A/N: In the reference book so far we have:
1) Lilpri (magical girl anime based on fairytales (like Smile PreCure only much much much more overt) of which the main characters get discovered through the medium of crystals by magical animal companions. However, the show is more like three little girls get magic powers to grow up into teenagers and sing as a J-Pop group called (wait for it…) 'Lilpri' (or Little Princesses))
2) Almost every magical girl anime in the world that centres around school girls being given magic powers of some descript.
3) In this episode, Donald and Goofy's forms in the human world is a direct reference to what they had to do for the live action Sailor Moon for the characters of Luna and Artemis (i.e. use stuffed toys; cats don't really like having make up put on them).
4) One reference to Heartcatch PreCure. It surrounds mostly around the Heartless, but I'm sure you can get it. (Answer will appear in next week's episode XD)
I wrote this in two days. This should give you the basic outline of what most of the 'episodes' will be like. Basically: like any other magical girl anime. Stand alone, one monster, maybe two an episode. Basic theme of what the magical people is question will be taking their powers from.
Thank you kindly for the reading and reviews so far! Much appreciated :D xx
~~Awaken Snow Knight!~~
Sora's day had begun normally enough. Wake up at 6:30, shower, brush teeth, change into uniform, wake the septuplets at 6:45, get them to change into their outfits for the day, make them all breakfast while saying goodbye to their Dad before he rushed out for work at 7, wrangle them all into jackets and shoes by 7:15 and start walking to their elementary school for 7:45. It gave him time to catch the bus to his school at 7:56 in the next street over and be at Destiny High school gate by 8:15.
With septuplets, you had to give yourself a lot of time to do anything. He reckoned he ought to get a medal for what he had to do.
Today however something strange had happened. That morning he had found two rather sorry looking plushies in his locker. It was a mystery how they had gotten in there because it didn't look like his lock's mechanism had been in any way tampered with.
"Hey! Sora!" The brunet turned to where he saw his two best friends. Tidus and Wakka were on the Destiny High's blitzball team, with Tidus being the 'Ace' of the team. A lot of people didn't really expect either of them to be friends with Sora since he was something of an average student. Nothing special about Sora really, only that he was Tidus and Wakka's childhood friend. Tidus was running up to him, Wakka following a little bit behind. "Early as usual. How the hell do you do it?"
"Good timing I guess," Sora laughed, taking the two plushies out.
"Eh? Those from the girls?" Wakka asked as he approached them, referring to Sora's three little sisters.
"No I just found them in my locker," Sora replied, looking them over. It wasn't bad craftsmanship whoever made them, but it was clear to Sora that they were homemade.
"Ohhh ho ho ho, Sora you dog," Tidus grinned, elbowing his childhood friend in the side. "If I didn't know any better I'd say you had a secret admirer. He yelped as Wakka ruffled his hair roughly and pushed the school Ace down.
"Ignore the idiot, ya. You know what he gets like around girls."
"I know," Sora smiled, deciding it was probably best to just get them to lost property. If no one claimed them, then surely they would just get put into the charity box. Some kid will probably love them. He took a closer look at the duck plushie dressed in a sailor's outfit. The stitching on his side was a little loose. "I'm going to go and put these in the lost property. I'll see you guys at class."
"Sora! Don't! You'll only destroy that poor maiden's he-!" Tidus was once again silenced by Wakka. The orange-haired fifteen-year-old had gripped his blond friend by the ear.
"See you there then Sora."
Donald Duck's magic had turned him and Goofy into plushies upon arrival in the realm of humans, though his first annoyance was that they seemed to have gotten themselves teleported into a prison of some sort when they left the Fantasy Realm to find the one born with the pure heart of Snow White. Goofy had then suggested that their 'prison' might actually be a box of some sort that belonged to the person they were looking for. That, and there was no way of getting out of it from the looks of things.
To Donald's further annoyance, Goofy was right. To an extent.
Now they were stuck in something called a 'lost property box' in a new place, but Donald had managed to piece together that he was in a school (they had schools in Disney Town; mostly teaching the merits of laughter), and that the 'locker' they had been trapped in belonged to a boy. In his estimation, the crystal had completely mistaken the boy for the one they were looking for. Maybe a miscalculated flight plan?
