"When you believe in a thing, believe in it all the way, implicitly and unquestionable."

-Walt Disney


In the place known as the Magical World, the works of Disney come to life. The fantastical and magical live in the Magic Kingdom, home of Mickey Mouse and the Disney Castle. Passing though Adventureland and travelling on the Jungle Cruise, you'll find yourself in the Animal Kingdom, the Tree of Life showing the harmony of nature that resides around it. You can take a trolley on Main Street and end up in Hollywood Studios, where movies are made, stars are born, and every day is premiere day. Alternatively, the PeopleMover in Tomorrowland brings guests to the ideal community of Epcot, where the nations of world share their cultures and innovations are made every day.

There are many places to visit: the wacky neighborhood of Toon Town, the ski resort turned water park Blizzard Beach, the superhero headquarters Avengers Campus, Black Spire Outpost at Galaxy's Edge, and many more for you to find.

Of course, what would the Magical World be without interesting people to meet? There's Mickey and the Fab Five, the Princesses and the Disney Heroes, the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, the brave Resistance and imposing First Order, Andy and Bonnie's toys, the animals of the Pride Lands and Jungle Book. And let's not forget the memorable Disney Villains.

Not everyone that lives here is famous, though. Some of us are background characters, or those that have been forgotten to time. There are people that are merely tourist, living in the Magical World for as long as their vacation allow them. And then there are the Imagineers, the people behind the magic that make sure that it can live up to the name of 'The Happiest Place on Earth.'

Standing at the train station in Main Street, an anthropomorphic bird looks out at Disney Castle, a smile on his beak.

As for me? My name is Gabriel, and this is the start of my journey: as a resident of this happy place, a young magician in training, and a believer in dreams. This is my life in the Magical World.

[***]

{Opening Theme: "Starmarker" by KANA-BOON}

{translated lyrics by me}

A peppy guitar solo starts as a ball of magic (presumably Tinkerbell) flies down Main Street, zipping around the castle before shining bright once it reaches the top.

You close so tight you cannot see a thing

The future's waiting out the door in front of you

A red streak of magic goes over the Magic Kingdom, passing by Mickey and friends, with Goofy running into the trail comedically. Over in Epcot, an orange streak twists around Spaceship Earth as the Disney Princesses wave to guests.

Hidden in shadows are souls that are so lost

A single drop of light will surely show the way

The gargoyles of Wyvern Clan watch over Hollywood Studios as a yellow streak passes by, with Luke Skywalker teaching kids the way of the Force down below. Rafiki paints in the Tree of Life when a green streak flies though the tree, making the mandrill smile as he looks at the rest of the Animal Kingdom.

Sometimes you feel so lost and stuck within a dream

And like a shooting star tears fall down your face

Moana and Maui adventure though Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach with Lilo and Stich, a blue streak going over their heads. An indigo streak goes though California Adventure, where Buzz Lightyear talks with Iron Man and Spider-Man interacts with the Duck triplets.

I'll try to make a sound I know that you can hear

So resonating that it's sure to bring you cheer

A violet streak swirls around the Mysterious Tower, where Yen Sid listens to a report from Riku. The magic grabs the wizard's attention, making him look out to where it's heading.

Singing, and painting, through a past we cannot change

Gabriel stands on a podium, conducting water like in "Fantasia." Around him are bubbles with the images of various Disney characters, and when he raises his arms up, two waves rise up on either side, with the heroes on the left and the villains on the right.

Seven colors in a rainbow, my brush with point where we go

And give this world a smile!

Gabriel raises up his left hand, the seven magic streaks swirling around him and forming in his hand. He brings it down and conjures up a paintbrush, giving a smirk before drawing a smiley face on the camera.

Rising on up higher and higher

With our dreams and true desires

Gabriel uses his magic to give color to a white world, with various characters surrounding him as he does so.

To laugh though the shadows of our worst nights

As the magic continues to spread around, a party quickly starts to form in the streets.

Hand in hand, heart to heart

We've been together from the start

Everyone starts to dance, with various couples like Belle and the Beast, Robin Hood and Maid Marian, and others getting together for the party.

So drop all your doubts and smile deep from your heart

Gabriel looks over and sees Jasiri, offering her a dance and making the hyena smile.

Every day and every night

I pray that we can make this right

Gabriel conducts the music around them as Jasiri dances, the two of them shining bright as party swells around them.

Hear my song let it give you power

Yen Sid and other powerful magicians give their approval, with Gabriel flashing a thumbs up and a smile to them.

If you only just believe surely then we will succeed

Gabriel is suddenly lifted up by Pixie Dust, with other characters flying up as well.

