Kingdom Hearts of Harmony

by steel soul

"Awakening" (Edited)

Sora slowly regained awareness, only to be overwhelmed by a concoction of strange sensations to all of his senses. He had opened his eyes to find nothing but darkness surrounding him. The odd feeling of falling filled him to the deepest depths of his soul.

Or was it sinking? He really couldn't tell.

Sora closed his eyes as he allowed himself to be pulled by this strange yet familiar place. It wasn't long before his body gently landed against a hard surface, the feeling of the warm floor welcoming him despite the emptiness all around him. It almost felt like an embrace, like someone had been waiting for him all this time.

Sora...

His eyes instantly snapped open at the sound of his own name calling out to him. Was it the same voice from before? He could not tell.

The boy slowly stood up on his four legs and took stock of his surroundings. He was surprised to find that what he stood upon was like a glass window of some kind. Displayed upon it was what looked like a giant purple star of some kind. Surrounding said star, were five different pictures.. Diamonds and Butterflies, some apples and balloons. And last one was a lighting bolt. Each one was simple in design and yet...He couldn't shake the feeling of power coming from each and every one of them.

Taking his eyes off the ground, he inspected the rest of the world he was in, finding nothing but darkness surrounding him on all sides.

Sighing, Sora raised a hoof and ran it through his spiky… brown… mane?

"W...what the?"

The boy frantically tried to raise both of his newly acquired hooves to his face but would soon regret it wholeheartedly as he tumbled face first into the glass floor. With a groan, Sora lifted himself up and sat on rump, steadying himself to get to a better look at his fingerless limbs.

He ran a hoof along his foreleg, allowing it to ripple the fur underneath, its caramel tint shining lightly under an unknown source of light. He only stopped rubbing his fur when he reached his jacket, finding that it had somehow changed to fit his new body.

As he continued to examine his being he discovered, along his side, a pair of feathery wings, folded neatly against him. A spiky tail swished back and forth under him, greeting its new master happily.

Thre really weird thing was that upon each side of his butt was a tattoo of what looked like a crown, yellow in color and neatly created. He frowned, gave his hoof a quick lick, and began rubbing at one of the marks harshly. To his surprise, the picture did not even look like it was affected in the slightest..

Giving up of his new body art, the boy folded his forehooves across his chest and closed his eyes in deep thought. Just what the heck was going on? Where was he? Why was he a… a… horse? Who brought him here?

No. He knew who brought him here.

That voice that came out of the Secret Place.

But to what end?

S-S-So-or-ra…

Sora raised an eyebrow as the voice sounded again, but for some reason it was distorted, and fading fast.

S-S-Sora-ra-ra…

He stood on all four hooves and looked around, trying to ascertain where it was coming from. In his quest to do so, he found something else. Something familiar.

Darkness, and lots of it, was slowly inching its way toward the transformed boy.

Run!

Sora turned to do just that, but found his way impeded by more of the inky his horror, the darkness seemed to double its efforts to capture him when it saw that the boy had taken notice of it, eating up the inches faster and faster.

Sora tried to call out for the Keyblade, but found his efforts were in vain when it did not, or could not, heed his call.

It was then that fear filled Sora without mercy.

A small whimper could be heard coming from the trapped boy as his space diminished under the form of the shadows. As they closed in, a chilling voice filled Sora's every sense, shaking every fiber of his being. He looked up in time to see a set of piercing red eyes fill the once-void darkness. Eyes he was familiar with seeing.

Eyes of everlasting evil.

Black tentacles could be seen coming from the black ooze that surrounded the boy, each one pointed threateningly at him.

Sora's ears folded to the back of his head as maniacal laughter filled the air around him and the tentacles came crashing down onto him without remorse.

A loud thump filled the air as Sora fell out of the bed with a yelp. Blue blankets draped over his frame, obscuring his view of his surroundings completely. He wrestled and fought with them, grunting in frustration as he tried to rid himself of the confounded cover. Footsteps could be heard coming from somewhere close by, followed by the opening of a door, more than likely to the room he was in.

"What's going…? Oh my gosh! Are you okay? Here, let me help you."

That voice. Where did he hear that voice before?

Before he could think any further on it, the blanket, the very one that was subduing him into submission, was tugged from around his being. Freed from the dark clutches of the cloth, Sora found his vision obscured by the bright flash of sun beams pouring in through an open window. His eyes closed tight in defiance at the light that threatened to blind him.

"Are you OK? Did you hurt yourself?" The voice from before was filled with concern and, if he was correct, slight amusement.