"Donald," Goofy whispered as soon as it was safe for them to talk. "What if that boy really was the one we're looking for?"
"Don't be dumb Goofy!" Donald hissed through his now velour beak. "Princesses are girls! That must mean that they were reborn as girls!" He then managed to wiggle out with a stuffed white hand the red crystal they had been entrusted with. It was glowing vibrantly. "But she must be here in this school! It's reacting!"
"But how are we gonna find them?"
"We just make the crystal take us to her," Donald replied; he was still very certain that it was a girl they were looking for. Goofy seemed open to the idea of a boy being a Kingdom Knight. Stupid dog cartoon thing. He grabbed Goofy's hand. "Remember, keep thinking of Snow White and we will be with her in no time!"
"Well I know that…" Goofy and Donald started thinking hard about Snow White. Her snowy complexion, her ebony hair, her red, red lips and her sweet nature. Her kindness to animals and her almost maternal caring of her seven dwarven caretakers. Surely her reborn self would be just like that!
In a flash of red light they were teleported from the box… and they found themselves in darkness again, only this time there was even less room! And a lot more stuff with them. "Oh for…!" Donald started quacking in irritation.
Yet another prison.
It was at lunchtime when Sora found himself leaping away from his bag in surprise. Situated snuggling amongst his lunch box and books for the day, he saw the big stitched and painted eyes of the two plushies he swore he had given to lost property. It was a good thing he was alone; Tidus would tease him about "seeing that light" and "accepting the true feelings of a maiden heart". He sighed; whoever got them back went to great lengths to give them to him. Maybe Tidus was right.
"But who would even pay attention to someone like me?" Sora muttered, taking the two plushies out and looking at them. Even if they looked like they could do with some patching up, whoever made them clearly wanted to send their feelings out to him. He just wasn't sure if he was ready for that kind of thing. Something caught his eye in the split in the duck's seam. "Hmm? What's this?"
He plucked out what looked like a red crystal from the inside of the duck; if he had paid attention to the toy he would have noticed the look of panic in its face. "Huh… this is really quite pretty." The crystal itself was shaped like a heart atop a small crucifix, and it seemed to sparkle in the autumnal sunshine. He held up to the sun; the bright red of the crystal seemed to just cheer him up. If this really was a gift, it really was a nice one. It was just too bad he didn't know who gave it to him. The crystal itself looked way too pretty to just give away. "Ah… sometimes I wish I was more like Tidus. He's got more courage than I do." Because at the heart of it, Sora just didn't have the same sort of bravery Tidus had in all things. All he was really good at was being a surrogate parental figure to his seven siblings.
"Maybe if I put them back in lost property they'll take the hint," he hoped, ready to put the crystal away. His fingers slipped around it, causing him to drop it. What happened next set into motion the biggest change of his life. The duck plushie had leapt out of his hand and caught the crystal in its velour hands just before it hit the ground. It then turned on him, and the scene just became even weirder.
"WHAT KINDA KLUTZ DROPS A PRICELESS JEWEL LIKE THIS? HONESTLY IF MY MAGIC WASN'T ALREADY LIMITED I WOULD HAVE THUNDAGA-ED YOU INTO NEXT WEEK!"
Sora screeched in shock and really did jump away this time, dropping the dog plushie on its head and causing the poor toy to yelp in pain. "T-Talking… toy…" he started slowly.
"Ah…" the duck started, looking like he just realised his mistake. The dog plushie was standing to its feet. "Ah… Goofy, I may have just blown our cover…"
"A-hyuk, and I'd say we found just the person~" the dog –Goofy– answered, looking pleased. "We aren't starting to disappear."
"Hey…. You're right," the duck replied, checking himself to make sure he wasn't 'disappearing' as Goofy had put it. "But that means… that means Snow Knight… is a boy?"
"Snow… Knight?" Sora asked, finally finding his voice.
"Has to be. If it was anyone else, we would have disappeared back to Fantasy Realm or somewhere else and Queen Minnie would get upset!"
"I'm not so certain…" The duck finally looked at Sora. "I mean he looks nothing like Snow White."
