Hello, fellow readers! And let me be honest, another spur of the moment that I may not continue. Not much of a surprise at this point, but habits die hard and I'm working on it. So instead, it'll be safer to do a preview of an idea to test the waters and decide whether or not to continue it later.

EDIT: So, this became more interesting to write over time and made a decision. The bottom will explain why.

For the timeline, this is during the year between KH3 and Remind that focuses on Riku's side of the search for Sora. That way, I have more room here to explore.

In terms of EG, it's still set during the fourth movie with some events altered a bit. You'll see what I mean.

With that said, let's do this!

Prologue: New World Discovered

Realm of Light, Unknown Parts

Riku was currently cruising through space as he was following a faint signal that was caught on the radar, eventually following it to a rather peculiar part of the starlit void. Arriving at the new world was easy, but what he was seeing was rather hard to describe. All it was is just a planet-sized light that emitted a glow, and not just a simple white glow, but more like radiated multiple colors at once like a rainbow.

Looking at the radar once again, he sees that it was the one it picked up and looks at it again.

"Interesting, I guess..." He mutters to himself, still getting used to traveling by ship rather than portals, so seeing worlds on the outside is different.

Taking his mind off it for a moment, he pulls out his Gummiphone to inform the others about his discovery. Though when he called, no one answered. They must be really busy with their tasks, so he just took a photo of the world and sent a simple text with it:

"Found new world, checking it out." Simple enough, straight to the point.

Putting it back in his pocket, he places the Gummi ship in park before setting the coordinates for the teleporter to enter the world. Within a second of activation, he disappears into light.

?

The bright blue sky was littered with white clouds throughout as the afternoon sun shines down upon the forest below, the wind blowing by with grace through the trees and rivers. A large hill built from rocks and moss was quiet, nothing but the waterfall that fell from its river can be heard until a sudden flash of light appears right above it. Riku emerges from the teleporter he activated before the light vanishes, only having a second to process his position before spreading his feet to avoid falling into the water.

Letting out a small sigh, he pushes his right foot off to land on the left side of the river safely before taking in his surroundings. Thinking about it, he wasn't sure what to expect, but seeing nature's finest isn't a complaint. Feeling the breeze blow by him, he looks down over the hill he stood on to see a pond complete with lily pads and logs placed on its banks as the waterfall ripples its surface.

He then sees movement nearby and follows his gaze to it, seeing a girl sitting on one of the logs. Her appearance was a quick double take as she was rather interesting. Human like himself, but has colors you would see in a crayon box for her eyes, hair, and even skin color. Taking a look in the river's surface next to him, he didn't see any changes in his appearance. Still silver hair, still green eyes, even his attire remained the same.

Looking back at the girl, he was rather lucky to find an inhabitant of the world so soon. Time to introduce himself.

Jumping straight down to the ground below, he lands on his feet in a crouching position that was loud enough to get the girl's attention. The two stare at each other for a moment before Riku spoke:

"Hi." He said before standing back up.

"H-Hi." She was understandably hesitant, due to his sudden drop-in.

It was then that he realized that he has no story to go off of, quickly thinking on the spot to explain himself:

"I-I'm new to these woods. Do you happen to live here, by chance?"

"Uh, no. I'm just a camper staying at the camp nearby." She answers as she stood up to her feet, "Where did you come from, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Just a traveler passing through, that's all." He admits, "I'm Riku, by the way."

"Riku, huh? I'm Twilight Sparkle." She returns the gesture in kind.

"Nice to meet you." He simply said before asking, "So, what can you tell me about these woods then?"

"You're in the Everfree Forest." She briefly explains, "Currently close to the camp named after it, Camp Everfree."

He made sure to keep a mental note of the names for later, shifting the topic to something else. "Then, why are you out here by yourself?"

She was again hesitant to answer, but does so to not be rude. "I-I just need some time to myself. I'm still adjusting to being social and all."

