Disclaimer: I do not own Kingdom Hearts, or My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic nor any character used in this story.
Note: This Fic is written, assuming the reader HAS played the Kingdom Hearts game series. (Especially I, II, Re:Coded, and Birth by Sleep.) And has watched the first season of MLP:FiM at the least.
Special Thanks: I would like to thank Siegfried432 for helping me with the editing of this chapter.
Chapter 6
Battle for Equestria
In the darkness lay the pillar platform, the cloaked figure was cackling. "Ohohohohohahahahaha! Oh, this is priceless, the look on her FACE!" The cloaked figure gasped. "Ahahahaha! I don't think I'll ever be able to forget that face!" the figure was bowled over in laughter, smacking the ground with a hand. Right behind the figure appeared Vanitas, calmly walking forwards.
"So, enjoyed the show, I presume?" Vanitas casually asked.
"Oh yes, it was absolutely GENIUS to cast a vision spell so I could see what you do. The look on Celestia's face was PREFECT!" The cloaked figure said in between chuckles. Vanitas merely shrugged not really caring, before being enveloped in black flames, changing himself back to his original human form. He walked up to the cloaked figure and looked up. Up there was an image of the current battle taking place in the Everfree between the ponies and Night Mare Moon.
"I figured it was a good idea to put the same spell on one of my Unversed, easier for them to move around then me." Vanitas said.
"Indeed, I am quite impressed with your ingenuity." The mysterious figure said before suddenly pulling out a couch from the darkness, proceeds to sit on it and pulls out a bag of popcorn from out of nowhere and starts munching down on it while watching the scene unfold like a movie. "Popcorn?" He offers to Vanitas.
"Uhhh no, thanks" Vanitas declined.
"Suit yourself." The figure replies before continuing his snacking. "Oooooh! Oooh! I'm going to like this part!" The cloaked figure points to the image: The six heroic ponies using the Elements of Harmony to stop Night Mare Moon, and their shock when they see it fail. Once again, the cloaked figure bursts out laughing.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! THE LOOK ON THEIR FACES! OH EQUESTRIA, LOOK AT THEIR FACES! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" The mysterious figure bursted out. Vanitas merely sighs in boredom.
"So when are you going to actually reveal yourself to them? I'm sure you'd get the same reaction." Vanitas questioned the figure.
"All in due time, my boy, all in due time." The figure says as he waved Vanitas off.
"Then can you at least tell me why you're wearing that? I mean the only one here is me and I already know who you are." Vanitas asks the figure.
"To keep up the suspense of course!" The figure replied.
"What?" Vantias asks confused. "What suspense?"
"Oh don't worry about it and let's just enjoy the show!" The figure says brushing off the question. Vanitas just sighs again before they go back to watching the events being unfold before them.
Celestia was in shock, the Elements of Harmony had failed something that she never thought possible. She watched in horror as her sister had once more become a monster and had turned the entire sky into night. She had no idea what to do. Somehow, her sister had gained so much power, she was able to control the sky instantaneously. Transforming the bright sky day into night, and her own sun was no where to be seen. "Princess Celestia, what do we do?" Twilight cried in panic. Her mentor looked to her scared student, she could only answer.
"I don't know Twilight Sparkle, I don't know. I fear… I fear it could all be over."
"No, it can't be it just can't." Twilight muttered eyes filled with tears. She looked to her friends all of them scared, worried at what was to come. Their one trump card had failed them, it seemed as if Equestria was doomed to eternal night.
"Not on my watch!" Riku shouted. The mares looked to the colt and his two friends. Keyblade in his mouth, his friends all had a look of determination on their faces intent on stopping Night Mare Moon. "We won't let the Darkness win!" he shouted.
"Yeah!" Donald Quacked loudly
"That's right!" Goofy agreed. Riku charged forward to Night Mare Moon intending to take her head on. Donald and Goofy followed close by.
"Riku! Donald! Goofy!" Twilight called out to her new friends.
"What is he trying to do?" Celestia muttered. Confused by Riku's actions.
"He's trying to save her, Princess." Twilight tried to explain.
