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 11
An Apple a Day Keeps the Heartless Away
"Huff, huff, huff, huff, pant, gasp" Pinkie Pie was gasping for air as she was running. She had a rather frantic look in her eyes, something that nopony has ever really seen her with, unless it was something like she was late to a party. She looked like she was running from the hellhounds that were released from Tartarus. She kept running, faster and faster, heart pumping with blazing speed that would have made Rainbow Dash impressed. She was nearing Twilight's library home when, suddenly, she jumped, busting through the door, luckily not breaking it. As she did, she rolled onto the ground, only to pop back up standing on her hind legs with her front ones outstretched. "I'm back, everypony! Let's PARTY!" She cried with a big smile. Only for Twilight, Applejack, Riku, Spike, even Owlowiscious to be just staring at her. Of course, tears were streaming down Applejack's face while Twilight's looked like they were starting to water and Riku had a look of surprise on his.
"Jeez, everypony, if I know how much you guys were gonna miss me, I'd have leave more often." She said smiling at her own little joke.
"Pinkie Pie! Thank goodness you're back!" Twilight said as she rushed to hug her friend.
"Awwww, I missed you too, Twilight!" Pinkie said while returning the hug then she looked to Applejack and gasped loudly. "Applejack, why are you crying?! Did you miss so much you started to cry?! I'm so sorry for making you miss me so much!" She said right after zooming to her side.
"It's not that, Pinkie Pie." Riku tried to explain.
"Something terrible happened while you were gone, Pinkie… it's horrible!" Twilight told her.
"What happened?" She asked. "Oh! Did Dashie busted her wing again?" She asked.
"No it wasn't that." Twilight answered.
"Oh! Did you get a visit from your future self?" Pinkie asked.
"What? No, Pinkie, list-" Twilight started before being interrupted by Pinkie again.
"Oh! Oh! Did it have something to do with the Flim Flam brothers and the fact that everypony in Ponyville is sick?" She asked.
"No! I mean Yes! Wait, how did you know that?" Twilight asked her pink friend.
"Because they're right outside causing a ruckus." Pinkie said while pointing to a window that shows the Flim Flam brothers on their strange new machine trying to rally the other ponies for something.
"Wha-What in tarnation is going on out there!?" Applejack cried, after wiping away her tears upon hearing that those dastardly brothers are outside. The three ponies and dragon rushed out the door.
As they neared the brothers, they began to hear what they were yelling about. "Rally up, my fellow ponies, as you can see, the town is in a mess! This is all because the Apple family was too careless in quality control. Ain't that right, brother?" Flim said loudly as he asked his brother.
"Right you are, brother dear, I believe that the rest of the ponies that didn't get apple poisoning should take a stand. After all, what pony wants to have such terrible quality in service?" Flam said, continuing after agreeing with his brother.
"You ponies deserve better after feeding you all with such terrible sweets, I say demand your money back and boot them off the apple business!" Flim continued on. Several ponies were mumbling, most of them agreeing with idea.
"Now, hold just a minute!" Twilight said after walking up to the brothers. "That's not fair! Applejack and her family have been working their Apple Orchard farm for generations! I mean, yeah, yesterday was strange but it wasn't intentional!" Twilight tried to reason.
"Of course it wasn't intentional!" Applejack agreed, "We were sure all the apples that were picked were of great quality! Right Riku? When you were picking apples with Big Mac, you guys checked the apples for Granny Smith right?"
"Yeah, Big Mac told me to look for apples that didn't have any bruises and that they were red and ripe and separate the green ones from the red ones." Riku answered.
"So! That means you were the reason why these ponies got sick then!" Flam blamed pointing at Riku.
"What?!" Riku, Twilight, and Applejack cried.
"Tsk ,tsk, tsk" Flam scolded as he waved his hoof like waving a finger in disapproval. "Isn't it obvious? Asking an amateur to tell the difference from a ripe apple from a bad one? I hardly think that the boy even knows what an unripe one looks like, much less then a bad one."