So don't let your view be so narrow

I promise I will be your hero!

A spot of darkness is seen on the horizon, but the heroes stand ready to face whatever it is. Gabriel stands with Jasiri as he raises his hands, magic gathering there as he blasts out a beam of light. The ending scene is various Disney heroes, villains, and Imagineers standing in front of Disney Castle, with Gabriel front and center of the crowd.

[***]

Episode 1: Find Your Magic

Over in the PhilharMagic Theater, aspiring new magicians were gathered, along with their respective teachers, to learn how to better harness their power. Many of the great Disney wizards and witches taught the class, and today Cinderella's Fairy Godmother was teaching. Along with a few young Imagineers and civilians, there were some recognizable faces in the crowd, including Eda the Owl Lady and her student Luz, the Lightfoot brothers, Ian and Barley, and Keyblade Master Aqua with fellow Keyblade Wielder Kairi, among others.

"So you just started learning magic too?" Ian asked Luz.

"Yep!" the Hispanic girl said proudly. "Though I've only really learned the Light Spell at the moment."

"Don't worry kid, you'll learn some more, eventually," said King, Eda's demon companion and one of Luz's friends.

"Maybe we could exchange spells?" Ian offered.

"Everyone, if I could have your attention," Fair Godmother called from the stage. The others in the room sat in their seats as she spoke, "Today I am proud to introduce a new student to our class, Gabriel."

Gabriel walked onto the stage, giving a somewhat nervous wave to the crowd. He was an anthropomorphic raven with a brown beak, dark grey legs, and white feathers on his face going down his front with black feathers going down his back to his tail. He wore a grey hoodie with lines of blue, red, and green running across it, purple wristbands on both his arms and around his ankles, and a pair of midnight blue headphones sitting around his neck. A necklace with a purple dragon in flight rested on his chest as well.

"Uh, hello, everyone," Gabriel greeted, getting a few replies of 'hello' back. "It's good to meet you all, and to have been invited in the first place."

"We're glad that you accepted our invitation," Fairy Godmother said with a smile. "Now then, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself before we get started with the lesson?"

"Oh, well, I'm really into music, and I'm really good at trivia as well," Gabriel said. "Though I don't really know exactly what magic is yet."

"And that's why Yen Sid asked you to sit in on our class today, so that we can help you find what kind of magic suits you," Fairy Godmother explained.

There were a few gasps of surprises in the crowd. "Yen Sid?" Luz asked. "Who's that?"

"Yen Sid is one of the most powerful people in all of the worlds," Aqua explained. "He used to be a Keyblade Master, but now he teaches others in the way of magic. He personally taught King Mickey everything he knows."

"Eh, I think he's a bit overrated," Eda dismissed, earning her a glare from Aqua.

Gabriel nodded and got off of the stage, taking a seat as Fairy Godmother began the lesson. "Now then, today is when everyone gets to show what makes their magic unique. When I call your name, you'll come up on stage and show off your skills."

And so they did just that, with everyone taking turns to display their magical abilities. Kairi summoned her Keyblade a did a few magic spells, like Fire and Water. Ian used his magic staff to catch a soda can in midair, before growing it to double its normal size and back again. Star Butterfly showed off her magic wand and summoned cute puppy dogs, which also shot lasers from their eyes and had to be quickly magicked away before they could hurt anyone.

Some of Imagineers showed their creative talents, like making a miniature version of the Matterhorn or creating copies of themselves to sing a barbershop quartet. One guy even did the classic "pull-a-rabbit-from-a-hat" trick and managed to pull out Thumper from his top hat!

Gabriel watched the others show off their skills, but then felt a tap on his shoulder from Kairi. "Oh, you're Kairi, right?" he asked. When she nodded, he added, "I mean, it's not weird that I already know who you are, right? Because there are a lot of characters that I recognized on my way here, so…"

Kairi laughed. "Don't worry, it happens all the time. Some of us are famous in your world, so it's pretty normal for people to know us before we know them."

"Oh, oh! Do you know who I am?" Luz asked, leaning over her seat.

Gabriel scratched under his beak. "You're from that 'Owl House' show, if I remember. Your name is 'Luz,' correct?"

"That's me!" Luz beamed. "It's so weird to have people recognize me now! In my own world, I was just a human that ended up in the Boiling Iles, but now that I'm here people on the street will just come up and say 'hi!'"

"Don't let it get to your head, kid," Eda said. She looked over at Gabriel. "Speaking of which, I don't recall there being any talking animals in," Eda did air quotes, "'the real world.' Is that some kind of suit you're wearing?"

