Hello, fellow readers! And welcome back to Shining Rainbows! Last time, Sora had a rather vivid dream of this brand new world that is different from the ones he has previously visited alongside a strangely familiar face. Now, we slow down and explore!
Now, what do we have:
johannvanguard: Hey, dude! Always good to see ya. Glad you liked what you read as I have more to come.
foxchick1: Great, cause here's more!
With that said, let's get started!
Chapter 1: Scattered, yet Connected
Looking back at the school before him, Sora simply took the first step and walks to the entrance. Climbing up the steps, he then pulls on one of the doors to find it locked.
"Huh. Guess it's the weekend?" He assumes before feeling a heat wave past by him, "Or the summer."
With that option being a bust, he turns around and goes down the steps to go somewhere else. Reaching the sidewalk, his excitement for exploration was starting up as he finds himself running off in a random direction. Entering into a more populated area, he notices the biggest thing with the people. They were rather colorful, literally.
Colors that can be found in a crayon, marker, and even paint can be seen on them as their hair, eyes, and even skin color. Other than that, they went about their daily lives like normal.
"That's pretty cool." Sora nonchalantly comments on it before hearing a rumble from his stomach, telling him about his hunger.
Looking around, he then sees a frozen yogurt shop nearby and feels his sweet tooth inching for a bite as he goes inside. Entering it, he can see the various flavors they had on display. His eyes then widen at a certain one.
"No way! They have it!?" He dashes over to where it was and stares at it through the display window in an instant, reading the label that said 'Sea Salt'.
"It's our newest flavor." The cashier mentions to him, getting his attention.
Taking another look at the label, he does see the word new on it as well. Going over to the counter, he then places his order and sees the price to pay. Casually going into his money pouch, his hand was met with terrible news.
"Wait, I could have swore..." He mutters to himself as his hand dances inside the pouch.
It may be possible that he spent the rest of his munny on potions and ethers he needed, but he thought he had at least a little bit left over. Double checking all his pockets, it turns out to be what he feared. A nervous smile was enough to tell the cashier the truth, only for another voice to speak up.
"I can pay for it."
Sora turns his head over to who the voice belongs to, seeing a girl with a curious look in her azure eyes.
"A-Are you sure?" He asks, mainly to see if she actually wanted to.
"Of course. You can add mine to his." The girl answers, telling the cashier to do just that.
After she paid, the two got their cups and went to the machines as Sora converses with his unexpected friend.
"Thanks for that. I honestly thought I had some money left."
"It's quite all right. I can tell you're not from around here." Her observation was dead on, which surprises him. "Really? You can tell just by looking?"
"Your attire says it all, darling." She gestures to his clothing as she answers before turning to the machines to get her flavors.
Sora then does the same and fills his cup up with the flavor of his choice. Once she has the flavors and toppings along with it in her own cup, the two took a seat at a nearby table to eat.
"If you can tell all that from a glance, then that means you're into fashion?" He deduces, which she confirms. "Correct. In order to find the best fabrics for your customers, you must know what each one wears best."
"Makes sense." Sora simply said as he takes a bite of his frozen yogurt, the familiar flavor hitting his taste buds that he savors before eating some more.
The girl was taking smaller bites in comparison when she realizes something, "Oh, how rude of me. Name's Rarity."
He heard her name and returns the greeting, "Nice to meet you, I'm Sora."
Going back to his frozen yogurt, he failed to notice the look of confusion on her face as she said his name in her head.
"Sora... where have I heard that name before?"
In the forest behind Sweet Apple Acres, Yozora walks out of it as he now finds himself at a farm. Having wandered the woods for awhile, it's nice to see some civilization as he goes to see if anyone's home. That answer came pretty quickly as he hears someone calling out.
"Come on, y'all! I'm not getting any younger!"
Walking around to the other side of the barn, he sees a truck in the driveway getting packed up with crates of apples and apple-related products. A big older woman was at the doors as three younger people that's likely her family is packing up the products.