She told her what had happened when they reached this clearing in the Everfree Forest. How they were attacked by Vanitas; that it was him who had changed Princess Luna into Night Mare Moon. "I- I can't believe this, then… this is my entire fault. I-if I had only listened to him this wouldn't have happened." Celestia stuttered stunned at the revelation.
"Princess, we have to help him! He's fighting for not just our sakes but for Princess Luna's, no… for all Equestria!" Twilight pleaded her mentor to help Riku after all no matter how bleak things look, there's always a way so long as you have your friends, but her teacher was too shocked to think clearly. She only stared at the floor, eyes wide, and jaw slacked.
"We're with ya Twilight." Applejack said nearby. "Well, I know I am, at least, cause what you said is right, we can't just let Riku, Donald and Goofy to face Night Mare Moon by themselves." She continued with a brave face.
"Yeah!" Besides I was the resident hero of Ponyville what kind of hero would I be if I didn't help?" Rainbow Dash agreed, slightly boastful with an arrogant look on her face and courage in her eyes.
"Of course we are darling! What kind of friends would we be if we didn't?" Rarity stated smiling as if to show everything will be alright.
"Yeah! Besides I still need to throw Riku, Donald and Goofy a welcoming party!" Pinkie Pie said with a confident look on her face.
"We're definitely with you, Twilight." Fluttershy squeeked.
"Wow, even shy meek scared Fluttershy is thinking about fighting…" Twilight thought.
"Rrrrrraaaaaaaaahhhh!" Riku cried as he leaped intending to club Night Mare on the head, possibly hoping it would knock her out. Night Mare chuckled before blasting a dark bolt of magic at Riku, hitting him in the chest. He screamed in pain as he was sent flying back.
"Riku!" Both Goofy and Donald shouted.
"No! Riku!" Twilight cried as she ran to the key bearing colt's side, hoping he wasn't too hurt.
"Come on girls! We got to help! Rarity, Fluttershy, see if you can bring Princess Celestia to safety!" Applejack commanded.
"Right!" the unicorn and Pegasus said at the same time before helping the royal pony out from the field of battle. Upon getting closer, Twilight saw him get up and a wave of relief swept over her. Riku coughed, feeling his chest being burned and aching.
"Riku are you alright?" Twilight asked the colt.
"Yeah… nothing a Cure spell won't fix." The colt answered, he lifted his Keyblade upward as several green glowing leaves appeared above him. As the leaves fell, they became sparkles that caused Riku to glow, his previous burns from before disappeared.
Twilight was in amazement, she had never seen magic used to physically heal a pony before, magic could do a lot of things in Equestria, such as mending broken objects and what not by breaking down and restructuring on the molecular level, but there was never a spell that could actually cause wounds on a pony to disappear like what Riku just did.
"Riku… How did you… That's not… THAT'S AMAZING!" Twilight practically shouted.
"It's just a healing spell, don't you guys have those?" Riku asked.
"No! No pony in all of Equestria not even the Princess has power like that!" Twilight cried in amazement.
"Well, how about we talk about this later, we have a bigger problem to deal with right now." Riku reminded.
"Oh… right!" Twilight agreed.
"Twilight! We came to help!" Applejack yelled to her friend, followed by Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie. "I asked Rarity and Fluttershy to take Princess Celestia somewhere safe, so what's the plan?"
"I'm not sure… I was going to see if I could find a weak point on her." Riku answered, he looked over to where Goofy and Donald were. They were doing their best to keep Night Mare Moon busy.
They were certainly doing a good job, Donald was keeping Night Mare on her hooves, Donald kept up with blasts of Fire and Blizzard spells, while Goofy was making sure to defend Donald from Night Mare Moon's Magical Spell Bolts with his shield.
"Riku! We need help!" Donald squawked "I'm running out of energy!"
"Yeah and I'm getting tired!" Goofy cried.
"Come on, we've got to help them!" Twilight cried.
"Yeah! Don't worry, guys, we're coming!" Riku yelled to his two friends.
As Riku's group charged forward to help Goofy and Donald, Fluttershy, Rarity and Princess Celestia were at the edge of the clearing surrounded by trees, so that no pony should be able to see them during the battle. However, it was not the same for them. Rarity was the first to notice the fight about to start again.
