> Adventures on the Friendship Express
>  by GreenS21
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Hidden Palace(s)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


RELAXING TRAIN RIDE... OR NOT


As the Friendship Express left the outskirts of Ponyville and began making its way across the plains towards Canterlot, Sonic, Spike, and the ponies were settled in for what they expected to be a long ride, still listening to the music coming from Sonic’s cell phone. They were all lightly bobbing their heads in time with the music, a few like Spike, Twilight, Applejack, and Shining Armor even moving in their seats like they were dancing.

Soon, the upbeat song that was playing came to an end and everybody settled down in their seats again. “Mm, those are some good tunes ya got there, Sugar-hog,” Applejack commented.

“Yeah, you got anything else that sounds awesome?” Rainbow Dash asked.

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, I’ve got plenty of other tracks on here. Hang on; let me find something else…” He held his phone in both hands and began sliding his left thumb over the screen, flipping through his music library.

At the front of the train, meanwhile, Tails and Pinkie were working to keep the Friendship Express going. For the most part, Pinkie was getting into the role of conductor and was piloting the train while Tails was checking everything to make sure they were well prepared. “How does the water supply look, Pinkie?” the fox asked while checking some of the gauges from behind the pink pony.

“Super duper!” Pinkie replied as she sat and looked straight ahead at the boiler.

“Okay, good,” Tails murmured. He looked back over his shoulder at the coal littering the cabin and said, “We should have plenty of coal here to get us to Canterlot. I guess we’re good to go, then.” He walked over to the window on the right side of the cabin and pressed his right hand against the frame as he stuck his head out, looking up at Canterlot in the distance as the wind from the train’s movement blew in his face. It looked like they had a long way to go, but at the speed they were going, they should arrive in no time.

Looking back down, Tails’ eyes went wide as he gasped, “Whoa, what the - ?!” He pulled his head back inside the cabin sharply and exclaimed, “Pinkie, hit the brakes!” The startled pink earth pony leapt up at his shout and did as he said, pulling the lever for the brakes.

Back in the second coach from the engine, the rest of the group was thrown for a loop when the brakes started slowing down the train, Sonic, Spike, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash being jerked forward while Twilight, Rarity, Shining Armor, and Cadance were yanked backwards, all of them letting out a gasp of surprise at the sudden stop. Rainbow Dash was sent tumbling from her spot atop the seat Sonic and Spike were sitting in and she probably would’ve landed on top of Spike had Sonic not managed to get his hand in front of the baby dragon in time to keep him from being sent flying out of his seat.

Everybody sat back into a normal sitting position a few seconds after the train slid to a halt, save for Rainbow Dash who was lying on the floor at Twilight and Rarity’s hooves. “Ow… what the hay?!” the rainbow-maned pegasus groaned as she lifted her head up and rubbed the back of it with a hoof.

“Oh… I really did not like that…” Fluttershy murmured.

Applejack patted her on the back with a hoof, “Don’t worry, Fluttershy. Whatever happened to cause that, we’re fine.”

Cadance looked out the nearby window and noticed what little scenery there was wasn’t moving anymore. “We’ve stopped! But why?” she wondered.

She was about to receive her answer, as seconds later, the door leading to the front slid open, everyone looking to see Tails and Pinkie standing on the other side of it. Sonic, who was helping Rainbow Dash up onto her hooves, looked up at Tails and asked, “Tails, what happened, man?”

Tails scratched the back of his head as he replied, “Uh, sorry about the sudden stop, guys, but we’ve got a bit of a problem.”

Pinkie piped up before he could continue, “There’s a big, whirly portal up ahead, like a big tunnel! We would’ve gone through at the speed we were going!”

Sonic turned towards his window, walked over to it, and slid it up, poking his head out and looking towards the front of the train. “Shoot! You guys were right to stop the train! That thing’s right in the middle of the tracks!” he said.

Shining Armor, who was looking out the window on his side, added, “And you weren’t kidding when you said ‘big’, Pinkie Pie! The only way we’ll be able to get the train around that is if we pick it up off the tracks!”

As the two pulled their heads back inside, Twilight asked, “Do you have any idea where it leads, Tails?”

The fox answered, “No. That’s why I told Pinkie to stop the train. If there aren’t any tracks on the other side, the train could get really messed up, and that would cut our trip short.”

Rarity asked, “What are we going to do now? The Princesses didn’t use their magic, so they’re still on their way to Canterlot! We can’t ask them to send a carriage right now!”

Rainbow spoke, “What’s the problem, Rarity? Shining said we could go around the portal if we lifted the train off the tracks. We’ll just have Twilight do it and we’ll be on our way!”

Tails spoke, “I don’t think that’ll be necessary, Rainbow. I checked my radar while I was up front. If the readings I got are correct, then that portal isn’t entirely stable. If we go in there, we might be able to find a way to close it, or at least open up a new portal behind it that we can use so we don’t have to abandon the train.”

Pinkie clapped her hooves on the fox’s shoulders from behind, saying, “Now you’re thinking with portals, Tails!” She pushed herself off of him and, while she was still on her hind legs, tossed off her pilot’s hat and neckerchief. She then said, “Come on, gang, let’s see what kind of mystery is on the other side!”

Rainbow piped up, “Hey, I’m all for having another awesome adventure, but why can’t we just go around it? We could just lift the train off the tracks like Shining said, or we could just use the Warp Ring to get around the portal!”

Twilight spoke, “I know we have to get to Canterlot, Rainbow Dash, but we’ve investigated all the other portals we’ve seen so far. We’re not exactly in Ponyville anymore, but as long as it’s right here, we should still see where it leads.”

Shining nodded, “I agree, Twily, especially since Tails said it was unstable. What if something happens because we didn’t investigate?” Twilight glanced to the side at him at that.

Spike looked up at Sonic and asked, “Do you think we’ve got enough time to go check it out, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog looked down at him and replied, “We’ll make it quick. If it’s unstable, we shouldn’t be in there long.” He then looked at Tails and asked, “You’re sure it’s stable enough to go in there, right Tails?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah, I think so. My radar started acting weird while it was getting the readings. That’s what makes me think it’s unstable, but I’m not entirely sure. We should be fine, though.”

Cadance stood up, “Then let’s go. We don’t want to keep Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna waiting any longer than we have to.” Everyone else agreed with her and they all stood up, all of them making their way to the nearby exit and climbing down off the train.

Quickly making their way to the front and going past the engine, the group soon stood in front of the portal blocking their way. The image on the surface seemed to be showing an underground cavern, but every few seconds, the image would become distorted before returning to normal. When that happened, it almost looked like static on a television screen. This only slightly confused everyone, though, since Tails had already said there was something strange about the portal. With this in mind, they all leapt into the portal, ready to see where it would take them…

________________________________________


A TRULY HIDDEN PALACE


Everyone landed feet/hooves first on solid ground and quickly scanned their surroundings. Just like the image on the portal had suggested, it appeared that they had touched down in some sort of underground cavern. They could see water coming down in falls in places off in the distance and what appeared to be some green lights brightening and dimming nearby. Looking back, they could see the portal they had just come through on one of the cavern walls.

“What is this place?” Rainbow wondered out loud.

“I have no clue. I’ve definitely never been here before,” Sonic commented.

Spike looked up at him, “Really? You haven’t?”

Sonic replied, “Hey, I’ve seen quite a few underground places before, but this is totally unique. I’m pretty sure I’d remember this.” He glanced over at Tails and, upon seeing the fox looking down at his radar, asked, “Hey, Tails, are you getting anything?”

Tails answered, “No, not really. All I’m getting are those weird readings I picked up before.” Sonic, the ponies, and Spike (who climbed up on Twilight’s back) looked over his shoulders at the dual screens and saw what he was talking about. The radar seemed to be functioning normally, but the numbers and other readings on the bottom screen kept jumping every few seconds.

“Is it still okay fer us ta be here, darlin’?” Applejack asked.

Tails looked up at her, “Yeah, it should be.”

Shining spoke, “Let’s get moving, then. The sooner we’re done here, the sooner we can get back to the train.” With that, everyone started moving deeper into the cavern, no one noticing the portal behind them beginning to waver at the edges. After they rounded a corner, it sparked with electricity for several moments before it started to shrink, completely closing and vanishing after a few seconds…

As the group made their way through the cavern, they were quick to notice that the ground was uneven in a number of places, forcing everyone to climb on top of the parts that stuck up since the ground wasn’t sloped in a lot of places. Strangely, it almost seemed as though someone had cut or chiseled the rock to give it the appearance they were seeing. This was further compounded when they saw, at the places where the ground did slope, there were green ramps to make straight slopes that were clearly not natural. Who had been down here, and for what purpose?

Walking between two small waterfalls, Sonic eyed one of the sources of the green lights they had seen earlier, noticing it was circular-shaped and seemed to be embedded in a rock column. “Some kind of crystal, maybe?” he wondered to himself.

Twilight looked at it as she and the others followed him between the waterfalls. “Strange…” she murmured. She faced forward after a moment and noticed Sonic had stopped just ahead. Looking past him, she saw the reason. “Is that a bridge?” she asked as she stopped next to Sonic.

The others stopped as well, all of them looking at it. “It is a bridge, Twilight. Strange how it’s green like so many other things down here, though,” Shining said.

“That’s fer sure. Even some o’ these rocks look green from a distance,” Applejack commented.

Rainbow spoke, “Who cares what some rocks look like? Let’s see where this leads!”

Spike drooled a bit, “Oh man… It looks like a bunch of emeralds all strung together…”

Rarity spoke, “Spike, please! Act like a proper gentleman!” Spike snapped back to attention at her words and stood up straight, quickly wiping the drool off of his mouth. Rarity then spoke again, “That’s better. I understand your excitement, darling, but this bridge is to be walked upon and nothing else. I am assuming it is strong enough to be walked on; after all, why else would it be here?”

Tails looked at the bridge carefully. “It kind of looks like those ice bridges we crossed when we were at those ice mountains. It should be just as sturdy,” he said after a moment.

Sonic lifted his right foot, “Let’s see.” He set it down on the first segment, which immediately lit up as soon as his foot made contact. Everyone tensed up for a moment, but Sonic soon relaxed and started walking across the bridge, each segment lighting up as he walked. He reached the other side and called back, “No problem! Come on!” Everyone began making their way over the bridge to him at his reassurance.

As she walked across the bridge, Twilight looked off to the side, looking at the waterfalls and glowing lights. “This place reminds me of the caverns below Canterlot,” she mused to herself, glancing over at Cadance for a moment. Her favorite foalsitter did not appear to be worried, but Twilight wondered if she was thinking of the crystal caverns as well.

Tails was the last one across, the fox looking down at his radar as he walked behind the others. “Weird… We’ve gotten pretty far away from where we entered from, but nothing’s changed! The readings are still weird and I’m not getting a good signal,” he thought.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Pinkie yelled, “Look out!” He looked up, only to see the party pony leaping towards him, practically tackling him onto his back as a silver-looking bat swooped down where his head had been. Not even a second after he landed on his back, Rainbow Dash shot up and delivered a flying kick to the bat, sending it crashing into a wall. It broke as soon as it hit the wall, revealing that it was actually a Badnik.

Pinkie grinned down at Tails, “You’ve gotta pay more attention, Tails! Good thing my Pinkie Sense told me you were going to get attacked from above!”

Tails cheeks turned a bit red under his fur, “I… see. Well, thank you, Pinkie!”

Sonic came over and helped Tails to his feet after Pinkie climbed off of him, asking, “You okay, Tails?”

The two-tailed fox nodded, “Yeah. That was my fault. I should’ve been looking around rather than down at my radar.”

Rainbow Dash hovered overhead and said, “Heh, don’t worry, Tails. I know how you eggheads just LOVE to get absorbed in whatever you think is so fascinating!”

Pinkie piped up, “Ooh, ooh!” When Sonic, Rainbow, and Tails looked at her, she reached into her mane and pulled out Tails’ radar. She held it out to him as she said, “I grabbed this so it wouldn’t get smashed! Here you go, Tails!”

Tails smiled as he took it from her, “Heh, thanks, Pinkie!”

The four of them heard Applejack call, “Hey! Y’all okay back there?” They looked to see everyone standing up ahead, starting to come back towards them.

Rainbow called back, “Yeah, we’re cool, AJ!” The four of them then hurried to rejoin the rest of the group, passing by one of the green lights as they went. A second after they passed it, its surface changed from green to a grayish snow color…

A short while later, after dealing with more bat Badniks and some red dinosaur-like Badniks, the group came across what appeared to be a green tube going down into the rocky ground. The ground around it appeared to be made of emeralds, and there were little bits of emeralds littering the ground around it. While Spike and Rarity gathered the emerald bits up, the others gathered around the tube, looking down at it.

“Now what do y’all suppose this is here for?” Applejack asked.

Twilight put her face close to the ground and peered down into the tube.  She spoke after a moment, “Is that… I think that’s water down there.”

Sonic quickly said, “Then we’re not going down there. Last thing we need is to run into a dead end underwater, or for that tube to not empty out.”

Fluttershy shivered, “Ooh… that sounds like it would be scary.”

Shining nodded, “It does, Fluttershy, but I still wonder what this pipe is for. It must be here for some reason.”

Rainbow shrugged, “Yeah, but what? And why is there still water in it?”

Pinkie perked up, “Ooh, I know! Maybe it’s unfinished! Can we finish it?!”

While the others kept talking, Tails examined the area carefully. “These gems that Rarity and Spike are picking up… these normal rocks around the hole… and these wet spots… Was there something here before?” he wondered. Glancing off to the side, he noticed something on the ground he would’ve missed were it not for one of the glowing lights in the cavern. Moving closer to the discovery, he examined it carefully before looking back over his shoulder and calling, “Hey, guys!” Everyone turned to look at him at that; he said, “Look at this! I found some prints on the ground over here!”

The others came over and looked at the prints he had found. “You’re right, Tails! These look pretty recent…” Shining mused.

Sonic looked closer at the prints before saying, “And wet. Did someone fall into the water?”

They all looked further ahead. “Well, whoever made these prints, it looks like they came from deeper inside this cavern,” Twilight said.

Sonic spoke, “Well, let’s see if they’re still around. Maybe they know what this place is.” Everyone agreed with that and began following the prints opposite the way they were going, Spike munching on some of the smaller gems Rarity let him keep as he rode on Twilight’s back.

It wasn’t long after they started following the trail of prints that the group noticed two other paw print trails heading in the same direction. Aside from size, the prints appeared to be very similar to the ones in the trail they were following. They looked more noticeable and wetter than the prints at the spot where the group had started tracking them. Still, no one was really sure who the prints belonged to. Spike and the Main Six thought they looked familiar, but nobody spoke up.

Suddenly, they all heard something from around a corner and came to a stop. “Ooh! Careful, Fido! We don’t want to lose the precious gem!”

Sonic asked, “Fido? Who’s that?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “That voice sounds familiar.”

Rarity’s face adopted an unusual glare as she said, “It certainly does, Twilight. I’d recognize it anywhere!” She suddenly ran ahead of the group, surprising them so much that nobody tried to stop her. There were surprised exclamations a second later, followed by Rarity screaming, “I KNEW IT WAS YOU, YOU… YOU DOGS!”


DIAMOND DOGS!


Spike placed his claws on Twilight’s neck and used his arms to catapult off of her back, the unicorn’s head bobbing a bit as he exclaimed, “Rarity!” He dashed ahead of the group, after the mare of his dreams. The others came running several seconds after the shock had worn off to find what would normally have been an amusing sight: Rarity and Spike playing tug-of-war with the three Diamond Dog leaders that had pony-napped Rarity so long ago, only instead of using a rope, both sides were pulling on a large emerald that was about as big as the Master Emerald, Rarity having her hooves wrapped around the bottom with Spike pulling her rear right leg while the Diamond Dogs gripped the top of the gem..

“Put the gem down this instant!” Rarity exclaimed.

“No! Be gone, pony! We found this gem first! It’s ours!” the leader and owner of the earlier voice, Rover, said.

“LET GO OF IT!” Rarity shrieked.

“Save it, pony! Your annoying sounds won’t work this time!” the large blue dog, Fido, said.

“Yeah, especially not when we have a gem this big to take back!” nodded the short dog, Spot.

Tails watched the spectacle for several seconds before turning to Sonic and asking, “Should we help them?”

Sonic looked back at the exchange. “Maybe, but which side?” he asked after a moment.

Twilight looked at him and said, “Sonic!”

The blue hedgehog shrugged, “What? They look evenly matched to me!”

Pinkie cheered, “Go, Rarity! Go, Spikey! Beat those doggies!”

The struggling continued for a couple seconds more before Spike, Rarity, and the Diamond Dogs all made one final pull, all of them grunting and straining to pull the gem to one side.

And that’s when it happened.

While sliding her free leg back, Rarity suddenly lost her balance, causing her to slip and lose her grip on the gem. Both she and Spike fell forward with a gasp while the Diamond Dogs, who were unprepared for this, tumbled backwards with the gem in their paws. When they fell on their backs, the large jewel landed on its top and, to everyone’s surprise, broke apart! The pieces of the gem scattered across the ground, moving a bit as they landed before coming to a stop.

Rarity and Spike looked up and gasped while the Diamond Dogs, upon seeing what happened, rolled over and stared in horror. “NOOOOOOOO! Not the precious gem!” Rover cried.

Fido picked up two of the pieces and looked down at them. “How did this happen?” he murmured.

Spot perked up as he said, “Wait! We can take all these gem pieces back with us! Then we’ll have lots of gems!”

While they were talking, the others walked closer, most of them moving towards Spike and Rarity while Sonic, Tails, and Twilight moved a little closer to the Diamond Dogs. “How did it break like that? It should’ve taken more force to break a gem that big,” Cadance commented.

Shining nodded, “Yeah. Is there something wrong with it?”

Tails walked over to one of the pieces on the ground and picked it up with his left hand, holding it up to his face and examining it. Spot noticed and said, “You! What are you doing?!”

Tails looked at him and replied, “I’m just examining the gem you found. You do know it’s fake, right?”

Rover’s eyes went wide, “Fake?! What?!” he cried.

Tails shrugged, “Sure. It’s the most reasonable explanation for why it fell apart like that.” He flipped his left hand around and let the piece fall to the ground, where it broke once again.

While the Diamond Dogs stared in shock at this fact, Spike looked up at Rarity as she sighed sadly. He stood up and asked, “Rarity? Are you okay?”

The white unicorn glanced down at him and said, “I’m fine, Spike. I just got my hopes up when I saw that gem. Gems that size are so rare; I should have known it wasn’t real as soon as I saw it.”

Applejack leaned close to the fashionista as she smirked, “Tom musta been pretty big too.”

Rarity’s eyes widened and then narrowed as she darkly muttered, “How many times am I going to be reminded of that today?”

Sonic, Twilight, and Tails walked over to her and the others, Sonic carrying one of the pieces in his right hand. “Ah, don’t take it too hard, Rarity. It does look pretty convincing, even up close,” Sonic said. He glanced down at the piece in his hand, “Guess you really got to look close to spot the difference.”

Tails nodded at him, “Yeah, kind of like with iron pyrite.” Sonic threw the piece in his hand back over his shoulder, the chunk bouncing off the ground before it went sliding backwards.

Shining looked over at the Diamond Dogs, who now seemed to be standing up, and asked, “Should we take them with us?”

Rarity stood up and simply said, “Absolutely not. I refuse to spend any extra time with them.”

Sonic looked at her and asked, “Why not?”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, come on, Rarity! You reined ‘em in the last time we saw them!”

Rarity protested, “After pony-napping me, showing a complete lack of hygiene, and subjecting me to horrid underground conditions, that is. This cavern is so much better than their tunnels, it’s not even funny. I wouldn’t be surprised if they decided to move here.”

While she was speaking, Rover quickly picked up on her tone and, after she finished talking, got up in front of her and said, “QUIET! Don’t you start your whining or complaining or whatever you call it again! My ears are still ringing from the last time!”

Fido and Spot stepped up alongside him, Fido saying, “We don’t need your spell this time anyway. We’ve already found plenty of gems here.”

Twilight asked, “How did you even get here?”

Spot answered, “Tunnel. We walked down it and it led here. Not sure how, but we soon found gems here. Good enough for us!”

Rarity rolled her eyes, “How positively primeval.”

Tails asked, “You guys really like gems, huh?”

Fido said, “Of course! Gems are our life! We’re always itching to find more gems!”

Sonic smirked, “You know, there’s plenty of water down here. A good bath ought to take care of that itch.”

The Diamond Dogs stared at him for a moment before it seemed like a light bulb went on in their heads. Spot demanded, “Are you making fun of us?!”

Sonic glanced off to the side as he replied, “Maybe.” He then looked at Rarity and winked, the white unicorn holding a hoof up to her mouth and giggling in response.

Fido growled, “Why, you…”

He was interrupted when Fluttershy let out a loud scream, one that was very clearly heard by everyone present. They all turned to her, Applejack asking, “What’s the matter, Fluttershy? Why’d ya go and…” She trailed off as she and the others saw what Fluttershy was looking at.


UNPLUGGED


As they looked into the distance, towards the waterfalls and the cavern wall, it began to change before their eyes. The once tan and brown rocks changed into a mix of yellow and purple lines, the clear blue water seemed to become light blue lines, and the emerald pieces turned into barely recognizable green shapes. And mixed in with the corrupted look of it all, amongst the strange shapes, were a multitude of ones and zeroes.

“What in Equestria is THAT?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“I don’t know, but it looks like its spreading!” Sonic growled. Indeed, what started as a small (from where everyone was standing) spot on the wall was beginning to expand, starting to cover the rest of the cavern.

“It almost looks like it’s all being converted to code!” Tails gasped.

Rover turned and started running deeper into the cavern, calling back, “FIDO! SPOT! WE’RE LEAVING NOW!” The two Diamond Dogs quickly turned and did the same, running after their leader.

Rainbow called after them, “Hey, where are you three going?!” Suddenly, the ground began to shake, a nearby rock column breaking off from the ceiling and falling to the ground in front of the path the group had come from, practically blocking it off.

“What in tarnation is goin’ on here?! Is this place fallin’ apart?!” Applejack exclaimed.

“It’s not falling apart, it’s being scrapped! Removed! Deleted! And soon we’ll be deleted too!” Pinkie gasped.

Spike looked up at Tails, who was looking down at his radar, and waved arms while saying, “Tails, we’ve gotta get out of here! Get the Warp Ring out!”

Tails continued to look down at the dual screens of his radar for a moment, the readings looking even worse than they were before. It was a miracle it hadn’t exploded yet. He then looked down at Spike and said, “Right!” He put his radar away and pulled out the ring, everyone moving away to give him room. He tossed it forward… but nothing happened. The ring stayed the same size and simply bounced when it hit the ground.

They all stared down at the ring in horror. “It’s not working?!” Rarity cried.

Tails quickly grabbed it with both hands and held it up to his face, “That’s impossible! It’s got energy in it! More than enough to teleport all of us! So why isn’t it working?!”

Twilight suddenly remembered something and said, “Wait! The Diamond Dogs said they went down a tunnel and ended up here! They must have gone through a portal without realizing it!”

Princess Cadance looked over at her and nodded, “That must be why they ran deeper into the cave! The portal must be up ahead somewhere!”

Sonic glanced back over his shoulder and noticed, just over the fallen pillar, that the strange corruption was spreading along the path they had come down. He looked back at the others and said, “Anything’s better than standing around here! Let’s go!” They all turned and ran to catch up with the Diamond Dogs, Tails tucking the Warp Ring away and Twilight placing Spike on her back since he was having trouble keeping up.

Sonic and Rainbow Dash took the lead, staying ahead of the rest of the group and keeping an eye out for any signs that the cavern was going to disappear right out from under them. Soon, Rainbow called down to Sonic, “There’s a ledge coming up!”

Sonic quickly brought his feet down, sliding across the ground towards the ledge. He came to a stop right at the edge, most of his shoes dangling over open air. “Whoa!” he exclaimed as he waved his arms around trying to keep his balance. After a second, he stepped back and looked down to see he had almost fallen into a pool of water, just inches below where his feet had been.

Rainbow landed next to him, the others catching up as she asked, “Has it already reached here?!”

Tails said, “No, it’s still behind us! This is still stable ground!”

Twilight looked down at the water, “Then this would explain why the Diamond Dogs’ paw prints were wet! They must’ve had to swim here!”

Spike spoke, “Yeah, that’s great, Twilight, but WE still have to get out of here!”

Shining looked over at Sonic and asked, “Are you going to need some help getting across this, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog looked back over his shoulder and saw, at the edge of his vision, the corrupted cave creeping up on them. Realizing it would catch up to them soon, he ran over to Rarity and Pinkie Pie and picked them both up, holding them above his head as he ran out onto the surface of the water while saying, “No time for swimming lessons!”

Rarity gasped and tried to keep herself balanced while Pinkie cried, “Wheeeeeeeeee!” at being ferried in this manner.

Everypony looked briefly surprised at Sonic’s ability to run on top of the water, but Rainbow soon said, “Can’t argue with that!” She spread her wings and took off, grabbing Applejack with her hooves and flying after Sonic while Fluttershy took Spike, Tails grabbed Twilight by her sides, and Cadance combined her magic with her husband’s to carry him.

Sonic soon reached the other side of the pool of water and leapt onto dry land, stopping and setting Pinkie Pie and Rarity down on their hooves. The others soon caught up and set their charges down before they all took off running again. It was all flat ground now, and they could see a light coming from up ahead. Sure enough, it was coming from a portal at the end of the cavern and they all leapt through it just about together, leaving the doomed cavern behind. The portal closed after they were all through and shortly afterwards, the corruption caught up and claimed the entire cavern…

________________________________________


TAKING A BREATHER


The group lay sprawled out on the ground of… wherever they had ended up, all panting and trying to catch their breaths, the portal they had come through having already closed. Even Spike was lying on the ground, panting as the adrenaline in his system thinned out. Eventually, everyone managed to sit up, no one really ready to stand back up again. Twilight sighed, “Well, we made it… That was crazy…”

Applejack, who was next to her, nodded, “It sure was, Sugarcube.” She then looked around, “Where are we now?”

Cadance looked up and said, “It looks like we’re still underground somewhere.”

Shining looked up and off to the side, where he spotted something interesting. “Is that a… castle?” he asked. Everyone looked up where he was looking and saw a large stone structure with two large torches on the top of the front towering over them. In front of them was a set of stairs leading up to the entrance to the building.

Sonic spoke, “Hey, I recognize that. That’s Angel Island’s Hidden Palace.”

Twilight looked over at him and asked, “Angel Island? You mean Knuckles’ home?”

Sonic nodded, “Right. After the Death Egg crashed on the island, Knuckles moved the Master Emerald from its shrine down here to keep it safe while he dealt with the ‘intruders’. Eggman ended up finding it after the Death Egg crash-landed again, this time on top of this mountain.”

Fluttershy asked, “We’re in a mountain right now?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. Look up there.” He pointed up and everyone followed his finger to see a hole some distance away from the roof of the Hidden Palace. Light appeared to be coming down through it. “That light is coming in from the outside. When it crashed, the Death Egg’s face poked down through that hole,” Tails explained.

Twilight asked, “Wait, if there’s a hole up there, are we inside a volcano?”

Sonic replied, “Technically. The Hidden Palace is surrounded by the Lava Reef Zone, which acts kind of like a final line of defense for anyone who comes down here. Nothing to worry about, though; we’re past the reef and I’m pretty sure it keeps the mountain from erupting. We’re cool.”

While he was talking, Tails had pulled out his radar and was examining it. After a minute, he spoke up, “Those weird signals I picked up earlier are starting to clear up.” He moved his radar towards the Hidden Palace and said, “It looks like they clear up closer to the Hidden Palace. If we go in there, we might be able to use the Warp Ring to get out of here.”

Rainbow Dash spread her wings and flapped up off the ground, saying, “Well, let’s get in there, then, before something else weird happens!” Everyone stood up and began making their way towards the palace, the walk up the stairs seeming very relaxing after the potentially death-defying run they all just had (except for Rainbow, who hovered over everyone’s heads as they went up instead). At the top of the stairs, they went through the archway and, after dodging a pair of flame traps near the entrance, went down the hallway leading into the palace.


HIDDEN, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN


The hallway emptied out into what could be considered the palace’s lobby. Off to their left, the group could more clearly see the light coming in through the hole at the top of the mountain, though it still looked far away. As they walked down the stairs, Rarity commented, “For such a ‘hidden’ palace, this is really quite elegant. And it still appears to be in one piece as well. I am quite impressed.”

Cadance looked at Sonic and asked, “Did you think it was amazing the first time you came here, Sonic?”

Sonic looked back at her and shrugged, “Eh, I guess it kind of went over my head at the time, Cadance. I ended up getting knocked down closer to the lava down below, so after getting across that, I came in through the lower entrance. Not quite as nice a view from down there. Plus I’d just tangled with Eggman, so I sped through here to see if he’d gotten inside the palace yet.”

Cadance replied, “Oh. Well, at least you get the chance to see it now!”

By this time, they had reached the bottom of the stairs and were now walking towards the center of the room. As they reached the center, they all noticed the raised platform there, along with the device sitting in the middle of it and the small, circular roof that had a circular opening in the middle above it. “What’s this?” Twilight asked, looking at the red device on the platform.

Sonic answered, “That’s a teleporter. I used it to get up here from the bottom level, but it can also be used to reach the Sky Sanctuary.” He took a closer look at it before saying, “Looks like it still works, but it probably doesn’t go anywhere now, seeing as the Sky Sanctuary was mostly destroyed after Eggman used the Master Emerald to launch the Death Egg.”

Tails nodded, “And then the rest of it was destroyed when Knuckles fought that Mecha Sonic robot in what was left of it. So either it won’t activate now, or it just leads to open air.”

Spike shivered, “That doesn’t sound like it would be fun.”

Rainbow spoke, “Yeah, yeah. Can we leave yet, Tails?”

The fox glanced down at his radar, which was in his left hand, and said, “We’re almost in the clear. It shouldn’t be too much farther.” He turned and continued walking in the direction of the emerald altar, Sonic and the others following him.

After passing through the archway, the group walked past several columns as they continued on towards the altar room. While they were walking, Shining Armor looked up to his left, where he spotted something that caused him to stop and say, “Whoa.” Everyone else came to a stop upon hearing him and looked up to see a large mural spread across the wall. “Is that tapestry showing…?” Shining wondered.

“It looks like it’s showing Super Sonic squaring off against Eggman for the Master Emerald,” Tails noted.

Sonic crossed his arms, “Huh. I forgot that was up there. Still have no idea who weaved it, though.”

Pinkie looked over at him and tilted her head to the side as she asked, “So you saw it the first time you came here? Which means it’s been here for like a really, REALLY long time?” Sonic nodded in response.

Applejack looked at him and said, “Some blanket predictin’ you’d fight against a total lunatic and then bein’ totally right… Well, ain’t that the weirdest thing?”

Sonic looked back at her and shrugged, “Eh, I’ve seen weirder.” After a few moments, the group turned and continued on towards the deepest known part of the Hidden Palace.

After about a minute, the group arrived at the entrance to the emerald altar, the Master Emerald’s altar directly in front of them in the center surrounded on the sides by seven pedestals. “Ooh, pretty!” Pinkie said.

“Is this the altar? Where’s the Master Emerald?” Twilight asked.

Sonic explained, “Knuckles doesn’t keep it down here anymore, Twilight, since Eggman knows where it is. Guess he figured it’s easier to keep an eye on it at its old shrine than down here or something.”

Tails walked towards the altar, his eyes looking down at his radar. As he reached the front of it, he came to a stop and looked down at the dual screens for a moment. He then smiled, “Hey, it's all clear now!” He reached into his tails and pulled out the Warp Ring; tossing it forward, the ring quickly expanded with a *PHVWOW*. Tails pumped his fist, “All right! We’re good to go!” After a quick celebration, everyone stepped into the Warp Ring’s center, the ring shrinking down and vanishing after everyone was through it.

________________________________________

Reappearing close to where they had stopped the train, Sonic, Tails, Spike, and the ponies looked towards the front of the train to see the original portal they had gone through was beginning to vanish, the image on its surface completely clouded. After only a couple of seconds, the portal collapsed in on itself and disappeared entirely.

Sonic scratched the back of his head with his right hand as he said, “Well, that was a weird venture, but at least that portal’s no longer in the way.”

The others, except for Tails, agreed with him, Spike saying, “Yep! So it’s a straight shot to Canterlot from here on out, right?”


NOT SO SIMPLE AFTER ALL


Tails spoke up, catching everyone’s attention, “Uh, I don’t know about that, Spike. Take a look at this, guys.” Everyone walked over to Tails and looked around him to see that the fox was looking down at his radar again. The bottom screen was displaying readings while the top screen showed the map, currently set to show the train’s path to Canterlot. Looking at the top screen, they could see that several blinking dots had shown up on the map. And as they watched, even more dots began to appear…
> Flickies' Island
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


THREAT LEVEL RISING


Princess Luna slowly took a breath as she flew, her wings flapping at an even pace as she followed close behind her sister. At this point, they had to be halfway to Canterlot, both princesses doing quite well despite how long it had been since either of them had had to fly such a long distance on their own. Magic obviously would have provided a faster means of travel, but with time and space messed up as they were, neither one wanted to risk their teleportation magic misfiring at the moment, so flying was the only other option if they wanted to get to Canterlot first.

Hearing a faint sound somewhere behind her, Luna looked back over her shoulder. She gasped as she came to a stop, hovering in the air, and said, “Celestia, look!” The Sun Princess slowed down and looked back in Luna’s direction, soon seeing what had caught the Lunar Princess’ attention. Looking back across the distance they had flown, both sisters could see space distorting in multiple places, the distortions quickly forming into new portals. Facing forward, Celestia could see more opening up ahead of them, though there appeared to be less in front of them than behind them. Luna looked at Celestia and asked, “What do you suppose is happening?”

Celestia spoke, “If I were to guess, that creature, wherever it is right now, is beginning to accelerate the degradation of time and space between our world and Sonic’s world. All these portals that are forming have to be due to its power.” She narrowed her eyes, “Is it trying to break down the harmony that has been maintained within this rift up until now? Are we running out of time…?”

Luna asked, “Should we go back? Try to seal some of these portals in order to maintain stability?”

Celestia shook her head, “No. We must continue onward towards Canterlot. I am certain the answer to undoing all of this lies there somewhere. We simply have to proceed with caution from here on out; we don’t want to go through one of these portals by accident.” She resumed flying forward after she finished speaking, though she now went at a slightly slower speed in order to have enough time to react in case a portal opened directly in front of her.

Luna flew after Celestia, though she asked, “But what about Twilight Sparkle, Sonic, and the others?”

Celestia was silent a moment before she replied, “I see no reason to change our current plan. We will arrive in Canterlot first to investigate the city to determine if there is any danger present within and keep our little ponies as safe as we can. From there, we will determine the best course of action to follow when they arrive with the Elements of Harmony and the Chaos Emeralds.”

Luna persisted, “But the portals, Celestia… They will not be able to avoid all of them while they are traveling aboard a train.”

Celestia answered, “I am certain they will run into no complications, as long as they remain calm, think about the situation, and listen to each other.”

Meanwhile…

Rainbow hovered over Tails’ head, looking down at the top screen of his radar and the number of blinking dots it displayed. The amount of dots seemed to have stopped climbing a second ago, but there still seemed to be a sizable number of them and, perhaps due to how many there were, the radar couldn’t display the exact location of them all in its current view. “That monster must be going all out to keep us from reaching Canterlot,” Sonic commented. 

“Sure looks that way. You think it was responsible for making that cavern collapse the way it did too?” Shining asked.

Tails looked up at him and said, “I have no idea what caused that, and I’m not sure I want to know. I will say Vector was probably right, though. Someone or something has to be controlling that creature, and whoever it is knows we’re coming.”

Applejack deadpanned, “Really? What makes ya think this ain’t that creature doin’ all this by itself, Tails? It had ta know we’d be takin’ the train or it wouldn’t have reappeared, and this does look like the kinda thing it’s been doin’ so far.”

Tails replied, “That’s the thing, though. Up until now, only one portal has appeared at any one time, and occasionally two have shown up. Now all of a sudden, we’re seeing a whole bunch of portals appear. If this was just that creature, I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t change its strategy so suddenly. There has to be at least one other mind that’s responsible for all this.”

Applejack looked like she was about to offer a retort, but Rainbow spoke up first, “Who cares about that? That thing’s messing up time, and we’ve got to get to Canterlot and meet up with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to stop it!” With that, she shot off from where she was hovering over Tails back towards the train, flying in through the engine’s side window.

Sonic and Applejack looked at each other and then ran over to the train themselves, Sonic placing his hands against the side of the engine and bending forward, allowing Applejack to climb on his back so she could jump up and grab onto the inside of the window. Sonic then leapt up himself, hanging to the earth pony’s right as they both looked in to see Rainbow Dash flapping her wings to stay up while she tried to get the train started. “Rainbow, what do ya think you’re doin’?” Applejack asked after a moment.

The cyan pegasus stopped flapping around at the sound of the apple pony’s voice and turned to look at her and Sonic before saying, “What does it look like I’m doing, AJ? I’m getting the train started because we have to get to Canterlot!”

Sonic asked, “I can see that, but haven’t Tails and Pinkie already taken on that job?”

Rainbow fluttered over and landed in front of him and Applejack, saying, “Well, yeah, but we’ve gotta get moving! I can get us moving twenty percent faster than Tails can, especially since he’d probably want to check everything before starting the train and a whole bunch of other boring stuff too that would keep us from going anywhere. Actually, scratch that; I could get us moving WAY faster than just twenty percent.”

Sonic gave her an odd look as he said, “Yeah, maybe you could, but that totally doesn’t sound like the Tails I know, especially considering how soon we left Ponyville. Even if he did do a safety check and whatnot, he knows how to stay focused on the task at hand; he’ll do what he thinks is necessary at the start and do the rest later. Plus he probably felt doing the full check wasn’t necessary with Pinkie Pie around to help.”

Rainbow shrugged, “So? He’s still a worrywart, Sonic, just like Twilight can be!”

Sonic replied, “Sounds to me like you’re judging Tails based on what you think Twilight might do rather than because you actually know what he’s like.”

Applejack smirked, “He’s got ya there, Dash.”

Before Rainbow could respond, Pinkie Pie suddenly popped out from behind the cyan pegasus and hugged her, saying, “Yeah, Dashie! Tails isn’t silly like that! He’s so quick and focused!”

Rainbow looked back at the pink pony as she let go and stepped back, muttering, “Pinkie Pie, you are so random.”

Sonic looked at Pinkie, seeming a bit confused. “How did you get back there, Pinkie?” he asked.

“Dunno!” the pink pony giggled. A second later, she stood at attention as her ears twitched, her mane and tail shook, and she blew a raspberry. She then gasped, “Something’s about to happen!”


RIOT TRAIN


Applejack gulped, “Uh, what kinda somethin’ would that be, Pinkie?” She soon got her answer when the train’s whistle blew on its own, the whistle somehow sounding suspiciously similar to nails on a chalkboard, causing everyone to wince in pain. While the whistle was blowing, everything started to shift into place on its own, as if being manipulated by some unseen magic.

Outside, everyone recovered from the sound of the train whistle and looked up to see the train suddenly starting to move! It began to move forward, picking up speed as though the throttle had been opened too much. Tails, Spike, and the ponies dashed towards the engine as it started to pass them by, Tails slipping his radar into his right tail while Spike grabbed tightly onto his left tail as he ran.

Sonic and Applejack were still hanging from the window and, at this point, could only watch as the others tried to catch up. When Tails got close enough, Applejack took her right hoof off of the window edge, twisting around slightly and holding her hoof out towards him, saying, “C’mon, Tails, grab on!” The fox made a jump for the hoof, barely managing to grab it with his right hand. Applejack quickly swung him towards Sonic, who used his left hand to push both Tails and Spike inside. Once they were fully inside, Applejack and Sonic looked back at the others, the former calling, “Hurry up, y’all!”

Shining Armor, thanks to his training when he joined the Royal Guard, was the first pony to catch up. Sonic held out his left hand to him; Shining held up his hoof as he leapt up towards it, but he fell short, forcing Sonic to grab him by his hair. The white stallion let out a shout, almost a scream, at feeling his hair being pulled so roughly. “Sorry!” Sonic grunted, swinging him back towards Applejack so she could grab him and they could reposition him.

Cadance could see they were having some difficulty with this, so she spread her wings and took off, flying forward and landing in the cupcake car behind the engine. She then hurried into the engine and poked her head out the right window, using her hooves and magic to help her husband up. She stepped to the side as he fell onto the floor of the engine and sprawled out. “Thank you, Cadance…” he breathed out.

Sonic and Applejack, meanwhile, caught their breaths before looking back at Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rarity. Fluttershy was the first to catch up and, after using her wings to help her off the ground, was helped by Applejack while Twilight ran for Sonic. He grabbed her hoof when she jumped and hoisted her up to the window. Looking inside, she saw Tails, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash trying to get the train to stop while Shining, Spike, and Cadance stood back. The lavender unicorn, while panting, asked, “What’s going on? What happened?”

Rainbow Dash, while trying to pull what Pinkie and Tails had identified as the reverse bar back, called to her, “I didn’t do it, I swear!”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, she didn’t.” He then helped Twilight the rest of the way in and then looked back at Rarity, the fashionista beginning to fall behind. “Come on, Rarity, just a little longer! You can do it!” he cheered, the white mare finding a burst of stamina at his words.

Rarity managed to catch up and leapt up towards Applejack and Sonic, both of them reaching down and grabbing her hooves. As she and Sonic started pulling the fashionista up, Applejack said, “All right, here we go, Rarity. Up ya go ‘n’ then…” She was cut off before she could finish speaking by the engine suddenly shaking, the train rattling as it moved. “Whoa!” Applejack exclaimed as she was forced to use both of her hooves to hang on. Rarity did the same thing after Sonic used his free hand to press her up against the side of the engine, the hedgehog then following suit, the three of them dangling there as something continued to shake the train.

Twilight, Cadance, Shining, and Spike moved to help them while the others kept working to slow the train down, the three ponies holding their hooves down for their friends to grab onto, Spike looking between the three and trying to determine who needed his help more. Because of their situation, no one had yet noticed that a portal had appeared on the tracks in front of the train, not even when the train passed through it and their surroundings changed to what looked like a jungle or forested area with some sunlight streaming down through the canopy, though they did, occasionally, faintly hear the sound of rustling leaves and snapping branches.

After about a minute, Rainbow managed to get the reverser bar unstuck and got ready to pull it back, Pinkie already ready to yank the lever in front of her back while Tails closed the throttle carefully. “Okay, guys! Once we slow down a little more, it should be safe to come inside!” the fox called back, the train’s momentum already starting to decrease.

However, once the train reached a safe speed, something unexpected happened. As Shining was pulling Sonic up, and Cadance and Twilight were doing the same for Rarity and Applejack respectively, the train drove past a sizable tree branch. It had been pushed off to the side slightly, perhaps by the front of the engine, but as the right window reached it, it suddenly snapped back, striking Sonic in the side and knocking him into Rarity and Applejack! The smack was so sudden and so forceful that the three of them lost their grips and went flying towards the back of the train! “NO! Sonic, Applejack, Rarity!” Twilight cried while Shining and Cadance stared in horror as the three of them disappeared from their sight.

Sonic, Applejack, and Rarity immediately started bouncing and rolling as soon as they hit the ground, the Friendship Express’ cars rumbling beside them as they were sent rolling backwards uncontrollably, picking up loose bits of grass, dirt, and stains as they went. Thankfully, none of them ended up going underneath any of the train cars while they were moving, but once they were out of that danger, Sonic came to a stop when he collided with a tree while Rarity and Applejack went a little past the tree, stopping after they crashed through a large bush and landed on some soft but wet moss.


RECOVERING FROM THE FALL


Sonic lay against the tree, groaning slightly as some leaves and something small and pink floated down from it and landed on his head. A moment later, he heard Rarity’s cries and perked up, leaning forward and pressing his hands against the ground to help him stand up quicker. He then walked over to where he could hear Rarity’s wails, walking around the bush she and Applejack had crashed through and going a little past where it was before finding the two mares together. Rarity was sitting up and looking at her hair, running her front hooves through it to try to get the leaves, dirt, and sap out of it, and Applejack was lying down on her front, her right hoof rubbing her neck as she tilted her head from side to side.

After a moment, Applejack sat up, still rubbing her neck as she opened her eyes and let out a soft groan. She soon glanced to her left and saw Sonic coming towards her, stopping a short distance away. She turned her head towards him and said, “Hey, Sugar-hog. Ya feel okay?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Yeah. I’d say you two were fine, but it looks like that’s not entirely the case.” He glanced over at Rarity as he finished speaking, noticing that the white mare had gotten the leaves out of her mane and was now trying to (unsuccessfully) get the dirt and sap out of it.

Applejack looked over at the fashionista and, after a moment, scooted over to her and raised her hooves, placing them on Rarity’s hooves and lowering them before saying, “Rarity, calm down. You’re just gettin’ yer hooves dirty and sticky, and Ah know how much you don’t like either one. Don’t worry; we’ll get ya cleaned up once we figure out where in the Sam Hill we are.”

Rarity calmed down a little at the earth pony’s words and said, “Okay, Applejack. I just… wish I knew why all this happened so suddenly. You don’t suppose…?”

Applejack sighed and said, “Maybe Tails was right when he said that that monster’s bein’ controlled by somepony or something.”

While Applejack was speaking, Sonic was running his left hand across his head, having just noticed that something had landed on it. He brushed off the leaves, but when his hand touched the pink object, he paused for a moment before grabbing it between his thumb and his index finger and bringing it down in front of his face. It was a small card, similar to the business cards that lawyers had. Written on this particular card were four words: ‘Enjoying the scenic route?’

Sonic rolled his eyes before tucking the card in his spines and saying, “Yeah, no doubt about that, Applejack. Come on, we’d better get moving, as long as you two are feeling up to it.”

Applejack spoke, “Ah’m fine. Ya don’t get ta be a good apple farmer by bein’ easy ta knock down, after all!” She looked at Rarity and asked, “How ‘bout you, Rarity?”

The white unicorn moved her limbs a little before standing up and replying, “I believe I will be fine as well, Applejack.” She stepped off the moss and walked towards Sonic, looking around a bit while Applejack stood up and stretched a bit. She looked back at Sonic after a moment and asked, “Do you have any idea where we are, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog shrugged, “Not right now, Rarity. That’s why I think we should get going. We might be able to figure out where we ended up and where the others are.” He noticed one strand of Rarity’s hair sticking out and tapped it with his right index finger as he said, “And hopefully, we’ll find some clean water too.”

Rarity sighed, “That would be just lovely right now.”

Applejack stepped towards the two and said, “Well, let’s go, then! …Any ideas where we should go?”

Sonic jerked his left thumb behind him as he replied, “We should be able to find the train tracks if we head back that way. Then we can just follow them out of here.” As he turned around and started walking, he added, “It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out where we are and where to go once we get out of this forest.” Applejack agreed with that and both she and Rarity trotted after him, going around the bush the two mares had crashed through and heading back the way they rolled.

As they walked, it didn’t take long for Sonic, Rarity, and Applejack to notice that the train tracks had seemingly disappeared, as not only could they not find them, but there was nothing to indicate that they had ever been there in the first place. With no other ideas, they kept walking in a straight line, as the look of the forest suggested that it was unlikely that the train would have had a lot of places to make turns at.


A FAMILIAR SETTING AND A STORY


After a short while of walking, the forest started to get lighter, inspiring them to pick up the pace slightly. It didn’t take long afterwards for the three of them to come to the end of the forest. At the end of the line of trees, they stepped out of the green onto brown soil that was alternated between light and dark brown in a checkerboard pattern. They could also see blue flowers, palm trees, and what appeared to be a mole digging a hole nearby.

“Where are we?” Applejack asked.

While glancing around, Sonic answered, “This looks like the Green Grove on Flicky Island. It’s a good place to hang out.” Before either mare could ask him about the area, he added, “I know where to find some water if anyone wants to wash up.”

Almost immediately, Rarity grabbed onto him with her hooves and desperately said, “Yes, yes please! I really must splash some water on my mane! Please show me where there’s water?” Sonic grinned a little nervously at the way Rarity was clinging onto him, but he couldn’t say no to someone who wanted to take care of their appearance; he did take the time to take good care of his shoes after all. So he got out of the white mare’s grip and began showing her the way, Applejack shaking her head with a slight smirk before following after them.

A few minutes later, Sonic and Applejack were gathered around a small pond, throwing water on their stains while Rarity stood in the pond as she washed her coat, mane, and tail. Applejack finished cleaning what she could, years of growing up on Sweet Apple Acres having taught her to try to use as little water as possible when washing, and looked over at Sonic, the hedgehog kneeling down as he splashed some water on his face with some of it running down the back of his head. After a few seconds, she saw something pink fall down behind him. She called to him, “Hey Sonic, what’s that thing behind ya?”

Sonic looked up at her in confusion for a moment before turning his head to look back over his shoulder, his eyes soon spotting the pink object. He reached back and grabbed it with his left hand and held it up to his face to examine it. He quickly deduced that it was a sponge, although it had some familiar words printed on it. “It’s a sponge, Applejack. But when it landed on my head earlier, it was a card…” he said with a raised eyebrow.

Applejack also raised an eyebrow. “That was a card? Are you sure?” she asked.

Sonic looked up at her, “A sponge wouldn’t land as gently as a leaf. And I know it was a lot thinner than this sponge is.”

Rarity asked, “I don’t suppose you’d allow me to use it for a moment? I still have a little left to do here, and I have a feeling it would be quite helpful.”

Sonic looked at her for a moment before holding it out towards her, “Sure, go ahead.” Rarity took it in her magic and used it to scrub herself, Sonic turning his head to the side and holding up his hand to give her as much privacy as he could.

About a minute later, Rarity released her magical grip on the sponge and struck a pose, saying, “Much better.”

Applejack asked, “Y’all done, Rarity?”

The fashionista looked at her and replied, “Almost, Applejack. I just need to fix my mane.” Applejack let out a small groan at that.

Sonic looked back at her and said, “Well, do what you can. We don’t have any brushes and the nearest beauty parlor is miles away.” He glanced down at the water and, after a moment, asked, “Hey, where’d that sponge go?”

Rarity started to look down as she said, “I dropped it right…” She stopped herself as she realized she could no longer see the cleaning tool. “It… disappeared?” she asked, as if she couldn’t believe what she said either.

“That’s weird. Then again, the fact that it showed up in a forest of all places is weird,” Sonic commented. He then shrugged, “Well, we’ll worry about it later. You said you needed to put your mane in order?”

Rarity looked back at him and said, “Oh, yes. This will just take a minute.” She walked to the edge of the pond and stepped out. She then began to use her magic to make the adjustments to her mane and tail, as well as remove as much water as she could.

While she was doing that, Applejack walked around the pond to Sonic and, when he was looking at her, asked him, “So what’s the deal with this place? Why’s it called ‘Flicky Island’?”

Sonic replied, “Oh, that’s easy. It’s the home of a species of birds called the Flickies. I don’t know if you have them back in Equestria, but they’re kind of special birds here, especially the ones that live on this island since they hail from another dimension.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, “Another dimension? Are you kiddin’ me?”

Sonic answered, “‘Fraid not. That’s why Eggman got real interested in them this one time. He captured them with some kind of machine and put them in his Badniks to help him find the Chaos Emeralds. I found out what he was doing when I paid a visit to the island around that time and Tails, Knuckles, and I freed the Flickies and got the Chaos Emeralds before he could and sent him packing. As far as I know, he hasn’t come back here since then.”

Rarity sighed as she continued to work on her mane and tail, “That Eggman really sounds like quite a cur. I’m quite amazed that Fluttershy didn’t get angrier when you were talking about him and what he does with the animals of your world, Sonic.”

Applejack looked back at Sonic and said, “Well, ya answered mah question. Now…” She stopped short when she heard what sounded like tweeting nearby. “What’s that?” she wondered.

Sonic looked around until he spotted the source: four Flickies, one blue, one red, one pink, and one green, sitting in a nearby tree. He pointed, “Look! Flickies!” He waved up at them, the birds soon noticing him and flying down towards him, the blue and pink Flickies flying normally while the red one dropped down and seemingly bounced towards him and the green one was the slowest one to fly towards Sonic.

Rarity walked over to Sonic and Applejack and looked the birds over. “My, they certainly are cute, aren’t they?” she asked.

Sonic nodded, “Yep. And maybe they can help us find the others.”

Applejack shrugged, “Ah guess it’s worth a shot.” She cleared her throat and looked at the birds, “Uh, hi there, y’all.” The four Flickies looked at her curiously. “Hey, y’all haven’t seen any other ponies on this here island now, have ya?” she asked. The Flickies chirped together in confusion. “Ya know, like me ‘n’ Rarity right here? Or a dragon or a fox?” Again, the Flickies voiced their confusion.

Sonic thought for a moment before snapping his fingers. “I’ve got an idea. Hang on,” he said before suddenly taking off. Applejack, Rarity, and the Flickies waited about a minute before Sonic came back, carrying what appeared to be sand in his arms. He dropped it on the ground in front of the Flickies.

Rarity was quick to notice the bits of sand that still clung to him and exclaimed, “Sonic! Now you need another bath!”

Sonic looked at her and said, “Relax, Rarity. It’s just sand; it’ll come off nicely.” He then crouched down in front of the sand and began to draw in it with his right index finger, making crude sketches of Tails, Spike, and a pony. He then looked at the Flickies and asked, “Have you guys seen any of these?” The birds looked at his pictures and shook their heads. “What about this?” Sonic asked as he brushed away his drawings and started a new one, this one of the Friendship Express. This time, the Flickies nodded and began to point their heads to the west. They then waved with their wings before flying in that direction, Sonic, Rarity, and Applejack following them as they assumed that was what they were telling them. 

As they ran through the Green Grove after the Flickies, the three of them saw more of the island’s Flickies. Some looked like they were lazing about, others appeared as though they were busy with something, and others looked a bit upset (they were probably the ones who were most disturbed by a train passing through the area). Soon, the Flickies came to a stop and turned back to the trio, the four of them hovering above a giant floating ring with a swirling blue vortex in its opening. Applejack, Rarity, and Sonic came to a stop in front of it, Rarity asking, “Isn’t this the Warp Ring?”

Sonic replied, “Not quite. It’s one of the rings the Flickies use to travel between dimensions. We should be able to use it, though, to get across the island quicker. That’s probably why they led us here.”

Applejack looked at the ring and said, “If that’s the case, let’s go, then!” Sonic nodded and ran towards the ring, jumping into it with Applejack and Rarity following behind him. Once they were all through, the Flickies flew to the front of the ring and looked at the vortex within it, all of them hoping that the three of them would find what they were looking for.


NOT QUITE A TEMPLE OF DOOM


After traveling through the vortex for what seemed like seconds, Sonic, Applejack, and Rarity reached the end of the path and were deposited onto solid ground by another giant ring. Looking at the ground, they saw that it still had a checkerboard pattern to it, but now it was blue and yellow and appeared to be made of stone. Looking around, they saw that the area they were in looked like ancient ruins, plants growing on or out of the stonework in some places. “Now where are we?” Applejack asked.

Sonic answered, “Not sure what it’s called; I think I heard Eggman say Rusty Ruin at one point. It’s some kind of ancient ruin that he pulled up out of the ocean, probably as part of his search for the Chaos Emeralds.”

Rarity looked at one of the kelp plants growing on the wall as she said, “It certainly looks like it was underwater at some point. I hope he at least drained it when he brought it up.”

Sonic looked at her as he replied, “I didn’t get any unwelcome surprises of that nature when I followed him here.” Looking back towards the ruins, he said, “If the Flickies saw the train go through the ring leading here, then the others must be around here somewhere. We’ll have to watch our step, though; Eggman made sure to fix up all the old traps in this place.”

Applejack sarcastically commented, “Well, ain’t that sweet o’ him?” Sonic and Rarity shared a look before the three of them started walking, searching for any sign of their friends.

After a while of searching the Rusty Ruin, during which the three of them had to dodge several swinging mace balls and hidden flamethrowers, they were walking through a flat section of the ruins when they heard what sounded like talking nearby, which caused them to stop and listen. Rarity spoke after a moment, “It sounds like… Tails! And Twilight! And Spikey-Wikey! But where are they?”

Sonic turned his head to the left, looking at a row of broken columns past some fans in the ground. “I’m gonna say… over there!” he said before running over to the fans and jumping on one, spinning around on top of it and being sent in the direction of the broken columns. He ended up smashing right through them.

Applejack and Rarity jumped over the fans and ran after him, the latter saying, “Wait for us, Sonic!” When they got past the remains of the destroyed pillars, they found Sonic standing with Tails, Twilight, Spike, Shining Armor, and Cadance near a large broken pillar. The now-found friends quickly noticed the two ponies approaching, especially when Rarity exclaimed, “Tails! Spike! Twilight! Princess Cadance and Shining Armor! You’re all safe!”

Twilight said, “Applejack, Rarity! You’re both all right too!”

The two ponies stopped next to Sonic, Applejack saying, “We were so worried about y’all!”

Shining Armor chuckled, “Well, WE were worried about YOU! I mean, falling off of a moving train? That’s rough! Like, really rough!”

Applejack smiled, but then it faded as she asked, “Where’s everypony else?”

Sonic nodded, “I was wondering that too.”

Tails started, “Well, see what happened was, after you guys fell off the train, I ended up letting go of the throttle and ran over to the window. I managed to look out the window, but I didn’t see any of you. I thought the throttle would’ve stayed where it was, but it must’ve opened somehow since the train started going faster. And that’s when things really got weird.”

Sonic cocked his head to the side, “What do you mean?”

Twilight explained, “When Tails tried to go back and help Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie, the train started acting like a spell had actually been cast on it. The shaking was bad before, but it got worse at that moment, and not long after we got out of that forest, the tracks suddenly turned. It was so sharp it nearly threw all of us off too.”

Shining nodded and continued for her, “But we managed to stay on the train, at least somewhat, and after we passed through to these ruins, it started bumping into the stones scattered around here. Eventually, it managed to throw us all off and we hit the ground. Pretty hard, I might add. After we recovered from that, we had to take shelter in an alcove since it started raining for a little while and because Cadance wanted to make sure we were all okay.”

Cadance rolled her eyes, saying, “Shining, now I’m fairly certain your parents taught you and Twilight to not go running around when you’re hurt without getting it looked at first.” The white stallion blushed a bit, noticing the motherly tone Cadance used when she said that. The pink alicorn then said, “After the rain stopped, we started looking to see if we could find the train, but we haven’t found any tracks yet.”

Sonic grunted, “Same thing happened with us.”

Rarity nodded, “Yes. We tried to find the train tracks too, but we didn’t have any more success.”

Spike groaned, “So someone IS messing with us now.”

Applejack looked at Tails and said, “Guess you were right after all, Tails.”

Tails rubbed the back of his head as he replied, “Well, I don’t think that would have helped us avoid this anyway, Applejack. I just hope the train hasn’t been derailed yet.”

Rarity sighed as she looked around, “So where do we go now? We haven’t seen very many of those Flicky birds around here.”

Twilight murmured, “Oh yeah, Tails called them Flickies too.”

Sonic thought out loud, “I wonder if those tracks are really gone or if they’re just hidden?”

Spike asked, “What, you mean like with magic? Because Twilight could make an illusion like that in her sleep. What was happening with the train though, that’s a totally different story.”

Tails raised his right hand to his chin as he heard them talking. “Hmm… I have an idea.” He reached into his right tail and pulled out his radar. The others watched him as he dragged the stylus he’d made for it across its lower screen for a minute. He muttered to himself as he worked, “If I just change this, reverse that, and make an alteration here…” A few moments later, something began to appear on the otherwise blank top screen. “Yes! I’ve got something!” he exclaimed.

Everybody crowded around to see what it was. “What is that?” Shining asked as he looked at what appeared to be a greenish-yellow cloud making a trail across the screen.

Tails explained, “It’s a magic trail. Sonic and Spike were right; those tracks were made up of magic, probably not very complex magic, but there’s another kind of magic, probably from whatever spell was cast on the train. That and the magic in those train tracks are making up this trail. We should be able to follow it to the others!”

Sonic smiled, “Well, you’ve got the radar, Tails. Lead the way!” With that, the combined group started moving through the ruins again, everyone following behind Tails while the fox alternated between looking where he was going and down at his radar. The lack of a map made the path a little confusing at times, but considering what they were tracking, there weren’t a lot of surprises in terms of where they had to go to stay on the trail.

Eventually, after dodging more traps in the ruins and running past the area containing the remains of the statue that Eggman fought Sonic with, the group came across another one of the island’s giant rings. According to Tails’ radar, the trail stopped at the ring, so they figured that meant it had gone through the ring. They quickly did the same, leaping into the ring’s vortex and leaving the Rusty Ruin behind.


CARNIVAL TIME?


At the other end of their trip through the ring, the group landed in a colorful area that was clearly not a natural creation. The floor they were standing on had a green and blue checkerboard pattern like the other locations, but it almost looked like it might be shiny. The rest of the area had a variety of colors, particularly red, orange, white, and yellow. “What is this place?” Shining Armor asked.

“It’s the Spring Stadium, Shining. Eggman built it,” Tails said, pointing down at a nearby deflated balloon that had Eggman’s face on it.

“Yeah. No idea why he built it, though,” Sonic added.

“Maybe to help him catch Flickies?” Twilight suggested. She looked down at the ground, “This pattern does look like the other areas of the island we’ve seen.”

Applejack spoke up, “Yeah, that’s somethin’ Ah’ve been wonderin’ about. What is it with this checkerboard pattern? Here Ah can see it, but how does the soil in the Green Grove turn out like that? And the ground in that ruin? It all looks like somethin’ Discord would make.”

While configuring his radar, Tails responded, “I don’t know, Applejack. The ground in the Rusty Ruin could’ve been tiled like that by the ancient civilization that lived there before, but there could be a lot of reasons for the Green Grove’s soil looking like that.” He messed about with his radar a little more before saying, “Okay, I’ve got a lock on the magic trail again. Although the traces of magic are getting weaker, I can definitely say that the train passed through here.”

Rarity asked, “Is there enough left to form a trail?”

Tails replied, “It looks like it.”

Spike, who was sitting on Twilight’s back, smiled, “So we should be able to keep moving like this, right?”

Sonic nodded, “Yep. But we’ll still have to watch our step. There are some traps that poke up out of the ground around here, and there are also springs hidden in the floor in some places.” With that warning in mind, Tails once again walked in front of the group, leading the way into the Spring Stadium.

As they wandered through the Eggman-built facility, they had to keep an eye out as they walked since, like Sonic said, the floor wasn’t entirely safe in places. They had to skip around in areas where there were several holes in the floor to avoid being poked by spikes, avoid areas where there were bigger holes in the floor to avoid spears, and each of them had at least one amusing incident with the bumpers and/or springs set up in places. Eventually, though, the magic trail they were tracking on Tails’ radar began to thin out before being lost entirely.

When Tails pointed this out to the others, Twilight asked, “Now what do we do? I thought that trail would’ve led us straight to Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy.”

Cadance spoke, “There has to be something around here that can point us in the direction we need to go. We just have to find it.”

Shining looked off to his left and saw something in the distance. “Hey, are those rainbows over there?” he asked. Everyone followed his gaze to see that there appeared to be flashes of rainbows appearing and disappearing somewhere up ahead.

“Eggman would never willingly put a rainbow anywhere in or on one of his bases,” Sonic noted.

“Then that’s gotta be Rainbow Dash! We’d better see what she’s up to!” Applejack said. Everyone agreed and started making their way towards the rainbows, going down a winding slide and leaping around more traps as they went.

They soon reached the spot where Shining had seen the rainbows, and sure enough, they found that it was Rainbow Dash making them. However, they saw that Pinkie was there as well, and she was being her normal self, bouncing on (or rather off) the bumpers and saying, “Boingy, boingy, boingy!” And all the while, Rainbow Dash was flying around, trying to catch her and just failing each time she came close to grabbing her.

A couple of seconds after the group arrived on the scene, Rainbow let out a loud groan and said, “Come ON, Pinkie! We gotta go!”

The pink pony bounced up and wrapped herself around a blue balloon, the balloon somehow still floating even with Pinkie holding onto it. “Aw, but this is so much fun, Dashie! All these balloons and bouncy things and everything! Except for those balloons that have that meanie Eggman on them! Those aren’t fun!”

Rainbow persisted, “Pinkie, this isn’t the time! Fluttershy’s all by herself, and we still don’t know what happened to Sonic and the others! We need to find them!” She heard a throat clearing nearby and turned her head to find the group standing there. “Uh, okay… That’s… Never mind.”

Pinkie, who was hanging onto the balloon from the bottom of it now, turned her head to look too and grinned, “Hey guys!” She let go suddenly and fell to the ground, flipping around in mid-fall to land on her hooves. She then said, “You see, Dash? Some things DO come to you if you just wait!”

Sonic and Tails looked at her oddly while Spike and the ponies just looked at each other knowingly for a moment. Applejack then looked at Rainbow Dash and asked, “Glad to see both o’ y’all are okay, but where’s Fluttershy?”

Pinkie quickly interjected, “She’s still on the train!”

Rainbow sighed, “And we would still be too, if it wasn’t for Pinkie jumping out of the window. After she got the throttle closed, she went over to the window while I took care of the rest of the whole train-stopping thing and she got really excited when she saw this… place. I barely turned my back for a second, but the next thing I knew, she was gone! I figured she must’ve fallen off since we went over a hill in that time, so I finished what I was doing and went after her, but she… well, you must’ve seen what she was doing just now. I’ve been chasing her around ever since!”

Sonic asked, “What happened to the train?”

Rainbow shrugged, “It must not have come to a stop or started acting weird again, because it kept going after I flew off of it and, when I stopped trying to catch Pinkie for a second and looked for it, I couldn’t find it! It must be somewhere else now, and hopefully it’s stopped there, wherever it is.”

Tails spoke up, “Well, if it kept going the way it’s been going so far, I think I know where it went.”

Rainbow looked up at that, getting up in his face as she asked, “You do?! Where?! We’ve gotta get there right away!”

Tails pulled back from the cyan mare, saying, “T-Take it easy, Rainbow. I’m sure Fluttershy is okay, but we’ll know soon enough.” He looked at Sonic and asked, “Do you remember where the next ring is?”

Sonic replied, “I think so. Let’s go!” With that, he took the lead, the others, including Pinkie Pie, following behind him through the Spring Stadium. After a few minutes, they came across another giant ring and went through it, Rainbow flying into it and Pinkie bouncing into it while everyone else jumped into it.


WINTER WONDERLAND


The group soon exited the ring’s vortex, finding themselves in a land full of snow. Thankfully, they landed on dry ground that was in a checkerboard pattern, this one being light blue and gray. Looking around, it didn’t appear Fluttershy was in the immediate vicinity. “Fluttershy! Fluttershy, darling! Can you hear me?” Rarity called.

“She must not be close by. With as quiet as this place is, she should’ve heard that,” Tails noted.

Sonic looked at Twilight and asked, “She wouldn’t go far from the train, would she?”

Twilight shook her head, “Not unless she had a really good reason too. Unless there’s something here that could give her that reason, she’s probably still with the train.”

Shining rubbed his left hoof against his right foreleg as he said, “Then we’d better get moving. It’s not too cold out here, but we shouldn’t stay here too long.”

Rainbow spoke up, “Hold up, dudes! I’ll fly up and see if I can spot the train from the sky!” Without waiting for a response, she flew up high above the winter wonderland and started looking down below, searching for the train. She soon saw what she was looking for and flew back down to the ground and said, “I saw it! There’s a big pine tree in the center of this place! It stopped there!” She then took off again, wanting to make sure Fluttershy was okay while the others started heading where she had directed them.

It took crossing an ice river and sliding down a few ice-covered slopes in addition to all the running, but the group made it to the center of the wintery area in a relatively short time. There they saw the pine tree Rainbow had mentioned, bigger than the other trees they had seen so far and sitting in the middle of a snow-covered area, which looked similar to the area where Sonic and Eggman fought on this part of Flicky Island, at least in terms of size. And there, behind the trees on the ledge overlooking the clearing was the train they had been searching for.

As they got closer, they saw more Flickies flying around the tree as well as Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy standing in the clearing near the tree. When they were closer, they could the two of them talking. “But Rainbow Dash, this is really important to the Flickies,” Fluttershy was saying.

“Yeah, well, none of it is going to matter if we don’t stop that monster that’s messed everything up! We gotta leave, Fluttershy!” Rainbow replied.

“I can’t just abandon little birdies when they’re asking for help,” Fluttershy murmured.

Rainbow’s response was cut off by Rarity suddenly exclaiming, “Fluttershy!” The two pegasi turned to look at the fashionista as she rushed towards them and wrapped the timid pegasus in a hug. “Thank goodness you’re all right!” she said.

Fluttershy, while surprised, managed to say, “H-Hello, Rarity. Yes, I’m okay.”

Rainbow looked at the others as they approached and said, “Hey, you guys made it!”

Sonic replied as they stopped near the three ponies, “Yep. So what’s going on here?”

Rainbow answered, “Fluttershy doesn’t want to leave yet. She says these birds need help with this tree and she wants to help them.”

Fluttershy, having been released from Rarity’s hug, explained, “The Flickies want to decorate this tree and make it look really pretty. They’re saying that it’s something they do at this time of year and it will bring back the one thing that’s missing.”

Twilight tilted her head to the side, “What are they missing?”

Fluttershy answered, “They’re saying it’s supposed to be snowing here, but it isn’t and they’re worried.”

Sonic glanced up as he said, “Come to think of it, it WAS snowing last time Tails and I were here. Like, the whole time we were here.”

Fluttershy nodded, “They said that, if they decorate the tree, they’ll be able to bring the snow back.”

Tails asked, “And they need help getting the decorations up?”

Fluttershy shook her head, “No. They’re saying that some bad robots came and took their decorations. They were really upset about it, so I was trying to calm them down. I don’t know how else to help them.”

Applejack looked at Sonic and asked, “Sonic, didn’t you say that Eggman would put animals like the Flickies in his robots to power ‘em? Ah thought you saved all the Flickies when Eggman was here?”

Sonic answered, “I did, Applejack, but the robots patrolling Eggman’s base here didn’t have any animals powering them. Some of them must’ve survived the destruction of Eggman’s base. Those are the only Badniks I can think of that could still be working here.”

Fluttershy flew over to him and asked, “Can we get the decorations they stole from the Flickies back?”

Sonic replied, “Sure, it’s no problem.” He looked at Tails and Twilight and asked, “Right?”

Tails quickly nodded while Twilight thought for a moment before replying, “Sure.”

Rainbow exclaimed, “What?! Sonic, Twilight, we don’t have time for this! We’ve got a monster to stop, remember?!”

Sonic looked at her and said, “Dash, relax. This won’t take long.”

Rainbow retorted, “Yeah, that’s what we thought about that cave too, and look how that turned out! So they need help getting some decorations back for a tree. It can wait until we’re done! This is more important!”

Sonic retorted, “Really? Because I beg to differ.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Sonic answered, “Look, I realize we have bigger things to worry about right now,” he raised his left hand to gesture at the Flickies hovering around, “but the Flickies are my friends, you know, and Fluttershy wants to help them bring the snow back. That’s enough, isn’t it? Just because it seems like it’s a minor thing doesn’t mean we can just turn a blind eye to them.”

Twilight glanced off to the side as she thought, “That’s true. But even so, I’ve seen it happen before.”

Cadance spoke up, “I would have to agree with Sonic, Rainbow Dash. The Flickies would like our help so that they can do something special they, as Fluttershy mentioned, do often. We’re here now, so we can spare some time to help them now. It’s the sort of thing a friend would do for someone else.”

Rainbow groaned, “Ugh, fine. But we’re leaving right away after we’re done helping them!”

Pinkie piped up, “Great! So let’s split up and get the goodies back and save the Flickies’ special time of the year!”

Shining spoke up, “Listen, before we get started, let’s try to work as efficiently as possible. If anyone finds anything, bring it back here right away. We won’t start decorating the tree until the Flickies confirm we’ve found everything.” He looked at Fluttershy and said, “I hope you’ll be able to help us with that, Fluttershy.”

The shy pegasus smiled, “I’ll do my best.”

Once everyone was clear on what to do, Rainbow Dash flew off to start searching while the others began to fan out and search. Before he left, Sonic looked at Pinkie, the pink pony beginning to bounce off to go searching, and called, “Hey, Pinkie, wait a second!”

The party pony stopped in mid-bounce and, after landing, trotted over to him and Tails and asked, “Yes, Sonic?”

Sonic replied, “Listen, can you and Tails go check the train and try to get it ready while the rest of us search? Rainbow seems irritated enough about this whole thing already; I’d like to not make it worse, if that’s possible.”

Tails sighed, “I can’t argue with that. Don’t worry; we’ll have it ready in time.” Pinkie nodded in agreement.

Sonic smiled, “Thanks, you two. We’ll be back soon!” With that, he took off to do his part in the search while Tails and Pinkie headed up to the engine to get to work.

A short while later…

Everyone met up back at the large pine tree, a total of five different decoration pieces having been collected. As Sonic had thought, the Badniks that had stolen the Flickies’ decorations had come from Eggman’s main base, and they had been in a sorry condition, with cracked exteriors, exposed wiring, and not functioning as well as they used to; it was a miracle they had made it as far as they had from the old base, though it seemed they were just wandering around aimlessly at that point.  Two of the four-legged robots had run off with the ornaments, which were recovered by Twilight, Spike, and Rarity, and three of the blue flying robots had stolen the ribbons, garland, and bells, which were respectively retrieved by Cadance and Shining Armor, Sonic and Applejack, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

As they gathered around the tree, Tails and Pinkie Pie came down from the train and Fluttershy talked to the Flickies, who told her they had found everything. Thus, with quite a bit of help from Tails, Cadance, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash, the group helped the Flickies decorate the tree, wrapping the garland and ribbon around it and hanging the ornaments on the branches. Once done, they all stepped back to admire their work.

“The Flickies certainly seem pleased,” Rarity noted, looking at all the birds fluttering around the tree.

“Oh yes, they seem very happy now,” Fluttershy nodded.

Rainbow looked up and asked, “So… when is this snow they mentioned going to start?”

Tails looked up at the tree and held his left hand up to his chin. “Hmm… it almost seems like it’s missing something,” he said after a moment.

Spike looked up at him and asked, “Like what?”

Sonic looked at the top of the tree for a second and then his eyes trailed down to his left to Twilight’s cutie mark. “I know what it is,” he said. He pointed at the six-pronged star, “It needs one of these on top.”


THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT


Twilight looked down at her flank for a moment before turning and looking up at the tree. She couldn’t deny it looked a bit empty up on the top. She charged her magic into her horn and, after a moment, a lavender six-pronged star floated up out of it and up towards the tree, coming to rest on the very top. There it pulsed for a few seconds before it glowed brightly and released a wave of energy. A second later, snow, or to be more accurate diamond dust, began to fall from the sky!

Everyone was amazed by this display of magic, the kind that only the holidays can bring to others. Even the Flickies could feel it since they seemed even happier now, flying around the group and chirping happily. After playing with the Flickies and enjoying the scene for a minute, Cadance spoke up, “After everything we went through on this island, to be able to see this wonderful scene… it makes being separated and having to go through trap-filled areas all worthwhile. I only wish we could be a part of it longer.”

Twilight looked at her and said, “I do too, Cadance, because you’re right. This really was worth all the trouble that happened up to this point. But we still have a job to do.”

Sonic walked over and nodded, “Right. We made it happen; now we’ve gotta make sure it lasts for the Flickies.” He turned to Tails and Pinkie Pie and asked, “Are we all ready to go?”

Tails smiled, “Of course! Pinkie and I did our part while you guys were gone. We checked everything, set it all up, and got a fire going.” He gestured with his left hand towards the train, indicating the steam coming from the engine’s stack.

Pinkie grinned, “We are good to go!”

Shining said, “Then we should go. To preserve this moment along with every other moment we’ve ever had.” With that, the group made their way to the train, Tails carrying Pinkie with him up to the engine and Rainbow Dash flying up behind him. Everyone else made their way up a nearby slope to reach the train. They all climbed aboard the engine, Tails doing one last check on everything before getting the train going.

As the train started to move and follow the tracks in front of it, Sonic and a few of the ponies looked out the windows towards the back to see the magically created tracks fading away as the caboose followed behind the rest of the cars. The tracks led them up to the side of the island’s volcano and, thankfully, around it before straightening out and going to a portal.

As they approached their exit, Tails and some of the ponies went to the left window while Sonic, Spike, and the rest of the ponies went to the adjacent cupcake car and looked out the left side. As they took one last look at the tree they helped decorate, they all waved to the Flickies, the birds hovering as they waved back to them. They continued waving for a short while even after the train had gone through the portal, the last of the tracks fading after it had gone through, before returning to their tree. This time of the year was always special for them, but this year it was all the more special. Not only had they reunited with old friends and made some new ones, but this year they had their own star of night.

A star with royal beauty bright.
> Final Fever
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


BACK ON THE RIGHT TRACK


The Friendship Express emerged from a portal onto the train tracks leading to Canterlot, its passengers all securely on board. The portal disappeared after the caboose had come through the Flicky Island end and was on the tracks with the rest of the train, which moved at about the same speed it had when it left the station in Ponyville. Although Fluttershy had told Rainbow Dash that the train stopped on its own when it arrived in the Diamond Dust Zone and neither Tails nor Pinkie Pie had found anything unusual when they were getting it ready, everyone had agreed that they didn’t want to chance a repeat of what had happened earlier so soon.

Everyone remained standing where they had been when they were seeing the Flickies off, Tails, Pinkie, Twilight, Shining Armor, Princess Cadance, and Applejack up front in the engine while Sonic, Spike, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity were in the adjacent car ready to help when needed. Sonic, who was leaning with his back against the wall next to the open door to the engine, called, “How’re we looking, Tails?”

Tails, who was looking down at his radar while Pinkie piloted the train, called back after a moment, “The train itself seems to be fine, but it looks like that little detour set us back a bit. According to my map, we’re close to where we stopped initially.”

Shining Armor asked, “Do you have any idea where we even went to end up on Flicky Island, Tails?”

The fox looked up and shook his head, “No. I’m assuming those magically-created tracks branched off from the Canterlot route and we just didn’t notice due to the way the train was acting. At least that’s my theory; I’ve calibrated my radar several times now, but I can’t pick up any traces of magic or the portal we traveled through.”

Twilight asked, “So whoever is controlling that creature specifically did all that just to slow us down and made it all disappear once we were out?”

Tails replied, “It seems that way.” Stealing another glance down at his radar, he added, “It looks like even the portal we used to get back here has closed up without a trace.”

Cadance asked, “Do you think there’s anything we should do differently, Tails?”

The two-tailed fox scratched the back of his head with his right hand, “I’m not sure there’s much we could do differently at this point, Cadance.”