"Hang on, Granny! We're almost done!" The one with the red bandanna on her head said back.
He sees the youngest one was putting two crates in the back of the truck as the older brother and sister was carrying double the amount each in their arms. Walking on over as they do this, he sees one of them hit the edge of the opened truck door and stumble back a bit as the crates were now shaking. Moving in quickly, Yozora dashes in and helps steady their load in an instant.
"I'll help." He simply said.
"O-Oh, thanks." The older sister said back, surprised at his sudden appearance.
Once the four finish packing up the truck, the brother closes the door and gets in the driver's seat as the granny thanks him. "Much appreciated, son! You new around here?"
"Yes, ma'am. I just arrived." He answers honestly.
"Well, you made a good first impression!" The bandanna girl sends a compliment his way before asking the obvious, "What's your name?"
"Yozora." He answers back, being right to the point.
The granny then goes ahead as she goes to the passenger seat, "Well then Yozora, Applejack can tell you what we do around here. I need to go do some business, see y'all later!"
Once she gets in and closes the door, the truck drives off as Applejack speaks up again. "I'm Applejack, and this is my little sister Apple Bloom."
"Hiya." Her little sister said as her greeting, which Yozora does a small wave back in response.
"Mind helping us out with a couple of chores while you're here?" Applejack offers, which he accepts. "Sure thing."
Sora puts his arms behind the back of his head casually as he and Rarity walk down the sidewalk, who was currently asking about his attire.
"Do you mind telling me who did the clothing? Not to be so forward, but I sense that there's more to it than meets the eye." She wasn't wrong about that.
This is something that Sora was hesitant about telling her. These clothes are special in that magic was involved in its creation, thanks to the three good fairies that made them. But if what has happened before is true, then magic already exists in this world in some way. Realizing that he was quiet for longer than intended, he hastily answers with what he was thinking.
"Y-Yeah, they are magical."
He hopes she didn't think he was being sarcastic, but the results were anything but.
"Wait, is it possible to have magic made into clothes without transformations?" She said out loud, mainly to herself it seems.
That definitely caught his attention as he puts his arms down, "Wait, do you know about magic?"
She realizes what she said, shifting her eyes left and right for a moment before looking at him. "Do you?"
Sora doesn't like beating around the bush, so he decides to be more direct. "Can I be honest with you, Rarity?"
She was a bit put off by his sudden seriousness, but goes along with it. "Sure you can."
He collects his thoughts for a moment before speaking, "I had a vision of being brought to your world in order to help out someone named Sunset save a friend of hers named Twilight. Do you know who they are?"
Rarity took a second to process what he told her before her eyes widened, "Wait... are you that 'Sora' she kept mentioning to us?"
That was all that he needed to hear, but now he had more questions pop up in his head before pushing them in the back as he spoke. "Then it wasn't a dream! Please, may I meet them? I think they may have the answers I need."
"On one condition." Rarity holds out a finger towards him right before she asks a question, "Does the name 'Yozora' sound familiar to you?"
Sora just remembered that Yozora was there too! He helped them defeat Midnight, after all. "Yeah! He's a new friend of mine."
She immediately puts her hand down after hearing that, "Then lucky for you, I happen to know just where Sunset is today."
It didn't take very long for the chores to be finished as Yozora proves to be quite handy. First one was simply doing the dishes that was just too easy:
"What made you want to come to Canterlot?" Apple Bloom wonders as she hands him a clean plate.
"I was just passing by." He casually answers as he places the plate neatly on the rack.
Applejack was doing the washing as her sister was doing the questions in order to learn more about Yozora, who didn't mind them.
"Do you usually travel on foot?"
"I mostly have to, but I wouldn't mind a ride every now and then."
The next chore was dusting and cleaning the barn, which Yozora shows off his athletic ability by climbing into the hard-to-reach places while Applejack and Apple Bloom did the washing and mopping.
"You must have really liked gym!" The latter comments on his athleticism.