"With such shoddy employees, it's no wonder why the treats would have caused such an epidemic of bad apple poisoning." Flim continued for his brother.
"Now hold your horses there!" Applejack interrupted. "My big brother would have taught Riku which apples would've been bad and which would have been good to go. Right, Riku?"
Riku nodded to affirm. "Big Mac told me what the bad apples and ripe apples were like and how to spot them. I made sure to get rid of the rotten ones." Riku explained.
"There you see?" Applejack said triumphantly.
"So then we have your brother to take responsibility for this?" Flam said smug.
"What? No! He didn't do anything wrong! Just what are you trying to imply here?" Applejack said angrily at hearing such an accusation against a member of her family.
"Well, who else could it be?' Flim answered back.
"What do you mean by that?" Twilight asked weary of the two.
"Well, if a member of your family was the person in charge of teaching this amateur of being able to tell which apple is ripe and which is starting to go bad, he must not have done a good job if this is the result." Flam explained as he stretches his hooves apart from each other as if indicating the whole town exemplifying its current state. As the ponies argued, Pinkie and Spike were merely looking back and forth from the speaking pony.
"Bu-but-" Applejack started
"I think we heard enough, ponies monopolizing a certain business market is one thing but just bringing bad service because they think they can get away with it is another." Flam said in a disappointed look on his face.
"Wouldn't every pony agree?" Flim egged on the crowd.
"Yeah! The whole town is sick and it's all cause of the Apple's family's treats!" One pony said amongst the crowd.
"We should boycott their apples!" Another shouted.
"We demand a refund!" yelled another. The eyes of Applejack, Riku, Spike, and Twilight were in horror as the whole town of Ponyville was turning against the Apple family. The crowd's shouting turning into a mantra of "Rotten apples got to go!" as the crowd shouted, and Flim and Flam were just smiling smugly victory assured of running the apple family out of town.
"HOLD IIIIIIIT!" Some pony shouted. Everypony's eyes had turned to…
"Pinkie Pie?" Twilight said curiously wondering what her friend was going to say.
"I'm not exactly sure what the hay is going on, but from what it sounds like… Applejack's family had their annual Apple Sweet Sale and pretty much most of ponyville had gotten sick from the treats, except for a few and the brothers here are trying to make every pony pretty much boycott all of their apple products while demanding a refund of their sweets. Right?" Pinkie essentially said explaining the situation.
"Yes, that's right." Flam answered.
"Oh, Okay, I was just making sure." She said smiling widely. "But what I don't get is why the apples would be bad, they never had them bad before when Applejack's family had their Apple Sweets Sale. Why would they suddenly change?" She said while having her hoof to her chin.
"Good question and point, Pinkie Pie. Eheheheh" Applejack said with a nervous smile.
"Well isn't it obvious? They obviously don't care about their customers anymore." Flim answered.
"Now that's not true!" Applejack protested.
"If not, then why is everypony sick from YOUR treats? I mean, sure, we have the lucky few that didn't get sick but still such a huge majority." Flam argued.
"Wait, if these ponies aren't sick, then how come you guys are complaining and asking for a refund?" Pinkie asked.
"Because there was a high chance they would have!" Flim explained.
"But they didn't right?" Pinkie explained.
"Soooo why are you guys angry about getting perfectly good treats?" Pinkie asked.
"Well that's true… but our friends had those same treats and they got sick!" A pony in the crowd shouted.
"We're still gonna boycott your products because of how terrible your services are!" Another yelled.
"Wait! hold on everypony! Please at least listen to what Applejack has to say." Twilight pleaded with the mob. She turned to Applejack and gave her a nod signaling it was her stage now.