"No I'm fine. It'll take a lot more then that to take me down" he answered. His eyes slowly adjusted as he turned to face his savior. "But thanks for the...help?" What he thought he would find was a human female, one that was more than likely about the same age as him himself, was instead the figure of a lavender horse-looking thing with a horn sticking out of her head, bright and vibrant, purple eyes stared down on him, though a smile seemed to grace her kindhearted features.

The sight of her caused him to, in reflex, look at his own body. What he found was that his body had, in fact, changed into what he had been in his dream, complete with a whooshing tail and butt tattoo.

Keeping his tone light despite his slight unease, he looked back toward her. "I guess you're the one who brought me," he gestured around the room he was in," here, Ah...?"

The mare giggled softly hiding her smile behind a hoof. "I haven't introduced myself yet, have I? Of course, that's a given since you did just wake up. Hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and you are?" She held a hoof out, offering it to the stallion to help him up.

The boy looked down at the lavender creature's appendage, before reaching out and wrapping hers within his own, gripping it surprisingly well. After getting to his hooves, he would beam a kind smile back at her in return."I'm Sora. Just Sora."

When he released her hoof, he tilted his head slightly as he examined her.

Her lavender fur.

And deep purple mane.

That cute little pink stripe running down the middle of it.

He couldn't help but think that this was the most adorable thing he had ever seen in his travels, and that includes the Dream Eaters.

Forgoing that thought for the moment though, he began to really ponder his predicament now, now that he had time to come to grips with where he was and why he was like this. He should have expected things like this in his line of work. How could he forget about the time he changed into a lion? Or a mermaid- merman? The boy smiled. Of course. It made sense now. He changed to match the environment of these creatures. Since Donald was nowhere to be seen, he could only surmise that it was his clothes own power that-

A revelation hit him so hard that a baseball bat would have been jealous.

He looked down at his body to find that he was completely and utterly naked. A deep blush formed on his face as he scrambled to jump across the bed to hide his shame.

"My- My clothes!" he sputtered. "Where's my jacket?!"

Twilight raised an eyebrow at the brown stallion's strange actions before answering. "They're at Rarity's. They had gotten pretty messed up when we had found you and I took them to her to fix. But enough of that."

Sora watched as the horned creature moved to the side of the bed and sat down upon it. As she did so he could clearly see that she, like himself at the moment, wasn't wearing any clothes whatsoever. His eyes strayed over her lavender body, taking in the sight that was her. He stopped upon her rump and saw something familiar and yet he couldn't quite place where he had seen it. It was a purple star with five white stars surrounding it. He was about to say something when a hoof waved for him to come over. Hesitantly, he did as she asked, feeling only slightly better that if she was okay going around that way, he should be too. Not like it is the first time.

Just as he sat down beside her, he felt hot fur press lightly against his body. The poor boy went rigid as he felt her head rest gently against his chest, her ear flicking ever so slightly, tickling him somewhat.

A gentle "hmmm" vibrated against his being, followed by the words "Only one." She removed her head from his body, and he released a breath he had no idea he had been holding up until now. The girl gently placed a hoof to her chin and gave Sora a thoughtful expression. A moment or two had passed before she moved again, raising the same hoof to tap the top of his head none too pleasantly.

"Ow." He raised a hoof of his own to rub at the spot she hit. It didn't hurt, but it wasn't welcomed at least.. "Hey, Twilight, mind telling me why I'm getting checked up like I'm at the doctor's office?" He paused for a second before adding, "And where am I, anyway?"

A blush of embarrassment formed on Twilight's cheeks as she smiled sheepishly. "Oh! Heheh. Sorry, I was just making sure that you weren't an alien or a changeling." Her embarrassment peaked as the boy tilted his head questioningly, repeating what she said in the form of a question. Looking away, she continued. "As to where you are, you are currently in Golden Oak Library, which is in Ponyville."

"Pony… ville?" Sora's eyes widened. "Wait. You're a pony?"

Twilight blinked, slightly confused at the question."Well… yeah."

"Then if that's the case, that makes me a pony as well… right?"

"Yess?"

Ignoring her for the moment Sora went about folding his forelimbs about his chest and closing his eyes in deep thought.

He was a pony now. OK, he could live with that. He would have much rather been a lion like before, but at least he wasn't a mermaid-Gah!-merman. The question now was, how did he change if it wasn't the work of his clothes or Donald?

Sora rubbed at his temples. He really wished that crazy duck was here now so he could explain.

"Are you okay, Sora?"