"I see. I get it." He agrees with her there as he casually walks closer to the pond, "I have friends who are more outgoing than me."

"Oh, same here. In fact, it's thanks to them I'm even out here." She mentions, now getting more curious about the stranger. "Guess your friends are similar?"

Riku lets out a small chuckle as he stood near the bank of the pond, "Oh well-"

"Twilight?"

He cuts himself off as the two heard a voice before seeing a bush rustle, where another person emerges from it soon after. He was similar in that he was given more interesting colors too.

"Timber? What are you doing out here?" Twilight asks the newcomer.

"I, well, was looking for you. I heard you talking and followed your voice." He answers before seeing Riku, "Who's your new friend?"

"Riku." The keyblade master answers.

"Timber Spruce." The newcomer then looks over him briefly, "You're obviously not a camper. What brings you to our neck of the woods?"

"Um, I was traveling through and got a little lost before finding Twilight here." The keyblade master admits, still using the flimsy story he came up with.

"In that case, our camp isn't that far. Come on, I'll lead the way." Timber offers, which Riku accepts with a simple nod before the three went on their way.

"What were you doing out here, Twilight?" The camp counselor asks her as they enter the thicker woods he came from.

"Oh, I-I was just going on a little nature walk. The weather's great to do that today." That's obviously a different excuse than before, but Riku didn't press on it.

"Yeah, it always is around this time." He comment, "Though, after living in the camp my whole life, it's not as magical as it used to be."

"Really? How so?" Twilight asks for clarity.

"Honestly, when I was a kid, I wanted for my parents to sell the camp so we could live in the city like normal people." Timber recalls as he walks under a low-hanging branch, moving it a bit to avoid getting hit.

Riku kinda gets what he means. Wanting to see new scenery, expand his horizons. "Any reason why you haven't yet?" He asks him.

"Honestly, it's because of my sister." He admits, "She wants to keep the camp as long as she could, being a real stickler for tradition and all. And even then, I was ten when I wanted that. I'd probably waste it by just hanging out at the mall or something."

"You've never been to the city?" Twilight questions, "Not even on a trip?"

"Nope." He simply answers, only to look at her longer than usual.

"W-what?" Twilight doesn't know what he's doing.

Riku looks at her and saw what he was looking at, pulling out a small twig from her ponytail. "This is what."

"H-Huh? How long was that there?" She questions.

"I doubt too long." Timber answers, "Probably the whole time we were talking."

"Then, why didn't you say something earlier?" She asks the question with a small smile.

"I didn't notice until now." He honestly admits, which she rolls her eyes at.

"Come on, the camp is just up ahead." Timber said as he and Twilight went ahead.

Riku looks at the small twig in his hand before tossing it over his shoulder, the stick landing in some bushes nearby and heard a sudden bark from behind them, followed by a shushing sound.

"Show yourself." He calls out as he turns his head to where he heard the noise.

He waited a moment for anything, only to be met with silence. Probably just his imagination, but he doubts that.

Eventually exiting out of the woods, he enters a clearing where he saw some campers gathered at a rock climbing wall where two of them are climbing with another two scouting them. Seeing Twilight over there, he goes to join her as another camper shows up to talk with her while holding a puppy.

His feet then stop in their tracks as he felt a sudden shake in the ground, disappearing just as briefly as it appeared. Waiting for any possible danger, he hears one of the campers shout:

"Hey! Who left this dusty stuff here!?"

He sees some rather interesting pink dust on the grass that had what appeared to be shiny gemstones inside and runs over to investigate. Crouching over for a closer look and dipping his fingers inside, the dust felt more like glitter as he brushes his thumb and index against each other.

"Weird..." He mutters before hearing another person shout:

"Applejack! What are you doing!?"

He and the other campers go over to see what was going on as one scouter was holding their climber only leg length from the ground.

"Is everything OK!?" The chaperone watching the activity was rather concerned.

