Myst was still wandering, completely lost. Through the hours, she had learned one oh-so-helpful fact. This place was not designed for the blind. At this point, she wasn't even sure which way was up. She'd tried flying in a medium-sized room, only to discover that gravity could be quite versatile—it had ditched her straight on what she was sure had been the ceiling only moments earlier. This did not impress her, and she was already sporting an increasingly sore body.

Currently she was lying amidst a sea of flowers, closing her eyes to listen to soft songs she couldn't place while she rested her aching limbs. She was confused, terrified, worried for everyone else, and in absolute desperate need of a bath. Her body was dusted with everything from giant mushroom spores to caking dried liquid, and in her opinion it smelled horrid.

Myst was used to the temple and could walk anywhere within it while acquiring nothing but a patch or two of dust. However, a nearly blind dragon alone in the unknown was not a pleasant combination. At all.

"Hiii! You look a little bitty lost!"

Myst jumped about three feet and whipped her head from side to side, desperately searching for a blob of color out of place. "Hello? Who's there?"

"Hey, what was that for?!" She looked to her snout, discovering something very small and very, very pink looking at her from the tip of her nose. "I could have fallen and got hurt!"

"Er... Sorry. Didn't see you there?" Myst said quietly, watching the blob bounce each time she opened her mouth. "Can I...help you?"

"Nope! I wanted to see if you've seen my friends! They're close to your size and look sorta like me, and I bet they aren't having nearly enough fun here without me!"

"I don't think I've ever met anything quite like you before," Myst murmured, internally wondering if that was even a compliment. "...Sorry."

The little blur seemed to droop slightly, darker pink blobs wilting noticeably. "Maybe they aren't here at all. I've been looking every-which-way and up and down and they aren't anywhere to be found, and I'm a teensy bit worried too. I haven't seen anypony anywhere!"

"I'm really sorry I can't help you, but do you want to stay with me until you find whoever it is you're looking for? I could use a little help too, so do you think we could help each other?" I don't want to be alone anymore...

"Of course! We'll be the bestest of friends!" the blob squeaked, perking up with all the subtlety of an intense static shock before wrapping her front limbs around Myst's nose with an impressively firm grip. "I wanna stop going it alone too, and the black things are real meanies and don't wanna be friends and I don't like them and I was hoping the queen would help but she's nothing like the princesses and this place might be superamazingawesomebutIjustwannagohome!"

Myst blinked. Repeatedly. "Er, okay, sure. But you're hurting my nose. Can you loosen your grip please?"

"Oops, sorry! Didn't think I was pinching so hard! I didn't wanna hurt you! Sorry!"

"So anyway… Could you please help me? You see, I'm fairly blind. I recently took something that should heal my eyes in another week-and-a-half or so, but right now I can barely even make out that you seem to be very pink. Would you help me avoid trouble until I get my sight back? I'll try to help you too."

"Oh." The blob plonked onto her hindquarters. "I'm really reeaalllyyy sorry! I promise I didn't mean to scare you!" One of the tiny limbs made odd motions. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!"

Myst had to force herself not to shake her head in utter confusion. She wasn't eager to send her new 'bestest friend' flying.

"I'm Pinkie Pie by the way, who're you?"

"Myst."

Soon after, the unusual pair were on their way, the excitable little Pinkie Pie hyperly blurting directions.

"Oh, er, Pinkie?"

"Yes, Myssy?"

"...What's a cupcake?"

Cynder

I was jolted awake by what I could have sworn was an extremely high-pitched yell far off in the distance, but wrote it off as nothing as I looked around. If I thought my last lovely wake-up was weird, this was worse. I was on a weirdly thick cobblestone path, and buildings that were nothing like the Atlawa's thatched roofs or the temple's carved stones towered towards the sky. Here and there, long vertical poles were dotted along the streets. From each dangled a lit ball of something I couldn't identify but reminded me of the strange platforms from my nightmare. The sky was dark and littered with stars. I spent a good couple minutes looking at the sky. At least that was something normal.

Then a star sputtered like the wick of a candle and mere moments later it was gone, seemingly drowned in the sea of night.

"Wellll," I muttered, drawing out the word. "That's not normal. Then again, normal seems to be pretty scarce… So maybe normality is not normal."