"They're about to charge right at Night Mare Moon! Have they gone crazy?" Rarity cried in confusion.
"I-I-I think they have a plan… that is I hope they do." Fluttershy said.
"I'm going to go help them. Fluttershy, please be a dear and look after Princess Celestia." Rarity asked Fluttershy. "She needs help, but I think the girls and the boys need it a lot more right now."
Fluttershy nodded, understanding that the group will need as many helping hooves as possible to stop Night Mare Moon, but some pony needs to look after the Princess in her current state of shock. As Rarity ran off, Fluttershy looked after her friend from the bushes worried for their safety.
"Good luck, everyone…" Fluttershy whispered.
Donald was waddling for cover when he realized he was out of energy, which was unfortunate for Goofy because, he was just sent flying by a bolt of magic from Night Mare Moon.
"YAAAAAAHOOHOOHOOHOOEY!" he cried, right before he smashed right into a tree.
"Goofy!" Donald quacked loudly. The duck waddled to his friend to give him one of the potions he had. "You okay, Goofy?" He asked.
"Gwarsh, Donald, I don't… I don't think we can last much longer." He answered.
"Donald! Goofy!" Riku cried as he reached his friends.
"Riku!" The two said simultaneously.
"You two get out of here, you guys have done enough. We'll handle this." The boy-turned-equine told his friends. The four mares that followed him had Night Mare Moon surrounded in a square formation; Riku slowly approached Night Mare Moon.
"So thou believes thy keyblade will stop us?" Night Mare Moon asked haughtily, Riku glared at her.
"I don't know if it can stop you. But I do know that WE will." Riku proclaimed as he looked to his new friends.
"That includes me, I hope!" Rarity stated as she ran up to the group.
"Glad to see you here, Rarity, where's Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.
"She's with the Princess, I figured some pony should be keeping an eye on the poor dear after that horrible shock she's received, and you know Fluttershy." She said with a smile.
"Uhh girls, can we focus here?" Riku said muffled by his keyblade's handle in his mouth.
"Sorry." The two said.
"Ahahahaha, thou wish to challenge us? We shall show thee the true extent of our power!" Night Mare Moon shouted, before her horn once again glowed.
"Everyone, don't let your guard down!" Riku shouted, before dodging a bolt of magic by ducking his head. He charged and leapt with his keyblade extended, hoping to land a blow before she casted another bolt. Sadly, he missed as she swerved away.
"Come now, Riku we expected a much better performance from thee considering how easily thou dispatched those Heartless before."Night Mare mocked,
"Just stay still." Twilight muttered silently to herself, as she prepared another fire spell in her horn. She amassed enough magical energy to create one but found it hard to aim as Night mare Moon was dodging and swerving to avoid Applejack and Rainbow Dash as one was trying to tackle her down and the other was trying to buck her upwards. Rarity, although unsure what Twilight was planning to do with her magic, noticed that Twilight was amassing magic to use on Night Mare Moon but is unable to target her effectively, so she decided to give her fellow unicorn a helping hoof. She leaped towards Night Mare right after she had dodged one of Applejack's kicks by flying into the air. The Royal pony didn't get far before getting tackled, by Rarity from behind. She quickly bounded off of her and turned her head to Twilight and yelled. "NOW TWILIGHT!"
Upon hearing her friend's signal she fired off her fire spell, but instead of the single fireball, Twilight had been amassing a lot of magical energy into her horn, she was able to separate the amount of power used in the spell, like ammunition.
Twilight fired three fireballs in rapid succession, all of them hitting Night Mare Moon dead on each shot caused a minor explosion.
"Yeah! Go Twilight! Whoo!" Pinkie Pie cheered, before she started pumping something into a small cannon. After about 5 seconds, she whirled the cannon to face the cloud of smoke from where Night Mare Moon was and yelled. "EVERYPONY HIT THE DECK!" She then pulled a string with her mouth and the cannon blasted creating a loud surprise party noise. However, from the smoke, Night Mare Moon had taken to the air, whatever was shot out of Pinkie's cannon went through the cloud of smoke only to hit… "Oops… sorry Twilight!" Pinkie yelled. The pony in question was covered what appeared to be dough with an annoyed look on her face. "It's okay, Pinkie, just make sure your target won't move first." She says as she looks to Pinkie's direction.