The climber places her feet back on the ground and tries to unbuckle her harness as Applejack was explaining what happened, "I-I don't know what happened! I didn't even pulled the rope that hard! It's like, she was light as a feather all of the sudden!"

"I was scared half to death!" The climber admits, still failing to get her harness off.

"It wasn't my fault!" AJ defends herself in response, "Here, let me help you."

"No thank you!" Putting her hands up during the decline, she was stunned as a diamond pops up between them and pushes AJ into the bushes, hearing a splash soon after.

"Are you all right!?" The chaperone calls out to her.

AJ emerges from said bushes, now soaking wet from her short 'swim' as she walks over.

"Oh dear." The climber said, "I'm so sorry, I think. Did I just do that?"

Riku now knows that strange stuff is going down and at a pretty fast rate at that. His ears then overheard a familiar voice muttering to herself nearby:

"I don't think it was your fault."

He looks over his shoulder to see Twilight again with a nervous expression next to the girl he saw earlier, holding that same puppy as she looks at her too.

"I'll go get her a towel." She quickly said before going off to do so, with her dog-holding friend going right after. "Me too."

Riku pieced together his meeting with her earlier and now, connecting that she's probably hiding something involving what's currently going on. Going to follow the two, he kept his distance as he overhears them talking:

"You're not the only one with a new kind of magic!" The fiery haired girl said, "This is great!"

"No, it's not!" Twilight denies that, "Applejack and Rarity could have seriously hurt each other! Why is this happening!?"

The conversation was interrupted as another woman with a flower crown came over, "Hi, girls! Anything you need?"

"Applejack just fell into the river!" Twilight blurts out as an answer.

"Oh no! She's gonna need towels, and dry clothes! Don't worry, I got this!" And just as quickly as she appeared, she is gone.

He wasn't sure what to make of that, only that her cheerful demeanor was sounding a bit forced.

BOOM!

It was faint, but he heard something go off in a building nearby followed by a scream. Thinking it might be possible danger, he sprints towards the building in no time and enters it.

Thankfully, there was no danger, only a mess. He recognizes it as cookie dough with splotches on the ceiling and walls, but mostly on the table where two girls stood.

"Hi!" The pink one waves at him rather cheerfully, despite the obvious mess.

"Uh, hi. Are you two all right?" He asks them as Twilight and her friend enters behind him, "What happened in here?"

"I-I don't know." The girl with the butterfly brooch answers, "We were just decorating cookies and-"

"And I was all, 'And you need more sprinkles, and you need more sprinkles!'" The bubbly pink girl interrupts while clarifying the events.

"So, standard Pinkie Pie stuff." The fiery haired girl comments.

"I was tossing some over to Fluttershy when they glowed all pink and exploded!" The girl named Pinkie explains as she does what she was saying.

Riku just processed that last part before seeing the glow, reflexively putting up a barrier to block the blast just in time. Well, at least for him and the others behind him as Pinkie and Fluttershy still got blasted by it... again.

Letting the barrier down, he lets out a small sigh. "You mind warning us before doing that?"

Pinkie shook her hair vigorously, shaking off the dough and fixing her hair before stopping. "Sorry. So yeah, just like that, but earlier. Now-"

She then zooms over next to Riku, "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!"

He was rather surprised at her speed, but doesn't sense any hostility from her as he returns the gesture. "Riku."

"Nice to meet you, Riku! These are my friends-" She zooms off again before reappearing next to each person in the room for introductions:

"This is Fluttershy!" The one with a butterfly brooch does a shy wave with an equally shy smile.

"Sunset Shimmer!" The fiery haired one does a simple smile and wave.

"Twilight Sparkle!" He already knows her, but they didn't know that.

"And Spike!" She picks up the dog he saw earlier, "Twilight's talking dog!"

Riku blinks once before fully processing that last part, "He talks?"

"Yes, I can." That was proven right as the pup spoke, "Weird, I know."

"I'm best friends with a king who's a talking mouse." He casually mentions, "I think I'll be fine."