I half expected Sparx's irritated complaint about hurting his head, but there was only silence.

I lowered a hand to my side to try and push my body up, and looked down when my fingers brushed something smooth. They had traced a round red stone, orange lancing at its core like fire. For a crazy moment, I thought it was a spirit gem and maybe I was home. Reality crushed that hope far too quickly. Life was never that easy, especially for me.

I picked the stone up and lifted it to my chest, closing my eyes. It pulsed like living fire. It felt like it was breathing. It felt like home.

I stuck it into my silk bag, feeling the heat of the palm-sized rock pass through magic cloth that could withstand magma. The ache from the fall was chased from my veins as a feeling I hadn't found since leaving the swamp warmed me. It was like mom and dad… Somehow.

"Well I've gone insane. Again," I muttered as I staggered to my feet, cursing the human body in all it's biped idiocy.

"Where's that key?"

"You know, maybe we ought'a go find Leon."

I blinked, peering from the alley I had awoken in with a frown. A giant duck and a scavenger, wielding the most obnoxious voices imaginable. And I got stuck with Volteer and Cyril frequently.

"What key?" My voice cracked the air, and I realized my throat was irritably dry. I stepped from the alley's shadows, sizing up the strange creatures. Could they mean my strange weapon? Sora's? "Can you tell me where I am?"

"Whatcha think you're doing sneaking up on us like that?!" the duck quacked. "And that doesn't concern you!"

Feh. I could take these things even in this pathetic body. Best to gauge their reaction. "Well, I would happen to disagree with you—especially if you're looking for one of these." I held my hand out and the long blade formed from shadows. "And maybe I'll help you with whatever you want with it… If you tell me what it is."

"The key!" the duo screeched simultaneously and I fought to hide my grin. That was one question answered.

"Uh-huh, yes, a key." I let it vanish but kept my hand cocked to call it again if I had to. "What do you know 'bout it, ducky?"

You could practically see a vein spring up under the feathers of his forehead. "That's Donald Duck to you, not Ducky!"

"I'm Goofy! Please ta meet ya!" the dog said, plainly unclear or uncaring to the fact I'd just insulted his friend. "We need your help."

"Shush, Goofy, don't tell her that yet!" the duck quacked, swiping his companion's head with his long staff. I lifted an eyebrow.

"Care to quit squabbling like an old couple and tell me where the hell I am? I've got things to do to, you know. I doubt you could stop me if I decide to leave."

"Stupid duckling," I swear I heard the duck grumble. "Fine. Our King sent us to look for you. The worlds need your help."

"It's awful important," the dog agreed. "We're trying to save lotsa people, a'hyuck."

"I'll think about it. Do you come from here or another world?" No reason to trust a word they said yet.

"You know! That's supposed to be secret!"

"I've been tossed to three worlds, plus home, in the past five days. I'd be quite the idiot if I didn't know about them."

"Gosh, that sounds rough." The dog reached a hand to my shoulder, and I didn't have the heart to stop him. Something about him just seemed inherently gentle. "We wanna help ya if ya give us the chance."

I smirked at the duck's less than subtle 'speak for yourself' glare.

"Tell you what. You help me out here and I'll think about it. I'm looking for a friend of mine. Baggy short pant things, boyish face, and looks like he carries around a porcupine on his head. Seen him?"

"We haven' seen anyone like that, have we, Donald? A'hyuck. But we're a'looking for someone named Leon who should know his way 'round here. Think he might know where good places to look are, Donald?"

"Probably," the white duck grumbled.

"So why don'tcha come with us for now?" The dog smiled. "Maybe we can help each other."

"Fine, but if I have any reason not to trust you…" Glaring at the antagonistic duck, I reached my hand forward and shadow sparked across my fingers. "It won't end well. For you."

"That a threat?!" The duck tried to lunge at me, but his companion grabbed his shoulder.

"Easy there, Donald. She's just being careful-like. She don't know nothing about us."

"That's anything, Goofy, not nothing!" The duck slapped his forehead with a feathered hand.

I turned and studied the area to hide my grin. The only sign of life was some faint pawprints headed away from the alley. "Lead the way, Ducky. We don't have all day."