In the air, where Night Mare Moon had taken off to, she looked down to see Twilight's situation and began to blast her down with magic bolts. Riku saw what was happening and hurried to Twilight's side, and began parrying the bolts. As the rain of bolts continued, Rainbow Dash decided now was a great time to give her a headbutt from above. Diving down, she tried to speed up to hit Sonic Rainboom speed. Unfortunately, Night Mare noticed her from the corner of her eye, and morphed herself into a form of mist. When Rainbow Dash saw what she did she tried to stop, but it was too late, and she ended up crashing into Riku, making both were very disoriented from the crash.
"Ahahahaha! Thou name should be changed to Rainbow Crash indeed." Night Mare Moon mocked the poor Pegasus.
"Ugh, I hate that joke on my name." Rainbow fumed silently, still feeling disoriented from the crash her eyes were still spinning.
"Don't worry, sugarcube, I got your flank." Applejack said as she ran and leaped onto Night Mare Moon.
"Wh-What the? Get off of us!" Night Mare Moon cried in anger as she flew around trying to buck her off.
"Whoooooaaaaa! Yaahoo!" Applejack cried as she did her best to keep herself on top of the villainess mare. "Ya ain't getting rid of me that easy, Night Mare Moon!" Applejack said.
"Keep that up Applejack, I'm loading up a new batch right now!" Pinkie Pie yelled to her fellow Earth Pony, a few more moments after "There! Okay, Night Mare Moon! Say hello to my little dough!" She said as she moved the cannon to face Night Mare Moon. Then once again fired it off, with a large piece of dough flying through the air, yet Night Mare saw the dough flying at her and ducked her head, placing Applejack right in the line of fire.
"What in tarn-" Applejack started before she was smacked right off of Night Mare Moon's back and onto a tree, stuck on there because of the dough. "Well, this is awkward." Applejack said with a look of mild surprise, while dangling off the tree.
As the battle raged on, Fluttershy was watching, scared for the safety of her friends. "Oh no, the girls need help! What am I supposed to do?" Fluttershy whispered to herself. She saw Donald and Goofy jumping back into the fray helping the girls and Riku. "We need more help, but who could… Princess Celestia!" She thought. The pony in question was silently staring at the ground, still in her pitiful state of disbelief. She just couldn't believe that she herself had once again caused her dear younger sibling to become once again a monster. Yes, it was not because of her directly but, nonetheless, her decision had caused this to happen. She should have listened to Riku, but her fear of the Darkness of the symbol of the Heartless had clouded her judgment. Now all of Equestria will suffer an endless night. Ponies won't be able to grow food, the land will grow cold and dark, no longer will ponies be able to see and enjoy the bright beautiful days. "What should I do now? The Elements were our only hope. What could-"
"Princess Celestia!" Fluttershy cried loudly. The royal pony was finally broken out from her thought, and looked to Fluttershy. The smaller sized, equine looked to her with large sad eyes.
"Princess, I'm sorry about interrupting your thoughts, but it's horrible! Everyone's getting really hurt, they need your help." Fluttershy said. Celestia had looked to the battle that was being waged it was obviously bad. No matter how hard Riku tried, he couldn't land a single blow on her sister, Twilight and Applejack were stuck in dough, while Pinkie Pie and Rarity tried to get them out. Rainbow Dash, Donald, and Goofy were keeping Night Mare busy with Riku, but it was obvious her power was too much. She kept sending everything they had right back at them.
"You're right, Fluttershy, they need help." Princess Celestia agreed. "But I don't believe I have the power to." She said sadly.
"B-But, Princess Celestia, you're the most powerful pony in all of Equestria! You can surely do something!" Fluttershy encouraged.
"I'm afraid not, Fluttershy, my own magic cannot even compare to the Elements of Harmony, and Night Mare Moon easily brushed it off. I'm afraid there is nothing I can do to help them." Celestia regretfully told the little pony.