The girls were quiet after hearing that until Spike spoke again, "What?"

Fluttershy then remembers the mess, "Oh dear, we should really clean this up."

"Good point." Pinkie agrees as she starts cleaning... with her hair?

Riku wasn't sure what to think as Twilight and Sunset just watches this happen until he sees a red bird fly right above him. His gaze following it, he turns around to see it dropping a roll of paper towels off of a high shelf into Fluttershy's arms and lands on her finger.

"Thank you, mister bird." It happily chirps in response, which she actually responds to. "Well of course I can-"

He knows animals that can talk like humans, normal animals, but not humans understanding an animal's language that others can't.

"Did you just talk?" A reasonable question to ask that was answered by another chirp, "But, I don't speak chirp." Another chirp, "I don't know if you're the only one I can understand."

At this point, the others were curious as to what she was doing as another chirp was heard and Fluttershy responding. "Oh no, please don't call for your friends."

They then heard wings flapping behind them, turning and ducking soon after to avoid a small group of birds flying in and landing on Fluttershy's arms and head.

"It's nice to meet all of you too." She gives a warm welcome to them anyways.

"Were you just talking to the birds?" Sunset asks her as they stood back up.

"Um... yes?" Fluttershy awkwardly answers, despite it being the truth, before hearing the doors slam open that made the birds disperse from her.

Applejack and Rarity enter the mess hall as the former spoke, "There ya'll are! You're not gonna believe what happened!"

"Does it involve exploding sprinkles!?" Pinkie mentions, which just confused the two.

"Uh, no. I hoisted Rarity up the rock climbing like it was nothing! Like, I had a lot more strength than I usually do!" AJ explains.

"And I made a diamondy thing appear out of nowhere, which I mean I would be more excited about as the facets were just perfect-"

Applejack clears her throat to get her back on track, "Sorry. It knocked Applejack over and then disappear!"

"Speaking of disappearing, does anyone know where Rainbow went?" AJ wonders, only for her answer to come crashing in-

Literally.

SMACK!

Riku felt something hit him hard enough to knock him off his feet as someone else fell down at the same time, most likely the reason why he feels pain right now.

"Ow!" Her voice lets out as she tries getting up, rubbing her head.

"Ow..." It caught him off guard, so the pain was more noticeable as he tries getting to his feet.

"How did-" AJ questions as Rarity cuts her off, helping her friend up. "Rainbow darling, are you all right!?"

Sunset and Fluttershy help Riku up to his feet as he was still shrugging off the hit from Rainbow, who was also helped up to her feet by Rarity and Applejack.

"Yeah... I think so." She was a bit dizzy from the collision.

"Where did you go?" AJ asks her the question she was just wondering.

"I don't know! I was going to get another harness and next thing I knew, I was practically back in town!" Rainbow answers.

"So, if you had some sort of superspeed, why were you gone for so long?" Rarity makes a good point there.

"Cause I lost it when I got too far, and it came back when I got close enough to the camp." Rainbow explains.

Pinkie was able to put the pieces together from what she has heard, "Being at camp is giving us all new magical abilities!"

Riku was now getting more and more curious about this world. Magic is actually quite prominent for these girls to have knowledge of it, raising more questions in his head before being pushed back as Sunset spoke:

"Not all of us do, though. I don't have any magic, but Twilight-" She stops herself as she saw her friend's grimace and corrects herself, "Also doesn't have it."

Yeah, he really needs to ask them about this.

"Sorry for butting in." Riku speaks up to get their attention, "I just need to make sure I'm up to speed. Do any of you know what's going on here?"

"Not yet, but it definitely involves magic somehow." Sunset answers before pointing out the obvious, "Though, we know nothing about you. You used magic earlier to block that blast, right?"

"Yes." He answers honestly.

"...Well, at least he's honest about it." Thank you, AJ.

The group then heard screams from outside, which Riku was the first to react by running out the doors to see what was going on.