Applejack took a few steps forward took off her hat and cleared her throat. "Now, everypony, Ah know this looks real bad, but, please, believe me. My family has never let the quality on our apples down before, This is the first time this has ever happened." She started. She looked over the crowd before continuing. "Now Ah'm sure y'all remember Cider Season when THESE lowdown dirty snakes" (The brothers just looked away into the sky and whistled innocently.) "tried to cheat and use their contraption to make terrible Apple Cider to win that contest from before. But then y'all tasted yourself how horrible their cider was. My family always made great sweets and apple products, and we still want to, so please, give us some time to let us investigate why our apples were suddenly bad. Ah'm sure we'll find it, and if we don't… Sweet Apple Acres will gladly refund the money to the ponies whose gotten sick from our apple treats." Applejack finished.
"That's well and all but what's to stop you from letting this happen again hmmm?" Flim pointed out.
"Well we-" Applejack started.
"I have a proposition… if you can't figure out the cause of all this in one week. WE I.E. my brother and I will take over the apple industry in your family's place." He finished.
"Hey Wait a-" Riku started before Flam interrupted him.
"Indeed! After all, WE know how to make sweets that won't make a pony sick, although our tastes could improve but that's just an enhancement or two on the machine in order to fix."
"And everypony will agree that they want to eat tasty treats that won't give them grief in the long run. Something our machine can give" Flim finished for his brother.
"We agree to those terms!" A pony from the crowd said.
"Yeah!" the others agreed.
Applejack, disappointed from the lack of trust from the ponies she thought she knew answered. "Alright, if that's what everypony wants, then it's a deal… the Apple family will give up our farm to the FlimFlam bros. IF we can't find out what caused our apples in our sweets to be bad." She said glaring at the twin bros.
"We accept. You have a week." Flim answered. Looking down on Applejack from on top of weird machine he and his brother were standing on.
"One week, remember that." Flam reminded them.
"We'll remember." Applejack said her head turned back to them as she was walking away. "Come on y'all, we got a mystery to figure out."
"A mystery?! Oooh, I love mysteries!" Pinkie said while bouncing off. Twilight looked to Riku and Spike worriedly as the two did the same. They walked off catching up with their two friends, while the bros were soundlessly celebrating as if victory was already theirs.
"So… where we going? Pinkie Pie asked.
"Back to the farm, we got to investigate why the apples were all bad. Best way is to check out the farm." Applejack explained while they walked.
"Oooooh, it's a mystery to be solved!" Pinkie Pie said as she pulled out a deerstalker hat and a pipe before blowing bubbles into it. As the five friends walked on, Riku noticed Twilight had a worried look on her face as she was thinking.
"It's really worrying, isn't it?" Riku said as he walked alongside Twilight.
"Yeah, I'm worried about the ponies that got sick, I hope Rarity and Fluttershy wasn't part of the group that did." Twilight answered.
Applejack looked back to Twilight. "Maybe you should go and check on the hospital, Twi, don't worry about us, we'll handle things but you and Spike should check on them if they're really there." Applejack told her.
"Are you sure? You guys might need the help though." Twilight replied.
"Don't worry, sugahcube. Me, Pinkie Pie, and Riku can handle things, right, guys?" Applejack said.
"Ab-so-lutely! Lokie Doki!" Pinkie answered cheerfully and Riku nodded to affirm.
"Alright then. I'll let you know you guys said 'hi', okay? Good luck! Come on, Spike." Twilight said
"Right behind ya, Twilight. Or on your behind. Heheh." Spike said as he jumped onto her back.
"Twilight!" Applejack cried after her purple friend.
"Yes, Applejack?" Twilight asked.
"Could ya tell Fluttershy and Rarity… Ah'm sorry this happened, it was our sweets that made them and the other ponies sick so-" Applejack started.
"Don't worry, Applejack, I'm sure the girls don't blame you. Besides, it wasn't even your fault. I'll let them know though." Twilight assured her friend.