The boy-turned-pony epped, finding he had completely forgotten that Twilight was still there with him in the room. He rubbed the back of his head apologetically as he responded. "Hehe...yeah. Sorry about that. Just thinking." Then a question hit him. "Are you the one who found me… wherever I was?" When she nodded, he continued. "Do you remember seeing anything strange around before you found me? Was there anything odd nearby? For that matter, where was I when you did?"

It was Twilight's turn to be surprised, slightly overwhelmed by the onslaught of questions for the young stallion. It didn't deter her long, however, as she recovered quickly and gave the stallion a glare that could melt ice..

"Now hold on a minute; I'm the one that should be asking you questions. Where did you come from? How did you survive that fall from the sky? What's with that giant key?"

"Giant key?"

Twilight sighed, exasperated but still nodding at his question. "The key that was lying beside you. Yellow and silver. Little circles on the end of it. Ring any bells?"

Sora's eyes went wide. His keyblade was out. Why had it been out? He couldn't summon it before back in the dream. The boy frowned as before holding out his hoof towards her, which Twilight flinched from. She would have said something, but a yelp from downstairs caused her to look toward the door in surprise. She turned to face Sora just in time to see that very same giant key that she had been looking over down in her study, appearing instantly in his mouth.

"What the!? How did you do that?! Where did it come from?! Is that magic?! That's impossible!" The poor mare stuttered as her eyes nearly bugged out of her eye sockets.

The sound of thumping on the stairs caused both Twilight and Sora to turn just in time to see Spike bursting through the open door, a frantic look in his eyes.

"Twilight! That key thing just up and disappeared!" And for good measure, he added, "Also, I wasn't touching it! I swear!" Spike's well thought-out and planned explanation stopped as his eyes took in the scene in front of him.

In reality, Sora had his hoof held out due to his belief that the giant key would appear there. This was not the case, however, as said key instead appeared in the pony boy's maw, and if he was being honest with himself, quite comfortably.

Spike-o-Vision held a different scene. What he saw was his friend/sister about to be ravaged by a malicious and strange stallion they had not too long ago taken in out the kindness of their hearts.

Needless to say, Spike-o-Vision is a great anger inducer.

"Twilight! Watch out! I got 'im!" Spike leapt forward, claws stretched out and ready to defend his sister to the bitter death.

So unprepared was the poor stallion that an easily dodged attack of this magnitude was, instead, just looked upon by the one getting attacked. With wide eyes and pinprick pupils, only one thought crossed Sora's mind.

This was going to hurt… a lot.

"I'm sooo sorry, Sora," Spike said for the tenth time tears brimming in his eyes as he begged on his knees for the young stallion to forgive him

"I said it's alright Spike. Geeze." Sora replied for the tenth time, though he couldn't help the chuckle that escaped him..

Twilight, Spike and Sora had taken up residence in the downstairs library, the former dabbing the latter with a cotton ball soaked with alcohol as she tended to the scratches the former had acquired. He had received one good scratch across his forehead before Twilight used her magic to pry the raging dragon off of the frailing stallion.

Explanations were made and apologies ensued.

Before Spike could follow through with an eleventh one however, Twilight interjected with a simple question.

"Alright, Sora, now's the time for you to are you and what is that thing?" She ended the question by pointing to the giant key sitting on the table beside them.

Sora was never one to worry about the world order before, it was something that Donald and Goofy had to remind him off constantly, Still, now that he was alone, in a world that had never seen a keyblade before, he really thought that he couldn't mess this up."I am a Keybearer, and that," He pointed to the giant key. "Is a Keyblade."

"A key… blade?" both Twilight and Spike said in unison.

"It's a weapon I use to… well… monsters, basically."

"Oh! So… Are you some kind of knight?" Spike asked.

He shrugged. "Never really thought about it.."

Twilight tilted her head as she looked the stallion up and down. "I don't think that's the case anyway Spike. He looks no older than Rainbow Dash." Her brow furrowed. "And I don't think Celestia allowed ponies into the royal guard until they were at least past 20. You have to be at least seventeen. Maybe eighteen."

Sora raised an eyebrow."Ce-les-tia?"

The lavender unicorn gasped, "You do know who Celestia is, right? The monarch of Equestria. Princess to all of ponykind. Has been so for over one thousand years."

Sora just tilted his head further in confusion at that bit of information.

Twilight's had to reframe her eye from twitching wilderly at the pony's lack of understanding of basic pony knowledge. Senseing the oncoming storm that was Lecturelight, it was Spike decided it was his job to save Sora. "So, Sora. How did you make that key thingy teleport? From what I'm told, pegasi can only use wind magic, and that's only to fly and move clouds. Teleportation is something that only unicorns can learn."