Fluttershy looked to her ruler with large disappointed eyes, surprised that of all the ponies she had known, she had never thought she would hear Celestia herself giving up like this. She looked downtrodden tears forming on her emerald eyes. "I'm sorry, Fluttershy, but I'm afraid there is nothing we can do. At best, we should retreat from Night Mare Moon and get back to Ponyville to warn the other ponies of-"
"I'm not going to do that Princess." Fluttershy interrupted.
"Wha… Fluttershy, do you not understand how serious this is?" Celestia asked shocked at the timid Pegasus for her interruption.
"I do, and I know that if we run away, it won't change anything. I'm going to help them, Princess, because it's the right thing to do. We probably won't win, but we can still do our best to try." Fluttershy said, tears running down her face. "I learned a lot when Twilight came here, and decided to live in Ponyville. We all learned that friendship is a wonderful thing and that as long as we're together, we can do anything. I still believe in that now. After all, we're all together right now, and it's never let us down yet." Fluttershy continued looking so much more determined then before. "Although, I'm scared, very, very scared of what's happening I'm going to go Princess, I hope you understand." When Fluttershy finished, she started running to her friends taking flight and joining the battle.
Celestia however, was shocked. Not because of Fluttershy's outburst, but by the revelation she had received from her. Because she was right, everything she said was right. In fact, that was what she had tried to teach Twilight when she sent her here to Ponyville. The little unicorn mare was so entranced by her books, she had not bothered to make even a single friend even in Canterlot, yet the magic of friendship was a wonderful and mysterious thing, even she, Princess Celestia, was unable to fully understand its' power. She had decided with the return of Night Mare Moon, her student could not only learn and benefit from the experience, but also save her sister as well. How funny it took a timid little Pegasus to remind her of that in times of need.
"How I could stand back now, when such a frightened little pony found the courage to face such immeasurable odds." She thought. Before she spread her wings, and flew, after that little brave pony.
Riku gritted his teeth as he clashed with Night Mare Moon's magic with his keyblade once more. He was getting tired. He can't keep up with protecting Twilight and Appejack from Night Mare's bolts at same time. It was too much yet he's the only one with the ability to deflect those blasts. Rainbow Dash, Goofy, and Donald were trying to hold her down and land some blows on her, but it wasn't going very well. Considering how she also kept dodging and weaving between them, causing their own attacks to hit each other, it looked hopeless; They weren't going to win if this kept up. Night Mare Moon, however, could see Riku is tired, she herself was abounding with energy, mostly from the dark power that filled her right now. Now was the perfect time to show them her true power.
Night Mare fired several more bolts. Riku once again defended, but just as he deflecting the first shot, she fired off another bolt in the same exact aim as the last one she fired. Riku deflected the remaining bolts after the first one, until one zoomed past him, heading straight for Twilight.
"No!" Riku cried. One got past him! Twilight saw and flinch, waiting for the bolt to strike her, the burning pain straight in her face… it never came. She opened one of her eyes to see… her mentor, Princess Celestia, standing majestically by her side, her horn was glowing creating a shield of light in front of her.
"Princess!" Twilight cried out in joy, the Princess smiled to her student, before her face changed to a grim one as she faced her sister.
"Night Mare Moon." She started. "You cease this foolishness at once!" She commanded.
"Never! We shall not be denied again!" Night Mare Moon yelled. She charged at her sister, her horn fired off bolts. Princess Celestia had readied her own horn and charged as well firing blasts of her own. Riku moved out of the way upon seeing the two ponies charging at each other. As the two continued, their blasting charged, they rammed their horns at each other. Then, as though they were in a stalemate, they created a blade of aura on their horns the magical energy clashed each other. Nopony could get close to them. As the stalemate continued, Celestia noticed something in her dear sister's eyes, a look of helplessness in them, she could see it… her sister wasn't in control of her actions at all. She could see her pleading to her… to help her… to stop her… to save her from this nightmare.
"Sister, please stop this. I know you've changed we can help you!" Celestia pleaded once more.
"Silence! We shall listen to you no longer!" Night Mare Moon cried. Her horn had suddenly glowed brighter before unleashing an incredibly large amount of magic. Surprised, Celestia could only surround herself, Twilight, and Applejack with a magical barrier.
