubilee," she pointed to the one with the cherry mark, "North Star," the Pegasus with the compass mark, "Heart Throb," the Pegasus with the winged hearts, "and Galaxy," the unicorn with the constellation mark. "They, and several others, are the Little Ponies, and they live here in Dream Valley."
…Somewhere Beyond Time and Space…
As Sora and the gang gazed in awe at the Little Ponies, little did they know that they were being watched by benevolent entities from a higher plane of existence. These entities, we shall call them The Ethereals, were originally ordinary people from across time and space who, through the goodness of their minds, hearts and deeds, ascended to a higher level of life and become beings of pure energy and consciousness.
With this ascension came power to do great good throughout the infinite worlds of existence, but it also came with the responsibility to use that power wisely and justly. The Ethereals can do just about anything they want, almost like living gods, but they choose to use their powers only at a distance, only to change circumstances enough to avoid catastrophe, and only when absolutely needed.
For some time now, The Ethereals have been watching Sora and his friends. They had yet to see reason to give aid to Sora and the others, knowing that Sora and his friends had the strength of heart to stand on their won. But now as they watched Sora and company talk with Sara Lancaster and her friends, the Ethereals felt that the time to give aid was at hand.
"The Keyblade Wielders are in greater danger than they realize," said one of the Ethereals, "in more ways than one."
"The dark magic that has separated them from their rightful universe will remain in effect for some time," said a second Ethereal, "despite the valiant efforts of King Mickey and his allies. I fear that the longer the Keyblade Wielders are lost, the greater the strain on their hearts will become."
"Can we not just break Maleficent's vile spell ourselves?" a third Ethereal asked.
"We could," said a fourth Ethereal, "but that would violate our vows. We all swore on our lives and our love of life that we would interfere with the course of time and space only when there was no other choice. The time will come when Sora and his companions will return to their world, but they have so much to do until then."
"But how long will that be?" the second Ethereal asked, "how many worlds must they traverse before they can return home?"
"Assuming they survive this one," said a fifth Ethereal, "the creature that controls The Heartless in Ponyland is unlike anything the Keyblade Wielders have faced before. I fear that, even with the help of The Five, none will survive.
"I have all seen multiple possible outcomes of the forthcoming confrontations. The chances of Sora and his friends living are diminishing even as we speak."
"But what can we do without directly interfering?" the first Ethereal asked, "I to have seen the possible outcomes, all of which are scenarios in which we choose not to get involved. So much depends on Sora an his friends. Without them, there is nothing but darkness in the future."
"But the consequences can be equally as dark if we reveal ourselves," said the fourth Ethereal, "Maleficent does not know that we exist. But if she learns of us, she will surely seek us out to destroy us. And let us not forget that there are other forces in existence who see themselves as ultimate evils."
"That is true," said the first Ethereal.
"But we must do something," said the second Ethereal.
"That is also true," said the first Ethereal.
"And we must do something soon," said the fifth Ethereal, "all predictions of the future say that Sora and his friends will be destroyed within a matter of days."
"I do believe I have a solution," said the third Ethereal, "we select a champion from another time and place, to give aid to The Keyblade Wielders. We endow this champion, temporarily that is, with the knowledge of other worlds, and the power to vanquish The Heartless. He, or she, will then be sent to Sora to help defeat this evil of evils. Then when the danger has passed, and the paths to the future are clear again, we will send the champion home, with only the memory of helping those who were in need."
"A good plan," said the first Ethereal.
"A very good plan," said the second Ethereal, "one that wouldn't force us to expose our full existence, or violate our vows."
"Do you have a champion in mind?" the fourth Ethereal asked.
"Not as yet," said the third Ethereal said, "there are countless worlds, each with countless heroes from the past, present and future. It could take some time to choose."
"And time is not on our side," said the fifth Ethereal, "as I said, Sora and his friends are running out of time."
"I will be as quick as I can," said the third Ethereal.
The end of chapter 1.
Next chapter, our heroes learn the story behind Sara Lancaster and how she is connected with The Little Ponies. Reviews will be rewarded with cake and pie. See you next time!
