• Published 15th May 2012
  • 4,486 Views, 40 Comments

Chaotic Harmony Episode 1: Arrival - MaroxXIII



Sonic the Hedgehog and his "friends" enter the world of Equestria, but danger lurks near...

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Chapter 3: Strangers in a new land

Chapter 3: Strangers in a new land.



“What is that thing?”

“Is it dead?”

“Oh my gosh, it just fell out of the sky!”

“Wha...who said that?”

“It’s moving now. Looks like it’s alright.”

“Ooooh, can I touch it? Huh? Can I dad?”

“No! Don’t you dare stick a single hoof near this thing! Who knows where it came from.”

“What the...who are you? And why am I hearing voices?”

“Why does his hooves have white worms sticking out of them?”

“I don’t think those are hooves.”

“Hooves? What are they talking about? Urrggghhh....my head is killing me. Okay Sonic, just open your eyes...”

The azure speedster slowly started to pick himself up from the dirt ground. After shaking his head free of earth, he sat up and slowly started to open his aching eyes. He was still reeling from the bright light of the Chaos Control, so he squinted until his eyesight returned to normal. The first thing he started to see were more colors. Further still, he could make out a crowd of some sort staring back at him. By the time his eyesight started to clear, he saw what looked like...ponies. Mares and stallions of every color. Some had horns on their head, and some were flying. Sonic rubbed his eyes, thinking this was just an illusion. He was probably still messed up after being warped. He blinked twice and his eyesight was back to normal. Unfortunately, he soon found out that he was not hallucinating.

“AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!” the hedgehog screamed in shock. The crowd, startled by the strange creature’s behaviour, jumped as well. One pony with a pink coat and a yellow mane that housed a lily on it, instantly fainted.

“Hey, are you okay?” one mare asked. She extended her right cyan hoof to the startled hedgehog. He started to back away from the crowd.

They can talk, too. He needed a minute to analyze this. Ponies, no rainbow ponies, who can talk. This had to be a dream, or a nightmare. Was he somehow transferred into the storybook? Trying to grasp hold of the situation, he stood up, getting a better view of the equines that surrounded him. Finally collecting himself, he began to speak.

“Okay...where am I?” he asked.

One pony with a red mane and a beige coat spoke up. “You’re in Ponyville, duh.”

“Pony...what?”

“Ponyville. Y’know, as in ‘of Equestria’?”

“No, I don’t,” he stated.”How did I get here?”

“You just fell out of the sky after a blue light flashed above,” another mare spoke. “Come to think of it, there were six other flashes of bright light today, all over Equestria.”

“Nopony told me there would be a light show today. I could’ve gotten some popcorn.”

“Six other flashes of colorful light? There's no doubt about it; the Chaos Emeralds somehow warped me here,” he thought. “And if they did, then they must be nearby. All I need to do is find one, and I can bail out of this nightmare. No problem, now I just need to ditch the crowd.”

“Listen,” he announced. “I hate to run, but this has been seriously weird, so I’m going to split now.”

“Wait!” one pony exclaimed. “I wanna know where you came from! Are you from Cloudsdale?”

“He ain’t a pegasus,” another pony spoke. “Where are his wings? He don’t look like he can fly.”

“Maybe he came from the Everfree Forest. Lots of weird things come from there.”

One pony from the background piped up. “He fell out of the sky, Clover. The sky. That’s strange, even for a place like the Forest. It’s obvious he’s not from here, Cloudsdale, or Canterlot! I don’t think he’s even from Equestria! I mean look at him; his mane is all wild and spiky-lookin’.”

“And he doesn’t have hooves,” one more mare agreed. “Now THAT’s freaky!”

“And he’s running away!”

[Event: Time to go!]

Everypony abruptly stopped their conversation and turned to what looked like a blue speck leaving behind a giant dust cloud in its wake. While talking amongst themselves, the mysterious blue creature took the opportunity to make a break for it in the opposite direction, finding a way out, if any. The herd stopped what they were doing, and took off in pursuit of the strange visitor.

Sonic pumped his legs rapidly, dodging other bewildered ponies left and right. Buildings turned into nothing but blurry images wizzing past him as he blitzed through more crowds of equines who were joining in the frantic search. With his trademark speed and agility at work, he navigated his way around town, stopping for a split-second if there were ponies obstructing his path. Worse was that the crowd of curious equines were starting to get closer. Despite how much of a blur he was to the bystanders, there was no shaking off his captors. Ponies were everywhere; in the buildings, among the streets, and even in the sky. “How the heck are they able to keep up with me?” he thought. Someone of his reputation shouldn’t have a problem with this, and yet far into the distance, he could see them gallop their way into his direction. Were they that fast, or was he getting slower? Running out of ideas, he spotted a bunch of barrels in the middle of an alleyway. If he couldn’t lose them with his speed, then he’ll just have to hide until the herd ceased the chase. Without giving it a second thought, he darted right into the alley, jumped in a vacant barrel and closed the lid.

The crowd made their way to the section where he was last seen. After looking high and low for the hedgehog escapee, the herd turned its attention away, continuing their search in another place. Sonic, peeking through a cork hole, exhaled a small sigh of relief. Now that nopony was chasing him, he was ready to bolt. All he needed now was an emerald, and he’d be out of here for good.

“Hi there! You like playing ‘hide in a barrel’ too? It’s fun, isn’t it? I mean what's more fun than hiding in a barrel? It’s like these things were made to hide in. You can hold a lot of things in here, like apples, or pickles, or ponies. Well, obviously ponies, because well, I’m a pony of course, and I’m in one! And you must be too, since you’re hiding in it as well. So, are you having fun? Huh? Are you?”

Sonic’s relief was instantly changed to sheer terror when he heard that high-pitched voice break the silence. No, he didn’t need to make a scene. He just stood calm and addressed the mysterious voice that was talking to him.

“I’m not playing games,” he said. “I’m hiding from those ponies that are chasing me. Don’t talk so loud, you’re going to blow my cover.“

“Wow, you don’t sound like anypony I know. And believe me, I know everypony in Ponyville. Are you new here? Where did you come from? Canterlot? Nah, you don’t sound all royally-like. Come to think of it, you don’t even sound like you’re from Equestria either. Oooh, oooh! Maybe you’re from the Everfree Forest! If you are, you have to meet my friend Fluttershy. She’s like, the nicest pony ever, and she’s also good with animals. I’m sure you’ve heard of her right? Speaking of friends, there’s also my friend Applejack. She’s great, very honest, and she works at Sweet Apple Acres. That’s where I get my apples from, they’re just so juicy and they taste delicious. She always lets me take some home to use in my bakery, though I usually keep eating them up before I get there. Rarity says that if I eat too much of them I’ll get really fat, but I keep doing it anyway because they’re soooo good! Oh yeah, Rarity’s also my friend. She has her own boutique that she runs, and let me tell you she’s one pony with one super-sharp fashion sense. She’s also very dramatic, I mean like really dramatic. Like ‘pull-out-a-couch-to-cry over-missing-jewels’ dramatic. But, she’s very nice and she love to give things to other ponies out of generosity. Like this one scarf that I had that she made for me got lost in the Everfree Forest, and she made me a new one no charge. Heck, she wasn’t even mad at all. Then there’s my awesome friend, Rainbow Dash! She’s by-and-far Equestria’s best flyer. I mean she did a sonic rainboom, a SONIC RAINBOOM, twice for Celestia’s sake! Not only that, she’s super-cool to hang out with. She never leaves her friends hanging, like me! We always go for prank runs around Ponyville every now and then. One time, we...oh, right. I promised Twilight I’d never tell that story to anypony else, at least until the cake mix was cleaned from the roof of the library. Yeah, Twilight’s my friend too. She’s got magic like you would not believe. This pony stopped an Ursa Major from attacking the town. Well, okay technically it was an Ursa Minor, but you should’ve seen that thing! I mean it was huuugggeeee. And she sent it back into the forest like it was nothing. When I first met her, I knew she was going to be really special, and I was right! I was so excited to see her, I ran off and threw a party in the town library. Parties are kinda my thing, because I love throwing them! I mean who doesn't like a good party? Nopony, that’s who! And it’s always nice to see somepony smile, in fact it’s the one thing that makes it makes it all worthwhile. Take it from me, Equestria’s numero-uno party mare! Whew...I must’ve said a lot! I bet if somepony were to write a story with me in it, it would take pages to write! But anyway, I’ve talked so much, that I didn’t even introduce myself. Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie, and you a-- ”

Crouching inside the barrel with his hands over his ears, the irritated hedgehog was pleading in his mind that the talking would stop. He could not believe anyone could run their mouth as long as this pony did. How she could keep going and going and going like that was way beyond him. He was too busy wishing that the motormouth would stop talking that he didn’t notice that the lid was moved. Sonic took notice of the sudden silence and took a look up the barrel’s opening, only to come face to face with a pony with a pink coat and a rosy puffy mane staring back at him with huge light-blue eyes. At first, both hiders just looked at each other. Then, as if suddenly, both parties screamed and jumped back. The surprised mare quickly sprang up a few feet in the air, and then bolted to the other direction, screaming all the way. This quickly got the attention of a few passers-by walking the dirt roads. Within seconds, they alerted the attention of the herd search party, who then stampeded their way towards the alleyway.

“Great,” Sonic huffed. “Man, I just can’t catch a break.”

[Event: Time to go...again!]

Sonic darted out of the barrel, flying past more equine onlookers. No matter which direction he took, there were ponies there to obstruct his path. How were they able to keep up with him? There’s no way that he, the Fastest Thing Alive, should have trouble out-running a bunch of horses. Yet, they were everywhere he was, there was no escape. Overhead, a few pegasi were tracking his movements. Looks like running away wasn’t doing him any good. Hiding again will have to do, but where? He searched frantically for a vacant building, but they were all occupied. Just when he was about to give up, he spotted an odd tree-like building with a sign that had a book on it. It looked as if it was made of oak, with windows coming out of the leaves and a balcony on the higher part of the branches.

“This must be a library,” he thought. “It’s a stretch, but it’s my only chance of hiding. Besides, who goes there anyway?”

Quick as a flash, he darted right to the entrance and closed the door behind him. Great, he was inside; now he just needed to find someplace to stay hidden, this time without any ponies occupying the space. He looked around the room: books, books, and more books. To his left, he saw a quill and some parchment sitting on a stand. To his right, he saw a bunch of books clumped together in a pile on the floor. “Whoever runs this place must be lazy,” he thought. Looking directly ahead, he spotted a staircase. “Perfect, this looks like a good place to lay low. Good timing, it sounds like the mob is towards this direction.” He couldn’t, however, shake the suspicion that he was being watched. He whipped his head around frantically to see if someone, or something, was eyeing him. From where he stood, he saw an owl, perched on his stand, curiously looking at the panicked guest. Sonic wiped the sweat from his brow, relieved it wasn’t another equine.

“Whew...it’s just an owl. You aren’t going to start talking, right?” Sonic asked.

The young bird just stared at him, then responded with a hoot. “Who?”

“You, duh.”

“Who?”

“You! I’m talking to you right now!”

“Who?”

“You! You, okay!? Geez, and I thought that pink pony was annoying!”

“Who?”

“Alright, that’s it!” Sonic yelled. He dashed forward, meeting the annoying feathered fiend face to face. “Say ‘who’ one more time. I dare ya, birdie! I. Dare. You.”

“Is there somepony downstairs? I’ll be with you in a second! Spike, can you make our guest downstairs some tea while they wait?”

Sonic paused when he heard the feminine voice call upstairs. Looks like he was not alone, and if he stood here any longer, he was going to get caught. The situation was not looking good; he couldn’t escape out the front door since the herd was closing in on the library. Desperate, he had no choice but to escape through the upstairs.

“Look like this is my cue to bail.” he said to the owl. “We’ll finish this later, bird-brain.”

Sonic dashed up the stairs, flying past a short purple and green thing that was coming down that way. He reached the top, but then he came to a screeching halt. Three people were already there: two that Sonic recognized immediately, and one unicorn he didn’t recognize. She has a vibrant lavender coat, an indigo mane and a tail that had a pink and purple streak going across it. All three patrons stopped their conversation when the intruding hedgehog showed up. They all just stared at each other for a split second, until the blue escapee broke the silence.

“Tails!” He exclaimed.

“Sonic!” the fox boy shouted.

“Sonic?” the unicorn asked questionably.

“Sonic.” the pink hedgehog growled.

“Amy!?”

“Amy...”

“Sonic!”

“Twilight!”

“Twilight?”

“Tails?”


“Alright, this is getting annoying,” Sonic said nonchalantly. “Tails, Amy, what the heck are you all doing here?”

“I don’t know,” the twin-tailed fox answered. “I was asleep at my house. The next morning, I woke up here. I was hoping not to see you again, though.”

“Same here,” he sneered. “In fact I was just starting to enjoy this place, until I saw you two.”

“You two know each other?” the puzzled equine asked.

“Unfortunately,” Tails nodded, not even looking at his former friends’ direction. “He’s the blue jerk I was telling you about.”

“I’m the jerk, huh? I wasn’t the one who dropped a two-ton cake on his ex-best friend’s head! I’ve got a headache the size of the Death Egg thanks to you!”

“That wasn’t even my fault!” he exclaimed. “I got shoved from behind. Still, that’s what you get for ruining Cream’s birthday party.”

“Whatever,” the annoyed hedgehog dismissed. He turned his head to Amy, expecting a response from her. “What? You got something to say, too?”

“Tails,” the pink hedgehog said, “tell Sonic I’m not speaking to him, nor am I going to look at him. In fact, I think it’s time for him to leave.”

“Sonic, Amy said--”

“I know what she said alright!? I’m standing right here!” the hedgehog shouted at Tails.

“Wow. Sounds like the three of you have a little animosity between each other,” the unicorn spoke up. “What happened between you all?”

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” the blue hedgehog replied. “Wait, who are you anyway?”

“Oh right. Pleased to meet you sir; my name is Twilight Sparkle,” she said nicely. “I’m the caretaker here.”

“So, you’re the pony in charge of this dump?” he asked. “Libraries have books in shelves, not on floors you know.”

“Oh, that,” Twilight spoke enthusiastically. “I was in the middle of re-shelving everything when I saw a yellow and pink light flash outside. I was going to ignore it, but my assistant Spike came running downstairs yelling that somebody appeared out of nowhere upstairs. When I came up to my room, I found these two.” She pointed at Tails and Amy. “After they woke up, I treated them to some tea, and I asked where they were from. I was so caught up in the conversation that I forgot.”

“Yeah!” Amy spoke up. “Tails, tell Sonic that we would like to go back to talking if he doesn’t mind.”

“Sonic,” the fox boy started. “Amy said--”

“I get it!” he interrupted. “I’ll be glad to get out of here, but I’ve got a small problem.”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“The Chaos Emeralds...are here.” He started. As soon as those words left his lips, Tails and Amy’s faces twisted into complete worry. Each of them knew that whenever the jewels appear, problems would follow soon after. Their top priority for years was to keep them away from those who wished to abuse their power. This was bad news for the three fugitives, but to Twilight, this only raised further questions.

“Wait, what is a ’Chaos Emerald?’” she asked.

“It’s a-” Tails began, but Sonic interjected right before he could finish. For all he knew, telling them about a gemstone that could inevitably bring widespread destruction throughout this place was only asking for trouble.

“It’s none of your business, that’s what!” he snapped.

“Wow. Rude, much? I just asked a question, no need to be a jerk about it,” the unicorn responded.

“Told you,” the fox boy nodded to her.

“Sorry, but I’m not here to shoot the breeze with a pony,” Sonic retorted. “I could really care less on what you guys were doing, so that’s why I need to find an emerald so I can bail.”

“Well, what’s stopping you?” Tails asked.

Sonic walked over to the window pointing outside. “That,” he said.

Everyone stopped what they were doing to see a huge herd of multi-colored equines crowding around the library. Eagerly looking for the strange blue creature to show up again, they were looking through windows hoping to spot him. Immediately, Spike ran back up the stairs to inform everyone that the library just got some unwanted guests.

“Twilight, what are all of these ponies doing here?” Spike asked. “And who’s THAT!?”

“One gone hedgehog!” Sonic answered.

“Wait, don’t leave just yet,” the unicorn insisted. “I’ll take care of the crowd, just leave it to me. Spike, stay here!” As she was galloping downstairs, her assistant stayed behind so that he could converse with the guest. Meanwhile, the studious unicorn rushed over to the entrance. She opened the door to find a sight most unpleasant. At the entrance, two stallions with white coats and royal gold armor stood before the magic-gifted pony. Twilight recognized them immediately as the Princess’s royal guards. If they’re here, then that means the situation was not looking good at all.

“Hello, gentlecolts,” Twilight greeted. “What can I do for you?”

“Afternoon, Ms. Sparkle,” one of them spoke. “We have orders from the Princess to apprehend a-” he stopped for a second to look down at his parchment that he was holding in his hoof, “-’blue fast-running hedgehog and others that look like him.’ Well, that’s what it says, anyway.”

“We know it sounds ridiculous, but these are the Princess’s orders,” the other pony spoke. “Plus, we have leads from these ponies that claim they’ve seen him moving in this area. You haven’t seen anything suspicious, have you?”

“What? No, no, absolutely not. I’ve just been here...um...re-arranging the...books! Yes that’s it, the books! I’ve been here this whole time re-arranging the books, and I’ve in no way seen anyone or anything weird here. Because I’ve been, y’know, reshelving books. Did I mention I was reshelving books?”

“Yes, you did. A lot,” they both spoke. Neither one looked satisfied with the fibbing unicorn’s answer. “Listen, we’ll be patrolling the area in case we see them, so we’ll be around if you do find one of them.” One of the guards leaned in closely so that his eyes met with Twilight’s. “However, if we find out that you’re hiding them from us, we’ll have to take you in as well for aiding a fugitive. And you know Celestia; she doesn’t take too kindly to ponies who disobey her orders.”

“Yeah, better watch out Ms. Sparkle.” the other stallion joked. “You could end up...on the moooooonnnnnn.” At that moment, both guard colts snickered.

“Ha, ha, ha. Ya got me there, good one,” joked Twilight, knowing good and well that her mentor wouldn’t just whisk her away. Then again, she’s never done anything to invoke that notion, and her mentor has the power to do it too. Suddenly, the unicorn fell under a twinge of worry. She’s never done something as serious as hide something from the Princess except for the time she and Fluttershy tried to take care of the Princess’s pet phoenix, Philomena. She let them go easy, but she might not be so nice this time. What would she do if Celestia found out that her star pupil was hiding them? And why was she interested in them in the first place?

Both guards stopped chuckling then turned to the nervous looking pony. “Well, we’ll see you around. And remember...to the mooooooonnnnnn!” Both of them started to trot away giggling while shooing away the pony onlookers from the scene. Twilight closed the door and waited until they were out of earshot before she sighed relief. It wasn’t long before that relief turned to horror when Spike ran down the stairs.

“Twilight! That blue guy, uh what's-his-name, he jumped out the window!” the surprised dragon gasped.

“He WHAT!? Celestia help me, why didn’t you stop him!?” the unicorn asked.

“I didn’t even know he left. I was talking about Rarity and her jewels one second, and the next second, he’s gone! Still, that was cool. He might be faster than Dash. What do you think, Twilight?”

“I think we should stop talking and find him before he’s caught by the guards,” she answered.

“But how? Ponyville isn't that big, but he could be anywhere!”

“I have a hunch. Just tell Tails and Amy to stay inside while we look for Sonic. Equestrian guards are everywhere, and we don’t want to make the situation any worse.”

“Got it!”

With Spike on her back, Twilight galloped out of the Ponyville library’s entrance. True, the town wasn’t large, but there was nowhere he could go without being spotted.

“Where do you think he is?”

“When we were talking, he said something about a ‘Chaos Emerald.’ I don’t know much about gems normal or mythical, but we do know somepony who does!”

“Rarity! Good hunch! He must be at her boutique!”

As they made their way to her shop, a large shriek could be heard from that direction. Both followers recognized the scream coming from their friend. Almost certainly Twilight and Spike feared the worst.

“Did you hear that?” Spike gasped. “She must be in trouble!”

“Spike, calm down. I’m sure she’s fine.” the unicorn assured, but there was doubt in her voice. This stranger may have seemed rude, but it’s not like he would actually hurt somepony. But what if she was wrong? What if Rarity really was in danger? Without giving it a second thought, Twilight and Spike sped their way to Carousel Boutique full gallop.

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