Riku shivered on the bed he had been provided, glaring up at the irritatingly pink something on his ceiling. The thing wouldn't leave his room and it wouldn't stop singing in a high voice in a language that sounded like gibberish. The only thing preventing him from chucking something at it was that it looked too damned sad. Still, something was very wrong with that voice—it twisted his gut and sent an eerie, foreign feeling up his limbs. He'd asked Maleficent to stop the creature bugging him, but the witch had insisted that she was a guest as well and was free to do as she willed, just like he was—with a few restrictions. The pink critter hadn't looked like it agreed, but had quit its growling when Maleficent had glared and started fingering a strange little sphere with "6-2-6" on it.

He didn't have a clue what was going on, and he hated it.

Sick of the creature's chattering, he went to the only room that seemed to shut it up. Maleficent said he could go there to 'learn that not all darkness should be feared.'

That was certainly true. The darkness in there looked pretty pathetic in a way that he couldn't help but pity. He walked into the room and knelt next to the thing. A large head turned to face him with painfully bright glowing eyes that still looked soft somehow. He remembered the first time he'd snuck in here; how those eyes had seemed to say to him, 'You hate it here too?'

"Hey there. Doing better?"

The thing just tilted its head down. Its mouth opened in what Riku swore was an attempt at speech, but all that came out was a growl.

"Yeah, me either." He placed an arm on the thing's shoulder, legs sprawled in front of him. The odd creature's black antenna twitched and a large wing draped around his shoulders like a cape, returning the gesture.

"You know, maybe you can get out. I've seen the little things like you around here vanish and appear all the time. I've been here a week and it seems like you're getting better. Maybe you could do that too?"

...Need me… It was more of a feeling than words.

Riku jumped and frantically searched the room before turning to his dark companion. "Did you just talk?"

The creature blinked, only to turn its head to lay on its forepaws.

...Long as you need me here, I'll stay even if I had somewhere to go…

"Really, Maleficent? Is it wise to allow the boy so close to that heartless?" A man with a twisted goate stared down at a flickering illusion of what was happening in the other room. "What are you trying to accomplish?"

Her lips twitched into the closest thing to a smile she ever came to. "That heartless is opening up to the boy, letting him into the defences that keep us from controlling him. He's unknowingly filtering his darkness into the boy—quickly, I might add, since the boy is already tuned closely enough to the taint to hear him through it. We can use that bond when he has been turned. That heartless is the strongest I have ever encountered, and using him indirectly is better that not being able to use him at all."

"You planned this?" The boy with coal eyes looked impressed. "How could you have possibly known they would get close so fast?"

"Simple, Manfred." She turned to look into nothing. "They are two of a kind, fighting the darkness. Even if the boy doesn't know it. It is only natural that they would draw together."

"Ah!" A hawk's talon and lion's paw drew together in a single clap. "You're using their downright boring predictability against them! I like that."

The imperial women turned towards them, almost draconic eyes glittering. "Indeed. They seal their fates by befriending each other."

The lion's paw flicked a tear of laughter away. "Oh, what Celestia and her little ponies would think of this! Friendship being wrong! Hah! Such wonderful unpredictability."

"Then you grab some bits of mushroom,

'Cause this one seems to be sweet!

Maybe it can take the place of sugar,

And we've already found the wheat!"

Myst had really thought she'd already had her share of insane friends. But apparently not.

"Now we've got to find some flour

To add it to the mix!

They still might just be a little sour,

But still only a pinch!"

"...What are you doing?" Myst asked, trying to zero in on the tiny pink blur that was there one second and gone the next. And singing. Loudly.

"'Cause not knowing cupcakes is not okay,

so I'm here to save the day today!"

"Piiiinnnkkkkkkiiieeee!" She went ignored.

"Come on, get ready to try some more,

If you've never had your fill before!"

"Of cupcakes! You've gotta try some cupcakes!

Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes!"

Myst buried her head in her paws. "This place is nuts."

Characters not originally in KH/LOC/Spyro:

Angel: Stitch the Series

Discord: My Little Pony

Pinkie Pie: My Little Pony

Manfred Bloor: Charlie Bone

The song is based on "Cupcakes" from an early MLP episode. However, the lyrics are different (except two lines—three are allowed in the rulebook) so it still lies within FF guidelines.