"Thanks Twi." Applejack said relieved. They hugged before Twilight and Spike sped off. And the three ponies walked the other way heading to Sweet Apple Acres.
The trio was nearing the gate to Sweet Apple Acres. "Well, y'all, we're here, Sweet Apple Acres, come on, we don't have time to lose, we got to find out why our apples were so bad it caused Apple poisoning." Applejack said
"Right-i-o!" Pinkie cried following Applejack into the Orchard.
"Don't worry, Applejack, we'll definitely figure out the reason, and make sure you can keep your Orchard." Riku assured her.
"Thanks, Riku, Ah just hope we can make it in time." She said as she looked down hearten.
"Applejack, I know we'll find the reason, and then we'll show those brothers whose quality is really bad." He consoled while smirking.
Applejack smiled back grateful for his comforting words. "Come on, I think Pinkie Pie might explode from waiting so long for us." Riku said jokingly as they started walking.
As they started to walk Riku had noticed something from the corner of his eye. "Huh? What was that?" he thought, as he turned to look at the trees.
"Somethin the matter sugahcube?" Applejack asked Riku.
"I thought I saw something around those trees Riku said as he pointed a roof to the direction of some apple trees.
"I don't see anythin." Applejack replied.
"Well, I see apple trees, Applejack, you sure you don't need glasses, 'cause those trees seem to be pretty hard to miss." Pinkie Pie said as she popped up in front her. Surprised Applejack stepped back a bit.
"Pinkie, when did you come down to here?" Applejack asked.
"Well, you two were taking so long that I figured I'd come to you instead!" She said.
"Oh." Applejack said as she scrunched her nose a bit her gaze away from Pinkie.
"So, what's been keeping you guys?" Pinkie asked.
"I thought I saw something around those apple trees." Riku said as he pointed a hoof.
"I don't see anything." Pinkie said as she squinted her eyes and covered her forehead to keep sunlight from interfering with her sight.
"I could've sworn I saw something there before but… it was probably just me." Riku said, when he remembered something. "That's right! I can't believe I forgotten. Applejack!" he practically yelled.
"Wh-What is it Riku?" Applejack asked. A bit startled by his outburst.
"Heartless! There were Heartless here yesterday when I reached your orchard! I had forgotten they were here for some reason and they were picking your apples." He told her.
"WHAT!? There were those shadow monster critters here in MAH FARM?!" Applejack screamed. Riku nodded and told her what he remembered about yesterday, how the Heartless seemingly looked like they were picking apples from her farm, but he was able to stop them. "But why would Heartless be pickin apples from mah farm?" Applejack asked.
"I don't know but whatever it is, it could be the reason why the apples we picked were so bad even though me and Big Mac thought they were good." Riku theorized.
"It looks we have a real mystery afoot!" Pinkie Pie cried as she pulled out a magnifying glasss and looked through it with one of her eyes moving it back and forth as if trying to focus.
"Wait a minute! What if Riku saw another Heartless trying to pick our apples?!" Apple jack cried upon realization.
"I saw it again! It went this way!" Riku cried as he pointed a hoof to the direction near the barn.
"The chase is afoot!" Pinkie Pie yelled as they ran after where Riku pointed to.
As they neared the barn Riku noticed a shadow popping around. "There!" he cried and pointed. There it was a Shadow heartless jumping around the trees picking apples and going into its shadow form to run away.
"After that little varmint!" Applejack yelled as chased after it past some trees. Only to suddenly stop as they came face to face with several large round Heartless.
"Big Bodies!" Pinkie cried. Riku summoned his keyblade and leaped into action., followed by Applejack and Pinkie Pie who put on their respective Elements of Harmony and leaped into action ahead of him! Pinkie Pie hopped right behind the Big Body that was in front of them and bucked it up, landing on its rear, stunned. Applejack did the same and bucked it again, before suddenly pulling out a lasso from behind her and lasso'd the Big Body spun it around in a circle three times before loosing the hold onto it sending it flying into a tree and causing it to dissipate, releasing a heart into the air.