"I passed it, if that's what you mean." He casually responds back as he dusts the top corners of the ceiling.
"You don't look like the kind of guy who goes to school." Applejack points out.
"I finished it." He nonchalantly said before dropping back down to the floor below.
Finally, there was the apple picking, which was no problem for anyone really. The sisters use the ladders they had while Yozora just climbs the tree.
"How long have you two lived here?" He decides to ask them a question this time.
"Ever since we were born." Applejack answers, "Our family help discovered Canterlot back in the day."
"I doubt you never traveled yourselves then?" He wonders out loud.
"Of course we have, though it's usually for family get togethers and stuff." Apple Bloom admits.
Yozora carefully places a bunch of apples in a basket near the trunk, finishing up his tree as the other two does the same.
"Your help was much appreciated." Applejack said after the three went to put their baskets away, walking back outside as she said that.
"No problem." Yozora simply said in response.
"Good thing too, I made plans with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo today." Apple Bloom mentions.
"I got plans too, admittedly. But if ya want, you can come along." Applejack said that towards him, "I'm sure my friends won't mind the extra company."
Yozora thinks about her offer for a bit. Recalling the fight he participated in beforehand, he knows that this place has something special and those two girls may be the key. There was also that rainbow girl that he spoke to and those streams of energy that came from-
At this point, he just shrugs and makes his decision. "I have nothing else to do."
Meanwhile at her home, Sunset has finished up drawing another sketch of hers that shows a particular key designed similar to a sword before pinning it on a board. Where it was pinned has it placed between more sketches involving a spiky-haired teenage boy and symbols of the basic elements like fire and water with a question mark in the middle.
These thoughts have bothering her since the Friendship Games about three months ago, but was able to keep her mind off them until summer started. With school out now, she couldn't help but linger on those two boys that she met. It eventually got to the point where she was having... Dreams? Visions? It was hard to tell the difference now.
A knock at her door didn't even make her flinch upon hearing it, which the door opens easily afterwards as she heard one of her friends speak.
"Sunset? You left your door unlocked again. You know that's dangerous."
"Hmm..." She does a small grunt in response, being too focused on her little project at the moment.
"Told you. She's been doing this for a couple of days now."
She overheard her talking to someone else, but what she said didn't make sense. She's pretty sure that the others already know about this.
"I'll never understand science..."
OK, that wasn't what she expected. Guess she found a new friend or someone more? She paid no mind to this as she looks over her notes again. The door closes all the way before she heard footsteps coming closer until stopping.
"Sunset, I may have a solution to help with your research."
"Really? What's that?" She wonders out loud.
"I met someone that... well, I'll let him speak for himself."
She wasn't sure where her friend was going with this, but lend her ears at least to-
"It's great seeing you again, Sunset."
That line stopped her entirely as his voice sounded familiar, dropping her pencil on the desk before giving her full attention to the newcomer. Upon seeing him, she honestly had trouble processing who she was looking at. A friendly smile on his face with his spiky brown hair that matches his strange stylish attire that screams 'traveler', this boy couldn't be-
"I'm not sure how long it's been, though. All I remember is after the fight, I woke up at your school." He admits, "And I met her when I was getting something to eat."
"It's odd, but quite the coincidence don't you think?" Rarity sums it up pretty well.
Sunset finally reacts after just looking at him, poking him in the chest to see if he was actually real as her look of bewilderment immediately changes to excitement.
"Oh my gosh, you're real!"
"As real as I can be." Sora casually said in response.
"I have so many questions!" She continues as she walks around him, "Like, how is your hair standing up like that? Who does your attire? Why were you fighting with a giant key?"
He rubs the back of his head with a nervous chuckle, "I will try to answer them the best I can."
And done! This is simply just to follow up on what happened previously.
This took me a bit longer to complete since I was thinking about what I wanted to do in terms of continuity.
Other than that, it's just Sora and Yozora arriving at the world proper along with meeting the other Rainbooms.
With that said, thanks for reading and see ya next chapter!