"A-hyuk~ There was nothing in the legends that said a Kingdom Knight had to look like their previous reincarnation."
Okay… just slowly back away… maybe when you wake up this will all be a dream. Sora tried to shift away from the talking toys, hoping that maybe he could get away. No luck. The duck and dog combo had jumped into Sora's lap as soon as they noticed him trying to escape.
"Listen! I really would have thought a girl would be Snow Knight since girls tend to accept this sort of thing a lot better than boys, but beggars can't be choosers! My name is Donald Duck and this is Goofy! We came from the Fantasy Realm and we need your help! The crystal wouldn't have taken us to you if you weren't Snow Knight!"
"A-hyuk~ You see, our home is in a lot of danger and we need the Kingdom Knights' help to save it! There are these critters called Heartless that are-" Goofy was interrupted when there was a high pitched scream coming from the blitzball pitch. Tidus and Wakka were with the team practicing for today's game afterschool! "A-hyuk~! Heartless!"
"Huh?" Sora yelped, looking at Goofy in shock.
"Goofy might be a toy right now but his sense of smell is never wrong!" Donald quacked. "He can smell a Heartless a mile away!" Sora didn't even think as he grabbed his bag, stuffed the toys inside and ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the pitch, praying that Tidus and Wakka were alright.
This is ridiculous! Two talking toys are spouting out something silly like a world in danger from some dangerous animal and you're running right towards one? What kind of idiot are you?
His feet skidded along the grass when he saw it.
It clearly took its form from one of the school blitzballs because it was round and white, with glowing round yellow eyes and a strange heart symbol with a thorny cross emblazoned upon it and shadowy arms, legs and antennae. Stranger still was that from the thirteen blitzballers on the field and from every student and teacher in the immediate vicinity, a dark shining aura was sparkling around their weakened and unenthusiastic forms. Everyone except for Sora. "Wh-What's going on?"
"Oh no! The Heartless is sucking out their Imagination!" Donald quacked, having managed to get out of Sora's bag and perched himself on his shoulder. Goofy took the other.
"A-hyuk~! We have to do something before they're all completely drained!"
Sora wasn't paying attention to what they were saying; he was looking at the small figure that the Heartless was standing over. It was Tidus! "Tidus!" Sora didn't know what it was the sprung him into action but he ran straight for the fallen boy. He ignored Donald and Goofy yelling at Sora to stop. He had to save Tidus!
As he got closer, he could hear something strange. It sounded like Tidus' voice but it echoed and shook in a weird manner, repeating itself over and over. "Stop comparing me to my old man! Stop feeling sorry for me that I haven't got a mom! Stop pretending to be nice to me! Sora hasn't got a mom either but you don't compare him to his parents! I'M SO FRUSTRATED!"
"A-hyuk~! That boy's frustrations are feeding the Heartless!"
"What?" Sora asked loudly, yelping as he was swatted back by a shadowy limb, crying out in agony as he landed on his back. He winced, looking at the Heartless, shaking in fear. It was still crying out its tantrum.
"Heartless have to have something powering it," Donald grimaced, pulling himself back up onto Sora's shoulder. "The more negative the Imagination, the better."
"So Tidus is…" Sora started.
"All frustrations in some way are powered up by Imagination. It exaggerates what the real story is and blows it all out of proportion if its kept locked up in a heart! It's unhealthy!"
"Then I've got to reach out to Tidus and tell him he hasn't got anything to be frustrated about!"
"You're just gonna get swatted back again!" Donald snapped angrily. "You're not feeding it so it sees you as a nuisance!"
"Then what the hell am I supposed to do "
"A-hyuk~ Only a Kingdom Knight can get rid of a Heartless. They're the only people in the world that has that kind of power," Goofy answered.
"But Tidus…"
"You're going to help him more if you change into Snow Knight! If you just keep fruitlessly throwing yourself at it that Heartless is going to drain him and everyone else dry!" Donald yelled at him.
"But… but…"
"A-hyuk~ There really isn't any other way! You have to transform into Snow Knight right now!"