Sora turned to look at both of the wings he had recently acquired, believing that he was now a pegasus. "I'm not sure. It could be magic. Never really thought about it to tell the truth." He placed a hoof on his chest. "I guess you could say that it's part of me." He tapped at his chest "Or...It's part of my heart...I think. Wherever I call for it, it comes." the young stallion shrugged his shoulders. "I guess that's the best way I can explain it. Not the best when it comes to how things work."

Twilight processed the information carefully before picking up the conversation. "That is...weird...But I have seen magic do strange things before. Going off that topic though, do you remember anything about last night? You just fell from the sky without so much as a warning."

Sora shook his head. "Sorry but I don't know if i can help you. I remember hearing your voice but other then that, the only thing I remember about what happened before I woke up was that I was in a cave on the beach, and the next time I woke up, I was here." In truth, he wanted to tell them that he wasn't a pony either, but he needed to practice what Donald taught him.

A loud gurgling sound interrupted the conversation after that, and a caramel hoof was placed on a caramel belly.

All three were silent for a while before Sora started to chuckle, Twilight and Spike joining him as all tension was broken with the sound of a hungry pony's belly.

Twilight was the first to recover as she gave Sora a smile once again. "How about we can continue this later. You must be famished and so am I. Plus telling the other girls you are awake would be good too." She made her way to her saddlebags, levitating them onto her back along with a book and a bag of what he believed to be coins. Once ready, she turned to the baby dragon. "Spike, do you want to join us?"

"Would I ever," he smiled brightly and hopped onto Twilight's back, setting himself at the base of her neck.

With the strange pony in tow, Twilight led him out of the library, closing the door behind her with her magic.

Which was unfortunate, because just as they left, a small black tentacle could be seen reaching out toward the Keyblade. It was small and rather unnoticeable to the untrained eye. As it touched the blade's smooth surface, it instantly dissipated, destroyed effortlessly by the ancient weapon.

Sora was very apprehensive about walking… no… trotting in public with no clothes. This, to him at least was strange due to the fact that he did it all the time back in the Pride Lands with Simba. It wasn't until he saw that most of the town folk, if not all of them, were indeed naked as well. It made him feel a little better about being so too.

He still wished he had his jacket, though.

The caramel stallion could see more than a few ponies looking toward their little group, though he felt that most of the looks were directed toward him. They all bore curious but friendly smiles every time he caught their eyes, which he returned with one of his own. Ponies of every color and size filled the dirt road of Ponyville, each one seemingly as friendly as the last. He could see that quite a few of them, if not all, had a butt tattoo that was different from Twilight's and his own, and others, mostly the little ponies, didn't.

This realization led to a question.

"Hey, Twilight, what's with that mark on everyone's butt?"

Said lavender mare would almost trip over her own four hooves as the "innocent" question left the boy's lips. "W-What? Don't tell me you don't know what a Cutie Mark is?"

"Cutie Mark? That's what you call it?"

"Of course. You should know that. You have one."

Before he could respond, his answer was interrupted as the stallion's gaze would catch sight of a trio of little ponies on the other side of the road. Two of them, one being an orange-coated pegasus with a magenta mane and the other being an off-white unicorn with a two-tone purple mane, were talking animatedly with each other. It was the third, however, that had given him pause.

A sun-yellow regular pony, with a mane as red as an apple and a bright pink bow tied expertly behind her head, had been looking in his direction. Her amber eyes were wide, and, he could have sworn, sparkling. He tilted his head to the side which caused the yellow filly's cheeks to flush bright red. She quickly turned away from him, busying herself with listening to the other conversation.

"Sora? Hey, you okay?"

Sora nodded as he looked forward, finding Twilight waiting for him a bit of a ways off. "Yeah. Let's get going. Food is waiting right?" He trotted up to Twilight, following after her. He took a quick look back over his shoulder to see the gaggle of fillies once more, huddling close together.

Applebloom's heart was fluttering faster than a hummingbird in spring as she watched the stallion follow Twilight and Spike. The poor filly could not stop the blush that had hit her freckled face as her gaze never left his retreating form. And when she saw his face, she couldn't even explain the feelings that she had gotten.

No…

That's not true…

She knew exactly what it was.

"Girls…" she said, barely above a whisper, but they stopped talking all the same, giving her their full attention. "Ah… Ah think I'm in love."