They weren't done yet though, as there were five more and they were coming for them. Riku, wasn't going to sit back either though. He ran straight for one, and pulled a Reversal, on the nearest Big Body Heartless and knocked it into the air with his keyblade, only for Pinkie Pie to suddenly fire confetti at it with a cannon. Surprising him, and even more surprisingly, the Heartless actually dissipated from the force of the confetti shot out of the cannon, releasing yet another heart. Upon seeing that, Riku decided to go for the other Heartless but, before he could, Applejack got them to first. She ran right behind them and bucked the apple tree they were under. They turned to face her only to be bombarded by the tree's apples.
As they were distracted by the bombarding of the apples, Pinkie Pie runs in only to fire away three shots of confetti, dissipating three of the four Big Bodies, and firing one more shot of dough… entrapping the Big Body before being hit by a Zantetsuken strike from Riku. Upon defeating the heartless, the trio got together making sure they were alright. "And stay off mah farm!" Applejack said, proud of her accomplishment of protecting her apple farm home
"Boy, that was fun!" Pinkie Pie said as she hopped.
"Wow, I didn't even know you guys could fight like that." Riku Said. "That was amazing!" He continued with a surprised look followed by a smile.
"Awwww, shucks, sugahcube, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash and me, even Rarity know how to handle ourselves, especially when we need to get down and rough." Applejack said confidently.
"Remind me not to get you guys mad." Riku said chuckling. Only for the other two to follow suit. "Still though… what were those Heartless doing here?" Riku asked pondering.
"You tell us, sugahcube, you're the Heartless expert here." Applejack asked.
"Saaaaay… what happened to that tiny one that we were following?" Pinkie Pie said.
"Oh yeah! Where is it?!" Riku said, as the three looked around to see if they could spot it.
"There it is!" Pinkie Pie shouted as she pointed to a tree where the shadow was sitting only for it to see them and decided that a quick getaway was in order.
"After it!" Applejack cried as the three gave chase once more.
As they followed the small Heartless, they kept running into more and more Heartless, they fought against Big Bodies, Red Nocturnes, Blue Symphonies, Soldiers, hordes of Shadows, and eventually, Heartless variation of Earth Ponies. They kept fighting them taking them down and eventually cornered and finally took out the Heartless Shadow that they were chasing. They were completely out of breath from the long chase and the multiple battles that happened along the way. "Whooey! That was some chase wasn't it?" Applejack asked.
"You said it. I think my hooves are gonna fall off and I think I pulled a muscle." Pinkie Pie said as she showed her left front leg and let it swing aimlessly back and forth showing how loose it is after pulling her muscle.
"Yeah, but although we chased it all the way around, while taking out those Heartless, we didn't really find anything, did we?" Riku said disappointed. Applejack was about to reply to Riku when suddenly however something had caught her eye.
"What the hay is this?" Applejack asked nopony in particular. She reached for what seemed to be a scroll parchment that was just lying there on the ground. After unrolling it, she began to read it out loud.
"Dear Princess Celestia, today Ah learned that… hey this is one of Twilight's Friendship Reports that she sent to Princess Celestia!" She nearly cried.
"A friendship Report?!" Riku said excited.
"Yeah, it is! But… what's it doing in your farm, Applejack?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I… I don't know." Applejack answered back.
"I can explain why." Riku told them, and after explaining what happened to him Twilight, and Spike yesterday morning, they understood why they found it, but not why did it end up where they found it. To which Riku could not answer. "I wouldn't know why it's here, all I know is that it was taken mainly because of how much light it must have for the Heartless to take it." Riku told them.
"Well, in any case, we found it, we can give it back to Twilight once we get a better chance to investigate the farm." Applejack said as Riku and Pinkie both nodded to agree and the three once again began their investigation.