The energy from Night Mare Moon's magic exploded into rays, bursting from her horn. The rays blasted everything, including the ponies. Celestia's own barrier had been broken, taking the full brunt of the blast, she just couldn't hold onto it any longer, but, luckily, it took enough of the blow off for the barriers on Twilight and Applejack to protect them from the blast. Though their barriers did break, the dough from Pinkie Pie's party cannon was able to take out most of the force of the rays enough to leave them unharmed. Also, it cleaned Twilight of the dough as well. Unfortunately, everyone else wasn't so lucky. They were all blasted, Princess Celestia especially being at the front of the line, though her barrier protected her. She still had some pretty nasty burns on her.
Riku struggled to get up after being hit by that attack. He was completely exhausted. He didn't know if he had the strength to stand. He fell to his knees after struggling to get up. After Donald had just casted a Cure spell on Goofy and himself, they started heading towards him.
"Don't worry, Riku! I got ya." Donald quacked worriedly. "Heal!" He quacked loudly as the familiar green leaves fell onto Riku.
"Sorry, I only had enough for just that." Donald quacked disappointed.
"Gwarsh, we do we do? I don't think my shield could handle something like that again." Goofy said worried.
"And I'm out of mana." Donald quacked.
"I'm about run dry myself…" Riku said. He pondered what would be the best course of action right now? How could they win? They just didn't have the power right now to stop Night Mare Moon. "Wait a minute…" Riku thought. "We might not be able to stop her… but we know someone who can!" "Donald! Goofy! Listen to me carefully. You have to get to the Gummi ship and find Master Yen Sid." Riku told them.
"What?" they shouted in confusion.
"Listen, we can't beat her like this, we need more help, I still have enough strength to distract her. You can make it to the Gummi ship with that much time." Riku continued.
"B-b-bu-but what about you Riku? We can't just leave you and the ponies with her! You guys won't stand a chance!" Donald quacked frantically.
"Y-yeah! W-We can't just leave you! That's not what we do!" Goofy argued.
"Yeah! We're staying with you guys!" Donald agreed.
"We don't have a choice, we need to stop her, and we can't do it like this. Besides I know you guys can make it." Riku said grinned showing his confidence in them. Both Donald and Goofy looked to each other then back to Riku, then to the ground sorrowfully.
"Don't do anything crazy okay?" Donald quacked.
"Yeah! Or we won't ever forgive you!" Goody added.
"Yeah I gotcha." Riku nodded. The two anthromorphs gave him one last hug. Before running off to the forest.
Riku watched them for but just a moment. Before focusing his attention back to Night Mare Moon. "So hast thou finally given up and accepted thy fate to the Endless Night?" She mocked condescendingly. She jeered at them all. But Riku with a defiant look on his face started walking towards her. Summoning his keyblade again, he spoke as he walked.
"I'm not going to give up, Night Mare Moon. So long as I can fight, I'll never give up. For my friends, I can't give up. For this world, giving up is not an option for me. I'll definitely save you… I'll protect this world… then I'll go look for Sora's heart fragments, so I can save him as well." He told her calmly. "I have friends I need to rescue, so I can't let you stop me!" He shouted as he ran charging at her keyblade in his mouth.
"Riku!" Twilight shouted as she was trying help Applejack down from the tree. She tried to hurry as fast as she could.
"Gosh dangit! Twilight, forget about me! You gotta help Riku. He's gone plum crazy, charging at Night Mare Moon all alone! I can get myself down, just go!" Applejack assured her friend. Twilight looked to her friend before nodding, understanding. She had to help Riku. She turned and ran forward to Riku, but it was too late. As Riku charged forward, Night Mare Moon merely laughed before unleashing an incredibly large spell. She had summoned a large dark purple sphere above her horn before launching it down onto Riku.
Riku tried to dodge, but it was no use… as the sphere hit the ground, it created a large magnetic pull on the silver colt. "No… a Graviga spell?" He cried.
"Ahahahahahaha! I'll crush you key bearer, crushed like an insect!" Night Mare screamed half laughing.
"Tch, c-can't hold on… Waaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Riku cried before he was sucked into the sphere.
"Riku! Noooooo!" Twilight shouted. Up in the night sky, one could see a bright flash of a Gummi shaped ship flying into space.