"But… but I'm scared and I don't know what to do!" At that moment, the red jewel burst into light just as the Heartless was about lash out at Sora for being noisy; a cocoon of red light protected the boy and the two toys, the glowing jewel in front of them. Donald and Goofy were over the moon with relief and joy!
"Aha so Honesty is your virtue!"
"A-hyuk~ I knew I was right about you!"
"Wh-What's going on?" Sora asked.
"The jewel activated when you were honest about being scared and not knowing what to do!" Donald replied.
"A-hyuk~ And that takes a special kind of bravery to be honest about that kind of thing!"
"So the jewel is now going to help you out by showing what you can do and helping you face that fear!"
"All you gotta say is 'Gate to my Heart, open!'" Goofy instructed, without a hint of irony in his voice.
"You're kidding…"
"JUST SAY IT!" the two toys yelled at Sora.
"Alright! Alright!" Sora took a deep breath and just did what he thought was right; his hands closed around the sparkling red jewel. "Gate to my Heart, open?"
"Say it with a little more conviction!" Donald quacked irritably. "This barrier isn't going to hold up enough forever!"
"A-hyuk~! It only has time to protect you during transformation!"
"Do you wanna save your friend or not "
I do… but I don't… He felt his body shake a little. Of course he didn't understand. Of course he was scared. But losing a friend was much scarier than this! Don't get embarrassed by this; no one is even watching! "Gate to my Heart, open!"
The light inside his hand burst at that moment, and it felt like everything about him was wiped clean, from the clothes he was wearing to the doubts in his heart. It felt warm in the cocoon; his eyes were closed but he could feel it all happen around.
It started off with his arms; he felt the warmth encasing his arms and then suddenly become rock-solid, hardening off into a ruby-red bracers. Next his legs and feet; yellow baggy pants and ruby-red greaves over yellow inch-high knee-length boots. Now his chest; a bodice-like top with gold and ruby-red pauldrons; the bodice was a dark blue with a red piping strip down the centre. A shining wave of light became a cape that was held in place by two shining matching rubies on his top. Accessories; he could feel the warm liquid light forge itself into a red belt with the crucified red heart crystal in the centre, attached to a string of diamonds, rubies and rounded up pearls of golden ore that went around his hips. A red ribbon around his neck. The light finally forced a tiara that went around his forehead, a red heart-shaped jewel twinkling in the centre.
He opened his eyes and, not even thinking about it, he put a hand over where the crucified jewel was a called forth a strange light that shaped itself into a large key in his hand. Golden mirror frame for its guard, a shining apple that was one half ruby and the other half emerald at the hilt, a bronze shaft and handle and the teeth of the key was comprised of the teeth of a golden comb. A long keychain with the crystal at the end was made from crystal apples, each one a colour of the rainbow. He took a firm grip of it and swung it about around him, getting a good feel of the new weapon. A Keyblade, something in his mind told him it was called. The cocoon broke in that very instance, the shattered pieces of it disappearing into the air, leaving him and the two toys there. He still had very little control over his body and voice. Hand on his heart. "Shining like earthen jewels, an Honest Heart. Snow Knight!" Hand in the air in a victorious pose even though he hadn't even laid a finger of harm on the Heartless.
…okay…what…the…hell…Sora…
Now he was finally given control of his emotions and body. He yelped and looked at his new outfit and felt his face. "What the hell? What is this?"
"This is not the time to panic!" Donald yelled at him. "That Heartless is gonna come after you now!"
"You could have told me that was going to happen!" Sora yelled back.
"LOOK OUT!" Goofy screamed. Sora looked up and jumped backwards just in time; though it felt more like he just flew into the air before the shadowy arm connected to where he had been, causing him to panic.
"I-I'm flying?"
"Don't be silly, it's magic!" Donald snorted. "And too much used at that!"
"Well excuse me for not knowing what the hell I'm supposed to do!"
"A-hyuk~ Fellas, I don't think it can jump as high as Snow Knight can," Goofy informed, pointing at the Heartless that was glaring at them angrily now.
"It must not be strong enough to leave the host yet! Snow Knight, this is more than perfect for you!" Donald yelled over the winds in their ears.
"Perfect for what?"