"Oh, that's a bit harder to explain," Gabriel said. "I was a human where I come from, but as soon as I got my invite to come here to the Magical World, Yen Sid let me take on 'any form I desired.' And I thought it'd be more fun to be a talking animal than a human."

"Kind of wonder that your human form looks like," Kairi questioned.

Gabriel shrugged. "Eh, I wasn't anything special." He ran a hand through his head feathers, the frontmost ones springing back up into spiky points. "If I learn a transformation spell, then I might show you someday."

"Gabriel! It's your turn," Fairy Godmother called.

"Good luck," Kairi said, with Luz giving a thumbs up in agreement.

The bird nodded and walked onto the stage, looking out at the others that were watching. He took a deep breath and put his headphones on. "Alright, just show them what you showed Yen Sid," he said to himself.

Gabriel looked to Fairy Godmother, whom gave an encouraging smile. "So dear, what is it that you hold in your heart?"

"Hm…" Gabriel pondered. "Music is what first comes to mind." He closed his eyes and thought of a rhythm, letting imaginary sounds fill his ears.

"I won't give up, no, I won't give in," he sang, moving his arms to the beat.

"'til I reach the end, and then I'll start again."

As he sang, blue sparks started to come off of his wingtips, forming lines in the air as he continued.

"No I won't leave, I wanna try everything, I wanna try even though, I could fail."

Gabriel finished the verse, opening his eyes to see the blue magic had created many lights around the stage, with a conductor's baton having formed in his hands.

Fairy Godmother clapped, with a few others in the audience joining in as well. "You did in, Gabriel!" she said. "I haven't seen a use of Fantasia in a long time."

"Fantasia, like the movie?" Gabriel questioned.

"It's what Yen Sid calls magic created from music," the fairy explained.

"That must be why he took an interest in you," Aqua added.

"Huh," Gabriel said. He hummed a tune and waved his hands around again, the blue lights moving in time to the music. The raven snapped with one hand, and red sparks shot out, mixing with the blue to create new patterns. He then added in a few stomps, and green sparks were put into the mix. "So, if I keep a beat, I can do magic," Gabriel said. He raised his arms and threw them to the side like a conductor ending a song, the sparks fading away on command.

"Thank you for showing us your talent, Gabriel," Fairy Godmother complimented. "I hope to see more progress in the future."

He nodded and went back to take his seat, where Kairi and Luz were already giving him praise. "That was so cool!" Luz said. "It's like my light spell, but even bigger!"

"It sounds useful as well," Kairi added.

"I really just made a bunch of lights," Gabriel stated.

"But Fairy Godmother said that it's similar to what Yen Sid uses magic for," Aqua said. "That means that one day, you could do great feats of magic,"

"And if that doesn't work out, we could always use a bard in our group," Barley joked.

Gabriel laughed at that. "Do you guys wanna hang out after this?"

"I would, but Eda probably needs me to help run her shop," Luz said.

"I was going to meet up with Sora and Riku, but maybe I could introduce them to you two," Kairi offered.

The bird shook his head. "I don't want to interrupt you meeting your friends, even of they are are on my list of characters I want to meet. I'm sure I'll run into them eventually."

"Hey kid," Eda said, getting Gabriel's attention. "So, you've got Yen Sid's attention, but what did he ask you to do for him? There's always a catch to these kinds of things."

He replied, "Yen Sid wanted someone who was knowledgeable about this world, but also had big ideas of his own. I'm sort of his freelance apprentice, so he wants me to learn how to harness my magic from the people I meet."

"Sounds like a lot of work to me," King said dismissively.

"But I get to travel around and meet so many of my favorite characters from my favorite stories," Gabriel said. "He wants be to be able to help others with magic, while adding some of my own to the world. I'm what they call a 'Dream Keeper;' at least, that what Yen Sid said."

"That sounds like a cool wizard title," Ian stated.

"Dream Keeper Gabriel… Has a nice ring to it," Barley said.

That was the start of my first day in the Magical World, but my journey as a Dream Keeper has only just begun.


Author's Note

Welcome to my new Disney story! I always wanted to write a "person goes into the world of Disney" story, but I also wanted to write a more slice-of-story in contrast to my last Disney Fic.

Gabriel is a character that I've been working on, wanting him to represent myself, while also being his own person. If you were wondering what kind of bird he is, he's what is known as a Pied Raven, an extinct subspecies of Common Raven.

I chose for him to have Fantasia magic as one of my favorite Disney things is the video game Fantasia: Music Evolved. If you've played it before his magic looks like that. The characters that showed up in this first chapter were picked out because they all are recent properties and coincidentally have young characters that learn magic (being Kingdom Hearts, Owl House, and Onward).

Next Time, Gabriel meets some familiar faces and makes a new friend!