Danger has struck upon the camp as the campers were running for cover from a familiar enemy type Riku knew, if the dark aura and yellow eyes weren't a dead giveaway. Though, the form they took this time are more akin to wolves made from sticks and twigs. Don't be fooled, they are just as agile as they ran in packs and were trapping some of the campers.

"Heartless!" He blurts out as he summons his keyblade Braveheart for battle and runs into the fray.

His appearance got a couple of the wolves' attention and run towards him on the attack. Of course, he proves to be quite the fighter as he dodged their pounces and counters with strong slashes. Much like the material they're made of, they fell apart from his attacks and released the captive hearts inside as he goes to help the campers.

"H-How did he do that?"

"Is that a giant key he's holding?"

"Whoa, he's really strong!"

Some of the campers were watching in awe before going back to fear as the wolves surrounding them bark and growl.

"Hey!" Riku calls out as a distraction, which thankfully works as the wolves turn to look to his direction. "I'm the toughest game here! Want some?"

With their attention on him now, the campers took the chance to flee for shelter as Riku got ready to face the pack.

The Rainbooms were watching from afar, seeing this fight unfold as Rainbow growls in annoyance.

"I ain't standing by!" She shouts as she was about to run in to help, only for Applejack to grab her and hold her still.

"Hold your horses! You even got a plan!?" She points out as Sunset and Twilight look back at Riku.

The keyblade master stood his ground as the wolves paces around their prey, waiting for the right chance to pounce as he was squarely focused on his surroundings. As he suspected, the first leap was from behind and spun to slash the wolf down, quickly following it with another to knock back one right after it before blocking a third wolf from biting down on him with the blade.

Delivering a punch with his free hand to break the hold, he then spun his keyblade around to block another pounce from behind without even looking, the wolf's claws clashing with said blade as he grabs the handle with both hands and swung it as hard as he could. The strong swing slams said wolf into a nearby tree and shatters as the wind gust from the force pushes back the remaining wolves, creating some distance between him and them.

"...Wow." Rarity was as astonished as the others from the display before noticing Pinkie running past the group holding a jar of sprinkles.

"Help's on the way!" She calls out before tossing the jar towards the wolves closest to them.

The jar started to glow as it bounces on the grass, getting their attention for the moment before a pink blast engulfs three of said wolves with Riku putting up his barrier to block it just in time. Unfortunately, it left a pink smoke cloud that covered the remaining wolves a good deal that Riku had a hard time seeing through.

"Oops! Sorry!" Pinkie apologizes for the unintended effect.

"I got ya!" Rainbow shakes off AJ's grip before zooming off, running a quick circle around Riku to clear the smoke for him.

"Thanks!" He was grateful for their help as Rainbow reappears behind him back to back, "No problem!"

With the smoke cleared, the wolves were now mysteriously gone that made them a bit uneasy. Sunset and the others were about to come over to them, only to feel the ground shake. It wasn't as intense as the last one earlier, but it was enough to shake their balance off a bit. Riku and Rainbow quickly came over to them, the latter obviously faster, as the ground kept shaking like footsteps.

Then, a giant figure emerges from the woods nearby, a similar form like the wolves earlier with now more added to it. With the sticks and trigs now being thick branches and stumps, the main body was now covered in rock and stone like a suit of armor, complete with a mask to protect its forehead as its yellow eyes glow fiercer than ever towards its prey.

Sunset was getting some sort of deja vu from this. The beasts, their appearance, they remind her of a similar creature from the books she read about back in Equestria. The bodies falling apart and a bigger form of them now here before them, it sounds like-

"Timberwolves." She finally connects the dots as she said it aloud, the others hearing what she just said.

"Timber what?" Twilight wasn't sure what she talking about.

"They're creatures back in Equestria that I read about. They have bodies made from wood and can even fuse themselves into a bigger body to take on tougher prey!" Sunset recalls from the book, "But, I've never heard of one with stone armor!"