Rainbow, who was lying down next to the other side of the door, spoke up, “I’ll tell you what we could do differently! We could forget about taking the train to Canterlot since we can’t avoid anything that shows up right in front of us and me and Sonic just take everypony to Canterlot ourselves! We’d be much faster and we’d be able to avoid any portals opening up way better than this train can!”

Sonic looked over at her and asked, “So you think we should just strand the train here while you and I run everyone to Canterlot one at a time?” He rolled his eyes, “Yeah, that sounds like a REAL efficient use of our time and energy, Dash.”

Rainbow climbed to her hooves and retorted, “I don’t hear YOU coming up with any ideas, Sonic!”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Yeah, because I can’t think of anything that would be better than what we’re doing right now. We’re going slower than I would normally prefer, yes, but at this point, this train is probably the best way for us to get to Canterlot.”

Rainbow argued, “We’re not far from Ponyville! You and I could go back and get one of those carts from Sweet Apple Acres and pile everypony in it! You can then pull it and I’ll fly above you and keep watch so that nothing weird happens!”

Applejack, having heard enough of this argument, stuck her head through the doorway and asked, “And what if somethin’ unexpected happens when y’all are doin’ that anyway, Rainbow Dash? Even if Sonic’s pullin’ a cart filled with ponies, ain’t no guarantee he’s gonna be able to stop on a bit if a portal opens up in front o’ him. And if one opens up in front of you, how are you gonna be able to stop in time if you’re flyin’? Ah don’t like not gettin’ ta Canterlot right away either, but Ah gotta agree that this is the best thing right now. At least with the train, we have somethin’ safe ta come back to when we come across these portals.”

Rarity nodded, “Oh yes, I much rather prefer having a safe train to come back to, with its carpeted floors and seats, to having to rest on ground that is so white that one can hardly tell what is on it. I’m certain Fluttershy agrees with me.” The shy pegasus gave an almost imperceptible nod at Rarity’s words.

Rainbow fell back on her haunches, groaning, “All right, fine, I get it! Until we can figure something else out, we’ll keep riding the train! I just wish it could get us to Canterlot right now!”

Tails spoke up, “Believe me, Rainbow Dash, we all do. Right now, though, we need to be patient and stay alert. At this point, there’s no telling when something could happen.”


ANOTHER COMPLICATION


Almost immediately, as if on cue, a nearly invisible wave suddenly passed over the train, causing it to shake and forced it to slow to a stop on its own and Tails’ radar started to go wild. Sonic, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy moved to the engine, everybody standing alert while Tails checked his radar. As they all stood in the engine, Sonic commented, “I hate when that happens.”

Twilight looked at Tails and asked, “Tails, what’s going on?!”

While still looking down at his radar, the fox answered, “Some kind of distorted time wave! It doesn’t look like anything we’ve seen so far! If I’m looking at this right, this is really bad…”

Applejack spoke, “Uh, ain’t time already distorted, Tails? What makes this wave thingy so different from what’s happened to yer world and Equestria?”

Tails looked up and said, “I think there are certain points in history that are helping to maintain the stability of this white world and everything in it. You know, there are a lot of significant events that have happened in your world. T-The rise of Nightmare Moon, the founding of Equestria, that whole thing with the changelings… It’s kind of hard to explain, but those are some examples of important moments that make up everything we know.”

Fluttershy meekly wondered, “Um, how important are these important moments, Tails?”

Sonic spoke up, “I think he’s saying they’re so important that, if anything majorly bad were to happen to them, we’d all be in danger of being erased, Fluttershy.” He looked at Tails and asked, “Is that what you mean, Tails?”

Tails shrugged, “Yeah, basically. Right now, the fact that these moments in time still exist are the main things that are holding this white world together. If anything happens to even one of them, this whole world and everything in it could cease to exist!”

Rarity gasped dramatically, “What?!”

Twilight asked, “But if that creature is responsible for this, wouldn’t it be erased as well?”

Tails was about to answer when Pinkie Pie butted in, “Don’t be silly, Twilight! That big mean monster put us all in this world, so it has to know what will happen to everything in it! That’s why it’s in Canterlot: so it’ll be safe when the rest of us disappear!”

Tails looked back at her for a moment before saying, “Uh, I don’t know about Canterlot being a safer place right now, Pinkie, but I will agree that it has to be somewhere where it and whoever’s controlling it won’t be affected by the reality shift.”

Spike asked, “Reality shift?”

Tails looked down at him and said, “Well, maybe. I mean, if something didn’t happen that was supposed to happen, that would have a huge impact on everything that’s supposed to follow.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. What if Celestia and Luna didn’t stop Discord, or if they didn’t discover the Elements of Harmony in the first place? No doubt Equestria would’ve become a very different place than it is today.”

Rainbow Dash leapt up, flapping her wings as she exclaimed, “That’s it! This train isn’t going to cut it anymore! Now we definitely need to get to Canterlot right away and stop this thing before it messes things up any more!”

Tails looked up at her and said, “No, I don’t think so, Rainbow Dash. We are NOT abandoning this train and we do NOT need to get to Canterlot right away.”

Rainbow protested, “But you just said that time and everything we know are in serious danger right now! The only way to stop it all is to do something about that monster, right?!”

Tails shook his head, “Not necessarily.” Looking back down at his radar, he began to fiddle with it as he explained, “We have no idea what the situation in Canterlot is and this is a more urgent matter. Something is specifically out of place in a particularly important point in time. If we don’t do something about this, there might not BE a Canterlot to get to!”

Princess Cadance asked, “What are you doing, Tails?”

The fox answered, “I’m trying to locate the source of that distorted time wave with my radar. It had to originate from somewhere; if I can get a lock on it, we should be able to use the Warp Ring to go straight to the source of the disturbance and correct it.”

Shining Armor thought to himself, “All this time traveling and setting right what’s going wrong… Gaffer would go nuts if I told him about all of this. He always seemed like he was into this kind of thing. I wonder what he’s up to nowadays, come to think of it. Poindexter and 8-Bit said he was hanging out with some weird pony during the Fall Formal Gala, but…”

The stallion was jerked out of his thoughts when a beeping sound came from Tails’ radar. He looked towards the fox as Fluttershy murmured, “Is… that a good sound, Tails?”

Tails, who was already retrieving the Warp Ring from his right tail, replied, “Yeah, it is, Fluttershy. Don’t worry; that sound is just my radar telling me that it’s located where that time wave originated from. Like I said, now we can just use the Warp Ring to get to its location.”

Sonic smiled and held his right thumb up, “Leave it to you, Tails! Got any idea where we’re heading?”

As he held up the Warp Ring in his right hand, the fox replied, “All my radar is showing is a collection of numbers; it’s not actually showing the exact location of the origin. However, if my hunch is correct…”

________________________________________


PARADISE... IN DANGER?


The Warp Ring deposited the group onto what felt like metallic ground, everybody standing up straight seconds after landing. Looking around, they saw that they were standing in what appeared to be a metallic, futuristic park. While the ground they were standing on made up a bright blue metallic structure that seemed to go on for quite a while, it seemed as though it was being overtaken by nature, as there were miles of trees off in the distance and the bright blue sky was clearly visible from where they were standing, along with mechanical palace-like structures beyond the trees. Nearby, they could see fountains, mechanical plants, and animals playing without a care in the world. Truly, it was a paradise that was found.

Fluttershy gasped, “Oh my… This is… so beautiful!”

Rarity nodded, “It’s absolutely gorgeous, darling!” She looked at Sonic, “Do you know where we are, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog thought for a moment before replying, “Yeah. I’m pretty sure this is Eggman’s old base on the Little Planet.”

Twilight gawked and looked at Sonic at this. “Dr. Eggman’s base looked like THIS?!” she exclaimed.

Sonic looked back at her and shrugged, “Well, it WAS Eggman’s base at one point. This is probably what it became after I recovered the Time Stones and sent him packing. I might’ve run through it on my way to reach him after I got the two Time Stones he had back, I don’t know. I was too focused on getting him off the planet to pay much attention to where I was.” Looking back at the area, he added, “I can guarantee, though, that the other future wouldn’t look anywhere near as pretty as this does.”

Twilight nodded in thought and turned to look around as well. “So we’re in the Little Planet’s future? Amazing…” she murmured.

Spike heard her and nodded, “Yeah. I can kind of see what Silver meant now.”

Shining Armor spoke up, “Whoa, whoa, hold on now! What’s all this talk about a ‘Little Planet’ and ‘Time Stones’? Did I miss something?”

Tails, who was looking down at the readings being displayed on the top screen of his radar, made a mental note of the sequence of numbers displayed on the bottom screen (11191993) before saying, “Sort of, but you and Princess Cadance weren’t around for when the matter came up earlier. The Little Planet is basically a natural satellite that’s home to the Time Stones. It shows up over Never Lake for one month every year and does not appear again for the rest of the year, possibly because of the power of the Time Stones. It’s been involved with some of Eggman’s schemes; in those instances, he used a large chain to pull it closer to the surface of our planet.”

Pinkie piped up, “Ooh! Like when Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used their magic and a rope to pull the Moon closer to Equestria! It was fun walking up that rope to the Moon!”

Applejack muttered to herself, “Fer you, maybe.”

Rainbow looked at Sonic and asked, “Didn’t you say Eggman built a new Death Egg around the Little Planet one time?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah.” He then looked up at the sky and, while squinting, said, “Though it doesn’t look like this is at that point in time. I think it’d be kind of hard to miss a giant sphere surrounding a small planet, even from the inside.”

Cadance tapped her right forehoof on her chin as she glanced upwards. “I would think so too,” she said after a moment. As the group started walking through the futuristic park, she looked at Tails and asked, “Are you sure this is where that time wave originated from, Tails? This place doesn’t appear to be in any sort of danger.”

Tails glanced down at his radar, which he was holding in his left hand, as he said, “Yeah, I know, Cadance. Everything here looks fine, but my radar is still picking up something. I’d like to see if we could figure out where it’s coming from before we leave.”

Rainbow looked around for a moment before saying, “Well, I guess I could see how it would be hard to find something in a place like this. For not being a base anymore, it’s hard to see much from where we’re standing.”

Twilight looked up at the sky overhead before looking forward at one of the metal walls as she mused, “It seems clustered here, but maybe that’s because we’re down here. If we go somewhere high up, we might be able to get a better look around.”

Sonic nodded, “Good idea.” He ran towards the wall Twilight was looking at and no one was too surprised when he suddenly ran up it, Tails and Rainbow Dash flying up after him. He went up and grabbed onto the ledge at the top, pulling himself up as Rainbow and Tails came up at his sides. Tails consulted his radar again while both Rainbow Dash and Sonic looked around, their view much clearer now that they could see (nearly) the whole park.

As she looked, Rainbow thought she saw lights shining brightly in the sky from far off in the distance in one direction. She nudged Sonic with a hoof and pointed while asking, “Hey Sonic, what’s over there? Where are those lights coming from?”

Sonic looked, placing his right hand above his brow to try to see clearer. “I think… that kind of looks like where Stardust Speedway is from here,” he said after a moment.

Rainbow asked, “Stardust Speedway? Isn’t that where Tails and Spike fought that Metal Sonic robot? I thought Tails said it was like… not like this place.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. That’s how I remember it. Maybe…”

The trio suddenly heard Pinkie behind them, “What?!” They looked back over their shoulders, but there was no pink pony there. A second later, though, her head popped up above the ledge and she asked, “What?!” before going back down again. They guessed she was bouncing up and down, probably with the help of a trampoline.

Sonic turned and walked over to the ledge and, the next time Pinkie’s head popped up, he reached down and grabbed her, pulling her up and setting her down. Before she could ask, he said, “I’m just wondering if Stardust Speedway is different in this future compared to the future I saw. I think it’d be kind of odd if it was the only place that was ruined while the rest of the Little Planet is perfect.”

Tails spoke up, “It might not be perfect for much longer. My radar’s locked onto the source of the disturbance, and it’s coming from that direction!” He looked up and pointed his right finger in the direction of Stardust Speedway.

Rainbow thumped her forehooves together as she said, “Cool! So now we just gotta go, take care of whatever this disturbance is, and we can go back to getting to Canterlot!”

Pinkie smiled, “Ooh! That sounds easy!”

Tails looked over at her and said, “Well, let’s hope so, Pinkie.” Sonic looked over at him and nodded before jumping over the ledge, Pinkie soon following while Tails and Rainbow flew down after them. Both Sonic and Pinkie made a soft landing thanks to the latter’s trampoline and they, along with Rainbow Dash and Tails, explained the situation to the others. Once they were finished, they set out on foot/hoof/claw through the futuristic park, though Rainbow Dash flew above everyone to keep an eye out for any trouble and dead ends in the metallic area.

As the group ran, Twilight noticed Sonic seemed to be looking around more than he usually did while on the move. At first, she thought he was trying to take in as much of their surroundings as he could, but a closer look revealed that his face was slightly scrunched up, as though he was trying to concentrate. She managed to get a little closer to him and asked, “Is something wrong, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog glanced back at her as he replied, “No, I’m just trying to recall the way I came and adjust it for where we are now.”

Rainbow Dash overheard and flew down closer, asking, “You mean you don’t remember the way you came through here?”

Sonic answered, “I might if we were going forward, but not backwards, especially not in this future. Plus the way I got here from Stardust Speedway probably doesn’t exist in this future.”

Twilight asked, “What do you mean?”

After rounding a corner and passing into a part of the area that was covered by a roof, Sonic looked back at her, “You remember what Tails and I were talking about before, about the ruined Stardust Speedway?” Twilight nodded, so he said, “After I outraced Metal Sonic and rescued Amy, I found a bridge leading directly to Eggman’s base near where Eggman had Amy tied up. As I was crossing it, I started going back in time to the present, and as I was crossing it, it started disappearing under my feet! By the time I reached the end, it had disappeared completely!”

Spike, who was riding on Twilight’s back, asked, “So the bridge is gone?”

Sonic replied, “That one might be, but while I was running across it, I thought I saw another bridge connecting Eggman’s base to Stardust Speedway, and I’m pretty sure it didn’t disappear like mine did during the time travel. That bridge is probably our best bet for reaching Stardust Speedway right now.”

Tails spoke up suddenly, his radar in his left hand as he glanced down at it, “Well, I’d say we’re definitely on the right track right now! We’re getting close, but it looks like whatever it is responsible for this is starting to move!”

Shining Armor asked, “Any idea what it is yet, Tails?”

The fox answered, “I can’t tell right now. It could be a portal, but if it is, it’s different from any that we’ve seen so far. I’ll need to take a look at it before I’ll know for sure.”

Sonic spoke, “Well, get ready to look, buddy! We’re coming up on the exit to this place!” Tails looked forward and saw a large opening in the metal up ahead. It almost looked like a mall entrance, just without the doors, and it even had a sign directly above it telling visitors to come again. Once they were outside, it didn’t take them long to find the bridge Sonic had mentioned, however it seemed to be unusable due to a large crack, like a fissure, running through the middle at their end of it. What was really odd was that they couldn’t see the water under the bridge through the crack; instead it was completely black on the inside and the edges of the hole seemed to be pulsing with some kind of energy. They all came to a stop near the crack, close enough to get a good look at it but not quite at the edge of it either.


A SPLIT IN TIME...


“Goodness, what is this?!” Rarity exclaimed with her forehooves around her mouth.

Tails looked down at his radar as he pointed it at the crack, the bottom screen now reading 12142011 while the readings on the top screen appeared to be erratic compared to the readings it had recorded before. Looking back at the crack a moment later, he said, “This has to be what caused that time wave. I don’t know how it came to be here, but it’s not supposed to be here, not in this way.”

Sonic looked over at him and asked, “What is it, though? It can’t be a portal, right?”

Tails nodded, “Right… I think it’s actually a time warp.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, “A time what now, Tails?”

Shining Armor spoke up before the fox could answer, “Are you saying that this black hole could warp us to another time?”

Tails shrugged, “I don’t know, maybe? I’ve never seen a time warp before; I don’t know where this could go.”

Twilight mused, “So we probably shouldn’t just jump in there without a plan. We should try to be ready for as many possible occurrences as we…”

She was cut off when Rainbow Dash flew above everyone and said, “Come on, everypony! Let’s get in there and do the time warp thing!” She then shot down towards the crack, aiming right for the middle of it.

“Wait, Rainbow Dash!” Tails tried to call, but at her speed, she was too far along to be able to stop herself now.

Before she could disappear into the blackness, however, two bright blue beams shot out of the hole at the cyan pegasus! Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened and she tried to get out of the way, but the lasers came so fast and so suddenly that there was no time for her to get out of the way completely. She didn’t get hit, but the beams scrapped along her wings, throwing her off and sending her spiraling down into the crack while screaming, “Whoa!”

Sonic dashed to the edge of the crack and looked down, seeing the pegasus disappear into the darkness below. “Rainbow, no!” he cried, getting ready to jump down after her. Before he could, a missile shot out of the darkness and hit the wall of the crack, exploding just below Sonic’s feet. This caused the smoke to rise up to him, causing him to grunt and turn away to avoid breathing it in or getting it in his eyes. It also caused the crack to extend back in that direction, the ground crumbling underneath Sonic and sending him falling down with a “Wah!”

As the smoke cleared, everybody else could see that the ground was starting to crack near them, indicating the time warp was moving back towards Metallic Madness now as well. After quickly checking his radar, Tails confirmed this, “These readings… it’s getting worse! And Sonic and Rainbow Dash are right in the middle of it!”

Shining spoke, “Then there’s no time to come up with a plan! Let’s get down there and help them deal with whatever attacked them!” Considering the situation, nobody wanted to argue with him. Even Fluttershy seemed like she was willing to face the unknown to help her oldest friend and one of her new friends. They all ran towards the crack and leapt over the edge; as they fell, Tails, Fluttershy, and Cadance focused, getting ready to help the others in case they had a ways to fall.


IN THE TIME WARP


As the group continued to fall into the blackness, it soon began to part like clouds, revealing something in the distance that they were falling towards. It was too obscured by the black to be completely clear, but they were starting to make out the color and shape of it. Spike, who was riding on Twilight’s back, pointed at it and asked, “Hey, what is that thing?”

Once they were a little closer, everyone could see that the top of the object was striped light orange and red, with places being dark blue in color. The shape of it became clearer as well. “It looks like a… giant eight?” Twilight guessed.

Tails squinted, looking closer for a moment before saying, “Yeah. Actually, from the way it curves, I think it’s a giant Möbius Strip. Cool!”

Applejack grunted, “That’s fascinatin’, darlin’, but maybe we could focus more on landin’ rather than lookin’?”

Cadance noticed something seemed different and looked around, trying to figure out what it was. A moment later, she said, “I think we’re slowing down!” Sure enough, everyone was falling slower than when they had jumped into the darkness as they got closer to the giant eight. Not long afterwards, they all landed on top of the eight near one of its turns, everyone stumbling a bit as their momentum from falling had, strangely, not been affected by them slowing down.

Looking around, they found that the black had changed to a dark purple that was very nearly black and the figure eight was surrounded by what appeared to be walls that were varying shades of dark purple. While some parts of the walls looked even, the rest of it seemed to stick out like misplaced bricks, cubes poking out of the otherwise smooth walls. Nearby, on the figure eight itself, they could see a tall post with a pair of red banners that both had white arrows on them pointing to the right and a smaller post with what appeared to be a red Eggman head on top of it.

Fluttershy nervously lowered her body closer to the ground, her rush wearing off as she meekly asked, “Where… where are we?”

Applejack trotted over to her side and placed a hoof on her, saying, “Don’t ya worry none, Fluttershy. This place doesn’t look too scary.”

Cadance looked off to the side with an uneasy expression as she said, “I don’t know. Dark, claustrophobic places like this… I’m not exactly fond of them either.”

Shining moved over to her and wrapped a hoof around her, “Don’t worry, my sweet. I’m here for you.”

Spike and Twilight turned to Tails, the former asking, “Hey Tails, are you sure this is a time warp or whatever? Because, uh, it’s kind of creepy if it is.” Twilight nodded in agreement.

Tails looked up from his radar and looked at them, saying, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure it is, but… well, take a look.” He held his radar in his right hand, holding it so they could see its screens as he walked over to them. They looked at it and saw that neither screen seemed to be doing what it was supposed to, numbers appearing and changing on the bottom screen while the top screen just showed a green grid with the word ‘ERROR’ in front of it.

Twilight said, “I see what you mean, Tails.”

Spike nodded, “Yeah, that hasn’t happened before.”

Suddenly, they all heard a familiar voice call to them, “Hey!” They all looked to the left and saw Sonic and Rainbow Dash running towards them.

Pinkie grinned as they got closer, “There you two are! I was starting to get worried about you!”

Shining asked, “Are you both okay?”

Sonic replied, “Yeah. Dash’s wings are a little singed, but she told me she’s fine.”

Rainbow huffed, “Because I am! I didn’t land any harder than you did, Sonic! And I can clean my wings just fine, thank you! Pegasi are supposed to know how to clean their wings, you know!”

Sonic held his hands up, “Okay! I was just offering to help, that’s all.”

Rainbow looked at him, “Well, wings are kind of a personal thing, okay?”

Applejack rolled her eyes before saying, “So y’all are okay. That’s good. Have ya seen… whatever it was that attacked ya?”

Rainbow answered, “No. Until we saw you guys, it’s just been us. We haven’t seen anything else in this… whatever this place is called again.”

Tails spoke up, “It’s a time warp, Rainbow Dash. And if my radar is indication, time is running wild in here.”

Sonic held his right hand up to his chin, “Really?”

A moment later, the ground started rumbling, surprising everyone. “What’s going on?!” Twilight cried over all the rumbling. The answer came a few seconds later when something large came down from above, going through the hole in front of the group and pushing the air towards them, forcing them to look away and try to shield themselves against it.


FINAL FEVER, PART ONE


When the force stopped a moment later and they looked up, they saw what looked like a brand new Death Egg Robot looming over them, though from the look of it, it was much larger. From where they were standing, the group was level with the robot’s chest; the head, while not towering over them, was above them and likely out of jumping reach. The head itself was completely silver-gray in color, as was its Eggman-like mustache, but its nose was red and its eyes were blue. Two yellow stripes ran down the sides of its chest, which, combined with its red body, made it look like the old outfit Eggman used to wear, and in the center of its chest was a simple, white ‘R-9’ mark. It didn’t appear to have arms, and, while they couldn’t see down far enough, it probably didn’t have legs either.

“What in tarnation is that thing?!” Applejack exclaimed.

Sonic held his right hand up to his chin, “Hmm… a mustache, a pointy nose, and a fat body… Whatever it is, I think we all know who built it and is driving it.”

Pinkie piped up, “Ooh, ooh! Is it Discord?!”

Twilight looked at her oddly for a second before saying, “Uh, I think he means Dr. Eggman, Pinkie.”

Pinkie blinked and turned to look at the robot. She held a hoof up to her face, “Oh yeah, I guess it does kind of look like Eggy! But…”

Before she could continue, a familiar yet, at the same time, unfamiliar voice came from the robot, “Ha, ha, ha!”

Tails looked over at Sonic and said, “This thing was more than likely built by Eggman, but that sure doesn’t sound like his laughter.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, you’re right. It’s totally wrong, and it sounds kind of mechanical. So it’s probably not Discord either.”

Rainbow grunted as she spread her wings, “Who cares who it is?!” She flew up, floating in front of the robot’s face as she said, “Hey, chrome dome! You’re really messing up time by being here, and I’m not too happy about you trying to cook my wings either! You’d better jet on out of here and go back to wherever you came from, or we’re gonna have to-” She was cut off in mid-sentence when the robot’s eyes suddenly fired those blue lasers from earlier at her, the cyan pegasus flying down to avoid them! “Hey!” she cried, only for the robot to tilt its head down and fire at her again, Rainbow and everyone else scattering to avoid getting hit.

Rainbow Dash growled, “Okay, that’s it! You’re going down!” She flew up and then shot straight towards the robot’s head, bringing her left hind leg forward as she got closer to it. She struck it in the middle of its forehead at top speed… only to wince a second later and leap back away from it, screaming in pain! She ended up falling on her rump, holding her leg and groaning as she rubbed it, trying to make it feel better.

While Fluttershy instantly moved to her side to help her, Sonic glared up at the robot and curled up into a ball, shooting up towards its head. “This Eggman substitute has not been approved- UGH!” he groaned as he was knocked back by the robot leaning forward to literally meet him head on, falling back down onto the road. He grunted as he sat up, “That thing’s armor must be harder than a diamond!”

Shining growled, “There’s gotta be a way to get through it! Maybe our magic can find or make a hole in it! Twilight, Cadance!” The unicorn and alicorn nodded, Cadance taking to the air while Shining began running to the left, trying to cover the side he could reach easily while Cadance attacked from the other side and the back. Twilight, meanwhile, stayed at the front with the others and started charging up her horn, knowing she needed to keep it focused on her while her brother and sister-in-law went around. She began charging up Mystic Blades and beams, firing both at various spots on the robot’s front, hoping they would go through. Shining and Cadance, meanwhile, began firing beams from their horns and sweeping them up and down the robot. The result was the same for all three of them: their magic neither went through nor did it cause any damage from what anyone could see.

After about a minute of this, the robot, apparently fed up with their attempts, opened a compartment on its back and brought out a missile launcher that had two open slots. A second later, it shot several missiles out of both slots, everyone seeing them launch and scrambling to get away from where they were going to land! They managed to avoid getting directly caught in the blasts, but many of them were thrown by the force of the explosions. Shining, Cadance, and Rainbow moved to help Spike and the other ponies while Sonic ran to Tails’ aid. While helping Twilight up, Shining growled, “Argh… What is it with this thing?! What’s it made out of?!”

Cadance looked up at the robot worriedly, “It’s so strong… It’s like its armor is perfect!”

Twilight and Spike groaned as they stood up, the latter asking, “Is there anything we can do to it…?”

Sonic looked over at them after helping Tails up and said, “I’m sure there is. I just don’t know what it is!”

Tails held his right hand up to the side of his face as he sighed, “If we weren’t stuck in this time warp, there might be a way we could use it, or more specifically its messed up flow of time, to travel into the past, back to when the robot wasn’t so perfect. But I don’t think we can travel through time in the middle of a time warp; at best, from here, we could maybe change the direction time is going, but I don’t know how much else we can do.”

Sonic looked at him for a moment before looking up at a nearby post, specifically the arrows on the banners hanging from it. He then looked at the robot for a second before smirking, “You know, Tails… that might be all we need.” Before the fox could ask what he was thinking, Sonic curled into a ball and shot towards the robot’s head once more. When he was repelled this time, he briefly broke out of his spin before curling back up and striking at the top of its head several more times before stopping and landing on the road directly behind it. As he expected, the robot began to turn around, now even more annoyed at him. Sonic used a Boost to get moving, running in the direction of the arrows as he called to the robot, “You want me? Come and get me!”

As he ran towards her, Twilight tried to ask, “Sonic, what are you… Ah!” The last was an exclamation as she closed her eyes when he ran past her, not slowing down for a second. As she opened her eyes, however, she saw something faint trailing behind the blue hedgehog. “Are those… afterimages?” she wondered.

Sonic ran as fast as he could while the road was mostly straight, starting to lean to the right as he approached the curve. Just as he reached it, however, the robot floated up through the nearby hole from below, facing the road ahead of where Sonic was. As the hedgehog started turning, the robot unleashed a burst of fire from its nose, a plume of flames rising up when it hit the road! Sonic planted his feet against the ground, facing the robot as he skidded across the ground, towards the fire.

Before he could stop completely or hit the flames, he suddenly shot towards the robot in a ball again, this time aiming for its left shoulder. This time, though, he actually made a small dent in his target, cutting through the armor plating and landing close to the bottom curve of the eight! He looked back at the robot and noticed electricity sparking from the dent he had made in the robot’s shoulder. He pumped his left fist as he grinned, “Yes! Just as I thought!”

The others ran over to him, Shining asking, “Sonic, what did you do?!”

Sonic looked at him and replied, “I got the idea when Tails mentioned we might be able to mess with the way time flows in here.”

Tails quickly caught onto what he was saying and said, “I get it! When you had the Time Stones, you said you had to use your speed to time travel! It’s the same idea here, but instead of traveling through time, you created a stream in time, one that went in reverse because the way you ran was opposite the way most people write an ‘S’ or draw an eight!”

Twilight began to piece together what Tails was saying herself. “So, by creating a reverse-flowing time stream, Sonic was able to turn time back, specifically turning it back on that robot to a point where it wasn’t so perfect!”

Sonic nodded, “Exactly! If we keep rewinding the clock on that thing, we can hit it where it hurts!”

Rainbow thumped her forehooves together, “Let’s do this!”

The others looked confident at this, but then Applejack called, “Hey, it’s comin’ back, y’all!” Everyone turned and saw the robot flying up above the giant eight and moving towards them. Once it was closer, it began to drop down!


FINAL FEVER, PART TWO


“SCATTER!” Cadance screamed and everyone complied. Sonic, Tails, and Rainbow Dash started moving in the direction of the arrows while the pink alicorn and everyone else went the other way to get away from the robot. Thankfully, it went back through the hole at that end, but it came dangerously close to the road, close enough that it could’ve either knocked off or flattened anyone that had been just standing there.

Once they were out of danger, Shining looked at his wife and said, “Hey, I should be giving orders here! I’m the Captain of the Royal Guard, after all!”

Cadance smirked at him, “Who was quicker on the draw?”

Sonic, Rainbow, and Tails, meanwhile, began picking up speed, all of them hoping that the three of them moving together would make time go backwards faster. “Let’s step on it! We gotta take this thing down before it can wear us out!” Sonic said.

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah!” A second later, she asked, “Uh, how fast do we have to go to rewind time, anyway?”

Sonic shrugged, “I don’t know the specifics. I don’t carry a speedometer with me.”

Tails spoke, “Well, if you want a general idea, I’d say at least 88 miles per hour ought to be fast enough!” With that, he began spinning his twin tails around, pushing off the ground slightly as they began to push him forward.

Sonic started running faster and Rainbow flapped her wings harder in response to what the fox was doing, the latter saying, “If that’s how fast we need to go, then this’ll be a breeze!” They both caught up with Tails and they all stuck together as they headed into the curve up ahead.

The robot, meanwhile, seemed to realize what they were up to and brought out its missile launcher again, firing several missiles ahead of the trio as they began to loop around. Tails and Rainbow flew to get out of the way when they saw this, but Sonic kept going at full speed, sidestepping around the missiles and their explosions as they rained down on the road. Rainbow and Tails rejoined him when he was clear, approaching the second loop and their friends.

As the three of them came around, Twilight, Shining, and Cadance got ready, firing magic beams at the robot’s head after the trio passed them. Their beams still ricocheted off, but the robot ignored them and turned its attention back to Rainbow, Sonic, and Tails. It began to turn its head to follow them as they prepared to go a second time around, Rarity stayed by Fluttershy’s side as the three passed them while Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Spike were waiting on the second straight path. As the robot turned its head in their direction, Applejack called “Hey, you!” before bucking a cake up at its face.

After she did that, Spike threw a cupcake at it while Pinkie Pie (who had an entire supply of confections next to her that she had gotten from… somewhere) threw a pair of cakes with her forehooves, saying, “We’re assaulting you with cake!” After flinging her cakes, Pinkie grabbed another cake and a cupcake and tossed them to Spike and Applejack before grabbing two more cakes from her arsenal. They kept throwing stuff at the robot as Sonic, Tails, and Rainbow zoomed by, managing to smear some frosting over the robot’s eyes and hoping to do their part in keeping it distracted.

It ended up proving ineffective, however; as Tails, Sonic, and Rainbow were coming up on their second lap, the robot turned its head around and took care of the frosting on its eyes by firing its lasers at them. The shots came close to hitting Twilight, Cadance, and Shining Armor, forcing the three of them to get out of the way, Cadance flying up while Twilight and Shining ran to the right. After getting out of harm’s way, both siblings charged up their horns and fired magic beams at the robot’s right side, both beams hitting the yellow stripe and creating cracks in its armor. Noticing how close the two crack points were, Twilight charged up a Mystic Blade and sent it flying vertically. When it hit, a gash opened up in the robot’s plating between the two cracks!

Twilight gasped, “It’s working! The robot’s armor is getting weaker!”

Shining called to Sonic, Tails, and Rainbow, “Keep it up, you guys! We’re starting to break through its armor!” The three of them needed no further encouragement; they kept going while the others kept doing their best to distract the robot from them and punch through its armor. Shining, Cadance, and Twilight did most of the latter, with Twilight and Shining attacking the robot’s front and sides while Cadance made use of her wings to get a better shot at the back, occasionally throwing a beam at the front and sides when she could. Applejack was also able to contribute a buck or two to the back a few times whenever the robot hovered close enough.

After about a minute, the group’s combined efforts (including all the pastries Pinkie Pie, Spike, and Applejack had thrown) managed to weaken the robot’s armor enough to open it up in several places and damage its interior, but the center of its front, right around the ‘R-9’ mark, remained undamaged. While Tails caught his breath, having just stopped while Sonic and Rainbow Dash kept going, Cadance flew down by Shining and Twilight as they examined the robot. “It’s damaged in some way everywhere but around that mark. Why is that?” Shining wondered aloud.

Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof. “Maybe it’s reinforced because its most important internal machinery is behind there?” she guessed.

Tails looked up and, after examining the robot for a moment, said, “I’d have to say you’re right, Twilight. Which means we’re either going to need to really turn time back or try something else.” He ran to the right around the robot and looked past it, seeing Sonic and Rainbow Dash coming around the curve again. “Sonic!” he called, the blue hedgehog hearing and looking towards him as he and Rainbow straightened out. Tails held his hands up, clapped them together, and tilted them forward. The hedgehog seemed to understand, for he gave a nod as he and Rainbow Dash kept going.

Tails ran back over to Twilight, Shining, and Cadance, Twilight asking, “What was that all about, Tails?”

Tails asked, “Remember that rolling move Sonic and I performed back in that mountainous region?” Twilight thought for a moment before nodding. Tails explained, “We’re going to see if that’ll work against this thing. Do you think you can use your magic to line us up properly?” Twilight nodded again, so Tails moved into the road to wait for Sonic.

He didn’t have to wait long as, seconds later, Sonic and Rainbow Dash came zooming towards him. After making sure he wasn’t in Rainbow’s flight path, Tails held out his right hand towards Sonic, the blue hedgehog coming to a stop and clapping his right hand against the fox’s. They then leapt up and began spinning, creating their Rolling Combo. Before they hit the ground, Twilight grabbed them with her magic, spun them around her, and then released them, sending them upwards at an angle towards the robot’s chest.

They struck the ‘R-9’ dead-on, their combined form spinning as it pushed against the robot’s armor, trying to break through. After a long moment, everyone could hear the sound of cracking and, seconds later, the Rolling Combo burrowed deeper into the robot’s chest, the sound of something smashing being heard before Sonic and Tails shot out of the robot’s back, breaking out of their combo and landing near Spike, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash (who had come to a stop near the three of them).

After the duo landed, they all turned to look at the robot, sparks really beginning to fly from it as its head spun around 360 degrees. It began to fall towards the first straight part of the road, Rarity and Fluttershy scrambling to get out of the way. It landed face first, a small explosion accompanying it that caused everyone to shield themselves. Looking back at it afterwards, they saw that it hadn’t totally broken apart, but it seemed to be damaged beyond repair.

A moment later, Tails cheered, “We did it!”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah! Team effort!” He bumped fists with Tails, both them then moving over to do the same with Rainbow Dash, Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack while Twilight, Shining, and Cadance shared a hug and Rarity hugged Fluttershy (who gave a quiet “yay” as she hugged Rarity back).

The moment was interrupted when they heard a weak mechanical voice come from the robot, “Ha… ha… ha…!”

Rainbow groaned, “There’s still something in there?!”

Twilight spoke, “Something’s been doing nothing but laughing all this time… Is there really a pilot in there?”

Sonic said, “Well, if there is, it doesn’t sound like it’s a living thing. So…”

Before he could continue, a loud beeping sound suddenly filled the air. Tails gasped, “Oh no! It must have a self-destruct built into it! It’s going to explode!” Everybody gasped at this, but before they could do anything, a faint white glyph in the shape of a hexagon appeared underneath everyone. A second later, they were all surrounded by a bright green flash that caused them to disappear, the remains of the robot exploding only seconds later…

________________________________________


A DIFFERENT KIND OF FUTURE


The bright green flashes deposited everyone close together on a bright violet road, all of them looking startled at the sudden change in their surroundings. “Whoa… What just happened?” Spike asked.

Tails scratched his head, “Some kind of teleportation, kind of like Chaos Control…?”

Rainbow looked around and asked, “Where are we?” Everyone else looked around as well, seeing a clear starlit sky above them and, off in the distance, a lit up city dominated by bright pink and green colors. Many structures, including a large Ferris wheel, could be seen amongst all the buildings.

Sonic spoke after a moment, “I think… this is Stardust Speedway.”

Spike gawked at him, “THIS is Stardust Speedway?! It looked nothing like this when Tails and I were there!”

Tails shrugged, “Maybe Metal Sonic went into the ruined future where he and Sonic originally fought, the future where Eggman’s pollution and machinery weren’t stopped. This could be the opposite side of the coin: a future where Eggman’s attempt to take over didn’t happen.”

Applejack whistled, “Well, it sure is pretty. Ya can’t deny that.”

Rarity nodded, “Oh yes, it certainly is. It’s like Canterlot and Manehattan have come together as one beautiful, futuristic city!”

Shining perked up at that, “Wait, speaking of futures… What happened to that time warp we were in?!”

Everyone realized what he was saying, Tails quickly pulling out his radar and opening it up. After a few seconds, he said, “I’m not picking up any more irregularities. Either we’re too far away, or it’s no longer a threat.”

Cadance asked, “Something like a time warp like that… If you could pick it up from where Dr. Eggman’s base used to be, you should be able to pick it up from here, right?”

Tails replied, “That would be my guess…”

Pinkie bounced over to Tails’ side and said, “Then we did it! We beat the creepy laughing robot and dealt with the disturbance it was making! That really was easy!”

Tails chuckled, “Yeah, I guess so, Pinkie.” As if to confirm it, the original 11191993 from earlier appeared on the bottom screen of his radar.

While looking around, Twilight spotted a building that stood out against all the rest off in the distance. She turned to Sonic and asked, “Hey Sonic, what’s that building over there?” She pointed behind him at the building, the hedgehog turning around to look while the others looked as well.

The building in question looked like it could be a large mansion or a cathedral, the light coming from its many windows and it not being near any other buildings making it easy to see from a distance. Sonic held his right hand under his chin and put his left hand on his hip, saying a moment later, “I don’t know. If I’m not mistaken, however, it’s right where Eggman was building a statue of himself in… I guess it would be the past here?”

Fluttershy asked, “Um, Sonic? Isn’t that where you said he found one of the Time Stones?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah… I’m curious now.” He looked over his shoulder at the others, “Anyone else want to take a closer look before we leave?”

Rainbow nodded, “You bet!” The others agreed as well, so, after Tails put his radar away, the group began navigating the city’s many roads, trying to find the one that would take them to the mystery building.

A short while later, they stood on the road in front of the building, which they could now see was a vibrant purple color. From the look of it, it was most likely a mansion. Rainbow Dash flew up to one of the windows, trying to look inside while the rest of the group leapt over to the landing in front of the front steps. A few seconds later, Rainbow pulled her head and called down, “I can’t see anything! Those green curtains are blocking my view!”

Tails looked back at the building and said, “Well, it looks like an ordinary, fancy mansion.”

Rarity’s eyes shimmered, “Oh yes, it’s absolutely FABULOUS! I certainly wouldn’t mind having a mansion like this for a summer home!”

Tails looked at her before he continued, “Uh… right, Rarity. Also my radar would probably be going off if it detected something out of the ordinary.”

Rainbow flew down to the group as Cadance said, “Then we should just go. We did what we came here to do; just because the lights are on doesn’t mean somepony’s home, and I don’t think we should be breaking and entering without a good reason.” Nobody could argue with that, so Tails pulled the Warp Ring out of his namesakes with his right hand.

Before he could toss it, the group heard a creaking sound behind them and turned to see the front doors of the building opening inward. “Is… somepony home after all?” Fluttershy meekly wondered.

Sonic and Shining Armor looked at each other before walking forward and going up the steps, peering inside at the foyer before them. “Uh, hello? Anybody home?” Sonic called. A moment passed with no response to either of the hedgehog’s questions.

Suddenly, Pinkie appeared between the two, saying, “Sounds like somepony’s playing hide-and-seek~!” She then bounced forward, going through the doors.

Sonic held his right hand out to her as he ran after her, “Wait, Pinkie!” Shining ended up following after him, as did the others in case Pinkie decided to be particularly tricky to contain.


MYSTERIOUS MANSION


Inside, they found both Sonic and Pinkie standing on the red carpet rolled out across the center of the foyer, which went into an adjacent room underneath a loft on the second story (which had two staircases leading up to it on its right and left sides). Looking around, Tails saw a painting of a Gothic-looking building on the left wall and a painting of a forested area with what looked like conveyor belts on the right wall. Looking up, he noticed what appeared to be a sundial in the center of the ceiling.

“This is… an interesting house,” Tails commented, though he was starting to think about what it could be. The others nodded in agreement.

A moment later, Pinkie said, “Ooh! Something bright!” She then trotted off, walking across the red carpet as she hummed to herself. Sonic looked at the others and they all shrugged before following after the pink pony.

While following Pinkie through the next room, Sonic looked around. Aside from a few tables, chairs, and doorways to other rooms, he saw on the right wall a painting of a clock tower and a painting of a cliff overlooking the sea during what appeared to be a sunset on the left wall. He and the rest of the group followed Pinkie into a third room, this one much smaller and having a large archaic organ across from the doors. It looked like a sitting room if the chairs and couches in it were anything to go by. There were some objects on the walls, but they didn’t appear to be readily recognizable.

While everyone looked around the room, Twilight asked, “Did you see something in here, Pinkie?”

The party pony replied, “I saw light coming from here and wanted to see what it was! It seemed like there was something VERY interesting about this room!”

Rarity let out a loud gasp and said, “I must say I agree with you, Pinkie! Look!” They all looked over to see her standing in front of the organ, seemingly looking up at it.

Sonic walked over, saying, “I knew you liked gems, Rarity. I didn’t know you had a taste for classic instruments too.”

Pinkie bounced up along Rarity’s other side, looking up at the organ as she said, “It’s a really big organ! I wonder if I could play the organ?”

Rarity spoke, “Not the organ itself! Above it!” Everyone looked up to see a dark blue tapestry displaying what appeared to be an owl mask in the center hanging on the wall above the huge organ. And sewn into it, around the mask, were seven hexagonal gemstones, which were blue, green, cyan, orange, purple, yellow, and red in color. “Look at those beautiful gems! They’re so perfectly formed and on display for all to see!” Rarity gushed.

Sonic spoke after a moment, “Those aren’t just any gems, Rarity. Those are the Time Stones!”

Everyone, save for Tails, looked at him in surprise, Shining Armor asking, “Really?! Those seven jewels are the Time Stones?!”

Sonic looked at him and nodded, “Yeah. Supposedly, whoever has all seven of them is given the power to reshape time itself.” He shrugged, “I was too busy dealing with Eggman to find out for myself if that’s true.”

Rainbow spoke up, “Well, let’s find out now! Let’s take the Time Stones back with us! We can use their power to completely undo what that creature did to our worlds!”

Twilight protested, “I don’t think we should do that, Rainbow! That kind of power sounds like it would be extremely difficult to handle!”

Rainbow argued, “So? Sonic and his friends have used the Chaos Emeralds before, and those things can’t be easy to handle!”

Sonic butted into the argument, “Yeah, but they’re not the same thing either.” He gestured with his right hand at one of the windows, “We saw a bright, beautiful city out there; when Eggman got the Time Stone that was hidden here, I saw a future that was totally dark and ruined, which I’m sure is what Tails and Spike saw earlier. I’d say there’s a noticeable difference in the kind of power we’re talking about here.”


TALES OF THE LITTLE PLANET


Tails spoke up, “Besides, we might not be allowed to take them from here.”

Applejack looked at him and asked, “What do ya mean, Tails?”

The fox explained, “There are lots of legends surrounding the Little Planet. Its existence, what the Time Stones are, and what they can do are among the more well-known, but I’ve seen some other, lesser-known legends. Some of the ones I’ve seen mention a group of elite protectors known as the Knights of Kronos.”

Twilight asked, “The Knights of Kronos?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. Supposedly, they’ve protected the Little Planet, especially the Time Stones, throughout time. They’re usually mentioned in conjunction with the Time Stones.”

Rainbow asked, “So… what do they have to do with this?”

Tails sighed, “There’s so much mystery surrounding the Little Planet. You saw the city out there. Someone had to have made it what it is, yet no one knows for sure if anyone lives here. All we’ve got to go by are rumors and legends.” He looked around the room as he added, “But looking at all of this, what’s been done here, I can’t help but wonder if they’re true.”

Sonic held a hand to his chin, “I can believe it. I mean, the Time Stones had to get up here somehow. I just left ‘em behind after I forced Eggman to retreat and before I escaped with Amy, and I wasn’t anywhere near here.”

Cadance spoke, “In that case, we should leave them behind. These Knights of Kronos may have brought the Time Stones here to watch over them the same way the Elements of Harmony are normally watched over in Canterlot Castle now. We have as much a right to keep them safe from those who would misuse them as whoever their guardian or guardians may be.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. After all the times he tried to mess with the Little Planet, I’m sure Eggman’s basically got a big ‘not welcome’ stamped on him, and it’ll be a long time before anyone that crazy comes searching for the Little Planet.”

Tails asked, “Like whoever sent that robot?”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, I guess that thing could’ve been sent by someone else, but I still think Eggman had something to do with that. It’s not like he has a big appreciation tribe or anything like that, and he wouldn’t be too happy if someone tried to pull off a plot he could come up with or use his toys without his permission.”

Tails nodded, “That’s true.” He held up the Warp Ring, which he was still carrying with his right hand, “Should we get going?”

Rainbow shrugged, “Yeah. I guess you guys are right. We should try to fix this mess ourselves before going to these Knights of Kronos for help. Besides, we’ll get credit for it and look way more awesome while doing it!” Some of the group members rolled their eyes at this while Tails tossed the Warp Ring on the floor, the ring expanding to its full size.

As they prepared to leave, Twilight sighed, “It’s too bad we couldn’t meet the Knights of Kronos. At least we could’ve let them know what happened earlier.”

Remembering what happened when they were pulled out of the time warp, Sonic looked at her and smirked, “Somehow, I get the feeling they already know, Twilight.” With that, they all stepped through the Warp Ring one at a time, leaving the Little Planet behind.


KNIGHTS OF KRONOS...?


After they were all through, as the Warp Ring started to shrink, three hooded figures appeared in the doorway, watching. Despite how bright the mansion was on the inside, only their silhouettes could be seen, their eyes shining like lights from under their hoods…
> Central City
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


BACK ON TRACK... FOR NOW


Upon their return to the Friendship Express, Tails got to work preparing the train to resume its journey while Pinkie Pie followed the rest of the group as they left the engine and headed back two cars. The pink pony and Rainbow Dash stood as the others took the seats they had been in when they first boarded the train, Sonic and Spike sitting across from Twilight and Rarity on the left side of the car and Shining Armor and Cadance sitting across from Applejack and Fluttershy on the right side. It wasn’t long before they felt a jolt that told them the train was moving again.

“At last, a chance to properly sit down for a moment,” Rarity sighed as she relaxed into her seat.

“Yes indeedily, Rarity! We’ve been pretty much doing nothing but running around since this expansion started!” Pinkie grinned.

Some of the others looked at her strangely at that, Rainbow asking, “What are you talking about, Pinkie? What expansion?” The party pony just giggled in response, garnering a few more stares.

After a moment, Applejack shrugged, “Well, at least we’re on our way ta Canterlot again.”

Shining sighed, “I don’t suppose we could just keep moving at the pace we’re going rather than trying to rush it and run into trouble like we did earlier.”

Cadance glanced over at him, smiling as she raised an eyebrow, “I thought you said when we were in those ruins earlier that you actually liked some of the places we’d been.”

Shining replied, “I do. I just didn’t like that sudden stop the first time followed by being thrown off the train while it was moving as fast as it was.”

Spike shrugged, “Yeah, nobody liked that.” He nudged Sonic in the leg with his left elbow, “Right, Sonic?” After a moment of not getting a response, he turned his head to look at the hedgehog, “Sonic?” He looked up and saw that the hedgehog was staring out the window, his chin resting in the palm of his left hand. “Hey!” Spike exclaimed.

Sonic started at that, sitting up somewhat and uttering, “Huh? What?” He then saw everyone looking at him and said, while looking down at Spike, “Oh, uh, sorry Spike. I wasn’t paying attention just now. What’d you say?”

Spike groaned and said, “We were talking about that sudden stop earlier. I said nobody liked it and asked if you agreed.”

Sonic replied, “Oh yeah, that was rough. Stops like that definitely aren’t fun.” He then turned his head to look out the window again, hoping to see something interesting to look at (in other words, something, anything that wasn’t completely white).

Rarity asked, “Sonic, is something wrong?”

The blue hedgehog shrugged, “Eh, no. Just missing the sky. And thinking about stuff.”

Twilight cocked her head to the side, “What kind of ‘stuff’?”

Sonic looked at her and said, “Like the Moon. Lots of things seem to happen with it in both of our worlds. You know, Nightmare Moon was banished to your Moon and our Moon got blown in half by Eggman… Different events and different worlds, but I think there are some constants if you look hard enough.” Twilight nodded in understanding.

Fluttershy cleared her throat softly and spoke up, “Um, Sonic?” The hedgehog, along with the others, looked over at her, the shy pegasus saying, “Applejack mentioned that earlier after… after Dr. Eggman’s, um… robot dragon crashed, that he blew up part of your Moon. How did he…? Did he really?”

Sonic replied, “Yeah, he did, Fluttershy. We got to see it happen again earlier.”

Rainbow spoke, “Oh yeah, that’s right; you stayed behind with Cream and Cheese during that, Fluttershy. It’s probably better you didn’t see it.”

Spike muttered, “Yeah. Seeing that ARK cannon thing just blow half of the Moon up… That was crazy.”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, "'ARK cannon thing'? What's that?"

Sonic replied, "He means the Eclipse Cannon on Space Colony ARK."

Pinkie piped up, "Ooh! Twilight and Rainbow Dash were talking about an ARK earlier! Are you talking about the same one? I don’t think I heard them mention anything about it having a cannon. Hey! Wouldn’t it be great if it had a party cannon?!”

Sonic gave a wry smirk as he replied, “Something tells me that would be impractical in space, Pinkie.”

Rainbow grinned, “And no party cannon’s gonna be enough to destroy an entire comet!”

Pinkie just rolled her eyes, “Oh, ye of little faith!”

Cadance asked, “What do you mean, Rainbow Dash? What comet are you talking about?”

Rainbow Dash was about to answer, but before she could, Pinkie spoke up, “Hey! We’re slowing down!”

Everyone looked at her and realized she was right; the forward momentum they’d been feeling up until now was disappearing as the train came to a much gentler stop. “Why are we stopping?” Twilight wondered.

Sonic looked out the window and saw a glowing hole in the ground off to the side of the train, just ahead of where the window was. “Is that a portal over there? The way it’s positioned, it almost looks like a sewer entrance,” he commented.

The door heading towards the train’s engine slid open a moment later, revealing Tails behind it with his radar in his left hand. The fox stepped into the car and Pinkie hopped to the side as Applejack asked, “Hey Tails, what’s goin’ on? Why’d we stop now?”

Tails answered, “I stopped the train because I saw some kind of purplish-black wall floating in front of the tracks up ahead, Applejack. The color makes me think of the creature responsible for all this.”

Twilight asked, “Do you think it created that wall as another attempt to stop us?”

Tails replied, “Most likely. That’s the main reason why I stopped the train; I don’t think we can just drive on through it.”

Sonic shrugged, “Hm. I’m gonna guess there’s a way to make it get out of our way, right?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah, I checked my radar when I saw it. I’m not exactly sure why we’re seeing a wall now; maybe there were walls earlier and we just never got close enough to see them or something, but I don’t know what to make of the readings. Regardless, it seems the wall is connected to a nearby portal.”

Rarity spoke up, “Sonic said he saw one outside just before you came in.”

Tails looked at his friend, the blue hedgehog nodding and raising his right hand to point out the window. Tails moved past Pinkie and looked, holding his radar up as he looked towards the glowing hole in the ground. After a couple of seconds he said, “Well… that was easy enough. That leaves only one thing left to do, then.”

Spike sighed, “Great, another unexpected detour…”

Twilight and Rarity looked at the baby dragon worriedly while Rainbow shot him a sideways sympathetic look, but decided not to open her mouth. “Spike, dear, are you getting exhausted from all of this adventuring?” Rarity asked.

“If you want to stay behind and rest, I-I could stay. Or maybe Cadance and Shining Armor, or Fluttershy could…” Twilight said worriedly.

Spike interrupted her, “No, that’s not what I was saying! I’m not tired; I’m still good to go! I’m just a bit annoyed by all the unexpected stops we’re having, that’s all! Really!”

Before Twilight could answer, Shining looked at her and said, “And what do you mean Cadance and I could stay behind, Twilight?! I’m not staying behind on this train and letting you and your friends get into dangerous situations on your own! I’m here and you’re not leaving me behind that easily!” Twilight actually shrank back a little at her brother’s words, noticing that he actually sounded angry with what she said. If he was angry, that must’ve meant…

Sonic noticed Twilight seemed to be trying to squeeze as much of herself as she could into the corner of her seat and looked over at Shining Armor, saying, “Hey, relax, dude! She was just throwing that option out there for Spike!”

Cadance nodded as she sidled up next to her husband, “He’s right, Shining. I would gladly stay behind if Spike or anypony else didn’t want to go. But if he is fine and wants to keep going…”

Spike spoke up, “I am! I do!”

Cadance said, “Then yes, you’re right. We should be there to help everyone deal with whatever lies on the other side of that portal so that we can continue on to Canterlot.” Shining seemed to settle down at her words and looked down towards the floor, not entirely sure why he got riled up when his sister was just trying to help.

While Twilight relaxed in her seat, Rainbow nudged Spike with a wing and smiled, “Spike, I gotta say, you’re one tough baby dragon!”

Pinkie nodded, “Yes, indeedily!” Spike smiled at that.

Sonic looked over at Tails and shrugged, “Well, I guess we’re all in agreement, huh?” Tails nodded back.

Applejack said, “Well, c’mon then, y’all! Let’s get in that there portal and seal it up!”

Fluttershy spoke up, “Um, Tails?” When the fox looked at her, she asked, “I was just wondering, do you know where that portal goes?”

Tails replied, “No, I’m afraid not, Fluttershy. I couldn’t see its surface from the engine, and I don’t have any guesses to go on this time. We’ll just have to go through the portal and see where it leads.” Fluttershy nodded while Sonic looked out the window, looking at the glowing hole in the ground.

________________________________________


SEWER ENTRANCE


Sonic landed neatly as he was deposited from the portal, the ground feeling firm beneath his sneakers. Looking up, he saw the portal pulsing up above, seemingly attached to the ceiling of wherever he had ended up. His eyes widened slightly a second later as Tails emerged from it, quickly moving to the side so that the fox did not land on him. Tails moved after landing as well, and soon everyone had come through, all of them standing close to underneath the portal.

“Hey, it’s kind of dark down here,” Spike commented, noticing the dim lighting made it a little hard to see the nearby walls.

“That’s true, Spike, but at least it seems to be relatively safe for the moment,” Cadance noted.

“I agree with you, Princess,” Rarity nodded. She then took a sniff of the air and gagged, “A shame it doesn’t smell nicer, though.”

Applejack shrugged, “It ain’t that noticeable, Rarity. Relax.”

Shining spoke up, "Let's get a little light in here." He turned to his left and closed his eyes, channeling his magic into his horn and creating a ball of magenta light that lit up the area somewhat. Opening his eyes, Shining saw a wall made of dark gray stone. Turning his head to look straight ahead, he found that the ground was dark gray cement with what appeared to be water flowing from several pipe openings in the wall up ahead, the water flowing into a stream to the group's right. "What is this, an underground river?" the stallion wondered.

"I think the technical term for it would be 'sewer', Shiny," Twilight remarked. Shining gave her a sidelong dry look at that while Cadance giggled.

Sonic glanced over at her and grinned playfully, "Whoa, easy there, ‘book sheriff'." Twilight glared at him, though she did have a small smirk on her face, and Spike, Rainbow, and Applejack snickered quietly.

After a moment, Spike asked, “So this is a sewer? I’ve never been down in one before.”

Tails answered, “Yeah, it sure looks like one. It doesn’t exactly tell us where we are, but it’s a start at least, right?”

Pinkie smiled, “Totally, Tails!” She suddenly grinned a second later, a thought coming to her head. “Hey, I know! We should have a party down here! We can check out these pipes and find a nice big room for it and then order pizza and get a dance floor and a couch and…”

The party pony was interrupted when Rarity firmly stuck a hoof into her mouth, the fashionista’s face indicating she did not share the same enthusiasm as her friend. “As WONDERFUL an idea as that sounds, Pinkie, this is neither the time nor the place for a party. In fact, I’d prefer if we got out of these sewers as soon as possible.” She looked over at Sonic and asked, “We can get out of here, can’t we, Sonic?”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, sure, Rarity. Sewers aren’t exactly the way to travel if you aren’t used to them anyway.” He glanced up at the portal and added, “We’re gonna have to spend a little time down here, though, since we can’t get out that way.”

Rainbow flew above everyone’s heads and pointed a hoof past Sonic, saying, “Look, there’s a ladder over there! That’s gotta lead to a way out, right?” Sonic and the others turned to look and saw the ladder in question a couple of feet ahead of where they were, the light coming from Shining’s horn being just enough to make it visible.

Tails spoke, “Hm, well it looks like it’s attached to the wall, so… I’m gonna say yes, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow grinned, “Yes!” She flew over to the ladder and looked up as she flew up the side of it at a slower pace, the rest of the group walking over and standing near the ladder as she reached the top. There she found a circular opening that was being covered by something, closing it off from the outside world. She raised her forehooves up and pushed at it, but it didn’t move. She pushed a few more times with extra force, but still it wouldn’t move. “This cover isn’t moving!” she called back down to the others.

Sonic saw Tails beginning to spin his namesakes around and moved towards the ladder. Putting his hands on it, he called up to Rainbow, “Hang on, we’ll come help you.” He then started climbing up the ladder while Tails flew up, the fox reaching Rainbow Dash first and wedging himself next to her, helping her push up with Sonic joining in a second later. Despite all of them pushing, they still couldn’t move whatever was covering the opening. After a few seconds of trying, Sonic groaned, “Man, this is no ordinary manhole cover.”

Tails nodded as he Rainbow moved down a bit, “Yeah. I can’t tell because it’s still a bit dark, but I’m pretty sure it’s not an actual cover. It’s probably something like a car sitting right over the hole.”

Rainbow asked, “So what? We need to hit it harder to get it to move?”

Tails replied, “Maybe, but if it’s a car, I’m sure it belongs to somebody. They might not take too kindly to us…”

He was cut off when Pinkie let out a loud gasp that caught everyone’s attention. “What, what is it, Pinkie?!” Rainbow asked. A second later, the ground suddenly started shaking, catching everyone except the pegasus and Tails by surprise. Spike grabbed onto Twilight as she and the other ponies tried to stand their ground (Shining even extinguished his light so he could focus on standing up). Sonic, however, was caught totally by surprise and lost his grip on the ladder, flailing his arms as he tried to stay balanced!

Tails and Rainbow quickly flew up behind Sonic and pushed against his back, pressing the hedgehog towards the ladder. He quickly grabbed the ladder and held on tightly, the two flyers staying with him as the rumbling continued for about ten seconds. The shaking soon stopped, but everyone remained as they were for several seconds, waiting to see if there was any more. When nothing happened, they all let out a sigh of relief. Twilight muttered, “That… was unexpected.” She looked up at the slightly shadowed forms above her and called, “Sonic? Are you okay?”

The blue hedgehog called back, “Yeah. I’m cool now.” He looked back at Tails and Rainbow Dash and said, “Thanks.” They nodded back to him, taking their hands/hooves off of his back to let him stand on his own. Sonic glanced down and asked, “Everybody else okay?”

Applejack answered, “We’re fine, Sugar-hog. What about that opening?”

The three of them looked up and saw that the heavy object was still sitting directly over the sewer opening, looking as if it hardly moved during the shaking. “It’s still blocked. I think we’d better find another opening,” Tails said.

“Yeah, good idea, Tails. Let’s leave it alone,” Sonic replied.

“Yeah. We could totally move it ourselves, but like you were saying earlier, someone’s probably not gonna be happy if we do, especially after that quake,” Rainbow nodded. Sonic began climbing back down the ladder while Rainbow and Tails lowered themselves down with him.

When they were almost down, Rarity screamed, “AH! SOMETHING TOUCHED ME!”

Soon after, Spike yelped, “Ah! Something furry!” Because he was close to Twilight, she also felt it, but she managed to refrain from screaming and instead let out a gasp.

At this, Shining’s guard training took over and he channeled his magic into his horn, creating a beam of light that he shined down at the ground near Twilight and Spike. The light revealed several small furry creatures that ran into the darkness ahead of the group. “Ooh, rats!” he said, a bit disgusted.

Fluttershy gasped, “Rats?! Where?! Are they hurt?! Do they need help?! Are they scared?!”

Cadance, having seen the rats when her husband shined his light on them, said, “No, they didn’t appear to be hurt, Fluttershy.”

As he reached the bottom rung of the ladder and stepped down onto the stone, Sonic added, “If they can run off like that, I’m sure they’re fine, Fluttershy. They’re probably just as surprised by that earthquake as we are.”

Rainbow nodded as she and Tails landed, “Yeah, they probably have some turtle friends or something down here to keep them company.” Her thoughts briefly turned to Tank at that, wondering how her pet tortoise was doing back in Ponyville.

“Can we follow them?!” Pinkie asked, bringing Rainbow out of her thoughts.

“Can we NOT?” Rarity groaned.

Tails turned his head to look behind the group; after a second, he turned back around and spoke, “We might as well keep going in this direction.” Rarity began making whimpering noises at that, indicating she was getting ready to let out a complaint, so Tails quickly clarified, “If we go backwards, I think we’ll hit a wall sooner and have to wade through the water. We should have some dry land to walk on, at least for a little while, if we keep going forward.” Rarity stopped her whimpering as he finished, so he guessed she was satisfied with that explanation. No one else had any objections, so they started moving forward again with Shining Armor taking point.


SEWER TRUDGE


As the group continued walking, Shining’s horn light sweeping the path in front of them while Twilight lit up her horn to provide a little extra light, Cadance spoke up, “So… Rainbow Dash, remember back on the train you mentioned a comet?”

The rainbow-maned pegasus had to take a couple of seconds to think back, but she soon said, “Oh yeah, the Black Comet! Yeah, that Eclipse Cannon thing on the ARK was designed to destroy it. Tails told me and Applejack earlier.”

Cadance asked, “Why? Was it going to crash into this planet or something?”

Rainbow replied, “Uh, no, but…” She looked at Tails and asked, “You want to take it, Tails?”

The fox nodded and explained, “The Black Comet passes, or rather passed, our world once every fifty years. Naturally, its appearance is a huge astronomical event that makes the news. On the day of its most recent appearance…”

Sonic interjected, “Which ironically was its last appearance.”

Tails continued, “It brought an invading race of aliens known as the Black Arms that were looking to turn our planet into a source of food thanks to an agreement made the last time it passed by the planet.”

Pinkie exclaimed, “What?!”

Rarity asked, “Who would agree to such a thing?!”

Tails answered, “Professor Gerald, though I bet he didn’t know exactly what he was agreeing to at the time…”

Fluttershy asked, “Who is Professor Gerald?”

Sonic spoke, “Eggman’s grandfather. He made contact with the comet and got Black Doom, the Black Arms’ leader, to help him in exchange for the Chaos Emeralds the next time the Black Comet passed by.”

Cadance asked, “What was he doing that he needed to contact aliens for help?”

Twilight answered, “Project Shadow.”

Shining Armor stiffened up at the sound of that name and he nearly stopped dead in his tracks. “‘Project Shadow’?” he muttered. Although he kept walking, he looked back over his shoulder at Twilight and asked, “Does that ‘project’ have anything to do with the black hedgehog we met earlier, Twily?”

Twilight, despite being surprised by her brother’s reaction, answered, “Uh, yes, Shining.”

The white stallion looked at Sonic, the blue hedgehog walking close to his right side with his arms behind his head, and asked, “So Shadow is an extraterrestrial creation?”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, Shadow’s part alien. So what, dude?”

Shining nearly fell over right then. “So what?! That’s all you have to say?!”

Sonic replied, “Well, what do you want me to say? He may be part alien, but that’s not who he is.”

Shining grunted, “Well, he sure seems like he’s not afraid to become that. You saw that whole thing earlier.”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, I did. I also told you to leave him alone and you pushed me aside. So I don’t think you have any room to talk, Shiny.” Shining looked more exasperated at that.

Rarity spoke up, “Forgive me if it sounds like I’m being ungrateful, but I have to agree with him somewhat, Sonic. Shadow may have helped us force the changelings out of Ponyville, but what he was about to do to Shining Armor earlier would have been inexcusable. And even you were going to try to stop him when he looked like he was about to.... how can I say this nicely… depose Queen Chrysalis.”

Sonic replied, “Just because I wouldn’t normally do some of the things he’s shown himself to be capable of doing doesn’t mean I’m against him in any way, Rarity. Sometimes you’ve got to be willing to push it in order to help more people. The fact that a spirit of chaos had to be turned into stone by your Elements of Harmony to help Equestria should be proof of that.”

Rarity thought about that for a moment before starting, “Well, yes, but…”

Shining interrupted her, “Look, since you know so much about the guy, why don’t you tell me why you find him so respectable? Because from what I’ve seen and heard, the only thing great about him is whatever power he has, and he nearly turned it on me before.”

Sonic replied, “That’s because you didn’t stop talking. Even I try to curb the jokes and stuff when I’m around him.”

Tails commented, “The keyword in this case being ‘try’.”

Sonic continued, “And he’s not really someone you can talk about and expect other people to get it. You have to see him in action for yourself to really understand.”

Cadance spoke, “Well, I guess that’s true. He did seem rough around the edges, so to speak, but I could sense that his emotions were pure.” She smiled softly, “Whatever happened to him may have scarred him, but he’s still a good… person deep down.”

Shining Armor tried not to show it, but he could hardly believe that his wife said that. “Cadance too now?” he thought to himself.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie exclaimed, “Look, there’s a ladder!” She pointed past Shining Armor and Sonic, the rest of the group looking to see said ladder attached to the wall and leading straight up just like the first one.

Rainbow brought her hooves down on Sonic and Tails’ shoulders and said, “Let’s check it out!” They both nodded and the three of them ran over to the ladder, Sonic climbing it while Tails and Rainbow raised themselves up beside him.

While they were climbing up, Shining, just like the others, was watching them, but he was thinking to himself while he watched. “I’m kind of starting to get why Sonic is respected, but this Shadow guy? What has he done that’s so heroic or great?” he wondered.

At the top of the ladder, the three investigators found that the opening had a different cover than the first one they tried. Reaching up and pushing against it, they found that it moved! “Yes! Hey, we got a winner here!” Rainbow called to the others. They all began to gather around the ladder while Sonic and Tails pushed the cover up enough to make sure it wasn’t blocked and peered out from underneath it.

The two couldn’t see much from where they were looking, obviously, but they could see that it seemed to be quiet outside and they could make out some minor details. “Kind of looks like an alley, doesn’t it?” Tails asked.

“I’d have to agree, buddy. It should be okay to poke our heads out,” Sonic replied. He pushed the cover off to the side and climbed out onto the pavement, Tails and Rainbow Dash flying out and landing by him.


DARK AND GRITTY


They looked around; they could see everything in the alley, but it appeared to be very dark and gritty. A quick glance up shed some light on that; the sky was red and filled with similarly-colored clouds.

“What the hay…?” Rainbow Dash muttered at the sight of the sky.

“Sonic? Tails? Rainbow Dash? Is it safe to come out?” Cadance called from the sewer.

Sonic called back, “Yeah. It’s not very inviting, though, just as a heads-up.” Although confused, Spike and the ponies made their way up the ladder and joined the trio in the alley.

After they all had their initial shocks to what could be seen of the area, Fluttershy murmured, “W-Where are we?”

While looking at one of the buildings around them, Twilight said, “Look at the size of these buildings. This looks like that city we entered through the portal in the Carousel Boutique.”

Applejack nodded, “You’re right, Twi’. This place does look familiar.”

Rainbow asked, “So why does it look so… dark now?”

Rarity nodded, “Indeed! How dare a portal leading to such a dismal reflection of Manehattan appear in my Boutique?” She then realized what she said and looked at Sonic and Tails, saying, “Er, no offense.”

Tails replied, “None taken.” Sonic nodded; Tails then looked up and said, “It doesn’t normally look like this. There was only one time I can think of when the sky and the city looked like this.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, if things are this dark and ominous-looking, there’s only one point in time that this could be.”

Before anyone could ask, they suddenly heard a sound coming from the alley entrance. Everyone looked towards the other end of the alley, where they saw a four-wheeled vehicle drive past. They all moved towards the alleyway opening as more vehicles drove past, some looking similar to the first one that passed, others looking bigger. As best as they could tell, it appeared to be some kind of convoy

Sonic, Tails, Twilight, and Shining Armor reached the alley opening first and peered around the corner to the right; they saw the last vehicle in the convoy going straight for a second before it made a left turn. Before it turned, they saw a stylized ‘G’ emblazoned on a tank on the back of the vehicle.

“What was that?” Twilight asked.

“That was a car, a G.U.N. jeep to be exact,” Sonic replied.

“‘G.U.N.’? What’s that?” Shining asked.

“It’s our world’s military force. G.U.N. is short for ‘Guardian Unit of Nations’,” Tails answered.

Sonic continued, “We’ve been involved with them before, particularly when Eggman released Shadow from the military base and they thought I was him, and during the Black Arms’ invasion.” Looking up at the sky, he added, “And from the look of it, we landed somewhere in the middle of the latter.”

Rarity complained, “Oh dear, and I thought those sewers were bad enough! I think we should leave this place right now!”

Fluttershy murmured, “I wouldn’t mind leaving either…”

Applejack looked at Rarity and asked, “Rarity, what’s with you? Ah know ya got yer fanciness and whatnot ta think about, but ya never said anythin’ like that when we reached the Changeling Kingdom!”

Rarity protested, “Our sisters were being held captive, Applejack! I wasn’t going to leave Sweetie Belle to Queen Chrysalis’ mercies any more than you would Apple Bloom, but we’re time traveling right now! What reason is there for us to get involved here?” A second later, several loud explosions were heard nearby, coming from the street that the G.U.N. convoy had turned onto!

Sonic dashed out of the alley at that, saying, “That’s all the reason I need to get involved!” Tails and Rainbow Dash were quick to fly after him, the rest of the group, including Rarity and Fluttershy, following after them as they headed around the corner. Once they all reached the street, they saw the scene that awaited them.


MEDICAL SITUATION


The street and the sidewalk sported smoking craters in multiple places over two blocks worth of street, and the convoy had been broken up. The jeeps, while still on their wheels, were scattered and the larger vehicles, which were blue G.U.N. transports with the ‘G’ on their sides, had taken the worst of whatever just happened. The closest one to the group was on its side with a soldier lying in the street nearby, the second was partly stuck in one of the craters, and the third had crashed into the side of one of the buildings. They couldn’t see much from where they were, but it seemed that all the remaining G.U.N. soldiers were out in the street.

Sonic ran over to the soldier in the street and checked him to make sure he was alive as the others came over. The soldier began to stir as Sonic shook him; as he raised his head up a bit, Sonic asked him, “Hey, are you all right?!”

The soldier muttered, “Sonic…?”

Sonic persisted, “Yeah, are you all right? What happened?”

The soldier groaned, “The transport fell over on its side… I got thrown out when it did…” He suddenly seemed to remember something as he forced himself up into a sitting position and grabbed Sonic’s shoulders while saying, “It was the black aliens! They fired their lasers from above! They… They might be sending troops to this location now! They want the other transports!”

Tails got next to Sonic and put a hand on the man’s shoulder, saying, “Hey, calm down! What are in the transports?”

The soldier answered, “Ours was carrying the assigned backup for the unit, but the others… There are civilians in them!”

Tails and a few of the others gasped, “What?!”

Sonic looked at the transport and dashed over to it, getting around to the back of it and getting one of the doors open. Inside, the soldiers were all sprawled out and dazed, some looking injured. One of them groaned, “Medic…”

Sonic looked and saw two square-shaped medical kits that had survived the crash. Any others in the back had burst open, their supplies lying amidst all the soldiers. Sonic grabbed the kits and looked over the soldiers. He thought for a moment about what to do before stepping out of the transport and yelling, “Fluttershy, get over here!”

The shy pegasus flew over to him after a moment, stopping just above him. “Y-Yes, Sonic?” she stammered.

The blue hedgehog handed her one of the medical kits and said, “Do what you can to help these guys. I’ll go help the other guy.” Looking down at the red cross on the kit, Fluttershy felt the veterinarian part of her animal caretaking come to her and she gave Sonic a determined look as she nodded. She then flew into the transport while Sonic carried the other medical kit over to the soldier, whom Twilight and Cadance had already moved onto the sidewalk at Fluttershy’s insistence. Taking a look at the front of the transport, Sonic saw that Tails was already working on saving the other soldier who had been in the front before the fall. Sonic knelt down near the soldier and asked, “How’s he looking?”

Twilight looked at him and said, “He doesn’t seem to be too bad, but he keeps saying you should go check on the rest of the soldiers and the other transports.”

Cadance’s magic wrapped around the medical kit in Sonic’s hand and took it from him, the Princess of Love saying, “Twilight and I will treat his injuries along with any his friend might have, Sonic. You and the others should do what he says and make sure everyone else is all right.” Shining Armor opened his mouth to say something, but Cadance silenced him with a stern, “That includes you, Shining Armor. You may be a prince now, but you were still Captain of the Royal Guard before you married me, and you still technically are. Go do your job!”

Now cowed, Shining Armor felt his time spent training take over as he answered, “Y-Yes, ma’am! Er, Cadance!” He, Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity then took off, running past the first transport and leaving Tails, Spike, and the other ponies to work.


BATTLE IN THE STREETS


The soldiers in the jeeps and the other two transports seemed to have come out fairly fine, though the soldiers that had been in the transports were focusing on making sure the civilians were okay first. The rest of them were using wrecked cars along the side of the road and debris from the buildings for cover as approaching them was a horde of Black Warriors. The G.U.N. soldiers had rifles and submachine guns, but it seemed that the weapons that the Black Arms had were keeping them from coming out and wrecking their cover.

The remainder of the group sprung into action. While Applejack and Rarity went to help the soldiers with the civilians (the soldiers calming down somewhat once they learned that the ponies were with Sonic), Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Shining Armor moved to help the soldiers fighting off the Black Arms. Sonic leapt into the exchange of projectiles with Rainbow Dash staying close by above him, and Shining Armor and Pinkie Pie joined the other soldiers, Shining using his magic to attack like the soldiers were while Pinkie brought out her party cannon.

Although the new additions to the fight took the G.U.N. soldiers by surprise, it also surprised the Black Warriors and G.U.N. was able to take advantage of that. Sonic and Rainbow Dash weaved between the black aliens, occasionally striking when they had a chance but mostly leaving them confused to give Shining and the soldiers a chance to attack. Pinkie’s party cannon, while its loud noise threw both sides off, did help distract the Black Arms for Sonic, Rainbow, and Shining Armor to get some attacks in.

It wasn’t long before all of the Black Warriors were lying on the ground, trying to recover. Seeing this, one of the soldiers called to Sonic, “Clear out! We’ll take care of them from here!” Going off the soldier’s tone of voice, the hedgehog could guess what he meant. He quickly got Rainbow Dash to come with him and they, along with Pinkie and Shining, went to go check on Rarity and Applejack. Once they were safely away, the same soldier called, “Frag out!” as he threw a grenade at the recovering Black Arms…

A few minutes later…

“Thanks for the help, Sonic. Things could have gotten really messy if you, Tails, and your new friends hadn’t shown up,” the soldier the group had rescued earlier told the blue hedgehog, his buddy nodding as well. It had taken a little time, but thanks to some unicorn and alicorn magic and a little cooperation, the group had helped G.U.N. secure the area, get the transports back up, and move the injured soldiers. Most of the convoy was ready to start moving again; only the last transport, its escorts, and the soldiers that hadn’t been badly injured didn’t seem ready to go.

“Sure, no problem, but what’s going on?” Sonic asked as the other two transports and their escorts started up and began to pull away.

The two soldiers looked at each other before the first one looked back at Sonic and explained, “We got our orders from the Commander. After the Black Comet appeared, we received orders to locate any civilians unaccounted for and get them to the shelters.” He looked to the left and said, “Look, you can see it from here.” Everyone looked in the same direction, and sure enough, they could see a huge, meteorite-like structure floating above the top of the buildings with what looked like roots coming off of it.

“Whoa… That’s the Black Comet?” Rainbow Dash gaped.

“It’s so… so massive. But how did it get there?” Twilight asked.

Tails explained, “The Black Arms… They teleported it down using Chaos Control.” He held a hand to the side of his face, “That must’ve been the rumbling we felt earlier. It wasn’t an earthquake; it was the Black Comet securing itself.”

The soldier nodded, “Once we saw that, we knew exactly why the Commander sent those orders. We managed to rescue all the citizens that were on those transports, but intelligence suggests there may still be more in the city.”


ALLYING WITH G.U.N.


Shining Armor asked, “Is there still time to rescue them?”

The soldier answered, “There should be, but after that attack from above earlier, we could use a little help.”

Sonic looked at the others and asked, “What do you guys think?”

Applejack nodded at Rarity, “Yeah, Rarity, ya got any objections now?”

Rarity huffed, “No! Now that I know what’s really going on here, of course I’ll help! What do you take me for?!”

While the ponies thought about that one, Sonic and Tails turned back to the soldier, the former saying, “All right, what do you want us to do?”

The soldier replied, “All of my available men will go with you to help in the search and so we can maintain contact. Because of that, we’re not really going to have someone available to help with any injured you come across. If you can spare a, uh… person or two to help, that would really help us all out.”

Fluttershy spoke up, “Um, I’ll stay behind to help, if that’s okay with everypony.” Everybody turned to look at her.

The G.U.N. soldier spoke after a moment, “Well, you did do a good job helping with our injured men earlier, ma’am.” He looked at Sonic, “Is that all right, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Yeah, sure. I figured she might want to stay behind anyway.” After about a minute more of talking, it was decided that Spike and Pinkie Pie would stay behind with Fluttershy to both help with the injured and help the soldiers track everyone’s location/progress. Tails, Shining Armor, and Princess Cadance went with one of the other soldiers in one of their jeeps, Twilight and Applejack went with two other soldiers in the other jeep, and Sonic and Rarity went with the rest of the soldiers with Rainbow Dash flying above to get a birds-eye view.


RESCUE MISSIONS


It wasn’t long before word was sent to Tails’ group that there was a nearby sign of human life. As their jeep neared the four-way intersection that they had been pointed to, they saw a large black alien wielding a big purple sword standing in the middle of the intersection! “What is that?!” Cadance exclaimed.

“It’s one of the larger black aliens! They’re pure muscle!” the soldier said.

The four of them then heard a scream coming from their left, where they saw a car sitting in the middle of the left street. “Someone’s trapped in that car!” Tails gasped.

Stopping the jeep, the soldier grabbed his submachine gun and said, “It’s going after whoever’s in the car! We’ve got to distract it!” Climbing out of the driver’s seat, he loaded his weapon and ran towards the alien (a Black Oak).

Shining Armor looked at Tails and asked, “Tails, if I help him distract that alien, can you get whoever’s in that car thing out?”

Tails nodded, “You got it!” Shining nodded and jumped out of the jeep, joining the soldier as he opened fire on the Black Oak.

Tails readied himself to fly, but Cadance placed a hoof on the fox’s shoulder and, when he turned his head to look at her, said, “I’m coming with you. There may be more than one human in there.” Tails took a moment to look at the Black Oak; seeing that it had turned its attention to Shining Armor and the soldier, he nodded and both he and Cadance took flight, flying over the alien and landing near the car.

The car itself had suffered some damage, as was to be expected. It had many scratches and dents, but the frame seemed to have survived well enough. This was a good thing, seeing as there was a little kid in the backseat and his mother was as terrified as he was at the sight of the black alien. Upon seeing Tails and Cadance running towards the car, the mother cried, “Help us! Please!”

Once they reached the car and saw the mother’s reaction, Cadance said, “Don’t worry, we’re going to get you out of here!”

Tails went to the left back door and tried to open it, but saw that it was locked. He looked at the mother and called, “Your doors are locked!” Although she was scared, the mother understood Tails and Cadance were trying to help and released the lock. Tails then grabbed the handle again and, after a few seconds of pulling, got the door open. While he comforted the kid and helped him out, Cadance mimicked his actions and got the driver’s door open with relative ease.

As the mother started to climb out and Tails held her son in his arms, Shining yelled, “Cadance, Tails, look out!” They all turned to see the Black Oak lumbering towards them, the alien having blocked the earlier shots with its hand and now intending to finish what it started despite Shining Armor and the soldier’s continuing attack.

Focusing her magic into her horn, Cadance wrapped it around the mother and said, “Hang on!” She then spread her wings and Tails started rotating his namesakes, both of them taking off as the Black Oak swung its sword down at them. They avoided it and flew back to the jeep while the alien’s sword slammed down onto the car’s engine, which caused it to explode in its face.

Cadance and Tails landed by the jeep a second later and helped the mother and her son into it as Shining Armor and the soldier ran over. Not wanting to know if the black alien survived, they all piled into the jeep and the soldier turned it around, driving away before anything else could attack them.

Elsewhere in the city, Sonic and Rarity had found a pair of abandoned Air Saucers and were using them to cross a part of the city that was covered in green toxic liquid while Rainbow Dash helped the G.U.N. soldiers find a way around to their target. Upon reaching the other side of the liquid safely, they continued riding their saucers through a tunnel, getting off of them when they got out of the tunnel and running up a nearby slope.

At the top of the slope, the road flattened out and they found a Black Oak with its back turned to them. The message the soldiers had received indicated there should be a survivor at the top of the slope, but they couldn’t see anyone besides the alien. “Where is the human? Did we go up the wrong slope?” Rarity wondered.

Sonic started, “I don’t know. Maybe…” A scream from in front of the alien stopped him. He then said, “Nope, we got it right!” He then ran towards the alien, shouting, “Hey, tall, dark, and ugly, leave ‘em alone!” The Black Oak heard him and turned around to face him. In its right hand was a large club, and in its left hand…

Sonic gasped and slid to a stop when he saw the man being held in its left hand. If he’d kept going, he might’ve hit the man by accident! The alien raised its club over its head; Rarity saw this and called, “Sonic, look out!” The blue hedgehog managed to backflip out of the way in time and slid back across the ground. He then dashed towards it, but it held the human up again, causing Sonic to break off and try to run around it. He managed to get behind it, but after attacking it, it swung its right arm back and knocked him into the nearby building. Rarity gasped and ran to his side after he landed on the ground. She was relieved to find that he was okay, but then the Black Oak raised its club, aiming for both of them…

A loud shout filled the air and suddenly, a cyan blur followed by a rainbow trail struck the side of the Black Oak’s head, making it turn to the side! Rarity and Sonic looked up to see Rainbow Dash with one of her back hooves firmly planted in the side of its face. She shot them both a look and Sonic and Rarity nodded. Sonic leapt to his feet and performed a Homing Attack on the alien’s left arm, causing it to drop the human it had in its grasp onto Rarity’s back, the unicorn having run over to catch him while Sonic attacked. She then took off, quickly running back down the slope.

Sonic and Rainbow then backed off, both landing near the slope next to each other. Sonic looked at Rainbow and said, “Thanks, Dash. I owe you one.” Rainbow just gave him a knowing wink.

The Black Oak roared and looked ready to attack them, but then the sound of gunshots filled the air. Sonic and Rainbow Dash ran down the slope as the G.U.N. soldiers Rainbow was helping reached the top, all of them unloading their bullets on the black alien. Unlike the one Tails, Shining Armor, and Cadance had encountered, this one could not block their bullets with its hands, so it ended up taking the rain of bullets for a couple of seconds before it finally fell.

In another part of the city, Twilight, Applejack, and the two soldiers they had come with hid behind some debris. On the other side of the debris, a small group of humans were being circled by a group of Black Warriors looking to take them back to the Black Comet to feed their young. One of the soldiers whispered, “This is a dangerous situation.”

The other soldier nodded, “Yeah. If we try to take down those aliens while those civilians are there, they’re bound to get hit too.”

Twilight suggested, “There might be a way for us to get them out of there quickly.” She looked back at Applejack and asked, “Applejack, do you think you could…?”

The orange earth pony smiled, “Sure thing, Twi’. Just find me an opening.”

Twilight went back to peering around the edge of the debris at that with Applejack at her side, watching as the Black Warriors circled their prey like vultures. When she could see a straight shot, just when it looked like the aliens were about to move in, Twilight yelled, “NOW!” At her signal, Applejack leapt out from behind cover with a lasso in her mouth. Just as the Black Warriors were starting to react to their surprise guests, Applejack threw her lasso and caught all the humans in the hoop, giving a sharp tug to pull them out of the middle of the circle.

Twilight caught the humans in her magic and, while she held them, Applejack gave the debris they’d been hiding behind a sharp buck, sending pieces flying at the Black Arms. The flying bits of stone were enough to cause them to shield themselves, giving Twilight and Applejack time to get away with the humans. While they were getting the humans to safety, the two soldiers stepped out of cover as well, opening fire on the aliens when one of them shouted, “Light ‘em up!”

All three parties managed to drop their charges off soon after rescuing them, and they were able to rescue a couple more surviving citizens before they were called off. While Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Spike treated the wounds of the last survivors brought in, the rest of the group stood close to the front of the transport, the ponies listening in as the driver talked to Sonic. “Once again, we can’t thank you and your friends enough, Sonic. I don’t know how you and Tails came to be here, since the last word was that you were both on the Black Comet, or where you met your new friends, but we won’t forget this,” the soldier assured them.

Sonic replied, “Hey, we were glad to help out.”

The other soldier in the transport leaned over and asked, “Hey, what happened on that Black Comet anyway? And what happened with Shadow?”

Sonic and Tails looked at each other before Tails answered, “Don’t worry. It’ll all become clear soon.”

The two soldiers looked confused, but suddenly, a beeping came from the computer built into the transporter’s dashboard. Both soldiers looked at it, the second one saying after a moment, “We’re getting some kind of transmission over the G.U.N. network!”

The first soldier said, “Patch it through!” The soldier did as he was told; static filled the computer screen for several seconds before the flickering image of a man with a white, familiar-looking mustache appeared on it.


GERALD'S LAST MESSAGE TO SHADOW


Everyone in the area, including the other soldiers, then heard a voice say, “Shadow, my son.”

One of the soldiers outside asked, “What the…?”

Twilight asked, “What’s going on?”

The voice continued, “If you’re listening to this, then the worst has happened… You need to know the truth. The government plans to shut down this research facility. The government plans to cease all of our research… and imprison all who know about you. I made a terrible mistake, Shadow. It’s all my fault… making contact with that comet.”

Tails breathed, “Professor Gerald…”

Gerald continued, “Now, listen very carefully… In fifty years, the Black Comet will return… They plan to harness its powers to destroy this planet! The only way to stop them… was to develop a way to use the very power they intended to use against them.”

Sonic murmured, “And you did.”

Gerald went on, “Shadow… It’s up to YOU and only YOU can stop them! I developed the Eclipse Cannon… It’s the only weapon that can destroy that Black Comet. Shadow, you are the only hope… to save mankind as we know it. The future of this planet depends on… YOU!”

The two soldiers saw a girl join the Professor on the screen, followed by her saying, “Don’t worry, grandfather. Shadow and I will protect this planet. Right, Shadow?”

Silence ruled the air for several moments, nobody sure what to say. Finally, Sonic looked at the soldiers in the transporter and said, “You guys had better get going. Get these people to a safe place and all that.”

The driver muttered, “Uh, yeah, right…” He pulled the door closed and spoke into his radio, “Mount up! We’re moving out!” The order brought the other soldiers back to their senses and they complied, either climbing into the jeeps or into the back of the transporter with the rescued survivors. Sonic, Tails, Spike, and the ponies stood on the sidewalk, watching as the vehicles started and drove off, likely going to wherever the other vehicles had been ordered to go.

Everyone watched as the vehicles drove away. After they disappeared around the corner, Twilight looked at Tails and asked, “Was that really Professor Gerald Robotnik?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. That was his final message to Shadow before the ARK was shut down.”

Sonic added glumly, “Before he went insane when he lost his granddaughter Maria and tried to get revenge…”

Everyone, especially Shining Armor, was silenced at that. “Maybe… Was I too hasty in judging Shadow?” the white stallion wondered.


FIGHTING IN THE SKY


A bright yellow flash appeared in the sky a few seconds later, catching everyone’s attention. Amidst the thick red clouds above, they could see a devilish-looking creature and a smaller, yellow figure flying/hovering in the air. “What’s that?!” Applejack asked.

After a moment, Tails said, “It’s Super Shadow and Black Doom. We’d better leave.”

Pinkie whined, “Aw, can’t we stay and watch?”

Sonic looked at her, “No, we can’t. Black Doom is going to do whatever it takes to stop Shadow, including pull parts of this city out of the ground. If we don’t leave, he might just pull us up too!”

Shining grunted, “That’s a… good point.” He followed Sonic and Tails off the sidewalk onto the street along with the others, Tails reaching into his namesakes to retrieve the Warp Ring.

Before he could pull it out, Twilight exclaimed, “Wait!”

Everyone turned to look back at her and saw her frozen in place, one hoof in the air and a shocked expression on her face. “Twilight, what’s wrong?” Cadance asked, concerned.

“I… I can’t move!” she struggled to say.

Rainbow Dash laughed, thinking it was a joke. “Good one, Twi’! Is this like that time you were planning to stand in one place for a week?” As she was speaking, she flew over to the unicorn. She then tapped Twilight on the side of her head with a hoof, only to watch in shock as Twilight fell over easily. “Uh, Twilight?” she asked.

She turned her head to look back at Sonic as he gasped, “Uh…! Hey… I’m freezing up too!” Applejack and Rarity soon started to freeze in place as well.

“What’s going on?!” Spike cried.

As he looked his friends over, Tails soon came to a conclusion that scared him. “This… That gas from the Black Comet… How long have we been breathing it in?!” he cried.

Cadance looked at him worriedly, “What are you talking about? What gas?”

As he brought the Warp Ring out, Tails explained, “There’s a gas that the Black Comet gives off. It’s a nerve gas. If you’re not at least part Black Arm, it’ll paralyze you once it enters your system.” He tossed the Warp Ring and it grew to its full size; he then said, “We’ve got to get out of here, away from the Black Comet.” He ran over to Sonic and grabbed him by the shoulders, dragging him towards the ring. Shining Armor, Cadance, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Spike likewise did the same for Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack, the ring vanishing once they had all gone through it.

The group reappeared in a dimly lit metal hallway, the design seeming modern yet futuristic. “Where are we, Tails?” Rainbow asked once she saw their surroundings.

The fox replied, “Space Colony ARK. There’s plenty of fresh air here, and we should have enough time for that gas to get out.”

Cadance asked, “Is there anything we can do to make it go quicker?”

Tails shook his head, “It’ll get out on its own. As long as they keep breathing normal air, it shouldn’t take long.”

Sonic could feel some movement return to his eyes, allowing him to look around a little. “Hey… aren’t we near the control room?” he asked.

Tails looked around and, after a moment, said, “Uh… yeah, we are.”

The fox put his right hand on his chin, seemingly thinking for a moment before turning and running down the hallway. “Tails, where are you going?!” Spike shouted.

Tails called back over his shoulder, “I’ll be right back! There’s something I want to check!” Before anyone could say anything else, the fox disappeared. Left with no other choice, everyone decided to keep an eye on Sonic, Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity.


READY FOR THE FUTURE


After a few minutes, they began to regain full movement of everything. As they were shaking off the remaining stiffness, Shining asked Sonic, “So this is a real space colony? Like, actually in outer space?”

While shaking his left leg, Sonic replied, “Yeah, it sure is, dude.”

Shining’s eyes became starry, the stallion holding his hooves up to his mouth as he whispered, “Wow… So awesome…”

While Cadance gave him a flat look, Sonic looked at him with a raised eyebrow when he looked back at him. Twilight leaned over to him and whispered, “Shining is kind of a dork, just so you know.” The blue hedgehog snickered at that.

Tails returned a few seconds later, panting slightly. “There ya are, Tails! Where’d ya run off to?” Applejack asked.

The two-tailed fox replied, “I went to go check on the Eclipse Cannon. Just as I thought, it’s already charging up. All Shadow has to do is teleport the Black Comet back into space and fire the cannon at it.”

Shining asked, “That’s what you were doing?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. I was curious, and I was sure everything would be fine since we were already paralyzed by that gas once.” He pulled the Warp Ring out and said, “So we should go now.” He let the ring fall and it grew to its full size.

Before anyone could move, Rainbow Dash asked, “Wait, what about Shadow?”

Sonic spoke, “Don’t worry about him. This is his fight against his own darkness… and he’ll see it through to the end. Because that’s who he is.” Although Spike and the ponies were still concerned about the black hedgehog, they accepted this explanation and everyone went through the Warp Ring, returning the inside of the ARK to silence once again.

Although they were not around to see it, when Super Shadow teleported onto the ARK a few minutes later after teleporting the Black Comet back into space, Tails’ earlier check-up ensured that the Eclipse Cannon was fully charged when he arrived. Like the fox had said, very shortly after the comet was returned to space, the cannon was fired at it, destroying it and wiping out most of the Black Arms, leaving only a scattered amount still on Earth that would soon be destroyed as well when Shadow began his training.

And despite what others might say to them, the G.U.N. soldiers and humans that the group had saved on this day would never forget the ones who helped them. This was another day that would be remembered by the people of Earth for a long time to come, and those who had been saved from being killed by the Black Arms would not forget their saviors.
> Fun and Games Pt. I: Twinkle Park
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


GETTING CLOSER


The Warp Ring deposited Sonic and the others along the left side of the Friendship Express close enough to the engine that they could all see that the barrier that had forced them to stop earlier was dissipating, soon vanishing completely and revealing the train tracks that lay beyond it. Some distance ahead, they could see the mountain range that Canterlot was connected to, the tunnel that the train would have to pass through to reach the side of the mountain range not too far ahead of where they had stopped.

“Is that where we have to go to get to Canterlot?” Sonic asked while looking at the mountain range.

“That’s right, Sonic. Once we reach the side of that mountain range, there’s just one more tunnel to pass through and then we should be able to go straight to Canterlot,” Twilight said.

Tails looked over at her and smirked, “Unless we encounter any more portals along the way, right?”

Twilight sighed, “Exactly.”

Applejack spoke up, “Well, let’s get goin’, then! Time’s a-wastin’!” Rainbow Dash agreed with that sentiment and zipped back onto the train, the others moving over to the train and climbing in after her. Tails and Pinkie took the engine and soon got the Friendship Express going again, the portal the group had gone through earlier pulsing weakly as the train moved past it.

Pinkie and Tails weren’t the only ones up front; instead of going back to their normal seats, the rest of the group all moved up towards the front of the train again, Fluttershy, Shining Armor, Cadance, and Twilight standing in the engine while Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike stayed in the adjacent car.

Sonic stood with his back against the wall to the right (from the back of the car) of the door, his arms crossed over his chest while Rainbow Dash plopped down with her forelegs behind her head to the left of the door, Applejack laid down against the car’s right wall, and Rarity and Spike stood between her and the front of the car, Spike turning his head to look in Applejack’s direction while Rarity looked at Sonic and Rainbow.

Except for the sounds of the train chugging along, silence ruled the air around the group for several moments before Applejack reached up and took her hat off with her right hoof while sighing, “Hoo-wee! That whole mess in Central City sure was somethin’, huh?”

Rarity spoke, “Oh, absolutely! I cannot believe those horrible black aliens caused so much damage to one place and left so many people in danger. How did they ever get away with it?”

Sonic spoke up, “During the reconstruction, Knuckles said the Black Arms planted bombs all around the city and even brought some kind of big bombs to level the city even faster. At least he and Shadow managed to stop them, or Central City probably would’ve ended up at least as bad as Westopolis did at the start of the Black Arms’ invasion.”

Twilight, along with Fluttershy, Shining, and Cadance, moved a little closer to the door as she asked, “Westopolis?”

Sonic turned his head towards the door and said, “That’s where I ran into Shadow first, shortly after those aliens started their invasion. I can’t remember the specific details, but I do remember it was one of the more heavily hit areas.”

Tails turned away from the engine, leaving Pinkie to the controls, and stepped closer to the ponies around the door before saying, “Actually, it was the area that was hit the hardest. I caught it over the G.U.N. radio during the invasion; out of the six cities around the world that were invaded at the start, they said Westopolis took the most damage, with downtown Westopolis being almost completely destroyed.”

Shining Armor shook his head, “That’s unbelievable. I mean, I can believe it after seeing Central City, but still…”

From where she was laying down, Rainbow Dash threw her hooves up as she groaned, “Ugh! Whoever was in charge back then shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions about what that Gerald guy was doing! If they’d given him a chance and listened, maybe some of that destruction could’ve been avoided!” Twilight glanced down at the floor at that, an unwelcome sensation coming to the back of her mind and trying to spread from there.

Sonic spoke, “I don’t know if it would’ve helped, Dash. Fifty years is a long time; who knows what those black aliens could’ve encountered out in space during that time. When the Black Comet passed by again, it probably wasn’t fifty years on the dot.”

Cadance said, “You may have a point, Sonic. If they had gotten everything ready for the Black Arms’ return and too much time went by without anything happening, they could have let their guard down. At least, from what I saw, it seemed like they were handling the crisis well, all things considered.” Twilight’s thoughts began to calm a little at Sonic and Cadance’s words, though she closed her eyes and shook her head to try to completely calm them.

Rainbow sighed, “Still, the guy was researching immortality because he was trying to save his granddaughter’s life. Even if he hadn’t mentioned who he was doing it for, what made them think he was going to use it to conquer the world or anything like that?”

Spike shrugged, “Well, that message we heard earlier made it sound like they knew he had made contact with that comet and they figured he was going all mad scientist on the world.” Applejack smacked him across the back of his head with a hoof, Spike groaning as he rubbed the spot with a claw and asked, “What?!”

Tails spoke up, “It wasn’t just Shadow, Spike. It seems like most of the projects Gerald was working on were misinterpreted by the higher ups.”

Twilight, thankful for the chance to learn so she could focus, looked at him and asked, “Really? I know you said that the Chaos Drives he designed are still used today, and of course everything that led up to Shadow’s creation, but what else did he work on, Tails?”

Tails replied, “Well, I’m pretty sure he worked on the Artificial Chaos creatures that were left on board the ARK when it was shut down, and Eggman found one of his discoveries sometime after the Black Arms’ invasion, when reconstruction was nearing completion.”

Sonic thought for a moment about that, “When reconstruction was… Oh, you’re talking about Emerl, right Tails?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah.”

Fluttershy asked, “Who is… Emerl?”

Before Sonic or Tails could answer her, Pinkie exclaimed, “We’ve reached the tunnel! Deet deet!”

Everyone looked at her, Sonic and Rainbow Dash standing up straight to look through the doorway and Tails asking, “What was that, Pinkie?”

The party pony turned away from the controls and grinned, “A train whistle, silly!”

Sonic commented, “Sounded more like a football whistle to me.”

Pinkie stared for a moment before smacking the side of her head with her left hoof, “Ooh, yeah! That’s right! Hee hee hee! I got my whistles mixed up!” The train reached the tunnel seconds later, everyone deciding to leave what Pinkie said to her being her usual silly self as they were plunged into pitch blackness.

Shortly after the train entered the tunnel, Tails ears perked as he heard a faint beeping sound coming from his twin appendages. “Huh?” he uttered as he turned his head to look down at his tails before letting out a yelp and shielding his eyes, as did everyone else, as light unexpectedly appeared around the train, giving nobody’s eyes a chance to readjust.

While rubbing her eyes with a hoof, Rainbow groaned, “What the hay just happened?”

Tails rubbed his right hand against his eyes while he reached his left hand into his namesakes and retrieved his radar, the beeping now sounding louder. Holding it up and lowering his right hand to hold it in both hands, he checked the dual screens for several seconds before saying, “We just went through another portal! It must’ve been right there in the tunnel!”

Shining groaned, “What?!”

Twilight sighed, “So where are we now?”


UNEXPECTED DETOUR


Applejack and Sonic walked over to the two windows to Rainbow Dash’s right and looked out. Down below, they could see a large castle with a couple of towers and walkways that had swinging pirate ships, roller coaster tracks, shrubbery, flags, and several pools of water on or around it. “Looks like some kinda amusement park, Twi’,” Applejack said after a few moments.

Pinkie Pie gasped, “An amusement park?! Like Sweet Mountain?!” She dashed to the window in the engine and poked her head out. “Hey! That’s not Sweet Mountain out there!” she exclaimed.

Sonic chuckled and looked over at the pink pony saying, “No, it’s not, Pinkie. It’s Twinkle Park. Totally different amusement park. It’s on the ground.”

Pinkie looked disappointed at that, but she soon perked up, “It’s an amusement park! We should go on some rides while we’re here!”

Rainbow stuck her head through the doorway and protested, “Pinkie, we have to get to Canterlot, remember? We’re not stopping here!”

Tails looked out the window on the other side of the car and added, “There’s nowhere to get off, anyway. We’re way up off the ground!”

Princess Cadance walked over and peered over his head, taking a look for herself. “Well, at least we can get a good look at this park while we pass through. Provided the tracks keep going, that is.”

Both she and Tails looked towards the front of the engine, the latter saying “It looks that way, Princess Cadance. Just like before, it looks like the tracks will take us from one portal to the other.” Taking a closer look, he added, “Oh, heads up! It looks like we’re going down!” Sure enough, seconds later, the engine tilted downwards followed by the rest of the cars.

While everyone else braced themselves to keep from sliding all over, Pinkie continued to sit at the window, smiling as she looked out at the park. “This kind of reminds me of the rides at the Summer Wrap-Up Fair! Nothing like the log ride, but still fun!” She then noticed something and, after thinking about it for a second, wondered, “Hey, why are we slowing down?”

Sonic heard her from the adjacent car, having been wedged into the corner with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and asked, “How can we be slowing down? We’re on an incline!”

Twilight, who was being held onto by her brother while Cadance helped Tails and Fluttershy to remain standing near the window, said, “I think she’s right, Sonic. Something seems a little off…!” Indeed, while it was hardly noticeable at first, everyone else on the train began to notice that they were indeed starting to slow down, even more so as it seemed like the train’s path began to straighten out. Seconds after the engine and the adjacent car straightened out, the forward momentum came to an end, the train coming to a complete stop.

“Why did we stop?” Spike asked a moment after everyone relaxed.

“I don’t know, Spike. Let me check something,” Tails said as he walked over to the opening to the engine’s boiler, peering inside when he was standing in front of it. “Plenty of coal in there… That’s not why we stopped…” he murmured. He stood up straight and looked up at the steam gauge with his left hand on his chin, “Why aren’t we getting any steam?”

Pinkie pointed at another gauge on the engine and said, “That glassy thing looks empty!”

Twilight looked at the gauge and, after a moment, said, “Pinkie, that’s the water gauge!”

Tails blinked, “Water? Uh-oh!” His namesakes began to spin around, the fox lifting off the ground and flying out through the engine’s window towards the front of the engine. The others decided to take this chance to step out for a moment, everyone getting out on the left side of the train. Looking around, they found that the train had stopped on the tracks just in front of a part of the castle, right in front of a set of stairs leading up to an archway in the castle wall. The engine and the adjacent car sat in front of the stairs while the rest of the cars were still up in the air, pointing slightly downwards.

Looking towards the front of the train, the group saw Tails hovering over the engine, peering down into one of the stacks on top of it. After a minute, he looked up and said, “We are out of water! That’s why we stopped!”

Rarity gasped, “What?! But how?!”

Tails shrugged, “All I can guess is that we used up a lot of it when the train went out of control earlier, plus all the stopping and starting we’ve had to do.”

Shining Armor spoke, “We’ll have to find more water to refill the engine before we can resume our journey.”

Applejack said, “Well, that won’t be a problem. Ah saw a bunch of water around this here castle while we were up there. We just grab some o’ that and put it in the train!”

Tails landed near the orange earth pony and crossed his arms, saying, “I don’t know, Applejack. I’m willing to bet the water here is treated with chlorine.”

Rainbow, who was hovering above the fox, raised an eyebrow, “Chlorine?”

Tails looked up at her and explained, “It’s what they put in swimming pools to keep them clean. I know there’s very little chance that plants could start growing in the train’s water tank, but I’m not sure putting chlorine in there is a good idea.”

Sonic thought for a moment before asking aloud, “Fish don’t like chlorine, do they?”

Tails looked at him and said, “Uh, I’m pretty sure they don’t. Why?”

Sonic turned and pointed towards the castle while saying, “I seem to remember there being a little pool on the other side of this castle, kind of like a pond. I didn’t stop and take a good look last time I was here, but I’m pretty sure there was something swimming around in there. If they keep fish in there, they probably don’t dump chlorine in that pool.”

Twilight looked at him and said, "That's... rather astute of you, Sonic."

The blue hedgehog grinned wryly at her, "Yeah, I'm totally... that word you just said." He looked at Tails and asked, "So what do you think, Tails?"

Tails replied, "If that’s the case, it should work." He turned and started walking towards the engine while saying, "I'll take a bucket with me and go check it."

He was about to reach the side of the engine when Rainbow Dash landed directly in front of him, her wings still spread out to her sides. "Whoa, whoa, whoa! If you're going, I'm going with you!"

Tails looked at her, "Rainbow Dash?"

The pegasus smirked, "You're not exactly the fastest flyer, Tails. No offense, but it might take a while to get the water we need if you have to fly back and forth. You tell me if it’s okay and I'll fly it back here for you. It'll get done much faster that way."

Tails smiled, "All right, if you insist." He spun his tails around and flew up over her into the engine, grabbing the coal bucket that was sitting on the floor against the wall. As he flew out through the window, Rainbow flew up beside him and they headed in the direction that Sonic had pointed to, searching for the pool.

After the two had disappeared from sight, Shining Armor looked at Sonic and asked, “Sonic, you were saying something about someone called ‘Emerl’ before all this happened, right? Who is that?”

As the hedgehog was about to respond, Cadance spoke up, “Why don’t we wait until Rainbow Dash and Tails get back and we get moving again? We’ll have plenty of time to talk on the train.”

Sonic shrugged, “Fine with me.” He looked at Shining Armor, “What about you?” Shining kind of shrugged in agreement as well, so Sonic took a seat on one of the steps nearby, Spike and a few of the ponies doing the same. While they were waiting, a mysterious shadowed figure spied on them from the other side of the train from between the cars with yellow eyes for a few moments before disappearing…

It wasn’t long before everyone’s head turned up at the sound of whooshing air. Rainbow Dash flew above them and came to a stop above the train engine with a shaking bucket held between her teeth. She dumped the contents of the bucket into the open stack on top of the engine before zipping off again. A moment after she took off, Tails flew down towards them, Sonic, Spike, Applejack, and Fluttershy standing up as he landed near the stairs.

As Rainbow Dash flew overhead with the bucket again, Applejack asked, “What is that pony doin’?”

Tails replied, “She’s filling the tank with water, just like she said she would.”

Sonic asked, “So does that mean we have a winner?”

Tails nodded, “Yep. You were right, Sonic. There are fish living in that pool, so it’s relatively free of treatment.”

While they were talking, Rainbow Dash dumped the second bucket of water into the engine’s tank and flew off to get another one. Everyone turned to look up at her when she returned the third time. After pouring the water down into the stack, she held the bucket in her right hoof, looked down at Tails, and asked, “Is that enough?”

Tails spun his namesakes around and flew into the engine’s cabin to check the water gauge before flying out to look down into the tank himself. After a couple of seconds of peering down, he looked up at Rainbow Dash and asked, “Can you get one more bucket? That should fill it up all the way.” Rainbow sighed, but saluted and shot towards the pool to fulfill the fox’s request. She returned seconds later and poured the water into the engine, tossing the bucket through the engine’s window when she was done.

Tails, who had landed by the others in the time the pegasus had been gone, said, “That ought to do it.”

Sonic nodded, “Let’s get going, then!” The others nodded and they all started moving towards the train, Rainbow Dash beginning to fly in through the engine’s window.


INTRUSIVE TOUR GUIDE


“Stop right there!” a male, slightly electronic voice yelled, causing the members of the group to stop or hesitate. Looking towards the stairs leading up to the castle, they saw what looked like one of the floating information monitors from around Station Square at the top of the stairs. As they looked up at it, a featureless face appeared on its screen and a pair of arms with white-gloved hands at their ends extended from the bottom of the monitor. It then floated down towards them, a glare on its face as it demanded, “What are you all doing here?”

Rainbow flew at the thing once it got to the bottom of the stairs, getting up in its… face as she asked, “What’s it matter to you, pal?! And who are you supposed to be anyway?!”

The monitor tapped her on the nose with its right hand, pushing her back on the last tap, and said, “I am the new host of Twinkle Park, and all of you are trespassing.”

Sonic asked, “Trespassing? This is an amusement park!”

The monitor moved to the side to look at the hedgehog and replied, “And you have to pay to get into an amusement park, do you not? None of you came in through the main entrance, so none of you paid the admission fee! Therefore, you are all trespassers!” It wagged its right finger at Sonic as it finished speaking.

Twilight spoke, “N-No, wait! We were just… We came here on this train! We just needed to get some water, so…”

The monitor cut her off, “I do not want to hear your excuses! I caught you, so now you all have to pay the price!” After a moment, it added, “Unless of course you all qualify for the special offer.”

Sonic raised an eyebrow, “Special offer?”

The monitor replied, “Cute couples get in for free.”

Sonic deadpanned, “Oh, right. THAT offer.”

Shining Armor and Princess Cadance stood together at that, Shining wrapping his hoof around Cadance and saying, “Well, if that’s the offer you have, then… we’re married!”

Cadance nodded, “Right! We’re a couple! We’ve been a couple for years and had our first anniversary recently!”

The monitor looked at them, seemingly intently, for several long moments before saying, “Very well then.” Relief flooded through the group at that, only to get crushed when the monitor asked, “And the rest of them?”

Shining asked, “Uh, what?”

The monitor explained, “A cute couple only pays for itself. If the rest of your guests are not cute couples as well, then they’ll have to pay the admission fee!”

Cadance’s eyes darted around as she stammered, “Uh… Well, I…” Her eyes fell on Sonic and noticed Twilight was standing to his left. She channeled her magic into her horn and wrapped the hedgehog in her light blue aura before forcibly sliding him next to Twilight, both of them grunting when they bumped together. The lavender unicorn glanced at Sonic while he looked over at Cadance as the pink alicorn said, “They’re together! They’re a couple too!”

Sonic turned to look at Twilight, both of them raising their eyebrows as they asked, “What?!”

Ignoring them and Spike’s snickering, Cadance used her magic to move Tails over to Fluttershy, Tails letting out a grunt while Fluttershy let out a yelp when they bumped. Cadance then looked at the monitor and said, “And they’re together too! Aren’t they such a cute couple?”

Tails and Fluttershy looked at each other in confusion, “Huh?”

By now, Spike seemed to realize what Cadance was doing and quickly ran to Rarity’s side. Even if they were just doing this to get through this sticky situation, the baby dragon had to suppress a big grin as he said, “And so are we! Isn’t that right, Rarity?”

Rarity also seemed to know what Cadance was up to, for she turned to Spike and wrapped a hoof around his shoulders as she replied, “Absolutely, my dear Spikey-Wikey!”

Cadance smiled, glad that they knew to play along, but Shining leaned over to remind her of something. “Cadance, this is a great idea, love, but there are three left and they’re all mares!” he whispered. The love alicorn’s eyes widened at that.

She turned her head to look at Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. “And, uh, they’re, uh…” she stammered, trying to figure out what to say to save face.

“Whoa, hold it! When did all y’all become that friendly towards each other?” Applejack asked, referring to the two couples Cadance had picked out, not entirely sure what was going on.

Rainbow seemed to have more of an idea of what Cadance was doing, as she exclaimed, “Hey, why’d you put Sonic with Twilight?! They’re totally the opposite of each other! And what are we supposed to do?!”

Pinkie popped up behind the two ponies and said, “Silly Dashie, that’s easy! You and Applejack will go together to make a LOVELY couple!” She wrapped her forelegs around the two ponies, pulling them close to her and happily saying, “And Pinkie goes well with everypony, so why don’t we make it a threesome!”

Applejack and Rainbow looked at her like she was crazier than usual, shrieking, “WHAT?!?” Everyone else at least stole a glance at them, specifically at Pinkie, though Cadance soon turned back to the monitor and put on a wide, nervous grin, hoping it would buy it.

The love alicorn could swear, for a second, she heard what sounded like muffled snickering coming from the monitor. It then went quiet for a second before its face relaxed and it said, “Very well. You all appear to be cute couples, so none of you will have to pay admission after all.” Everyone let out a sigh of relief at that except for Rainbow and Applejack, both of whom were struggling to get out of Pinkie Pie’s ‘hug’. The monitor then spoke, “So as your host, allow me to do the honor of getting all of you couples started on your visit to Twinkle Park!”

Everyone looked back at it at that, Shining saying, “What? No, no, that won’t be necessary. Don’t trouble yourself…”

The monitor spread out its arms and managed to corral them all together before it said, “It’s no trouble at all. Once all you lovey-dovey couples get a taste of Twinkle Park, you won’t want to leave!” As it finished speaking, it somehow managed to push them all around the train and into the park. Even Spike couldn’t get away, pressed up against Rarity as he was (he could’ve squeezed out, but it WAS Rarity…). A few of them, including Sonic, Tails, Twilight, Shining Armor, Cadance, and Rainbow Dash managed to twist around and reach their hands/hooves out towards the train, but they were unable to do anything to get away.

________________________________________


HELPING THE CAKES


Cream and Mrs. Cake walked through the swinging doors into the back of Sugarcube Corner, Cream carrying Pumpkin Cake in her arms while Mrs. Cake kept an eye on Pound Cake while Cheese tried to keep him from flying off. They made their way over to the twins’ high chairs; when they reached them, Cheese led Pound Cake low enough for Mrs. Cake to get a hold of him and put him in his high chair while Cream put Pumpkin Cake in her chair. Once she was sure the twins were securely in their seats, Cup Cake turned to Cream and smiled, “Thank you so much for helping me with the twins, Cream dearie. It can be a bit hard keeping them under control when Pinkie Pie isn’t available.”

Cream and Cheese smiled back, the former saying, “It was no trouble at all, Mrs. Cake. I like helping others. Do you need help feeding them?”

As she turned to get the baby bottles, Cup Cake replied, “That’s okay, sweetie. I can take care of things from here. Why don’t you go and see how Amy is doing?” Cream nodded and, after giving Pound and Pumpkin Cake a smile, walked towards the delicious smell coming from the kitchen with Cheese at her side.

Inside, they found plenty of fresh confections lining the kitchen’s counters. Mr. Cake was busy arranging the treats that were finished while Amy was bending down to pull a tray of cupcakes out of the oven. Carrot Cake looked up from what he was doing and noticed Cream and Cheese. “Hi there, Cream, Cheese! Done with the twins?” he asked.

“Yes, Mr. Cake, sir. Is there anything I can help with?” the rabbit wondered.

“I think we’ve done enough baking for now. Can you girls help me carry everything out to the front?” Carrot Cake asked as Amy set the tray of cupcakes down on the counter.

“Oh, absolutely!” Cream answered with Cheese giving a happy squeak.

“Sure!” Amy nodded, brushing a hand down the front of the pink apron Mrs. Cake had given her.

While setting a few sweets on his back and balancing them, Mr. Cake said, “You girls have been such a big help. I have to admit I’m impressed by your baking skills.”

Cream picked up a tray of baguettes and said, “When my Mama is baking, she lets me help her in the kitchen.” Cheese nodded, flapping his wings furiously as he tried to pick up a muffin.

Amy spoke, “And I’ve done a lot of baking on my own. I have some neighbors who share recipes with me every so often.”

Mr. Cake nodded, “I see. That’s wonderful to hear!” He then began making his way to the front of the shop, Cream and Cheese following after him while Amy selected a cake to take.

After they had dropped their confections off, Amy, Cream, and Cheese went to go get the remaining treats while Carrot Cake walked over to Cup Cake and asked, “How are the twins doing?”

The cerulean mare replied, “I think it’s almost time for another nap. They’re starting to get sleepy.”

Carrot Cake smiled, but then frowned as he wondered, “Do you think they’re all okay?”

Cup Cake asked, “You mean Pinkie and all of her friends?”

Carrot Cake nodded, “Yeah. It’s been a while since they left for Canterlot. I hope nothing’s gone wrong.”

Cream, Cheese, and Amy had come out of the kitchen by this time and were listening in on the couple’s quiet conversation. Once they were done speaking, Cream spoke up, “Don’t worry about them. They’re going to be okay.”

Mr. and Mrs. Cake turned to look at them as Amy nodded, “Cream’s right. Those girls are going to be just fine.” She and Cream resumed walking as she continued, “It sounds like they’ve taken care of a lot of things together; I’m sure they know to stay together by now, and besides, they’re with…” She suddenly stopped short and stiffened up, Cream nearly crashing into her as she tensely said, “Sonic?!”

The Cakes, Cream, and Cheese looked at her in concern, Cream asking, “Amy? What’s wrong?”

The pink hedgehog relaxed after a few moments and said, “Nothing, Cream. It felt like someone was trying to fix my Sonic up with someone else just now.”

Cream and Cheese glanced at each other a bit nervously at that before Cream looked back at Amy and asked, “A-Are you sure, Amy? I mean, I don’t think you’re wrong, but why would someone do that?”

Amy replied, “I don’t know, Cream.” She glared straight ahead and her voice held a noticeable edge to it as she said, “But if I find out someone did and I find them, they’re going to be VERY sorry.” She resumed walking, albeit a bit rigidly as she carried her tray of cupcakes to the front of the store. Cream and Cheese looked at each other worriedly while Cup Cake and Carrot Cake looked at each other with concern, confused about what they just witnessed.

________________________________________


IN THE PARK


“Applejack, will you move over?! I’m getting squished over here!” Rainbow complained, trying to move in her cramped roller coaster seat.

“Where am Ah supposed ta go, Rainbow?! This thing ain’t big enough fer the three of us!” Applejack groaned as she also tried to shift about. In between the two ponies sat Pinkie Pie, the pink pony smiling happily and seeming to not mind the fact that she had two arguing mares at her sides.

The entire group was currently riding on Twinkle Park’s roller coaster, their ‘park guide’ having forced them into its cars after leading them to the station, away from their train. Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were sitting in the front car, the rest of the ‘couples’ sitting behind them in the order Cadance had ‘introduced’ them in. The coaster had just left the station, leaving everyone strapped in for the ride.

Left with no other choice at the moment, the group tried to sit back and enjoy the ride as best as they were able to, and for the most part it seemed to work as the track went up and down and through loop de loops. Aside from Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Sonic seemed to be the only who wasn’t entirely enjoying the ride. Although he had no problem with roller coasters, he usually didn’t find them as exciting as some people did. Despite this, he sat back in the car and rested his right arm on the side of it, glancing around the park as the coaster continued on its course and trying to distract himself from the two ponies arguing in the back.

After several minutes of going up, down, and around, the roller coaster returned to the station and the lap bars restraining the group lifted up after it had slowed to a stop. Now that the exhilaration was over, everyone looked towards the back of the coaster as Rainbow Dash and Applejack resumed squirming, trying to get out of the car. After several seconds of this, Twilight was about to use her magic to help them, only for the two ponies to make one more strong effort to get out that resulted in Pinkie Pie being ejected from the car with a loud *POP*, the party pony shooting up into the air like a cork.

Not expecting such a thing to happen, the others could only watch as she went straight up while crying, “Whoo-hoo!” After only a few seconds, she came back down, landing front first on the platform. She didn’t a move for a moment, but then her head shot up as she exclaimed, “Whee~! That was FUN!”

Sonic couldn’t help but smirk, “Crazy girl.” He then stood up and stepped out onto the platform, Twilight moving her body slightly to do the same. The others followed suit, Shining Armor and Spike getting out first and holding out a hoof/claw to Princess Cadance and Rarity respectively to help them off while Applejack and Rainbow Dash, in an effort to put a little distance between them, ended up stumbling over each other as they got out.

“Ugh, finally! If we stayed like that any longer, I probably would’ve been smashed!” Rainbow groaned as she flew up and stretched her hooves and wings.

Applejack sighed as she rubbed her neck with a hoof, “Ah can’t believe Ah didn’t pay more attention durin’ that whole ride.” She looked at the others and trotted over to them before asking, “How was it?”

Cadance and Shining Armor walked over, the former saying, “It was quite a ride, Applejack! I’m sorry you had to be so distracted that you couldn’t enjoy it.”

Fluttershy, who was hugging Tails’ legs as she lay on the ground, muttered, “I wish I could’ve been that distracted…”

Twilight mentioned, “It sure was a rush.” Rarity nodded in agreement.

Sonic yawned as he stretched, “Eh, I guess it was all right. Rode it once before; seemed about the same this time around.”

Shining asked, “You’ve been here before too?”

Sonic looked up at him and replied, “Yeah, I came here once with Amy.”

Cadance looked at him in surprise, “What?!”

Before Sonic could respond, Tails, while looking around, spoke, “Hey, guys? It… doesn’t look like our ‘tour guide’ wanted to wait for us to get done.” Everyone looked around the platform at that and saw that he was right. There was no sight of the monitor that had forced them onto the roller coaster in the first place.

“Ah’d say that’s mighty rude o’, er, him, but that crazy gizmo’s already been rude enough,” Applejack commented.

Spike suggested, “Why don’t we leave before he decides to show up again?”

Sonic nodded at him, “I second that idea.”

Rarity rubbed Spike’s head with a hoof as she agreed, “An excellent suggestion, Spike.” Spike’s tongue stuck out of his mouth slightly on one side, the baby dragon panting a bit at the fashionista’s touch.

The others agreed with this idea as well, though Fluttershy asked, “Why don’t we just wait here for a few minutes? I’m sure that, um… I’m sure he’ll come back.”

Rainbow shrugged, “Hey, if that thing wanted to play tour guide, it should’ve been waiting here for us, not the other way around.”

Sonic added, “Plus I’m still kind of familiar with Twinkle Park’s layout. We can get back to the train and leave before that monitor forces us to do anything else.”

Fluttershy replied, “Oh… Okay, then.” She let go of Tails’ legs and slowly stood up.

Pinkie, on the other hoof, quickly shot to her hooves and zipped in front of Sonic, asking, “Can we go on some of the other rides before we go?! Like the pirate ships and the bumper cars?!”

Sonic looked at her for a moment, wondering if they had bumper cars in Equestria since, earlier, Spike and some of the girls hadn’t recognized regular cars when they saw them. He eventually said, “We’ll… see what we can squeeze in, Pinkie.” The pink pony seemed satisfied with that answer, seeing as she bounced alongside the rest of the group as they left the roller coaster station.

As the group walked down a stone path away from the roller coaster, Shining looked at Sonic and asked, “So you said you came to this park with Amy once, Sonic? She’s that pink hedgehog girl, right?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, that’s her.”

Rarity gushed, “Ooh, how wonderful! And with that special offer… It must’ve been a wonderful date!”

Sonic refrained from glaring at the fashionista, though he still had some exasperation in his voice as he said, “It wasn’t a date, Rarity. I barely had a say in the matter.”

Cadance asked, “What do you mean?”

Sonic started, “When I ran into her in front of Casinopolis, she’d found a Flicky that escaped from Eggman and they were both being chased by one of his robots. I guess the bird was hurt while it was trying to escape, so she asked me be to be its bodyguard.”

Fluttershy looked sad at that, “That poor Flicky. Why would Dr. Eggman want to hurt or chase a defenseless little bird?”

Tails spoke, “We found out later when Eggman later managed to catch Amy by surprise and grab the Flicky. It turns out it was carrying one of the Chaos Emeralds inside the large locket it was wearing and he wanted it so he could give it to Chaos.”

Rainbow commented, “Must’ve been a pretty big locket if it could hold an entire emerald inside.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. Anyway, we ended up near the entrance to Twinkle Park, where I finally got a look at the robot that was chasing Amy and the Flicky. I would’ve had no problem taking it out right then and there, but…”

Twilight suddenly interrupted him by holding a foreleg in front of him and saying, “Look out!” Sonic came to a stop and looked in front of him to see a small pool of water with a couple of circular platforms floating on its surface. If he’d kept going, he certainly would’ve walked over the edge and into it.

“Whoa! Forgot that was there. Thanks, Twilight,” he said before making use of the platforms a second later to reach the other side of the pool. He waited there for the others, Tails and Rainbow Dash flying over while the others did the same thing he did. After Rarity had finally been coerced into jumping onto the platforms to get to the other side and joined the others, Sonic continued where he left, “Anyway, Amy saw the offer and took off into the park. And… well, I followed her in. That’s it.”

Rarity looked at him coyly and asked, “Are you sure that’s all it was, Sonic?”

Sonic put his hands on his hips and glared at her, “Yes, it was. She ran in here first, I followed her, and I lost sight of her. That’s all that happened.”

Rarity rolled her eyes, “I can’t help but wonder about that, Sonic. I think there’s something you’re not telling us about you and Amy, and I believe I have an idea what it is.”

Sonic retorted, “Hey, here’s an idea: pull your head out of whatever cheesy romance novel you were reading and try listening for a change. Love isn’t always black and white like that, ‘Rara’.”

As he turned and started walking away, Rarity glared at his back indignantly, “R-Rara?!”

Applejack chuckled before saying, “He does have a point, ya know. Just because it sounds like they’d make a lovely couple doesn’t mean it’ll turn out that way. You should leave the whole matchmaking thing ta somepony like Princess Cadance, ‘Rara’.” She snickered again as she trotted off to catch up with Sonic.

Rarity glared at the apple pony before turning her head to the side with a huff, “Hmph! I happen to be a very good judge of these things!” The others decided not to argue with her and instead moved to join Sonic and Applejack, Rarity following after them a moment later.

When they reached the two, they found them standing in front of a short corridor that had an interesting design to it, as it had a wooden floor with a bunch of markings on it. “What’s this?” Rainbow asked.

Tails looked towards the other end of the corridor, where a bunch of big bowling pins sat against a wall, and said, “It looks like a bowling lane. I guess we have to play to move on?” Sonic nodded in confirmation.

Pinkie looked around before saying, “I don’t see any bowling balls. What are we supposed to play with?”

While stepping up to the foul line, Sonic shrugged, “Um…?” He then curled up into a ball, spinning for a second to ready himself before shooting down the lane, striking the head pin dead-on and sending the other pins flying. The blue hedgehog quickly uncurled while the pins were up in the air and slid on his rear the rest of the way to the wall, raising his left foot to brace against the wall while he planted his right foot against the ground to slow himself.

“OH~!” Pinkie exclaimed, giggling and feeling a bit silly for not thinking of that herself. The wall at the other end rose up out of the way a second later and, after Sonic confirmed that the lane wasn’t slippery, the group continued on their way.

After a few seconds of walking, the group came upon a short set of stairs; when they reached the top, they found something interesting. “Oh my goodness! What’s happened to these poor animals?!” Fluttershy gasped at what she was seeing.

“And those ponies too! What is this?!” Rainbow demanded.

Tails spoke up, “Hey, F-Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, calm down! It’s just a ride; they’re not real!”

Cadance looked down at him and said, “I thought those animals and ponies looked a bit… odd. But if they’re not real, then… what is that?”

Tails looked back at the rotating circular platform and replied, “It’s a merry-go-round, or a carousel if you want to be fancy.”

Sonic pointed a thumb in Rarity’s direction, “Yeah, you know, like her boutique.” Rarity cast an odd glance at him at that, but didn’t comment.

Tails continued, “They make the horses and animals that serve as the seats out of wood to make it seem like you’re riding a real one.”

Twilight looked back at the carousel and murmured, “Oh.” After a moment, she asked, “Do you think we can go for a ride?”

Sonic thought for a moment before replying, “Well, we can basically go on any ride since we essentially paid the admission fee, so… why not? We’ll have to make it quick, though.”

Shining nodded, “Right. We’ve still got work to do.”

Sonic shrugged, “Actually, I’d rather not run into our ‘tour guide’ again.”

Tails muttered, “Given the way that robot showed up in the first place, I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s not even an option.” Nevertheless, everybody caught a horse or animal on the carousel and, for the next several minutes, they got an actual chance to relax, letting the gentle bobbing calm them as they went around in circles.

After they got off, the group went down another set of stairs, coming to an area that Tails and Rainbow Dash recognized. “Hey, there’s the pool where we got the water for the train!” Rainbow said while pointing at a small pool of water to the right of the stairs.

“So we’re close to where we started?” Twilight asked hopefully.

Sonic nodded, “Yep. We just have to get around to the other side of this castle.” He pointed a thumb up at the large castle they’d been going around the entire time next to them.

Tails said, “We might as well just fly the rest of the way. We stopped pretty high up from here, after all.” Everyone agreed with that, so Tails, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Princess Cadance prepared to take off to do the job while the others gathered at the bottom of the stairs.


FUN POLICE


Before any of them could get off the ground, however, a familiar voice spoke up from behind the others, “Hello again, visitors! It’s so good to see you all again!” They all looked to see the robot they had met hovering a short distance away, a smiley face on its screen now.

“Aw, horse apples…” Applejack groaned.

The robot didn’t hear her, or pretended not to, for it asked, “And how are we enjoying our time in Twinkle Park?”

Sonic muttered, “We were enjoying it just fine until you came back.”

The robot spoke, “Wonderful! Glad to hear it! So shall we move onto the next attraction?”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “Let’s not and say we didn’t.”

Unfortunately, Pinkie spoke up, “Yes, absolutely!”

The robot said, “That’s what I like to hear!” Very quickly, it got behind the group and brought out its arms again, once again herding everybody together and pushing them. As it pushed them towards a pair of nearby castle doors, it said, “This attraction will no doubt be the greatest of them all. Once you go in, you’ll never want to leave.” The way it said that unnerved some of the members of the group, prompting them to redouble their efforts to get away. Ultimately, it managed to hang onto them and roughly pushed them into the castle, the doors slamming shut behind them.

Inside, Sonic, Shining Armor, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack managed to get up after the doors closed and ran to them, trying to push them open while the others got up. After a few seconds of pushing, Shining grunted, “We’re locked in!”

Applejack stopped pushing and turned so her back was facing the doors, the orange earth pony bringing her hind legs up and throwing them against the doors in a series of bucks. Despite the force she put into each one, Bucky McGillicuddy and Kicks McGee couldn’t even dent the wooden doors. “Dang it, they ain’t budgin’!” she growled after several seconds.


MYSTERY CASTLE


Rainbow Dash flew up away from the doors, but before she could do anything, a creaking noise from behind her caught everyone’s attention. They turned to see another set of wooden doors opening up, revealing a hallway behind them. It appeared to be brightly lit and the red rug the group was standing on continued inside. It looked like it was safe…

Cadance looked at Sonic and asked, “Where does this go?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “No idea. I couldn’t get in here the last time I was here. I’m guessing it’s like a funhouse or something.”

Tails held a hand to his chin, “It looks like it could be…”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, it totally looks like a cheesy funhouse. Nothing weird is gonna happen if we go in there.”

Applejack smacked the back of the cyan pegasus’ head with a hoof and said, “Don’t say that!”

Before Rainbow Dash could say anything, Sonic spoke, “Let’s just go before our ‘tour guide’ decides to give us some company. As long as this comes out close to the other side, we should have no problem getting out of Twinkle Park.” With that, the group walked through the wooden doors, following the passage beyond.

A minute barely passed before the atmosphere of the castle changed. As they went around a curve at the other end of the hall, the group noticed the lighting became darker, yellow lights and candles lining the walls now. “Well… that changed quickly,” Twilight noted as she glanced around.

“Uh-huh,” Sonic muttered, remaining focused on what was in front of him.

“I guess it’s more like a haunted house on the inside. Wouldn’t have guessed from the outside,” Tails commented.

“Nope,” Sonic murmured.

Fluttershy looked around nervously. “It’s kind of scary in here…” she whispered.

Applejack turned to the shy pegasus and said, “It’s all right, Fluttershy. It’s just an amusement park. There ain’t anythin’ in here that’s real.”

Fluttershy breathed a sigh of relief, “R-Really? Oh, that’s very good to- EEK!” While they were talking, the group reached the end of the hall they were in and stepped into another room, a light turning on once they stepped through the doorway, causing Fluttershy to panic while the rest of them shielded their eyes.

When they all could see again, Spike looked around and said, “Whoa, look at all these mirrors!” Indeed, the room they were in was filled with mirrors of varying sizes and shapes.

“Huh. So it’s a funhouse that’s really a haunted house that turns into a house of mirrors. Classy,” Sonic commented.

From off to the side, Pinkie giggled, “Hey, look at me, look at me!” The others looked at her to see that she was bouncing up and down in front of one of the mirrors. The reflection the mirror was showing made it seem like she was very fat, yet seeing the reflection bouncing up and down didn’t look the least bit strange to them. Realizing they probably wouldn’t be able to move on until Pinkie had satisfied her curiosity, the group disseminated to look at the various mirrors in the room.

Applejack walked past several that gave reflections that didn’t really catch her attention (pointy head, shorter than normal, all wiggly) before stopping in front of one that showed a reflection that made her look more muscular, more like her brother Big Macintosh. She smiled and tipped her hat to her reflection, “Well, howdy there, good-lookin’.”

Fluttershy, meanwhile, was standing in front of a mirror that made her look skinnier than usual. “It’s like I’m a filly again…” she whispered to herself as she looked at her reflection.

Rarity trotted over and, upon seeing Fluttershy’s reflection, quickly sidled up against her friend, “Ooh! This looks like the mirror I’ve been looking for, Fluttershy! Let’s see how we look together, okay?”

Sonic looked over at the two for a few moments before looking around at what some of the others were doing. Spike was flexing in front of the mirror Applejack had been looking at and Rainbow Dash was flying from mirror to mirror and making funny faces at each. Shining Armor and Twilight were looking at some of the mirrors together, as were Tails and Applejack. Seeing that the room seemed to be okay, he was about to go back to looking at some of the mirrors himself when he spotted the hallway leading to the next section of the castle. Deciding to take a quick peek ahead, he walked towards it, passing one last mirror and not noticing that the reflection showed him being taller and having blue arms.

Cadance noticed Sonic leaving the room and called out to him, “Sonic?” Unfortunately, the blue hedgehog had already left the room and turned a corner, so he didn’t hear her. She began walking after him, but came to a stop in front of the last mirror upon seeing its reflection. It looked like her normal reflection, save for one detail: it had no wings. She looked like an ordinary unicorn. “Well, that’s… different,” she commented. Looking at her reflection a little longer, she wondered, “How different would things have been like that…?”

Sonic, meanwhile, was already in the next hallway over, which was a long, straight hallway with mirrors on both sides. He walked a little ways down it before stopping and deciding to head back when his ears twitched. “Hm?” he murmured, thinking he had heard the sound of fingers snapping to his right. Turning his head to look, he noticed his reflection seemed different now. It showed him as being shorter, less spiky, and having a slightly rounder midsection; it looked a lot like how he looked a couple of years ago.

He turned fully to look at the mirror, holding his right hand up to his chin as he examined his reflection. He fluffed his quills a bit and then held his right hand up to his mouth as he parted his lips to reveal his teeth. Closing his lips, he held his right hand to his stomach to rub and pat it, his reflection imitating his movements exactly. He crossed his arms, however, and looked at the mirror oddly. “Hm,” he murmured, feeling as though something was different about the reflective surface. He tapped it with his right fist, but it sounded like regular glass.

As he stepped back to look at it again, he heard Twilight call from his right, “There you are, Sonic.” He turned his head to see the lavender unicorn with Spike on her back, Princess Cadance, and Tails coming towards him. As they got closer, out of the corner of his eye, Sonic noticed their younger forms reflected in the mirror. Once they had gotten closer to Sonic, they noticed as well and stopped to look as well. “Oh… that’s another… I didn’t know trick mirrors could make reflections like this,” Twilight commented, remembering seeing her reflection in the last mirror with a Moon and stars cutie mark and dark blue hair with a light blue stripe.

“Yeah, I know. I was surprised too,” Sonic nodded. The rest of the group soon joined them and they all examined their reflections as well.


CRAZY MAGIC TRICK


“It almost feels like magic is being used to make these reflections,” Shining said after a minute.

Rarity admired her reflection for several seconds longer before saying, “Well, magic or not, I must say I rather like these mirrors. I’m glad we came in here.”

Sonic looked over at her and said, “We didn’t really have a choice in the matter, Rarity.”

Before anyone else could say anything, a familiar voice came from the other end of the hall, “Reflect on your decisions all you want, Sonic!”

Everyone turned to look at where the voice came from, Tails saying, “Eggman?!”

Rainbow growled, “That Egghead’s here now?!”

Eggman’s voice continued, “None of you will be getting out of here easily!” They all looked ready to react for a few seconds when there was, faintly, the sound of fingers snapping again to the right.

All of a sudden, Sonic’s reflection took off running towards the other end of the hallway, everyone noticing and staring in surprise! What was even more surprising was when Tails, Spike, and the ponies’ reflections took off after Sonic’s! Sonic’s reflection leapt through the doorway at the end of the hall, Tails and Rainbow Dash’s reflections flying after him while the others (save for Spike) ran after him. “What the -?! Wait a second!” Sonic exclaimed, running for the other end of the hallway, the others quickly following him.

The doorway at the end emptied out into another hallway, which had the rug from the entrance leading to a set of wooden doors, undoubtedly the exit. The doors swung open as they got close, but the group’s eyes widened as they saw a pulsing hole on the other side. They all tried to stop upon seeing it, but somehow, even the ones that were the furthest behind couldn’t stop in time and they all disappeared into it. Once they were all through, the portal closed.

After the portal closed, the robot that had been hounding the group appeared from the side of where it had been, holding its hands up in front of it and pressing its fingers together while chuckling sinisterly…
> Fun and Games Pt. II: Casino Park
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


GATHERINGS


Blaze, Silver, and Zecora were walking along through Ponyville together with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, Blaze and Silver trying to answer the four fillies’ questions as best they could while Zecora calmly answered the questions Babs Seed had for her. As they were walking, they came across something that Silver and Blaze found odd. It looked like a large green butterfly cocoon, but it had a mailbox, a small muffin box, and a small pot with flowers in front of it. ‘D. Hooves’ was written on the sides of the mailbox.

“What’s that?” Silver asked as they got closer.

“Ah, that is the home of Ponyville’s resident mailmare, though it’s safe to say, at the moment, she’s not there,” Zecora answered.

Silver looked over at the zebra, “Mailmare?”

Sweetie Belle piped up, “Yeah, remember, Silver? You and Blaze helped rescue her earlier!”

Blaze looked down at the unicorn and asked, “Earlier? You mean that gray pegasus pony?” Sweetie Belle nodded in confirmation. By this time, they had reached the front of the cocoon and Blaze knelt down to peer inside, seeing a small blue pillow that read ‘Home Sweet Home’ inside. “Why does she live in a… chrysalis?” she wondered.

Scootaloo asked, “Chrysalis? The Changeling Queen doesn’t live with her. She lives by herself in that cocoon.”

Blaze turned her head to look at the orange pegasus with a raised eyebrow, “What? Chrysalis is another word for a cocoon, Scootaloo.” Zecora suppressed a slight chuckle with her hoof at this clarification.

Before anyone could say anything more, they all heard a voice call, “Hey!” They all turned to see the cocoon/home’s owner coming towards them, a small wrapped treat being balanced on her slightly extended left wing and a large purple cat following her. As Big and Derpy came to a stop in front of the cocoon, the latter asked, “What are you all doing in front of my home?”

Blaze stood up as Silver said, “We were just walking along when we saw it, Derpy. We didn’t mean to… You really live in this thing?”

One of Derpy’s eyes looked up as she smiled, “Uh-huh! After I got out of it and it didn’t fall apart, I thought it would make a nice home!”

Blaze stepped back and looked at the green cocoon as she said, “Forgive me for saying so, Derpy, but it doesn’t look very… comfortable. And with that hole, it must get quite cold when the temperature drops.”

Derpy trotted in front of the cocoon as she shook her head, “Nuh-uh! It’s not like that at all, Blaze!” She expertly flipped her treat over to her right wing and set it down on top of her muffin box before crawling into the chrysalis, fluffing her pillow. She laid her head down on it as she said, “It was actually really warm inside this past winter! And with the hole in it, I can stretch my legs out and keep my muffins close to me when it starts to rain! It’s the perfect home for me right now!”

Blaze and Silver looked down at her, a bit amazed at how she was able to tolerate living in what was essentially an open home. Big spoke, “I live in a hut surrounded by trees. Froggy and I usually get wet when it rains.”

Derpy gasped and stuck her head back out of her chrysalis, “Oh no, Big! That sounds terrible!”

Big replied, “No, not really. Froggy likes getting wet.”

Derpy sighed, “Oh, okay then.” She reached over to her wrapped treat and pulled the wrapper off of it, revealing a toasted muffin. Her eyes lit up when she saw it, but she soon frowned, “Oh no! My muffin got cold! They taste so good when they’re fresh and warm…”

Blaze walked over to the pegasus and knelt down in front of her. She held her right hand out, “Here, let me see it, Derpy.” The mailmare held the baked treat out to the princess, Blaze taking it in her hand and folding her fingers around it. Soon, a faint glow shone out from under the muffin, small flames peeking out from underneath the wrapper. After several seconds, she handed the muffin back to Derpy, “There, how’s that?”

Derpy took it back in her hooves and, upon feeling it and looking at it, she gasped, “That’s much better! Oh, thank you so much!”

The gray pegasus leapt up and wrapped Blaze in a hug, still managing to hold onto her muffin. “Erm… You’re welcome…” Blaze muttered, feeling quite squeezed by the pegasus’ forelegs. She finally managed to wiggle out and push Derpy back, the blonde mailmare falling onto her bubble butt and happily munching her muffin.

“Yay!” Big said, happy that Derpy was happy again.

“Wow, Blaze! What’d ya do?” Apple Bloom asked.

Silver spoke, “She used her fire powers to heat Derpy’s muffin up without burning it.” He looked at Blaze and sheepishly asked, “Uh, right, Blaze?”

Blaze nodded, “Yes, that’s correct, Silver.” She looked down at her hands as she held them up in front of her, “To think, there was a time where I was teased about these powers so much that I actually considered them a curse. But then…”

Zecora spoke, “The cruel jeers of others can cause one to falter, no doubt, but through friendship new understanding can come about.”

Blaze knelt down and rubbed Babs’ head as she nodded, “Yes. And that’s why I believe in Sonic and the others. No matter what they may be caught in the middle of right now, I’m sure that, as long as they stay together, they will be fine.”

________________________________________


PINBALL ATTACK!


“Unh!” Twilight groaned as she crashed into what could only be a very large green pinball bumper, the unicorn feeling the force of the impact in the split second before it forcibly pushed her away, just moments before Applejack collided back first into the same bumper.

Similar things were happening to the others as well. Spike and Rainbow Dash were being bounced between two rows of bouncy triangles, occasionally brushing past each other as they tried to get out of the enclosed area they were in. Shining Armor and Cadance were sliding against a wall, gravity pulling them down along it until they reached a large flipper. It shot up as they slid along it, sending them hurtling upwards across the inclined ground. And Fluttershy and Rarity kept trying to slide down, but some kind of booster on the ground kept shooting them back up.

The only ones who weren’t getting bounced around painfully (at least not quite as painfully) were Sonic, Tails, and Pinkie, all three of them having curled up into balls and letting gravity and luck have its way with them as they bounced around the pinball table. Eventually, Tails managed to roll down towards the bottom of the table, but as he slid alongside the wall leading down to one of the flippers, he gasped and uncurled, throwing out his tails and legs and sliding as he tried to stop himself.

As he reached the curve, he managed to plant the ends of his tails and his feet up against the wall and, after several seconds of securing himself, came to a stop. He sighed in relief as the sudden ride came to a stop, but as he looked up, he gasped, “Whoa, Sonic!” He quickly wedged his back against the wall and held up his hands straight up as the hedgehog came rolling down towards him.

Sonic uncurled just before he reached Tails, letting out a grunt as the fox’s hands pressed against his torso. After a second, he looked down at Tails and said, “Ugh, thanks for the stop, buddy.”

Tails smirked back, “Hey, it’s good to stop once in a while, don’t you think?” Before Sonic could respond, Tails exclaimed, “Heads up!”

Sonic turned his head to look back over his shoulder and, after a second, flipped over onto his back with a “Whoa!” He held open his arms and, a second later, a lavender unicorn crashed into him, Tails buckling a bit from the force of the impact. Twilight lifted herself up a bit a moment later and Sonic grinned, “Hey, how’re you doing?”

Twilight glared at him, “Well, I was thinking of asking you how I looked, but…”

Before any more could be said, Shining called, “Twily!” Twilight, Sonic, and Tails looked to see Cadance trying to slow the stallion down, having managed to get off the table enough to fly. Despite her best efforts, Shining still came into contact with Twilight’s backside, albeit with much less force than if Cadance hadn’t been helping him. “Sorry,” he groaned, feeling the side of his chest with a hoof.

Cadance hovered above them with her wings and looked around before asking, “How did we end up on a giant pinball table?”

Sonic spoke up, “I think we should focus on getting off of it right now.” He looked around Twilight, up towards Spike, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy, none of them seeming like they were having much luck at the moment. “Hey Cadance, as long as you’re up and you’ve got magic, maybe you could help them out?” Sonic asked.

Before Shining Armor or Twilight could say anything, Cadance responded, “Certainly. But what next?”

Tails looked towards the moving flippers that were just feet away and said, “We might be able to get off this table by going down the drain. But if we’re gonna go down it without any help, we’re going to have to time it right or those flippers will send us back up.”

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash managed to find her hoofing and shot off one of the table walls, using her wings to fly above its surface. She shot down towards the group as she called, “I’ve had it with this! Coming through!”

As she shot underneath Cadance, Tails held out a hand in the pegasus’ direction, “Wait, Rainbow Dash!” It was too late; just as Rainbow was about to fly down the drain, the flippers flipped and hit her.

“WHOA!” Rainbow Dash cried as she was sent shooting up the table, a rainbow streak bouncing across the table and colliding with Rarity and Fluttershy as they were coming down just before intercepting Spike, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack in turn. As the pile of ponies came back down, it managed to hit Cadance and then the group bunched together before going past the flippers straight down the drain, everybody screaming all the while.

After about half a minute, the group was deposited out of a blue tube onto carpeted ground in a jumbled heap, some groans rising up from the pile as they laid there. A couple of seconds passed before Shining asked, “Is everybody all right?”

There were some hesitant, incomplete answers to the stallion’s question, so Sonic grunted and spoke up, “Put another way, did anyone break anything?” There were clearer responses to that question, as everybody answered that they were all still in one piece and in relatively good health, all things considered. With this confirmed, the group began to disentangle from each other, everyone managing to get out of the mass without too much difficulty.

As he raised himself up to a sitting position, Tails rubbed the back of his head as he sighed, “That wasn’t one of our better landings…”

Twilight looked over at him and said, “Well, it was better than some. At least this one didn’t involve running from predators that fight each other for the right to devour us.”

Tails, Sonic, Cadance, and Shining Armor looked at the lavender unicorn at that, Tails looking away a second later as he muttered, “Not sure I want to know the story behind that…”


GIANT CASINO


Spike spoke up, bringing them all back to the present, “Where are we?” The rest of the group looked around, standing up as they did so. A night sky full of stars hung above them, the city around them brightly lit with a wide selection of colors. The group stood on a plush red carpet, which fit in with the casino theme of the city that the giant slot machines, roulettes, and tables gave off.

“This is that city we passed through while making our way to where Eggman’s base was located that one time,” Sonic said after a moment.

Tails nodded, “Right. It never sleeps, kind of like a real casino…”

Fluttershy murmured, “It sure looks pretty at night.”

Twilight looked at Sonic and Tails and asked, “So where are we in relation to Twinkle Park?”

Sonic scratched his head for a moment before shrugging, “Uh, pretty far away?”

Applejack asked, “Far away? That ain’t exactly comfortin’, Sugar-hog.”

Sonic replied, “No, normally it wouldn’t be. But distance isn’t a big deal for us at the moment.” He looked at Tails and asked, “Right, Tails?”

Tails thought for a moment before saying, “Right! We can use the Warp Ring to get back to Twinkle Park in no time!” Everyone perked up upon hearing this, but when Tails reached into his left tail to pull out the ring, his smile faltered. “Huh? Wait, I know I put it…” He continued to check his twin appendages for a minute before saying, “I… I don’t have the ring anymore!”

Everyone looked shocked at this, Rainbow yelling, “WHAT?! You lost it?!”

Tails exclaimed, “No, I didn’t!”

Applejack asked, “Then why don’t ya have it, Tails?”

Tails replied, “I don’t know! I had it with me, I know I did! I checked after we got off both the roller coaster and the carousel! I could feel its weight the entire time we were inside that castle!”

Sonic looked up at the tube the group had fallen down and said, “If it fell out on the pinball table, it should’ve come down by now. There’s only one gutter and everything gets pulled down.”

Tails nodded, “Right! And I still have my radar and the Chaos Emeralds with me! I don’t know how this happened!”

Twilight held a hoof to her chin, “If it’s not here, but you had it the whole time we were in that castle, then where could it be?”

Cadance thought for a moment before saying, “It must still be back at Twinkle Park, back where we went through the portal. It must’ve somehow slipped out right before we entered the portal. That’s the only thing I can think of.”

Rainbow groaned, “Ugh, great! So now we’re stuck here?” She turned and glared at Sonic, “Thanks a lot, Sonic! This is your fault, you know!”

While Tails pulled out his radar, Twilight asked the cyan pegasus, “Now, why is it Sonic’s fault, Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow answered, “Because he’s the one who took off running back there and we had to catch up with him! If we hadn’t been going so fast, Tails wouldn’t have dropped the Warp Ring!”

Sonic crossed his arms as he looked square at Rainbow, “Yeah, uh, FYI, Dash: Tails usually does carry a lot of things around in his tails, and he’s never had to worry about dropping anything no matter how fast he goes. Like he said, if he dropped one thing, he should’ve dropped everything he had, but you notice he didn’t.”

Rainbow argued, “You still took off on us! We wouldn’t have gone through that portal if you’d waited instead of running off!”

Rarity rolled her eyes as she spoke up, “Oh yes, Rainbow Dash. You have EVERY right to be angry at Sonic for over something like this. After all, your own impulsiveness has NEVER gotten anypony in trouble before, which is exactly why you were right behind him back there: you were trying to stop him, not because you were suspicious of that mirror like the rest of us.”

Rainbow demanded, “What’s that got to do with anything right now?! We’re stuck here without that Warp Ring!”

Sonic said, “We can’t be stuck here, Dash. Portals always show up when it’s most convenient. Come on, how many times today has a portal shown up when we’re inside of another portal?”

Pinkie smiled, “Portals inside of portals… Ooh, portal-ception!”

Sonic continued, “There has to be a way back to Twinkle Park somewhere around here.”

Pinkie grinned, “That’s how psychology works!”

Some of the others looked at her at that, Twilight asking, “Why’d you say that, Pinkie?”

Pinkie replied, “Because it works like that, right?”

Sonic shrugged, “Uh, sure…”

Suddenly, Tails spoke up, “Guys, I’ve found something!” Everyone gathered around the fox as he used his stylus to adjust what his radar was showing. As he moved it, a very faint signal came into view. “It looks like there’s a portal somewhere up ahead. It might take us back to Twinkle Park,” Tails said.

Spike smiled, “Wow, that was quick, Tails!”

Sonic and Rainbow Dash looked over at each other, the latter rubbing the back of her head as she said, “Uh, sorry about getting mad at you just now, Sonic…”

The blue hedgehog waved a hand, “Hey, that’s okay, Dash. I’ll admit that I was a bit hasty back there and I’m sorry for it. I should probably work on that.”

Rainbow snickered, “Whoa, easy there, speedy. You’re doing it again.” Sonic rolled his eyes, but smirked all the same.

Applejack spoke, “C’mon, y’all, let’s get movin’ so we can get outta here.” Everyone nodded and they started making their way into the city, heading in the direction of the signal Tails’ radar was receiving.


STARTING THE SEARCH


As they walked, Cadance looked at the fox and asked, “Do you have any idea where this portal might lead, Tails?”

Tails shook his head, “No, not yet. We’re too far away to get a clear reading; considering the distance, it’s kind of surprising I actually picked it up.”

Shining said, “Well, let’s hope it will take us back to Twinkle Park, otherwise…” He trailed off, but everybody knew what he was getting at.

Twilight turned to Tails and asked, “Do you think something else could’ve happened to the Warp Ring, Tails? You know, besides it falling out?”

The fox scratched his head with his left hand, “I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. I’ve really never dropped anything I was carrying around in my tails. At the very least, I hope it’s still at Twinkle Park somewhere. Between the portal and the pinball table, I got kind of disoriented, but I had it before we went through the portal and I never felt that robot search me. This is very confusing…”

________________________________________

Back at Twinkle Park, the robotic tour guide merrily floated around the park, weaving around the castle towers and hovering over the castle as it hummed a merry tune, an expression of satisfaction on its screen. After about a minute, it came to a stop and brought out its arms, bringing its right arm up to its screen. And clutched between its fingers was none other than the group’s Warp Ring.

“Of course you didn’t feel anything, you little kit; I never touched you! But that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways of frisking somepony. As for your getting back here… If what I’ve read is true… Well, guess what? In your dreams!” it mockingly said before resuming its route.

________________________________________


CASINO PARK


Sonic and the others were currently caught up in a battle against Eggman’s robots. Following the city’s roads as best they could while ultimately aiming for the portal Tails’ radar had picked up had led them closer to it, but also led them to some precarious situations. They’d had to ride a few giant dice blocks to get over gaps in the road while using bouncy green platforms to get across others, and of course they had encountered Eggman’s robots at various points in between, each group seeming bigger than the last.

The group of robots they were caught up in battling now was mostly made up of Egg Pawns as well as several Flappers, Camerons, and Egg Knights. Despite being a sizable group of robots, Sonic and company were having little trouble handling them. Sonic, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were working closely together, Pinkie bouncing on and around the robots to confuse them while Sonic punched or kicked them and Rainbow Dash kicked them while flying at high speed, and Applejack was bucking the heads of Egg Pawns off their bodies, Shining Armor and Rarity doing the same when they weren’t using magic alongside Twilight and Princess Cadance. And Tails and Spike were helping each other, Tails flying up to attack the flying robots while Spike tripped and did whatever he could against the ground robots.

After the last of the robots was destroyed and the group had caught their breath, Tails and Rainbow Dash flew up to the sides of the door leading to the next area and each pulled out a switch on the wall, causing the door to open. Beyond the opening, the group could see a glass ledge hanging over the next section of road. “Wow, this city sure has a lot of these ledges, huh?” Shining asked as he used his magic to carefully lift the bottom glass out of the frame.

“Yeah, it sure does. Having magic sure is handy here; we don’t have to break these things to get past them,” Sonic noted, getting down and slipping under the glass, dropping down to the road below. The others did the same, Shining placing the glass back into place as he dropped down onto the red rug road below.

Twilight looked around after everyone had landed and said, “This city is really amazing. It’s so bright and alive, even at night like this.”

Tails nodded, “Yep. It’s like a giant outdoor casino; that’s why all the buildings and roads look like they do.”

Cadance smiled, “It is beautiful. It’s too bad we can’t see more of it in our time here.”

Sonic chuckled, “Yeah, it’s a shame. The first time we were here, Tails, Knux, and I had a deadline to meet, and this time we’ve got time and space to save. We’re definitely not getting a chance to see a lot of this city any time soon.”

Fluttershy came up alongside him and said, “I’m sure you’ll get to see it all soon, Sonic. But for now, I think we should just keep moving.” Sonic nodded and the group continued on their way.

After passing through a brightly lit passage at the end of the road, the group found a set of springs against the wall across from them. At the top, they found they could take two paths that looked like they would lead to the same area or a third hallway that went up, the frame of its entrance lined with curious metal bumps. Spike walked over to the entrance and looked up the hall before turning to Sonic and Tails and asking, “What’s up there?”

Tails walked over to him and said, “I don’t know.” Taking a peek himself, he added, “I’m pretty sure this was closed off last time we came this way. I don’t remember going up here.”

Rainbow Dash trotted next to him and said, “Let’s take a look, then! Seems like we’re going that way anyway; there might be something cool up there!”

Pinkie chimed in, “Or it could be something super fun, or something that could help us get out of here faster, or all three!”

Applejack looked at Sonic and asked, “What do you think, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog scratched his head for a moment before saying, “Well, let’s take a look at least. Like Tails said, we couldn’t go up there last time, so we might as well see what we missed.” Everyone agreed with this idea and they all walked through the entrance, making their way up the slanted hallway.

After a couple of seconds of walking, the group reached the end of the hallway, which emptied out into a small, square-shaped room. It had the same red carpet as a lot of the roads and paths in the city and there were black and white diamond shapes on the far right and left sides of the room. There was no wall across from the group; just an opening that had a walkway attached to it and the letters ‘VIP’ hanging above and around the walkway.

“What’s this?” Shining wondered as he looked at the brightly lit letters.

After a moment, Tails spoke, “Um, I think this is the entrance to the V.I.P. room.”

Applejack looked at him, “V.I.P. room?”

Tails nodded, “Yep. High risks, high returns. Only high rollers would try their luck here.”

Pinkie bounced up and down, “Oh boy! That sounds like fun! Let’s go play!”

Fluttershy murmured, “I don’t think that’s a good idea, Pinkie…”

Tails heard her and said, “I think you’re right, Fluttershy. We don’t have time to get caught up in games right now, so we shouldn’t keep going without a good reason.”

Spike protested, “But we could win big here! We’ve had lots of luck today!”

Cadance smiled softly down at him, “That’s true, Spike, but unfortunately, it hasn’t always been the best of luck. Maybe we can come back later and play.” Spike looked disappointed, but nodded with a soft sigh.

As the group was about to turn to leave, Sonic looked forward and spotted something hovering near the walkway. “Hey, what’s that thing?” he asked while pointing between the ‘V’ and the ‘I’. The others looked where he was pointing and saw what appeared to be a TV screen on a cube that had a rotor attached to the top of it, floating around outside aimlessly.

Twilight used her magic to grab the box and pull it inside to get a closer look at it. Everyone pressed together so they could all get a look at it. As they looked at it, text began to scroll across the screen:


Feeling lucky? Wish you could get around faster? Look no further!

Take a chance and try your luck in the Big Super Happy-Go-Lucky Challenge! See if luck’s on your side in these fun challenges!

Shoot for the high score to complete the first challenge and move onto the second! Race to the end to complete the second challenge and you’ll be on easy street!

Entrance located in the V.I.P. room. Admission is free for participant and spectator alike.

(You’re bound to lose all your money in the end, but you have everything to gain and nothing to lose in this city anyway!)


“Well, that’s comforting,” Twilight remarked as she pushed the flying box back outside with her magic and released her hold on it. Without something holding onto it, the box resumed flying and floated out of sight to the right.

“The Big Super Happy-Go-Lucky Challenge sounds like fun! Let’s try it!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Rainbow grinned, “Yeah, let’s do it! With me around, we’re 20% luckier!”

Twilight started, “Wait, doesn’t ‘easy street’ mean…?”

Sonic asked, “Being rich? Yeah. It almost seems like that thing was saying this challenge thing is a good way to win a lot of money.”

Twilight said, “Then it probably wouldn’t help us get through this city quicker if we took it.”

Rainbow asked, “What are you, crazy, Twilight? The first line on that thing said taking this challenge could help us get around quicker! This challenge probably involves us blazing through this city!”

Applejack added, “And if we make some extra bits while doin’ it, it’ll be even better!”

Twilight let out a small sigh; Cadance placed a hoof on her shoulder and, when the unicorn looked up at the pink alicorn, she said, “It’ll be all right, Twilight. Let’s at least look into this challenge. If it gets us closer to the portal that Tails’ radar detected, we can abandon the challenge partway through to get to it.”

Twilight smiled up at her while Spike shrugged, “Well, part of a challenge is better than no challenge at all, I guess.” Rarity placed a reassuring hoof on his shoulder, causing the baby dragon to perk up almost instantly.

Cadance looked towards the letters across from the group and asked, “So where do we go to start this… challenge?”

Tails pointed at the walkway between the letters and said, “I don’t see anywhere else to go in here, so I’m going to say it’s at the end of that walkway.” The others agreed with this logic and they all crossed over to the other side of the room, walking between the giant letters and following the straight carpeted walkway past them.

After a short walk, the walkway emptied out onto a rectangular-shaped platform that, unlike the walkway they had been on, had a border around it that looked similar to the battlements on top of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters except that the fact that the border was a gold color and was made of metal. To the group’s right, nestled into the corner, was what appeared to be an ordinary pinball machine, the machine’s black casing standing out against the brightly lit buildings around it.

The group soon noticed the machine and gathered around it, looking at it. “What’s this doing here?” Shining wondered.

Twilight noted while looking at the machine, “It looks pretty plain, doesn’t it? The table and scoreboard are there, but it doesn’t really have any markings on it.”

Tails held a hand to his chin, “Yeah… Maybe it’s like a controller for the challenge?”

Applejack looked at him and asked, “What do ya mean, Tails?”

The fox shrugged, “Well, with all the giant pinball tables, roulettes, and everything else this city is known for, it’s kind of weird to see a small, unassuming pinball machine in the middle of it all. I’m wondering if it controls, like, the flippers and acts as a better way to see what’s happening on one of the giant pinball tables.”

Cadance looked down at the lower left corner of the table and spotted a small plaque with writing on it. “Look, there’s something written here,” she said as she moved her head closer to read it. After a moment, she spoke, “It says, ‘Insert ball to begin challenge’.”

Fluttershy asked, “So this is where the… challenge begins?”

Sonic nodded, “Sounds like it. ‘Shoot for the high score’…” He turned and walked over to the other side of the platform, where a giant pinball table could easily be seen from the edge. Placing his left hand on his hip and holding his right hand above his eyes, he whistled as he looked at it, “Wow, this is sweet!”


PINBALL CHALLENGE


Shining Armor, Spike (who hopped up on Shining’s back), Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie came over to stand at his sides while the others hung back a little bit, closer to the pinball machine. “Ooh, pretty!” Pinkie exclaimed while bouncing up and down.

“You said it, Pinkie! That’s a pretty fancy-looking pinball table!” Rainbow nodded.

Shining glanced at Sonic and asked, “You think it’s pretty awesome, huh Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog shrugged, “Eh, mostly because of the nostalgia. I don’t know if this is something new or they just designed it to look like this for this challenge, but this table definitely looks like it was taken straight from the Casino Night Zone on West Side Island!” Indeed, the pinball table that they were looking at stood out amongst the others the group had seen so far; a glance down revealed that it was hanging over the normal V.I.P. room pinball table. The table in question was mostly dark blue with red and yellow mixed in and it had neon lights in the shape of palm trees, spires with stars on them, and a large slot machine around it. It also had two golden statues of a certain two-tailed fox and neon signs that read ‘SONIC’ and ‘MILES’.

“Hey, Sonic, why does that one sign say ‘MILES’?” Spike asked while pointing at the sign.

“Uh, well…” Sonic glanced behind him, looking at Tails out of the corner of his eye. The fox had his left hand balled into a fist and was holding it up to his mouth, and he had an apprehensive look on his face as he glanced back at Sonic.

The blue hedgehog looked back at Spike and shrugged, “Eh, there were all sorts of signs in the Casino Night Zone. Tails and I never ran into anyone who could tell us what all of them were for when we were there.” Tails quietly gave a sigh of relief at that, hoping that would satisfy the dragon’s curiosity. Thankfully it did, since neither Spike nor any of the ponies questioned Sonic further.

Tails cleared his throat and, when everyone looked at him, he asked, “So what does everyone think? Should we give this challenge a try, or should we go back?”

Shining Armor shrugged, “Well, we’ve come this far. We might as well try it.” The others agreed with him, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Spike sounding the most enthusiastic.

Twilight then remembered something and asked, “Wait, that machine said we need to insert a ball, right?”

Cadance nodded, “Right, Twilight.” She looked towards the pinball table and said, “I guess that means we have to put a ball in place on that table.”

Twilight wondered, “But what can we use for a ball?” Sonic moved in front of her and placed his right hand on his hip, giving her a flat look. “What?” she asked after a moment. In response, Sonic curled up into a ball and shot around the area for a second before uncurling in front of her, wearing the same expression and standing in the same stance as before. She smiled, “Oh, right! ...Are you sure you want to do that, though, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog shrugged, “Eh, it wouldn’t be the first time. I’ll be fine.”

Tails looked towards the machine, “Guess all we need now is someone to operate the machine.”

Shining rubbed the back of his head with a hoof as he said, “Uh, Twily and I mainly got into playing ‘Oubliettes and Ogres’ growing up. I don’t know if either of us would be any good at this pinball thing.” Twilight got a look on her face at that, but she evidently agreed with her brother since she didn’t say anything.

“I’ve never played pinball before…” Fluttershy murmured.

“Neither have I. Is there any real skill involved?” Cadance asked.

“Ah know plenty ‘bout apples and kickin’ a ball, but Ah don’t know nothin’ ‘bout this,” Applejack commented.

Rainbow boasted, “Come on, guys! How hard can it be? It’s just knocking a ball around!”

Rarity spoke, “I don’t think it’s quite that simple, Rainbow. It looks more sophisticated than that.”

Tails nodded, “Yeah, it’s easy to knock the ball around. Knowing where to aim the ball to rack up points is the real trick.”

Pinkie suddenly popped up between the rest of the group and the pinball machine and said, “Stand back, everypony! Let the master show you how it’s done!” She put on a pair of black sunglasses that she had gotten from somewhere, her eyes hidden behind them.

Tails confusedly asked, “Uh, Pinkie? Why are you wearing sunglasses?”

The pink pony shrugged, like the answer was obvious, “Duh! I don’t need my eyes or my ears for this, just my sniffer!” She turned and trotted over to the machine, oozing confidence with every step.

Sonic shrugged and called to her, “All right, Pinkie! We’re counting on you!” He then turned and leapt up onto one of the slabs at the edge of the platform, jumping towards the pinball table and curling up into a ball as he went down.

Once she was standing in front of the machine, Pinkie grinned, “Game ON!” She pulled a pair of headphones out of her mane (leaving some of them even more mystified as to where they came from) and slipped them over her ears as she stood up on her hind legs, putting her forehooves on the sides of the machine as a ball suddenly appeared in the machine, ready to be launched by the plunger.

While Pinkie pulled the plunger back, the others turned their attention to the giant pinball table, all of them moving closer to get a better look. They watched as Sonic was launched up by the plunger, the blue hedgehog curled tightly into a ball as he shot up the ramp, sideswiped a bumper, and went under a ramp before rolling down to the main part of the table.

As he rolled down towards the flippers, they shot up to send him back up the table, the hedgehog hitting a panel on the table and causing it to light up as he ricocheted off it to his left. He rolled down and passed through the slot next to the left bumper, causing the green light at its entrance to light up as he rolled down towards the flipper. Once again, unlike the flippers on the table that the group had ended up on when they arrived, which flipped randomly, it didn’t move until Sonic was right in the right position, sending him rolling up a tube that shot him up to a higher level on the pinball table.

As Sonic continued to bounce around the table, lighting up lights and beginning to rack up points on the big score counter above the table, Tails and Twilight got curious and turned their heads to look over at Pinkie, both of them seeing the pink pony still standing over the smaller table and looking like she was really getting into the game. After Sonic ended up in the large slot machine and got a matching row of three, Twilight and Tails looked at each other before moving to take a look at what the party pony was doing.

Peering over Pinkie’s shoulders, they saw that it was true; not only was she actually playing pinball on the machine, but a quick glance at the larger table revealed that the ball’s position mirrored Sonic’s perfectly. Even when the hedgehog was sent up to the higher levels on the pinball table, the ball went wherever he did. Tails and Twilight were both impressed; where did a machine like this come from?

Despite the pink pony’s best efforts, the ball soon ended up going down the drain, and a round of shouts from the others told Twilight and Tails that Sonic had done the same. A quick glance towards the larger table showed that the blue hedgehog was being put back into play while the ball reappeared on the smaller table. Pinkie pulled the plunger back and sent the ball back onto the playing field, soon beginning to rack up points once again. Unfortunately, gravity seemed to have it in for her for being messed with so many times, as, based on the way the ball was rolling, it looked like she was going to lose another ball.

Suddenly, the ball came to a stop in the middle of the field and stayed there for a moment before shooting to the left up a ramp! Tails and Twilight were surprised by this, until they heard Applejack shout, “Whoo-hoo! Nice save, Sonic!”

The two turned to look, seeing Sonic heading for the upper part of the table and hearing Shining Armor ask, “Can he really do that?”

Rarity spoke, “I don’t see why not. Just because he’s playing the part of the ball shouldn’t mean that he has to leave where he goes completely up to the flippers.”

Spike and Rainbow called, “Yeah, Sonic, you spin, ball!” Twilight and Tails noticed the blue hedgehog was doing another Spin Dash to stop and reorient himself to stay on course. Turning to look back at Pinkie Pie, it came as no real surprise that the party pony didn’t appear to be the least bit thrown off by Sonic’s attempts to stay in (at least it seemed that way; with those sunglasses and headphones on and the way she was handling the game, it was like she had become part of the machine!).

Both Sonic and Pinkie kept it up for as long as they could, with Sonic trying to give Pinkie an extra chance whenever he could and the party pony tilting the table in addition to controlling the flippers, but the game had to come to an end at some point. Sonic eventually went into the drain a second time, and then not long after being put back into play, he landed in the gutter for a third time, this time being dropped back into the viewing area with the others.

Upon uncurling and landing, Sonic looked over at Pinkie Pie and saw that she had fallen back onto her haunches. He hurried over to the pink pony as she was being comforted and raised up onto her hooves by Tails and Twilight. The three of them helped her back over to the others, where they removed her sunglasses and headphones to reveal she had a stone-faced expression on her face. She looked shiny thanks to the city’s lights and all the sweat on her face.

“That was incredible, Pinkie. You’re definitely the best pinball player I’ve ever seen,” Tails murmured soothingly.

“The game had to end at some point. Don’t feel bad about it ending like this, Pinkie,” Twilight added.

Sonic glanced up towards the top of the large pinball table and asked, “How did she do, anyway?” The others looked up as well, having been more focused on the action happening on the pinball table than Pinkie’s overall score.

Looking up at the scoreboard, the group could make out that it was a six digit number, but before they could register the actual number, panels flipped over and hid it, the panels displaying the words ‘CHALLENGE 1 CLEARED!’ Applejack grinned, “Whatever score she got, it was enough ta blow that challenge outta the water!”

The others began cheering at this, and Pinkie suddenly snapped out of whatever funk she was in and began screaming loudly, wrapping Sonic up in a tight hug with her forelegs in the process. When her grip loosened a little, Sonic took a step back and pointed at her while grinning, “This pony sure plays a mean pinball!” In the midst of their celebrating, a series of sky blue circles surrounded the group and, before they could react to them, they were teleported away in a beam of sky blue light.
> Fun and Games Pt. III: Dreams and More
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CHALLENGE TRANSITION


The sky blue beam and circles appeared for a moment before vanishing as the group reappeared, all of them looking around. It looked like they were still in the city, but in a new location as the more prominent blue coloration around them contrasted with the yellow that most of them had become used to.

“What happened? Where are we?” Cadance asked.

Spike looked around, seeing that they were surrounded by a wall on all sides save for one. Looking up in the direction of the opening, he saw the word ‘START’ lit up in orange and yellow overhead. “It’s… a racetrack?” he shrugged.

The others looked as well, Tails saying, “A racetrack? Now that you mention it, that screen did mention racing to the end to complete the second challenge, didn’t it?”

Sonic looked further ahead to see that the path curved to the left up ahead. “So the second challenge is a race to the finish, huh? Seems legit,” he said.

The flying box from earlier suddenly came down from above, stopping in midair between the group and the arch in front of them. The screen turned on, displaying a simplified map of the course ahead. “Yep, definitely a race,” Tails remarked, his eyes going over the map and noting the spots that looked like potential shortcuts.

Shining looked left and right, checking how much space there was before saying, “Looks like there’s enough space for us all to line up side by side.”

Rarity asked, “So we’re all taking part in this?”

Sonic shrugged, “Seems that way. Unless you want to hope you’ll win by doing absolutely nothing?” Rarity shook her head in response and everyone, including Cadance and Fluttershy, lined up side by side a fair distance from the starting arch. They all began to stretch and ready themselves, getting into position to begin running… when suddenly, large transparent balls formed around all of them!

“Hey, what is this?!” Rainbow Dash yelled as everyone felt and pushed against their round prisons.

Shining lowered his head and stuck his horn into the ball, causing it to pop and releasing him. He grinned, but a second later, the ball reappeared around him! “Wait, what the -?!” he exclaimed.

The stallion was about to try popping it again, but Sonic stopped him by saying, “Wait, Shining! I think we’re supposed to run this race in these things.”

Pinkie exclaimed, “Ooh! That sounds like fun!” She began bouncing up and down as she continued, “It’ll be like a bumper ball race! I’ve always loved balancing on top of balls, but this time I get to be inside one! It’s like being a hamster!”

Tails noticed something about Pinkie’s ball as she continued bouncing. “Why does it keep inflating and deflating?” he wondered aloud.

Twilight looked back at the hovering screen and noticed it was now displaying a simple diagram about the balls they were in. It showed a ball getting bigger when it was in motion and getting smaller as the ball slowed down and came to a stop. “I think Sonic and Tails are right. It looks like these balls get bigger or smaller depending on how fast whoever’s inside is going,” she said after a moment.

Tails shrugged, “Well, I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be the weirdest thing we’ve ever done.”

Pinkie grinned, “I dream about this sort of thing all the time!” The others decided not to question the pink pony on what exactly she dreamt about, instead all of them moving to a standby stance as a countdown timer appeared on the hovering screen. It counted down from ten, everyone beginning to shake or fidget as the anticipation continued to mount.


RACE CHALLENGE


When the counter hit zero, everybody made sure to lean forward as they ran, all of them taking off from the starting line at different speeds. Unsurprisingly, Sonic got off to an early lead, the hedgehog leaning to adjust the angle of his running to get him through the winding path ahead without losing much speed. As he went into a covered section of the road that was angled sharply downwards, Shining Armor suddenly caught up with him! “Whoa! Where’d you come from? Royal guard training kicking in?” Sonic asked as he glanced over at the stallion.

Shining Armor smirked as they got to the bottom of the slope and continued on, “I saw what you were doing back there. That’s when I realized this is partly a thinking game!” To further show this, when they reached the end of the covered section of road and it curved to the right, Shining was able to slow down and angle himself enough to stay on the inside of the curve while Sonic was forced to stick to the outside.

As he reached the end of the curve, the unicorn stallion saw an overhang that was close to the ground, too low for his Air Ball to fit through at its current size. He quickly brought his hooves down and held them to slow down, his ball shrinking in size enough to allow him to squeeze through. As he came out from under it and was about to start running again, Sonic suddenly leapt over the overhang and landed in front of the stallion without losing too much speed! “Whoa, what?!” Shining exclaimed at this.

Sonic glanced back and called, “Sorry, Shiny! You didn’t think quick enough this time!” Looking forward, he saw a pair of double rails just ahead and decided to chance it, jumping up towards the rails. He landed between them, the size of his ball keeping him from falling as he continued to run while Shining, having noticed the rails too late, was forced to stay on the main path. The others soon reached the same spot, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Tails following after Sonic while the rest took Shining’s path.

Sonic followed the double rails until they ended, jumping to a floating flat platform and bouncing upon landing to another one that he used to jump to a pinball table, which Shining Armor, Princess Cadance, and the others were approaching as well.

As Rainbow slowed down for a moment in the middle of the first platform, Applejack came up behind her and bumped into her Air Ball, both of them being pushed away from the impact. Rainbow was pushed far enough that, when Pinkie came off the double rails, she was able to bounce off of her ball to the second platform.

Applejack, meanwhile, yelled, “Rainbow Dash! What was that for?!”

Rainbow just glanced back as she made her jump and snickered, “Sorry about that, AJ! That’s what you get for being too slow!”

Applejack growled, “OH! That does it!” She shot forward after the cyan pegasus, unintentionally throwing Tails off as he reached the platform. The orange earth pony quickly made the first jump and almost immediately made the second, moving to join her rival and the others on the pinball table.

On the table, Sonic grinned as Shining, Cadance, Twilight, and Rarity arrived with Spike and Fluttershy coming through the tube they had come out of. “Hey! You guys are catching up already, huh?” he asked.

Shining smiled back, “Of course! In a race like this, there’s no way you’re just gonna- Whoa!” The last was a shout of surprise as Rainbow Dash’s ball collided with his, throwing him off and causing him to roll around with his ball for a few seconds.

Sonic was thrown off as well a moment later when Applejack bounced off of his ball, catching him by surprise and making him stop moving on his own. “Hey, I’m walking here!” he exclaimed as he bounced to the side.

Applejack paid him no heed, her eyes focused entirely on Rainbow Dash. “You wanna see fast, Dash? Ah’ll give ya fast!” she said as she charged towards the pegasus, cutting her off from trying to take the lead and instead bumping her towards the other side of the table and getting in the way of Twilight and Rarity. This ignited Rainbow’s competitive spirit all the more, causing her to answer her earth pony rival’s bump with a bump of her own, causing her to crash into Princess Cadance.

This set off a scuffle between the two on the table, and with its small size, everyone ended up forcibly caught up in it. When Tails reached the table, he managed to bounce off of Pinkie’s ball towards the top of the table, which he took advantage of to leap over the heads of everyone and into a slot in the middle. Spike, thanks to his smaller size, was able to maneuver between all the Air Balls crashing into each other and follow the fox down, the two of them continuing on towards the finish line.

After about half a minute, Sonic, Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadance managed to get knocked loose from the rival clash and got to the bottom of the pinball table, getting onto the section of road. As they came to a stop on the road, they all looked up at the ongoing feud, seeing Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy get ejected from it as well moments later. As they all grouped at the bottom, Fluttershy murmured, “Why are they doing this now?”

Rarity shook her head, “This is turning into that one ‘Running of the Leaves’ all over again, isn’t it?”

Cadance said, “This isn’t the time for them to be fighting. We have to stop this.”

Sonic spoke up, “Not disagreeing with you, Cadance, but I don’t see how we’re going to keep them apart from each other when all we can do is bounce.”

Shining said, “I think he’s right, Cadance. There’s some kind of anti-magic field in these balls since I can’t summon my magic right now. You feel it too, right?” Cadance nodded, as did Rarity and Twilight.

Twilight looked up at her two friends and asked, “But what should we do about them?”

Sonic replied, “I’m sure they’ll work it out, or at least remember that they’re in the middle of a race and head for the goal. That ought to help snap them out of it. Now come on!” He turned back to the road, looking back to the others and saying, “Last one to the finish line is a rotten Eggman~!”

The others snapped back to attention at that last line, all of them smirking as Rarity said, “Oh, it is ON, now!” With that, they all took off running, all of them being more mindful not to hinder each other too much as they ran.

Up ahead, Spike and Tails were still racing to keep ahead of the others, going through a loop that ended with a ramp that deposited them on a new table with a hole in the center. It took about a minute for them to relax and let the incline carry them down to the hole so that their Air Balls were small enough to fit through. Once they landed on the road below, it was a straight dash to the goal with only a gap at the end that they needed to get over to reach the finish.

It was a mad dash towards the goal for the two, but Tails just managed to pull ahead of Spike and cross the finish line first, the baby dragon coming in right behind him. “Wow! That was something else!” Tails said. He turned to Spike and asked, “Are you okay, Spike?”

The baby dragon replied, “Yeah, I’m fine, Tails. It would’ve been really cool if I’d come in first, but I’m not mad. I mean, check it out: sidekicks for the win!” He and Tails then bumped their Air Balls against each other.

Sonic soon leapt over the gap and joined the two at the goal. He looked at them and said, “Hey, nice job, Tails! That was awesome! And Spike! Sneaky little guy, aren’t ya?”

Spike snickered, “Heh heh, if you only knew.” The three of them then turned and watched as Shining Armor joined them, followed by Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Princess Cadance, and Fluttershy. Spike looked around at them and asked, “Where’s Applejack and Rainbow Dash? Why haven’t they gotten here yet?”

A moment later, a pair of Air Balls dropped down from the hole above the road, Rainbow Dash’s Air Ball bouncing off of Applejack’s Air Ball and shooting towards the goal. In retaliation, the orange earth pony shot after her, soon crashing into her from behind and throwing them both off. “Uh, that’s why?” Sonic shrugged.

After a few seconds, both mares made it across the finish line, both panting heavily. “Heh heh, Ah won this time, Dash!” Applejack gloated.

“Yeah right, AJ! I won this race!” Rainbow argued.

“No ya didn’t, Rainbow Dash!” Applejack said.

Sonic spoke up, “I’d call it a tie.” The two mares turned to look at him and noticed for the first time that they were not the only ones there.

“A tie?!” Applejack asked.

Rainbow started, “Does this mean…?”

Pinkie grinned, “Yep! You two tied for last again!”

Rainbow Dash groaned, “Aw man! How did this happen again?!”

Tails shrugged, “Well, I’m sorry to say this, but you two kind of did get caught up in your game of bumper balls.” The two mares hung their heads at that.

Fluttershy was about to go over and comfort them, but then realized that she was still in her Air Balls, as were the others. “Um, are we supposed to still be in these… balls?” she asked while looking at the rest of the group. Applejack and Rainbow looked up when she finished speaking.

“That’s a good question, Fluttershy. What’s supposed to happen now that the race has ended?” Rarity wondered. Her thoughts, as well as everyone else’s, were interrupted when, in a split second, they heard a loud POP, like the sound of a balloon bursting, and Sonic let out a shout. They all turned to see that his Air Ball had been popped and he was quickly sinking into a black portal under where he’d been standing, vanishing before their eyes!

“Sonic!” Tails exclaimed before his Air Ball suddenly popped and he disappeared the same way. One by one, the same thing happened to the rest of them, none of them able to react in time before they all vanished to parts unknown!

________________________________________

A black portal opened up in midair and Sonic fell out of it, the hedgehog heading straight towards the ground as another appeared near the first one and Tails came out of it. More portals appeared in succession, the third one releasing Spike and the rest dropping the ponies out of them before they disappeared. In less than a minute, the entire group had been released from their portals, all of them falling down and landing on a brown, hard stone floor.

As they all recovered and some of them recovered from a rough landing, Rainbow Dash groaned, “Okay, this whole randomly warping thing is getting really old! Seriously, it’s not even fun anymore!”

Rarity moaned, “I’m going to need a much-needed spa trip when this is all over…”


A VERY STRANGE PLACE


As she and the others stood up, Applejack grunted, “So now where’d we end up?” They all looked around, seeing a raised gray platform in the middle of the room with stairs leading up to the top of it and a large wooden door across from it nearby. The wall that the door was attached to seemed actually be rows of large rings that were made of horizontal rectangular plates. These rings were constantly spinning and were placed on top of each other, forming a dome. Despite the dim lighting of the room, they could all see fine.

“This is a very strange place,” Shining commented.

Twilight looked at Sonic and Tails and asked, “Where are we?”

Sonic said, “This place looks familiar, but I don’t think we’ve been here in a while.”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. It’s right on the tip of my tongue…”

Suddenly, the room began to brighten up, the light coming from above. Everyone looked up to see what looked like a giant crystal hanging in the air near the top of the chamber, the light shining brightly from within it. “Whoa, look at the size of that crystal!” Spike gasped, his mouth beginning to water at the sight of it.

Sonic spoke, “That’s… It’s got a name, what was it again? Some kind of… stone? Priceless…” He snapped his fingers, “No, wait, it’s the Precioustone!”

Tails gasped, “That’s right! That means… we’re in Maginaryworld, in the Temple of Light!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Precious… stone?”

Cadance asked, “Maginaryworld? Temple of Light?”

Rainbow tilted her head to the side, “What are you guys talking about? What is this place?”

Sonic turned to the others and said, “Well, to put it simply, this is the world of dreams!”

Spike and the ponies gasped, Twilight asking, “The world of… dreams?!”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah! Part of it, anyway. And this temple is right in the middle of this world.”

Fluttershy asked, “But… Well, we know Princess Luna can enter other ponies’ dreams, but she’s never said anything about dreams making up a world. How does this world exist?”

Tails explained, “We were told a little about this world when we were here. If I remember correctly, Maginaryworld is created from the dreams of people in other dimensions. We only saw a little of it, but it seems like pieces of everyone’s dreams help make up this world.” He gestured up at the floating crystal as he went on, “That Precioustone is the essence of everyone’s dreams, and its power is said to make dreams come true.”

Rainbow gasped, “Whoa, really?!” She looked up at the Precioustone, “If that crystal can make dreams come true, and the dreams of a bunch of different people are inside of it, then I can make my dream come true! I can finally become a Wonder- Oof!” She let out a grunt as something suddenly landed heavily on her back, pushing her to the ground. Twisting her head around, she was met with an angry pink face. “Pinkie?! What are you doing?!” the cyan pegasus asked.

“You can’t touch that shiny stone, Dashie! That could cause it to break and make bad things happen to this world!” Pinkie exclaimed. She looked at Sonic and Tails and asked, “Right?”

Sonic nodded, “Right. The Precioustone shattering is why we got to have a dream-hopping adventure here once.”

As Pinkie climbed off of Rainbow Dash, Shining asked, “What happened?”

Tails explained, “The Goddess of Dreams, Illumina, guards the Precioustone here to protect everyone’s dreams. But one day, she became consumed with self-doubt and lost sight of her own dream. It got so bad that she split into two beings: Lumina Flowlight and Void. Void shattered the Precioustone when he touched it, sending the pieces all across Maginaryworld, so Lumina sent out a message for help and Sonic, Knuckles, Amy, and I were brought here because we received it. We were able to retrieve the pieces of the Precioustone and restore the dreams that Void was altering, and got him and Lumina to rejoin to bring back Illumina. It saved Maginaryworld from being plunged into darkness.”

Twilight said, “Wow… So, where’s Illumina now?”

Tails looked towards the raised platform and said, “She should be here in the Temple of Light, guarding the Precioustone. I wonder if the damage caused by that monster has had an effect on Maginaryworld as well and she had to leave to help take care of it…”

Sonic thought to himself, “I don’t think Illumina would stray too far from the Precioustone, especially after losing herself once. She’s probably close by somewhere; if there’s a problem in Maginaryworld, she might’ve asked NiGHTS for help. …Hm, I wonder how NiGHTS is doing…”

Applejack got everyone’s attention when she spoke, “Hey, uh, maybe this is just me, but Ah kinda expected a world of dreams ta look… Ah don’t know, a bit flashier.” As if in response to her, the spinning rings suddenly began to lift up, everyone looking up as the rising rings exposed what lay beyond the Temple of Light to them. “…Well, shoot,” Applejack muttered after all the rings had been lifted away and she and the others looked at the new sight.

It looked like the group was in the middle of the night sky, varying shades of blue and violet surrounding them as far as the eye could see. In addition, stars, clouds, and various objects swirled around the Temple of Light, easily seen against the blues and violets. Nobody was sure if they were dream locations or simply pieces of dreams floating freely.

“Whoa… This is incredible,” Rainbow Dash breathed.

“Simply gorgeous,” Rarity breathed.

Twilight looked at Sonic and Tails and asked, “Did you guys see this when you came here the first time?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. We didn’t really get a chance to admire it, though, since Lumina was telling us what was happening in Maginaryworld when we arrived.” Looking back up, he said, “But now that we actually get a chance to look at it, it really is beautiful.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah.” He lowered his eyes and, upon noticing something, looked around with a raised eyebrow. “Hey, what the… When did all these mirrors get here?” he asked after a few moments. Everyone looked down and around for themselves, soon seeing what he was seeing.

Dotting the entire Temple of Light’s circumference was a number of mirrors, and each of them looked exactly the same. A circular frame contained the mirrors and a trapezoidal base with two fins sticking up on the sides held the mirrors up.

Twilight looked at Sonic and Tails and asked, “Uh, I’m going to guess these mirrors aren’t supposed to be here?”

Tails shook his head, “They weren’t here before. Last time, Lumina led us to the first dream location through those doors, and then we just warped from one location to the next. I don’t know what the story is with these mirrors.”

Sonic looked over at one with a hand on his chin, “I wonder if that’s all they are?”

Rarity trotted over to one while saying, “Don’t be silly, Sonic. Of course they are!” She stopped in front of the mirror and looked up at it as she continued, “Just look at how well-made this is! How reflective the surface is! Why would this be anything more than just a mirror?”

Sonic shrugged, “Because mirrors can be magical?”

Rarity rolled her eyes, “Oh, I doubt that, highly!” She looked back at the mirror and said, “These really are lovely mirrors. A shame they’re so tall or I’d see if I could take a few home with me and…” The white unicorn was suddenly cut off as the surface of the mirror rippled, causing her to fall over with a shriek!

“Rarity?!” Spike exclaimed as he and the others hurried over to her. As they all gathered around her, they looked up when the sound of the mirror rippling stopped; a second later, something appeared on the reflective surface.

It was a moving image, showing a younger Sonic and Tails in the original Tornado as they flew over the ocean. The younger Sonic was standing on the biplane’s wings with his hands on his hips, both he and younger Tails seemingly looking for something. The image soon showed them flying towards an island in the middle of the ocean.

“What is this?” Applejack asked, confused.

Tails spoke after a moment, “That’s… Angel Island. This has to be when we met Knuckles for the first time, when we were searching for the Death Egg after it crashed.”

Spike asked, “So why is it showing up on this mirror?”

Tails held a hand to his chin, “Maybe the mirror shows past events? Or maybe it’s a portal…?”

Twilight said, “Well, whatever it is, it must be a magic mirror if it’s able to show this.”

Sonic leaned down next to Rarity and smugly asked, “So books can be magical, but a mirror being magical is preposterous, huh?” Rarity chuckled nervously as she glanced at him at that.

Pinkie called to the others, “Hey! Look at this one, look at this one!” They all turned and walked over to the party pony, two mirrors down from where they were.

They all looked up at the mirror, which showed an image of Sonic standing on top of a plane that looked more like a motorized hang glider while Tails was the pilot, unsurprisingly. They were flying over what looked like an ocean towards a mountain that had a metallic Eggman face near the top of it. As they got closer to the mountain, the face started shooting at them. After several missed shots, one hit the plane and Sonic fell into the water below while Tails was forced to fly away in order to avoid crashing. The blue hedgehog vanished beneath the waves…

“Oh no, Sonic!” Fluttershy gasped as she looked at the mirror.

Spike looked at Sonic and asked, “Why did you fall off there?”

Sonic kept looking at the mirror with his hands on his hips, watching as the hedgehog shown in the reflective surface snuck underneath the mountain with the help of underwater friends. After a couple of seconds of watching it, he finally said, “I’m not remembering ANY of this.”

Tails held a hand to his chin, “Me neither. When did we ever have a plane like that?”

Cadance asked, “So… you’re both saying this never happened?”

Sonic shrugged as he turned and walked away, “I don’t think so, but I do know I can’t keep watching this!” As he was saying this, the mirror showed him using what looked like a giant pinball system to make his way around the inside of the mountain.

Tails thought for a moment before saying, “I think we did do a flying approach when Eggman built one of his bases on top of a mountain, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t play out like this… Maybe… it’s another universe?”

Shining asked, “You really think that’s what it is, Tails?”

Cadance held a hoof to her chin, thinking, “That mirror that Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna had sent to the Crystal Empire… They said it was to safeguard it, but why did they say it had to be guarded? Was it because…?”

Her thoughts were interrupted when Sonic called, “Hey guys, come take a look at this one!” They all turned and saw him standing a couple of mirrors away. They all walked over and looked at what was on the mirror’s surface.

The mirror showed a moving image of a gathering of eight ponies and a baby dragon in a grassy meadow. Only one of the ponies in the group appeared to be a colt; he was an earth pony with a dark blue coat and a lighter blue mane and tail, and he wore a pink bandanna and had a white stripe through his mane and a football for a cutie mark. There were three pegasi ponies, and one of them, a white pony with a silver-white mane and tail (with a yellow ribbon tied around her tail) and a cutie mark of a silver teardrop-shaped medallion with a green jewel in the center, appeared to be a princess as she wore a light purple cone-shaped hat with little hearts on it.

Spike noticed the baby dragon’s colors were similar to his own and said, “Hey, that dragon looks like me! …Are they supposed to be us?”

While hovering with her wings, Rainbow stated, “Those ponies look… fat.” She then smirked at Sonic, “Kind of like you did in those other two mirrors.”

Sonic glared at her, “Hey, I didn’t exactly have a lot of places to run to back when I first started fighting Eggman, okay?”

They both turned back to the mirror when Pinkie said, “Ooh! That looked like it hurt!” They saw that an orange earth pony with a yellow mane and tail, her tail having a blue ribbon tied around it, had crashed into a tree, some apples raining down around her.

Noticing her coloration and the apples on her flank, Sonic raised an eyebrow, “Is that Applejack?”

The group’s Applejack seemingly took offense to this, saying, “It better not be! She might be an apple pony, but she looks like a klutz!”

In the mirror, two ponies came over to help the orange earth pony, one a unicorn and the other an earth pony. The unicorn had pink fur and a blue ribbon tied around her white with a purple streak tail (her mane was the same color) while the earth pony was yellow with a pink mane and tail and a green ribbon tied around her tail.

Tails looked at the earth pony and noted, “That pony kind of looks like Fluttershy.” The aforementioned pegasus shrunk down shyly when some of the others looked at her.

Twilight looked back at the mirror; looking at the unicorn, she asked, “That… looks like Mom?”

Shining looked as well and, after a moment, said, “It kind of does, Twily. But that pony has nine stars on her cutie mark, and you know as well as I do that cutie marks do not change over time.”

Rarity looked at the other unicorn, noting to herself that the pony looked as elegant as her, and asked, “So would this be a different universe as well? And does anypony have any idea yet as to how we’re going to get out of Maginaryworld and back to Twinkle Park?”

Pinkie piped up, “Of course it is, Rarity! Why else would it look so similar and yet so different? And if these mirrors really are magical and they can warp us places, maybe we can use one of them to warp us back to Twinkle Park!”

The others stared at her for a few moments before Sonic asked, “Does anybody else like that idea too?”  The others nodded in agreement and they all split up to check the other mirrors, searching for one that showed Twinkle Park.


MIRROR SEARCH


As Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were about to break off to check mirrors as well, something from the pony mirror caught their attention. Peering into it, they saw the other two pegasi, one pink with a blue mane and tail and a purple ribbon and the other white with a neon yellow mane and tail and a purple ribbon. The latter was zipping around crazily and seemed to be shouting while the former was trying to catch her.

“Whoa, check that pony out! And that other pony is crazy fast! Imagine if either of them were Wonderbolts! Not that they would have a chance against me, though,” Rainbow stated.

Pinkie snorted to herself and said, “Yeah, that one pony would be a real… surprise!”

Meanwhile, the others were examining the other mirrors carefully to determine what exactly they were showing. Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadance were examining one that seemed to be ordinary, as no image appeared on it, when suddenly a silhouette, shrouded in shadow and looking almost human-like, appeared on it, startling them! And the strange thing about it was that it seemed pony-like as well…

Spike looked between two mirrors, each one showing a different image of a large city similar to Central City, though thankfully neither one looked like it was actively being destroyed. Still, it looked like there was a lot going on from what he could see, both cities looking like they had been involved in some epic battle recently. The difference he seemed to note, though, was that the first one looked more familiar, like something he’d seen in one of his comic books, while the other definitely looked a lot more like Central City.

Nearby, Tails was writing something down on his radar’s touch screen while looking in a mirror that showed alternate versions of himself, Sonic, Knuckles, and Amy, specifically of the beams they were using to make their way along an ancient stone path. Sonic glanced at him as he passed by, moving to the next mirror and looking at it. After a moment, it showed what looked like Canterlot, but it almost looked like the life was being choked out of the city and its surroundings. Sonic couldn’t be entirely sure, though, since the image appeared to have some static around it, preventing him from seeing the full image.

Sonic was tempted to jump into the mirror and find out where it led, but he restrained himself, remembering there were more urgent concerns. He moved onto the next mirror and looked up at it. His eyes brightened when he saw floating, spinning rings and a brightly colored curved road within a colorful void. He turned and called, “Hey guys! I think I found the one we’re looking for!”

Tails, Spike, and the ponies quickly made their way over to him and looked at the image in the mirror themselves. “That… doesn’t look like Twinkle Park at all, Sonic,” Shining said confusedly.

Tails smiled, “No, but it does look like the Special Zone!”

Cadance asked, “The Special Zone?”

Twilight said, “It’s one of the places the Chaos Emeralds can end up. Anybody who completes the Zone’s challenges can retrieve the Emeralds from it.” She noticed Spike, her brother and sister-in-law, and her friends staring at her. She shrugged, “Tails told me about it earlier.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes and muttered, “Bonding eggheads…”

Applejack looked at Sonic and Tails and said, “But y’all already got all the Chaos Emeralds. Ain’t no reason ta take some challenge if it ain’t got anythin’ else.”

Tails held his right finger up, “Actually, that’s not the only thing. To get into the Special Zone, you need a warp, and to get out you need a warp, and it’s possible to influence where you come out.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, “So?”

Tails replied, “So, with time and space as messed up as it is, and this entryway into the Special Zone…”

Cadance asked, “We might be able to warp back to Twinkle Park if we complete whatever challenge the Special Zone gives us?”

Sonic nodded, “Exactly!

Tails looked at him a moment later and asked, “You do realize that, if we all go in together, we’ll be breaking the challenge, right?”

Sonic shrugged, “Well, what do you suggest we do when our worlds are in danger? Go one at a time?”

Tails thought about this for a moment before replying, “I guess not.”

Shining looked at the mirror again and asked, “Can you guys tell what the challenge is from here?”

Tails and Sonic looked as well, the former saying after a moment, “Well, from the look of it, it’s the half pipe challenge.”

Rarity asked, “And that would involve…?”

Tails replied, “It’s a collecting challenge. It’s a simple idea, but the layout is what determines how hard it is.”

Sonic nodded, “Basically what we’re gonna do is run through a half pipe while collecting rings that are placed throughout it. We’ve gotta pick up enough several times or the Zone will boot us back out. Pretty much we can collaborate and make sure to cover all the spots so we can get all the rings we need. It’s a cheap way to win, I know, but we’re in a hurry here.”

Twilight said, “Can’t really argue with that.”

Pinkie shook her head, “Nuh-uh!” Everyone else agreed, knowing they didn’t have time to do things the regular way.

Shining Armor asked, “Is there anything we’ll need to look out for while we’re in the half pipe?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, there’s probably going to be bombs in it at times. Don’t touch them, obviously, or, besides getting an explosion to the face, you’ll probably drop some rings. Other than that, we shouldn’t see much else that’ll be dangerous.”

After working out a plan so they wouldn’t get in each other’s way, Spike climbed up onto Twilight’s back and they all jumped into the mirror, all of them disappearing through it. Once they were all gone, the mirror and all the others disappeared, the spinning rings coming back down and surrounding the Temple of Light once again.


SPECIAL STAGE


Inside the Special Zone, a circular opening appeared, out of which came Sonic, Tails, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Shining Armor, Princess Cadance, Twilight and Spike, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy in that order. They all soared through the air for a few moments before dropping into a violet and purple half pipe that had yellow arrows telling them where to go. As they started running forward, letters floated in front of the group for a moment reading ‘GET 80 RINGS!’ before breaking up and floating away.

“Eighty rings?! How are we going to collect that many?!” Twilight exclaimed.

Sonic called back, “Don’t worry! There’s usually more than enough, and all we have to do to collect them is touch them! Just hang back and pay attention!” As he finished speaking, they all went to the right through a curve, and once the path straightened out again, the game began.

Batches of twelve rings started to appear on the sides of the path, alternating between the left and the right. With the straight path, they could see them coming up, so Sonic and Tails had an easy time grabbing them, each ring they grabbed disappearing with a jingle. After four batches of rings, the path curved to the right again and twelve more rings appeared on the left side. Sonic and Tails didn’t manage to get them, so Applejack grabbed them when she saw them

Just as the road began to slope down ahead, Sonic called back, “Heads up! Bombs!” Applejack looked ahead and saw Sonic and Tails leap over the bottom of a ring of spiky black and red spheres. She did the same, not wanting to find out what the explosions felt like, and the others also heard it and did the same.

As they reached the bottom of the slope, more rings appeared to the right as the path curved to the left. While Rainbow Dash grabbed them, they all heard Pinkie shout, “Pinkie Sense tingling~!”

Sonic soon called back, “More bombs!” They all had to jump as they were coming up a slope, but again they all managed to avoid getting blown up.

After getting another batch of rings and avoiding another set of bombs, they passed over a section of the path that turned orange. As they ran over it, the letters came back, this time spelling out ‘COOL!’ with a hand surrounded by a ring giving a thumbs up behind the letters. After the letters broke up again, new letters appeared to tell them ‘GET 190 RINGS!’. Now that Spike and the ponies knew what this involved, they all steeled themselves, ready for the next section.

As they started, the middle of the path had bombs on it. Thankfully, the rings were in trails now and they went around the bombs so they stuck to the trail, Shining Armor, his sister, and the rest of her friends grabbing the rings that Sonic, Tails, and Applejack missed while Rainbow Dash and Cadance flew up to grab the rings situated right above the path. They then had to weave to grab the bunches of rings while avoiding bombs, narrowly avoiding anyone getting blown up as they made it through the section.

After reaching the end and getting another clear message from the Special Zone (seemingly), it told them ‘GET 270 RINGS!’. This final segment started with a corkscrew loop that the running ponies initially weren’t sure they would get through, but they were able to keep running without falling into the void. After dodging another ring of bombs, they continued collecting rings, lines of rings showing up on the two other corkscrew loops in this section.

When they reached the end of this section, instead of the letters appearing like they had before, a pink gem appeared above them, floating backwards. The group only saw it for a few seconds before it gave off a flash and a portal opened up where it had been. Sonic and Tails started running faster, the former calling back, “This is our exit, guys!”

The ponies began running faster to keep up with them at that. As they got closer to the portal, Tails called, “Everybody! Think Twinkle Park!” Taking that into account, a few seconds later, they leapt one by one into the portal, which vanished once they were all through. The pink gem reappeared afterwards and then shot upwards, disappearing into the Special Zone somewhere.

________________________________________


WARP RING SCUFFLE


The robotic tour guide hovered near the Friendship Express, seemingly taking in its surroundings. It spoke to itself after a few moments, “I suppose this park is interesting as it is, but it still seems boring. I can think of one thing that would definitely make it better: a big old storm of…” It never got a chance to finish as it was suddenly crashed into from the side, the group having been launched out of a portal right into it.

As they lay in a pile on top of the robot, they were all either laughing or panting a bit, all of them seemingly refreshed from their brief visit to the Special Zone. “Oh man, that was a lot of fun! And that warp was a lot better than some of the ones we’ve had lately!” Rainbow exclaimed.

As they relaxed, they all took notice of their surroundings. “It worked! We’re back in Twinkle Park!” Twilight said.

Looking ahead, Sonic noticed something a short distance away. He pointed, “And look! There’s the Warp Ring!” Everyone looked and saw the ring lying on its side where he was pointing.

Spike managed to squeeze out of the pileup and ran towards the Warp Ring while saying, “I’ll get it!” He grabbed the ring with his claws and held it up in front of him, looking it over. He turned a second later as he heard the others let out a shout, the robot tour guide having thrown them all off of it.

Spike let out a yelp as the robot shot towards him, but he was unable to turn in time before it grabbed him, or more specifically the Warp Ring, with its left hand. The baby dragon held on, dangling from the ring as the guide held the ring up. It looked at Spike and said, “Excuse me, but I’m afraid I must ask you to let go of this object.” It then began to shake the ring up and down, trying to force Spike to let go.

After recovering from the throw, Tails saw what the robot was doing and quickly spun his namesakes around, shooting towards the two and wrapping his fingers around Spike’s claws, securing and reinforcing the baby dragon’s grip. “Hey, what are you doing?!” Tails asked the tour guide.

The robot answered while trying to pull the ring away, “I am taking possession of this lost object. It must go to the Lost and Found so it can be reclaimed by its proper owner.”

Twilight and Rarity got to Tails’ sides and grabbed on, helping him and Spike pull. “That ring belongs to Tails and Sonic here! They are its proper owners!” Rarity argued.

The robot said, “If that is true, I must see proof that they do own it.”

Tails asked, “Proof? We don’t… We don’t have any proof. Sonic is the one who found it.”

The robot replied, “Then until proof of ownership can be provided, I’m afraid I must take it to the Lost and Found.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Where did YOU find the ring, anyway?”

The tour guide was silent for a moment before answering, “Unimportant. It was lying on the ground, so clearly someone had dropped it. Now please release your grips. This matter must be taken care of so we can get back to more important matters.”

Sonic and the other ponies had made their way over to the debacle by this point. Sonic asked, “Like what?”

The robot answered, “Oh, you know. Distracting- I mean, making sure you have fun and causing- preventing chaos. You all agree that’s important, yes? Right on!”

Sonic zipped right in front of the robot and said, “No, right OFF!” He then reached up and, with his right hand, began quickly tapping the power button on the robot’s panel, its screen switching between dark and lit up as the blue hedgehog pressed his index finger against the button. After a few seconds of this, it released its grip on the Warp Ring and a powering down noise was heard, its head rolling back before it fell over onto its back.

Tails shifted Spike so the baby dragon was sitting on the crook of his arm before saying, “Looks like that works too.”

Rarity looked at the robot and huffed, “So uncivilized! Why would they allow something like that to work in a park like this, where there are children?”

Sonic knelt alongside the robot and, while looking at it, said, “Last I heard, they didn’t. I know I’ve never seen a robot like this before.”

Tails set Spike down and moved to the bottom of the robot. Kneeling down and lifting up one of its arms, he examined it while saying, “Yeah… This thing was really weird. Even Omega isn’t quite this, uh… easygoing, I guess?”

Twilight asked, “Do you think it could’ve been sent out by that creature?”

Tails let the hand drop and held a hand to his chin, “Hm, maybe. If I can get a look at the inside of this thing…”

Suddenly, a beeping sound started coming from the robot, and a few seconds later, it exploded! Sonic, Tails, and the others shielded themselves when it went off, but thankfully it seemed to have been a small explosion as no one felt themselves getting bathed in flames. Looking back, they saw no trace of the robot, save for a long scorch mark on the ground.

“Well, that idea literally blew up in our faces,” Sonic commented.

“Yeah, well… good riddance to that thing, all the same,” Applejack said.

Tails felt along the scorch line, but every time he pressed his fingers down against it, he only felt the ground. “It left nothing behind. No spare parts or anything…” he sighed.

Rainbow Dash flew around him and grabbed his shoulders, getting up into his face and saying, “Hey, this isn’t the time to worry about that right now! Let’s just get out of here before something else happens!”

Pinkie gasped, “Dashie’s right! We could start getting warped around again if we stay here!”

Shining asked, “Pinkie, I thought you were the one who wanted to go on some more rides?”

The party pony pressed his face right up against the stallion’s and grabbed the sides of his head with her hooves, “No time! We have to go now!” She then shot towards the train, dragging the unicorn stallion along with her. The others quickly followed after them, Tails taking a moment to take the Warp Ring back from Spike and tuck it away.


LEAVING AT LAST!


Once they were all on board, Tails and Pinkie started the train up, the water tank still filled to the brim from earlier. Everyone else took their seats in the car, settling down as the train began moving up the tracks towards the exit portal.

As they got closer, Shining looked over at Sonic and asked, “What do you think that robot was, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog waved a hand, “I have no idea, dude. There aren’t a lot of robots I know of that have been quite that animated, and the last one I met was a lot nicer.”

Curious, Cadance asked, “Do you think we’ll meet him, or can you tell us about him?”

Sonic was silent for a moment, thinking, before shrugging, “Maybe.” He looked at Twilight and said, “I’m guessing we’ll be coming out of the tunnel once we leave here. How much further did you say we had to go to get to Canterlot?”

Twilight quickly calculated in her before saying, “Uh, we just have to go along the side of the mountain once we reach it. There’s one more tunnel we have to pass through.”

While glancing out the window, Sonic said, “Then we’ve got plenty of time for whatever.” As the train began to leave the park, he added, “We could probably even sneak a few things in, too.”
> Lightning Dust and the Babylon Rogues, Pt. I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


RETURN TO CANTERLOT


Despite being the local accommodation for the members of the Royal Guard that weren’t assigned to the castle, Canterlot’s Twelfth Precinct was usually a quiet place. While they did get called upon in dire situations such as the Changeling Invasion about a year ago (which the Royal Guard was hardly able to halt due to the element of surprise the changelings had), Equestria often being under a spell of peace meant the members of the Royal Guard had very little to do. Going on patrols and polishing their armor until it was shining tended to be the highlights of their day.

That’s why when a rather loud thud sounded right outside the front doors of the building, the left door opened part of the way and the precinct lieutenant, a white pegasus pony with a small mustache and bushy eyebrows wearing the Royal Guard armor, and another pegasus Royal Guard with a brilliant gamboge coat and two sapphire blue eyes (who seemed to be nervous, judging from the way he was slightly shaking) poked their heads out to see what was going on. What they found were the two Princesses of Equestria hunched over and panting, their wings drooping to their sides and the street beneath them slightly cracked from the impact of their landing.

The precinct lieutenant gasped and pushed the door open all the way, running over to the Princesses while the other pegasus was a little slower to follow his lead and other guards were coming to the front to investigate. “Princess Celestia, Princess Luna! Are you both all right?” the lieutenant asked.

Princess Celestia took one last breath and stood up straight, folding her wings as she said, “Yes, Luna and I are fine, Lieutenant. We just finished flying all the way from Ponyville back here to Canterlot, which was not quite as straightforward as we would have liked.”

Before the lieutenant or any of the guards gathering in front of the Princesses could ask what she meant, Luna exasperatedly spoke as she stood up, “Portals! Portals everywhere! ‘Twasn’t bad enough that we fought with a rampant experiment, narrowly avoided getting every hair on our bodies burned off, and had to keep Celestia’s cake cravings under control! Nay; what should have been a simple flight back to Canterlot was instead tainted by many openings leading to equally as many unknown locations! This day has most certainly not been just perfect!”

The lieutenant and all of the guards stared at Luna for a moment before turning back to Princess Celestia, the lieutenant asking, “Your Highness…?”

Celestia turned to him and said, “It’s all right, Lieutenant. Luna is still not happy about having to be woken up earlier. She’ll be all right, though.” The Lunar Princess let out a huff and made a face at that.

The brilliant gamboge pegasus looked up and asked, “What’s happened to the sky, Your Highnesses?”

Celestia spoke, “It’s a long story, I’m afraid, and now is not the time for it. Right now, there is something more urgent that Luna and I need you all to do.”

The guards stood at attention at that, the lieutenant asking, “What do you require of us, Princess Celestia?”

Ignoring the look that Luna gave the pegasus at that, Celestia explained, “Make sure all the citizens of Canterlot are in their homes. We’re in the middle of a serious situation right now and they cannot be out wandering the streets. Knock on their doors, get a list of all their names, do whatever it takes to make sure they’re all safe and accounted for. The safety of the citizens comes first right now.”

All the guards saluted, the lieutenant saying, “As you command, Your Highness!” He turned to the rest of the guards a moment later and ordered, “I want some of you to get a list together of all of Canterlot’s citizens! The rest of you, come with me! We’re going to patrol the streets in the meantime and escort any ponies out right now back to their homes immediately!” The guards saluted again and they all took off, a small number of them going back into the precinct to put the list together while most of the rest went with the lieutenant to patrol the streets.

Only the brilliant gamboge pegasus remained, looking unsure of whether to go with the lieutenant or not. Princess Celestia looked down at him and asked, “You. You’re Flash Sentry, correct?”

The pegasus straightened up and said, “Yes I am, Your Highness!”

Celestia nodded, “Come with me. Luna and I are going to the castle. After our earlier flight, we could use an escort.”

Flash Sentry proclaimed, “I will remain at you and your sister’s side as long as you need me, Princess Celestia!”

Luna shook her head, the pegasus’ name already starting to slip from her mind as Celestia turned and started trotting towards the castle. Luna and Flash Sentry quickly caught up with her, Flash Sentry flying just above them to keep watch while Luna asked her sister, “What are we going to do when we get to the castle, sister? We are going to wait for Twilight, Sonic, and the others to arrive, correct?”

The Solar Princess nodded, “Yes, Luna, but just as the Royal Guard is securing Canterlot and its citizens as we speak, we must make sure the castle is secure as well. We must make sure the staff is okay and that there are no surprises waiting for us quickly. I’m sure Twilight and her friends are not far from Canterlot now.”

________________________________________


NOT QUITE...


Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Rarity looked out the window on their side of the car as the Friendship Express came out of the portal, which deposited the train at the end of the tunnel they had been going through before they’d been forced to go through a series of strange side adventures. The train was now following the tracks on top of the wooden bridge, the track curving ahead as it ran alongside the mountain range. They could see a bit of Canterlot peeking out from the side of the mountain range in the distance, but it felt like they were still far away from the city.

As the train approached the curve ahead, Canterlot disappeared back behind the mountains and the four of them stopped looking out the window. They could feel as the train rounded the curve and straightened out, everybody sitting tightly during the curve and relaxing afterwards. While the train ambled along, Rainbow Dash plopped down next to Spike and sighed, “Man, this feels like the longest train ride we’ve ever had! When are we going to get to Canterlot?”

Rarity spoke, “Rainbow Dash, I don’t see how it could possibly feel longer than any other time we’ve been on a train. Why, we’ve hardly spent much time on the train at all! We’ve spent far more time running around.”

Sonic shrugged, “I think that’s the point Dash is getting at, Rarity. We’ve had to stop, go into portals, run around, and do a bunch of stuff all so we can keep the train going. Of course the ride itself is going to feel longer as a result.” Rainbow held up her left hoof and Sonic, upon seeing it out of the corner of his eye, raised his right hand and bumped it.

Rarity shrugged as she checked one of her curls with a hoof and said, “Hm. Well, yes, I suppose that is true. If it were possible for us to relax in one of the bed cars, then yes, the trip would go faster and we would be at our best for whatever is waiting for us in Canterlot.”

Sonic shook his head, “No, Rarity. That would be worse. There is such a thing as being too relaxed. …Can’t believe I just said that…”

Applejack spoke, “Can’t argue with ya there, Sonic. Relaxin’ too much ain’t that good for ya. ‘Course, bein’ too alert ain’t so good either.”

Twilight glanced back out the window while Cadance asked, “Do you really think so, Applejack?”

The orange earth pony thought about her words for a moment, quickly deciding not to bring up the incident with the Sass Squash this past winter and instead saying, “Well, sure, Princess Cadance. Sonic ain’t the only one who knows how ta relax; Rainbow Dash can be a lazy galoot too when she ain’t got anythin’ ta do.”

Rainbow immediately glared over at Applejack and said, “No, I don’t!”

Applejack retorted, “Really? How many times have Ah disturbed yer ‘precious beauty sleep’ because ya were sleepin’ in one o’ mah family’s apple trees? How long did it take ya ta finally figure out when you’re supposed ta report for weather duty?”

While the two friendly rivals started arguing again, both Sonic and Spike scooted closer towards the wall to stay out of it. Sonic looked out the window again and noticed Ponyville off in the distance, looking closed off and alone in this white world. “Can anyone tell me how close we are now?” he asked after a moment, wondering if anyone would hear him over the sound of arguing.

Rarity heard him and looked over at the window on the other side of the car, noticing that Fluttershy had moved to Shining Armor and Cadance’s seat to give Applejack and Rainbow Dash space. Looking out the window, she soon saw a waterfall pass by outside of it; looking back at Sonic, she said, “We’re close to the next tunnel now. It should be just around the corner.” Sonic nodded and went back to looking out the window.

For a minute, the car was silent save for Rainbow Dash and Applejack arguing with each other, everyone else trying to tune them out until they started going overboard, unintentionally tuning everything else out as well. That is, until Rarity looked over at Twilight and noticed the look she had on her face while she was looking out the window. “Twilight darling, are you okay?” she asked, Sonic and Spike looking over at her words.

Twilight looked up with a start, turning to look at her unicorn friend. “Oh, uh… Sorry, Rarity, I, uh…” she stammered while looking down.

Rarity looked at her with concern, “Twilight, is something wrong?”

The lavender unicorn hesitated for a moment before uttering, “Well, sort of…” Her eyes moved up in Sonic’s direction, the blue hedgehog looking back at her for a moment before the look in his eyes became more understanding.

Both Spike and Rarity noticed where Twilight was looking, both of them raising an eyebrow as they looked between her and Sonic. “Why are you two looking at each other like that?” Spike asked a moment later.

Sonic looked down at him with a raised eyebrow, “What are you talking about, Spike?”

The baby dragon replied, “That way you were looking at Twilight!”

Sonic shrugged, “What, I’m not allowed to look at somebody when Rarity is nearby?”

Spike sputtered, “What?! No! That’s… What does that even mean?!” The baby dragon’s yelling attracted the attention of the others due to Applejack and Rainbow Dash hitting a silent moment in their arguing, everypony looking over at Sonic and Spike, all except for Twilight and Rarity.

Twilight was looking down again, prompting Rarity to ask, “Twilight, is something going on between you and Sonic? Is that what’s troubling you?”

Twilight looked up at the fashionista in confusion, “What? N-No, Rarity, there’s nothing wrong between him and me…”

Rarity protested, “But the way you two were looking at each other just now! Whatever could be the problem, then?”

Twilight stammered, “Well, uh… You see…” Before she could say any more, a very loud smashing sound came from the engine, as though the train had slammed into something, and the force from the collision traveled back to the group’s car, pushing them all towards the back of the train!


REUNION ATTACK


Twilight found herself sprawled out on top of Sonic, the hedgehog lying slumped in his seat as they looked at each other. They quickly looked to the side to see Rarity, Spike, Shining Armor, Cadance, and Fluttershy similarly knocked over. There was no sign of Applejack or Rainbow Dash, though a groan from behind told them that they had ended up in the aisle. It soon occurred to them that the train was slowing to a stop.

They both glanced out the window when they heard a whooshing sound coming from outside and saw two trails of lightning clouds heading towards the front of the train. “It’s the Wonderbolts!” Twilight gasped.

Sonic looked up at Twilight, the unicorn looking back down at him when he spoke, “Listen, I hate to interrupt, but could you hold onto what you were about to say for a minute or two?” Twilight nodded and let out a yelp a moment later when Sonic leapt to his feet and swung her around so she was behind him, the bookish pony hanging on tightly as he dashed towards the engine, hardly slowing down to open the door in the way.

The others soon recovered from the sudden shakeup and quickly headed for the engine when they all noticed Sonic and Twilight were gone. They found them with Tails, Pinkie Pie, Spitfire, and Soarin, Sonic and Soarin tending to Tails while Twilight and Spitfire looked after Pinkie. From the look of it, Tails and Pinkie were more dazed and jarred than any of them had been just moments ago, though it didn’t look like they were injured.

Soarin looked Tails over from the front while Sonic, who was sitting the fox up by holding his shoulders, asked, “Tails, you okay, buddy?”

The fox shook his head a moment later and wearily replied, “Uh… I think so…”

Applejack and Shining Armor came over to help them while Fluttershy and Cadance went over to Twilight and Spitfire to help check on Pinkie Pie. While they were checking her, Twilight asked, “Pinkie, what happened?”

The pink pony, her eyes rolling around a bit, answered, “I don’t know, Twilight! My Pinkie Sense didn’t go off, so I don’t think something fell on the tracks or they weren’t lined up or anything like that!”

Spitfire sighed, “Well, it doesn’t look like anybody’s hurt. Not too shabby.”

Soarin nodded, “Thank Celestia for small miracles.”

Cadance asked, “Spitfire, Soarin, what are you two doing here?”

While helping Pinkie Pie up onto her hooves, Spitfire answered, “Believe me, Your Highness, as much as I’d like to say it’s a social call, it’s not. We came out this far because of those Babylon Rogues.”

Sonic asked, “Jet and his gang?”

Tails added, “Are you saying they left Ponyville?”

Soarin nodded, “That is what she’s saying, I’m afraid.”

Rainbow spoke, “Those guys are a joke! They got lucky; that’s the only reason they managed to get away, right Spitfire?”

Instead of soundly agreeing with her, the light gold pegasus replied, “Maybe, Rainbow Dash. They’re definitely sneaky when they want to be. That’s why we were trying to keep an eye on ‘em; some of Ponyville’s residents have reported seeing them lurking around ever since we got back from that theme park. And we don’t think they’ve just broken quarantine either.”

Shining Armor asked, “What do you mean?”

Spitfire replied, “We saw them taking a pony with them on their way out.”

Sonic raised an eyebrow, “You mean they kidnapped a pony?”

Soarin said, “No, like, the pony was flying with them when they were riding off on their board things. It wasn’t that long ago either, and it was like they’d been lying low until then since nopony had seen them. We couldn’t tell who the pony was from behind, though Spitfire thought it looked familiar.

Spitfire nodded, “Yeah. I’m pretty sure it was one of the cadets from the Academy…”

Rainbow Dash spoke, “What?! I’m sorry, Spitfire, but that can’t be right! Why would a Wonderbolt cadet want to hang out with those guys?” As if in answer to her question, something shot in through one of the engine’s windows and out the other window, leaving a blue and yellow thunderbolt streak behind it. While it didn’t hit anybody, it was enough to make them all flinch and back up a bit.

Almost immediately afterwards, as the streak was beginning to disappear, Jet and Wave flew into the engine on their Extreme Gears, Jet grabbing Pinkie by a foreleg and smacking Sonic with one of his fans while Wave grabbed Tails by his left tail (the fox letting out a yelp at the yanking feeling) and narrowly missed striking Spitfire on the side of the head with her wrench (though she did graze the pegasus with the end of it). As they flew out the other window, Twilight cried, “Pinkie Pie, Tails!”

Outside, the two Rogues stopped on their boards, hovering some distance away from the train as they looked back at the group. “Don’t worry, nerdy, we’ll give ‘em back! Once we’re done with them, that is,” Wave called.

As they started to move again, Jet laughed, “Too bad, Sonic! You’re too slow!”

Sonic’s head snapped up at that. “Oh no, he didn’t…” the blue hedgehog growled under his breath.

Spitfire yelled, “After them! Don’t let them get away!” Sonic didn’t need to be told twice, already leaping out the window to go after Jet and Wave as they were rejoined by Storm. Thankfully, the engine had reached the end of the rail bridge and was on top of the cliff, so he had no difficulty finding a place to put his feet. Spitfire and Soarin were soon hot on his heels, Rainbow Dash and the others getting off the train and following as well.

As she followed Sonic, Spitfire, and Soarin around the curve, Rainbow Dash saw a portal in the path of the tracks up ahead. The Wonderbolts and Sonic went through it without stopping, so Rainbow did the same, passing through the portal and finding herself in a new location. She didn’t stop to look around, though; she kept going straight, joining Sonic, Soarin, and Spitfire as they tended to Tails and Pinkie Pie, both of them having been seemingly let go in the middle of a metal street.

As the others joined them, Sonic asked Tails, “Are you okay, buddy?”

While rubbing his left tail with his hands, the fox sighed, “I’m better now, Sonic. I really don’t like having my tails pulled on…”

Twilight asked, “What about Pinkie Pie?”

The pink pony in question was lying on her back, looking up at the blue sky. “Ooh… Look at all the floaty things and tall buildings!” she said in awe.

Rainbow shrugged, “She’s fine, Twilight.”

Cadance asked, “What does she mean by ‘floaty things’?”

Sonic and Tails looked up and, after a moment, the former said, “Probably that.” Spike and everypony else looked up at this and they gasped in awe. High above their heads were towering, metal skyscrapers, a few looking as high as the clouds themselves, networks of tubes going all over, and flying vehicles either traveling through the tubes or flying over the buildings.

“What in Celestia’s name IS this place?!” Spitfire gasped.

“It’s, uh… it’s a city called Monopole. It’s very futuristic,” Tails stated.

Spike pointed up at the vehicles flying overhead and asked, “What are those things?”

Tails, as he stood up, answered, “They’re hover cars, Spike. They’re the main form of transportation here. We actually have one of our own that we keep in storage for when we’re here.”

Shining Armor, his eyes all starry, muttered, “Wow… I’m geeking out from all this…”

Soarin asked, “Is there anything special about this place? To you guys, I mean.”

Tails thought for a moment before saying, “Well, we were visiting the time when the robots from MeteorTech got out of control. Also, one of the factories was where…”


RETURN OF THE ROGUES


A familiar voice interrupted him, “We ran into each other again!” Everyone turned and looked up to see Jet, Wave, and Storm, on their Extreme Gear boards, descending towards them, stopping a short distance above the ground. Jet crossed his arms and smirked, “We also had a race at the end of that mess. Remember that, Sonic the Hedgehog?”

Sonic smirked back, “Yeah, I sure do, Jet. So what’s your problem now?”

Jet glared down at him, “You really have to ask? I told you, we’ve got a score to settle! And now that Wave’s fixed up the Extreme Gear, we’re settling it now!”

Soarin gaped, “A grudge match?! That’s what this is all about?!”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, uh, now’s not a good time, Jet. Gonna have to take a rain check on that.”

Jet smirked, “And just where do you think you’re gonna go?”

Shining Armor answered, “We have to get to Canterlot to set things right! Or did you forget that there’s a giant rift between our universes?”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, it’s kind of a big deal, bird brain!”

Applejack added, “A lot bigger than you gettin’ this race o’ yours!”

Jet replied, “Oh, I’m sure it is. But here’s the real question: how are you going to get there when you’re stuck here?”

Storm said, “Yeah, it kind of looks like your swirly hole thing is starting to close up!” Everybody looked back at that to see that, indeed, the portal they had come through (which was in front of a tunnel) was quickly closing. Rainbow Dash spread her wings and shot towards it, hoping to keep it open, but it was too small for her to even fit her hoof through by the time she reached it.

Wave spoke up, “Well, looks like that option’s out. And I don’t think you’ll be doing any warping. Not without this, anyway.” She reached behind her back with her left hand and, when she brought it back, it held the Warp Ring in it!

Rarity gasped, “What?! That’s…!”

Wave smirked, “Good thing your tails are so sensitive to pulling, shorty. You didn’t even notice a thing!” Tails glared up at her at that.

As Rainbow Dash flew back over, Soarin growled, “You guys would really go to all this trouble to hold a race when our worlds are in danger?!”

Jet shrugged, “Hey man, I highly doubt it’s going to happen, but if everything’s gonna end, I’m gonna defend my title until it happens.” He then looked down at the two Wonderbolts and added, “And there’s a pony who so badly wanted to prove herself to you two that she was willing to help us pull this off.”

Spitfire raised an eyebrow, “Who?”

A tomboyish voice called, “Take a guess, ma’am!” From above, the blue and yellow thunderbolt streak shot straight down, landing between the group and the Babylon Rogues and raising a cloud of dust. When the dust settled soon after, they all saw a light turquoise pegasus with brilliant amber hair that had brilliant gold stripes running through it standing in front of them, her wings spread and wearing what looked like the a tattered Wonderbolt cadet uniform and flight goggles.

Rainbow’s eyes widened, “Lightning Dust?!”

The pegasus grinned, “Long time, no see, Rainbow Dash.”

Sonic looked over at Rainbow Dash and asked, “Friend of yours, Dash?”

The rainbow-maned pony grunted, “More like a fellow cadet from the Wonderbolts Academy, Sonic, and the former lead pony of our pair.”

Lightning Dust glared, “How are you enjoying being a leader, Rainbow Dash? Hope it’s a lot of fun, seeing as you bailing on me is what got me demoted.”

Rainbow argued, “You got demoted because you were way too reckless back there, Lightning Dust! I was already getting sick of it before I called you out on it; nearly killing my friends was what cinched it for me!”

Lightning Dust shot back, “So it was okay for me to get demoted and kicked out of the academy without even a hearing?!”

Spitfire spoke up, “Yes, because that was the only fair thing to do, Lightning Dust! It was my fault for fueling your competitiveness and not realizing what was happening as a result of you pushing yourself the wrong way! When Rainbow Dash told me about it, I knew that, as captain of the Wonderbolts, I was responsible for your actions and acted accordingly!”

Tails looked at Spitfire and asked, “‘Let the master speak’, essentially?"

Spitfire nodded, “Correct. I did what needed to be done in order to save the reputation of both the Wonderbolts Academy and Lightning Dust.”

Lightning Dust yelled, “Kicking me out of the academy and taking away my chance to become a Wonderbolt doesn’t sounds like my idea of saving anything!”

Spitfire argued, “Just because you were dismissed doesn’t mean you couldn’t reapply! If you had been training properly and signed up again with intent to prove it, we would’ve been willing to give you a second chance!”

Lightning Dust growled, “I don’t need the Wonderbolts Academy to tell me I’m qualified to be a Wonderbolt! I already proved it back then, and now that I’ve pushed myself in that direction you so wanted me to go in, I’m going to prove it again now!”

Jet spoke up, getting everyone’s attention, “So, now that we’ve got the whole reasoning thing out of the way, how about we get to that race? Or is Dusty here not entitled to fairness?”


TAKING THE RACE


Sonic gave Jet a level glare, asking, “What do you have in mind, Jet?”

Jet answered, “A one lap race through the city, starting at Megalo Station, going through the greenhouses, and ending back at Megalo Station. Anyone can be a part of it. The flying ponies can use their wings, but everyone else has to be on an Extreme Gear.”

Storm chortled, “Yeah! No running allowed for any of you!”

Spitfire asked, “And what happens at the end?”

Jet replied, “If Lightning Dust or any of us win, we get to keep the Warp Ring and Lightning Dust gets to bypass whatever it takes to become a Wonderbolt! If any of you guys win…”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, “Yeah?” Jet remained silent.

Lightning Dust glanced back up at him, “You’ll give them the Warp Ring back, right? That’s what we agreed on!”

Jet replied, “Yeah, sure. So?”

Sonic, Tails, Spike, and the ponies looked at each other for a second before Cadance said, “We don’t really have a choice, everybody. We need that Warp Ring to get back to Equestria.”

Spike asked, “Where are we going to get these Extreme Gear boards, though?”

Tails said, “There’s a place around here where I can get our Extreme Gear sent to right away, along with our racing gear.”

Fluttershy asked, “Racing gear?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, we switch it up a little when we race with Extreme Gear.”

Rarity said, “Then we’re going to need to dress similarly! I need some measurements; does anypony know if their measurements have changed recently?!”

Sonic looked at Tails and asked, “Can you get all our stuff and some extra Extreme Gear for Spike and everyone else, Tails?”

Tails shrugged, “I can, but… I’ll need to go across the city.”

Wave overheard and called, “Lightning Dust can help you with that, shorty. She’ll help cut down on your commute time.” Although the light turquoise pegasus initially protested, she quickly relented and agreed to push Tails and Rarity (she insisted on coming with to see the racing gear) to Tails’ place. As they left, Wave mused to herself, “This should be interesting.”

Soon, at Megalo Station

Sonic tapped his feet against the ground, trying to get comfortable in the new racing suit Rarity had made for him. He looked it over again as he tapped his feet; it was dark, almost like a navy, blue, had a pair of red and white boots that mimicked his regular shoes (which fit surprisingly comfortably inside of the boots), an orange pouch wrapped around his waist, and a new pair of light green sunglasses that sat on top of his head.

Sonic reached up with his right hand, his left hand holding onto the side of his Blue Star Extreme Gear, and adjusted the sunglasses as he thought, “I kind of like the new sunglasses to be honest, but still, really? Did Rarity tell Tails that our Extreme Gear attire wasn’t fashionable enough or something?”

Thinking of the fox, Sonic looked over at him as he was telling Spike and the ponies (save Rainbow Dash) about how to handle the Extreme Gear. He had a similar racing suit, only it was orange with white stripes going down the sides, had a yellow pouch, no eyewear, red and orange boots and gloves, and the bottom of his suit didn’t go all the way down, making him look like he was wearing knee-length shorts. The others were wearing similar racing suits, with Rainbow Dash’s looking like a cross between her cadet uniform and the Wonderbolts uniform while the others’ suits were made to look both functional and presentable, Rarity clearly wanting them all to look good for this race.

Before Sonic could think about Rarity’s outfit choices, Jet came over and gave his back a rough push. When the hedgehog turned to face him, he smirked, “Love the new look, Sonic the Hedgehog. Tight enough for you?”

Sonic glared at him, “Hey, I don’t know why Rarity felt it was necessary to go the extra mile, but she did, so I’m not gonna complain or not wear it.”

Jet rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Hope she didn’t put a lot of effort into it. By the time we’re done, all any of you are going to be left with is shreds.”

Spitfire and Soarin came over, the latter saying, “Hey, back off, Jet! Save it for the race, huh?”

Jet asked, “What, there’s no smack-talking allowed?”

Spitfire glanced over at Lightning Dust, the light turquoise pegasus flapping her wings so she was hovering on her back while she waited, and said, “You’re already pushing the envelope, hawk boy. Don’t give us a reason to call this race off before it begins.”

Jet grunted, “Fine!” before walking away, going over to talk to Wave.

Sonic looked at Soarin and Spitfire and asked, “You guys would really force them to call the race off?”

Spitfire nodded, “I don’t know what that guy’s deal is, but he’s been getting on my nerves for a while now! This race had better not take too long; our worlds are in real danger right now! Why does a race have to take precedent over that?!”

Sonic replied, “Yeah, Jet’s an interesting guy all right. Calls himself the Legendary Wind Master, so of course he’s got a lot of confidence in his skills. Still, I’m sure we’re gonna win this.”

Soarin nodded, “No doubt!”
> Lightning Dust and the Babylon Rogues, Pt. II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


RACE START


After a few minutes, Wave had gotten the starting line and gate set up, so everyone got into position. Sonic and Tails got onto their Blue Star and Yellow Tail boards while Spike and the ponies climbed onto their loaned Extreme Gear and the flyers (save for Fluttershy and Cadance) flapped their wings to get off the ground and hovered in place above the ground. They were all a bit shaky as they stood atop their boards, but they managed to steady themselves and drift forward with the others, Rainbow Dash, Lightning Dust, Spitfire, Soarin, and the Babylon Rogues sliding their goggles down in front of their eyes as the timer on the starting gate counted down.

As the timer hit one second, Sonic, Tails, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Lightning Dust, the Wonderbolts, and the Babylon Rogues shot forward, reaching the starting line as the electric current flowing between the two posts was cut off. The rest of the group wasn’t as quick on the draw and didn’t get as good a start, but as they jumped the ramp leaving the station and landed (their Extreme Gear helped them a little with that part), they were somewhat relieved to see that they weren’t too far behind the others.

As they followed the road ahead, Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike noticed Sonic and Jet using their Extreme Gear to ride along a rail. Remembering what Tails had told them about their Gear types, they all tried jumping up on the rail, turning their boards to the side as they landed and letting the rail guide them. Although Twilight and Spike had a little difficulty balancing at first, they were able to ride it to the end while Pinkie had no trouble balancing at all. Still, by following the rail, they were able to get slightly ahead of the others and closer to the front.

Everyone soon jumped from another ramp and landed on a street that split up ahead. One of the paths led back into Megalo Station, so they all took the other path instead, which led into the city and towards the greenhouses. As they headed through the city, they all got a chance to try to pull ahead, Sonic, Jet, Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike grinding across rails, Tails, Wave, Cadance, and the pegasi flying through rings, and Storm, Shining Armor, Applejack, and Rarity breaking through heavy obstacles as they approached them.

After they got out of the city, the Babylon Rogues started to fall behind. After making sure they were a reasonable distance behind the competition, the three birds moved close together and Jet said, “I think it’s time to ramp this challenge up! Hit it, Wave!”

Touching the red orb on her necklace, the swallow replied, “You got it, Jet!” She called up a floating green screen in front of her and slid her right finger across it, a message reading ‘PROGRAM ENGAGING’ appearing on it. She then quickly made the screen disappear before anybody could notice it.

By the time they were just about to the greenhouses, Lightning Dust had fallen behind as well. While the heroes sped on towards the entrance of the closest greenhouse, the pegasus fell back after seeing them and, as they all stopped, asked, “What happened to you guys?! I thought you were better than anybody else at this!”

Jet smirked, “Oh don’t worry, girlie, we are! And you’re gonna see it firsthand!”

Lightning Dust raised grinned, “Yeah?! These greenhouses are a great place to show what you’ve got?”

Wave replied, “Yeah, that too. What’s really going to be amazing is what’s about to happen.”

Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean?”

Storm pointed and spoke up, “Check it out! Look at all those old MeteorTech robots gathering around that dome!” Lightning Dust looked and her eyes widened; robots really were gathering around the top of the greenhouse, holding position just above it. Suddenly, without warning, they all rushed forward, smashing through the glass!

“What’s going on?!” Lightning Dust exclaimed.

“Oh, just a little something I whipped up for this race. Makes it more interesting, don’t you think?” Wave asked.

Lightning Dust looked shocked, “You did this?! That’s cheating!”

Jet replied, “No, it’s interesting. Makes it more daring. Isn’t that what you wanted? A chance to really show how ‘awesome’ you are?”

Lightning Dust argued, “You didn’t tell me you were going to do THIS! You said this would be a chance to show off speed and tricks!”

Jet replied, “And it is. We’re just making it a little more exciting little because it’s boring right now!”

Lightning Dust yelled, “Boring?! What about anything up to this point has been boring?!”

Wave crossed her arms, “Why do you think it’s called EXTREME Gear, genius? You have to be willing to push yourself and take on new challenges if you want to be great at anything!”

Jet put his hands on his hips, “Look, I’ll level with you, girlie. I never planned to help you get in on your little stunt group in the first place! I only said that so you’d help us get into MeteorTech to plant the little program you’re seeing now!”

Lightning Dust gasped, “The stunt show…!”

Jet smirked, “Get it now? I don’t care about you weird ponies or what you dream of. I dream of treasure and beating Sonic the Hedgehog!”

Lightning Dust growled, “You’re not going to get away with this!”

Storm yelled, “You threaten the Boss, you get to meet my fist!” With that, Storm swung his right arm back and punched Lightning Dust right in the face, sending the pegasus flying towards one of the greenhouses in the distance!

Wave sighed, “Finally. She was really getting annoying, wasn’t she?”

Jet nodded, “Yeah. Let’s go; Sonic and his little gang ought to be pretty distracted by now!”


ROBOT ATTACK


Meanwhile…

The scene inside the greenhouse was absolute chaos. As everyone was just starting to make their way through the greenhouse using the areas marked for the general public, robots suddenly blocked their path, forcing them to take a different path to avoid crashing. The path emptied out onto the massive greenhouse plants, but it also left them out in the open, allowing the robots to spot them easier. They began descending on the racers, most of the group thinking back to the changelings and Sonic and Tails getting déjà vu from the last time these robots were after them.

Shining fired several lasers from his horn to stop some nearby robots before yelling, “What the hay is going on here?! Are we not supposed to be in here?!”

Sonic called over to him, “We’re not supposed to be with the plants unless someone allows us to, but those robots showed up in the area that anyone can be in! So that’s not the problem!”

While leaning to the side to get away from a swipe from a robot and trying to keep her balance, Twilight asked, “Then why are these robots attacking us?!”

Tails swiped his namesakes to knock a robot off balance and said, “I’m more concerned about why these robots specifically are the ones after us! They were all supposed to have been shut down and disposed of after Eggman was forced to abandon control of MeteorTech!”

Rainbow yelled, “These are Eggman’s robots?!”

Tails replied, “They used to be, back when he started MeteorTech as part of a scheme for world domination! The military took over the company after the incident with the Arks of the Cosmos! They replaced all of the robots Eggman had with newer ones!”

Soarin asked, “What are the Arks of the Cosmos? What kind of incident did they cause?”

Sonic answered, “They’re meteors, basically. Long story short, Eggman put one of them in his mother computer and all the robots connected to it went berserk trying to find the rest of them!”

Spitfire started, “So if these robots are suddenly coming back to life and doing it again…”

Pinkie Pie interrupted as her tail shook on the outside of her flashy pink race suit, unintentionally slapping a robot behind her with the poofy appendage and causing it to go off course as she yelled, “TWITCHY TAIL!”

Spitfire called, “What?!” Her question was answered a moment later when something collided with her from above, both her and the object in question hitting and bouncing off the ground and into Sonic from behind. The hedgehog was knocked off of his Extreme Gear and hit the ground, all three sliding across the ground for several seconds while Sonic’s Blue Star landed on the ground further ahead.

The others came to a stop, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Tails even coming back, all worried that they might have gotten hurt. As Sonic and Spitfire picked themselves up, they all soon realized what, or rather who, had caused this crash. “Lightning Dust?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Spitfire immediately glared at the light turquoise pegasus at this revelation and grabbed her with her hooves, demanding, “What was that for?! Are you trying to kill US now?!”

Lightning Dust squirmed in Spitfire’s grasp, uttering, “N-No, m-m-ma’am! I didn’t… The Babylon Rogues…” Her face fell, “I was tricked…”

Twilight asked, “Tricked? By the Babylon Rogues?”

Lightning Dust nodded, “They lied to me… Actually, they didn’t tell me about this. They suckered me into helping them and I didn’t realize it until now.”

Suddenly, the Babylon Rogues shot past the group, Jet calling back, “See you later, snails!”

Spitfire glared after them before turning back to Lightning Dust, staring at her for a moment before saying, “We’ll deal with you later, Lightning Dust.” She released her grip, the pegasus landing on her rump, and spread her wings, “Right now, we’ve got to beat those rogues at their own game, so don’t you go causing any more trouble!” With that, she shot off after the three birds, Soarin and most of the group quickly following after her. Soon, only Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Tails were left with the disgraced former cadet.


QUICK TALK


The four of them, instead of immediately following the others, looked up as several more robots closed in on them from above. Reacting quickly, Sonic and Rainbow Dash shot up towards two of them, crashing through them and destroying them while Twilight used her magic to reduce the third to scrap metal. After Rainbow and Sonic landed a short distance away, Lightning Dust said, "You didn't have to do that."

Twilight looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "Why? You were going to take care of them yourself?"

The pegasus replied, "No. If they were going to attack me too, well I... I deserve it for being so stupid."

Sonic and Rainbow Dash came over at this, the former saying, "Stupid?! That doesn't seem like a good reason to want to get beat up."

Lightning Dust exclaimed, "Well, I was, wasn't I?! That's what you're all thinking, right?!" She hung her head, "It's my fault that this happened. If I hadn't fallen for what they said and performed all those tricks so they could pull this off..."

Rainbow Dash spoke up, "Hey, it's no wonder they'd try to get you on their side, Lightning Dust. Your tricks are awesome!" The light turquoise pegasus looked up at her in confusion at that. Rainbow went on, "Yeah, you were reckless back at the Wonderbolts Academy, but we were both about as awesome otherwise. Them being jerks and manipulating you is their loss, I say."

Deciding to swallow how she felt deep down once and for all, Twilight said, “What Rainbow Dash is saying is that, yes, you were tricked, Lightning Dust, but you do realize your mistake and there’s still time for you to make up for it.”

Tails nodded, “Yeah! Even a battered phoenix can still rise from the ashes!”

Lightning Dust asked, “Rise from the ashes? How am I supposed to do that? And why are you all wasting time helping me instead of catching up to those birds?”

Sonic answered, “Because you’re a cool girl and it’s worth taking the time to help out somebody who needs it. We’re not worried about falling far behind because we can count on each other to be able to come through when needed. We might not be a real team, but we can still count on each other, just like thunder.”

Lightning Dust raised an eyebrow, “Thunder?”

Sonic winked, “Thunder and lightning go together, don’t they? That’s what you’ve gotta do, Lightning Dust!” He ran over to pick up his Blue Star while Tails and Twilight hopped back on their Extreme Gears and Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to get off the ground. Before taking off, Sonic called back, “Find your thunder!” With that, the four of them took off, Tails saying something about a shortcut between the greenhouses. Lightning Dust didn’t catch it; she was too busy watching them as they got farther away, thinking about their words…


FREE FOR ALL


Soon, in the adjacent greenhouse

Spitfire and Soarin finally caught up with the Babylon Rogues, the rest of the group trailing just behind the two pegasi as they went through the wintery greenhouse. As they got closer, Spitfire yelled, “Hey! Is what Lightning Dust said true, that you guys caused these robots to start attacking?!”

Wave called back, “Yeah! So what?! You got a problem with that?!”

Soarin growled, “How could you do such a thing?! This is a race, not a fight!”

Jet replied, “Oh, it’s a race, all right! It’s an unofficial Extreme Gear race, as in outside of the World Grand Prix! That means anything goes! You don’t like it? It’s a little late for that!”

Suddenly, Rainbow Dash called, “Heads up, chickens!”

Jet looked up and to his right, “What?!” A moment later, Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and Tails leapt off a frozen branch above the track and got in front of the Babylon Rogues, Sonic and Rainbow Dash neck and neck at the front while Tails and Twilight trailed behind a short distance. “Hey, that’s…!” Jet caught himself and admitted, “I did say anything goes. So it’s okay for them to do that.” He then smirked as he glanced at his teammates, “Which means this is okay too!” They nodded in response.

Jet looked ahead at Tails and did a kick to give himself a burst of speed and get up along the left side of the fox, who glanced at him in confusion when he didn’t try to pull ahead. Suddenly, Jet bumped into the side of his Extreme Gear, knocking Tails into the side wall and causing him to lose his balance! The fox went tumbling backwards, his Extreme Gear going with him! “Tails!” some of the others cried as the fox went tumbling past them. Shining Armor was about to use his magic to grab him, but up ahead, Sonic performed a quick 180 and shot backwards, weaving through the group until he caught up with Tails and grabbed his hand to stop and steady him.

While the two of them were distracted, Jet looked over at Wave and Storm and nodded at them. Rainbow noticed this as well as the fact that the swallow and albatross nodded back and decided to draw back, flying off the left side of the track and leaving Twilight in the lead. The lavender unicorn was confused about what her rainbow-maned friend was doing, but she was soon distracted by Wave getting up alongside her and pulling out a wrench, hitting the front of her board with it. “Hey, what are you doing?!” Twilight cried as she looked at the swallow next to her, but she soon got her answer when Storm got in front and punched her hard.

The unicorn was knocked off of her Extreme Gear and went backwards through the air for a second, nearly colliding with Applejack (who swerved to the side to avoid a collision) before she hit the ground and started rolling backwards. “TWILIGHT!” Shining Armor, Cadance, Spike, and the others yelled as she rolled back past them.

Before she could reach Sonic and Tails, however, Rainbow Dash suddenly popped up over the side of the track and got in Twilight’s path, catching the unicorn with her forelegs. “Gotcha, Twilight! You okay?” she asked.

Twilight shakily nodded, “Yeah, I think so. Thanks…”

Rainbow Dash smiled in relief, but as they passed through a partly hollowed-out and partly covered vine, she got a bit cocky, saying, “You really gotta pay attention, Egghead! You can’t spend too much time thinking about what to do when you’re on the move like this; you just gotta do it! If you don’t pay attention to what’s going on…”

Twilight interrupted her as they approached a jump, “Look out!” Rainbow opened her eyes to see a stray robot coming straight towards them, flying over the gap ahead. At the speed she was going, she couldn’t react in time and the robot crashed into the upper part of her body, pushing her back and causing her to let go of Twilight, right in the middle of the gap!

“NO!” Rainbow Dash screamed as she tried to get free of the robot. Sonic and Tails went past her, both of them having seen what just happened.

Reacting quickly, Tails shouted, “I’ll catch her!” and moved to the left side of the root, going up along the wall and leaping off of his Yellow Tail before reaching the edge. While Sonic completed the jump and Rainbow Dash got free of her attacker, Tails shot down after Twilight while his Extreme Gear landed facedown at the edge of the jump. “I’m coming, Twilight!” the fox called as he straightened himself to fall faster after the unicorn.

Twilight screamed as she fell, her back pointing down as she fell towards the ground far below. Above her, she saw Tails falling after her and tried to hold her hooves up for him to grab. Tails managed to catch up to her a few seconds later and grabbed her hooves with his hands, straightening himself to fly horizontally, Sonic and Rainbow Dash seeing the two-tailed fox fly away with the lavender unicorn.

“Oh, Tails… That was too close,” Twilight breathed out after she caught her breath.

Tails nodded, “I know. It’s really starting to get dangerous with all of these robots around. It was fine when they were just attacking us, but if there are more out there and they start attacking other people too…”

Twilight got what he was saying and asked, “Isn’t there something we can do to stop them?”

Tails replied, “I don’t know. Maybe if…” He stopped short when he heard the sound of jets behind him and looked back to see a robot moving towards him from behind. Tails glared and increased his speed, trying to stay as far away from the robot as he could. The robot didn’t give up chasing after him, though, as it increased its thrust to try to close the gap between them.

After several seconds, when Tails looked behind him again, Twilight gasped, “Tails, look out!” The fox quickly turned his head forward to see another security robot appear from behind a large root ahead and fly towards them! Tails looked around; the plants around them were thick and it was a tight space, which would make it difficult to change course and get away without crashing. Suddenly, however, a light turquoise blur shot up underneath him and Twilight, whisking them up and away in a blue and yellow thunderbolt streak! The robots were unable to process this sudden turn of events fast enough and crashed into each other, both of them exploding.

The streak behind them soon redirected and took on a more horizontal flight path, pushing both Tails and Twilight for a minute until they were out of the greenhouse. Once they were out, Tails set Twilight down and landed next to her, both of them looking up to see Lightning Dust hovering above them. “Lightning Dust?” Tails asked, his voice making his wonder apparent.

The light turquoise pegasus answered, “Just trying to return the favor. You guys helped me; the least I can do right now is try to help out in return.”

Twilight smiled softly, “Well, thank you for saving us, Lightning Dust.”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. We are out of the race now, essentially, but maybe there’s still something we can do to help the others win.”

Lightning Dust landed in front of them and said, “I still can’t believe those guys! It’s a hoverboard race through a futuristic city and greenhouses! It’s already an intense race; why did they feel the need to break into that robot… place just to make it more intense?!”

Tails eyes lit up at that. He looked at Lightning Dust and asked, “Lightning Dust, that place you just mentioned… Do you remember where it is?”

The pegasus nodded, “Yeah, it’s, uh…” She looked up at the sky for a moment before continuing, “It’s north of here. Why?”

Tails replied, “That’s got to be the MeteorTech factory where Eggman tried to access the mother computer remotely from. The Babylon Rogues must’ve messed with the computer in that factory somehow to reactivate the old security robots and cause this. If we go there, we might be able to shut them all down!”

Twilight gasped and asked, “Lightning Dust, do you think you can get us to that factory quickly?”

Lightning Dust smirked, “You bet! Just get up off the ground and leave the flying to me!” Tails spun his namesakes around at that, lifting off the ground and picking up Twilight when she held her forelegs up. Lightning Dust then got behind Tails and began pushing him as she flapped her wings  to go as fast as she could.


CRISIS CORE


As they flew to the northern side of the continent, the three of them could see, off in the distance, silhouettes fighting each other close to the city. “What’s going on over there?” Twilight asked.

“My guess is it’s the old security fighting with the new one. They’re probably trying to protect the people so that they don’t get caught up in this,” Tails said. Lightning Dust said nothing, but she did find it in her to increase her speed a little more.

Soon, the factory came into view. The front was abuzz with activity, robots exiting and flying off, most likely to try to contain the situation. Tails, realizing that getting in through the front was probably unlikely, called back to Lightning Dust, “Head around to the back! We’ll have a better chance of getting in!”

The pegasus asked, “Wouldn’t that be breaking and entering? Won’t the security come after us if they catch us sneaking in?”

Tails looked back at her and asked, “Like they haven’t been attacking us already?” Lightning Dust considered this; Tails added a moment later, “Besides, we snuck in and got caught the last time robots went out of control. It’s not like we haven’t done it before.”

Lightning Dust replied, “All right, it sounds like you know your way around.” She flew around to the back of the factory and the three of them found a spot that they could enter the factory from. Thankfully, the situation in Monopole and the surrounding area had security’s attention, so it was easy to evade security and head for the main office.

As Lightning Dust flew down the purplish-blue hallway, a pair of sliding doors at the end opened up as they got closer, revealing the main office behind them. The pegasus slowed down and came to a stop just in front of the doors, Tails setting Twilight before landing himself and rushing to the control panel. He took a seat in the revolving chair and swiveled around to the control panel, beginning to type on the keyboard as Twilight and Lightning Dust came over. They weren’t entirely sure what they were seeing on the screen, but it was clear he knew what he was doing.

After a minute, Twilight asked, “How does it look, Tails?”

The fox grunted, “Very clever… The commands for the old robots aren’t being sent out by the mother computer, but they’re coming from within it.”

Lightning Dust asked, “What does that mean?”

Tails answered, “It’s like a ghost inside the machine. Somehow, the Babylon Rogues must’ve gotten a hold of the old system and stowed it away within the mother computer when they snuck into the factory earlier. Because it’s hidden inside, the mother computer can’t detect and stop the commands being sent out. There’s no way for it to recognize it as an external threat.”

Lightning Dust asked, “Isn’t there anything we can do to change that?”

Tails leaned back in the chair and crossed his arms, closing his eyes in thought. “I don’t know…” he murmured.

Twilight asked, “You mean there’s no way to, say, shut it off from here?”

Tails’ eyes shot open as a thought occurred to him. “Shut it off? Probably not the typical way, but…” He leaned forward and started typing rapidly on the keyboard while saying, “I have an idea. Give me a minute to work this.”

Suddenly, the doors behind them slid open and Twilight and Lightning Dust turned to see a group of security robots standing in the doorway, all of them looking newer than the ones from earlier. They suddenly shot forward to grab them, Twilight quickly casting her force field spell halfway between the computer and the doors, sealing the robots within the magenta field. The robots bounced off of the barrier, but they soon got back up. “You’d better work fast, Tails!” Lightning Dust yelled as the robots started ramming against the field.

Tails didn’t hear her, instead focusing on the keys in front of him as he worked. “Get through that… Override that… Very clever loophole, Wave, but it looks like I can take advantage of it…” he murmured to himself.

Twilight began to get nervous as her force field began cracking, Lightning Dust thumping her hooves together as she psyched herself up. Suddenly, the field broke; the robots were temporarily stunned by their group rush, but they were already starting to get back up. “Tails!” Twilight cried as they stood all the way up.

“I got it!” Tails exclaimed. As the robots lifted up off the floor again, the fox pushed one last button, “Fire in the hole!”

Lightning Dust and Twilight braced themselves as the robots shot towards them, but before they could even reach the two ponies, they suddenly started sparking as some sort of electric current shot through their frames! Twilight and Lightning Dust stared as they shook in midair for a moment before they all crumpled into a heap on the floor. “What happened?” Twilight asked.

Tails swiveled around in the chair, standing up and saying, “I used the loophole the Babylon Rogues used to hide that software inside of the mother computer to trigger an EMP burst, an electromagnetic pulse, on the system. It forced a shutdown of the system and everything connected to it.”

Twilight and Lightning Dust looked at him, the former asking, “Including what the Babylon Rogues did?”

Tails replied, “I took care of that. When the mother computer reboots, the code they hid inside of it to reactivate and cause the robots to go on a rampage won’t be reactivated by accident. Only the commands the mother computer is supposed to send will be sent out when it comes back on.”

Lightning Dust said, “Then I suggest we get out of here before the real security comes back on!” Twilight and Tails nodded and they all hurried down the hallway, getting out of the factory and heading for Megalo Station.

Meanwhile…

As they closed in on Megalo Station, Sonic and the others watched as security robots, both new and old, dropped like flies onto the streets. “What’s going on?!” Shining Armor exclaimed.

“They’re all shutting down! And I bet Tails and Twilight have something to do with it,” Sonic said.

“Sweet! Now let’s finish this race!” Rainbow called. Everybody nodded and focused on catching up with the Babylon Rogues, who were still in the lead with Sonic, Rainbow Dash, Spitfire, and Soarin close to catching up.

Speaking of the Rogues, they were just as surprised as Sonic’s group as to what was happening. “Wave, what’s going on?! Why are they all stopping?!” Jet yelled.

“I-I don’t know, Jet! Someone must’ve tampered with the program somehow! This isn’t supposed to happen!” the swallow cried.

“You messed up, didn’t you?! If the boss says you did, you did!” Storm accused.

Wave glared at him, “Shut up! Nobody was talking to you!”

Their argument was interrupted when Rainbow Dash suddenly shot past Jet and called back, “Excuse me!”

Jet glared at her as she flew faster. “Hey, get back here!” he yelled, pulling ahead of his teammates. He pulled out his two fans, getting ready to whack the rainbow-maned pegasus with them.

Suddenly, he heard Sonic call from behind, “Hey, Jet!” The hawk glanced behind him to see the hedgehog coming up from behind. “You said anything goes in this race, right?” Sonic asked. When Jet nodded, the hedgehog suddenly shot into a Spin Dash, colliding with Jet and grabbing him. They spun together for a second until Sonic released him, throwing him backwards.

“Boss!” Storm cried, glaring at Sonic and pulling ahead of Wave to get him.

However, Shining Armor came up alongside him and bumped his board into the albatross’, slowing him down slightly. “Back off, you lug!” the stallion shouted.

“Get out of my way!” Storm yelled back, trying to push the unicorn stallion away. Suddenly, he felt a tap on his shoulder and turned his head to look, only to receive a face full of gilded hoof! It didn’t hurt too much, but the hit, combined with his poor Extreme Gear skills, caused him to spin out.

While balancing and making sure her shoe was still on properly, Cadance shouted at him, “That’s for attacking our sister!”

With Storm distracted, Spitfire and Soarin shot forward, flying extremely close to Wave as they passed her and causing the swallow to slow down. “Hey, I need my space here!” Wave yelled as they passed Shining Armor and Cadance.

Spitfire and Soarin soon caught up with Rainbow Dash and Sonic, but Jet and Wave were able to recover and tried to close the gap as they approached Megalo Station. Rainbow and the Wonderbolts were starting to pull ahead as they entered the station. Sonic looked back and saw Jet brandish his fans again, clearly aiming for him. Not wanting to give him that chance, Sonic faced forward again and brought his right foot down on the ground below, doing a kick dash to give himself a quick burst of speed.

Sonic pulled just ahead of the pegasi as the finish line got closer, but his burst of speed soon ended and the pegasi were soon neck and neck with him. They all gave that final push… and they all crossed the finish line together! They all started to slow down after they crossed the line, coming to a stop right outside the station. “Aw yeah, we won!” Rainbow cheered.


TEAM FRIENDSHIP'S VICTORY


“That was awesome!” Soarin grinned.

Spitfire looked over at Sonic as he hopped off of his Blue Star and said, “You were pretty awesome during this race too, Big Blue.”

Sonic grinned back, “Hey, even without wings, I can still manage to fly!”

Jet and Wave soon showed up, stopping across from the group, followed by Spike and the rest of the ponies with Storm bringing up the rear. “Argh, I don’t believe this!” Jet yelled when they were all there.

Sonic shrugged, “Hey, you’re the one who had to say this was a free race, Jet.”

Spitfire nodded, “And we won it. So give back that ring you guys took.”

Wave pulled out the Warp Ring and held it up to her face, examining it for a moment before saying, “Yeah, uh… I’m thinking we’ll actually keep it. It might actually be useful to us.”

Rainbow Dash yelled, “What?! You can’t do that!”

Wave challenged, “Hey, who’s holding the ring here, you or me?”

Soarin said, “But you said you’d give it back if we won the race!”

Jet replied, “Just because I said that doesn’t mean I meant it!”

Wave held the ring up and said, “And someone’s bound to be looking for whoever reactivated those security robots, so we should probably make ourselves scarce right now.”

Sonic looked up and noticed a glint off in the distance, just up and above the Babylon Rogues. Taking a guess as to what it was, he looked back at Jet and said, “Sure, go ahead. But before you do, I have one thing to say.” The Babylon Rogues and the others looked at him curiously. Suddenly, without warning, Sonic shot forward and leapt up, bringing his right foot up and kicking the Warp Ring out of Wave’s hand! “FOOTBALL!” he shouted as the ring went flying.

The ring flipped end over end as it flew up. Before anybody could react, the ring disappeared as a blur shot by, a familiar blue and yellow thunderbolt streak trailing behind it. Once the blur went over everyone’s heads, it slowed down and came to a stop, revealing Lightning Dust, Tails, and Twilight! The Warp Ring sat in Twilight’s right hoof. “Got it!” she called.

“Score!” Tails cheered.

“Deet deet!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed while Fluttershy smiled and held up her forelegs like a football referee.

The three landed soon afterwards, Spike and most of the ponies gathering around Twilight while Sonic and Tails met up and gave each other a high five. They all turned their attention when Jet yelled, “You! What did you do?!”

Lightning Dust smirked, “Just helped unravel your little ‘Extreme’ scheme. Looks like I can perform a high-speed rescue too, huh?”

Wave said, “What?! Then…” She looked over at Tails and glared, “Shorty! You’re the one who messed with my code, aren’t you?!”

Tails replied, “You really need to ask, Wave? My Extreme Gear tuning skills may not be as good as yours, but that’s because I can handle a lot of things!”

Wave argued, “I hid that code inside of the mother computer! There was no way it could be detected or shut off manually! I made sure of that!”

Tails replied, “Well, I’ve made a TV out of paperclips and reprogrammed a supercomputer with dishwashing detergent and a toothpick. So taking advantage of your little loophole to trigger an EMP burst to shut everything connected to the system off, including your code? That was about as hard as building my radar out of spare Badnik parts.”

Wave glared at him, “You…”

Suddenly, the sound of wailing sirens could be heard in the distance. “Wh-What’s that?” Fluttershy asked nervously.

“Sounds like the police. They must be trying to make sure the situation is under control,” Tails said.

Sonic smirked at Jet, “And like Wave said, someone’s going to be looking for whoever caused all this. You still want to get out of here, Jet?”

Storm whimpered, “Boss, please say yes!”

Wave glared at him, “Storm, what’s wrong with you?”

Storm answered, “I’m allergic to sirens!”

Jet sighed and glared at Sonic, “You really want to let us go?”

Spitfire glanced at him and asked, “Yeah, are you sure that’s such a good idea after all this?”

Sonic shrugged, “Unless the cameras caught them, it’s gonna be kind of hard to pin this on them. Especially if there’s no record in the computer.”

Tails scratched the side of his head, “Uh, there might’ve been, actually, but the EMP probably erased it…”

Lightning Dust asked, “So basically, we have no proof against them?”

Sonic replied, “That’s kind of what I was thinking.” He looked back at Jet, “So do you want to walk away now, or after the police question us?” Jet let out a groan, so Sonic turned to look at Twilight and asked, “Twilight, can I have the Warp Ring?” The lavender unicorn nodded and used her magic to float it over to him.

Sonic grabbed it and then dropped it, the ring expanding to its full size a moment later. After it did, Wave demanded, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where is that thing gonna send us?”

Sonic replied, “I’m thinking back to Ponyville. As long as you guys don’t cause any more trouble…”

Jet replied, “Yeah, fine, we’re done for today.” He then pointed directly at Sonic and said, “But make no mistake! We’re going to settle this once and for all one day, Sonic the Hedgehog!”

Sonic smirked, “I’ll be looking forward to that day, Jet. Preferably if it’s the next World Grand Prix.”


AFTERMATH


Soon...

Tails stepped out of the Warp Ring in front of the group, dusting his hands off before grabbing the Warp Ring in his right hand. “Okay, that should do it. All the Extreme Gear is back in storage and they don’t appear to be damaged.”

Twilight chuckled nervously at that, so Sonic looked at her and said, “Hey, don’t worry about it. It takes some time to get a hang of it; it took us some time too, after all.”

Soarin asked Tails, “What about the police? What did they have to say?”

Shining Armor added, “And what about the security robots?”

Tails answered, “It looks like everything’s okay on that front. The police said that nobody was hurt thanks to the response time of the current MeteorTech robots and less damage was sustained than expected. They said they’ll send a team out to the mother computer to do a check up on it.”

Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Yeah, all that is great, Tails. Did they say how awesome we looked during our race?”

Tails rubbed his head with a hand, “Actually, they… did give us a warning for that.” At some of the looks he got, Tails explained, “They do understand why we did it and are grateful for the help in containing the situation, but it’s still technically considered illegal street racing. The warning is just meant to remind us not to do it again.”

Spike, who was sitting on Twilight’s back, asked, “So aside from that, we can get out of here now?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah, I’d say so.” He tossed the Warp Ring up and it expanded to its full size. Everyone, including the Wonderbolts and Lightning Dust, walked into its shimmering portal, the ring shrinking down and vanishing once they were all through.

The ring deposited them on the grassy cliff edge along the train tracks, not far from the train. From where they were, they could see Canterlot around the side of the mountain. Spitfire looked at the others and said, “We’re gonna take Lightning Dust back to Ponyville. I know she helped and all, but I think it would be best if she stayed there until the crisis is over.” Surprisingly, Lightning Dust nodded in agreement. Spitfire then asked, “Are you guys going to be able to go the rest of the way to Canterlot from here?”

Tails answered, “Shouldn’t be a problem. Storm may have managed to stop the train, but I think I can get it going again. I just need to take a look at it.”

Lightning Dust asked, “Can’t you guys just use that ring to warp there? I mean, it seems like it could take you anywhere…”

Tails replied, “You’re right, Lightning Dust, but I don’t know if it’ll work…”

Rainbow asked, “Why not? It’s worked pretty much everywhere else we’ve used it!”

Soarin nodded, “Yeah, try it while we’re here.”

Tails shrugged, “Okay.” He tossed the ring up again and, after it expanded to its full size, said, “All right, can I get somebody who’s familiar with Canterlot to come over here and touch the ring while thinking of Canterlot? If it does work, we’ll know.”

Rarity spoke, “Ooh, allow me to do the honors!” She trotted over to Tails and touched the ring with one of her hooves, closing her eyes to focus on the luxurious Canterlot. When she opened them a moment later, she was surprised to see that the portal had vanished! “What?!” she exclaimed as she removed her hoof, the blank portal reappearing as soon as her hoof was off of it. She touched the ring again several times, but each time, the same thing happened. “What is wrong with this thing?!” she shouted after a minute.

Applejack spoke up, “Sorry, Rarity, looks like ya ain’t got the magic touch.” The white mare glared at her, but the orange earth pony ignored it and looked at Twilight, asking, “Twilight, think ya could it for her?” Twilight hesitantly walked over to the Warp Ring and touched it while thinking of Canterlot, but again, the portal disappeared every time she touched it. Shining Armor, Princess Cadance, Spike, and even the Wonderbolts tried, but the result was the same for each of them.

“Sonic, Tails, what’s wrong with this thing?!” Rainbow yelled after Soarin backed away from the ring.

Tails sighed, “This is why I didn’t suggest this in the first place. There must be something different about this white world now that we’re out of Ponyville. All the portals that have been popping up, the Warp Ring not working properly… That creature must be using its power to keep us from shortening our trip to Canterlot. The only way to get there is the long way.”

Sonic shrugged and muttered, “Of course. No deus ex machina for us.”

Tails touched the ring and an image of Ponyville appeared. “Well, it looks like we can warp back to Ponyville at least.” He looked at Spitfire and Soarin and asked, “Uh, would you…?”

Spitfire nodded, “Sure.” She looked at Lightning Dust and said, “Come on, Lightning Dust.” The light turquoise pegasus nodded and walked with them over to the ring. Before they entered it, Spitfire stopped and looked at Tails for a moment before saying, “You know, Tails, that was pretty impressive back at that city.”

Tails blinked, “Huh?”

Spitfire replied, “The way you took charge and helped resolve the situation. You’ve got a lot of potential, kid.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “Spitfire, ma’am, what are you saying?”

Cadance asked, “Are you saying Tails could be Wonderbolt material, Spitfire?”

Spitfire looked back and replied, “Oh no, definitely not! He’s gonna have to learn how to fly fast on his own before that’ll ever happen!”

Tails said, “Oh. Well, uh, that’s a relief!”

Rainbow snickered at that, but she stopped when Spitfire looked back at Tails and continued, “But you’ve got a lot of other skills, Tails. Skills that none of our cadets and even some of our full-fledged Wonderbolts don’t have. Skills and a disposition that anybody would like to have on their side.”

Tails stammered, “Uh, thanks. So…?”

Spitfire smiled, “If you’re interested, stop by the Wonderbolts Academy when this is all over. I think we can find you a place on the team where you’d be most comfortable.”

Tails blinked, “Uh, okay! I’ll be sure to remember that!”

Rainbow Dash’s jaw dropped and she glared at Tails at this, unable to believe that the fox was essentially just offered a position on the Wonderbolts. As Lightning Dust was about to enter the ring’s portal, though, she put it out of her mind and called, “Wait!” Everybody, save for Lightning Dust, turned to look at her. The rainbow-maned pegasus asked, “Lightning Dust, why’d you help us earlier?”

Lightning Dust was silent for a moment before she turned her head to look back at Rainbow Dash and said, “You really have to ask, Rainbow Dash? You know why.”

Rainbow thought for a moment before saying, “Oh right, the whole lying thing.”

Lightning Dust replied, “No! Come on, Dash, we were paired together back at the Wonderbolts Academy. You know me; I’m reckless, but I’m not a cheater. Even if those Babylon Rogues had been trying to help me get a second chance at becoming a Wonderbolt, that dream is not worth going through all that.” With that, she walked through into the Warp Ring’s portal, Spitfire and Soarin following behind her quietly. The ring shrunk down and landed in Tails’ left hand, silence ruling the air as everyone thought about what the redeemed pegasus said.
> Sonic and the Secret Rings, Volume One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


PRINCE BLUEBLOOD GETS REPRIMANDED TO SOMEWHAT FITTING MUSIC


“NO! You can’t do this to me! I am your prince! I order you to release me at once!” Celestia sighed to herself as she, Luna, and Flash Sentry followed the castle guards through the castle. In the middle of the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies who wore their armor proudly was a rather dignified unicorn who was making himself look quite undignified at the moment. While his mane and tail were impeccable and he wore a black collar complete with a dark blue bowtie, his yelling was hardly fit for a pony of his stature.

They soon reached the doors of one of the castle's rooms, the guards pushing the doors open and ushering the unicorn inside. Once he was released, the unicorn immediately tried to get back out, though the guards stood in his way. "Let me out, I say! I will fix this! I cannot live like this!" he cried.

Princess Celestia, while standing behind the guards in the doorway, finally spoke, "Calm yourself, Blueblood. This is not a matter that you need to get involved in."

The unicorn protested, "Yes it is, Aunty! The current state of Canterlot is unacceptable! I am going to do something about it!"

Celestia shook her head, "No, Blueblood. You are not a trained soldier or an experienced adventurer, and you are certainly not a magic prodigy. Therefore, you will remain in this room until the situation has been resolved."

Prince Blueblood opened his mouth, "But..."

Celestia cut him off, "No. I am restricting you for your own safety, Blueblood. Do not attempt to leave this room without permission to do so or I WILL take away the luxuries you enjoy so much. I'm sure the nobles of Canterlot would love to hear about it, especially after your little show at the Grand Galloping Gala."

Prince Blueblood quickly, though reluctantly, swallowed his arguments at that. “Yes, Aunty,” he murmured, remembering how long it took to recover from the embarrassment that followed after that night. With that, Celestia and the group of guards backed out of the rooms, the doors slamming shut after them.

After assigning several guards to keep an eye on Prince Blueblood and picking several others (including Flash Sentry) to help secure the castle and all of its ponies, Celestia set out with Luna to the tower where the Elements of Harmony were normally stored. Once they were far enough away, Luna commented, “Such an uncivilized display. I find it hard to believe we are related to Prince Blueblood.”

Celestia looked over at the Lunar Princess and said, “I can assure you, Luna, we are most definitely related on our mother’s side.”

Luna snorted, “That’s hardly reassuring, sister.”

Celestia sighed, “Well, you can choose to believe it or not, but it’s the truth. Admittedly, I don’t remember him being like he’s been in recent years. At least he hasn’t made any serious complaints about the way things have been handled or tried to overthrow me.”

Luna gave Celestia a sidelong glare, “Was that a jest at me, Celestia?”

Celestia quickly tried to correct herself, “No, Luna. I… I didn’t mean it like that, I swear!”

Luna smirked, “Now YOU are the victim of jesting! Now you know how it feels!”

Celestia rolled her eyes, but smiled, “Okay, you got me, Luna.” She then put on a serious face, “Now I must insist that we stop joking for the time being. While the Royal Guard secures the rest of the castle, we must secure the tower where the Elements of Harmony are kept.”

Luna nodded, “No telling what could be waiting for us in there.”

Celestia added, “And we must be swift. Twilight and her friends could be arriving in Canterlot any minute now.”

________________________________________


TRAIN REPAIR


Sonic, Spike, and the ponies were all hanging around the Friendship Express’ engine. Rainbow Dash and Spike were pacing around while the others simply stood where they were, all of them still wearing their racing suits while they hung around, waiting. Sonic had his arms crossed over his chest as he looked at the open space between the engine’s front wheels, Tails’ racing gloves held in his right fist. Just a few minutes ago, the fox had squeezed into that opening to get ‘under the hood’ for a closer look and now they were waiting to hear his report.

After about a minute, Sonic saw a flash of movement come from underneath the engine, and Tails’ face appeared a second later. Everybody looked over at the sound of Tails grunting to pull himself out, Sonic moving over to help him stand up once he was mostly out. Once he was sure the boy was steady, he let him go and asked, “So how’s it look, Tails?”

Tails sighed as he wiped some sweat off of his brow, “Well, it’s about what I expected. Storm’s effort to stop the train knocked some things loose and shook others out of place, but other than that, there’s no real damage.” He looked towards the front and added, “Not even on the exterior.”

Cadance spoke, “That’s wonderful to hear, Tails! I’m sure it would be quite a fine if any actual repairs needed to be done.”

Tails shrugged, “Probably.”

Shining Armor asked, “You said some things have been shaken out of place, right? Does that mean we can’t get moving right away?”

Tails replied, “I’m afraid so. I’ve gotta tighten everything and make sure it all still sits right. We’re still a ways away from Canterlot, and as a mechanic, I can’t stand the thought of using something that, at the very least, is likely to stall or do something worse.”

Rainbow Dash said, "Well, get back down there and do your thing, Gearhead! Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are probably wondering what the hay is taking us so long right now!"

As he turned around, Tails said, "Okay, I'm going! Geez..."

Just as he was about to crouch down, Rarity let out a loud shriek and ran over to him. Tails was already shocked by the sudden scream, which was only amplified when the fashionista grabbed onto his suit with her hooves and began pulling. In a matter of seconds, she managed to strip him of the outfit (and the boots, somehow) and grabbed it with her magic to hold up.

When he looked back at her over his shoulder, she explained, "You're doing something that the rest of us really can't do, Tails, and we all appreciate it. But I can see traces of grime on the fabric, and it's only going to get worse the longer you're under there! I'm very sorry, but I'm going to have to take this away from you for the time being."

Tails shrugged, "That's okay, Rarity." As he bent his legs, he said, "I mean, I'm not complaining. It's kind of stuffy under here anyway." Sitting down, he pushed his legs between the wheels first and then used his hands to push and correct the rest of himself until he disappeared under the engine again.

Seeing as the two-tailed fox had all of his tools under the engine with him, the rest of the group decided to give him space to work and got back on the train. They went back to the car most of the group had been in before the Babylon Rogues’ attack, though nobody seemed to be ready to sit down just yet, seeing as they all stood around.


PASSING THE TIME


“Um, what should we do now?” Fluttershy softly asked after a couple of seconds.

“Ooh, I know! Let’s have a party to celebrate our victory!” Pinkie chimed.

Rarity, while smoothing out the wrinkles in Tails’ racing suit, spoke, “Pinkie, darling, I know you’re happy about how things turned out, but let’s refrain from partying right now.”

Pinkie whined, “Aw, but why, Rarity?!”

Sonic spoke up, “I can think of three reasons. A, a party in a train would be pretty cramped; B, we’ve still got a time-eating monster to deal with; and C, Tails needs to focus right now so we can get moving again sooner.”

Pinkie shrugged, “Oh. Okay!”

Rainbow groaned, “Ugh, how long is this supposed to take? It feels like this is taking forever!”

Sonic said, “Just sit down and relax, Rainbow. Tails may take a while with his work, especially when it doesn’t work right the first time, but he eventually gets whatever project he has working properly.”

Rainbow sighed, “Yeah, I figured, but… Man, how come we couldn’t have been stopped closer to Canterlot?”

Cadance said, “I know you’re upset about all these delays, Rainbow Dash. We all are, but all we can do is accept this turn of events and do what we can.”

Sonic spoke, “Well, the first thing I’m going to do is get out of this outfit. It’s getting stuffy and it’s starting to ride up.” With that, he grabbed the zipper between his left thumb and index and finger and pulled it down, pulling his legs out once it was all the way down.

Rarity gasped at this and rushed over to him, getting up in his face and demanding, "And just where do you plan on putting that, Sonic?"

Sonic, admittedly more than a bit surprised by the white unicorn's reaction, asked, "An overhead compartment?”

Rarity backed up a bit, but she still was giving him a near-furious look as she raised an eyebrow, "A what?" Sonic glanced up and noticed for the first time that there were no compartments near the ceiling in the car.

He looked back at Rarity and said, "On second thought, I'll just find a spot to lay it down flat."

Rarity nodded, "That's what I thought." She looked back at the others, most of them looking unsure of what to do since they didn't want to incur the fashionista's wrath either, though they did want to take off their racing suits as well.  Rarity spoke, "Oh, it's all right if the rest of you want to take your suits off as well." She then turned serious again, "But do not wrinkle them! Right now, they don't need to be washed, but I will have to when we get back to Ponyville if they do get wrinkled!" The others kept that in mind as they began to peel off the racing suits.

"You know, Rarity, these outfits are really amazing! Even after everything that happened during that race, they're not even dirty, like you said!" Spike said as he pulled himself out of his navy blue suit.

While using her magic to remove her own purplish-blue suit, Rarity replied, "But of course, Spike. A real designer knows how to properly prepare a set of clothing for the appropriate occasion." She examined her suit as she held it up in her magic for a moment before saying, "Although, admittedly, I may have made these outfits a little too tight. Perhaps something a little looser the next time I design sports apparel..."

Rainbow kicked off her Wonderbolts-inspired uniform and Applejack pulled off her red suit before the latter said, "Well, don't ya go makin' em too loose, Rarity. Ah mean, what, ya wanna make a sports dress or somethin'? That just sounds silly." Rarity looked at the orange earth pony with an irritated expression for a moment before glancing downwards, as if deeply considering what she said.

Before Applejack could try to snap the fashionista out of her muse, Pinkie called, "Everypony's done, Rarity! We'll lay them on the seats for you!"

Rarity instantly snapped out of her thoughts at that, shrieking, "NO!" That shriek immediately caused everybody to freeze in place and stare at her. Rarity blushed and cleared her throat before clarifying, "I mean, ahem... That's very sweet of you, Pinkie dearie, but I don't think the seats are a good place. I'm sure there's a good place to put them for now somewhere on this train, however." She turned to Twilight and Fluttershy and asked, "Twilight, Fluttershy, do you two think you could help us carry some of these?"

Twilight replied, "Uh, sure, Rarity."

Fluttershy likewise answered, "Um, okay, Rarity..."

After about a minute, Sonic, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Twilight had gathered up all of the racing suits, Sonic holding his own, Tails, and Pinkie’s, Rarity carrying hers, Spike, and Applejack’s, Twilight taking her own, Shining Armor, and Cadance’s, and Fluttershy taking hers and Rainbow Dash’s. After Sonic adjusted the suits in his arms and the boots in his hands, he turned towards the back of the car and asked, “This way, I’m assuming?”

Rarity nodded, “Exactly, Sonic. Since you are the closest to the door, you will lead the way. And you will do it carefully, yes?”

Sonic rolled his eyes as he started walking, “Yeah, yeah, I hear you.” He pushed the door open and stepped through it, making sure not to touch anything he wasn’t supposed to.

Rarity started after him, Twilight and Fluttershy following her into the next car as she continued, almost sounding a bit manic, “You like being in front, don’t you? Well, now you are in the front, where I can see you! You watch your step! I already said I don’t want to have to do extra washing later!”

The rest of the group heard an annoyed, “Okay, I heard you the first time, ‘Aunt Crabby’!” coming from the car, all of them giggling or snickering in amusement.

As the four of them walked through two more passenger cars, Rarity dismissed both of them as being inadequate for her creations. Halfway through the second car, Sonic, who was starting to get annoyed by neither car having any overhead compartments and Rarity saying no, asked, “Doesn’t this train have a luggage car or something?”

Twilight answered, “I think that would be closer to the back, Sonic. We should be almost there.”

Rarity gasped, “Twilight! You aren’t suggesting we place these suits with whatever other luggage is on this train with nothing to keep them in, are you?”

After Sonic opened the door to the next car, as they started to walk through the empty storage car, Twilight replied, “No, Rarity, I… I wasn’t… suggesting that exactly. Sonic does have the right idea, though; if you don’t want to lay them down on the seats, we need a place where we can lay them out.”

Fluttershy asked, “But where could we do that, Twilight?”

At this point, they reached the end of the car they were in and Sonic stopped to open the next door. After doing so, he looked into the adjacent car and saw a line of doors on both sides of the car. “Hey, what’s with all these doors?” he asked.

Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy peered around him to look, Twilight saying, “They’re overnight rooms, Sonic. Passengers can make use of the beds in them if they’re starting to get tired and a trip is really long.”

Rarity exclaimed, “That’s it! The beds will be the perfect length to lay out my creations and keep the wrinkles out!” Rarity quickly assigned herself and Fluttershy to one room and Twilight and Sonic to a room on the other side of the car.

While laying Pinkie’s outfit out on the bottom bed to the left in the back of the room, Sonic asked, “Hey Twilight, is Rarity usually this big a fussbudget?”

Twilight finished setting her outfit on the front right bottom bed before answering, “Don’t get too annoyed by how diligently Rarity takes care of everything she makes, Sonic.” She started over to the left side of the room as she continued, “She’s just generous like that. She’s really only fussy when she has something she doesn’t want ruined.”

While the unicorn laid her brother and sister-in-law’s outfits down, Sonic walked over to the right side of the car and set his and Tails’ boots down while saying, “Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking. She’s probably better described as a drama queen though, right?” Twilight rolled her eyes, but she couldn’t help giving a small giggle.

After finishing her task, she turned to look at Sonic as he laid Tails’ outfit down on the bottom bed and moved over to the nearby ladder to climb halfway up to the top bed. He laid his racing suit on the crook of his right arm and used his right hand to hold onto the ladder while his left hand took his sunglasses off of his forehead. He then reached his left hand up and lowered the glasses down onto the bed. However, as he moved his hand, it met something other than the blanket on top of the bed, something that felt hard. “Hm?” he murmured aloud.


INTERESTING FIND


“What’s wrong, Sonic?” Twilight asked.

Sonic felt around on the bed with his hand for a moment before reaching over and grabbing the hard object with his left hand. While still gripping the ladder with his right hand, he brought his left hand back down and looked at the object he held. It was a book with a mostly burgundy and blue cover, a yellow door within the blue on the front cover. Sonic smiled as he recognized it, “Well, what do you know?”

Soon…

“Ugh! What is Rarity doing with Fluttershy, Sonic, and Twilight?!” Rainbow exclaimed as she hovered over the others on her back, her hooves behind her head.

“It is a bit worrying, Rainbow Dash. By all accounts, they should have reached the back car and come back by now,” Princess Cadance said.

“Maybe Rarity is really picky about where she’s willing to leave the outfits she designed?” Shining Armor suggested.

Applejack nodded, “Ah could see that. That sounds like Rarity.”

Pinkie piped up, “Or maybe they found another portal and are having a super fun adventure together!”

Rainbow groaned, “Oh, they better not have! I swear…”

Spike suddenly shot up out of his seat and dashed towards the back of the train, exclaiming, “Twilight, Rarity!” The other ponies were surprised for a moment before they got up, running after the baby dragon.

Just as Spike reached the sleeping car, Twilight, who had heard the baby dragon’s shouting, stepped out of one of the rooms in confusion. As she did, Spike crashed into her front left leg, bouncing back and landing on his rump afterwards. Twilight turned her head to look down at him and asked, “Spike, what’s wrong?”

Spike shook his head and looked up at her, the other ponies catching up as he said, “Twilight! Where have you been? And where’s Rarity, Fluttershy, and Sonic?”

Twilight awkwardly pointed at the room she’d come out of, “In there. Why?”

Applejack spoke, “It’s okay, Twi’. Pinkie just put an idea in his head and made him a bit paranoid.”

At this, both Pinkie and Spike exclaimed, “Hey!”

Ignoring them, Applejack asked, “Seriously though, why have y’all been gone so long?”

Sonic called from the room, “That would be my fault!” Twilight turned and went back into the room, the others peering in after her to see Sonic sitting in the back of the room on the bed to their right and Twilight joining Fluttershy and Rarity on the bed across from him. The book Sonic had found earlier was sitting open in his hands, his hands resting on top of his knees.


BOOK TIME


Applejack raised an eyebrow, “Y’all have been… readin’ this whole time?”

Rarity huffed, “Don’t be silly, Applejack! I made sure all of the racing outfits I designed were laid out properly, and Sonic was just telling us about this fascinating book he found when all of you came in.”

Shining Armor asked, “So you were just talking about it? You weren’t reading it?”

Sonic answered, “Right. We were gonna come out and get the rest of you before I actually started reading. Fluttershy, Twilight, and Rarity just had a few questions about it.”

Fluttershy nodded, “It really sounds like an interesting book.”

Pinkie exclaimed, “Ooh! Story time with Sonic! That sounds great!” She made a big leap and landed on the bed above Rarity, Twilight, and Fluttershy, turning to look down at Sonic before lying down on her stomach. “Story! Story! Story!” she chanted as she got comfortable.

Spike and the ponies weren’t really bothered by the pink pony’s odd behavior, though Twilight did clarify, “This is a little different from most stories, Pinkie. At least that’s what Sonic said.”

While walking over to the bed adjacent to Twilight’s and sitting down, Cadance looked at Sonic and asked, “Really? What’s it called?”

Sonic closed the book and turned it around in his hands, holding it up so everybody could see the cover. “It’s called the Arabian Nights, and it’s a collection of stories,” he explained.

While taking a seat on the bed next to Sonic’s along with Spike, Applejack asked, “Ya mean it’s a buncha stories in one book?”

Sonic replied, “Pretty much. All the stories in here are standalone; they’re not connected to each other.”

Rainbow spoke, “Yeah, no offense, Sonic, but that kind of sounds like a boring book. I mean, if it’s a bunch of stories all crammed into one book, how long and exciting could they be?”

Sonic held the book up in his left hand and waggled it while saying, “You’d be surprised what some people can come up with when they’re trying to stay alive, Dash.”

Before Rainbow could ask what he meant, Rarity spoke up, “Please, Rainbow Dash. We all know you’re saying it must be boring because it doesn’t have Daring Do in it.”

Rainbow replied, “Well, yeah, that too. After all, everything pales in comparison to Daring Do!”

Twilight noted, “Rainbow Dash, Daring Do is the only thing I ever see you reading in the library.”

Rainbow flew over to Sonic and took the book out of his hand while saying, “Well, yeah, Twilight! I mean, could you ever see me reading something like this?” She used her wings to flip through the pages while she held the tome in her right hoof. Looking at the pages, she said, “Look at all these squiggles. Is this how people write in your world, Sonic?”

Sonic replied, “That’s the copy of the book I read. And I picked up a few things while traveling around the world.”

Rainbow looked up at him and asked, “So you can read this? What’s this writing called, anyway?”

Sonic answered, “Well, it’s not the language it was originally written in. Arabic is written differently, I know that.”

Pinkie giggled, “Arabic? Maybe it’s the same style of writing as in Saddle Arabia!” She rolled onto her back and waved her legs up in the air while saying, “Ifalas zaras I e zaraq, ifalas zaras I e zaraq…”

Sonic and the others looked up at her oddly. “What was that, Pinkie?” Twilight asked.

“Dunno!” the party pony giggled, still lying on her back.

Sonic continued to look up at her. “That’s part of the spell Erazor used to summon the Ifrit. Did she just say that randomly, or…?” His thought was interrupted when Rainbow let out a slight gasp, causing him to look at her. “What is it, Dash?” he asked, garnering the attention of the others.

“There’s something crazy going on with this book!” the rainbow-maned pegasus exclaimed, now holding the open tome with both hooves. Indeed, the book seemed to be shaking as it sat in her hooves, occasionally fluttering as though something was trying to get out of it.


INTO THE ARABIAN NIGHTS


Suddenly, a bright light began to emanate from the book’s pages and Rainbow Dash dropped it in shock, the book opening to the page where the shining was coming from as it landed in the middle of the floor! Everybody stood and looked down at the book apprehensively, Shining Armor and Spike moving to stand close to Cadance, Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy. “What is going on?!” Cadance exclaimed over the loud humming noise that accompanied the light.

As if in response to her question, the book began to lift off the ground slightly, tilting up until it was pointed directly at Sonic, who was standing in the corner beside his bed. Suddenly, the light shot out of the book and grabbed him, pulling him towards it! “Ah, not again!” Sonic shouted just before his face disappeared into the pages.

“Sonic!” Twilight cried, quickly standing up and running over to him, grabbing him by his feet with her forelegs before all of his legs disappeared. She tried to pull him out, but soon lost the tug of war and started getting pull in as well!

“No, Twilight!” Shining Armor and Cadance yelled, both of them running to her and biting down on her tail, both pulling as hard as they could to try to free her and Sonic. For a second, it looked like they might’ve been able to pull them out, but once their flanks hit the wall behind them, the book responded by pulling harder, yanking them off their hooves and into it!

Spike and the other ponies (save for Pinkie Pie) joined in, all of them trying to help the royal couple. Unfortunately, the increased suction coming from the book remained and they began to lose as well. Before they were all pulled in, Pinkie bounced over and said, “Wait for me!” before biting down on Fluttershy’s tail and getting pulled into the book with the rest of them.

On the other side of the light, everybody was being pulled down what seemed like a straight tunnel, the outside of the ‘tunnel’ being surrounded by swirling pages. There were also some pages floating inside the tube, seemingly acting like platforms, but they did little to slow the group’s fall, breaking off and floating away if they were hit. As they fell, despite their efforts, Cadance, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash were unable to flap their wings enough to resist the force that was pulling all of them down.

After a short while of falling, a light began to shine from up ahead and, as they reached it, a landscape filled with sand and various architectural relics began to spread out below the group. It didn’t take long afterwards for everyone to crash into the ground, the sand softening their impact. After landing, a few of them could swear they heard what sounded like someone moving away from them, but between the faintness of the sound and the landing impact, they weren’t entirely sure that was what they heard.


A LAND IN A FARAWAY PLACE


Sonic soon lifted his head up, raising his left hand to his forehead as he used his right hand to push himself up. As he stood up all the way, he rubbed his head and muttered, “Guess that’s another crash landing on my record…” He then lowered his left hand and looked around, seeing the others scattered all around close by. Thankfully, they all hit the sand like he did rather than any of the structures dotting the desert. They were beginning to move, so Sonic loudly asked, “Hey, everybody okay?”

Twilight lifted her head up and looked around, looking at her friends, brother, and sister-in-law as they started to stir and pull their heads out of the sand before saying, “Uh, I think so.” She stood up, looking over at Sonic and asking, “Are you okay too, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Yeah. Not the first time I’ve fallen out of the sky without a parachute.” He looked off to the side as he added, “At least we landed in sand instead of dirt.”

Shining Armor, as he walked over to Twilight, spoke, “…After that stunt you pulled earlier with that giant battleship, I’m not even going to ask how often this happens to you.”

Sonic looked back at him and said, “I can still count the times on my…”

Shining interrupted him, “I don’t want to know any details!”

Sonic shrugged, “Fine, be that way.”

As the others gathered around, Cadance stopped between Twilight and Shining Armor and asked, “So where are we this time, Sonic?”

Applejack added, “Yeah, what part o’ yer past are we in now?”

Sonic answered, “Uh, we really didn’t travel through time. More like through time and space.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “What does that mean?”

Sonic replied, “Well, answer me this: what happened before we wound up here?”

Spike shrugged, “Uh, we got pulled into that book you found?”

Sonic nodded, “Exactly.”

The others looked confused until Twilight asked, “Wait, are you saying…?”

Sonic answered, “Yep. We’re inside the book.” He held his arms out as he added, “This is the world of the Arabian Nights!”

The others were shocked by this bit of information. “Wait, you mean… This isn’t your world, but a whole different world inside of a book?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. That’s what I meant when I mentioned rescuing genies in magic books.”

Twilight held a hoof to her chin for a moment before saying, “That’s right. You did say that when we first met.” She looked around and asked, “Wait… Which story are we in? Or are we, since it’s a collection of stories, not really in one specific story?”

Sonic nodded, “You got it the second time, Twilight. There’s a thousand and one tales in this book, and they’re all brought to life here in some way.”

Cadance mouthed, “A thousand and one stories…?”

Rarity tittered, “Ooh! So many tales of mystery and enchantment and possibly romance… all real in this world!”

Fluttershy added, “And I’m sure there are many exotic creatures in this world too.”

Applejack cleared her throat and said, “Excuse me for breakin’ this up, but this ain’t exactly the world we need ta be in right now. We ain’t got time ta see stories come ta life.” She turned to look at Sonic, “Sonic, you’ve been here before. What do we gotta do ta get outta here?”

Rarity started to protest, “But Applejack…!”

Sonic spoke, cutting her off, “Hang on, give me a minute.” Before anyone could say anything, he suddenly dashed away from them all, running towards a column and going up the side of it. He stopped before he got to the top and used his hands to grab onto the edge, using his arms to pull himself up. He held his left hand over his eyes to keep the Sun out while he scanned the desert from the top of the column.

While he was away, Rarity turned back to Applejack and said, “Applejack, we just got here! Look at all of this; there’s a massive world inside this dusty old book! And Sonic clearly knows it, so why can’t we spend a little time here?”

Rainbow spoke up for Applejack, “Because your idea of spending time takes too long, Rarity! I’m totally with AJ on this one; we don’t have time for a vacation right now!”

Rarity looked aghast at the pegasus’ words. Before she could protest, Sonic suddenly zipped down from the column and back over to the group. “Okay, I’ve got my bearings now.” He pointed past the group and said, “That’s the way we want to go.”

Pinkie Pie asked, “Really? Why?”

Sonic answered, “The closest entrance to the town is that way. I’m pretty sure it’s not the same entrance I used when I first came here, but I’m sure we can find our way around the town. If my hunch is correct, we should find an old friend of mine at the palace there.”

Rarity looked interested at these words. “Ooh, a palace, you say? It sounds like you have friends who have great power in this world, Sonic!” she said.

Sonic shrugged, “Whatever you say, Rarity.”

Shining asked, “Who is this ‘friend’ of yours, Sonic?”

Sonic replied, “Her name’s Shahra. She’s the one who brought me into the Arabian Nights in the first place, and she knows how to leave this world. Finding her is our best bet if we want to leave with the least hassle.”

Rainbow spoke, “Well, let’s get moving, then! The sooner we find her, the sooner we’re back in Equestria!” Sonic nodded and led the way, Spike climbing onto Twilight’s back as the ponies started following him.

Rarity murmured to herself, “Well, exploring a town in this strange world does sound like it would be exciting. And perhaps I can get a little shopping in as well.” She then followed after the rest of the group.


HISTORY OF THE ARABIAN NIGHTS


As they walked through the desert, the mild temperature not really bothering anyone despite the Sun shining down on them, Cadance came up along Sonic’s left side and asked, “Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog looked back at her over his shoulder, “Yeah, Cadance?”

The pink alicorn continued, “You mentioned that this Arabian Nights book contains a thousand and one stories. Did you mean that?”

Sonic nodded, “Yep. I know it sounds like a lot for one book, but it’s true. It has that many short stories in it.”

Twilight, from Cadance’s left side, asked, “Have you read them all before?”

Sonic said, “Since my adventure here, yeah, I’ve managed to find time between Eggman’s plots to go through the stories.”

Spike shook his head, “Man, that’s crazy! Why are there so many stories? Who has time to write that much?”

Sonic replied, “Well, I’m no history buff, Spike, but I do know a little bit about how the Arabian Nights came to be. Pretty amazing, I gotta say.”

Fluttershy spoke, “Um, I was actually going to ask about that back in the train while you were telling us about the book, Sonic. H-How does it go?”

Sonic replied, “Well, I’ll try to keep it short since we’re not far from the town. It goes something like this: there was this king, see, and, well… Let’s just say that things didn’t work out so well with his first wife and he became a bit…” he waved his right hand around for a moment as he searched for the right word, “paranoid as a result.”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow and asked, “Paranoid how?”

Sonic said, “He kept going from one marriage to the next, to put it lightly. And this went on for, like, a few years, until he married his vizier’s daughter.”

Pinkie Pie piped up, “Hey, what’s a vizier?”

Sonic shrugged, “It’s someone who’s like an advisor, I think. Anyway, the vizier’s daughter was really clever. The first and what should have been the only night they were together, she told the king a story that lasted the whole night. By the time the Sun was coming up, she wasn’t even close to finished yet, so the king decided to stay with her one more night so she could finish. When she did, she started another story, and for a thousand and one nights, she kept telling him stories. By the time she was out of stories, the king had fallen deeply in love with her, so he made her his queen and they lived happily together.”

Rarity gushed, “Ooh, how wonderful for that vizier and his daughter! A happily ever after story…”

Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, “A thousand and one nights? So the stories she told him for about three years…?”

Sonic nodded, “Yep. The king had the stories she told him collected and put together. In time, they became known as the Arabian Nights. That’s the story as simply as I can put it.”

Shining Armor asked, “Why, is it more complex than that?”

Sonic thought about the details he had left out for a moment before saying, “Nah, not really. Just figured it would be better to stick to something shorter for the sake of time.”

Applejack chuckled, “That and ta make sure Dash’s interest didn’t start waverin’, right Sonic?”

The aforementioned pegasus glared down at the orange earth pony as she hovered over everybody’s heads, “Very funny, Applejack.”

Twilight spoke up after a moment, “Look, we’re almost to the town.” Everyone looked ahead and saw that the stone buildings weren’t far away. They all quickened their pace, heading for the town entrance.


EXPLORING THE TOWN


Soon, the group had entered the town. As Sonic had thought, it was not the same entrance he used the first time, as they didn’t have to cross a pier to reach the town. They began to wander the streets looking for the bridge leading to the king’s palace, passing by various townspeople who were all dressed in traditional Arabian garb.

As they passed through the town’s streets, they inevitably ended up passing through one of the marketplaces. Despite themselves, most of the group ended up drifting towards the various stalls along the road, either unconsciously or because they were enamored by what they had seen of the town so far. The various shopkeepers clearly identified the group as potential customers, as they began trying to convince them to purchase their wares.

Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were trailing behind the rest of the group, both of them interested in their surroundings. As they passed next to a stall full of pots, they were stopped by the stall owner calling to them, “Pretty couple buy a pot? No finer pot in brass or silver!”

Cadance and Shining Armor came to a stop at his words and looked at him and his pots. Cadance actually seemed to be considering buying one, as she put a hoof to her chin as she looked at the pots and said, “Well, they do appear to be very well-made…”

Further up on the other side of the road, Pinkie had stopped at another stall and Applejack was doubling back to check on her. As the apple pony got close to the stall, she heard the vendor exclaiming, “Sugar dates, sugar dates and figs! Sugar dates and pistachios!” Applejack could see Pinkie Pie jumping up and down excitedly at every one of the vendor’s words. It was a common ploy she’d seen in her years as an apple farmer, and one she remembered all too well from the time the Flim Flam Brothers came into Ponyville.

While the orange pony moved to help her friend, Rarity and Fluttershy were stopped further down the road at a stall that seemed to be selling jewelry. The stall owner looked at them and asked, “Would the ladies like a necklace? Pretty necklaces for pretty ladies.” Both Fluttershy and Rarity looked at each other and giggled bashfully at that.

Unnoticed by either mare, Spike was glaring up at the stall owner from the side since he thought the owner was flirting with Rarity and Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, rolled her eyes as she overheard the owner’s words as she fluttered behind her friends. As the rainbow-maned pegasus flew in front of the adjacent stall, she, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy, and the stall owner were startled by that stall’s owner suddenly exclaiming, “FRESH FISH! We catch ‘em, you buy ‘em!”  while holding a dead fish out towards Rainbow.

Rainbow hovered back from the stall owner while uttering, “Ew, no!”

Sonic and Twilight, meanwhile, were ahead of the rest of the group, still looking for the bridge to the king’s palace. Further up, the road turned to the left as the straight part of the road ended and they turned to continue on it. As they were walking, Sonic noted, “This town’s bigger than I thought it was. I wonder if it’s grown since I’ve been here.”

Twilight looked at him and asked, “Can it grow? I mean, I would assume this town is the setting of a story; if it was bigger than the story made it out to be, wouldn’t the story change?”

Sonic replied, “Not necessarily, Twilight. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from being in the world of the Arabian Nights, it’s that, when all the stories come together, there are details here that aren’t even mentioned in the stories. It pretty much is its own world.” As they continued walking, a figure that was about Sonic’s size clad in a brown cloak was watching them from the shadows.

Sonic and Twilight soon came to another section of the marketplace. They looked around before continuing on, noticing how many stalls were open. After a few seconds, they passed by a stall full of eggs that was being tended to by a heavyset man. As the man looked up, he did a double take when he saw Sonic walking by and looked at him for a moment before exclaiming, “Ah! It’s…! It’s…!” Sonic and Twilight stopped and turned at his shouting, both looking confused. The man turned and put his hands around his mouth, calling, “Guards! GUARDS!”

While Sonic and Twilight continued to stare at the man, the rest of the group came around the corner and approached the two of them, Applejack and Rainbow Dash looking very aggravated. As they got closer, Applejack spoke, “There you two are! Did ya find the king’s palace yet?”

Twilight and Sonic looked over at them, but before they could answer, two guards dressed in red suddenly approached them. One of them asked, “What is the trouble here?”

The other guard pointed at Sonic and said, “It’s him! The street rat!”

Sonic glared at the guard, “Hey, I’m a hedgehog, not a rat!”

The first guard spoke, “Silence, rat! You should’ve stayed wherever you’d been hiding, because your escaping the palace will not go unpunished!”

Sonic raised an eyebrow, “Huh?”

The second guard said, “We have orders from the king! He demands you return to the palace immediately!”

Sonic replied, “Does he now? Okay, then.” He held his arms out in front of him, “Take me to him.”

Applejack gawked, “What?! Sonic, what do ya think you’re doin’?!”

Sonic looked over at the apple pony, “I’m coming along quietly. The king and I aren’t exactly on good terms; if he wants to see me, I might as well not push it.”

The two guards came over, the second one saying, “That’s a good street rat.” The first guard, meanwhile, put handcuffs on Sonic’s wrists.

Twilight gasped, “Sonic…!”

Sonic looked back at her, “What? I know when to come quietly. I don’t always do it, but I know when it’s expected of me.” The guards then moved to his side and grabbed his arms, lifting him up off the ground.

As they began to walk away, Rainbow Dash flew in front of them and said, “Hey, I don’t care who this king guy thinks he is! We’re not just gonna stand by and let you take our friend off to prison!”

The second guard asked, “Oh? So the street rat has formed a pack of street mice, has he?”

Sonic spoke up, “No. Leave her and the rest of them alone. They didn’t do anything. They’re just bystanders.”

Rainbow gawked, “What?! Sonic!”

The first guard spoke, “I’d suggest you back off, street mouse, unless you WANT to share his fate!”

Sonic looked up at Rainbow Dash and, noticing that she looked ready to burst, said, “Just let it go, Rainbow. Give me a chance to see the King, okay? Even though we’re not on the best terms, maybe we can work whatever this is out.”

Rainbow insisted, “But Sonic…!”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Five minutes. That’s all I’m asking for. Give me five minutes before you bring in the cavalry.”  Rainbow still didn’t look happy at this, but she flew aside and let the guards pass. As they walked away, she overheard the guards saying something about a ridiculous alias.

As the guards turned the corner up ahead, Fluttershy whimpered, “Why did they arrest Sonic?”

Shining spoke, “We don’t know what Sonic’s standing is, especially in a world like this. He might’ve gotten into some kind of trouble last time he was here. At least he didn’t dig himself deeper by causing a ruckus.”

Pinkie put a hoof to her chin, “Mm, I’d say it would be more like a fracas than a ruckus.”

Cadance looked at Shining as Twilight came over and asked, “Shining, you don’t believe Sonic would cause trouble, do you?”

The stallion replied, “Well… not intentionally, anyway.” Looking back, he asked, “Still, why did those guards seem to recognize him? And why were they calling him ‘street rat’?”

Applejack sighed, “In any case, he’s either really crazy or he’s got more guts than Ah gave him credit for if he’s willin’ to go along with this.”

Rarity asked, “So what do we do now?”

Pinkie smiled, “That’s easy, Rarity! He asked for five minutes, we’ll give him five minutes before we come to his rescue!”

Spike pointed out, “But we don’t know where the palace is, Pinkie.”

Pinkie giggled, “Those guards obviously took Sonic to the palace! We just have to follow them and wait at the palace! We’ll wait for five minutes like he said and then get him out of there!” She then started trotting forward while saying, “One, two, three, four, five, six…” Spike and the other ponies just sighed before falling in step after her, realizing she meant what she said.


REUNIONS AND MEETINGS


With Sonic, meanwhile, he found that the corner that the guards had turned at led onto the street that showed a clear view of the King’s palace, and he was currently being carried across the bridge at the end of the road. He wasn’t very happy about going so slow or being carried, but considering the first impression he made on the King, he figured it was best to keep his mouth shut until he could figure out what the situation with the King was.

Before long, the guards arrived at the palace throne room, where they threw Sonic onto his knees a short distance away from a man standing next to one of the columns along the side of the room. The man was wearing a black turban that was topped by a read feather, a golden finger ring and necklace, a white scarf, and a dark purple robe that had yellow edges and lines and red jewels, underneath which he wore a black shirt, black pants, black boots, and a red sash. The first guard spoke, “Your Highness, we bring you good news. We found your hedgehog servant in town with a herd of horses and have returned him to you so you may pass judgment on him. Just say the word and we will arrest his accomplices as well.”

The man turned around and Sonic really had to make sure he set his jaw as he saw the navy blue glasses the man wore and his mustache, remembering that even his bad doctor played a part in this world. He stared at the blue hedgehog for a moment before saying, “You’re…!” He then looked at his guards and said, “You fools! I told you to find and bring me Aladdin!”

The second guard sputtered, “But… he’s a hedgehog. Isn’t this Aladdin, my liege?”

The King replied, “Are you two colorblind?! This hedgehog is BLUE! And if you recall, I told you that a blue hedgehog, while disrespectful, saved me from the Erazor Djinn and then stopped him destroying our world when you two and the rest of the guards ran away!”

Sonic smirked to himself, “Heh, at least King Shahryar acknowledged that I did something right.”

The guards began to scramble at this, unlocking Sonic’s handcuffs and dusting him off as they helped him up. When one of them asked if he would like them to show him to the entrance, King Shahryar interjected, “No. I’d like to have a few words with this hedgehog first. You two get back out there and continue the search, and don’t come back until you’ve found Aladdin!” The guards quickly saluted at that and ran out of the throne room, leaving Sonic and the King alone.

Sonic turned to look back at King Shahryar and they both stared at each other in silence for a moment. Finally, the King spoke, “So, you decided to come back, hedgehog.”

Swallowing down what that face meant to him, Sonic replied, “Yeah, sort of. …I’m sorry about catching you with my foot last time.”

King Shahryar turned and started walking towards the middle of the room, though he kept looking at Sonic the entire time with his hands behind his back. “What do you mean, ‘sort of’?”

Sonic shrugged, “I honestly have no clue. I just know that I and my friends were sucked back into this world without any explanation. Somebody must’ve cast a summoning spell; that’s all I can figure.”

King Shahryar replied, “I see.” He finally turned away from Sonic and walked up the steps to his throne, turning back to face the hedgehog as he sat down. “So I suppose you’ll want some help in order to find out whoever was responsible, or at least get the help you need to go back to your world?” he asked.

“If you don’t mind telling me where she is,” Sonic replied.

King Shahryar glared at the hedgehog for a long moment before saying, “Oh, very well.” He lifted his left hand up off of his throne’s armrest, revealing a ring underneath it. “You always were her true master, I suppose.” He reached down with his left index finger and rubbed the top of the ring.

A second later, smoke began to emerge from the ring, taking on the form of a young pink-haired woman wearing a light amethyst top that had no sleeves, white pants that went down to her knees, a pink belt, pink sandals, and pieces of jewelry. She floated in front of King Shahryar’s throne, turning her head to look at him as she asked, “Yes, Your Majesty? How can I…?” She stopped short when she sensed something and turned to look at Sonic. “Sonic!” she exclaimed after a moment.

“Shahra!” Sonic smiled as the genie floated over to him. He took her hands when she held them out to him and said, “It’s good to see you again.”

Shahra replied, “I feel the same way.” After they separated hands, she asked, “But how did you come back?”

Sonic shrugged, “Someone cast a spell to make it so. That’s the only thing I can think of. I figured the first thing to do would be to find you.”

Shahra’s eyes brightened, “Does that mean…?”

Sonic replied, “If you want me to be your master again, just say the word.” Shahra turned and used her magic to lift her ring off of the King’s throne, floating it over to Sonic and placing it in the palm of his left hand. “I’ll take that as a ‘yes’,” he said, slipping the ring over his right middle finger and grunting when it secured itself.

Shahra then asked, “So what now, Sonic?”

King Shahryar spoke up, “I’m sure he wants to go home, my dear. You were there when he left; I’m sure you can help him get back to where he wants to go.”

Sonic said, “I do want to go back, and my friends do too of course, but not just yet. Someone or something had to have summoned me back into this world, and like you said, I want to know why. Also, why are you searching for Aladdin?”

King Shahryar answered, “Ah, that. Well, it’s a bit of a tale; Shahra can tell you all about it. I will mention this, though: Aladdin has been acting strange ever since a strange man in a red cloak came to this town.”

Sonic asked, “A man in a red cloak? Has he done anything?”

King Shahryar answered, “Not as far as anyone knows. I’ve been trying to have my guards keep an eye on him, but they say he manages to elude them. Whether this is due to their incompetence or not, I do not know. At any rate, if you should find Aladdin, return him to me.” He slid his fingers together, “I may be willing to reward you for your efforts. Now if you could just show yourself out like a good little hedgehog…” Sonic didn’t really like the King’s patronizing tone, but he took the hint and motioned for Shahra to follow him, both of them leaving the throne room.

As they made their way to the palace entrance, Shahra asked, “Sonic, what did you mean you said your friends would like to leave too?”

Sonic replied, “Oh, I’ve met some new friends today, Shahra. They’re from a totally different world. A lot of stuff’s happened today to put our worlds in danger, but it’s nothing we can’t handle. Anyway, I ended up finding the Arabian Nights book when it suddenly started sucking me in. My friends tried to help, but they ended up getting pulled in too. They’re the ‘accomplices’ the King’s guard mentioned.”

Shahra nodded, “I see. Do you think they’ll want to know about Aladdin’s disappearance too?”

Sonic replied, “I’m sure they’ll ask why the King’s guards arrested me. They’re probably going to want to know more about how we met and the World Rings and all that in addition to what’s been going on lately, but for now, let me tell you about them.”

Soon, in front of the palace

“249, 250, 251, 252…” Pinkie went on, seemingly not the least bit bored with it, as she, Spike, and the other ponies sat on the front steps of the palace. The guards that had taken Sonic had run out of the palace almost a minute ago and they hadn’t stopped to either reprimand them or tell them what was going on, leaving them all even more confused. Still, at Pinkie’s unwavering insistence, they kept waiting.

Rainbow let out a groan and asked, “How much longer do we have to wait now?”

Twilight looked at her and said, “It’s been five seconds since the last time you asked, Rainbow.”

The pegasus huffed, “Yeah, well, this is taking too long! Seriously, what is Sonic doing in there?!”

Cadance suggested, “Maybe he’s trying to patch things up with the King. He did say they aren’t exactly on the best terms.”

Spike muttered, “Wonder what he did to upset the King so badly.”

Shining Armor rolled his eyes, “Good question, Spike; what could have he possibly done to upset someone?”

Twilight looked at him for a moment before turning her head towards the palace entrance as she heard voices approaching. The others heard it as well, standing up and turning to look as Sonic and Shahra walked out, still locked in their conversation. “Real unicorns and pegasi, and a winged unicorn known as an alicorn… They sound amazing, Sonic!” Shahra was saying.

“Yeah, I know. And Twilight has an assistant named Spike. He’s a baby dragon,” the blue hedgehog replied.

“A baby dragon! How fascinating!” Shahra said.

They both stopped and turned to look forward when Applejack spoke, “There ya are, Sugar-hog!”

Rainbow demanded, “What were you doing in there?!”

Rarity asked, “Do we have an audience with the King?”

Pinkie tapped her chin, “What’s with the ring?”

Sonic simply replied, “Hey guys. Sorry about making you wait so long.”

Shahra held a hand up to her mouth, “Oh my… They really are just as you described, Sonic.”

Shining looked at the genie for a moment before looking back at Sonic and asking, “Who’s this, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “It’s Shahra. Remember I told you about her?” He held up his right hand, the ring on his middle finger clearly visible as he added, “She’s the Genie of the Ring.”

Spike and the ponies looked surprised at that. “She’s a genie? That… That’s amazing!” Fluttershy said.

Pinkie immediately got up beside Sonic and wrapped a foreleg around him, tightly squeezing him and saying, “Looks like Rarity was right, Sonic! You do have some great and powerful friends in this world! Friends with a genie? That’s so like you!”

Shahra giggled and asked, “Am I correct in assuming you’re Pinkie Pie?” The pink pony nodded, so Shahra smiled, “Sonic has told me plenty about you and your friends.”

Twilight cocked her head, “Already?”

Shahra turned to her and said, “Yes, Miss Sparkle. …Is that correct?” At Twilight’s nod, she continued, “That’s part of what the wait was about. He started talking about all of you and I really wanted to hear it all before meeting everyone.” Spike and the others introduced themselves to her afterwards, Shahra quickly learning who was who thanks to Sonic’s descriptions.

Once they were all done, Sonic suggested, “Maybe we should go somewhere else. I wouldn’t want to get in trouble for loitering.”

Shahra nodded, “Good idea, Sonic. I know a place in town we can go and continue this.” Sonic started down the stairs at that, Shahra floating after him and Twilight and the others following after them.

As they started making their way back across the bridge, Shining caught up with Sonic and asked, “Speaking of trouble, Sonic, what happened with the King?”

Sonic shrugged, “Ah, just a case of mistaken identity. His guards thought I was Aladdin and the King cleared up the confusion.”

Cadance asked, “So are you and the King back on good terms?”

Sonic replied, “Eh, I don’t know. He seems like a good guy and all, but it’s hard for me to get over the fact that he looks just like Dr. Eggman.”

Twilight asked, “What do you mean?”

Sonic answered, “A lot of the major characters from the Arabian Nights look like my friends back home. In King Shahryar’s case, he looks and sounds like Dr. Eggman, but that’s it. He is who he’s supposed to be.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, “Ya sure about that, Sugar-hog?”

Sonic grunted, “Yes, I’m positive, Applejack.”

Applejack shrugged, “Just makin’ sure.”

Rainbow asked, “So who’s this Aladdin guy? What’s the big deal about him?”

Shahra, who was hovering above everyone along with the cyan pegasus, gasped, “You’ve never heard of Aladdin?”

Rarity quickly spoke up, “Our dear Rainbow Dash isn’t much of a reader, Shahra dearie. She has certain… preferences for what she likes to read, so you’ll have to forgive her. However, I believe she isn’t the only one confused here; I don’t believe we have a book like this Arabian Nights in Equestria, or at least I’ve never heard of one.”

Twilight said, “We might have something like it in Equestria, but I’m not sure either.”

Shahra sighed, “I see. That’s a shame; there are so many wonderful tales in the Arabian Nights, and ‘Aladdin and the Magic Lamp’ is the best tale of them all! Or at least the second best…”

Spike spoke up, “Hey, we’re almost at the other end of the bridge.”

Sonic looked up at Shahra and asked, “Why don’t you show us where this place you were talking about is, Shahra? Like I said, we’ll continue when we get there.”

Shahra smiled, “Okay! Just follow me!” Using her magic, she transformed into a ball of pink light and floated down in front of the group, heading into the town. They all hurried after her, unaware that the cloaked figure that had been watching Sonic and Twilight earlier was still watching them, particularly Sonic.
> Sonic and the Secret Rings, Volume Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A PEACEFUL PLACE


Soon…

Sonic pushed aside a pinkish-purple sheet that was hanging in a doorway, Twilight and the others following behind him. Shahra had led them through the streets of the town to a ladder that they used to reach the rooftops, where she led them to a structure on top of one of the buildings. Initially, they thought it might’ve been the second floor to the building it was on, but as they got closer, they could see that it was a separate building.

As they stepped inside, they all found themselves in a room that was big enough for them all to spread out, but aside from some small signs of life, it looked abandoned. There was a tattered rug hanging on the left wall, some rubble against the wall on the right, and a fairly sizable opening going across the wall across from the entrance.

“What is this place?” Twilight asked while she and the others looked around.

Rarity looked at the rug on the wall for a moment before grimacing and saying, “It’s a mess is what it is! Why couldn’t we talk in a guest room at the palace? There’s nothing good about this place!”

Sonic walked over to the opening in the wall and looked out. He could see across the rooftops all the way to the king’s palace. He smiled and placed his left hand atop a slab of the wall that was still there, “I don’t know, Rarity. This is a great view! I kind of like it.”

Shahra, still in her ball form, floated over next to Sonic and returned to normal before saying, “I had a feeling you would, Sonic.” She looked over at Rarity and said, “I’m sorry that this doesn’t suit your tastes, Miss Rarity, but I thought we would have more privacy here.”

Applejack asked, “How’d ya know about this place, Shahra?”

The young genie replied, “This used to be Aladdin’s home, Applejack, when he lived on the streets. He lives in the palace now, but we both come here once in a while when we need to get out of the palace for a while.”

Cadance looked around the room once more before saying, “I think I like it too. It’s small and it doesn’t draw a lot of attention to itself. It seems like a rather relaxing place.”

Rarity hesitated at that, her expression changing several times before settling on acceptance. “I… suppose it is charmingly rustic,” she admitted.

Applejack smirked, “That wasn’t so hard, was it, Miss Priss?” Rarity turned and glared at her at that. Applejack just chuckled in response.

Rainbow refused to settle down, her wings keeping her above everyone’s heads in the middle of the room. “Hey, can we do the magic trick or whatever to get back to Equestria? This train ride has taken way too long already!” she said.

Spike spoke up, “Yeah, it has. If I had a wish right now, I’d wish for a bag of pop rocks or some turquoise. I’m hungry…”

Sonic and Twilight looked over at him at that, the latter saying, “Oh, Spike…”

Sonic held his left hand up to his chin, thinking for a moment before he smiled and brought his right hand up, rubbing Shahra’s ring with his left index finger. The young genie immediately turned to him, bowing as she asked, “O Master, what is thy wish?”

Sonic replied, “I wish Spike had a bowl of turquoise.”

Spike looked up at him skeptically, “Seriously, dude? She might be a genie, but she’s not…” Suddenly, a bowl full of turquoise magically materialized in front of the baby dragon. He grinned, “Okay, I take what I was about to say back!” He sat down and pulled the bowl into his lap, munching on the gemstones inside.

Twilight looked back at Sonic and asked, “You used one of your wishes to give Spike a snack?”

Sonic shrugged, “Sure, why not? It’s what I do.” He then looked at Shahra, “Speaking of which, you still have that mountain of handkerchiefs I wished for, Shahra?”

Shahra replied, “Of course, Sonic. I don’t use them as much anymore, but there are still plenty of tissues left. Did you need any?”

Sonic answered, “Nah, just curious.”

Applejack spoke up, “Uh, Sonic? Don’t mean ta be rude, darlin’, but Rainbow is right about how long it’s takin’ us ta get ta Canterlot. So ya think you could use one o’ yer wishes or whatever and get Shahra ta send us back to Equestria?”

Sonic replied, “I don’t need to make a wish for Shahra to get us out of the world of the Arabian Nights, Applejack. She’s already agreed to send us back once we’re done here.”

Rainbow asked, “What do you mean, ‘once we’re done here’?”

Sonic answered, “We’re not leaving yet.”

Twilight gasped, “What?! But Sonic!”

Shining Armor quickly crossed over to Sonic and got up in his face, saying, “Need I remind you that both of our worlds are in peril right now? We have to get back to Equestria if we’re going to save them!”

Sonic replied, “I know that! But this world is important too!” After using his left hand to push the unicorn stallion back a little, he continued, “It was nearly conquered and destroyed once too, and the spirit behind it would’ve done the same thing to my world if I hadn’t been brought here to stop him. I have a feeling something bad is happening here again.”

Princess Cadance asked, “How do you figure that, Sonic?”


A WHOLE NEW TALE


Sonic answered, “The way we were pulled into the book… I’ve been pulled into another world like that before, and it happened because of a spell cast by a powerful sorcerer. It could’ve been an accident, but I’m willing to bet someone intentionally wanted to summon me back here. And I’m worried about Aladdin.”

Rainbow spoke, “Again with this Aladdin guy! Could somebody please tell me what the big deal with him is?”

Twilight looked at Shahra and said, “Shahra, you were surprised to hear we’ve never heard of Aladdin before. Why is that? Does it have something to do with his story in the Arabian Nights and how it’s represented here?”

Shahra replied, “I’m usually surprised whenever anyone hasn’t heard of Aladdin or his tale to be honest, Twilight, but you are correct. There is a difference between Aladdin’s tale in the pages of the Arabian Nights and how it is here, and that difference is the reason why I brought Sonic into this world in the first place.”

Applejack asked, “Well, what’s his story about?” She looked at Sonic, “Do you know it?”

Sonic replied, “I’ve read it since my adventure here. The tale ‘Aladdin and the Magic Lamp’ is about a thief who was tricked into retrieving said magic lamp from a dangerous cave. In the story, there were very few people who knew the lamp contained a genie, and the genie was bound to do the bidding of whoever held the lamp, so it helped Aladdin become more than a simple thief. Here in this world, though, the Genie of the Lamp, Erazor Djinn, is much different.”

Pinkie cocked her head, “Different how?”

Sonic looked at Shahra and asked, “Do you want to tell them Shahra, or should I?”

Shahra replied, “It’s all right, Sonic. I’ll tell them.” She looked at Shining for a moment, the stallion finally taking a few steps back from Sonic after a moment, before she began, “A long time ago, Erazor Djinn was a free spirit, able to go wherever he wanted in this world, but he was neither a helpful nor a kind spirit. Everywhere he went, he would cause terrible misdeeds.”

She brought her hands up in front of her at about chest level and, using her magic, created a projection of the magic lamp in its pristine state. “As punishment, he was bound to the magic lamp and sealed inside, unable to leave until he had granted the wishes of a thousand people.”

Spike gulped down the turquoise in his mouth before saying, “Geez, that’s a lot of wishes.”

Sonic said, “And a lot of different personalities to come into contact with.”

Shahra nodded, “Yes, unfortunately. When his sentence was served, he was allowed to leave the lamp as he wished, but he had changed.”

Fluttershy softly asked, “Was he nicer?”

Shahra shook her head, “I’m afraid not, Fluttershy. As sad as it is, his time in the lamp caused him to develop a renewed hatred for the people and the fate that had been written for him.”

Cadance asked, “What did he do?”

Shahra answered, “He was… determined to change his fate.” Her projection of the magic lamp began to writhe as it was crushed down and rolled up into a twisted orb, Spike and the ponies gasping at this. Shahra then made the projection disappear and continued, “To this end, he sought to take over the Arabian Nights, driving spirits to madness to make them his minions and stealing the words to the stories to create new spirits that would follow his commands.”

Twilight gasped, “Stealing the words to the stories?! So he was erasing them?!”

Sonic spoke up, “Pretty much. When Shahra came to me and showed me the book, I was shocked to see not only blank pages, but also words vanishing right in front of me. It was pretty freaky.”

Shahra said, “Absorbing the words and the pages of the Arabian Nights added to his power. Once he had conquered this world, he planned to do the same to Sonic’s world.”

Rarity spoke, “Sonic mentioned that earlier. How did he plan to accomplish such a feat? Surely the words didn’t have enough power to allow him to do that!”

Shahra responded, “Perhaps he might have been powerful enough after absorbing all of the stories, Rarity, but what he really sought was these.” She brought her arms up again and used her magic to create projections of seven rings, the rings colored, going clockwise in a circle from the top, white, green, yellow, blue, red, purple, and cyan. “The seven World Rings.”

Twilight cocked her head, “The seven World Rings?”

Shining Armor looked at Sonic and asked, “Are those basically the same thing as your world’s Chaos Emeralds?”

Sonic replied, “Only in the fact that there are seven of them. Beyond that, they’re way different.”

Rarity asked, “How are they different?”

Sonic answered, “Their power is different, for one, and each ring contains a different emotion.” He pointed at each ring, starting at the white ring and going clockwise, “Wishes, hatred, joy, prayers, rage, sadness, and pleasure.”

Shahra nodded, “These are the seven hearts that bind the stories of the Arabian Nights together, and Erazor Djinn sought their full power to fulfill his own desires. That is why, when I learned of his intentions, I sought out Sonic to stop him.”

Cadance asked, “How did you know about Sonic? I thought he wasn’t from the Arabian Nights…”

Shahra replied, “He’s not. But there is a legend in this world: ‘When darkness descends upon the world of the Arabian Nights – the legendary blue hedgehog from another world shall come’. That is part of what was written in the newest chapter of the Arabian Nights.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, that’s the reason Shahra came looking for me. She was able to bring me into this world, and we traveled all over the world of the Arabian Nights to stop Erazor Djinn and his plans.”


SEARCHING FOR ALADDIN


Shining looked at him and said, “So that was the adventure you had here. To stop an evil genie…” Sonic nodded while Shahra looked away.

Cadance asked, “Do you think darkness is descending upon the Arabian Nights again, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog answered, “I don’t know. King Shahryar said Aladdin’s been acting strange ever since a guy in a red cloak came to this town.”

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow, “A guy in a red cloak?”

Twilight asked, “Does King Shahryar suspect he did something to Aladdin?”

Sonic replied, “He said he’s been trying to get his guards to find out who this guy is, but they haven’t had any luck. As for Aladdin, that reminds me.” He turned to Shahra, the young genie perking up and turning to look at him when he asked, “Shahra, what is Aladdin’s story in this world? You’ve met him, obviously, but I never got a chance to meet him when I was here.”

Shahra answered, “Of course, Sonic. After you returned to your world, Aladdin came to the palace one day, bringing with him Princess Badoura. He explained to the King that he had protected the Princess during the time Erazor Djinn was free and that he was offering to atone for his thefts by being his servant. King Shahryar was hesitant at first, but after some consideration and persuasion, he agreed to Aladdin’s offer, allowing him to live in the palace as his servant.”

Rainbow asked, “You think that might have something to do with how he’s acting now?”

Shahra replied, “I don’t think so. It is true that King Shahryar often gave him many tasks, but I spent a lot of time with Aladdin and he never once complained about the amount of work he had to do. No matter what he had to do, at the end of the day, he was always his cheerful, optimistic self. But when the man in the red cloak came here, he suddenly became distant and started disappearing more often. This sudden change definitely makes me think that man did something to him.”

Twilight glanced at her brother as she thought aloud, “Maybe… he put Aladdin under a spell?”

Shahra said, “I’ve thought that as well, Twilight, but I don’t know for sure. It does seem like the most likely explanation for his behavior, especially now.”

Applejack asked, “What do ya mean by that?”

Shahra answered, “He’s disappeared from the palace again, but normally when he disappears, he tries to sneak out. This time, he took off right in front of King Shahryar. That’s why he has his guards looking for him.”

Sonic asked, “Do you have any idea where he went, Shahra?”

Shahra turned to him and nodded, “I was there when he took off, Sonic.” She floated over to the hole in the structure and pointed off into the distance, “He went in that direction, out into the desert.”

Rainbow groaned, “Into the desert? That means he could be anywhere!”

While looking out in the direction Shahra had pointed, Sonic held his left hand up to his chin, “Wait…” He turned his head to look at the genie a moment later, “That part of the desert… Isn’t that where we found the Yellow World Ring, Shahra?”

Shahra nodded, “Yes, Sonic. From what I’ve heard, the creature you had to fight to claim the Ring is still out there.”

Sonic looked back out the hole, “That giant scorpion-thing is still out there?”

Pinkie gasped, “Oh no! …What giant scorpion-thing?”

Shahra explained, “When we were searching the desert, a giant scorpion that was summoned by Erazor Djinn emerged from a quicksand pit and attacked us. Sonic had to fight it off before he could claim the World Ring. I don’t know why, but people say it still appears in that part of the desert.”

Twilight asked, “Does it attack the town at all?”

Shahra shook her head, “No, thankfully. It tends to leave the town alone, but everyone who’s seen it claims that it attacks anyone that gets too close, so it’s most likely territorial.”

Shining looked at Sonic and asked, “What are you thinking, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Well, there’s not much else in that part of the desert. If Aladdin did go that far out, then the place where the World Ring was at would be my first guess as to where he is.”

Cadance looked at Shahra, “How long has it been since Aladdin disappeared, Shahra?”

The young genie held a hand to her chin, thinking before replying, “Um… I believe it was a short time before you all came here? I know the guards haven’t been searching long, and they’re terrified at the thought of having to go into the scorpion’s territory.”

Sonic spoke, “Then they’re probably not going out there anytime soon. We’d better go check it out and make sure Aladdin’s all right before we decide what to do next.” The others agreed with him and they left Aladdin’s home, making their way out of town and heading out into the desert, Spike and the ponies following behind Sonic and Shahra.

As they were making their way through the desert, Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, “Are we getting close to where the World Ring was?”

Sonic replied, “Not too much farther now. It’s on the other side of that building. Just gotta pass through it and we’ll be there.”

Shining looked off to the side as he said, “I’m surprised we haven’t seen this giant scorpion yet. Is this part of its territory?”

Shahra, currently in her ball form, answered, “I’m not certain how much of the desert is its territory. We’ll definitely be in it when we reach the other side, though.”

Rainbow thumped her hooves together, “All right, then! Guess we’d better be ready to fend off a scorpion!” The others silently agreed and quickened their pace, moving at a faster pace again so as not to delay the inevitable.

Once they were on the other side of the building, the group soon came across a quicksand pit and looked down into it. “This is the pit that the scorpion came out of, but I don’t see any trace of it…” Shahra noted.

“Maybe it’s out looking for some food?” Fluttershy suggested.

Sonic started, “Maybe, but…”

He was cut off when Pinkie screamed from nearby, “AAAHHH! GIANT EYEBALL!” The others turned and ran to where they heard the pink pony’s scream, finding her sitting down in the middle of a worn level path in the sand, gaping at a large red eyeball sitting in front of her.


UNCOMFORTABLE FIND


“What is that thing?!” Rarity shrieked when she saw it.

“That’s one of the scorpion’s eyes!” Shahra said.

“Sweet Celestia, that’s a big eye!” Applejack gasped.

“I knew one of its eyes could detach, but where’s the rest of it?” Sonic asked.

Shahra hovered up and looked past where the eye was sitting, looking around the desert. After a moment, she held a hand to her mouth, suppressing a gasp before saying, “All over the desert…”

Peering around the eyeball, everyone saw that she was right. The scorpion’s stingers, legs, and main body were scattered across the path ahead, some parts sticking out of the sand while the others sat on top of it, and a clear liquid was splattered across the middle of the path behind the maw that was supposed to hold its large eye.

As they looked at the remnants of the torn creature before them, Sonic uttered, “Geez… This is brutal. I wasn’t expecting this at all.”

Fluttershy looked at Sonic worriedly and asked, “You… What did you do when you met this giant scorpion, Sonic? Did you really have to fight it?”

Sonic looked back at her and replied, “Yeah, I fought it because it was summoned by Erazor Djinn, but I only fought it until it collapsed. I didn’t keep going and rip its carapace off!”

Shahra nodded, “I saw the whole thing, so I can attest to that. There were some explosions, most likely from the magic that created it, and its eyes turned black when it fell, but that’s all. There was no need to do anything like this to it.”

The group disseminated for the time being to look around the scene, everyone being mindful of the liquid on the sand. Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadance looked at one of the creature’s pincers, noticing the eyeballs that were beginning to turn black on it. “Look at all of these eyes…” Twilight murmured.

“Yeah, and this is one of its pincers. How many eyes did this thing have?” Shining wondered.

Shahra, who was floating nearby, spoke up, “Um… I believe I counted fifteen when we encountered it.”

The three ponies gaped at that, Cadance saying, “Fifteen eyes? That’s… That’s outrageous.”

While Spike and the other ponies stopped to look at the Sand Scorpion’s remains as well, Sonic kept walking as he looked. Having already fought the creature by himself, he didn’t need to give it as much of a look, choosing instead to focus on looking for evidence pointing to who might have done such a deed. The blue hedgehog came to a stop next to what was left of the scorpion’s front, looking at it for a moment before turning to look back at the path, blinking when he thought he saw something. He leaned forward and squinted, trying to see if he could see it again.

Shahra turned her head and looked at Sonic, noticing the way he was leaning even from the back. “Sonic?” she wondered aloud, Twilight, Shining Armor, and Cadance turning to look as well at this. After a moment, Sonic leaned back a little before running forward, Shahra floating after him. Cadance, Twilight, and Shining Armor trotted after her, Spike and the other ponies soon noticing as well and following them.

They all soon caught up to Sonic, the blue hedgehog looking down at something in the sand. Shahra, Shining Armor, Twilight, and Cadance followed his gaze as they stood at his sides, the others trying to peer around them to see. There in the sand was an unmistakable imprint in the shape of a large ring.

“What is that?” Twilight asked.

Shahra looked around for a moment before saying, “This is…” She looked at the others, pointing down at the imprint as she said, “This is the exact spot where we found the World Ring.”

Cadance looked up at her and asked, “This is where it was?”

Shahra nodded, “Yes.” Turning her head to look at the imprint, she held her right hand near her chin as she said, “But none of the World Rings ever left an imprint behind, not even this one even though there was sand underneath it…”

Sonic nodded, “I know. And this is what caught my eye.” He knelt down on one knee and placed the ends of his fingers in the imprint, moving them a bit before standing back up and turning so everyone could see better. The tips of three of his fingers now had a yellow substance on them. It looked almost similar to the desert sand, but when Sonic moved his fingers, the odd particles gave off a distinct shimmer.

“What is it?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know, but it looks like the World Ring,” Sonic replied. He shifted his fingers again before adding, “I can even feel spikes of joy coming from this stuff.”

Spike spoke, “Spikes of… Oh, right. You said that the rings carry an emotion or something?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah.” He looked up at Shahra and asked, “Shahra?” In response, the genie floated in front of Sonic and ran the fingers on her right hand across the hedgehog’s hand; she then brought it away and turned it over to look, but found nothing on her fingers.

“It is just like the World Ring. I can’t touch this… essence either,” she said.

Cadance tilted her head, “What do you mean, Shahra?” The young genie ran her fingers across Sonic’s again and then held up her hand, getting the same result. She then held up her hand to show Spike and the ponies. “What?” Cadance asked, shocked and confused at the clean hand.

Sonic explained, “It’s something we found out early on during our adventure. People who are from the Arabian Nights can’t touch the World Rings. They can hold them up if they have magic, but they can’t physically touch them. It seems like only people that aren’t from this world can do that.”

Twilight asked, “Are you serious?” Sonic turned towards her and held his hand out to her. After a moment, she brought her right hoof up and ran it along his fingers. When she pulled away, some of the essence had come off of Sonic’s fingers and was now on Twilight’s hoof.

Spike stared at the hoof and muttered, “Whoa. Dude, that’s creepy how that works.”

Twilight stared at her hoof too and said, “I see what you mean about the spikes, Sonic. All of a sudden, I’m feeling… bursts of happiness for some reason.”

Sonic replied, “The real thing is a lot more intense, believe me.”

Applejack asked, “So what does this mean? That somethin’ bad happened ta the World Ring?”

Sonic answered, “I doubt it, Applejack. I think the Arabian Nights would be in turmoil if that happened.”

Shahra nodded, “Yes. As I said, they hold this world together, and one person cannot wield their full power alone. Damaging or destroying any of the World Rings would surely lead to disaster.”

Twilight asked, “So then what happened here? Why is there an imprint of the World Ring in the ground with this essence in it?”

Sonic added, “And why is there so little of it?” He looked back at the ring and pointed, “If you look close, this stuff’s dotting the whole ring, but there’s so little of it. Maybe the World Ring just left it behind after we found it, but it almost looks like there’s supposed to be more here…” The group took a closer look and saw that he was right; although it was hard to see, there were more particles in the imprint that gave off that shimmer in the light.

Shining spoke, “So someone is collecting either this stuff or possibly even the World Rings. But for what?”

A new, yet familiar-sounding voice spoke up, “I would say it’s for some dastardly deed.” Everyone turned around to see the cloaked figure that had been spying on them back in town standing a short distance away. While the figure’s hood was still up, a pair of white gloved hands were now sticking out of the sleeves of the cloak. “Someone would not seek out the World Rings without an ulterior motive,” the figure said, its voice distinctly feminine.

“That voice…” Shahra murmured, recognizing it.

Before she could say anything, Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What’s your deal, pal?! Have you been following us?!”

The figure answered, “I will admit I have been following and listening in on you since shortly after you all entered the town, but I am not your enemy.” The figure took a few steps forward as she continued, “Like Shahra, I am worried about Aladdin, and I would like to aid you in finding him.”

Applejack asked, “Yeah? And who are you supposed ta be?” The figure answered by raising her hands to her hood and pulling it back… and Sonic, Spike, and the ponies were shocked when they saw her face. She had lavender fur, gold eyes, and she wore a red headpiece with a ruby in the center, gold bangle earrings, and a red hair tie that held the back of her hair up.


ARABIAN PRINCESS


“Blaze? What are you doing here?” Twilight asked.

The lavender cat raised an eyebrow, “‘Blaze’…? I am Princess Badoura.”

Before anybody could say anything, Shahra floated over to the cat and said, “Princess, you really shouldn’t be out here. I know you want to know why Aladdin has been acting the way he has as much as I do, but…”

The cat silenced her by placing a hand on one of Shahra’s, “It’s okay, Shahra. You’re right to be worried for my safety, but I can’t sit idly by while someone may be doing something to Aladdin. I have to do all I can to help as well.”

While they continued to talk, Sonic leaned over to Twilight and whispered loud enough for the others to hear, “See what I mean about this alternate world thing? It’s confusing the first time you see people you think you recognize, but it turns out they’re totally different people.”

Everyone soon noticed Shahra and Princess Badoura approaching, apparently done with their conversation. As they came closer and Sonic moved to stand in front of the group, Twilight thought to herself, “Mental note: when entering an alternate world, try not to automatically assume you know anypony who looks familiar.”

As Princess Badoura came to a stop in front of the group and Shahra floated next to her, Applejack awkwardly spoke, “Uh, nice to meet ya… Princess Badoura. Shahra told us about you…”

The lavender cat nodded, “Yes, I overheard… Applejack. She kept it short for the sake of time, but what she told you is, as they say, the general idea.”

Applejack muttered, “Oh, uh… Ah see, Yer Highness.”

Rainbow asked, “You mean you were there the whole time? You could’ve just come in, you know! Wouldn’t have been any sweat off our backs!”

Rarity looked at the pegasus and said, “Rainbow Dash, don’t talk to royalty like that!”

Badoura spoke, “Miss Rarity, I ask that you do not speak for me when I am able to do so.” The white unicorn mare blushed and backed off at that, Badoura turning to Rainbow and saying, “It is… not safe for me to reveal myself in town, Rainbow Dash. Even in Aladdin’s home, I feel it is risky. I may have lived in the palace since Aladdin came to appeal to King Shahryar, but I do not hail from here. The King usually provides me with escorts when I wish to leave the palace, especially since that man arrived.”

Sonic asked, “You mean the guy in the red cloak?”

Badoura nodded, “Yes. Ever since he came to this town and Aladdin started acting strangely, I have been trying to find out for myself who that man is, sneaking out of the palace to avoid drawing attention to myself. I fear that if he found out I’ve been spying on him, he would try to silence me, or worse.”

Cadance spoke, “Surely the King’s guards would deter him from that, Princess Badoura. I don’t mean that what you’re doing is wrong, but surely they would be able to help in some way.”

Badoura closed her eyes, “King Shahryar’s guard is full of incompetent fools. You saw the mistake they made with Sonic earlier. And this is a land where they’ll cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, and not being able to pay for an apple will cost you a limb. It is not as though such a thing is unusual here; things are quite different here than where you all come from, I’m sure.” She opened her eyes and looked at Sonic, “Still, there are occurrences that go beyond what’s normal here, and your being forced to come back here and this discovery certainly qualify. And Aladdin’s sudden change in behavior is no coincidence, either.”

Sonic crossed his arms, “And all this has happened since that man came here, huh?”

Shining said, “It definitely sounds like you’ve done your research, Princess.”

Badoura nodded as she stepped forward, Sonic moving out of the way so she could get past. “I had the best teacher to teach me what I know. I wouldn’t dare disappoint him,” she said as she walked over to the imprint of the World Ring and knelt down on one knee in front of it.

Fluttershy asked, “Wh-What do you mean, Princess?”

While examining the imprint, Badoura said, “Aladdin taught me much about the outside world. I was very naïve before I met him.”

Sonic looked at Shahra and asked, “So you’re not the only one who’s gotten to know Aladdin pretty well, huh Shahra?”

The young genie nodded, “Yes. Princess Badoura has told me how she and Aladdin met, and how he taught her all he knew from his time as a simple street thief.”

Badoura spoke, “It’s served me well, and even though Aladdin would not want it, I’m going to use everything he’s taught me to find him and bring him home.”

Pinkie exclaimed, “Wow! You seem really devoted to this Aladdin guy, Princess!”

Rarity added, “Especially when he’s so beneath you, first a thief and then a servant to the King.”

Badoura glanced back over her shoulder with an icy look and flatly said, “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that, Miss Rarity.” She stood up and held her right hand up close to her mouth, blowing off the bits of sand that stuck to her glove.

“Is… something wrong, Princess?” Fluttershy asked, not sure why Badoura responded to Rarity the way she did. 


A TALE, A REALIZATION, AND WORRY


Badoura was silent for a moment before closing her eyes and replying, “…Pinkie Pie is correct. I do worry about Aladdin, but that’s only to be expected due to what happened when Erazor Djinn was freed from the lamp.”

Twilight asked, “You were there when it happened?”

Badoura opened her eyes and looked at Twilight, saying, “I was not, so I do not know the details, but Aladdin was there. He told me that Erazor Djinn trying to destroy the lamp wasn’t the only thing he planned to do; he wanted to completely break away from his fate, and as Shahra put it after Aladdin and I started living in the King’s palace, that meant he had to completely destroy the story that he played a role in.”

Sonic started, “By that, you mean…?”

Badoura nodded, “His first targets were those connected to the tale. Aladdin realized this and, while Erazor Djinn tried to destroy his final master, he hurried to my side.” She closed her eyes again, “I did not know what was going on at the time, but Erazor Djinn appeared not long after he did. It was thanks to the skills Aladdin had learned as a thief that allowed us to escape Erazor Djinn’s wrath with our lives. And it was those same skills that kept us alive when Erazor Djinn sent the spirits on his side to hunt us down.”

Rainbow spoke, “The spirits on… Oh, right. Shahra mentioned he drove spirits to madness and made the words into spirits or something like that.”

Badoura continued, “While Erazor Djinn continued to wreak havoc across the world, the spirits that were not at his side or sent to hinder Sonic hunted us relentlessly. Aladdin knew how to evade them as well as gather food, and he taught me everything he knew during that time.” She opened her eyes, looking at the group as she asked, “Do you understand now? It’s thanks to Aladdin and all he knew that we were both able to survive until we learned that Erazor Djinn had been defeated. He’s the reason I’m here now, and that is why I want to help him… Because he saved me, and I owe him my life.”

Unnoticed by the others, Cadance quietly used her magic to probe at Badoura, examining her feelings. She quirked an eyebrow, a tiny, nearly unnoticeable smirk appearing on her lips at what she sensed. “I get the feeling that repaying a life debt isn’t the only thing on your mind, Badoura…” she thought to herself.

Shining spoke, “We get it now, Princess Badoura. Since that’s the way you feel about Aladdin, then what reason is there for us to say no?” He gestured to Cadance, “After all, Cadance and I rule over an empire, and we’re here getting our hooves dirty.”

Badoura nodded, “I see.” After a moment, she looked at Sonic and asked, “Do you have any thoughts on this matter, Sonic?”

As the others looked at him, the blue hedgehog started, “I was just thinking…” He looked up at Shahra and said, “Shahra, let’s say that this essence is just a fragment of the World Ring’s power that was left behind; do you think the ‘other’ part of the legend would still hold true for it?”

Twilight asked, “What are you talking about, Sonic?”

Sonic replied, “There’s a little bit more in that legend that Shahra talked about. Specifically, it mentions the World Rings.”

Shahra nodded, “He’s right, Twilight. I didn’t finish because I thought… well, I didn’t think the World Rings would come up like this.”

Cadance asked, “How does the rest of the legend go, Shahra?”

The young genie answered, “Well, the rest of the legend goes, ‘When the seven rings that control the worlds are gathered, the portal between worlds shall open. But the life of the collector of the rings shall be offered up in sacrifice as the key for that control.’”

Rainbow exclaimed, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What’s all this about a sacrifice?!”

Shahra explained, “To put it simply, Rainbow Dash, in order for someone to gain the full power of the World Rings, someone else has to collect the rings and their life must be sacrificed. Without the sacrifice, only a fraction of the World Rings’ power can be obtained.”

Rainbow asked, “Seriously? You actually have to…?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. So what I was thinking was… Whether he’s collecting the World Rings or this essence that each of the rings left behind, he might be using Aladdin to do something like what Erazor Djinn tried to do.”

Shahra gasped and said, “But… that would mean… Aladdin’s life is in grave danger!”

Badoura gasped and ran up to Sonic; she grabbed him by the shoulders, her eyes wide as she exclaimed, “If that man truly intends to sacrifice Aladdin and he doesn’t realize it, then we have to find him before it’s too late! Please, Sonic…!”

Sonic put his hands on Badoura’s wrists and gently removed her hands as he said, “I know, Princess. We’re gonna find him; I promise.”

Fluttershy spoke up, “Um, how are we going to find him, Sonic? I-I don’t mean anything by that, but we haven’t found anything that could tell us where he might be right now…”

As he let go of Badoura’s wrists, Sonic replied, “Actually, we do have a clue now, Fluttershy.” He looked over at the imprint in the sand and said, “We found the imprint of the World Ring, with the essence in it, right in the same spot where the ring was when Shahra and I found it.”

Applejack shook her head, “Ah don’t get it, Sugar-hog…”

Twilight spoke, “I think I get what you’re saying, Sonic. Like Princess Badoura said, that man is most likely looking for the World Rings or at least their essences for something big. So unless you had the World Rings or knew where they were when you left this world…”

Sonic answered the unicorn’s unspoken question, “The only ring we ever found after stopping Erazor Djinn was the Water Blue Ring, and that’s because I wanted to return it to Sinbad. I never saw the others after I stopped Erazor Djinn.” He looked at Shahra and asked, “Has that changed, Shahra?” The young genie shook her head in reply.

Twilight continued, “Then the most likely places that man is going to look are where you originally found the World Rings. If we go to those places, we’re sure to find him and/or Aladdin!”

Sonic pointed at her, “Bingo!”

Applejack said, “Well, let’s get movin’, then! Where’d ya find the next ring?”

Sonic thought for a moment before saying, “There’s an island that Shahra and I traveled to rescue King Shahryar from Erazor Djinn. We found the Green World Ring while we were there.”

Shining Armor groaned, “An island? Then they already have a huge lead on us. It’s bound to take a while to get out to an island.”

Sonic smirked, “Maybe on a boat, but…” He held his right hand up and rubbed Shahra’s ring with his left index finger.

The young genie straightened up at this, bowing to Sonic as she spoke, “O Master, what is thy wish?”

Sonic answered, “Summon that magic carpet we used to get around, Shahra. And if you can, you think you could make it bigger?”

Shahra straightened up as she hovered off the ground and held her arms out, yellow motes of light beginning to form in front of her as she said, “Your wish is my command.” Seconds later, the motes came together and a carpet that was mostly blue and purple with yellow and red mixed in appeared, shooting up above the heads of the group and spinning around once as some of the motes still hovered around it. Suddenly, the carpet extended in length and width, becoming the size of a rug before it came back down and hovered above the ground a little below Sonic and Badoura’s chest height in the middle of the group.

Twilight placed a hoof on the carpet to feel it as she asked, “We get to ride a real magic carpet? That’s amazing!”

Spike shrugged and muttered to himself, “Yeah, amazing. Because you’ve never used magic to make things fly and hover before, Twilight.”

Sonic, while courteously giving Badoura his hand to hold as she took a seat on the carpet, replied, “Yep. Forget a boat; we’ll travel in style!”

As the others, save for Rainbow Dash, gathered closer to the carpet, Rarity placed one of her hooves on the carpet, feeling it for a moment before saying, “I must agree, Sonic! This is not only a fabulous piece of cloth; it is indeed stylish! I would go so far as to say it’s the best way to travel!”

Rainbow piped up, “More like the second best, Rarity! The best way would be to go there in a second; can’t we do that?”

Shahra looked surprised for a moment, but then she said, “Um… No, I’m afraid not, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow asked, “Why not, Shahra? You’re a genie; you’ve got magic!”

Shahra replied, “Well, it’s true that my magic has improved since Sonic left, but… I’m not that powerful yet…”

At the look on the pegasus’ face, Sonic asked, “What’s the big deal, Dash? Shahra’s a young genie; not every genie starts off with phenomenal cosmic power, you know.”

Rainbow turned to him and said, “It’s a big deal because Shining Armor is right, Sonic! Getting to this island you mentioned is going to take time, so the sooner we get there, the sooner we can find Aladdin! A flying rug isn’t going to cut it! Unless Twilight can jazz it up with her magic, that is.”

Twilight spoke, “I don’t know enough about the magic in this carpet, or rug rather, to try tampering with it, Rainbow Dash. I don’t want to damage the fastest means of travel we have available to us.”

Rainbow groaned and then asked, “Look, which way is the island from here?” Sonic looked up at the sky and, after a few moments of thinking about where the desert was in relation to the island, pointed in one direction. Rainbow glanced in that direction briefly before turning back to Sonic and saying, “I’m gonna fly on ahead. I’ll get there long before a piece of fabric can. I’ll have Aladdin found and ready to be taken home by the time you guys get there!” Without another word, the pegasus turned and shot off into the sky.

“Rainbow!” Twilight called, but the pegasus was already out of earshot.

“Argh, Dash! You ornery cuss!” Applejack growled out.

Badoura asked, “Is she always this… impatient?”

Fluttershy replied, “Oh no, Princess. Rainbow Dash is usually very fun to be around. She just gets like this when she has her mind set on something.”

Applejack said, “That’s what Ah said! That mare is stubborn! This carpet may be way slower than her, but that ain’t no reason to just leave us behind!” The farm pony only realized her choice of words when she noticed the way Shahra’s head was tilted, the young genie looking rather downhearted.

Upon noticing, Rarity immediately attempted to do damage control. “Oh, Shahra, dearie, it’s okay, really! Both Rainbow Dash and Applejack sometimes say things they don’t mean when they get a little… riled up! You and Sonic had your own way of getting around during your adventure; we don’t expect you to be an all powerful genie all the time! Twilight’s had to learn a lot of magic since we first met her too!” she exclaimed.

Shahra somberly said, “She does have a point, though. Because I’ve been living in the palace, I haven’t spent as much time improving my magic. If I had, I surely would be able to do the things Rainbow Dash mentioned…”

Sonic quickly moved to Shahra’s side, placing his hand on her shoulder. “Shahra, no, don’t think like that; that’s not like you! You know there’s a difference between automatically having great power and taking time to learn how to use it properly! So…” he started, but was cut off when Pinkie suddenly popped up in front of him and Shahra, both of them moving back slightly at the sudden surprise and the serious look on the party pony’s face.

Pinkie, in a tone that was not her usual happy voice, spoke, “You hear that?” She snorted, “Are you the Genie of the Ring? Are you the one who’s learning new things? Did you help save this world? And now all of a sudden, you want to start doubting yourself? I don’t think so! Not right now!” Raising a hoof and shaking it, she continued, her voice starting to rise in pitch, “You’re gonna be an amazing genie, SO SIT DOWN AND PAY ATTENTION!!!”


PINKIE POWER


Sonic and Shahra were so startled that they fell back onto the carpet, Twilight, the rest of her friends, brother, and sister-in-law quickly sitting down on it as well so as not to unintentionally incur the pink pony’s wrath.  Pinkie Pie hopped onto the carpet, sitting at the supposed front of it and wearing her usual cheerful expression. She started talking, “In case of emergency, the exits are,” she began pointing with her forehooves, “here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, anywhere! Please keep all your appendages and personal belongings inside the carpet!” She turned around and grabbed the front of the carpet, and all of a sudden it shot up into the air with surprising speed after Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie exclaiming, “We’re OUT OF HERE!”

Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, had left the desert behind and was now flying over the ocean, still going in the direction Sonic had pointed. Her eyes glanced around the area as she flew, scanning for the island, mostly seeing a lot of rocks dotting the water. Suddenly, she heard a sound behind and turned her head to look back, seeing a purple and blue blur shooting towards her. Her eyes widened, but she didn’t have a chance to react before it shot past her, spinning her around and around for a second. After the dizziness had worn off, she looked and saw the blur still going in the same direction. “What?! Hey, wait!” she called before shooting off after it.

In reality, the blur was the magic carpet that Shahra had summoned, the large rug still being propelled forward by whatever Pinkie Pie was doing. While the pink pony ‘drove’, everyone else was hanging on tightly to the rug, Applejack having one forehoof placed protectively on top of her hat while the other held on.

“How is she doing this?!” Shahra yelled over the rush of wind surrounding everyone.

“I have no idea!” Sonic yelled back.

“It’s better not to question it! Believe me, I’ve learned!” Twilight called to them. Hearing this, Sonic turned and scooted up to sit beside Pinkie Pie, watching ahead.

Suddenly, he could make out the silhouette of a large landmass up ahead. He quickly tapped Pinkie on the shoulder and called, “Pinkie!” The party pony turned to look at him, the carpet slowing down enough to allow for normal talking as the island came into view. “That’s the one! Down there!” Sonic told her, pointing at the island.

Pinkie took up the ‘reins’ again and said, “Alrighty then! Coming in for a landing!” After drifting a little closer to the island, the carpet angled downwards and shot down towards it, aiming for the lush inland instead of the rocky shore. As the carpet broke through the jungle foliage, it began to slow down and Pinkie moved off to the side as it leveled off, hovering just above the ground. “Thank you for choosing magic carpet for all your travel needs. Please don’t stand until the rug has come to a complete stop.” she said, the rug landing in the middle of a green clearing as she finished talking. As the others stood up and stepped off the carpet, Pinkie kept her act up, smiling and saying, “Thank you, goodbye! Goodbye now! Goodbye! Thank you, goodbye!”

Once they were all off, Spike grinned, “That was AWESOME!”

Pinkie nodded, “Yes, indeedily, Spikey!” She then looked at Shahra and asked, “Well, how about that, ‘Miss Doubty Doubt Pants’?”

Shahra replied, “That was… quite a show of… power, Pinkie. Although I’m afraid I’m not quite sure what I was supposed to learn from that…”

Before Pinkie could reply, Rainbow Dash flew down to the group through the trees, panting and sweating slightly as she landed. “So that was you guys! How the hay did you do that?!” she exclaimed, taking in a breath between sentences.

“Pinkie Power!” Pinkie grinned.

Sonic smirked and rolled his eyes, “Evidently.”


PINKIE'S LESSON AND THE SEARCH


After straightening her cloak out, Badoura looked at Pinkie and spoke, “Ignoring the explanation of your power for the moment, Miss Pie, I have to say Shahra is not the only one confused here. What exactly was she supposed to have gained from this experience?”

Pinkie rolled her eyes, “Easy, silly! To have fun!” When both Shahra and Badoura’s confused looks didn’t disappear, Pinkie explained, “Sonic was right when he said you shouldn’t be angry at yourself, Shahra! So what if you don’t have awesome magic yet? Laugh it off; that’s not a crime! Sure we might have taken longer to get here at just regular speed, but that doesn’t mean we’re not going to save Aladdin! Let’s focus on that right now and on your magic later, when the time is better! Like I said, you’re gonna be a great genie someday! Just give it time!”

Cadance spoke after a moment, “I think Pinkie’s words are absolutely correct, Shahra. Don’t worry about what you can do right now. You and Sonic saved this world once; I’m sure the time to play your part will come again.” Shahra smiled at that and turned to look at Sonic and Badoura as the former placed his hand on her shoulder again.

After a moment, Rainbow, who now had her breathing under control, said, “I’m sorry I got angry at you, Shahra. Really, I mean it. You are an awesome genie. Do you think you can forgive me?”

Shahra nodded, “Of course, Rainbow Dash. I do get upset when I am given a request I cannot fulfill, but being a less powerful genie isn’t all bad. It’s unlikely anyone will want to seal me away for centuries.” Rainbow smiled back at her at that.

Shining coughed, “I’m sorry for breaking up the moment, but we still have to find Aladdin, guys.”

Badoura nodded, “You’re right, Shining Armor. It’s good that everything’s okay between all of us, but we do have a task to focus on.” She turned to Sonic and asked, “Where exactly did you and Shahra find the World Ring, Sonic?”

Sonic replied, “It’s not far from here.” He turned to look where the plants got thicker and continued, “We should be able to cut straight through the jungle. If we do that, we’ll be there in no time.”

Applejack said, “Well, then let’s go! We don’t wanna miss Aladdin ‘cause we were standin’ around here.” The others nodded and, after Shahra whisked the carpet away for safekeeping, they headed into the jungle, following a trail that looked like it had been cleared by someone else.

As the group headed through the jungle, they all kept an eye on their surroundings, looking and listening for any clues that might tell them where to go, but there were no signs that they had to stray off the path they were following, and the only sounds they could hear were the sounds of birds and insects. “Hey Sonic, are ya sure we’re goin’ the right way?” Applejack asked after several minutes of walking.

The blue hedgehog replied, “Definitely, Applejack. I recognized the area outside of that clearing we landed in, so I’ve got a good idea of where we are. The way I remember it, this island isn’t very big.”

Shahra nodded, “He’s right, Applejack. The area where we found the World Ring is closer to the other end of the island and it doesn’t take long to get there. As long as we don’t encounter any trouble, going through the jungle will be the fastest way to get there.”

Fluttershy murmured, “Trouble…?”

Twilight asked, “What kind of trouble, exactly?”

Sonic answered, “Uh… well, some of the, uh, inhabitants of this island aren’t exactly the most friendly. And of course there are some that aren’t interested in eating plants, if you know what I mean.”

Badoura asked, “Surely that won’t be a problem we or Aladdin will have to worry about, will it, Sonic?”

Sonic said, “It shouldn’t be. We don’t have to go where the big predator on this island makes its nest. I don’t know what other predators live on this island since Shahra and I didn’t see any others while we were here.”

Rainbow asked, “Well, what’s the big one? A timberwolf? A cragadile?”

Sonic raised an eyebrow, “Uh, I don’t know what either of those are, but no. It’s actually…”

Spike suddenly spoke up, “Hey, what’s that sound?!”

Everyone stopped and listened carefully for a few moments, soon hearing what the sound of leaves snapping and rumbling that sounded animal-like coming from nearby. “It sounds like it’s coming from just up ahead,” Shining noted, everyone breaking into a jog as they headed for the source of the sounds.

They soon came to a small ledge that marked the end of the path, which was overlooking a clearing that had a stream flowing through it. And from up on the ledge they could see the source of the noises. “Whoa, what are these things?” Rainbow wondered as they all stood close to the ledge, looking down into the clearing.


THE LOST WORLD


Several large quadruped creatures were walking through the clearing, their overall size definitely dwarfing everyone in the group and possibly being even taller than Princess Celestia.  Their bodies were almost completely a yellowish color. The plates that extended up from their backs also had a few blue lines mixed in with the yellow coloration, making the plates stand out compared to the rest of their bodies. Their tails had a cluster of spikes that pointed sideways and their necks were held upright, like a bird’s.

“Whoa…” Shining muttered as one walked near the ledge they were all standing on, getting a good look at it.

“Wow! They’re cool!” Spike smiled, Applejack and Rainbow Dash nodding in agreement.

“These… I remember seeing pictures that looked like these in some of my books. They were alive long ago in Equestria’s past,” Twilight said.

Pinkie chirped, “They’re so pretty!”

Rarity nodded, “They really are, Pinkie. So bright and colorful…” She looked at Twilight, “What are they called, Twilight?”

The lavender unicorn held a hoof to her chin, “Um… I can’t remember off the top of my head…”

Sonic spoke, “Well, in my world, we call them stegosauruses.”

Twilight looked at him, “Stegosauruses?” She thought for a moment before saying, “Stegosaurus… I’m not sure that’s the name I read, but that seems like a good name too.”

Cadance nodded, “It does. It fits for majestic creatures such as these.”

Badoura had been staring at the dinosaurs in silence. After a few more moments, she simply said, “They’re beautiful.”

Sonic looked at her, “Yeah, they’re really something, Princess.” After a moment, he said, “Listen, we should leave them to graze or whatever in peace and get going. We have to hurry.”

Badoura looked back at him and replied, “You’re right, Sonic. We must keep moving.” Sonic nodded and leapt down from the ledge, landing on a patch of moss. The others (save for Fluttershy) did the same, all of them taking one last look at the stegosaurs before they headed in the opposite direction. Fluttershy, meanwhile, sat on the ledge, still staring at the dinosaurs.

After a few moments, Applejack noticed something seemed off and looked around. A second later, she asked, “Wait, where’s Fluttershy?” The others came to a stop at this, all of them realizing that the shy pegasus wasn’t with them anymore.

They all soon turned to look back at the herd of stegosaurs and found their answer. The normally shy pegasus was excitedly fluttering around the dinosaurs, getting a closer look at them while trying not to disturb them. At the moment, she was examining the plates on one of the stegosaurs backs and muttering to herself, “Oh my, these plates look as hard as bone, but they don’t seem to be attached the same way. It reminds me of some of the lizards and alligators I’ve cared for, actually…”

Back with the rest of the group, Pinkie chirped, “Ooh! Fluttershy’s getting a real close look at those big lizards!”

Badoura seemed concerned, as she asked, “Is it safe for her to be doing… that?”

Sonic quickly replied, “No, absolutely not.”

Applejack looked at him and said, “She’s just lookin’ at ‘em, Sonic. She’s fine; it like ain’t she’s touchin’ them things or nothin’.”

Sonic replied, “Yeah, yeah, ‘ooh, ah’, that’s how it always starts. Then there’s running and screaming; I’ve seen enough movies and read enough books to know what’s likely to happen, especially after last time.” He ran back towards Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Shahra following him at his sides.

After moving around one of the stegosaurs, Sonic, Shahra and Rainbow went over to Fluttershy, who was examining another stegosaur’s side, and stopped next to her, Rainbow saying, “Fluttershy, come on! We’re leaving!”

The shy pegasus turned her head to look at them, a bit surprised for a moment before she responded, “Oh, right. Um, I’ll just be another minute. You, Sonic, Shahra, and the others can go on ahead, Rainbow Dash.”

Sonic spoke first, “And leave you alone in the middle of this jungle? I don’t think so.”

Fluttershy smiled, “It’s okay, Sonic. Everything’s peaceful here, and I’ll be right behind you. There’s nothing to worry about.”

Rainbow objected, “Yeah, for now there’s not! We’re not going on ahead without you, Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy’s expression fell slightly at that, “Oh… okay. You’re right, Rainbow.” She turned towards them and said, “Aladdin and Princess Badoura are more important right now. I shouldn’t…” She stopped as she saw something out of the corner of her eye to her left and turned to look. She saw a log, and poking its head up above the log was a stegosaurus that seemed to be smaller than the rest. Fluttershy’s eyes widened, “Oh my goodness! Is that a baby?!”

Sonic, Rainbow, and Shahra looked as well, the last saying, “I think so.” Fluttershy turned and began to move towards the stegosaur, Shahra reaching a hand out to her and placing it on the pegasus’ shoulder as she said, “Wait, Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy looked up at the genie for a moment before looking back at the stegosaur and saying, “I know, Shahra. I just want to get a quick look at it before we go.”

Sonic crossed his arms, “Fine. Just don’t touch it, okay?”

While spreading her wings, Fluttershy answered, “Don’t worry, I know.” Shahra floated back a bit as Fluttershy flapped her wings to get off the ground, flying a little above the stegosaur and moving slowly to show she meant no harm. The dinosaur stared at her as she got closer…


THE CHARGE


Suddenly, the baby let out a cry, startling Fluttershy and causing her to land on the ground as her wings locked up. The baby stegosaur wasn’t the only one making noise, though; the adult stegosaurs were letting out growls and roars as Sonic, Shahra and the two pegasi looked between all of them. “I don’t think mommy’s too happy about Fluttershy getting close to her kid!” Rainbow said while looking at one of the roaring stegosaurs.

Shahra looked at the stegosaurs as well, noticing something about the way they were acting. It didn’t seem like they were attacking; it almost seemed like they were communicating with each other. “I don’t think that’s it, Rainbow! This seems like something else!” she noted.

“What’s going on over there?!” Shining Armor yelled over the sounds of the stegosaurs.

“Not sure!” Sonic called back as he noticed Rainbow fly up to dodge the tail of one of the stegosaurs as it swung back and forth. He looked behind him and noticed another was walking towards him, Sonic and Shahra moving out of its way while Fluttershy dove to the side. After about a minute, all of the stegosaurs had left the clearing.

The others came over once the clearing was mostly empty, Twilight asking, “What was that all about?”

Spike commented, “They sure seemed upset about something.”

Rainbow nodded, “I know! It’s like they suddenly didn’t like us or something!”

Fluttershy sat up and said, “It wasn’t us. That seemed more like alert behavior. Something got their attention, but what?”

Sonic started, “I don’t know. Maybe…” He glanced down at the water flowing through the stream and noticed something odd. It seemed to be rippling slightly, like there were tremors nearby.

Applejack confirmed this thought when she asked, “What’s that rumbling sound? Sounds like something’s comin’ closer…” Sonic turned to look in the direction the stegosaurs had originally been going and noticed some of the plants rustling off in the distance. He squinted to get a better look…

Sonic’s eyes widened a second later as the rumbling got louder and a familiar group of figures began to appear. “Whoa, heads up!” he exclaimed, the others (save for Shahra) looking at him in confusion. Suddenly, a group of large, mostly brown quadrupeds with three horns on their heads burst out of the foliage, heading straight for the group at a fast speed! At the rate they were going, there was little time for them all to react, all of them staring as the beasts got closer!

Sonic and Shahra, remembering their last encounter with these dinosaurs, quickly sprung into action. Sonic dove and pushed Fluttershy, who was still sitting on the ground, out of the way while Shahra quickly summoned the carpet, which picked up everyone else and lifted them all up out of the way. After only several seconds, the herd of dinosaurs had run past the group’s location, all of them avoiding being impaled or otherwise harmed by the rushing dinosaurs.

The clearing was silent for a short while before Rainbow spread her wings and hovered a little above the carpet, staring at where the dinosaurs had run as she asked, “What the hay were those?!”

Sonic, after rising up onto his knees and getting off Fluttershy, said, “We’re familiar with those dinosaurs. They were the first ones Shahra and I saw on our tour the last time, actually.”

Shahra nodded, “Thankfully, they didn’t seem to be angry with us this time.” Looking back at where the dinosaurs came from, she added, “And it doesn’t look like they’re being pursued by a predator. They must’ve been charging like that for some other reason.”

Any further comments were stopped when Fluttershy, who was still on the ground and staring at where the dinosaurs had gone almost in a trance, suddenly cried, “I remember those! Those were magical horned lizards!” Without warning, she spread her wings and took off after the dinosaurs!

“Fluttershy, wait!” Applejack called, leaping off of the magic carpet and running after her friend, Spike climbing onto Twilight’s back before she and the other ponies save for Rainbow Dash leapt down, running into the jungle after shy pegasus while Rainbow Dash flew above them.

Only Sonic, Shahra, and Badoura remained in the clearing, all of them just looking in the direction the others had run. After a moment, Sonic raised an eyebrow, “‘Magical horned lizard’? The triceratops?”

Shahra and Badoura looked at him, the former saying, “Well, you did say they come from a different world than you, Sonic.”

Sonic looked back at her and shrugged, “Oh yeah, that’s right. Maybe their dinosaurs were different too.” He then stood up while Badoura leapt down to the ground and Shahra sent the carpet away again. The three of them then left the clearing, hurrying to catch up with the others.
> Sonic and the Secret Rings, Volume Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


TALK IN THE JUNGLE


They soon caught up with everyone save for Fluttershy a little deeper inside the jungle, where they could see cacti and various jungle plants growing on the ground. They appeared to be inside of a cave, judging from the way the sunlight was filtering in through various places and the large almost plant-like columns jutting out of the ground. As Sonic, Shahra, and Badoura caught up with Spike and the ponies, they all turned to look at them and Sonic said, “Hey. Where’s Fluttershy?”

Shining Armor answered, “We kind of lost track of her, but we’re pretty sure she came this way. As you probably noticed, there’s enough evidence to suggest that those giant lizards charged through here.”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, kind of hard to not notice the prints and the things that got trampled.”

Badoura said, “I’m rather impressed by Fluttershy’s display. To think that she was such a fast flyer…”

Applejack nodded, “Uh-huh. Trust me, when she sets her mind on somethin’, she can nearly fly as fast as Rainbow Dash.” The cyan pegasus shot her a look at that, but the apple pony didn’t seem to notice.

Shahra said, “As long as she didn’t get in front of that herd of triceratops, I’m sure she’s fine, but we’d better hurry before she finds anything else.”

Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, “You call them triceratops in your world?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah.” He then faced forward and said, “We’d better keep moving. This path leads straight to where the World Ring was, so as long as Fluttershy stayed on it, we’ll find her.” The group started moving again, Sonic leading the way down the jungle path, not noticing anything that seemed out of the ordinary as they walked. Nothing at all…

As they were walking, Twilight came up alongside Sonic and asked, “So the triceratops was the first… dinosaur you and Shahra encountered on this island, Sonic?”

Sonic nodded, “Yep. Dropped down onto a path, only to find out a whole herd of them was right behind me. I must’ve made them mad somehow or something else happened, since they did not stop until I tried to cross a bridge in front of a waterfall and it got smashed by a log coming down.”

Badoura commented, “Goodness, it’s no wonder hardly anyone has ever seen the World Rings. One protected by a massive scorpion, another hidden away on an island full of beasts… So many dangers are involved for anyone who would dare try to abuse their power.”

Sonic nodded, “I’m sure that the ‘tying this world together’ and ‘need a sacrifice to gain their full power’ things help with that as well.”

Applejack said, “That one part about ‘em; Ah just can’t… Ya really gotta sacrifice somepony to use these World Rings? There ain’t no other way ta use their power?”

Sonic replied, “Like I mentioned before, it is possible to use a small amount of their power without the life sacrifice, Applejack. For Erazor Djinn, though, that wasn’t enough power. That’s why he wanted me and Shahra to collect them for him.”

Spike asked, “So he was going to use you both as the sacrifice?”

Shahra murmured, “Well, he meant for one of us to be sacrificed…”

Rainbow grunted, “What a jerk. Good thing you guys kept the rings away from him when you found them, right?” A moment of silence passed before she asked, “Uh, Sonic? Shahra? Right? Yes?”

Another moment passed before Shahra admitted, “We… searched for the World Rings to give them to Erazor Djinn…”

Spike and the ponies were not expecting that answer. “WHAT?!” Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity exclaimed as the whole group came to a stop, everypony looking at Sonic and Shahra.

“Are you saying… Do you mean to say you looked for the rings in order to give them to him?!” Shining asked, beating Twilight to the punch.

“Yes. Shahra and I traveled all over the world of the Arabian Nights to find the World Rings to give them to Erazor Djinn,” Sonic answered with a straight face.

“Wh-Why?!” Shining demanded.

“Sonic, did you know you would have to be sacrificed when you were searching for them?” Cadance asked.

Sonic replied, “Yeah, I did. Shahra told me about it after we found the Yellow World Ring.” He then crossed his arms and added, “But let me tell you, I wasn’t doing it out of choice!”

Rainbow grunted, “Sure doesn’t sound that way, considering you said you were going to give them to this Erazor guy!”

Sonic asked, “And not planning to give him the rings would’ve changed things how? Collecting the rings marked me as the collector, so even if I hadn’t been planning to give them to him, he still could’ve killed me and gotten their power! As if he didn’t have me marked for death after our first encounter.”

Twilight asked, “You mean he started sending his spirits out to kill you following that confrontation?”

Badoura spoke, “Not quite. Shahra has told me the tale before, and while the spirits under Erazor Djinn’s command did try to stop her and Sonic, there was a more urgent threat hanging over Sonic’s head: the Flame of Judgment.”

Applejack asked, “What’s that?”

Shahra brought her hands up and created another projection, this one appearing to be a small flame. “When I was bringing Sonic into this world, Erazor Djinn attacked us in the gap between worlds. When I told him I would not gather the World Rings for him, he attempted to fire this Flame of Judgment at me as punishment, but Sonic took the flame for me.” The flame projection moved over slightly as Shahra created a projection of Sonic, the flame shooting over and striking the projection’s chest a second later.

Spike and the ponies gasped, Twilight turning to Sonic and asking, “You took a flame to the chest?”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah. I didn’t know what it was at the time, but even if I did, I’m sure I still would’ve protected Shahra anyway.”

Rarity looked at Shahra and asked, “What is this… ‘Flame of Judgment’ exactly, Shahra?”

The young genie replied, “It’s a very powerful magic spell, the kind Erazor Djinn could easily use.” She brought the flame projection back as she explained, “When the flame strikes someone, it becomes tied to that person’s life. It’s called the Flame of Judgment because when the flame goes out,” the flame projection shrunk until it disappeared completely, “that person’s life goes out.”

Twilight gasped, “They… die?”

Sonic nodded, “Exactly. Erazor Djinn got interested when I took the flame myself. He told me he would remove it if I collected all seven World Rings before it burned out. Even though I was in danger of becoming a sacrifice by collecting the rings, I figured they were my best chance at avoiding death. That’s why I agreed to collect the rings for him. I wasn’t just gonna sit around and let my life tick away without fighting for it.”

Cadance sadly said, “It sounds like it was a no-win situation for you, Sonic.”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, I guess you could call it that.” Turning around, he resumed walking as he said, “Still, it wasn’t all bad. We got to see a lot of the Arabian Nights as a result. Managed to foil some of Erazor Djinn’s other plans too.”

Shahra followed after him, Badoura, Spike, and the ponies resuming walking after Sonic as well. “You mean he was up to some other stuff as well as erasing the stories?” Spike asked.

“Well, he did say that a hundred nights had been erased when we first ran into him. Some of it might’ve been related to stealing the words. He did try to kill King Shahryar after he shot me with the Flame of Judgment after all,” Sonic replied.

“That probably wouldn’t have been good for this world,” Twilight said.

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, that’s pretty much what Shahra said.”

The genie in question looked back at Badoura, noticing the princess kept looking behind her warily. “Princess, is something wrong?” she asked, getting everyone’s attention.


PREDATOR ENCOUNTER


Badoura stole one more look over her shoulder before replying, “I thought I heard something behind us.”

Applejack asked, “Ya sure about that, Princess? Ah didn’t hear anything.”

Pinkie chimed, “Me neither! Maybe you’re hearing things because you’re a teensy bit nervous!”

Badoura’s eyes shifted back again for a moment, not noticing a shadow hiding behind a nearby column, before she uttered, “Perhaps…”

Twilight began to get a little nervous at that. She looked at Shahra and Sonic and asked, “Is it possible there could be dinosaurs lurking around here?”

Sonic replied, “There might be. I don’t know what’s where now that the spirits are gone.”

Spike uneasily asked, “There’s nothing that we couldn’t handle… right?”

Before Sonic or Shahra could respond, the group heard some kind of trilling sound behind them. They all quickly turned around and found the source of the noise. It was a two-legged dinosaur with long arms, both its hands and feet sporting sharp claws. It was kind of an odd sight, as the whole thing seemed to be covered with feathers, the feathers appearing to be silver-white with burgundy spots. The dinosaur was not much bigger than most of the members of the group, but while Badoura, Spike, and the ponies seemed a little wary of the creature’s claws, Sonic and Shahra’s expressions indicated that they didn’t like the sight of it at all.

While the dinosaur creature looked at the group curiously, Pinkie exclaimed, “Ooh, look at that! It looks like a big bird!”

Rainbow asked, “What is it? It looks like a turkey or something.”

Shahra nervously said, “It’s a velociraptor!”

Twilight asked, “Raptor? Doesn’t that mean ‘bird of prey’?”

Sonic answered, “Yeah, big time. We should get out of here. Like now.”

The others turned to look at him and Shahra, Applejack asking, “Why? It ain’t doin’ nothin’. It’s just standin’ there.”

Rainbow added, “Yeah, and Twilight said it was a bird just now, right? A bird wouldn’t be interested in us.”

Twilight started, “Well…”

Before she could go on, Spike and the ponies suddenly heard a loud screech followed by a shout from Badoura! Everyone looked and saw that the velociraptor had leapt onto the cat while her back was turned and now it had the end of its snout on the back of her cloak!

Seeing her struggle, Shahra exclaimed, “Princess Badoura!”

Wasting no time, Sonic ran back to her, saying as he ran, “Pull your arms out of your cloak!” Amidst her struggles, Badoura heard him and pulled her arms out of her cloak’s sleeves, pushing them out through the neck of the garment as Sonic got closer. He grabbed her hands and pulled as hard as he could. He managed to pull her free after a few moments, the cloak being torn both by the raptor and her being pulled out of it, but her outfit under the cloak, a gold necklace, a short white and pink laced cape on top of a violet sleeveless shirt with a dark pink hemline, white pants, and dark pink high-heeled shoes that exposed part of her feet, were undamaged.

After Sonic helped her stand up, they took a few steps back and, along with the rest of the group, stared at the velociraptor as it remained hunched over, shaking the cloak in its mouth. Shahra floated over to Sonic and Badoura after a moment and asked, “Princess, are you all right?”

Badoura, her eyes still fixed on the velociraptor, replied, “I’m fine, Shahra. But it just…”

Sonic finished, “It tried to attack you.”

Pinkie spoke up, “Well, wait. Maybe this isn’t what it looked like. Maybe it doesn’t see us as food. Maybe it just wants to have fun with us…” A moment later, the raptor dropped the cloak from its mouth and looked up at the group, opening its mouth and baring its sharp teeth at everyone. “…Or not.” Pinkie quietly finished.

Badoura recognized the look in the raptor’s eyes, and as it was about to take a step forward, she held her left hand out in front of her, small orange specks of light coming from her hand as she said, “Stay back!” A second later, her cloak burst into flames, surprising the dinosaur! It gave a startled screech and turned, running away from the group. After it disappeared from view, Badoura pulled her hand back and the fire went out, her cloak now badly burnt. “Looks like that scared it off,” she sighed.

Sonic said, “For now, anyway. It might’ve run off to regroup, and maybe get help.” He let her go and turned around, “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to stick around and find out.” Badoura did not argue with him, instead turning and running after him and Shahra, the ponies doing the same.

As they ran, the group heard what sounded like cawing noises coming from somewhere behind them. Shining glanced back; seeing nothing, he asked, “Is that the…?”

Sonic answered, “Yeah, pretty sure that’s the raptor. I’m gonna say it’s definitely calling for help!”

Twilight spoke, “It sounds like the call of a bird. Is that really how they communicated?”

Sonic replied, “Probably. They were said to be really smart when they were alive. Like problem-solving smart!”

Applejack dryly commented, “Well, ain’t that just dandy?”

Cadance looked back over her shoulder after a few seconds and gasped, “There’s three of them now! And they’re gaining on us!” The others glanced back and saw she was right. There were three raptors a fair distance back, but they were slowly closing the gap.

“Geez, these things are fast!” Rainbow exclaimed. A moment later, Badoura planted her shoes against the ground, sliding to a stop and turning to face the dinosaurs, the others coming to a stop just past her at this action. “Hey, what are you doing, Badoura?!” Rainbow asked.

Badoura crouched down on one leg and placed her hands on the ground in front of her, both giving off the specks of orange light from earlier. As she slid them towards each other, she said, “Let us see if they can stop as fast.” Once her hands met, she stood up and held her arms up, a wall of flames erupting from the ground at this action!

“Whoa, nice!” Sonic exclaimed.

“It’d be cool if I could learn to do something like that,” Spike muttered to himself.

Suddenly, they all heard the cawing noise coming from the other side of the flames. “What’s going on over there?” Twilight wondered.

Both Rainbow and Shahra flew up above to look over the wall of flames. Rainbow soon grinned, “Nice going, Badoura, they’re leaving! Guess they’re not smart enough to get past your fire!” She started to lower herself down.

A moment later, Shahra said, “Wait, the leader is coming back!” Rainbow flew up next to her and saw that the first raptor was moving back towards the wall of flames, though it was walking instead of running. The other two had seemingly run off somewhere.

Applejack asked, “If the other two are gone, why is that one comin’ back?”

Sonic said, “That’s a good question, Applejack.”

Shining Armor looked up at Shahra and Rainbow Dash and asked, “Can either of you tell what it’s doing? We can’t really see it from here.”

Rainbow replied, “It’s just pacing in front of the flames! It’s not doing anything!”

Shahra uttered, “It’s acting like it has us cornered…”

Badoura grunted, “I need to focus or I’ll lose control of this spell…”

Pinkie suggested, “Maybe that’s why the other two ran off? To mess with Princess Badoura?”

Twilight said, “But they didn’t know that before they left, Pinkie. Unless…” She got a worried expression on her face, “They already figured it out… But how could they take advantage of that?”

Sonic thought about what she said and about where they were for a minute before turning his head up and to the left. His eyes widened when he saw a familiar figure walking along the cavern wall while looking at the group. “INCOMING!” he shouted as the raptor leapt from the wall towards the group, everyone looking startled at his shout until the dinosaur landed directly in front of him, Applejack, and Rarity.

Twilight, Pinkie, Shining Armor, and Cadance turned to look to the right, seeing the other raptor leap onto one of the columns before jumping down and landing in front of them! “My Pinkie Sense didn’t tell me about this!” Pinkie cried.


THE RAPTORS ATTACK


Badoura turned to look at the others, her focus slipping from her flames as she exclaimed, “Oh  no!” She then remembered what she was doing and turned to look back at the now nearly diminished flames, only to see the lead raptor crouched down and preparing to pounce. A moment later, it leapt over the smaller flames, Badoura quickly turning and diving to the ground to avoid having it land on her. Unfortunately, the raptor landed on its feet, and it was right behind her now…

Shahra gasped at this, looking down at Sonic while Rainbow flew down to her friends and saying, “Sonic, quick!” She turned into her ball form and shot down into her ring, Sonic realizing what she meant.

Sonic glanced behind him and said, “Shining, Twilight, somebody get a shield ready!” He then turned and ran towards Badoura, the princess trying to get up as the raptor prepared to attack her. Sonic balled his right hand into a fist and held it up in front of him as he ran, saying, “TIME BREAK!” It was not really noticeable to anyone else, but Sonic could see that the world took on a grayish hue and time had slowed down dramatically. It messed up the raptor’s lunge, giving Sonic a chance to reach Badoura and pull her up, turning and running back to the rest of the group.

As the flow of time returned to normal, Shining finished charging his force field spell and unleashed it, Sonic and Badoura just slipping in as the magenta field surrounded the group, the raptors on the other side of it. As they all caught their breaths after the sudden shock, Badoura commented, “Good timing. It looked like they were just about to attack.”

Shining blushed, “Yeah. Good thing I’ve gotten good with that spell.” Both Twilight and Cadance gave him smiles at that.

A moment later, Rainbow exclaimed, “What the hay happened just now?!”

Shahra emerged from the ring in her normal form and said, “I think Twilight was right. The raptors already knew Princess Badoura was responsible for the flames, so the leader distracted us while the other two circled around to try and get us.”

Sonic looked over at the leader and muttered, “Clever girl…”

Rarity asked, “Now what do we do?! We’re trapped in here and they’re waiting for us out there!” Suddenly, the raptors, who had been examining the field curiously, started slashing at it with their claws! “And now they’re trying to get in!” Rarity cried.


ESCAPING THE RAPTORS


Sonic asked, “Is there any way we could switch positions? You know, get them in here and us out there?”

Twilight held a hoof to her chin, “Actually… there might be.” After glancing at the raptors outside the force field, she gestured for the others to come closer and whispered her idea to them. Once she was done explaining, they all stood up straight and nodded to each other in understanding.

They all then turned and looked at the raptors outside, the force field starting to look like it was beginning to weaken due to their continued assault. Shining then closed his eyes and focused his magic into his horn, the force field beginning to disappear a moment later. Although surprised, the raptors prepared to attack as the field went down, leaping at the group when it was low enough.

What they missed, though, was that Twilight’s horn had begun glowing as the force field was going down, the entire group vanishing just as the raptors were about to strike! The group reappeared a little further down the path, Shining immediately recasting his force field spell almost as soon as they reappeared, a new force field appearing around the raptors!

“Hah! Turned your idea back on you, you dumb lizards!” Rainbow called as the raptors realized what had happened.

Cadance noticed Shining was rubbing his forehead after his second spell and said, “Let’s not worry about rubbing it in their faces. They’re going to get out sooner or later, and they’re not going to be happy when they do.” The others agreed with her and Sonic and Shahra took the lead again, the group moving on while the raptors began to slash at their prison.


REUNION


After running for a short while, the group began to slow down as it looked like they were coming out of the cave. Upon exiting the cave, they found themselves standing near the edge of a cliff while the path the triceratops had likely followed kept going to the right. Shining sighed as they stepped out, “Whew, we’re finally out of that cave.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah.” Looking towards the cliff, he said, “Check out the view.” They all moved a little closer and looked. They could see water below, along with various plants coming out of the water, some large dinosaurs with long necks, and a few solid pieces of ground that were sizable. There was an opening near the largest piece of ground where the water most likely became a river that went even further.

Pinkie chirped, “Ooh! Look at the ancient ponies!”

Sonic asked, “You mean the brachiosaurs?”

Shining looked at him, “Your world’s name?” Sonic nodded.

Twilight asked, “It’s all very nice, but where are we in relation to where we need to be?”

Sonic pointed to the large piece of land, “Over there, where the brachiosaurs are feeding. That’s where the Green World Ring was.”

Badoura and Shahra looked carefully at the outcropping of land, the latter saying, “I don’t see anyone over there… Are we too late?”

Rarity added, “I hope Fluttershy is okay…”

Sonic looked over at where the path continued and said, “I don’t like the idea of her being alone on this island either, Rarity. So unless she’s somewhere around here…”

Pinkie interrupted him, pointing a hoof while exclaiming, “There she is! Over there!” The others looked and saw the shy pegasus standing on a small outcropping of land across from them that had grass and rocks on it. They were relieved to see that she seemed okay, but something else caught their attention: she was standing over a hedgehog that was lying on the ground, the hedgehog’s white fur looking very familiar…

Sonic squinted, “Is that…?”

Badoura and Shahra exclaimed, “Aladdin!” Shahra summoned the magic carpet, Badoura quickly climbing on it before gesturing for the others to get on as well. They all climbed on it and Shahra directed it over to the outcropping, Badoura leaping onto the land once they were close enough and running over to Fluttershy and Aladdin, the rest of the group climbing off once the carpet stopped moving.

Once they were closer, the group was able to get a better look at Aladdin. As Sonic suspected, he did look like Silver, but in addition to his boots having pointy toes, the other difference was he was wearing more clothing. He was wearing a light brown belt around his waist, a vest that was tan in color, a burgundy fez that sat on the back of his head, and his gloves, though they had the same lines as Silver’s, had white wrappings going around his palms. He seemed to be unconscious, his body only moving slightly as he lay on his front.

Badoura was standing over him as the others came over, Fluttershy having backed off slightly when she saw the princess. She then noticed the others and waved to them, “Hi, everypony.”

Rarity went for a bit of dramatic flair as she said, “Oh Fluttershy, darling! Are you hurt? Were you scared? Should we start running again?”

Fluttershy was confused, oblivious to what the others had gone through, and simply replied, “Um, no, Rarity. I’m fine.”

As Badoura bent down next to Aladdin on one knee, Sonic gestured to him and asked, “What happened to him?”

Fluttershy answered, “I don’t know. I found Silver like this and thought he was hurt.”

Twilight said, “Actually, Fluttershy, that’s Aladdin.” The shy pegasus’ eyes widened slightly at this.

Badoura pushed Aladdin over onto his back and moved to his front, where she grabbed him by his vest. She then began shaking him, “Wake up, Aladdin!”

Fluttershy chimed in, “Um, Princess? I don’t think you should be doing that.”

Badoura ignored her, shaking the white hedgehog harder as she said, “Aladdin, wake up this instant!” She stopped her shaking when the hedgehog let out a groan, though she continued to hold him by his vest.

Aladdin’s eyes soon opened, his yellow pupils moving around slightly before they settled on Badoura. “B-Badoura…? What’s going on…? Where are we?” he groaned.

Badoura let out a sigh of relief before saying, “We’re on the island where the Green World Ring was located. We were hoping you would tell us what’s happened to you and why you’re here.” Her expression darkened, “And what that man did to you.”

Aladdin uttered, “World Ring…? Man…? What…” He shut his eyes and held his left hand against his forehead as he rolled onto his side. “Oh, my head…” he groaned.

Sonic tilted his head, “You okay?”

Aladdin grunted, “I think so. But I can’t remember…” His eyes shot open a moment later, seemingly remembering something. “Wait, that man! He’s…!”


THE SORCERER APPEARS


Suddenly, laughter rang through the area, the nearby brachiosaurs seemingly noticing and beginning to leave the area. As everyone looked around, a geyser of lava suddenly erupted from the water below! Although startled, everyone tensed up in case any of the molten rock came down towards them. There was no need to, though, as the lava quickly cooled and formed a small mountain that stood above everyone’s heads, a cloud of steam coming off of the top of it.

As the steam cleared, they saw someone standing on top of the rock. It was the man in the red cloak, his cloak and its hood hiding most of his appearance from view, but they could make out a few details. He was wearing red shoes that had pointy toes and white gloves, he held a golden staff in his right hand that, near the top, looked like a snake wearing armor that had arms clutching some sort of blue crystal between its hands, and he had the cloak of his hood up, hiding most of his face save for his pointy blue sunglasses, pink nose, and white mustache.

The man looked down at them and spoke, “I see you’re still in the land of the living, ‘Prince Ali’. Did you enjoy your nap?”

Aladdin rolled onto his front and climbed to his feet as he exclaimed, “Haman!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Haman?”

Badoura stared at what little of Haman’s face she could see for a few seconds before saying, “That face… I know you!” She pointed up at him, “You’re the one who tricked me into trading you Erazor Djinn’s lamp!”

Haman made an exaggerated bow while saying, “A pleasure to meet you again, Princess Badoura.” As he stood up straight, he smirked, “How’s that old palace of yours doing these days?” Badoura let out a growl at that.

Shahra spoke, “What are you after, Haman? What did you do to Aladdin?!”

Haman looked down at her, “Ah, Shahra, the inferior Genie of the Ring. I can’t expect you to understand my goals, especially after your new master ruined everything for me. As for Aladdin, I got him to aid me with the help of some… magical persuasion.”

Shahra glared, “You… You hypnotized him!”

Haman smirked, “What of it?”

Applejack spoke up, “Okay, now that we know the guy in red is responsible for Aladdin’s behavior, could somepony PLEASE tell me who the hay is?!”

Shahra answered, “Haman is the sorcerer from Aladdin’s story, Applejack.”

Sonic asked, “The same one that wanted him to retrieve the magic lamp?” Shahra nodded in confirmation.

Haman looked down at Sonic and said, “Ah yes, the Legendary Blue Hedgehog himself. I’ve been waiting a long time to meet you.” He scowled, “I have nothing but contempt for you, rodent. You have been nothing but a detriment to my plans ever since you first came to this world.”

Sonic half-smirked, “I’m not exactly sure what you’re talking about, but I figured we wouldn’t get along because you’re, well, you.”

Rainbow said, “Well, I have no idea what this is all about, but you’re the one who messed with Aladdin and the World Ring, so you’re going down!” After she finished, she spread her wings and shot up towards Haman in less than a second.

Although he was surprised by her speed, Haman took his staff in both hands, holding it up in a defensive stance. Rainbow figured overpowering him would be no problem, so she grabbed the staff with her forehooves and used her wings to hover as she wrestled with him. He proved to be stronger than she expected, however, and after a few moments, he managed to push her back slightly. He then quickly pointed his staff down towards the water and shot a red-orange beam from it as he said, “You think you can stop me, pretty pony? You must have rocks on the brain!”

Just as Rainbow was about to charge at him again, a large slab of rock in the shape of a fist suddenly shot out of the water and nailed her from underneath her chin! The sudden impact caused her wings to lock up as she was pushed up and back, falling towards the others. Sonic caught her, but her momentum from falling transferred to him and caused him to land on his rear with her in his arms. Haman then spoke, “Ah, a fine catch, blue hedgehog. Let’s see if I can trump it!” As he was speaking, he raised his staff and fired a beam at the ground in front of the group, a large metal cage magically appearing around everyone a second later!

Although they were surprised by the cage's sudden appearance, everyone soon began to try to break out, Rainbow quickly standing up and ramming into the bars along with Applejack, Aladdin, and Badoura. Sonic got to his feet, but before he could join them, Shahra placed her right hand on his shoulder as she said, "Sonic, wait."

Sonic looked at her and asked, "What's wrong, Shahra?"

Rainbow stopped, as did Aladdin, Applejack, and Badoura, and looked at Shahra as well, "Yeah, what's the problem? It's a cage! This guy doesn't know who he's dealing with!"

Haman spoke, "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure of that, rainbow one. And I wouldn't break those bars if I were you."

Applejack grunted, "Yeah? Why not?" Haman didn't respond, instead tapping the bottom of his staff against the rock he was standing on several times, a wave of magic passing down into it on the last tap.

Suddenly, the rock began to undulate as electricity sparked across it, the rock suddenly turning into a giant black cobra! The cobra lowered itself and looked into the cage, hissing and flicking its tongue as it stared at the group. Haman, still standing on top of it, then said, "My pet here happens to have quite an appetite, and it's not picky about what it likes to eat. So unless you want to find out for yourselves, I suggest you all behave." Everyone glared at him at that, but Aladdin, Rainbow, Badoura, and Applejack backed away from the bars a bit.


HAMAN'S EXPLANATION


Haman nodded in satisfaction, “That’s better. I wasn’t planning to make a mess of things earlier, and I’d rather not make a mess with you lot right now.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean by that, Haman?”

Haman replied, “The blue hedgehog is very lucky he dragged all of you into this world with him, my dear. Were it not for all of you and my little servant finding what I was looking for in the desert, we would’ve met a lot sooner.”

Sonic spoke, “So you’re the one who summoned me back here. I had a hunch when King Shahryar and Shahra mentioned you.”

Haman smirked, “Naturally. My apologies for not being present to welcome you back, ‘O legendary hero’, but Aladdin located that scorpion’s nest sooner than I anticipated. Ah well, I suppose it matters not. I’m still on the path to getting what I want.”

Badoura growled, “And I suppose that path involves brutally murdering a scorpion and tampering with one of the World Rings, Haman?”

Haman held his left hand to his chin and turned his head slightly upwards, seemingly thinking for a moment before he replied, “Well, you may be right about the scorpion, Princess, but I’m afraid you’re mistaken about the World Ring. Those things are still off in whatever corners of the world they’ve been since the blue one found them, and they’re not necessary anyway.”

Rarity said, “Then perhaps you’d like to explain to us what that imprint we found back in the desert in the shape of a ring was! If you’re saying the World Ring was not there, then how did that end up there?”

Aladdin added, “And what did you make me do? What part of your plan did you force me to take part in?!”

Haman stood up straight, looking down at everyone as he spoke, “Your involvement was trivial at best, street rat. I don’t need you to do anything besides be present for the final stages of my plan in order for it to move forward.” He smirked, “I simply thought a few mind games and forced labor would be a nice start of my revenge against you and the other rat for taking and destroying what should have been mine.”

Aladdin crossed his arms and said, “Like you having Erazor Djinn’s lamp first would’ve made all the difference! If anyone had gotten a hold of it, they could’ve released him the same way you did!”

Haman held up his left index finger and wagged it, “Ah, ah, ah! If I’d gotten it first, no one else would’ve EVER been able to get their dirty, worthless hands on it! But I digress.” He lowered his left hand, “As for the World Rings’ involvement in my plan… Have any of you noticed that the color of the World Rings corresponds to where they used to be found in this world?”

Most of the group shot him confused looks, though Shahra soon said, “The Yellow World Ring was located in the desert, and the Green World Ring was found on this lush island… Their colors do match where we found them, but what does that have to do with anything?”

Haman replied, “It’s no big mystery, my dear. It’s not some coincidence; the World Rings are the color they are because they’ve been bound to their respective lands for as long as anyone can remember. The only reason anyone regards them as a myth is because no one from this world can physically touch them, as you well know.  But they’ve always been there, and they’ve made this world the way it is today.” 

Rainbow spoke up, “Uh, yeah, we heard about the rings from Sonic and Shahra earlier. I’m with Shahra on this; what’s your point?”

Haman looked at her, “Clearly, the act of explaining through words is lost on some of you, so allow me to demonstrate a magic trick and show you all why I am the most powerful sorcerer this world will ever know.” He turned to his right and gestured with his staff, the cobra letting out a hiss before turning and rising up into the air, seemingly flying over not to the nearby patch of land, but to the one after it.

Sonic gasped as the snake hovered over a particular spot, “That’s where the World Ring was!”

Haman heard him and called, “Indeed! Now watch and behold!” He held up his staff in his right hand, red-orange energy coursing through it before he pointed it towards the ground fired a red beam from the snake. The beam struck the ground, burning into it like a laser for several seconds before a white light shot up out of the ground and into the sky. Even from where the group was, they could see what looked like a cloud of dust rise up into the light after a few seconds, hovering just above the ground.

Shahra gasped, “That looks like…!”

Haman interrupted her, “It is the Essence of the World Ring!” He thrust his left hand into his cloak and pulled out a vial, using his thumb to pop the stopper off. He then held it up high, the essence in the light swirling for a second before shooting up and going into the vial, Haman capping it as the light died down. As he stared at the green dust inside the vial, he murmured, “How fitting that I should get the gift that Hatred bestowed upon this land at the same time that I meet the Legendary Hedgehog…”

He then turned back to the group and said, “What I hold is the part of the World Ring that was left behind, the part that allows this land to keep living without the presence of the genuine object! It flows through this land, sustains it, allows everything you see to live! There’s still a little bit left over, just like back in the desert, but this is the majority of it. There’s no longer enough left to compensate for the World Ring’s removal.” His tone turned sinister, “Now what do you suppose will happen to this land now that its source of life has been removed?”

Sonic, Shahra, Twilight, Cadance, Aladdin, Badoura, Shining, and Applejack all gained looks of shock as they thought about what he was saying. Images of King Shahryar’s palace and the town being caught in the middle of a desert wasteland and everything on the island, even the dinosaurs, slowly dying soon flashed through their heads. As Badoura thought about these potential consequences and Haman was doing, her shocked expression turned to one of rage and her right arm shook as her fingers clenched into a fist, motes of orange light flashing around it as the fire in her really began to burn.


JUNGLE TUSSLE


Haman had turned away from the group, seemingly reveling in his actions until an explosion and a clanging sound behind him caused him to turn back around. Badoura had used her power to get out of the cage, the somewhat burnt pieces of several bars lying on the ground with the princess standing over them, four fireballs floating around her in a circle as her hands glowed brightly. She glared, “Haman!”

The sorcerer merely smirked, “My, my. Looks like you’re not such a helpless, conceited brat anymore, Princess.”

Badoura let out a growl at that and began making her around towards him while the others got out of the cage. Aladdin was the first one out and he called out as he ran after her, “Wait, Badoura!”

Haman noticed this and held up his staff as he said, “You stay out of this, rat! The princess is giving me a private showing of her powers! You’re not welcome!” He then thrust his staff forward, “Get the point?” As he said this, multiple sabers materialized out of thin air and shot towards the white hedgehog, the blades flying over Badoura’s head as she leapt down to where Haman was. Aladdin froze as he saw the sabers rushing towards him and got pushed backwards moments later, two blades catching his vest and pinning him to the rocky wall behind him with the rest just narrowly missing him.

By this time, Sonic and most of the others had gotten out of the cage and had noticed Aladdin’s predicament and Badoura getting ready to engage Haman. “We’ve got to help Aladdin and Princess Badoura!” Twilight exclaimed.

As he started to move, Sonic called to Rainbow, “I’ll help Aladdin!”

The pegasus replied, “Right! I’ll help Badoura distract that creep!” Just as they were about to move to help, a stream of fire shot in front of both of them, stopping them in their tracks. They looked to see Haman holding his staff up, the sorcerer having launched the attack while he was leaping off of his cobra to dodge an attack from Badoura.

“Don’t think I’ve forgotten you, my friends!” the man called, holding his arms up and out afterwards and creating a cloud of magic a short distance overhead. From within the cloud, multiple creatures that were mostly green in color and had angry-looking white faces came forth and shot towards the group!

“What are they?!” Shining asked.

“They’re djinns, spirits! They look like the ones that served Erazor Djinn! But how did he summon them…?” Shahra wondered.

When they got close to the group, several djinns that had red foreheads breathed fire at everyone. After he and Rainbow leapt back, Sonic turned back to the others and called, “Somebody do something about that cage! If they’re all this angry, we’re gonna need all the room we can get until we get past them!” Twilight and Cadance quickly complied, both of them grabbing the cage with their magic and lifting it up, breaking it down while Shining Armor and the others began to attack the Kri Ma Djinns.

Once they were done with the cage, Twilight and Cadance joined in while Shahra moved Fluttershy and Spike back, keeping them from getting hurt by accident. While Fluttershy and Spike watched the others fight back against the swarm of djinns, Shahra’s eyes wandered to Badoura and Haman, watching the cat stand her ground against the sorcerer and his cobra. As Haman raised his staff, Shahra eyed the crystal it was holding and raised an eyebrow. “That crystal seems familiar somehow…” she thought.

Haman fired a red-orange beam of magic from the mouth of his staff, hoping to catch Badoura off-guard while she unleashed a burst of fire on his cobra. The cat saw it out of the corner of her eye and performed a backflip, narrowly dodging the beam. She spun around when she landed and threw a fireball with her right hand at Haman. He stepped to the side to dodge it, but he looked back in surprise when it exploded against a rock. Badoura noticed and smirked, “Surprised, Haman?”

The sorcerer turned to her and smirked back, “Perhaps, Princess. I was just thinking, wouldn’t it have been nice to have this magic back then? Then again, I suppose your palace didn’t need any help burning down, did it?”

Badoura growled and, after dodging a snap from the cobra, leapt at him, “You dare mock me?!”

As he used his magic to levitate and avoid her tackle and deflect the fire she threw at him afterwards, Haman replied, “Oh, not at all, Princess! I have to admit, you’ve made excellent progress! You command your magic quite well! I guess you could say,” dodging one last fireball, he raised his staff and unleashed another red-orange beam from it, “it leaves me breathless!”

Badoura gasped when she saw the beam coming, but she wasn’t quick enough to dodge this time and it struck her. She shut her eyes when it hit, but she opened them again when, instead of being thrown back, she heard wind around her. A quick look revealed that she seemed to be at the center of a wind vortex. “What? What is this? What are you…?” She began to wobble, raising her right hand to her throat as she stammered, “Ack… It’s hard to… I can’t breathe…”

Back with the others, Sonic kicked away the last djinn in front of him, the swarm of Kri Ma Djinns having thinned out heavily, and ran towards Aladdin. Rainbow Dash was already at his left side, having taken advantage of a gap in the swarm a minute earlier, and had her teeth around the handle of the saber holding his vest against the rock, flapping her wings as she pulled at it. Sonic quickly grabbed the handle of the saber on the white hedgehog’s right side and began pulling it while saying, “Hang on!”

As he wiggled, Aladdin grunted, “Thanks. Hurry!” Sonic planted a foot against the rock to get better leverage as he pulled the saber, the others starting to move towards him and Rainbow now. As he wiggled, Aladdin looked forward… and his eyes widened when he saw Badoura fall forward onto the ground. “Badoura!” he cried, Sonic beginning to turn his head to look when the saber suddenly came loose and he fell onto his back with it in his right hand. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, glanced in the direction of the fight before flapping her wings rapidly, managing to pull the saber out in seconds.

Aladdin dropped down to the grass a moment later. His knees bent forward for a second before he reached down and grabbed the saber out of Sonic’s hand, standing up and running forward afterwards. Rainbow saw this and said (around the saber still in her mouth), “Hey, wait up!” She then flew after him while Sonic flipped himself over, standing up and running after the two with the others a second later, all of them seeing Haman standing over Badoura.

Haman turned his head to the right, seeing Aladdin and Rainbow Dash coming towards him. He looked back down at Badoura a moment later and then waved his staff in a circle, a red-orange sphere surrounding the still somewhat conscious princess and lifting her off the ground. “STOP!” Aladdin and Rainbow shouted, Haman turning slightly to see the two coming with their sabers. The sorcerer held out his arms in response, generating another red-orange sphere, this time around himself that both Aladdin and Rainbow Dash bounced off of. Haman then held his arms up and began to float up along with Badoura, the sorcerer’s barrier disappearing as he landed on his cobra’s head.

Aladdin looked up, first desperately at Badoura and then angrily at Haman. “What have you done to her, Haman?!” he yelled.

Haman smirked, “A little lack of fresh air to help her sleep, of course. I thought she could use it; she’s a bit high-strung if you haven’t noticed, Aladdin.”

Sonic, Shahra, Spike, and the rest of the ponies joined the two as Rainbow shifted her saber to her hooves and yelled, “Why don’t you just let her go?! You and your venom snake or whatever can’t handle all of us!”

Haman replied, “Yes, it would appear that the numbers are against me, aren’t they? However…” Before he could continue, everyone heard what sounded like a bird call coming from nearby. “Eh? What’s that?” Haman asked.

Sonic and the others looked towards the ledge where the group had entered the area and saw a familiar silver-white dinosaur come to a stop at the ledge. “Oh boy…” Sonic grunted as two more raptors appeared at its sides.

“The raptors! They tracked us here!” Shahra gasped.

Haman smirked, “Oh~! Old friends of yours? This works out perfectly!” He waved his staff in a circle, his cobra rising off the ground high above the group’s heads.

“Come back here!” Aladdin shouted, both him and Sonic jumping up after the cobra, aiming for its tail. They both were close to grabbing the end of the tail when it moved its tail up out of their reach, causing them to fall back to the ground front first.

“Rainbow Dash!” Cadance said as she spread her wings.

The cyan pegasus nodded, “Right!” She shifted her saber back to her mouth and both she and Cadance shot up after the cobra.

Haman saw them coming and pointed his staff down at them while saying, “Oh, no you don’t!” He fired a pair of red-orange beams from the staff’s eyes, both Rainbow and Cadance getting hit and being knocked back towards the ground.

“Cadance!” Shining cried as he dashed forward, diving to catch his wife. She landed in his forelegs while Applejack ended up catching Rainbow in a way when the pegasus crashed into her, both of them ending up on the ground as well.

Haman spoke, “Well, this has been a LOVELY get-together, but I’m afraid I’m a busy man. I believe I’ll be shoving off now!” He shook his head to his right, his cobra turning in that direction before it began to move.

“Haman, stop!” Shahra cried as Twilight and Rarity’s horns flared up, both of them releasing beams of magic up at the sorcerer. Haman barely noticed their attack, stepping out of the way before the beams could hit him.

As Sonic, Aladdin, Cadance, Shining Armor, Applejack, and Rainbow got up, Aladdin grabbing his saber as he stood, Haman said, “Now, now! Don’t be rude! Your old friends went to all this trouble of finding all of you and you’re just going to ignore them?” Sonic and Aladdin looked forward as one of the raptors landed a short distance away, letting out a shriek at them, causing them to start backing up.

Twilight looked to her right and saw that the other two raptors were once again moving around the group. “They’re trying to surround us again!” she exclaimed, causing the others to notice as well.

Shahra looked up at Haman as he spoke to Sonic and Aladdin, “Don’t disappoint me, rats. I’d rather not have to come all the way back here for you two… or call you up by accident.” As he finished speaking, Shahra noticed the crystal in his staff’s hands glint in the sunlight, and her eyes widened in realization. She didn’t get a chance to say anything before the cobra suddenly shot off into the distance with a crack of its tail, the sound being similar to the crack of a whip.


CORNERED


Left alone with the velociraptors, everyone grouped together, the three velociraptors moving closer to them, one in front of them, one behind them, and the other on a rock off to their right. As everyone looked around, Fluttershy asked, “Wh-Why do they look so mad?”

Spike replied, “Uh, we might have had to… trick them… to avoid getting eaten by them?”

Aladdin added, “I might have run into them earlier when I was under Haman’s spell as well. My memory’s still a bit hazy, but… they look familiar.”

Rainbow spoke, picking up her saber in her hooves, “Who cares! Call up that rug and let’s go after that sorcerer creep!”

Shahra turned to look at the ledge where they’d found Aladdin, “I left it on that ledge! I’ll go get it!” She hovered above the group and began to move towards the ledge. As she did, the raptor on the rock realized what she was trying to do and crouched down, leaping up to attack her!

Rainbow responded by flying up to intercept it with her saber, managing to get the blade caught on top of the claws on both of its forearms. The raptor, however, responded with a caw and quickly moved its claws out from under the blade, bringing them above it and swinging downwards, knocking the saber clean out of Rainbow’s hooves! Rainbow’s eyes widened and she stopped flapping her wings, falling as the raptor brought up its hind legs to try to attack her with those claws! It missed and she hit the ground hard, but as she climbed to her hooves, she noticed that Shahra had gotten past the raptor.

That was only a small comfort, however, as the attacking raptor was now closer to the group, just about even with the ground they were on, and it was likely they were all more wary of any sudden movements. As he and the others were waiting for Shahra to bring the carpet around, Sonic suddenly felt the ground rumble slightly. Then again, though a little stronger. “Hey… does anybody else feel that?” he grunted.

There was another rumble a moment later, even stronger this time, and even the raptor behind the group seemed to notice it. “It’s, um… It’s an impact tremor, that’s what it is,” Twilight said.

Pinkie gasped, “It’s getting closer!”

Applejack grunted, “Well, if it’s gettin’ stronger, then whatever’s causin’ it probably is gettin’ closer, Pinkie.”

Pinkie replied, “No, I mean that raptor is getting closer!” Everyone looked over to see the raptor behind the group beginning to move towards them, its claws pointing towards them. A few seconds later, the raptor crouched down, everyone bracing themselves as it leapt into the air… and then suddenly it was caught by a pair of jaws full of sharp teeth! The group looked up in surprise to see a large biped dinosaur with magenta scales, short arms with two fingered hands that had sharp claws, and a number of horns sticking up on its head. They couldn’t see how big it was due to its legs being partially submerged in the water.


MOVIE MOMENT


As it dropped the raptor in its jaws on the ground between the group and where the land ended, Rarity screamed, “What in this world is THAT?!”

Sonic answered, “That’s the big dinosaur, the T-rex! It must’ve heard the commotion!”

Rainbow glanced around and said, “Looks like they’re more interested in it than us!” Indeed, the two remaining raptors had their attention focused on the rex rather than the group. She looked down and saw a circular slab of land near the rock the one raptor was standing on. It looked big enough for all of them and it was probably low enough for them to get out of sight. She pointed, “Quick, let’s get down there!” Everyone noticed where she was pointing and they all quickly got down onto the slab, neither the raptors nor the rex paying them any attention.

Looking up, they saw the other two raptors charging at the rex, the larger dinosaur letting out a growl as they latched onto it, one on the side of its head and the other on its neck, both on its left side. It began trying to shake them off, the third raptor trying to get up despite the injuries caused by the rex’s teeth. “What are they doing?” Aladdin asked.

“I don’t think they get along, but I don’t think that’s the only reason they’re fighting,” Sonic guessed.

Fluttershy nodded, “Exactly. It’s just like with the chupacabra and the vampiric jackalope: they’re fighting for dominance over the rights to eat us.” She smiled, “Nature is so fascinating…” Sonic and Aladdin glanced over at her with raised eyebrows while Spike and the other ponies morbidly watched the predators tangle with each other.

Shaking his head a second later, Sonic turned and called, “Shahra!”

Moments later, the genie came back to the group, guiding the carpet with her magic. “Sorry about the wait! Let’s get out of here and go after Haman!” Aladdin tucked his saber into his belt before jumping on the carpet, Spike and the ponies also jumping on save for Fluttershy, who Sonic had to drag away from the spectacle, and Rainbow, who again chose to use her wings instead. Once they were all set, they set out from the island, Fluttershy continuing to stare at the T-rex and the raptors until they could no longer be clearly seen.


PURSUING HAMAN


Rainbow Dash and the magic carpet were flying over the ocean, the carpet managing to keep up with the pegasus as they left the dinosaur island behind. As they were shooting across the ocean, Twilight pointed forward, “Look at that castle! Do you think that’s where Haman went?”

Sonic nodded, “Definitely. We found one of the World Rings there. Since he’s going after their Essences, that’s where the next closest one is!”

Aladdin grunted, “We have to hurry! We have to save Badoura from Haman and stop whatever he’s planning!”

Spike asked, “Sonic, Shahra? Do either of you have any idea what that guy is planning?”

Sonic shook his head, but Shahra responded, “I can’t say for sure myself, but that crystal his staff is holding… It’s involved in his plan somehow, I’m sure of it!”

Rainbow looked over and asked, “Why? What’s the big deal about it?”

Shahra replied, “I’ve seen a crystal like it before. I’m certain it’s part of a magical artifact from this world! Whatever he’s planning with the Essences of the World Rings, he’s going to need that crystal as well! If we can get it and the Essences from him…”

Sonic said, “Gotcha, Shahra. Don’t worry, we’re not gonna let him get away with this!”

Applejack nodded, “Yeah! No matter how much of a head start he’s got, we’ll get him!” Everyone nodded and faced forward, both Rainbow and the carpet putting a little extra speed in to get to the castle sooner.

After a short while, the exterior of the castle began to become clear, various details on its exterior becoming easier to see. “Okay, we’re almost there. Where did you find the World Ring, Sonic?” Shining asked.

Before Sonic could reply, Cadance gasped, “Oh no, look!” She pointed ahead, everyone seeing Haman’s cobra taking off from the palace and shooting up into the sky.

Sonic grunted, “It ended up right in front of the palace because it was inside a bomb! Of course it would probably be the easiest one for him to find!”

Rainbow said, “He’s heading up into the sky! Come on!” She quickly changed her course, flying up after Haman, the magic carpet’s trajectory changing to do the same.

“Where’s he going now?!” Aladdin asked.

“The next closest World Ring was on a Rukh!” Shahra said.

“Ooh! What’s a Rukh?” Pinkie asked. As she was speaking, both the carpet and Rainbow Dash burst through the cloud layer, and not long after that, they all began to see giant manta-like creatures flying up ahead, many with structures on their backs.

“Are those…?” Cadance started.

Shahra nodded, “Yes. Those are the Rukh. They’re living fossils.”

As they got closer to the school of Rukh, Fluttershy said, “They’re incredible…”

Twilight nodded, “They are, but… where was the World Ring up here?”

Shahra said, “It was on the back of one of the Rukh, but… I can’t remember which one…”

Sonic shook his head, “Me neither. But Haman’s gonna be looking for it, so let’s focus on finding him.”

Rainbow soon called, “There he is! He’s down there!” Everyone looked to see the cobra flying alongside one of the smaller Rukh, Haman’s head turned towards it. A second later, he faced forward and the cobra moved on, heading for a much larger Rukh. At this, Rainbow grunted, “Come on! Let’s knock him off that smug snake!” She then shot after Haman, Sonic and the others following behind her.

As he got closer to the larger Rukh, Haman glanced down at the cobra as it let out a prolonged hiss. Raising an eyebrow, he looked back over his shoulder and saw Rainbow Dash speeding towards him. “You again?!” he grunted, moving to the side slightly to avoid a collision.

Rainbow flew a short distance ahead, coming to a stop over a path on the Rukh’s back before she turned to face Haman. “Think you can keep that up, fat man?!” she called.

Haman growled, “I’ll have you know that I’m pleased to know you and the rest of your merry band are still among the living. At the other end of the spectrum, however, you’re starting to annoy me.”

Rainbow replied, “Then get ready to be REALLY annoyed! You’re going down!” She then shot towards him again.

Haman simply sighed, “This tired technique again? You should really try something new.” He raised his staff and unleashed a beam of magic from it, “It’s really not worth beating your head against a wall over!” As he was speaking, a stone wall formed floating in front of the cobra, Rainbow letting out a gasp at this and trying to stop, but to no avail. She crashed into the wall head first and, after a second, slid off it and fell down to the path below.

Chuckling, Haman turned around to face the rest of the group and said, “And here comes the rest. Like lambs to the slaughter.”

Pinkie heard him and gasped, “Lambs?! Where?! We have to help those poor lambs!”

Rarity sighed, “It’s an expression, Pinkie dear.”

Aladdin yelled, “Give it up, Haman! We’re obviously too much for you to handle!”

Haman replied, “Perhaps, street rat, but I’m afraid that simply won’t do. I’ve put too much time and effort into this plan for you to ruin it now.” He then thrust his staff forward and said, “Try not to go to pieces on me!” He unleashed another beam from his staff, but this one was aimed at the carpet rather than the group. When it came into contact with the fabric, the rug shook for a moment before suddenly turning into a sheet of glass!

“The carpet! No!” Twilight cried as its trajectory quickly angled downwards, crashing into the side of the Rukh. As soon as it did, the front of it shattered into shards and everyone was knocked for a loop, all of them save for Shahra starting to roll downwards. Sonic was the first to go over, but he managed to grab onto the side of the Rukh. When he saw the others coming, he reached out his right hand and managed to grab Shining Armor’s right hoof, both of them being held up slightly by the strong wind blowing and allowing Cadance to grab onto Shining’s hind legs followed by the rest of them.

“Sonic! Be a dear and PULL US UP!” Rarity screamed from further along the chain.

“Ngh…! Need my other hand for this, Shining!” the blue hedgehog told the stallion, Shining wrapping his free hoof around Sonic’s legs before the hedgehog let his right hoof go and he wrapped it around his legs. With both hands now grasping onto the Rukh, Sonic grunted as he began to pull forward, pushing against the wind blowing in his face.

Before he could make much headway, however, Sonic noticed a shadow appear over him and looked up to see the cobra leering down at him. Haman smirked cruelly down at him, “I apologize, my dear rat, but my pet here hasn’t had a single bite all day. I do hope you’ll forgive me.” With that, the cobra parted its jaws, its tongue flicking out as it leaned back slightly and let out a hiss. It then lunged downwards, aiming for Sonic (or rather his hands)! In desperation, Sonic let go, the cobra missing by mere inches as they fell behind the Rukh! Haman grinned widely as the wind carried them off, “Hee hee hee! Enjoy your flight of fancy, fools! It certainly won’t last long!”
> Sonic and the Secret Rings, Volume Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A LONG WAY DOWN


Up on the path on the Rukh’s back, Rainbow sat, still dazed from crashing into the wall Haman had stopped her with. As she wobbled slightly, a pink ball of light flew up to her, Shahra quickly appearing from it. Quickly noticing the pegasus’ condition, the genie placed her hands on the sides of Rainbow’s head and said, “Rainbow! Rainbow Dash!”

At the sound of Shahra’s voice (and the little bit of magic she worked into her to help her recover faster), Rainbow shook her head and asked, “Huh? What?” She looked around quickly before looking at Shahra, “What happened to Haman? Where is everypony else?”

The young genie answered, “Haman used a spell on the magic carpet to make it unusable! They all fell off the Rukh!”

Rainbow gasped, “WHAT?!”

Shahra pointed to the back of the Rukh as she said, “I’ll restore the carpet! While I’m doing that, go help them as best you can!”

Rainbow quickly leapt to her hooves, “I’m on it!” She then spread her wings and took off, flying around past Haman and briefly distracting him, allowing Shahra to gather up the broken pieces of the carpet with her magic and slip away before he could notice her.

Rainbow soon got behind the Rukh, the tailwind increasing her normal speed, and spotted Sonic and the others falling through the air. She slowed slightly when she noticed they were doing what they could to slow their descent. Cadance had Spike on her back and her forelegs wrapped around Shining Armor, who had Sonic hanging from his hind legs with Twilight and Aladdin hanging onto him, Fluttershy was holding onto Applejack along with Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and Aladdin was holding his right hand out, which had a blue glow coming from it, whatever he was doing likely helping to slow every down.

Despite their efforts, they weren’t slowing themselves down much. Both Cadance and Fluttershy were flapping their wings as hard as they could, but they weren’t going up. Rainbow called, “Hang on, guys!” and shot to full speed again, this time aiming underneath the others. Once she was a fair distance underneath them (based on how far she expected them to fall by the time she was done), she began to fly in a tight circle like when she was performing her rainblow dry. At the speed she was going, she was able to produce a small whirlwind, the rush of the wind helping to push the rest of the group up.

Although Rainbow was able to keep doing this, both Cadance and Fluttershy’s forelegs were starting to get tired from trying to hold everyone. After less than a minute of being pushed upward, Cadance’s forelegs began to shake and she grunted, “Shining, I can’t… hold on… much… longer!” Seconds after saying that, she was forced to release her hold on Shining, and not long afterwards, Fluttershy did the same with Applejack!

Rainbow came to a stop when she saw everyone fall past her whirlwind, both her and Fluttershy crying, “Oh no!”

Cadance called, “Fluttershy, Rainbow, quickly!” She then flew down after everyone, trying to grab onto as many of them as she could.

Fluttershy quickly followed her, but Rainbow took a moment to call, “Shahra, hurry!” She then flew down to join Fluttershy and Cadance, but the group was already starting to pass through the sea of clouds.

After a short time of falling, during which they all passed through darkening clouds, the carpet suddenly shot through the clouds and past the flying ponies, a pink ball of light following after it. The carpet soon got underneath everyone and they all landed on it a second later, the magic in the carpet preventing most of the bounce that would’ve followed such a fall while still allowing for a soft landing. Once everyone had settled down and Rainbow, Cadance, and Fluttershy had landed on the carpet as well, Shahra appeared from the ball of light, hovering next to the carpet. Sonic grinned at her, “Nice entrance, Shahra!”

Cadance nodded and added, “And perfect timing, too. I don’t know how much longer we could’ve kept everyone up.”

Shahra giggled and replied, “I’m just glad to help. I might not have been able to do anything to Erazor Djinn’s magic, but I’m certainly proficient enough to counter Haman’s magic.”

Aladdin said, “Way to go, Shahra.” He glanced off to the side as he thought to himself, “What a mess this all is… And it’s all my fault for letting Haman get close to me…”

The white hedgehog snapped back to reality when Spike asked, “Hey… where did we end up, anyway?” At his question, everyone looked around, noticing for the first time the darker and cloudier sky overhead as well as the water far below the carpet that stretched as far as their eyes could see.

“It looks like we’re over the ocean,” Shining said, looking down at the water.

“That wind must have blown us back quite some distance,” Cadance noted as she looked up at the clouds. “With all those clouds, a storm must be scheduled for this area.”

“Excuse me fer sayin’ so, Princess, but we shouldn’t be worryin’ about rain right now,” Applejack said.

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah! Let’s get back up in the sky and stop Haman!”

Aladdin quietly added, “And save Badoura.”

Rainbow looked at him and said, “Well, yeah! I didn’t forget about her! We gotta stop him if we’re going to save her, so…”

Pinkie interrupted her, pointing and saying, “Hey, look! There’s a ship over there!” Everyone looked where she was pointing and saw a large wooden ship off in the distance. Judging from its size, its three masts, each one having a large white sail, and the figurehead clutching some sort of staff between its hands underneath the bow, it was some type of galleon.

“A ship? We can’t worry about that. Now…” Shining spoke, starting to turn around, only for Sonic to place a hand on his shoulder, as if he was going to stop him. “What?” Shining asked, turning his head to look at the hedgehog.

Sonic looked at the ship, sensing a familiar power emanating from within it. “It’s just a hunch, but there’s something about that ship that seems familiar,” he said.

“I think you’re right, Sonic. It almost feels like…” Shahra nodded, looking towards the ship’s echidna-like figurehead. After a few moments, she smiled, “I’ve got it! It’s one of the World Rings! That must be Sinbad’s ship!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow, “‘Sinbad’?”

Sonic nodded, “That’s right. Then that’s coming from the Water Blue Ring.” He looked up at Shahra a moment later and said, “Hey, we should probably warn Sinbad and Ali Baba about Haman’s plan.”

The genie nodded to him, “Yes. Even though Haman said he’s not strictly going after the World Rings, he might still come after them. They need to know.” Without another word, she turned the carpet around and it shot off towards the ship.


OLD SEA BUDDIES


As the group got closer to the ship, they were able to get a better look at the deck of the ship. There were two sets of stairs leading up to the stern of the ship with a pair of doors leading below deck between them and some sort of stand and a pair of hatch doors in front of them. The rest of the deck, from the doors to the bow, seemed to be level. The carpet flew around near the top of the masts once it reached the ship to get a better look at the crew.

As they were flying, they heard a call of “Hey!” and looked to see a familiar-looking fox in the crow’s nest atop the center mast holding a small brown telescope in his left hand and waving to them. He was wearing a white turban, a red vest with yellow trim, a brown belt around his abdomen, white gloves and socks that had small black belts to secure them, and red and white shoes that had pointy toes, and he definitely had two tails. Sonic and Shahra waved back at him, as did Spike and the ponies while Aladdin just looked back at the fox. Now sure of the ship’s captain, Shahra brought the carpet in for a landing on the deck, landing near the stairs on the ship’s port side and across from the stand and the hatch.

After everyone stepped off the carpet, while Shahra stashed it away, Cadance looked at Sonic and asked, “So Sonic, who are Sinbad and… Ali Baba?”

Sonic replied, “They’re friends of ours. They helped me and Shahra stop Erazor Djinn, and we traveled together for a while afterwards.” A creaking noise came from the stairs and Sonic and the others turned to look. At the top of the stairs was a red echidna who was wearing a white igal atop his head, an open white vest with a purple belt, gray metal wristlets, white gloves with pointed knuckles, and red shoes with pointy toes and a yellow metal green edge. Sonic grinned up at him, “Hey, Sinbad! Remember me?”

The echidna crossed his arms and smirked, “Well, well. Look what the sea washed up. Can’t say I was expecting to see you again, hedgehog.”

Rainbow flew up next to Sonic and exclaimed, “You’re friends with pirates in this world, Sonic?! That is awesome! Pirates are so cool!”

Before Sonic had a chance to reply, Sinbad leapt from the stairs and landed directly in front of him and Rainbow Dash. The echidna pointed his right fist at the latter as he said, “I don’t know who you are, but don’t you dare compare me to a band of cowardly spirits!” He then pointed his right thumb at himself, “I am Sinbad of the Seven Seas, the Adventurer of Adventurers!”

A familiar voice from above spoke up, “And I’m Ali Baba. Hi!” Everyone looked up to see Tails’ Arabian Nights counterpart hovering overhead, waving down at them.

While everyone else looked happy to see the fox, Rainbow quickly turned back to Sinbad and said, “You really think you’re better than any other adventurer, pal? In your dreams! Daring Do is twenty percent more of an adventurer than you’ll ever be!”

Amused, Sinbad asked, “Oh yeah? And who is this ‘Daring Do’ you speak of?”

Rainbow replied, “She’s the awesome main character in all of her books. And I’m sure she can be brought out of one of her books to show you what a real adventurer is like!”

Sinbad held up his right hand and grunted, “Comparing me to a character that may not even be real? Please! Unless you know she actually exists, don’t give me that pile of Daring DON’T!”

Rainbow glared at him and looked ready to retort, but Ali Baba flew down and got between them, holding his hands out as he said, “Come on, you two, stop it! Can’t we have one new introduction that isn’t preceded by a fight?”

Aladdin stepped forward, “We don’t have time to be fighting right now. This is serious.”

Sinbad looked over at him and asked, “What? Who are you?”

Shahra floated forward and said, “This is Aladdin, Sinbad, and I’m afraid he’s correct. When we saw your ship, we thought it best to warn you about a new threat.”

Sinbad raised an eyebrow, “A new threat?”


HAMAN AGAIN


Before anyone else could say something, Spike spoke up, “Hey, uh… I think that threat just found us!” Everyone turned to look at him and saw he was looking towards the starboard side of the ship, pointing upwards. Looking up, the group quickly recognized Haman’s flying cobra coming down from the clouds, seemingly aiming straight for them!

“What is THAT?!” Ali Baba exclaimed.

“It’s him. Get ready!” Aladdin said as he prepared to draw his saber, but everyone was surprised a few moments later when the cobra flew over the ship entirely. They all looked towards the port side and saw that it was still going, though it was no longer angled downwards. After several moments, the massive snake came to a stop, hovering high above the water.

“What’s going on?” Sinbad asked.

Pinkie gasped, “He must’ve found another World Ring! He’s going to remove its Essence and make it impossible for ships to sail the seas!” Ali Baba and Sinbad stared at her for a moment, but before they could say anything, the ship suddenly began to rock due to waves crashing against the side of it. They looked forward and saw the water below Haman raising up as though something large was surfacing, a pillar of white light emerging from the top of it.

After about a minute, the rising water receded to reveal a dilapidated ship with three broken masts that had bits of seaweed and other marine life clinging to its exterior. The number of holes that could be seen should have made it impossible for the ship to stay afloat. “That looks like the pirates’ ship!” Shahra exclaimed.

“The ones that stole the Water Blue Ring? When did that ship sink?” Sonic asked.

Sinbad scratched his head, “Um, I think it was after you left. I think we had a run-in with that ship, and I might’ve caused a storm…” He trailed off, trying to remember the details.

While they were talking, Haman extracted the Essence of the Water Blue Ring from the ship and stored it in an empty vial. “Five down, two to go,” he murmured to himself as he held up the vial in his left hand and looked at it.

He soon perked up when he heard a familiar voice shout, “You’re not getting away this time, you jerk!” He looked to his left to see Rainbow Dash flying towards him.

Haman sighed as he tucked the vial away underneath his cloak and said, “It’s no use. It’s no use, foolish pony!” He took his staff in both hands and held it up as Rainbow came at him with her hooves outstretched. They came into contact with the staff and they began to push against each other once again.

This went on for  several seconds, during which the cobra brought its tail around beneath Rainbow. Sonic, Applejack, Pinkie, and Shining Armor were the first ones to notice it and they all called as loud as they could, “Rainbow, look out!” She didn’t hear them, though, and the snake wrapped its tail around her!

The pegasus struggled, but with her wings restrained, she was unable to do much more than shake and kick her legs. The cobra raised her above its head and shook her a few times before throwing her back towards Sinbad’s ship. Sonic guessed she might overshoot the deck and ran to the other side, getting in her path. She crashed into him, the impact knocking him over the railing behind him, but he managed to grab it with his hands while she wrapped her forelegs around his neck.

While the others helped them, Haman looked on and sneered, “Hmph! It was fun at first, but now you’re all starting to wear on my patience!” He looked down at the ship he pulled up and an idea came to him. He held his staff up, the tip glowing as he said, “You keep them company! I have preparations to make.” With that, his cobra turned and shot off over the water while the magic seemed to course through the ship and a light rain started falling.

Back on Sinbad’s ship, Ali Baba and Applejack were able to pull Sonic and Rainbow back onto the deck. Everyone’s relief at this was short-lived, though, as they began to hear booming sounds. They all looked towards the other side of the ship and saw that the ship was beginning to come towards them, the sounds they were hearing coming from the cannonballs it was firing. “What’s going on?!” Twilight asked.

“Oh great! Haman must’ve used his magic to turn it into a ghost ship!” Sonic grunted.


GHOST SHIP BATTLE


Sinbad growled, “Ghost ship, huh? Well, it’ll take more than that to sink this sailor!” He turned to look at Sonic, Aladdin, Spike, and the ponies and, while pointing to the doors leading into the ship, said, “I’ve got some cannons hidden on the lower deck! If we pound on that thing enough, we can send it back to the bottom of the sea!” He had barely finished his sentence before Sonic dashed towards the doors and pushed them open. Aladdin quickly followed after him along with the others save for Fluttershy. The shy pegasus seemed hesitant at the idea of using a cannon, so Ali Baba stayed with her on the deck while Sinbad ran back to the helm to steer his ship.

Below deck, Sonic passed through an entryway and quickly looked around the room. On both the left and right sides of the room were four cannons, each one covered by a sheet. Nodding to himself, he ran over to the closest cannon on the left, lifting the cover off of it and then pushing the porthole open. As he was doing this, Aladdin ran into the room and quickly selected the cannon next to him. Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash soon took the remaining cannons while Applejack, Princess Cadance, Rarity and Pinkie took the cannons on the other side of the room. Shahra soon found a spare room containing all the materials for the cannons and both she and Twilight opted to do the job of refilling the cannons while Spike lit the fuses.

After Shahra had instructed everyone on how to operate the cannons and how to make the reloading process go faster, Shining placed his hooves on his cannon and said, “All right, everypony, we need to sink that ship! Don’t be too quick to fire; we need to make our shots count!” Everyone faced forward at that, waiting for the pirates’ ship to appear in their sights as they felt the ship moving and bobbing against the waves, listening to the sounds of the ship creaking and cannonballs splashing outside.

Suddenly, the ship appeared in front of the port side cannons and Shining Armor said, “Fire!” At this, Spike leapt up and unleashed a stream of green fire from his mouth that lit their fuses, the cannons going off soon afterwards. The cannonballs hit the ghost ship dead on, the ship pausing and shaking from the hits. Almost immediately afterwards, the cannons were pulled back to allow Twilight and Shahra to refill them. While they were a little slow in getting them ready, they were able to finish the process with enough time for the cannons to pull off another round of shots before the ghost ship began to leave their sight.

Up in the crow’s nest, Ali Baba and Fluttershy noticed that the ship was pulling ahead, seemingly getting out of attack range. When he raised his telescope to his eye, however, Ali Baba was able to see that the ship’s cannons were turning in the direction of their ship. He quickly lowered his telescope and called, “Sinbad! The ship’s cannons are preparing to attack again!” Not long afterwards, the cannons started firing again and Sinbad turned the wheel to avoid the shots as best he could. Despite his ship’s size, he was able to steer around most of the shots, though there were a few that crashed against the sides and others that raised columns of water that splashed onto the deck.

Growling, Sinbad spun the wheel to the left, intending to catch a breeze and get up along the left side of the ghost ship. After a moment, he turned the wheel back to go straight and the sails caught a wind, Sinbad’s ship soon getting back up alongside the ghost ship. Down on the lower deck, once she saw the ship, Cadance called “Spike!” Spike ran to their side at the sound of his name and lit the fuses for her, Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie, the cannons going off at roughly the same time and hitting their target. Shahra and Twilight soon had the cannons set up again and they were able to fire one more time before the ghost ship fired its cannons and Sinbad was forced to break off to avoid the cannonballs.

This sea battle continued on like this for a short while, Sinbad getting up alongside the ghost ship whenever there was a break in its attacks to give Sonic and the others a chance to attack before breaking off to avoid having any cannonballs go right through the deck. After managing to avoid a shot that would’ve likely made a sizable hole in the starboard side of his ship, Sinbad managed to get up along the port side of the ghost ship, giving Cadance’s side a chance to fire. Their cannonballs hit their mark, and moments later, the ghost ship began to explode before it began to sink, the ship starting to break apart as it began to sink beneath the waves.


VICTORY ON THE SEA


“Whoo-hoo! Bye-bye, ghost ship!” Pinkie exclaimed, Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash joining in on the cheer while Shining Armor and Cadance hugged, Twilight, Shahra, and Spike shared a fist/hoof bump, and Sonic gave Aladdin a slightly awkward high-five (it took the white hedgehog a second to catch onto what he was proposing).

After the cheering died down, Ali Baba poked his head into the room through one of the port portholes and said, “Hey, great job, guys! These cannons don’t see a lot of use, but you all sure used them to make short work of that old pirate ship!”

Rainbow just grinned, “Well, of course! We’re awesome! I’m sure even that loudmouthed sailor could see that!”

Ali Baba replied, “Yes, well, I wanted to let you guys know that you should come up on deck now. The rain is stopping and the waters are calming down, so we’re going to drop the anchor for a bit. Sinbad wants to know what’s going on.” With that, he pulled his head out and flew off to drop the anchor.

Silence ruled the room for a moment before Shahra asked, “Well, shall we?” Everyone nodded and they left the room after closing the portholes and placing the covers back over the cannons.


EXPLANATIONS


Up on the deck, everyone met up with Fluttershy, Sinbad, and Ali Baba, and after a short while of explaining, the latter two were up to speed on the situation. “I see. So this Haman guy is responsible for the release of Erazor Djinn and everything that happened afterwards, including those pirates stealing from me and locking me in that cage,” Sinbad said.

Sonic shrugged at his Equestrian friends when he saw their quizzical looks while Aladdin scratched his head with his left hand as he spoke, “Uh, yeah, in a way, I guess.”

Ali Baba looked at Sonic and asked, “So now that he’s resurfaced, he’s trying to gather these… Essences of the World Rings?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. That’s why I thought we should warn you guys. I figured it would’ve been easier to get the Essence from the ring itself rather than finding where the ring was originally, but apparently the Water Blue Ring left its mark on that ship and he knew where to find it.”

Sinbad said, “Well, I did find it and learn how to control it during my solo travels, so I can see why it would be connected to the sea. Interesting how this ‘Essence’ provides a source of life to their original resting places, though.” He looked at Shahra and asked, “You said you thought that he’s also come into possession of another magical artifact, Shahra?”

Shahra nodded, “Yes. I’m certain of it now. That crystal his staff is holding… It has to be a piece of the Eye of Gazeem.”

Ali Baba’s eyes widened, “The Eye of Gazeem? Isn’t that…”

Sinbad nodded, “Yeah. No wonder he’s just now pursuing whatever he’s planning; it probably took him a long time to find that.”

Sonic asked, “You know about it?”

Sinbad replied, “Only what I’ve heard on my travels. I’ve never seen the eye for myself.”

Shining asked, “Well, what is this eye, and why does he need it?”

Shahra spoke up, “If I may, I can tell you about the Eye of Gazeem.” Everyone looked at her expectantly, so she explained, “The complete eye may look like an ordinary crystal, but it contains an unusual power. The most well-known tale is that whoever rubs it gains the ability to pass through solid objects.”

Spike smiled, “Cool!”

Shahra continued, “However, something that never seems to make it into these tales is the fact that the eye, when rubbed, opens a gateway to the Netherworld, the land of the dead.”

Spike winced, “Uh, not so cool.”

Twilight asked, “The land of the dead?”

Shahra nodded, “Yes, where the spirits of the dead reside. With one rub, the Eye of Gazeem can transport the living to this world, where, even though they are still alive, they become like spirits. That’s why the tales say it allows one to pass through solid objects, but once you’re there, you can no longer communicate normally with the living, and the only way to get out is if someone rubs the eye and reopens the gateway.”

Sonic crossed his arms, “The living in the land of the dead, huh? Clever…”

Applejack said, “More like creepy, ‘specially if ya can’t touch anythin’ or talk to anypony.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “How do you know all this, Shahra?”

Shahra shrugged, “I’m a genie, and I’ve learned a lot about this world since Sonic and I traveled together. And I’ve continued learning since he returned to his world.”

Rainbow nodded, “Huh. I guess that makes sense.”

Ali Baba spoke, “So that’s what it really does… If the whole thing can open a portal to the land of the dead, Haman must’ve taken a piece from it because his plan involves the dead somehow. Maybe he’s planning to summon something?”

Shahra nodded, “That’s what I was thinking as well.”

Sinbad spoke, “Then we need to figure out where he went.” He looked at Sonic and asked, “Presumably, he has five of the Essences, right? Where were the last two World Rings?”

Sonic held his right hand to his chin, thinking for a moment before replying, “Uh… one was in the Skeleton Dome, and the other was inside of that… pocket dimension or whatever that space inside of that palace that Erazor Djinn had taken over was.” Aladdin flinched slightly when he heard the word ‘palace,’ knowing which one Sonic was talking about.

Ali Baba murmured, “The Skeleton Dome…” His eyes widened a moment later as he gasped, “King Solomon! If Haman is able to amass a large enough army of spirits, he could be in danger!” Sinbad, Sonic, and Shahra stared at him, realizing he was right.

Pinkie asked, “King ‘Solo-man’? Who’s that?”

Shahra answered, “He’s the ruler of the Skeleton Dome, Pinkie. After we helped him, he told us how to reach Erazor Djinn.”

Sonic spoke, “Speaking of which, considering how warm and fuzzy Haman isn’t, I’m willing to bet he won’t be content with leaving the king as a collection of parts, unlike Erazor Djinn.”

Sinbad grunted, “Well, that settles it! We’ll help you guys stop him!” He turned to Ali Baba and said, “Get the sea chart! We set sail for the Skeleton Dome at once!” The young fox saluted and then ran towards the ship’s double doors, disappearing through them and heading for Sinbad’s cabin.

After Ali Baba was gone, Aladdin looked at Sinbad and asked, “We’re going to set sail right away? I’m amazed you came up with a plan that quickly.”

Sinbad raised an eyebrow, “Plan?”

Aladdin shrugged, “Y-yeah. F-for stopping Haman?”

Sinbad replied “Oh.” After a moment, he said, “There is no plan for that.”


SINBAD'S WISDOM


Before anyone else could say anything, Rainbow commented, “Wow! He really is the adventurer of adventurers, isn’t he? Goes after a crazy sorcerer with no plan in mind!”

Sinbad retorted, “You’re one to talk, especially after that display earlier! You got some vital information that you haven’t shared with the rest of us, Ms. ‘Charge First and Ask Questions Later’?”

Rainbow glared at Sinbad and looked ready to get into another argument with him when Twilight stepped between the two of them, filling in for Ali Baba, and exclaimed, “Stop, both of you!” Turning to Sinbad while standing in front of Rainbow, she asked him, “Sinbad, I’m not trying to doubt your abilities as an adventurer, but do you really think going after Haman without a plan in mind is a good idea?”

The echidna sailor replied, “Absolutely, and if your friend is willing to stop firing her mouth off for a minute, I’d be happy to explain why.” Rainbow let out a huff at that, but crossed her forelegs and shut her mouth. Satisfied with this, Sinbad explained, “Based on what we know, we have a pretty good idea of what Haman is planning. He wants to use the Essences of the World Rings and the Eye of Gazeem to summon something from the Netherworld, but I have a feeling his plan is missing one thing.” He pointed at Sonic and Aladdin, “One or both of you.”

Everyone looked surprised at that, Aladdin asking, “What?! Us?!”

Sinbad nodded, “Of course. That’s why he kidnapped the princess. He knows we’re trying to stop him, you two especially. He took her as bait, to give you the extra incentive to go after him. I don’t know who he needs, but I’m sure he’s expecting us to follow him.” As he was finishing speaking, Ali Baba came back out onto the deck carrying a fairly sizable piece of parchment in his hands. Sinbad turned to him and noticed that he was already starting to unroll it. He turned back to the others and said, “Come, gather around and I’ll share the rest of my reason with you.” The others followed him over to Ali Baba, everyone gathering around the fox as they looked at the chart on the parchment.

The chart was hand-drawn, but it appeared to be well-made, the seas of the world of the Arabian Nights carefully mapped out with a number of landmarks marked on it. Ali Baba raised his right hand and indicated an area on the chart, “We were roughly around this area before Haman raised the pirates’ ship.”

Sonic asked, “We couldn’t have gone too far from there, right?”

Sinbad nodded, “Right. And if you look around this area, we’re pretty far away from any place where we could stock up on supplies. We’re not exactly in a position where it would be beneficial for us to gear up.”

Cadance asked, “You don’t think so?”

After telling Ali Baba to try to figure out where they were in relation to the Skeleton Dome, the fox flying up to the crow’s nest with the chart, Sinbad replied, “To be fair, we probably could go to the closest port and restock, but I have a feeling that the sooner we track down Haman, the better. He doesn’t seem like the type who likes to be kept waiting, and if we’re lucky, we might even be able to catch him by surprise.”

Sonic said, “Sounds as good a plan as any to me. So we’ll just make up the rest as we go along?” Sinbad nodded in confirmation. A few members were still a bit unsure about going after Haman right away, but ultimately, everyone agreed, as they could see the logic in what the red echidna was saying. Rarity in particular seemed quite willing to agree with him…

Sinbad then looked up towards the crow’s nest and called, “Hey, Ali Baba! You figured out where we are yet?”

After a few moments, the fox called back down, “Yes!” He flew down, holding the open sea chart in his left hand and his telescope in his right hand, and landed on the deck before saying, “I’ve got a pretty good idea of where we are.”

Applejack whistled, “That was quick, pardner.”

Ali Baba giggled and then pointed at a spot on the chart close to the original area. “Based on all that evidence available, I can conclude we’re roughly around here. That means it’ll take a little while, but,” he turned and pointed towards the starboard side of the ship, “if we go straight that way, we’ll end up at the Skeleton Dome.”

Fluttershy noticed the dark clouds gathering in that direction and murmured, “Tails- I mean, Ali Baba… It looks like it’s getting ready to rain in that direction… M-maybe you could… plan a new course? One that goes around the storm?”

Rainbow patted the shy pegasus on the back, “Don’t worry, Fluttershy! A little storm’s not gonna get in our way, especially not with me around! I’ll just go up there and push it out of the way; it’ll be just like weather duty in Ponyville!”

She spread her wings, but before she could start flapping them, Sinbad spoke, “Not a bad idea, but I think I’ve got a better, faster way of taking care of that storm.”

Rainbow turned to him, “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

As he turned around, Sinbad replied, “Allow me to show you the crown jewel of my ship.” He then walked over to the stand in front of the double doors, which was revealed to have a compass built into it. Everyone came closer and watched as he began to mess with the top of the stand, first turning it to the left and pulling it up followed by pressing it down and quickly turning it to the right. Once he turned it all the way, everyone began to hear some sort of mechanism shifting, and the hatch doors in front of the stand began to open.


THE WATER BLUE RING


After several seconds, some sort of contraption had been raised up to the deck. It looked like a miniature pyramid, only instead of being pointed at the top, there was instead some sort of blue pillar of light emerging from the top. And above the center of the pyramid, seemingly held in place by four rays of blue light coming from the small columns at the edges of the pyramid, was the Water Blue World Ring, the ring glowing brightly from the power it contained.

Amazed at the sight, Cadance started, “Is that…?”

Shahra nodded, “Yes. It’s the Water Blue Ring. It really was the source of the power we were feeling…”

As he stepped around over to the device holding the ring, Sinbad said, “I’m surprised any of you were able to sense it at all. I specifically had that compartment made to hide its energy from the outside world.”

Sonic refrained from making a different comment and instead shrugged, “Well, I was carrying it around for a while, Sinbad. Maybe that has something to do with it?”

Sinbad replied, “Yeah, maybe. Still, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to give it a look later. Anyway…” He turned to look back at the ring and held his arms out towards it, slowly holding them out as he began to chant in Arabic. After about a minute, the echidna’s chanting came to an end and the Water Blue Ring began to glow brighter, releasing a halo of blue light that spread out from the ship seconds later.

Shahra, Ali Baba, and Sonic turned to look up at the stormy clouds off the ship’s starboard side, Sonic soon grinning, “That did it!” Aladdin, Spike, and the ponies turned to look and saw that the storm clouds were being pushed away, leaving only the overcast sky overhead.

“The clouds are parting? Is that the World Ring’s power?” Twilight asked.

“It sure is,” Sinbad answered. He gestured towards the ring, “The Water Blue Ring allows whoever holds it control storms. It’s an invaluable tool for a sailor like me, and that’s why I made sure he found it and brought it back to me before he returned home.” He pointed to Sonic as he finished speaking.

Sonic crossed his arms, “And held it up in the air for, like, half an hour while you built that gizmo that keeps it in place. Don’t forget that part, Sinbad.”

Sinbad smirked, “Of course I wouldn’t forget that part. After all, it nearly killed you to stand still for that long.” Sonic just rolled his eyes at that. Sinbad then turned to Ali Baba and said, “All right, Ali Baba, you’re on lookout duty, as usual.” The fox saluted again before flying back up to the crow’s nest with his telescope and the sea chart. Sinbad then looked at the others, “I need somebody to bring the anchor up so we can get moving.” He then eyed the deck before adding, “And if you’ve all got nothing better to do, you could each grab a mop from the closet and start cleaning up this mess.”

Rainbow spoke up, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What are we, your swabbies now?”

Sinbad replied, “Hey, you heard Ali Baba. It’s going to take us a while to reach the Skeleton Dome, and it sounds like you lot have had to deal with plenty of stuff already. Whether you want to do something worthwhile with this time or not is up to you, but I’d suggest relaxing while you have the chance.” As he turned and started walking up to the helm, he finished, “Once we hit land, there won’t be much time for that.”

A few seconds passed before Sonic sighed, “I’ll get the anchor. If somebody wants to grab me a mop, I’d appreciate it.” As he turned and started walking towards the ship’s bow, Aladdin and Twilight headed inside to search for the closet Sinbad had mentioned.


SETTING SAIL


It wasn’t long before the ship and its crew had set off for their destination, the wind at their back and the clouds parting overhead due to the power of the World Ring. As he steered the ship, Sinbad looked down at the deck and noted what everyone was doing. Sonic, Spike, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Shining Armor, Aladdin, and Pinkie Pie were all mopping the deck, Shahra was helping Applejack repair the ship’s railings, and Twilight and Cadance were overseeing everything. Glancing over all of them again, he realized there seemed to be a pony missing…

“Excuse me, Sinbad.” The echidna looked to his left in surprise and saw Rarity walking towards him, a smile on her face.

“Oh, there you are, uh, Rarity. I was wondering where you were,” the sailor said as he stepped back from the wheel.

Rarity smiled a bit wider, “Oh, were you now?”

Sinbad regained his composure and said, “Yeah.” Turning his head to look at the deck, he asked, “Why aren’t you down there, helping the rest of your friends?”

Rarity replied, “You don’t really expect a lady to dirty herself, ‘swabbing the decks’ as you might say, do you?” Sinbad just crossed his arms as he looked back at her. The white mare then shrugged, “Besides, there aren’t any more mops. I must say, it’s interesting that you have a ship this size and enough to clean it with, yet Ali Baba is your only crew member.”

Turning back to the wheel, Sinbad said, “He doesn’t mind having to do extra work on this ship. We’re best friends, after all. As for my ship, I used to use travel on a much smaller one, but I got this one during our adventures with your blue buddy after he stopped Erazor Djinn. We went to a lot of places and found a lot of treasure during our adventures, so we had to get a bigger ship to carry it all.”

Rarity asked, “Really? Are you carrying any now? Where do you keep it all? I don’t recall seeing a room that would have been suitable for holding treasure when we were below deck.”

While steering, Sinbad answered, “I keep it all in the hull, but the entrance is hidden.  That makes it harder for pirates to steal, not that I’d ever let any set foot on my ship.” He then glanced over at the unicorn as he said, “And no, there’s no treasure onboard right now. All the treasure I’ve gathered is kept safe in my island home, and Ali Baba and I were starting on a new adventure when we ran into you lot.”

Rarity shuffled her hooves, “So… your treasure is kept secure, but you don’t have anyone watching it?”

Sinbad raised an eyebrow, “Yeah, why?”

Rarity replied, “I must say that’s a bit surprising. You must have so many treasures, yet they’re left all alone waiting for you to return without the company of somepony… special.” She fluttered her eyelashes as she finished speaking.

Sinbad blinked twice before saying, “That’s a mighty bold move of you, making a move on a sailor when you don’t know if he’s married or not.” Rarity looked at him expectantly, so he sighed and said, “Yes, I was married once. It worked for a while, but… well, let’s just say death did do us part.”

Rarity sympathetically said, “I see… Are you still upset by her passing?”

Sinbad bluntly replied, “No. Not once I found out I had to be buried with her. No way was I spending the rest of my life buried alive.”

Rarity blinked, “Oh… Well, then perhaps you’re looking for someone else?”

Sinbad turned to her and asked, “What’s your deal? Are you actually saying you’re… infatuated with me?”

Rarity replied, “Mm, perhaps. I used to pine for a handsome prince, but he was nothing like I thought he would be.” She smiled, “You’re not at all like he was. You’re bold, inoffensive, strong-willed, and you travel the world looking for treasure. And I… I would remain at your side even as you traveled far and wide and stand watch over your many treasures.”

Sinbad replied, “Really? Well, if I had to choose between you or going back into the ground…” After a moment’s pause, he turned back to the wheel and finished, “I’d rather be buried alive again.” Rarity’s eyes went wide and her mouth fell open, her heart shattering at the thought that her newest (spontaneous) crush would reject her, and so suddenly! Unbeknownst to either of them, Aladdin had been mopping underneath them near the doors, and so he heard their entire conversation. He stopped mopping, holding his mop up straight and leaning his forehead against its handle as he looked down at the deck sadly…


SWABBING THE DECKS


The white hedgehog looked up a few moments later when he heard Applejack say, “All right, then, just about done here! Just gotta fix this railing over here and this tub should be closed up like a barrel full o’ apple cider!” Aladdin looked up to see her walking over to the port side with Shahra in tow.

At the apple pony’s words, Rainbow sighed, “Ugh, good! We’re finally done!” She let go of her mop and plopped down on the deck, “I could sure go for some cider right now…”

Twilight looked over at her, “It didn’t take that long, Rainbow.”

The pegasus grunted, “Yeah, well, I’m still not a big fan of this Sinbad guy, Twilight. Can’t believe he made us do this…”

Sonic stopped mopping to allow Fluttershy to pass, the yellow pegasus singing a show tune to herself as she pushed her mop, and asked, “You do know pirate crews typically make you do this kind of thing when you first join them, right Dash? What makes this any different?”

Rainbow replied, “Because he’s not a pirate! He doesn’t even like pirates! That’s what makes it different!” Sonic just shrugged and then raised an eyebrow as Pinkie moved past him, the party pony somehow mopping the deck with her bouncy mane while she pushed herself forward somehow. Even Spike stared at her, the baby dragon coming to a stop close to Sonic’s side.

About a minute later, Applejack announced, “There we go! We’re all done here!” Everyone turned to look and saw the orange pony testing the repaired railing with her forehooves while Shahra used her magic to send away the hammer and nails she conjured up.

“I think the deck’s all clean as well, so once we’re done cleaning up, we should be able to relax for the rest of the trip,” Cadance said.

As everyone started to move at that, Aladdin spoke up, “Hey.” Everyone looked over at him and saw him standing near the back mast, holding his mop in his right hand and the bucket of water in his left hand. “I’ll take the mops and put them away for you guys,” he said in a soft tone.

Sonic smiled, “Yeah? Thanks, Al’!” He shifted his right arm and threw his mop towards Aladdin, the white hedgehog letting go of the bucket and quickly surrounding it with a blue field that held it up before catching the mop with his now empty hand.

As he was putting the mops together in his right hand, Fluttershy spoke, “Oh, that’s all right, Aladdin. I can put my own mop away.”

Rainbow flew up to her, carrying her own mop as she wrapped her free hoof around her shy friend’s mop as she said, “Come on, Fluttershy, he offered! There’s nothing wrong with taking him up on it.” She then snatched the mop from Fluttershy and threw them both at Aladdin with a “Heads up!”

Reacting quickly, Aladdin let go of the mops he was holding and surrounded them with a blue field to hold them up while he caught the two mops. After he grabbed their handles, he glanced behind him when he heard Pinkie cheerfully say, “Clean-up party time~!” She was seemingly still mopping and she was coming towards him! Not wanting to know what would happen if she bumped or hit him, he used the mops he was holding to push himself up off the deck and vault over her, landing crouched on one knee. He then dropped the mops and used his magic to take both Shining Armor and Spike’s mops, gathering them all together along with the bucket of water before he cancelled his magic.

Sonic whistled, “Nice moves, Al’.”

The white hedgehog chuckled quietly, “Heh… thanks.” Without another word, he turned and headed into the ship, putting everything back in its proper place before he came back up on deck and noticed Sonic and his friends, including a distraught (or rather, dramatic) Rarity, hanging around close to the bow. Aladdin briefly felt a pang of jealousy, but he shook it away. He had to be better than that, and he knew what he had to do as he began making his way over to the group.

“Sometimes ya confuse the hay outta me, Rarity. Why would ya do that ta someone who lost their special somepony?” Applejack was saying.

“But… But… Sailor!” the fashionista protested.

Sonic leaned over and asked, “What does that mean? He has rugged good looks?” Rarity looked at him as though he had answered his own question. Sonic sighed and pressed a hand against his forehead before saying, “You know, seeing as you were willing to do that, maybe you should consider looking closer to home for men.” His eyes briefly shifted in Spike’s direction as he spoke, catching the little dragon perking up a bit at his words.

Rarity huffed, “In Ponyville? Please, Sonic. It is and always has been a quaint little town, but there are hardly any stallions worthy of a Canterlot lady like me.”

Sonic regarded her with a flat look. “Right, I gotcha. Would you like some reality with your fantasy?” he asked. Rarity’s response was a glare while Applejack and Rainbow Dash snickered to themselves.


THE REST OF THE STORY


At this point, Aladdin was standing just across from Sonic, currently unnoticed by anyone. Steeling his nerves, he took a breath and spoke, “Sonic?”

Sonic turned to look at the white hedgehog, as did everyone else. While Rarity and Rainbow regarded him warily, Sonic simply said, “Hey, Al’. What’s up?”

Aladdin placed his left hand on his hip and scratched the side of his head with his right hand, glancing down briefly before looking up and saying, “Well, uh, with all the crazy things that have been happening so far, I… haven’t really had a chance to thank you.” At the look on Sonic’s face, he added, “You know, for stopping Erazor Djinn last time you were here.”

Sonic realized what he was getting at and replied, “Oh yeah. That’s all right, Aladdin.” He scratched the side of his head as he said, “I gotta admit, part of me was actually a little worried you’d take that, uh… not so well.”

Aladdin shook his head, “No, not a chance. Did Badoura tell you what happened when he was released from his lamp?”

Sonic shrugged, “She mentioned a little bit. Uh, she said you rescued her when Erazor Djinn came after her and you protected her?”

Aladdin nodded, “She doesn’t have any reason to lie about anything, but I can assure you she was telling the truth. When Haman’s wish took the palace I’d wished for away, that was when Erazor Djinn was set free and he made his intentions clear. I didn’t know Haman had escaped him; I didn’t bother waiting because I was worried about Badoura. My wishes had been made with her in mind, so I was sure he would go after her. We managed to escape her palace as it was being consumed by the flames.” He gave Sonic a serious look, “I understand that it wasn’t an easy decision for either you or Shahra, but believe me, Badoura and I were both happy when we found out you’d sealed Erazor Djinn away forever.”

Cadance asked, “Sealed away forever? How did you do that, Sonic?”

Applejack added, “And what’s he mean by it not bein’ an easy decision?”

Sonic turned to look at the rest of the group and, while scratching the side of his head, stammered, “Uh… Well…” He glanced up in Shahra’s direction and noticed the pained look on the young genie’s face.

Shining raised an eyebrow at the hesitation. “What? What happened?” he asked.

Twilight turned to look at Shahra and noticed she was lowering herself while looking off to the side. Once she was sitting on the deck, Twilight asked, “Shahra?” Everypony looked back at that, all of them noticing the change in the genie’s demeanor. “What does Aladdin mean? Was it… hard for you to seal away Erazor Djinn?”

Shahra faced the unicorn and started, “N-no. …Well, yes, but…” She hesitated before glancing off to the side again. Taking a breath, she spoke, “When I sought out Sonic to ask for his help, to save the world of the Arabian Nights, I… was not entirely truthful.” Before anyone could ask, she said, “I kept… secrets from him…”

Pinkie piped up, “Well, of course you did, silly! You always keep secrets or bad things will happen!” She gave Twilight a meaningful look as she asked, “Wouldn’t you agree, Twilight?” The lavender unicorn blushed and looked away, remembering to keep her mouth shut.

Fluttershy stepped up to Shahra and spoke, “Shahra, you don’t have to tell us anything. I’m sure Sonic can explain it to us, so…” She held out her left hoof, intending to place it on the genie’s shoulder, but Shahra intercepted it with her right hand. Fluttershy looked at her questioningly at this. Despite how dainty her hands looked, she had a firm grip on the yellow pegasus’ hoof, and she was frowning.

“I have no objections to Sonic helping with explaining this, Fluttershy, but I am going to talk as well. Because this is something that needs to be said,” Shahra said. She pushed the yellow hoof back, allowing it to drop to the ground, and looked over at Pinkie, “And I must question your philosophy on secrets, Pinkie Pie. You always keep secrets, even if said secrets could prevent death and destruction, especially when they involve those close to you?”

Pinkie blinked at this, but Rarity huffed, “Oh please, Shahra dearie. There’s no need to be so dramatic.”

Sonic folded his arms and glanced at the unicorn, “You’re one to talk, ‘Juliet’.” Rarity glared at him while he nodded at Shahra, motioning for her to continue.

After Fluttershy stepped back, Shahra spoke, “Erazor Djinn and I… There was a time where things were different between us. When he was still a free spirit, there was a certain… magic shared between us. At least I thought so…”

Shining asked, “Are you saying you were… in love with him, Shahra?”

The young genie looked slightly surprised at this, but she said, “Yes, I suppose. Despite the trouble he caused, there was just… something about him that drew me to him.” Rainbow gagged loudly at this, but she shut up when everyone, even Fluttershy and Shahra, glared at her. Once the pegasus had settled down, Shahra went on, “When he was finally released from the lamp, part of me hoped that the feelings between us were still there. Even though I sought out Sonic to stop him, I did it with the intention of being back together with him, whether that was achieved by him abandoning his ambitions… or him conquering this world and more.”

Spike and the ponies were shocked by this. “You would have willingly let him do whatever he wanted?” Fluttershy asked.

Shahra answered, “That part of me would have, and it nearly consumed me when we brought him the World Rings. That’s not what I truly wanted, but it took Sonic commanding me to do what I thought was right to stop me.” She looked down, “Being forced out of the spell I was essentially under was painful, as what came afterwards, but breaking the promise we made… That would’ve hurt more.”

Twilight asked, “What happened afterwards…?”

Shahra didn’t respond, still looking down at the deck, so Sonic spoke up, “Erazor Djinn took the World Rings while Shahra was down, so all that was left to gain their full power was to kill me. He came at me with his blade, but… Shahra got in his way.”  He looked down at the ring on his right hand, remembering how it shattered into pieces as he muttered, “She died in my arms…”

Silence ruled the air at this admission. Eventually, Applejack quietly asked, “He… killed her?”

Sonic let his arm drop to his side as he replied grimly, “And he didn’t show any regret over it. All he did was mock her one last time.” Looking back up at the group, he continued, “Since he didn’t kill me, Erazor Djinn only got a fraction of their power, and they weren’t bound to him completely. The World Rings containing Rage, Hatred, and Sadness responded to how I was feeling and broke away from him, coming to me instead.”

Cadance asked, “So you only had three rings, not all seven?”

Sonic replied, “Right, but I only needed those three rings, and Shahra’s magic.” Before anyone could ask, he went on, “I’m sure I only got a fraction of the power those rings had, but it was like nothing else I had ever experienced before. When they came to me, I thought I was gonna lose it just from how much they amplified my emotions, but I was able to keep it together and bring Erazor Djinn back down to normal. And when he refused to admit defeat, I brought out our trump card.”

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, “‘Trump card’?”

Aladdin spoke up, “Erazor Djinn wasn’t able to destroy his lamp completely, and Shahra managed to find it in its damaged state before she met Sonic. She told me she gave it to him to hold onto during their travels as a last resort.”

Sonic nodded, “Shahra wasn’t able to grant my wish when I asked her to go back to the way she was, but it did restore the lamp to a less-damaged state. And since he was still bound to it, he had to grant my wishes. I wished for Shahra to come back to life and for the stories of the Arabian Nights to be restored, and for him to go back to being sealed inside the lamp like he was before.”

Twilight asked, “And that’s how you sealed him away?”

Shahra spoke up, “Initially, yes.” Everyone looked at her to see she was once again hovering above the deck, but the expression on her face had not changed much. “But we weren’t sure what to do with him afterwards, so Sonic held onto the lamp for some time. We eventually decided the best thing to do was to make sure he could never be freed from the lamp again, so we took it to the ancient palace where we found the Red World Ring and dropped it into the molten metal in the palace’s depths,” she explained.

At this, Shining started, “You mean…”

Sonic quickly interjected, “I don’t know what’s changed since then, but Shahra and I did not see what happened to the lamp. When we turned to leave, it looked like it was starting to sink, but it didn’t look like it was melting.” He crossed his arms, “If it did survive, then maybe someday he’ll have a chance to redeem himself.”

Rainbow asked, “Still, you guys actually did that?”

Rarity nodded, “Yes, it is a bit surprising to hear. Couldn’t you have left it somewhere and… have him serve his sentence again? Maybe started him on his path to redemption?”

Shahra spoke, “We did consider that possibility, Rarity. We held onto the Magic Lamp long enough to consider all sorts of possibilities. Our decision was not made lightly.”

Sonic nodded, “Erazor Djinn crossed the line for me when he killed Shahra and wasn’t upset by it, but while that may have factored into making him grant my wishes, I didn’t let it get in the way of deciding what to do with him.”

Aladdin added, “Serving a thousand masters turned him from a troublemaking spirit to a malicious one. How likely do you think it would be that a thousand more masters would change him for the better?”

Silence ruled the air at that question, only being broken when Ali Baba announced, “Land ho! Land ho!” Everyone looked towards the bow of the ship and saw that they were indeed approaching a landmass, one that looked like it had a number of mountains.


NO TURNING BACK NOW


As the ship continued towards land, Sonic said, “Shahra and I did what we did with the Arabian Nights in mind. We didn’t want something like what Erazor Djinn tried to do happen again.”

Aladdin placed a hand on his shoulder, “And Haman’s trying to undo it all, but we’ll stop him, make sure doesn’t ruin the world himself.” Sonic nodded and they turned to look back at the land, wondering what Haman had planned for them.

It wasn’t long before Sinbad’s ship reached land, Sinbad steering it into an inlet where they dropped anchor. Coming ashore, the group found a path leading further inland, and while the inlet had some green in it, they could already see a grayish-white powder falling, seemingly from the cloudy sky overhead. “Ooh! Is that snow?” Pinkie asked while pointing at it.

Shahra answered, “No, I’m afraid it isn’t, Pinkie Pie. It’s certainly cooler here, but that’s not snow.”

Spike asked, “What is it, then?”

Sonic looked down at him, “Let’s just say there’s a reason why it’s called the Skeleton Dome, Spike.”

Twilight looked at him, “You mean…?” Sonic nodded in response to the unasked question.

Sinbad spoke up, “If we’re all done gawking here, maybe we can focus on finding and stopping that crazy sorcerer we’re all after!” Everyone nodded and Sonic and Shahra took point, leading everyone down the familiar, dust-covered path.

As they were running, everyone noticed how fast Aladdin was, as the white hedgehog was able to keep up with Sonic quite well as he led the way past the bony remains of various creatures. From what little Spike and the ponies had seen of Silver, it seemed like he could be fast when he needed to be, but with Aladdin, it was likely that his past as a thief had made him focus more on being faster rather than mastering psychokinesis/magic. It was an interesting comparison…

It wasn’t long before Sonic led the group into a more open area. As they were running, Shining called, “How much farther do we have to go, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog pointed ahead as he called back, “The entrance is over there!” As he looked forward again, he saw that, unlike the first time he’d come here, the entrance was open. Deciding not to think about it too much, he pressed forward, Aladdin and Shahra at his sides and Rainbow close behind, everyone else behind her.

Once Sonic, Aladdin, and Shahra had passed through the opening in the rocky wall, however, they were brought to a stop when they heard a noise behind them. Turning around, they found that the bars had been lowered, locking everyone else out. They hurried back to the bars, Sonic asking, “Are you guys all right?!”

Shining Armor answered, “We’re fine, but it looks like Sinbad was right. Haman has been expecting us.”

Rainbow growled, “Well, he’s not locking us out!” She grabbed onto one of the bars and tried to push it up, Applejack, Shining Armor, Sonic, Aladdin, Sinbad, and Ali Baba doing the same.


HAMAN'S TRAP


They were all brought to a stop when Haman’s laughter rang through the air, causing them to all look around. His voice then echoed, “Hear me, servants of the dome! The guests of honor have arrived! Do give them a warm welcome and bring them to me while I finish up my preparations! You are my servants now; do as I say or your punishment will be worse than anything they could do to you!”

Aladdin grunted, “Typical. He just loves to hear himself speak.”

Shahra looked around as she said, “Wait… Something’s happening… I can feel some sort of energy coming from the Skeleton Dome. Haman must be moving forward with his plans!”

Sinbad grunted, “Then we don’t have time for this!” He looked at Sonic and Aladdin and said, “You two go on ahead with Shahra and get down there! We’ll catch up as soon as we find another way in!”

Sonic started to open his mouth to say something, but then Twilight exclaimed, “Look out behind you!” Sonic, Aladdin, and Shahra turned around to see several Skeleton Djinns materialize out of thin air, their normally yellow eyes now a bright red color. They creaked as they shambled towards Shahra and the two hedgehogs, the broadsword blades they had in place of forearms ready to slash as Aladdin and Sonic tensed up.

A split second later, both hedgehogs shot forward, Sonic crashing through one of the Skeleton Djinns with his foot while Aladdin used his saber to cut through another. Taking a moment to look back over his shoulder, Sonic said, “There’s another entrance out there, right overhead! See if it’s open; it’ll get you inside quicker!” With that he stood up, Shahra disappearing into the ring as he and Aladdin began making their way inside, more Skeleton Djinns materializing in front of them.

Spike spoke up, “Well, you heard him! Let’s find that entrance!”

Sinbad nodded, “Right. But first…” He glanced behind him and then suddenly turned and shot forward while swinging his fist, shattering a Skeleton Djinn that had been trying to sneak up on the group!

Another djinn appeared near Sinbad and Applejack galloped forward while saying, “This one’s mine!” As soon as she got right next to the djinn, she spun around and bucked it as hard as she could, its bones sent flying!

Sinbad grinned at her, “Hey, not bad!” Applejack smirked back at him, Rarity growling to herself at the sight of this.

While they were talking, Rainbow Dash and Ali Baba flew up to the ledge above and spotted an opening in the rock wall. “Is that…?” Rainbow started.

“Yeah, I think that’s it!” Ali Baba nodded. He called down to the others, “It’s up here, and it’s open! We should be able to get in through here!”

Shining called back, “All right, hang on, you two! We just have to get up there ourselves!”

Pinkie piped up, “No problem! The Pinkie Blast Express is at your service!” So saying this, she grabbed Rarity with her forelegs and carried her over to her party cannon (which she had produced from somewhere at some point in the confusion).

Rarity squirmed and started, “Pinkie, what are you…?” Pinkie silenced the fashionista by shoving her into the opening of the cannon, at which point she ran around to the other side while giggling. Rarity’s eyes grew wide, “Oh no, Pinkie, don’t you dare…!” Her protests were cut off when the party pony pushed the button, firing the white mare up at the ledge.

Despite being fired hard enough to reach the ledge, Rarity ended up landing without any unpleasantness, landing on her rump and not sliding forward very much. “Nice landing, Rarity!” Rainbow said from above, the white mare giving her an indignant look in response.

While Pinkie was trying to coerce Fluttershy into getting into the party cannon, Sinbad began climbing up to the ledge himself with the aid of his knuckles. While this was going on, Ali Baba looked towards the entrance and saw more Skeleton Djinns appearing. “Look out! More of them!” he exclaimed, both Rarity and Rainbow turning to look.

One of the djinns was dashing towards them, its blades swinging back and forth as it did so. Rarity glared at it and focused her magic into her horn, her light blue aura wrapping around the djinn’s right and causing it to stop as she began to pull on it. After a few seconds of this, Rarity managed to pull the blade free and used it to take the djinn out, also using it to distract the other approaching djinns while Rainbow dealt with them.

Sinbad witnessed all this as he got up to the ledge and, after he climbed up and dusted himself off, he said to the girls, “Pretty good teamwork, you two! Not bad at all!” While Rainbow looked proud at this, the sailor leaned over to Rarity and whispered, “Don’t think I’m going to change my mind about you that easily, though.” The fashionista just gave a huff at this and examined her blade for a moment before tossing it aside, deciding not to take it from the djinn. It wasn’t long before everyone else had joined them up on the ledge and they all hurried into the opening.

A little deeper inside, Sonic and Aladdin were still being bombarded by Skeleton Djinns trying to cut them down to size as they went down a spiraling path. They were managing to stay on top of them, though, Sonic using his Homing Attack to zero in on their weak spots while Aladdin had little trouble striking them down with his saber. As they stopped for a moment after dealing with another group of skeletons, they saw another group materializing just up ahead. “They sure are persistent, aren’t they?” Sonic asked.

“Sure seems that way,” Aladdin sighed as he tucked his blade into his belt for the moment.

Shahra spoke up from her ring, “We can’t let them keep slowing us down! The longer it takes us to reach the Skeleton Dome…”

Sonic nodded, “Right. I’ve got an idea, but I’ll need your power again to pull it off, Shahra.” The genie didn’t respond, but Sonic noticed that the ring’s jewel began to shine, which gave him all the answer he needed. He turned to Aladdin and said, “Quick, get on my back and hang on tight!” Although confused, Aladdin did as he was told, pulling out his saber and holding it in his right hand before climbing onto Sonic’s back. Once he had a secure grip, Sonic looked at the approaching djinns before he got into a running stance, suddenly shooting forward and being surrounded by red as he yelled, “SPEED BREAK!”

Aladdin was surprised by the sudden burst of speed, but he was able to hang on as Sonic blasted down the path, both of them cutting through any skeletons in their way. They managed to reach the end of the spiral as the speed boost wore off, disappearing into the passage beyond as Sinbad’s group reached the area. They saw that there were only a few Skeleton Djinns left along the path, so they knew they were going the right way.

After a few seconds of running along the corridor, Sonic came to a stop, both to let Aladdin off and for another reason: the end of the corridor looked different. There was a big hole in the wall that extended into blackness, and the teleportation device Sonic and Shahra had used to get deeper had been destroyed, the skull from the top laying on the ground nearby.

“It looks like Haman has created his own entrance into the Skeleton Dome,” Shahra noted.

“King Solomon’s not going to be happy about that,” Sonic said.

Sonic and Aladdin stared at the darkness for a second before they looked at each other, the latter putting his sword away as he spoke, “Well, it looks like we don’t have much of a choice but to use it. When we find Haman, we should make sure to free Badoura first so he can’t threaten her.” Sonic nodded and they both ran into the hole, following the path Haman had carved for himself.


RUNNING OUT OF TIME


In the Skeleton Dome’s main arena, Haman grinned proudly to himself as he admired his work. The center of the dome, which had been a cemetery of sorts, had been almost completely defiled, the grass and pieces of various tombstones ripped out and scattered near the outside of the circle. In the center of the circle was a seven-pronged white rune that he had created himself, with six of the seven prongs having a vial containing a World Ring’s Essence within it. Haman stood at the center of the rune, looking up at the hole in the wall he had created, the end of his tunneling through to the dome. Behind him, Badoura was being held in place a short ways away from the rune due to red-orange magic handcuffs keeping her arms raised, and further behind her, one of the dome’s passages had a similarly colored magic barrier in front of it. And hovering high above the rune was some sort of swirling, small purple vortex.

Turning to look at Badoura, he began to walk over to her as he said, “Ah, I just love it when a plan comes together. All the hard work, all the setup, all the… deception can really produce a work of art.” Standing over the cat now, he asked, “Don’t you agree, Princess?”

Badoura growled, “Don’t get too comfortable just yet, Haman. You’re going to get exactly what’s coming to you.”

Haman replied, “Indeed I will, Princess.” Leaning over, he went on, “All of this world will soon belong to me, while you…” He stopped to chuckle before he continued, “You, my dear, shall weep at my feet for all eternity.” Badoura’s eyes widened at this, but then they narrowed as she struggled to pull her wrists free. “Now, now, Princess, there will be none of that,” Haman said, bringing his left hand under the cat’s chin and forcing her to look up at him. He smirked deviously at her, “I’m sure right about now your precious Aladdin is whispering your name as he and the blue rat draw their last breaths.” Badoura pulled her chin free and glared up at the sorcerer while he merely grinned back.

Suddenly, Aladdin’s voice spoke up, “What’s that you were saying, Haman?”

Badoura gasped at this, peering around Haman to look, but the sorcerer was caught up in the moment and simply growled, “I said, I’m sure right about now…” He stopped short as realization caught up with him and he turned to look. Both Aladdin and Sonic were standing on the outside of the large circle, just underneath the hole in the wall, looking at him and Badoura. “What?! But how?!” he exclaimed.

“You brought this on yourself, creep. Don’t you know knocking over gravestones is bad luck?” Sonic asked.

Haman growled, “Bah! You two rats will be the bearers of bad luck… for interfering with my plans!” Without another word, he thrust his staff forward and fired a red-orange beam at them, both hedgehogs leaping into the circle to avoid it.


BATTLE WITH HAMAN


After they landed, Sonic looked at Aladdin and said, loudly, “I’ll get the Essences! Cover me!” The white hedgehog nodded and drew his saber, following behind Sonic as he ran towards the rune.

“No!” Haman exclaimed, levitating off the ground with his magic and shooting towards the hedgehogs. Sonic was down on his knees, about to grab the closest Essence when Haman appeared in front of him and pressed the bottom of his staff down on the hedgehog’s hand. Grunting in pain and surprise, Sonic looked up, only to get whacked across the face by the back of the sorcerer’s staff.

As Sonic was backing up, Aladdin came up behind him and leapt up while holding his saber above his head, ready to bring it down on Haman. The sorcerer retaliated by blasting him out of the air with a magic beam, Aladdin dropping his saber as he was sent flying backwards. Haman then wrapped Sonic in a red-orange aura and threw him back as well before tapping the bottom of his staff against the ground, causing a tall, translucent red wall to surround the rune and the vortex. “You won’t interfere with my plans any longer! Now is your time to die!” he yelled as the two hedgehogs got up, determined to keep fighting. Sonic ran at Haman while Aladdin retrieved his saber, Haman preparing his magic to push both back accordingly.

As the fight continued, Shahra, in her pink ball of light form, silently floated around the protected rune over to Badoura, having emerged from her ring when Sonic’s hand had been pinned down. She remained in this form until she was floating above the cat, at which point she assumed her true form and whispered, “Princess!” Badoura looked up and gave a relieved gasp when she saw the genie. Shahra floated down and held her hands out towards the handcuffs, her magic flowing from her fingertips. “Don’t worry, I’ll get you out of here,” she murmured, Badoura nodding and looking back towards the fight.

Sonic and Aladdin continued trying to attack Haman, but neither one was making a very strong effort to try to get past the sorcerer, often deliberately taking hits (or pretending to) and acting as though they had been cut off. Had he been less self-assured of his victory, perhaps Haman might have been suspicious of their actions, but alas, he was certain that he was stomping all over the heroes’ best efforts.

After a minute, Sonic ran at Haman after Aladdin had been knocked back onto his side, the blue hedgehog grabbing the sorcerer’s staff and trying to wrestle it away from him for several seconds before Haman pushed him back and, before he could react, jabbed him in the stomach with the end of it, causing Sonic to drop to his knees with a groan. While he was hunched over, Haman towered over him and grinned widely, “What’s the matter, blue rat? Your best moves not working for you?”

Sonic shot him a sneaky smirk as he looked up, “You really think that’s the best we’ve got? No need for us to bring out our best when we’re running a diversion!”

Haman’s grin was replaced with a frown at this. “What…?” He began to turn around when he heard Badoura let out a shout, only to let out a shriek when he saw her unleash a crescent-shaped wave of flames at him as she and Shahra came around his barrier! He managed to duck and avoid the brunt of the wave, but the bottom of it scraped along his back, slightly singing his robes.


ESCALATION


While the sorcerer was down, Aladdin quickly climbed to his feet and charged at him, Sonic getting up and flipping back as the white hedgehog leapt up into the air with his sword held high. Haman barely managed to block his blade with his staff and push him back, but he was surprised when the hedgehog rushed up to him and pushed back against him again. Clearly he wasn’t trying earlier after all! After a few seconds of this, Sonic leapt up towards him as, at the same time, a rainbow blur shot out of the hole in the wall, Sonic and Rainbow Dash kicking/bucking him in the face together! Following up on this, Badoura jumped onto his back and swung him around, throwing him towards his barrier. The sorcerer landed in a crumpled heap on the ground.

The rest of the group soon joined Sonic, Aladdin, Badoura, Shahra, and Rainbow Dash, all of them looking at Haman as he let out a growl. As he climbed to his knees, he glared at the group and thrust his staff forward, firing a red-orange beam that was blocked by both Twilight and Shining Armor forming a force field around the group. After several seconds of unsuccessfully trying to break through, Haman pulled his staff back and grunted, “Not bad, rodents. It seems you may have a magical edge over me after all.”

While the combined force field was lowering, Shining Armor asked, “I don’t suppose that means you’ll give up and come quietly?”

Haman merely replied, “Bah! Now it’s my turn!” He tapped his staff against the ground, and in a second he vanished, reappearing within the barrier he created in the center of the rune. As he stood up, the group surrounded the barrier and began trying to break through it. Haman eyed Shahra and asked, “You may have been able to break a small amount of my magic, Genie of the Ring, but do you really think you can get past this?”

Applejack spoke up, “‘Course she will, especially with us helpin’ her!”

Badoura said, “You have to come out of there sooner or later, Haman. You’ve got nowhere to run, no more leverages; you’re only delaying the inevitable!”

Underneath his hood, Haman gave a grin as he said in an unsettling tone, “Oh, I’m afraid you’re incorrect, Princess. I’m not delaying; I’m stalling long enough for this!” He gestured to the vortex overhead as he spoke, everyone looking up at it. Suddenly, it began to pulsate, the vortex swirling faster for several seconds before lightning began to shoot out of it, the purple soon fading away to reveal what appeared to be a starry sky.

“What’s that?” Ali Baba asked. Haman simply chuckled as he reached his left hand into his cloak and pulled out a small vial, popping the top off. A few seconds later, a purple powder emerged from the starry sky and shot into the vial, Haman capping the vial once there was no more coming.

“Shoot!” Sonic growled.

“That’s the last World Ring’s Essence!” Shahra exclaimed.

“Indeed. I’ve done far too much here to move very far from this spot. Why bother moving if I can have my magic do my work for me?” Haman asked as he held the vial up in his hand. He used his magic to place the vial on the empty prong as the group resumed trying to get through the barrier. They all came to a stop when Haman spoke, “That’s one spell complete. Now to complete this one…” He turned to look specifically at Sonic and Aladdin.

Sinbad growled, “Haman, what are you planning?”

While shaking his right arm slightly, the sleeve over it moving back somewhat, Haman spoke, “I had hoped that King Solomon’s servants would be able to carry out a simple task, but still you all managed to get here in one piece. That should present a problem because I’m still lacking something, but no matter.” He reached his left hand into his cloak again and this time brought out a sizable dagger. “I’ll just have to make do,” he said as he gripped the handle of the dagger.

Rainbow realized just why he was looking at Sonic and Aladdin and asked, “You really think we’re gonna just stand by and let you come at us with that knife? Well, bring it on, big man! As soon as you come out from behind that barrier, we’re gonna…”

*SLASH!*


THE SPELL IS CAST...


Rainbow was brought to a surprising stop, everyone staring wide-eyed at what Haman had just done. He’d used the dagger on himself, slashing himself along the exposed skin of his right arm and leaving a long red mark along it. As it began to leak, Haman weakly laughed, “Now… it’s complete.” As he finished, several red drops dripped down onto the center of the rune.

The shock of Haman’s actions quickly wore off when the rune began to brightly glow an ominous orange color and the ground began to shake, cracks beginning to form near the rune. As the orange light rose up out of the ground, Haman brought his staff down, touching the crystal it was holding against the ground. Almost immediately, it began to glow a bright whitish-blue color and something began to spread out from it. It appeared to be some sort of vortex, but there wasn’t much time to look as long wisps of dark purple energy began to emerge from it and swirl around inside the barrier, Haman vanishing as the vortex grew bigger. The swirling energy soon became too much to bear and cracks began to form all over the barrier, the whole thing soon shattering due to the swirling energy creating a shockwave that threw everyone backwards and raised a cloud of dust and purple mist.

Once the shockwave had subsided, everyone began to get their bearings. Sinbad grunted as he tried to climb to his feet, waving a hand in front of his face and coughing a bit. He then looked forward and saw Ali Baba lying on his back. He gasped and ran over to the fox, shaking him slightly as he asked, “Ali Baba! Are you okay?”

Ali Baba soon groaned, rubbing the back of his head as Sinbad helped him up into a sitting position. “I’m okay. I just hit the ground kind of hard,” the fox said. Sinbad smiled, but he soon frowned as both he and Ali Baba looked around, the dust and purple obscuring most of their view, but from what they could tell, they had been thrown out of the circle. “Where’s everyone else?” Ali Baba asked softly.

Sinbad shook his head, “I don’t know. Hope they didn’t fare much worse…”

Cadance looked around worriedly as she climbed to her hooves, having landed close to the outside of the circle. “Twilight?! Shining Armor?! Spike?!” she called.

Shining Armor’s voice called from outside the circle, “Cadance, we’re over here!” She turned and ran towards the source of the voice, finding her husband helping Twilight stay steady as she stood while Spike looked no worse for the wear. As Cadance approached them, Shining said, “She landed pretty hard on her backside.” He turned back to his sister, “Are you sure nothing’s broken, Twilight?”

Although she winced a bit while moving her hind legs a bit, Twilight responded, “I’ll be fine, Shining.” After looking down at Spike and making sure he was okay, she asked, “Where are the girls?”

Pinkie suddenly popped up beside the lavender unicorn and said, maybe a little too cheerfully, “Right here, Twilight!” Although surprised, they all turned to see the others coming up behind the pink earth pony.

Applejack was the next one to speak up, “We all landed kinda hard too, but Ah think we’re okay, Twi’.” Twilight nodded, relieved, though they were still missing their new friends.

Fluttershy looked towards the center of the circle, where the dirt and mist were thickest, and nervously asked, “Was that a summoning spell? What did Haman summon?”

Spike twiddled his clawtips nervously, “If the summoning was this bad, how bad is whatever he summoned…?”

Closer to the center of the circle, Shahra was shaking Sonic as he lay on his side, both Aladdin and Badoura lying nearby, Badoura having landed on top of Aladdin. “Wake up, Sonic! You can’t be laying down now!”  Sonic soon groaned as he began to move, Shahra sighing in relief and then asking, “Sonic, are you okay?”

As he sat up and raised his right hand to his forehead, Sonic replied, “Ugh… Yeah, I’m okay, Shahra. Just give me a minute here…” Shahra sighed again and looked over at Aladdin and Badoura, relieved to see that they were beginning to get back up as well. She smiled softly at their embarrassment when they realized how they’d landed, but she frowned as she looked towards the center, “Haman… What have you done…?”

As the young genie stared, a silhouette began to appear as the dust began to dissipate. At first, she couldn’t make it out much, but as the air settled, the shape became clearer. It was only when she could make out two red glowing eyes staring at her that she gasped, realizing what it was. “No…! It can’t be! NO!” she cried.

Next to her, Sonic was still shaking off the disorientation. As she finished speaking, her hands held up to her mouth, he started, “Stop yelling, Shahra. What’s…” When he looked up, he froze as he saw the red eyes too. “No way…” he muttered as he slowly stood up. As the air cleared enough to reveal the black sclera around the eyes as well as the pinkish-purple skin around them, he shouted, “Erazor Djinn!”
> Sonic and the Secret Rings, Volume Five
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


ERAZOR DJINN REVIVED


The sound of Sonic’s shout was able to carry through the dust and mist to the others, alerting them to what Haman had summoned. Aladdin and Badoura were the first to react, both of them standing up and staring at the genie as more of him was revealed. He appeared to be missing his brown cape, but he still wore white pants with tan cuffs, brown shoes with pointed toes, gold cuffs on his wrists, and a brown wrap around his waist topped with what appeared to be a jewel. He had reddish markings on his torso, arms, hands, and forehead, and his cardinal red hair curled up and around his head.

“By Allah… He actually brought him back,” Aladdin breathed.

“I don’t believe it… This is what he wanted the Essences for?” Badoura murmured. It wasn’t long before the air had cleared enough to allow the others to see Erazor Djinn as well. A full view of him showed that he was about his normal size, roughly twice as tall as Sonic and a muscular look to his body.

“That’s Erazor Djinn?” Twilight asked, shocked.

Her shock was echoed by the others as well, though Rainbow Dash added, “You know, I was kind of expecting him to be… well, bigger since he’s a world-destroying genie and all.”

Ali Baba and Sinbad were both looking at the genie as well, their reactions considerably more mixed. “I don’t… Can the World Rings really resurrect someone?” Ali Baba wondered.

Sinbad growled, “That crazy old fool and his forbidden magic…”

As if he was waiting for the right time to make his entrance, Haman suddenly appeared next to Erazor Djinn in a red-orange flash of light. It was hard to tell if he was still bleeding or not as his right sleeve was covering up his arm again, but it didn’t seem to matter to him, given his demeanor hadn’t changed. “Hee hee hee~! Look at what my hard work has led to! Isn’t he beautiful? I am truly an artist!” he cackled.

“An artist?! You’re an IDIOT, Haman!” Sonic yelled.

Sinbad backed him up, “You already unleashed that spirit on this world once! Now you’ve broken the rule that even genies normally can’t break and unleashed him again, and you’re patting yourself on the back?!”

Haman replied, “‘Unleashed’, my dear sailor? I’m afraid that’s where you’re mistaken! The Erazor Djinn may have caught me off-guard last time, but not this time! This time, he will only be doing what I tell him to!”

Rarity spoke, “You take selfish to a whole new level, Haman!”

Cadance nodded, “If Erazor Djinn’s past was filled with masters like you, it’s no wonder he developed such desires!”

Haman replied, “Bah! Why don’t you all cry me a river! It will be the last thing any of you get to do!” He tapped the bottom of his staff against the ground, “Now it is time to witness success!” As he was speaking, a nearly invisible red shockwave spread out from where his staff touched the ground.

Sinbad noticed the wave when it came to a stop just past where Sonic, Shahra, Badoura, and Aladdin were and became more opaque, beginning to glow brighter. “Oh no you don’t!” he shouted as he began to run towards the center of the circle, everyone else beginning to follow his lead. They weren’t fast enough, though, as just as Sinbad and Rainbow were about to pass over the wave, a red barrier shot up out of the ground, going all the way to the ceiling and then continuing to spread out, pushing everyone outside of it back to the outside of the circle.

Aladdin, Badoura, Sonic, and Shahra looked at the barrier behind them with surprise, but they soon looked back at Haman when he said, “Ah, ah, ah don’t intrude! Work before pleasure, after all!” The sorcerer looked up at Erazor Djinn and held up his staff, which began to glow red-orange as he spoke, “Erazor Djinn, as your master, I command you to eliminate the pests in front of you once and for all! We’ll have some fun with the rest of them later, but for now, begin my- er, our revenge by spilling their blood on the ground!” With that, he teleported away again and reappeared inside the blocked passageway.

Badoura, Aladdin, and Sonic all tensed up as they looked at Erazor Djinn, but the genie continued to hover over the ground, the same hardened expression on his face as he stared back at them. Seeing some sort of hesitance in his eyes, Shahra spoke up, “Erazor Djinn, don’t listen to Haman! You don’t have to keep going down the path you chose previously! Whatever control he has over you, fight it!”

Haman’s voice echoed, “Nice try, Genie of the Ring, but it’s useless! He lives because of me! I own him! Now do as I said, Erazor Djinn, and kill them!” His words caused Erazor Djinn to move, the genie bending over as he flexed his arms inward. As he was hunched over, a circle of red-orange magic surrounded him, causing him to grow to about twice his height! As the magic faded, he floated up straight and then held his right arm up, and with a flash of light, his razor-like sword appeared in his hand. He then brought it down and held it out in front of him, Sonic, Shahra, Aladdin, and Badoura being reflected in the blade’s smooth, polished surface.


AN INVINCIBLE OPPONENET


“Erazor Djinn, please!” Shahra cried, trying one more time to sway him. It was to no avail, however, as with a swing of his sword, Erazor Djinn suddenly shot towards the group! Reacting quickly, Aladdin and Badoura dove to the left while Sonic grabbed Shahra and leapt to the right, all of them just barely dodging the horizontal slash the genie had aimed down at them.

As he landed, Sonic laid Shahra down on her side and asked, “Shahra, are you hurt?”

The pink-haired genie looked up at him, her eyes misty with tears, and stammered, “N-No, Sonic, but Erazor Djinn, he… Did you see him, he…”

Sonic replied, “Yeah, I saw that.” He glanced in Erazor Djinn’s direction and saw him going after Aladdin and Badoura as he said, “Maybe if we wear him down enough, we can get through to him.” He looked at Shahra and stood up, holding his right hand up as finished, “For now, I need you to trust me, Shahra. Stay in the ring for now; I don’t want him to get you again…” Shahra looked up at him for a moment before nodding and turning into a ball of light, vanishing into the ring. After giving it a pat, Sonic turned to look at Erazor Djinn.

During this, Aladdin and Badoura were dodging a series of slashes from Erazor Djinn. After dodging a zigzagging slash, Badoura leapt at the genie while surrounding herself with flames, but he was able to knock her back with a swing of his arm and she landed on the ground with a grunt. Aladdin quickly leapt in front of her and drew his saber, holding it up. Erazor Djinn just looked at him questioningly and Haman laughed, “Really, Aladdin? You actually think a genie is going to be afraid of a tiny little knife like that?”

Aladdin replied, “Maybe not now, but…” While holding the blade in his right hand, he swept his left hand over it, a blue glow coming from his hand. Blue energy began to gather around the blade of his saber, soon forming a blue blade of energy that greatly elongated the length of it. From outside the barrier, as the group was attempting to break through it, Twilight noticed that the blue blade looked similar to Silver’s Psychic Knife.

Erazor Djinn glared down at the white hedgehog and brought his sword up, charging at him with a deep, ghostly growl. Aladdin brought his sword up again, this time assuming a defensive stance. The genie’s blade met the hedgehog’s, but he was surprised when the longer blade not only didn’t break, but Aladdin was able to stand his ground against him. In his surprise, Erazor Djinn was pushed back and Aladdin pressed the attack, both of them slashing at each other for several moments. As Badoura got up and joined Aladdin, he jumped back and made a horizontal slash, sending the blue blade flying at Erazor Djinn as Badoura threw several wisps of fire at the blade.

The wisps wrapped around the blue blade and caused it to burst into flames, though it kept flying at Erazor Djinn. The genie grunted and tried to block it, but it broke through his guard and exploded. Aladdin and Badoura looked at the resulting cloud of smoke apprehensively, sure that Erazor Djinn wasn’t finished yet but not sure what to expect next from him. They soon got their answer when Erazor Djinn let out a loud growl and shot out of the smoke, crashing into the two and knocking them back onto the ground before they could react. He brought up his blade, preparing to take them while they were down, but Sonic interrupted him when he struck the side of his face with a Homing Attack. The hit stunned him for a moment, but he quickly whirled around and punched Sonic with his right hand, sending the blue hedgehog flying all the way across the field and into the barrier!

Sonic hit the barrier so hard that he ended up creating an indent in it. He remained in it as he shook off the impact of the crash, but as he was shaking his head, Shahra whispered to him, “(Sonic, look out!)” Sonic looked up and saw Erazor Djinn flying towards him and letting out a yell, his sword pointed right at him! Sonic narrowed his eyes and, a moment later, pushed himself up and off of the barrier. The tip of Erazor’s sword broke through the barrier, but Sonic landed on top of it, the hedgehog quickly charging up a Spin Dash and hitting the genie in the face. He kept going after the hit, flipping around in midair and landing a short distance away from Erazor Djinn, facing him.

As he was retrieving his dropped saber, Aladdin noticed that as Erazor Djinn pulled his sword free, the break it left in the barrier was beginning to close up. He glanced in Haman’s direction. He couldn’t completely make out the sorcerer through the red, but he could see that his staff was glowing again. He then looked back at where the hole had been in the barrier, an idea forming in his head.

After dodging a slash from Erazor Djinn, Sonic used Speed Break to hit him and jump back over to Badoura and Aladdin, sliding across the ground and stopping in front of them. They all looked over at Erazor Djinn, the genie shaking his head and growling after the hit. “He may be invincible, but there must be a way we can subdue him,” Badoura said.

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. It might take some help from the others to do, though. …I’m open to suggestions on how to get them past that wall.”

Aladdin placed his hands on Sonic and Badoura’s shoulders and murmured to them, “I think I have an idea. It involves him, though.” Badoura and Sonic looked at him, leaning in closer as he whispered his idea to them. As he finished whispering, they had to jump out of the way of an attack by Erazor, thanks to Shahra and everyone outside of the barrier helpfully alerting them, but as they landed, Aladdin asked, “What do you both think?”

Sonic replied, “Well, like your plan to free Badoura while magic boy’s back was turned, I like it!”

Badoura nodded, “I agree, but how do we let the others know about the plan without either Haman or Erazor Djinn finding out?” They all looked to see Erazor Djinn glaring at them and holding his sword up once again, seemingly preparing another charge.

“If I can just get a moment between his attacks, I should be able to pass the message on to them,” Sonic said.

Aladdin held up his saber and used his magic to extend its blade again as he replied, “I think that can be arranged.” Badoura nodded in agreement, the air around her hands already starting to spark with small embers.

Instead of charging at them, Erazor Djinn stomped his right foot against the ground, creating a shockwave and causing rocks to fall from the ceiling. Sonic went first, Aladdin and Badoura following him as he leapt over the shockwave and avoided the falling rocks. The blue hedgehog leapt at Erazor Djinn in a Homing Attack, but a block by the genie followed up with a swing sent him flying off to the side. This left Erazor’s defense open, however, and Aladdin slashed him across the chest, the white hedgehog leaping back as Badoura created a fiery explosion.

While Badoura and Aladdin continued distracting Erazor Djinn, Sonic landed on his feet further away and quickly ran over to the others, everyone stopping their attempts to break through the barrier as he came to a stop in front of them. “Sonic!” Rainbow exclaimed. She was silenced when Sonic held a finger up to his lips. Stealing a glance back at Erazor Djinn, he looked back at the others and made several hand gestures: he brought his hands together and then swept them out, a stabbing motion with his left hand, and a punching sign with his right hand followed by quickly opening his fist. With that, he turned and ran back towards Erazor Djinn.

“Uh, okay, what was that all about?” Spike asked as he looked at Sonic’s retreating form.

After a moment, Sinbad spoke, “They’re going to try to get us an opening. We just have to be ready for it.” He then glanced at Twilight, Rarity, Shining, and Cadance and said, “And if I’m guessing right, your magic will be what we need to ‘punch’ through.” Though they were still a bit confused, everyone decided to trust the adventurer’s words.


PLAN IN MOTION


As he ran at Erazor, Sonic called, “Heads up, Erazor!” The genie grunted and turned to look behind him, only to get hit right in the face with another Homing Attack. With the opening in his defenses, both Aladdin and Badoura struck, Aladdin throwing his glowing blade at the genie while Badoura unleashed a large fireball that pushed him back slightly. The trio regrouped afterwards, waiting to see what he would do next. They soon got their answer when Erazor Djinn growled and stomped the ground with a foot, causing more rocks to fall from the ceiling. Sonic, Badoura, and Aladdin moved to dodge the rocks, though this time they ran away from the genie, moving away from each other as they came to a stop in front of one of the barrier’s walls.

After the rain of rocks stopped, Erazor glared at the three of them. Aladdin was on the genie’s left and Sonic was on his right, leaving Badoura in between them. While he looked between them, Sonic started waving his arms as he called, “Hey, what are you waiting for, big guy?”

Badoura, while holding a hand on her chin, spoke, “I believe he’s, as they say, chicken.”

Aladdin made a gesture with his left hand as he taunted, “Hey chicken, come on!” Erazor growled in frustration and charged at Aladdin first, the white hedgehog dodging to his left and running over to Badoura as the genie pulled his sword free and turned to face him. Erazor smirked as he saw a chance to impale them all at once and charged again. Aladdin wrapped his left arm around Badoura and they both jumped, both focusing their powers to clear the attack.

Sonic, meanwhile, stepped to the side as Erazor brought his sword down on where he was standing and then did a Spin Dash into his chest, uncurling and kicking him in the face as he flipped back. As he landed, Sonic smirked, “Tag!” Erazor let out a snarl and did a quick slash at the blue hedgehog, which simply dodged it and then ran up along the side of the barrier. As he began to run away, he called back, “Catch me if you can!” Erazor answered his challenge, flying after him while Aladdin and Badoura ran after him, Aladdin’s sword once again extended.

As Erazor Djinn pursued Sonic, Aladdin and Badoura ran along his open side, both occasionally throwing an attack at the genie to break his focus on Sonic. When they attacked, the genie would take a swing at them, but it was more to try to get them to back off rather than a planned attack, so, much like Aladdin and Badoura actually trying to hurt Erazor, these swings were halfhearted at best. Still, by messing with him, the genie had trouble lining up his strikes and ended up hitting the barrier instead.

Haman quickly realized what they were trying to do and, as he struggled to repair the breaks in the barrier, shouted at Erazor, “Stop that, you fool! You’re helping them ruin my hard work!” But the genie paid no attention to his words, his frustration growing as his enemies kept attacking, taunting him with their continued existence. It didn’t take long before they were about to pass in front of where the rest of the group was. It was at this point that Erazor Djinn let out a loud roar and deliberately thrust his sword into the barrier, aiming for the spot where Sonic was going to be!

Erazor’s roar had thrown him off, but Sonic saw what he was about to do with his blade and clenched his right hand into a fist as he yelled, “TIME BREAK!” As time began to slow down, the blade broke through the barrier, everyone outside of the barrier jumped back, and Sonic, Badoura, and Aladdin started to skid to a stop.

As Sonic slowed down, he stuck his left foot out in front of him and planted it against the side of Erazor’s blade to stop himself. Making use of the temporary surface and slowed down time, he planted both feet against the barrier and cancelled the Time Break, pushing off with all of his strength. He struck Erazor in the face and landed a second later. As he, Aladdin, and Badoura ran away from the genie, he called back, “That doesn’t count!” Erazor let out a growl at that and removed his sword from the barrier, turning to pursue the trio.

As Erazor’s sword was removed from the barrier, it left a large, gaping hole in the red wall. Once he was sure that the genie was distracted, Sinbad spoke, “Now’s our chance to open it up!”

At this, Shining said, “Let’s get in there!” He, Cadance, Rarity, and Twilight galloped forward, the hole already beginning to close as Haman tried to shut them out. They managed to get their horns into the hole before it could close completely, Twilight and Shining Armor stood crouched down low while Rarity and Cadance stood above them side by side. As they all began to charge their magic, Shining grunted, “If we can interrupt the magic here…”

Cadance nodded, “It should shatter the whole thing!”

On the other side of the chamber, Haman yelled, “No, no, no! You will all stay right where you are!” The red-orange glow surrounding his staff seemed to intensify at his words.

Back with the group, Rarity suddenly let out a yelp as she stepped back slightly, as did Twilight, Cadance, and Shining Armor. “What’s wrong?!” Rainbow asked.

“He’s… trying to push us back!” Twilight exclaimed as she tried to stand her ground.

“We need to focus or we won’t get through!” Cadance said. A second later, she suddenly felt something press hard against her from behind. Although she couldn’t look back, it was Pinkie pressing her head up against the pink alicorn.

As the others joined in, Ali Baba, as he helped Twilight, said, “You focus! We’ll help you!” With the extra push helping to counter Haman’s magic, the four magic users could focus on their task, their horns glowing brighter as they readied their magic. After several seconds, a bright white light and a loud whooshing sound filled the air, managing to catch Sonic, Badoura, Aladdin, and Erazor Djinn’s attention. The bright light forced them to avert their gaze, but seconds after the whooshing died down, it was followed by the loud sound of glass breaking as the barrier shattered into pieces.


CHARGE!


Moments later, both Sinbad and Shining Armor called, “ATTACK!” At this call, Rainbow Dash shot out of the remnants of the white light carrying Ali Baba with her forehooves, who in turn was carrying Rarity with his right hand. The pegasus shot straight towards Erazor Djinn, letting go of Ali Baba when they were close enough, all three hitting the genie with a flying kick together, causing him to grunt as they leapt back.

That was not the end, though. As she and the others ran forward, Twilight charged up a horizontal Mystic Blade, finishing it and launching it at Erazor at the same time Aladdin threw his blue magic sword at the genie, both hitting him in the chest. Both Spike and Badoura unleashed fire on the spirit as Cadance and Shining fired magic beams from their horns at his face. Sonic leapt into Pinkie’s Party Cannon and was fired at Erazor’s chest as she shouted “Sonic Power Cannon!” As the hedgehog landed, Applejack leapt onto his back and used him to get the extra height needed to buck the genie in the stomach, followed by Sinbad jumping up and punching him in the face as hard as he could. As he was knocked back, Erazor’s sword flew out of his hand, disappearing when it hit the ground, and he fell to his knees, panting heavily.

As the group stood together looking at the genie, Aladdin said, “I think he’s down for the moment.”

Applejack nodded, “Yup. Ah don’t think he’s gettin’ back up anytime soon.”

Twilight wondered, “But what do we do with him now?”

Shining looked at Cadance and asked, “Cadance, do you think your magic could break Haman’s hold on him?”

The pink alicorn replied, “Maybe…”

Shahra leapt from her ring, taking on her normal form as she floated off to the side. She spoke, “Wait! Let me try talking to him first! I… Maybe he’ll listen.” She looked at Fluttershy and asked, “Fluttershy, do you think you could…?” The yellow pegasus caught onto what she was saying and nodded, walking over to Shahra and staying at her side as she floated towards Erazor. Everyone else watched carefully, waiting to see what the genie would do.

As the two got closer, Erazor raised his head and glared at them, letting out a snarl. Both Shahra and Fluttershy stopped at this, but while Shahra looked at him worryingly, Fluttershy steadied herself and narrowed her eyes slightly before she resumed walking. This kind of behavior wasn’t unusual for her; plenty of the animals she knew had acted similarly towards her the first time she approached them, but she was able to calm all of them down fairly easily, so even though Erazor wasn’t an animal, she was sure her experience would be helpful here. She was only stopped when Haman yelled, “Bah!” The sorcerer suddenly teleported close to Erazor’s left side and held his staff up in Fluttershy’s direction, causing her to gasp fearfully.

“Fluttershy!” Shahra and Rainbow exclaimed. They both quickly flew up to the pegasus and got slightly in front of her, Shahra on Fluttershy’s left and Rainbow on her right, both of them ready to defend her.

Haman glared at them for a moment before saying, “As usual, if I want something done, I have to do it myself!” He turned to Erazor, his staff beginning to glow again as he said, “Erazor Djinn, I order you to give me your power! Grant me your genie powers and I will destroy them all!” Everyone gasped at this and looked at Erazor Djinn, but the genie remained panting on his knees. Haman growled and fired a beam from his staff at the side of Erazor’s face before saying, “Didn’t you hear me?! I revived you; you serve me! Give me your power, NOW!”


UNSTABLE FOOTING


When there was still no response from Erazor, he fired another beam at his face, and this time he seemed to get his attention as the genie turned his head left to glare down at the sorcerer. Haman hesitated at this, but he shook the surprise off and fired another beam at Erazor. This time, the genie held his right hand up in front of his face, the beam hitting his palm and not doing anything. After the beam stopped, in one quick movement, Erazor swept his left arm out and hit Haman’s hand, causing him to stumble while the staff was knocked out of the circle.

Haman stared at where the staff had landed for a moment before turning back to Erazor Djinn, only to see that the genie was once again hovering over the ground. Before Haman had a chance to react, Erazor reached down and grabbed him with his right hand, lifting him up until the genie’s face was all he could see. He then slowly spoke, in that same deep yet ghostly voice he had been using, “I serve… NO ONE!” As he finished speaking, he released Haman and then unleashed purple beam from his palm at him, the sorcerer screaming as he was pushed back until he was outside of the circle, at which point the beam surrounded him, forming a transparent, spherical barrier that was almost too small for him, all of his limbs cramped inside of it.

“Oh… That’s not good,” Sonic muttered at this.

“Yeah, no kidding. Way to go, Haman!” Sinbad growled. Erazor Djinn glared at the sorcerer for a short while as his prison held him a short distance above the ground, the sphere beginning to float away. While he was distracted, Cadance quietly released a pink heart from her horn, hoping it would have an effect on him, but the genie turned around before it had reached the halfway point. He glared at it and held out his right hand, lightning sparking from it that turned the heart black and made it burst.

He then glared at the group for a moment before hunching over again, though this time the magic that surrounded him was dark purple. As he straightened up, seven streaks of colored light circled him before shooting up towards the top of the Skeleton Dome, exploding when they hit the ceiling. Everyone looked up in surprise as it looked like the explosions had weakened it greatly. They were proven right as a large boulder broke free seconds later and fell towards the ground, a couple of smaller boulders falling with it. “Move it!” Sonic called as he turned around, everyone scrambling to get out of the circle. Shahra and Rainbow grabbed Fluttershy and got out with the others just moments before the boulders landed, the center of the circle almost buried. And all the while, Erazor Djinn was growing larger…

As everybody caught their breath, Twilight asked, “What’s going on? What’s Erazor Djinn doing?”

Ali Baba panted, “I have no idea. With all of his talk, I thought Haman really did have Erazor Djinn under his control…”

Shahra thought for a moment before saying, “I think his spell wasn’t cast correctly. Sinbad was right again.”

Badoura looked up at her, “What do you mean, Shahra?”

The young genie replied, “When we were coming here, Sinbad speculated that Haman needed Sonic and Aladdin for something. Considering the dark nature of the magic he used, that must’ve been what he meant when he said he would ‘make do’…”

Aladdin soon caught onto what she was suggesting and asked, “He needed OUR blood to complete the spell?!”

Shahra nodded, “I think so. Most dark magic that I’m familiar with usually does require a more pure sacrifice.” Looking back at Erazor as he continued to grow, she said, “By using his own blood, though, he brought Erazor Djinn back as something worse than before: a monster!”

Sinbad growled, “If that’s the case, then ruling over worlds might not be enough for him. He’d probably rather destroy them instead!”

Rainbow looked at Shahra and asked, “Shahra, how can we stop him?”

The pink-haired genie looked up at Erazor Djinn. The genie had stopped growing, by now his head being close to the top of the dome and his feet hovering over the circle. After a moment, she spoke, “We have to drain the Essences from him somehow. They’re giving him his power; if he doesn’t have them, surely he won’t be able to maintain a physical form!”

Pinkie asked, “How do we do that?”

Sonic suggested, “What if we reopen that portal? Make sure he goes back to the other side?”

Shahra spoke, “Yes… Yes, that might work! If we can reverse the spell, the Essences should be removed as well!” She then eyed the center of the circle, “But to do that, we’ll need to use the rune that Haman placed…”

Applejack groaned, “Well, ain’t that just…” She was cut off when a loud crackling sound came from overhead. Everyone looked up to see that Erazor Djinn was forming a purple sphere between his hands, the sphere growing bigger as he charged it more. “What’s he doin’?!” Applejack cried.

“He’s trying to escape! With the dome as damaged as it is, it shouldn’t be too hard for him to escape!” Ali Baba exclaimed.

“He needs to be close for this to work! If he escapes from here…” Shahra trailed off. Sonic looked up at the large genie, thinking for several seconds. He then looked down at the ring on his finger as he raised his right hand up and used his left hand to rub it. Shahra immediately snapped to attention at this and bowed, “Oh Master, how may I serve you?”

Sonic looked at her and said, “I wish for magic carpets, Shahra! Magic carpets for everyone!” Shahra nodded and held her arms out, using her magic to create small magic carpets big enough for everyone to stand on.

While she was doing this, Badoura looked at Sonic and asked, “What are you thinking?”

Sonic replied, “I’m thinking we’ve got a chance here!”

A magic carpet flew next to Twilight and stopped, hovering in the air. She looked down at it for a moment before looking back at Sonic and asking, “What plan do you have in mind? What are we going to do?”

Sonic answered, “It’s simple! We need to get that rune uncovered, and we need to make sure Erazor doesn’t leave! If you’ve got the magic and/or the strength to move heavy rocks, then you’ll handle that part!” He jerked a thumb up at Erazor Djinn, “The rest of us will get his attention! We’ll buy you the time you need!”

Shining nodded, “Sounds like a plan to me!”

Rainbow pushed the carpet next to her away as she said, “I don’t think I need a rug for this! I’m much faster with my wings; I’ll get that genie’s attention!”

Sinbad looked at Sonic, “Applejack and I will help with the unearthing, but once that’s done, we’ll be right up to help you!”

The orange earth pony nodded, “Until then, hit him once for us!” Everyone soon knew what they had to do and they moved to do, everyone except Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Shahra taking a carpet to help. Shahra, Sinbad, Twilight, Rarity, Applejack, Cadance, and Shining flew towards the pile of rocks in the circle while everyone else flew up to distract Erazor Djinn.


RACING AGAINST TIME AND PATIENCE


As the sphere he was creating began to get bigger than his hands, Erazor Djinn grinned to himself, “Yes… Yes! Soon, very soon…”

Rainbow shouted, “Yeah, very soon, you’re going back where you came from, pal!” Erazor raised an eye and looked around his sphere to see the pegasus flying up at him, everyone else coming up behind her. He grunted and looked back at his sphere, ignoring her. Rainbow just grinned and said, “Hey, come on, big guy! Since we’re not gonna be seeing each other for a while, let me give you a Rainblow dry for the road!” She shot up to his face and began to fly around Erazor in a tight circle, leaving a swirling rainbow trail around his head. He growled at what she was doing, but he tried to remain focused. Despite this, the sphere between his hands began to shrink.

Seeing this, Aladdin placed his left hand over his saber and created the blue blade once again. As he finished, Badoura called over to him, “Aladdin!” The white hedgehog looked at her as she raised her right hand and created a small flame. She then sent it flying towards him, the flame going into the blue blade and changing it to a flaming blade again.

“Thanks, Badoura!” Aladdin called back. His carpet then shot towards the sphere and he jabbed the flaming blade into it until only the hilt was sticking out. He then quickly turned and flew away as the sword interrupted the gathering magic. Seconds later, Rainbow flew away from Erazor moments before the sphere exploded in his face, causing him to growl as Aladdin’s saber was sent flying.

While Spike went to retrieve the sword, Sonic, Ali Baba, and Badoura quickly shot towards Erazor’s face, all of them attacking once they were close enough. He soon recovered, however, and used his magic to immobilize them and push them back as he said, “Insignificant specks! You will be the first to fall!”

Pinkie piped up, “Not before we have a party, you big meanie!” Erazor looked up to see that the pink pony had flown above the others and was now flying towards him with her party cannon out. She fired at him, confetti and streamers hitting him in the face, a few pieces even hitting around his eyes. This caused him to release Sonic, Badoura, and Ali Baba while he wiped the offending party favors off of his face.

When he was finished, he opened his eyes to see Fluttershy hovering in front of him, attempting to use The Stare on him. While he did flinch initially, any power she had over him was quickly lost and he raised his right hand to swipe at her. Thankfully, Ali Baba swooped in on his carpet to get her out of the way, just missing getting hit by the genie’s arm. As he glared at the two of them, Sonic, Rainbow, Badoura, Pinkie, Aladdin, and Spike shot towards Erazor to attack him again.

While they continued to distract Erazor Djinn, down on the ground, Sinbad, Shahra, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Shining Armor, and Cadance were working diligently to remove the boulders that had fallen from the ceiling. The magic carpets made moving the smaller rocks out easier while magic took care of a few of the larger ones, but the big hurdle was the large boulder that had been knocked loose from the ceiling, and it was completely covering the rune.

“Any chance this boulder can be lifted with magic?” Sinbad asked.

“I think this one might take a bit of time and combined effort to move,” Cadance said.

Rarity wailed, “Isn’t there any way we could remove it faster?” As if to answer her, Rainbow suddenly shot downwards before sharply angling herself upwards, having kicked off a Sonic Rainboom in an attempt to distract Erazor. The force from it stunned everyone for several moments, but when they looked back at the boulder, they saw cracks lining its surface.

Shining spoke, “If that shockwave had been much stronger, it would’ve shattered the boulder!”

Rarity gasped to herself, “Wait… This is just like…” She then called to the others, “I think we can break it into smaller pieces now!”

Twilight nodded, “You’re right, Rarity! If we can make it smaller, it should be easier to remove!” Everyone else nodded in agreement and they all got to work, Applejack and Sinbad jumping off their carpets onto the boulder to stomp and punch it to chip away at it while the others threw the broken pieces out. It wasn’t long before both Sinbad and Applejack jumped back onto their carpets and Twilight and Cadance grabbed the boulder, now barely half of its original size, and threw it out of the circle, revealing the faded rune underneath.

Upon seeing the rune, Shahra said, “We need to repair and recharge the rune before we can use it!”

Sinbad called, “We’ve done our part! It’s all up to you now!” With that, both he and Applejack flew up to join in the aerial skirmish while Shining, Twilight, Rarity, and Cadance jumped off of their carpets and, after Shahra explained what they had to do, they all began to use their magic to fix the rune.

Sonic spotted Sinbad and Applejack as they flew up and called, “Hey, Sinbad, AJ, you made it!” Everyone else noticed them as well at this.

Sinbad called back, “Hoped you saved some for us!” Erazor growled at this and swiped his right hand down at the two.

They managed to dodge it and Applejack called, “Let’s try hittin’ him in another spot where it hurts!” Sinbad nodded and they both flew towards his abdomen, where they both began punching and bucking him in the stomach. Erazor ignored what they were doing as it didn’t hurt much down there, but after a couple of seconds, he let out a groan as he held a hand to his stomach. Seeing this, Sinbad and Applejack flew out of the way as the latter said, “Yeah! Bet ya didn’t know ya could have an upset stomach, did ya?” Seeing their chance, everyone moved in and began attacking again.

Erazor growled at this and soon straightened up, quickly smacking everyone away with a sweep of his left arm. “You filthy vermin! I’m done wasting my time with all of you!” He held up his arms and began creating lightning that came down from overhead in multiple places, trying to hit the group. They all broke off for the moment, trying to dodge the bolts until they died down, at which point they each moved back in to attack.

About a minute later, down on the ground, Shahra finished reactivating the center of the rune as Rarity and Twilight each finished fixing one of the spots where the Essences had been laid. It was now finished, a bright white glow coming off of it as it pulsed with the combined Arabian Nights, unicorn, and alicorn magic. “At last, it’s ready…” Shahra sighed.

Shining looked at the genie and asked, “What now, Shahra? What else do we have to do to send Erazor Djinn back?”

The genie responded, “All that’s left to do is open the gateway now. And in order to do that…” She turned her head and looked at where Haman’s staff had landed, the bottom of the staff stuck in the ground and the Eye of Gazeem still resting in its hands.

“We need the Eye of Gazeem!” Rarity breathed, realizing what Shahra meant.

“I’ll get it!” Twilight said, being the closest one to it. She galloped towards the outside of the circle, but she planted her hooves into the ground to stop when Erazor’s right foot came down in front of her. Although he had placed his foot down due to an attack from Applejack, Sinbad, and Pinkie Pie, the genie detected the unicorn’s presence and looked down at her. Twilight gasped at this, but she steeled herself and ran around the right side of his foot, aiming for the staff.

Erazor turned his head to follow her, growling as he realized what she was doing. Ignoring everyone in the air, he turned around and held his hands close together, charging another sphere as Twilight got out of the circle. Shining gasped and yelled, “Twilight, look out!” The lavender unicorn looked up to her right to see Erazor firing the sphere at her, which was now just a bit bigger than she was. She quickly charged her magic and teleported away before it could hit her, reappearing a short distance away from the staff. She ran up to it and tilted her head, gripping it with her teeth and pulling it free.

“NO!” Erazor Djinn yelled, holding his arms up; a moment later, an explosion sounded close to Twilight, startling her. She let out a cry and took the staff in her magic, scampering to avoid more explosions created by Erazor. She ran around the circle, trying to avoid the explosions as best she could, but just when it seemed like they were stopping, Erazor said something that she couldn’t understand, and a second later, small pillars of rock burst out of the ground in front of Twilight.

She was unable to stop and, as soon as she got close to them, they they wrapped around her like tentacles. The unicorn let out a shout as she was dragged backwards, the staff falling to the ground as the magic aura around it disappeared. The rocks prevented her from moving much, one even wrapping around the base of her horn as she was held up.

“Twilight!” Sonic, Spike, and several of the ponies called as she struggled to free herself, but to no avail. She soon stopped, realizing Erazor had her trapped much like King Sombra had.

She looked up and saw Sonic starting to fly down towards her. She yelled up at him, “Sonic, no!” When he stopped and stared at her, she pointed as best she could at the staff, “Get the Eye!” Sonic looked at it and realized what she was getting at, turning and shooting off towards it.

He managed to grab the staff, but he didn’t get very far before Erazor shot his carpet with a beam of purple magic, turning it into a pile of thread. Sonic leapt off of it before it could fall out from under him and ran with the staff, intending to make a break for the center. He wasn’t watching where he was going, however, and before he could make his move, a fist made of rock burst out of the ground in front of him and punched him up into the air. It didn’t knock him too high up, but it left him reeling. As he reached the height of his flight, he opened his eyes and looked down, his eyes widening as he saw that Erazor had created a bed of spikes right where he was going to land!

Before he landed on it, he managed to stick the end of the staff between some of the spikes. It didn’t do much to slow or stop his descent, but he managed to stick his legs out between two spikes at that spot to catch himself before he could land on one. He avoided being impaled, but as he looked up at Erazor, he realized he was in a tight situation. The genie would surely counter any sudden movements he made, and he couldn’t hold himself up like this forever…


DASH FOR THE CENTER


He turned his head to look up when he heard Rainbow shout, “Sonic! SONIC!” He saw that the pegasus was waving her hooves above her head. Reaching back with his right arm, he grunted as he threw the staff as hard as he could to her, Rainbow flying a bit closer to catch it with her teeth before turning around and shooting away. Erazor growled at this and fired a red beam from his eyes that homed in on Rainbow, the pegasus twitching as the magic took effect. When the tingling from the magic stopped, she realized that her right wing had become huge! “Come on! Not again…” she murmured, struggling to stay in the air properly.

She glanced off to her left when she heard Badoura call, “Rainbow Dash!” The princess was flying down towards her from above, likely to make it easier to pass off the staff. After another wing flap pushed her to the right, the pegasus swung her head around and threw the staff. Badoura managed to catch it and was about to angle downwards to shoot for the rune when Erazor Djinn pointed his left finger out, releasing a stream of flames from it. The flames hit Badoura’s carpet and, before she could react, burned it to ashes in a second.

Badoura let out a yell as she started to fall, but Sinbad got underneath her and caught her. “Gotcha!” he said as he set her down on his carpet.

“Not for long!” Erazor growled before he threw a purple-colored crescent wave at them. It hit them both, Badoura throwing the staff up when she was hit, and sent them both yelling towards the wall. As soon as they hit the wall, the magic condensed around them, creating locks around their wrists and legs.

The staff, meanwhile, landed in Fluttershy’s hooves. Although she was surprised, the shy pegasus was going to pass it off as well, but one look at Erazor caused her to freeze up. Applejack saw that Erazor was going to use another spell and quickly brought out a lasso, throwing the loop and wrapping it around Fluttershy’s waist. She gave a hard tug and pulled the shy pegasus to her, but Erazor’s next spell unleashed a flurry of winds. The winds caught not only Applejack and Fluttershy, but also Pinkie Pie as she was moving in to take the staff next, all three of them getting knocked off their carpets and falling to the ground.

The staff was picked up by the winds as well and it ended up in Spike’s possession. He started flying towards the rune, only for Erazor to immobilize him. Before the genie could do anything, Aladdin swooped in, leaping onto Spike’s carpet to grab the baby dragon and put him under his left arm before jumping back onto his own carpet. “I’ve got you, Spike!” he said as he began flying towards Erazor, hoping to throw him off for a second by going behind him before going for the rune. It seemed he knew what the hedgehog was planning, however, as he caused a rock to fall on the back of Aladdin’s carpet, sending it down to the ground and sending Aladdin and Spike flying.

Luckily, the momentum the two had picked up carried them the rest of the way towards Erazor, Aladdin’s face hitting Erazor’s left shoulder before bouncing towards his back, where he managed to grab onto the top of the cloth around the genie’s waist to stop their fall. Erazor grunted in surprise at this and began reaching his hands around, trying to grab at the two. Wasting no time, Aladdin shifted Spike to his back and used his magic help him to run up the genie’s back. He managed to get up just below the shoulders before he stopped and grabbed on, Erazor still trying to grab at him.

As Aladdin tried his best to hold on, Spike asked him, “Aladdin, what are we gonna do?”

The white hedgehog replied, “We’ll think of something!” He turned his head, looking around and hoping to find some way out of this situation. After looking around several times, he noticed Ali Baba was still in the air, the fox hovering to the left a fair distance away from Erazor, looking unsure of what to do.

Nodding to himself, Aladdin climbed up to Erazor’s shoulders and got close to his neck before stopping. “Get off,” he muttered to Spike, the baby dragon letting go of his vest. He dropped down onto Erazor’s skin, but Aladdin surprised him by grabbing the staff with his left hand. He then grabbed the baby dragon and, after some slight resistance, lifted him up, his right hand underneath the baby dragon. “I’m gonna throw you now,” he whispered.

“What?” Spike asked, not entirely comprehending. He understood a moment later when Aladdin made a short running start and threw him as hard as he could towards Ali Baba, the baby dragon letting out a scream as he hurled through the air. Ali Baba had to fly a little forward, but he was able to catch Spike, Erazor momentarily distracted by this action. The genie quickly realized that Aladdin was still on him and turned to his right, seeing the hedgehog beginning to run down his arm. He was carrying his saber in his right hand and the staff in his left, the latter of which was turned away from Erazor.

Aladdin noticed Erazor’s arm was beginning to move and he leapt off of it, starting to fall. He didn’t get far before Erazor’s right hand grabbed him by the vest and held him up to his face. The two glared at each other for a moment before Aladdin spoke, “So you want it? Well, take it, then!” With that, he threw Haman’s staff towards Erazor’s left, the genie quickly reaching up and grabbing it. He smirked as he gripped his prize, but it soon faded as he realized there was something missing from the staff’s hands…

Suddenly, Aladdin let out a shout as he unleashed a large amount of magic, managing to get himself free from Erazor’s grip. A blue aura surrounded him and his saber as he hung in the air for a second before gravity took hold of him, the Eye of Gazeem falling out of a pocket inside his vest as he began to fall. Aladdin went into a freefall, reaching for the Eye with his left hand while aiming for the center of the rune.

He soon grabbed the crystal and shouted down to Shahra, Shining, Rarity, and Cadance, “Get out of the way!” The four of them had stayed in the center to get the Eye when it was passed to them, but at Aladdin’s command, they hurried out of the circle. As Aladdin got closer to the ground, he made a horizontal swipe with his saber, the extended blade creating a rush of wind when it made contact with the ground, slowing Aladdin’s fall as the saber flew out of his hand. He landed on his feet, but he winced as his left knee hit the ground hard when he bent it down. Fighting through the pain, he took the Eye of Gazeem in both hands and slammed it down in the center of the rune, the jewel and the rune beginning to glow brightly as soon as the former made contact.

Aladdin turned his head to look up as Erazor Djinn growled loudly, the genie reaching his right hand down at him. Just as it seemed the hand was about to reach the hedgehog, a whitish-blue beam of light shot out of the Eye of Gazeem, going straight up and hitting Erazor in the chest. The genie reeled for a moment before he let out a loud yell as the light spread across his body. He began to spasm uncontrollably, flashes of light appearing around his body as patches of his skin began to ripple.

As this was happening, the effects of his magic were beginning to dissipate. Sinbad and Badoura’s shackles disappeared and they both dropped to the ground near Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy, Rainbow’s wing shrunk back to its normal size, the spike bed Sonic was holding himself over disappeared, causing him to drop to the ground, and the rocks restraining Twilight released their hold on her. It seemed as though Erazor was losing his power, which became more apparent when a yellow stream of light burst out of his arm and shot into the opening vortex.

Looking down at the center, however, everyone realized Aladdin was in trouble. He was trying to run away from the rapidly growing vortex, but he was holding his left hand over his left knee, trying to keep the pain shooting up it every time he took a step to a minimum. He managed to keep ahead of the opening gateway as streams of green and red shot into it, but it caught up with him soon after, the white hedgehog crying out, “NO…!” as he fell into it!

“ALADDIN!” Badoura and Shahra cried, everyone else staring in shock and horror.

Sonic soon snapped out of his shock and called up to Rainbow Dash, “Rainbow!” He then stood up and ran towards the circle, the cyan pegasus picking up on what he planned to do and shooting towards it as well. Sonic reached it first and leapt into the vortex, straightening his body out like Aladdin had as he dove after him, Rainbow flying in after him.

Aladdin gritted his teeth, groaning softly as the vortex pulled him further down. He was being continuously flipped over as he fell and his eyes were squeezed shut, sure that he was going to meet his end in the Netherworld. Suddenly, he felt something grab his right hand and, while he could still feel the portal pulling at him, he stopped falling. He opened his eyes and looked up to see that Sonic had grabbed his hand, the blue hedgehog’s right hand being gripped between Rainbow Dash’s forehooves as she turned around, trying to fly out of the vortex.

Sonic and Rainbow hadn’t had to go too far down from the opening of the vortex to reach Aladdin, but the suction had become stronger inside of it and, despite flapping her wings rapidly, Rainbow was having trouble flying back up. She grunted and growled to herself, her eyes squeezed shut as she tried to pour more energy into flapping her wings. After several moments, it began to feel like she was beginning to move up, but Sonic yelled, “Rainbow, heads up!” The pegasus’ eyes shot open and she saw that some of the rocks that had fallen were being sucked into the vortex as well!

Rainbow narrowed her eyes and, after stopping for a moment to gather her strength, pushed towards the closest rock with a burst of speed and a yell of, “We’re getting out of this no matter what!” As she got closer to the rock, she reached her hind legs out and planted her hooves against it, pushing off of it while Sonic and Aladdin shifted as best they could to let it fly past them. Using the rocks whenever she needed the extra boost, Rainbow flew up to the opening of the vortex, streams of blue, water blue, and white coming in as she went. Finally, with one final burst of speed that was not on the level of a Sonic Rainboom but still powerful, she flew the two hedgehogs out of the gateway and towards the edge of the circle, the vortex now big enough to cover the entire circle.

Erazor saw the trio as they emerged and, as a purple stream of light burst out of his forehead, he mustered up the last of his strength and made a grab for them with his right hand. Aladdin’s feet slipped out of his grabbing range as he swung his arm and, as they neared solid ground, Sonic threw the white hedgehog towards the stone, Rainbow releasing him right afterwards as she prepared to land. Both of the hedgehogs and the pegasus landed on the ground, Aladdin landing on his rear while Sonic and Rainbow landed on their feet/hooves, all of them sliding towards one of the dome’s walls. They came to a stop in front of it and pressed their backs up against it, now out of Erazor’s grabbing range as well as the vortex’s pull.


ONE LAST GRAB


Without the Essences of the World Rings to maintain him, Erazor began to shrink, returning to a more normal size. As he let out a shaky groan, he desperately looked around. Everyone else was doing the same thing Rainbow, Sonic, and Aladdin were doing. Badoura and Sinbad were helping Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy stay against their part of the wall not far from the trio, and further along the wall, Rarity, Shining Armor, Cadance, Twilight, Shahra, Ali Baba, and Spike were helping each other out too. With his shrinking size, Erazor couldn’t possibly grab at anyone. Except for…

He whirled around quickly, feeling the vortex starting to pull him in, and saw the purple sphere he had trapped Haman in. Because his prison had remained in the air, the sorcerer had been floating around the outside of the circle the entire time the group had been trying to stop Erazor, anything he might’ve said muffled by his prison. Now it was the last magic thing Erazor had created to disappear, Haman falling to the ground on his rear with a yell. He looked at Erazor’s sinking form and turned himself around, trying to crawl away to get out of the vortex’s pull and hopefully get out of the dome without anyone noticing.

Erazor had seen him, however, and just before the sorcerer was out of his reach, he reached out with his left hand and managed to grab his left foot. Haman let out a startled cry and looked back over his shoulder, yelling at Erazor, “What are you doing?! Let me go!”

Erazor growled back as he held on tightly, “YOU! I choose you to suffer eternal torment!”

Haman let out a gasp at this and began struggling, trying to pull himself free, but to no avail. While still trying to crawl away, he looked over at Sinbad, Badoura, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Applejack and called, “Hey! Help me! Don’t let him take me!”

Fluttershy tried to slip free of Sinbad’s hand, but he pressed it harder against her as he felt her movements and said, “Don’t do it! He’ll drag you to the Netherworld with him!” Fluttershy looked at him in surprise at that. Pinkie had seemed to be thinking whether or not to help him as well, but at Sinbad’s words, she pressed back against the wall harder.

Both Applejack and Badoura glared at Haman, the latter saying loud enough for him to hear, “You reap what you sow, Haman.”

The sorcerer stared at her in shock at that, forgetting that he was supposed to be struggling at the moment. “What?!” he gasped; he then felt a sharp tug on the back of his leg. “No!” he cried when he realized he had been dragged much closer to the circle. He tried to struggle, but it was hopeless; at this point, there was no way he could escape the pull of the vortex, and after a few seconds, he was pulled from the ground as Erazor disappeared into the vortex save for his right arm! “NOOOOO!” Haman screamed as he was pulled into the vortex.

Despite the two being pulled into the Netherworld, the gateway remained open, still trying to pull anything loose into it. Everyone kept their backs pressed up against the walls at the edge of the arena to avoid being pulled in. The only explanation Shahra had for the portal’s behavior was that the fusion of varying levels of Arabian Nights, unicorn, and alicorn magic had had an unexpected effect on the spell’s power and it was the cause of not only the size of the portal, but also how long it was remaining open. While this would normally be a bad thing, the size of the portal was also stretching the magic thin, making it unstable.

As the group was debating to themselves what to do, a shaft of white light shot out of the center of the vortex, going up to the ceiling. Shortly afterwards, while everyone was staring at it, the ground began to rumble, causing everyone to grab onto the wall tightly. The rumbling continued for nearly half a minute, the vibrations seeming to get worse all the while, before a bright white light filled the Skeleton Dome, forcing everyone to close their eyes and look away. After several seconds, the light had died down.

After a few seconds, everyone looked to see that the vortex had closed, but something seemed different about the center. Everyone moved in for a closer look and found that a sizable, bowl-shaped hole had been made in the ground. It was mostly dirt and rocks in the hole; the one thing that everyone noticed was the Eye of Gazeem, lying on its side in the center of the hole.

After a moment, Rainbow spread her wings and flew down to retrieve the gem, holding it up in her hooves and looking at it for a second before she flew back to Sonic and Aladdin with it, coming to a stop and hovering in front of them as she held the stone out to the latter. The white hedgehog tossed it up once with his right hand while Rainbow landed next to him and said, “Figured you’d want it back. That was a pretty cool move you did back there, you know.”

While looking down at the gemstone, Aladdin replied, “I guess so. It’s not like it actually belongs to me, after all.”

Rainbow shrugged, “Still pretty cool, though.” Sonic nodded at that.

Ali Baba, Spike, Sinbad, Badoura, and the ponies began to move towards the three, Sinbad saying as he, Badoura, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy got close, “I’ll admit it, you three weren’t half-bad back there. Nice job.”

Pinkie piped up, “Yeah, that was super duper! That big, mean genie got totally sucked away along with that meanie sorcerer!”

They all looked to the left to see most of the rest of the group a short distance away. As they were coming to a stop, Cadance said, “That’s right, Pinkie. The world of the Arabian Nights should be much safer now.”


MOVING FORWARD


Twilight nodded, “Erazor Djinn’s back in his own Tartarus, and he took Haman with him. Everything should be fine now, right Shahra?” After a moment of silence, Twilight looked to her side, “Shahra?” Everyone looked to see that the young genie hadn’t followed Ali Baba, Spike, and the ponies; she was still kneeling at the edge of the hole, looking down into it.

“What’s wrong with Shahra?” Applejack wondered. Sonic didn’t say anything; he simply pushed past the others and half-jogged over to his friend, Aladdin slightly hobbling after him with Sinbad and Ali Baba, Badoura, Spike and the ponies following them.

As Sonic got closer to Shahra, he could see that her eyes were misty with tears again, the genie hardly reacting to his approach from her right. When he was standing next to her and she still didn’t move, he slowly moved to place his left hand on her shoulder as he asked, “Shahra…?” Shahra blinked at the touch and the sound of her name, looking up slightly for a moment before suddenly turning and wrapping her arms around Sonic, pressing her head into his left shoulder as she sobbed softly. Although surprised, Sonic lightly put his arms around her. “Shahra…” he murmured, inviting her to share her feelings with him.

Although her eyes were still wet, Shahra managed to stifle her sobs as she spoke, “Oh Sonic… I thought I was over him… I thought I had left Erazor behind… But…” She paused to let out a sob before taking a breath, “When I saw him, part of me hoped he was back, that we could be together again. In that instant, I was willing to let him do whatever he wanted to the world of the Arabian Nights, all of our friends… and you…”

Sonic was silent for a moment at this admission. He blinked in thought, knowing what she was talking about. No matter how much time passed, no matter how hard someone tried to keep something buried, some things just refused to be locked away. He patted her on the back and slowly said, “Shahra… I know you feel like you have to be true to me since I’m your master and all, but there’s nothing wrong with having hope.” He moved his hands to her shoulders and stepped back to get a good look at her before continuing, “Call it a moment of disloyalty or whatever, but you didn’t need me to tell you to do anything other than to trust me this time. That means something, doesn’t it?”

Sniffling a bit, Shahra replied, “I suppose… But still, the Essences were the only thing keeping him alive… Without them, the world would surely…”

Aladdin stepped up and said, “You said it yourself, Shahra. That wasn’t really Erazor Djinn. If it had been him, maybe we could’ve found a way through to him and found another way. But it was just a monster…”

Sonic looked back at Shahra and nodded, “Some of him may have been in there. Like you said, he did hesitate.” He smiled softly, “Look at it this way. If he was in there, he had no control over what he was doing. We probably set him free by sending him back.” He let his left hand drop to his side, “I’ve gotta admit, I wouldn’t have minded meeting the Erazor Djinn that wasn’t set on conquering or destroying worlds.”

While she did sniffle a bit, Shahra raised her right hand to her eye and wiped the tears away. “Sonic, Aladdin, you’re both right,” she said softly. She looked towards the hole again, “Maybe there was something there after all.”

Aladdin came up along Sonic’s left and said, “We stopped Haman and we saved Erazor Djinn from himself. We did a lot of good today, Shahra.” She turned and smiled at him at that.

The moment was cut short when Badoura spoke, “I’m afraid the day isn’t quite finished yet, Aladdin.” The white hedgehog went rigid at that and whirled around to see the cat walking slowly towards him, her hands on her hips.

Aladdin began to back away from her while stammering, “B-Badoura…! I… AGH!” The last was an exclamation as he put too much weight on his left leg after a step, causing a spike of pain. He fell backwards on to his rear, the Eye of Gazeem flying out of his hand as he fell. It flew towards Sinbad, who caught the gemstone with his hands.

Badoura was soon standing over Aladdin and she reached down, grabbing him by the vest and pulling him up to his feet, their faces just inches apart. Still gripping his vest, she glared, “You have some explaining to do!”  While Aladdin fidgeted in her grip, trying to avoid putting too much weight on his left leg, she demanded, “What were you doing?! How could you let Haman hypnotize you?! You of all people should be able to recognize him!”

Calming his jittery movements slightly, Aladdin shakily answered, “I-I didn’t know it was him, Badoura! He kept his face hidden from me! I didn’t realize who he was until he got me alone and cast his spell on me!”

Badoura backed up slightly, but she still held onto his vest as she asked, “You’re smarter than that, Aladdin; why would you let him fool you? What did he do that would cause you to leave yourself open to him?”

Aladdin looked away at that, hesitant to say any more until Badoura shook him. “Okay, okay! He was posing as a vendor in the marketplace and he… he played with my insecurities,” he admitted shamefully.

Badoura let go of his vest, but she kept looking at him intently as she placed her hands on her hips again. “What do you mean by that?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Aladdin talked slowly, trying to find the correct words as he spoke, “I… I love you, Badoura. I’ve loved you ever since I first saw you. But… without my palace, I just… I couldn’t…”

Badoura asked, “Is it that law? Is that what this is about?”

Aladdin answered, “It’s not just the law. …You’re a princess, Badoura; you deserve a prince, especially now after you’ve lost everything. You should be able to get it all back, or at least have a new palace to move into. Me? I may be one of King Shahryar’s servants, but I’m still a street rat. I can’t do much for anyone, and I’m really not anything special, something I got yet another reminder of on the way here…”

Nearly everyone turned their heads to look in Rarity’s direction at this, Spike, Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Badoura being the exceptions. The fashionista glanced between all of the eyes on her before incredulously asking, “What?”

Badoura looked back at Aladdin, having turned her head when Rarity spoke. After staring at him for a moment, she shook her head, “You’re so foolish…” Aladdin looked down sadly at that, but his eyes widened and shot up when Badoura moved closer, placed her hands behind his head, and kissed him! They remained like this for a moment, everyone else looking on with a mixture of expressions, before Badoura stepped back and looked at Aladdin, her eyes slightly wet. “You should’ve just told me. Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to know how you feel?” she murmured.

Aladdin stammered, “But I… But you… But…”

Badoura responded, “I don’t care what any law says. I’ve been enamored with you since I first saw you as well, and our time hiding from Erazor Djinn only made it stronger.” She leaned forward, “You not only rescued me from Erazor Djinn; you kept me safe for who knows how long while he tried to destroy our world. Unable to do anything for anyone else? That hardly seems to be the case.”

Shining Armor spoke up, “She’s right, you know. We may not have been around to see what you did before, but ever since we got here, you’ve been anything but extra weight.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, Al’, don’t knock what you’ve done. I may have been the one to stop Erazor Djinn the first time, but things were different this time. After all, you came up with all the plans here, and you took a big risk sealing the fake Erazor away yourself. Things might be a little different in this world, but Erazor Djinn getting free didn’t change who you are.”

A new voice sounded, “Indeed.” Everyone turned to look towards the opening that Haman’s magic had previously been blocking. In the entryway stood a tall skeleton that was dressed rather regally. It was wearing a white robe with golden trims, a dark purple waist cloth, a golden crown topped with a purple beehive, and various bits of jewelry. Its robe was open around the chest, revealing the skeleton’s ribcage, it held a tall wooden staff topped with a green gem in its left hand, and it had gray hair that had locks on the sideburns and pale yellow eyes.

Fluttershy let out a yelp and dove behind Rainbow Dash and Applejack, the former already spreading her wings and preparing to charge. Before she could move, Sinbad held his left hand up in front of her and said, “Calm yourself, O feathered, impatient one.”

Rainbow started, “But it’s…!”

Sonic interjected, “He’s King Solomon, Dash.”

Spike, Badoura, Aladdin, and the ponies looked at the skeleton in surprise at this as he made his way over to the group, using his staff to support him while walking. “Really? You’re King Solomon?” Twilight asked.

“Indeed I am, my dear,” the skeleton responded as he neared everyone. As he came to a stop, he said, “I apologize if my appearance frightened anyone. The servants of the Erazor Djinn may have taken my flesh, but they could not take away who I am. Try as they might, they could not change me.” He turned to look at Aladdin, “The same can be said for you, white hedgehog. The only thing Erazor Djinn’s escape did was delay you awakening your true potential.”

Aladdin looked down at his hands, “My… potential?”

King Solomon nodded, “It’s been your fate to do great things. Being able to rise to the level of a prince pales in comparison to what you’ve had in you from the very beginning. The experiences you’ve had have merely blinded you to that fact.”

Aladdin replied, “Yeah, but… most people don’t care about that. Like King Shahryar.”

Sonic rolled his eyes, “Oh yeah. That guy’s usually breathing down your neck, isn’t he?”

Aladdin nodded, “That’s why I try to sneak out a lot: to get away from him for a while.”

King Solomon questioned, “Is this king causing problems?”

Badoura answered, “No, Your Highness, he… Aladdin is one of his servants, and I’ve been under his protection since we came to him. He does not think highly of Aladdin.”

King Solomon replied, “I see.” After a moment, he said, “You should not let that stop you. Go to him when you return home and tell him how you really feel about each other, and if he should protest, tell him that I, King Solomon, decree that a princess may choose whoever she deems worthy to be her suitor.”

Badoura gasped happily, but she retained enough poise to bow to King Solomon and calmly say, “Thank you, King Solomon.” She then stood up and turned to Aladdin, taking his hands in her own as she said, “I made my choice long ago.”

Aladdin smiled back at her. “I… I…” he tried to say, but he quickly gave up and instead leaned in to kiss her, a kiss the princess accepted as they wrapped their arms around each other.

While the others smiled at the two, Sonic leaned over to Shahra and smiled as he whispered, “Not quite the ending I remember, but it’s probably a better happy ending for this version, wouldn’t you say?” Shahra smiled and nodded, giggling.


THRONE ROOM SCENE


Soon…

Aladdin sat on the top of the steps leading up to King Solomon’s throne, Badoura sitting to his right and Cadance standing in front of him. The pink alicorn’s horn was glowing as she touched it to the white hedgehog’s left leg, Aladdin trying to keep it steady for her as she tried to ease the damage. Suddenly, Pinkie popped up next to him, surprising all of them when she exclaimed, “Hey, Aladdin! You’ve stopped Haman and Erazor Djinn, and you’ve won the heart of Princess Badoura! What are ya gonna do next?! Gonna get a movie contra- oh, wait.” She gave him a knowing smile as she plopped down next to him, “You probably want to go home with Badoura and tell King Shahryar to start planning for the wedding, right?”

Aladdin’s cheeks turned a slight tinge of red as he replied, “Uh, something like that, Pinkie.” He looked down again as Cadance brought her horn down to his leg again, resuming her work. The rest of the group, save for Shahra, were all spread out around King Solomon’s throne, the king sitting in the chair and watching with the others.

After a minute, Sonic came over and asked, “Hey Al’, how’s the leg?”

Aladdin looked up at him and replied, “It’s feeling better now. Cadance’s magic is amazing.” A few seconds later, Cadance raised her head up and smiled at Aladdin. The white hedgehog moved his left leg a bit before he stood up and placed his left hand on Sonic’s shoulder for support as he flexed the leg. After a few seconds, he placed his foot on the ground and slowly put pressure on it to test it. He soon said, “Yeah, that’s much better. Thanks, Cadance! I should be able to walk just fine now!”

As Badoura stood up, Cadance replied, “I’m glad, and you probably should just walk for a little while. Unless you absolutely need to put any extra stress on it, you shouldn’t.” Aladdin nodded in understanding.

Badoura gave a nod, “Thank you, Princess Cadance.  I hope Shahra has been as successful.” It wasn’t long after she said that the pink-haired genie floated into the chamber, her magic holding seven objects up in the air, which were revealed to be the vials that Haman had stored the Essences in.

When Shahra got closer to Sonic, Aladdin, Badoura, Pinkie, and Cadance, Pinkie piped up, “You found them, Shahra!”

The genie nodded, “Yes, Pinkie Pie. I had to do a little searching, but I found the vials, and they still have the Essences within them.” Indeed, each vial was still filled with the seven World Ring Essences. Shahra floated up to King Solomon’s throne and said, “Here they are, King Solomon.”

The skeleton king nodded, “Wonderful work, my dear.” He held out his left hand and Shahra levitated the vial containing the Essence from the White World Ring towards him. Taking the vial between his thumb and finger, the king’s pale yellow eyes examined it for a moment before saying, “So this is the physical representation of what the seven World Rings bestowed upon their lands.”

Shining Armor nodded, “That’s what that Haman made it sound like, Your Highness.”

Fluttershy said, “He used his magic to steal them from each of their lands.”

Applejack added, “And he made it sound like they were so connected that bad stuff would happen without ‘em.”

Pinkie exclaimed, “Yeah, like here for example! Without the Essence, the world might come to an end! Forty years of darkness! Rivers and seas, boiling! