//------------------------------// // Equestria and the Mysterious Stones-Chapter 27 // Story: Equestria and the Mysterious Stones // by LunicStream1105 //------------------------------// Chapter 27: Sixth Emerald search, Crystal Empire! JetStream still had his hoof raised even after the door shut, "Uh, Knuckles... I think there's something wrong with the, Crystal Ponies here..." Knuckles crossed his arms. "I thought they were weird in some way, and here they go slamming some door in the newcomer's muzzle, oh well JetStream, let's go check somewhere else..." as Knuckles turned around, he grabbed JetStream's tail. "Hey!" JetStream looked around, "Don't do that!" Knuckles looked back smiling, but it dropped as he looked back. He noticed JetStream was blushing. "Alrighty then, but I'm choosing where next..." Knuckles stated looking at JetStream walking past him. "Fine..." he loosed his blush instantly. After a short pause he turned around, "You know Knuckles, he seemed very... depressed, given their image. If I looked like that, I would be as happy as I could be... but it isn't how he felt, obviously..." they started walking to the next door, hopefully they'll get answers as they reached for. As soon as they reached the door, they knocked. The door slowly opened, but yet nopony appeared behind it, "What...?" Knuckles shrugged. "Walk in there." JetStream's eyes widened. "Wha-!? I wouldn't do that! That's too... creepy... if that's the word..." Knuckles pushed JetStream to the side. "Alright, it's obvious I'll have to let myself in." and JetStream watched as he peered through the door, "Hello?" as he started to walk in. JetStream just decided to stand and keep watch, he didn't want to be seen doing something like this. "Uh, Knuckles... Why don't we check the Crystal Empire?" he suggested looking at this colossal structure. "'Cause that's the first place they'll expect us to look." JetStream sighed. "Well, this is the second..." he muttered and turned to the house, "And don't you think it would go faster as well?" "Could be possible." he answered still looking around. And JetStream just watched him further. "How come this doesn't bother you?" "Because I've practically done this tons of times." he said flatly. JetStream's mouth went wide open as he saw Tails, and Sonic heading toward the Crystal Empire. "Even Tails, and Sonic are going over there Knuckles! We have to!" Knuckles sighed as he walked out. "Go ahead then, I'll search alone..." JetStream jumped in the air. "Haha! Thanks Knuckles!" he started to gallop at where he saw the two. "So, what do you think this could be?" Sonic asked, Tails only shrugged right after. "Don't know, but it's supposedly in the middle o-" "Hey!" Sonic and Tails looked around toward the sound. "JetStream!" he stopped right before them, "So how's your search so far?" he asked looking between Sonic and Tails. But only for them to shake their heads. "Nothing so far..." JetStream's attitude shifted just as much as theirs. "We haven't found much either." "Why are you here, and not with Knuckles?" JetStream immediately smiled again. "He let me go to the Crystal Empire to search for it, and that's when I saw you two." "The what?" JetStream pointed toward the huge and obvious crystal behind them. "... Oh..." Sonic broke the silence and started walking toward and inside, "So this is a Crystal Empire? I wonder how it was used considering it has Empire in its name..." "Actually it's the Crystal Empire." JetStream corrected. "Ah, so there's only one." Tails reassured himself. "Yeah." JetStream responded and started to walk inside as well, Tails followed behind him. Inside was a flat, feature-less room. Sonic pointed to the left of them, behind the chair, "There are stairs over there." JetStream continued. "Alright then, lets go." Tails rose a finger at him. "That's my line." JetStream let a friendly laugh as he looked back to the staircase, it reminded him back at Canterlot about climbing the stairs to get to the very top. "The top..." JetStream suddenly had a brainstorm, "Sonic... Tails, what if the Chaos Emerald was at the top of this Crystal?" Tails scratched his left ear. "Could be ..." Sonic grabbed Tails's arm. "Com' on let's go." they both passed, JetStream looked around before he headed up, getting a shiver before starting up the steps, "Whoa, JetStream, check this out." Sonic looked down from the open space as JetStream neared the floor. He poked his head from the floor and looked around. What he saw amazed him too. It was a throne that had a red carpet on it, and continued to the edge of the room. But behind it there were tons of crystals that all shone around the color purple, the biggest one, or the one near the top was a shade darker than the rest. "Wow, just thinking about this room makes me feel like I'm supposed to see a Princess..." "Why a Princess?" JetStream looked around. "All the crystals..." Tails gave a weak laugh. "Yeah, of course." JetStream continued walking to the throne, he liked the sound that it made when his hoofs hit the crystal, it was a unique sound, he reached the middle of the room when he suddenly jerked himself. "Ah!" Sonic snickered. "You okay?" JetStream was suddenly shivering. "Yeah, but I... I felt like I was falling..." looking at the ground, he continued to walk on it, "I have this weird feeling..." he hit the ground, "Wait, the ground here is... hallow?" he walked around to compare, "Yeah, it definitely sounds different then anywhere else." "So, what are you concluding?" JetStream looked at Tails. "... I think there might be something down here..." ~~~Chapter End~~~