"Whatever that is, that's the form of this Heartless!" Riku sums up from what she said as they were keeping their distance from the giant wolf that was currently stalking around them, "I'll explain later, but we need to deal with this first!"

"Locked and loaded!" Pinkie shouts as she held more jars of sprinkles in her arms.

"I can keep it distracted!" Rainbow confidently said, eager to go.

"Get me close and I can try yanking it down for ya!" Applejack offers after returning from somewhere, now holding a lasso in her hands.

Riku heard their suggestions, which can prove to be quite helpful in the long run, as his eyes stayed focused on the large beast before it came sprinting full speed at them and leaps. He was about to put up his barrier again on a bigger level when someone else actually beats him to the punch.

"Shoo, ruffian!" Rarity shouts as she shot her hands out, creating a large barrier made of diamonds between them and said beast that pushes it back soon after before dispersing.

During its recovery to its feet, Riku quickly spoke up towards her after noticing what her power can do. "Protect the others, we got this!"

Rarity realizes he was talking to her and nods, "S-Sure, I can do that!"

Riku stood his ground alongside Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie as Rarity took the rest back to the building they left from to take cover. The armored wolf was now fully back up and howls at them in anger, beginning the battle.

Rarity stood at the steps of the building as she takes a deep breath and summons a diamond barrier around the rest of the camp, forming a sort of makeshift arena where the fight can happen without endangering the other campers. Riku quickly lead the charge as he runs in:

"Let's go, Rainbow!"

"Right!" She agrees as she zooms past him, appearing in front of the beast in no time to gets its attention.

It proves to be successful as it tries to slam its claws down on her, only for her to barely dodge them while leading it off for the others to attack. Riku immediately went for the legs as a way to slow it down, but the stone proves to be surprisingly durable against his keyblade slamming against it. Though, the points of impact are still left with a crack, showing that it's not impossible.

As the wolf was diverging its attention away from Rainbow towards the attackers, Pinkie throws two jars at its body that exploded point blank, stunning it for the moment. Applejack took this chance to throw her lasso at the tail of the beast, which is comprised of a crooked log that has roots connecting to the body, and successfully caught it before pulling as hard as she could.

The wolf was forced to sit down from her super strength, allowing Riku to hop on its back and slash away. The armor isn't just for show though, it was actually stronger than the legs as only scratches appeared on impact. Forced to enhance his strikes now, he channels dark energy into a flurry of slashes that was giving better results as the stone was breaking away into ash and peddles from each swing.

His progress was then halted as the wolf manages to recover, immediately going to shake him off before rolling its entire body that forces Riku to jump off. AJ was doing her best to hold her ground as she held her lasso tightly, still tied to the beast's tail as she attempts the same thing twice. However, it was smarter than it looked as it changes tactics to charging at AJ instead.

"Look out!" Riku shouts a warning to her as he chases the wolf down.

AJ almost loses her balance entirely from the sudden shift in weight and turns just in time to see the beast coming right for her-

BOOM!

With Pinkie making the save as another blast explodes upon the masked wolf's head that created a thick pink cloud to cover its vision.

"You meanie!" She insults the beast, shaking her fist at it.

Rainbow ran over to help Applejack up during that comment and asks for a favor, "Quick, your lasso!"

AJ quickly caught on to her idea and tosses the rope to her. Running back in, Rainbow ran in circles to tie the rope around the beast's legs while it was still distracted and comes back to her in no time flat. The two held it together before pulling as hard as they could, slamming the legs into each other with the wolf falling forward onto the ground.

Riku took this chance as he reaches the beast to channel light energy this time into a powerful finishing move. Leaping up high into the air and using Doubleflight to gain more height, the tip of his keyblade glows at the peak before diving back down and slams the blade into the masked wolf's forehead with enough force to make it shatter apart entirely. A thick cloud of smoke covers the impacted area as Riku leaps away and lands near the others.

"That was awesome!" Rainbow cheers at what just happened, AJ shaking her head at her friend's predictability and Pinkie just smiling with a nod.