"An attack of course!" Donald and Goofy in that moment grabbed his shoulder tightly. "Take a deep breath and calm down! Snow White will tell you what to do if you give her chance!"
How the hell can I…! Huh… wait… Sora's eyes went down to his greaves. So the bracers and greaves actually made from rubies? So these things do pack a punch… they'd have a problem against something made out of diamond… then… Letting himself just do what felt right to him, he tilted his body weight so that he would be free falling, willing the Keyblade to disappear for a moment while he concentrated on fighting the Heartless. Donald and Goofy were yelping in shock of the bold move. "Kingdom Ruby-Red SLAM!" He threw his leg out as soon as he was at eyelevel with the deeply surprised Heartless. It caused the blitzball-like creature to go flying into a goal post when a greave connected with its face at full force, releasing Tidus. Sora landed just in front of him; in that moment, he felt a surge of fearlessness and innate knowledge that he knew wasn't his own but he trusted in it completely. He knew what he was doing.
Summon the Sweet Apple and free the Imagination!
Without even processing the command in his head, he mentally recalled the Keyblade to his hand, twirling it in his hand and pointing it straight at the floored Heartless. "Snow Knight…" He started twirling around, getting faster and faster until he was causing a small tornado to enwrap and hold his form aloft, leaves getting caught up in it and all of his dangling accessories glittering in the golden and red winds he had created with his Keyblade. "Sweet….MEMORY!" He flicked his Keyblade to the Heartless, urging the winds to go hurtling to the possessed-blitzball. He watched as the gold and red winds impacted, the Heartless going up in an explosion of red and gold glitter with an agonised cry. Sora nearly fell to his knees, in shock that he did that.
"A-hyuk~ You did it Snow Knight!" Goofy trilled happily.
"Not bad for a beginner," Donald conceded, then turning his attention to the still moping Tidus. "Now you've gotta sort him out."
"How do I do that?" Sora asked, guessing that since he was Snow Knight it would do his school reputation no good to try and comfort Tidus as familiarly as he would have done.
"Just use the Sweet Apple, a-hyuk~" Goofy replied. "Keyblades can be used to heal people's hearts."
"All ya gotta do is point it at him and let the Sweet Apple do the rest," Donald guided him.
"Well… here goes nothing," Sora murmured, pointing the teeth of the Keyblade at Tidus and focusing all his thoughts on healing him. In that moment he saw all the images of Tidus being compared to his father, his lingering longing gazes at Sora when he was with his septuplet siblings, how he was usually alone at home.
"These are his memories that got darkened off," Donald explained. "It's not healthy to get rid of them, but we should make them smaller compared to the best memories." Donald reached for Sora's arm and started to manipulate what he was doing. "Like so. Just put more Imagination that's been retrieved in this memory-" It was one of Tidus, him and Wakka just hanging out together without a care in the world. "-and let it do the rest." Surprisingly enough, Donald had been correct. By putting more of the Imagination that was currently flowing back into Tidus and everyone else into more positive memories, the dense foreboding aura around the pitch was disappearing. He pulled his Keyblade away when he noticed it had stopped its work.
"What now?" Sora asked.
"A-hyuk~ We make a dash for it!" Goofy replied good naturedly.
"Ah! I can agree to that!" Sora suddenly turned on his heel, grabbed his bag and dashed off the pitch, praying to get out of this embarrassing outfit and just get back into his eyesore uniform! Donald and Goofy retreated into the bag while this was going on.
"A-hyuk~ I think the Fantasy Realm is going to be alright if the other Kingdom Knights are like him."
"…we're going to have to educate him," Donald grumbled; he had wanted to avoid that as much as possible. He hated teaching. "He got lucky this time that the Heartless was a baby. If he panics every time he transforms, we might as well kiss the Fantasy Realm goodbye."
"So what are you gonna do Donald?"
"Tomorrow morning, we're going to have to convince him that he hadn't dreamt the whole of today."
Donald, Goofy and Sora had no clue that three other Kingdom Knights were also in the vicinity that day; none of them had seen Sora or what had happened in the pitch, but they had heard of something weird happening.
And that was just the start of the on-going battle to save the Fantasy Realm.