They walked and looked around the farm for hours, occasionally getting into another scuffle or so here and there against Heartless that pop out. None of the Pony Heartless yet but the others seem to constantly pop out. Finally, after what seemed like hours, they stopped right outside of Applejack's house. "ah just don't understan it." Applejack said dejected. "No, matter where we looked the apples all looked fine."
"Yeah, they're sweet and juicy like they always were." Pinkie Pie said as she was chewing on an apple.
"It's already dark out, Applejack, I'm sure even Twilight must be home at the library by now. We should call it a day and try again tomorrow." Riku suggested.
Applejack sighed disappointedly, "Ah guess you're right, Riku, not much we can do in this dark." She said. "Come on, Ah'll walk you two to the gate." Right after the three started walking however a large creaking sound was heard.
"What was that?" Riku asked.
"Ah don't know, but it sounds like a creaking door or something." Applejack described.
"Wait, is it getting closer?" Riku said as he strained his ears to hear in the dark. He moved around trying to home in on the direction where the sound was coming from. Creeeeeeeeeeak, thump. "thump?" Riku thought,
"Did you guys hear that thump?" Riku asked. The two mares nodded. "Whatever it is, its close and its big." THUMP! Another large thump was heard and the three ponies actually felt the earth shake.
"Celestia, that thing must be huge! How'd we miss a critter so big its steps could cause earthquakes?!" Applejack asked.
"I don't know what it is, but I think we're about to find out." Riku said as he summoned his keyblade. The three waited facing the direction of where the last thump was heard… but there was nothing, just apple trees.
"Do you think it fell asleep?" Pinkie Pie asked. Then suddenly several light thuds were heard.
"Uhhh no, Pinkie, I reckon it didn't." Applejack answered Pinkie, as several apples rolled down to them.
"Huh, I guess a few apples were ripe enough to drop." Pinkie Pie said as she picked one up with a hoof and took a bite… right before spitting it back out. "Eeeewww! That apple tasted like moss!" Pinkie said as she kept spitting out apple pieces.
"Hold on a minute there, Pinkie, let me see that apple!" Applejack said as she went to take the apple from Pinkie's hoof.
She inspected it. "Riku, you mind coming over here and make some light?" Applejack asked. In response, Riku made a tiny orb of shining bright light appear on the tip of his keyblade acting as a torch. Applejack inspected the apple, it was bright red, as any ripe apple would be and looked it would be delicious and as she looked over to where Pinkie took a bite, it was dark brown as if it was out in the sun for too long.
"Ah knew it! This isn't one of our apples! All our apples wouldn't be rotting on the inside with ripe red skin on the outside!" Applejack proclaimed.
"But I thought all the trees here belonged to the Orchard?" Riku asked.
"They do! But somepony must've planted another tree and replaced one of ours." Applejack concluded.
Right then, something incredibly large jumped from the forest, trying to land on them! "Run!" Riku yelled as the three leaped for cover getting out of its way. They leaped and rolled as the large thing landed.
"You two alright?" Applejack coughed, asking her friends.
"I'm okie dokie lokie." Pinkie Pie said cheerfully.
"Ditto." Riku said and they turned to face… an apple tree… with a very mean looking face and a Heartless symbol right under its face as its roots kept pounding away at the ground. "A Heartless, I knew it!" Riku said.
"What IS it, Riku?!" Applejack asked.
"I don't know, I never encountered this particular Heartless before." Riku replied to her.
"Uuuuuh guys?" Pinkie Pie said while looking up. "I think we should look out abooOOOOOOVE!" Pinkie Pie cried loudly as she started to run. The two followed as soon as they saw two more large shadows appearing below them getting bigger as two more of the same Heartless dropped down on them.
"There're three of them! Get ready, guys, here they come!" Riku cried as the three apple tree like Heartless started pounding away with their roots charging in at them. The three stood their ground against the upcoming Heartless prepared for battle.