Riku was still unsure though. Despite the finish, he didn't see any heart float into the sky like it usually would when a heartless is slain. While it was still thick, he kept his eyes focused on the smoke to try and see any movement. Though, it wasn't in the smoke that he should be worried about, it was the outside where pieces of wood and rock were starting to shake and stir.

The corner of his eye barely saw the movement before reflexively putting up his barrier around himself and the others, blocking a sudden swarm of debris slamming into them and bouncing away. The pieces that formed the wolf were now starting to swirl around like a twister, attacking the barrier from all angles as Riku did his best to hold it together.

"Consarn it! What's with this thing!?" Applejack exclaims out of annoyance.

The pieces then started to form the wolf's head in front of them, looming over as it lets out a roar of rage before creating its limbs separate from itself around its prey. The barrier was just strong enough to withstand the barrage of attacks from the claws, but he knew he can't hold out forever and waited for an opportunity to counter as it started to crack.

"Get ready!" He tells the girls, having them brace themselves as he watches the attacks closely.

The limbs continued to slash the barrier more and more to wear it down before rising upwards at the same time and then came straight back down for a final attack.

"Now!" Riku then made his barrier burst, hitting them just right to stun the limbs and head as most of its debris fell back on the ground.

Pinkie then unloads the remaining jars she had right at the floating limbs, managing to dismantle each of them with each blast as Rainbow runs over and back to receive Applejack's lasso. The cowgirl then readies it and throws to wrap the beast's jaw in the tied loop, pulling it down to shut it tight and leave it open for an attack.

"Take this!" Riku shouts as he channels dark energy once again, focusing it into his palm and keyblade.

He then pushes his palm out to fire a Dark Firaga, inflicting major damage upon the wood under the mask that he realizes may have made the fight easier, but didn't linger too long on it as he grabs the handle with both hands and leaps into a forward somersault slash down upon the beast. The impact created a shockwave upon landing, shattering the mask and the head underneath into smithereens before releasing a large heart into the sky.

"And that's that." Riku said as he casually places his keyblade on his shoulder.

"We did it!" Pinkie cheers this time, jumping up and down in joy.

"For real this time!" Rainbow adds on top of that.

The diamond barrier protecting the camp dissipates as Applejack comments on the battle, "For the first time using these powers, we did pretty good."

"You all right, darlings?" Rarity asks them as she and the others came over to check on them.

"No worries!" Pinkie reassures them.

"That's good. With that dealt with..." Sunset then looks at Riku, "I have some questions for you."

"Fair enough." He agrees as he dismisses his keyblade, "I also have questions for you all. Starting with..."

"Magic, right?" Sunset guesses the obvious start, which was correct.

"Right. Guess I'll start." Riku offers, "Since I'm the new one around here."

And done! So, I originally had this as a simple preview, but it then transformed into something more. For specifically two reasons:

1. Shining Rainbows honestly should have been a one-shot. I didn't really have plans for that to be long-term when I think about it. And that can be down to how the fight scenes would play out. Sora and Yozora are practically equals in terms of strength at this point of their lives, so any enemy they take on will be a curbstomp, which I wouldn't enjoy writing repeatedly.

2. Sora and Yozora are also characters I like, but can't really have as the main focus due to putting other characters in the background. The Rainbooms would literally just be background props in the fights. I want a structure that compliments both character and action, which is why:

Wayward Dawn is the solution for those problems. Which are:

1. Riku takes the protagonist role this time as he's my favorite character and deserves the spot at this point. He's strong enough to hold his own in a fight, but allows others to shine through in team battles.

2. The timeline I did wasn't very optional and felt restricting, so let's focus on the gap where we can fill in the blanks ourselves.

3. I still have ideas I want to use for this crossover and I will use them eventually!

BGM for:

Timberwolves - Rowdy Rumble

Armored Timberwolf - Anger Unchained

With all of that said, thanks for reading and I'll see ya'll next chapter!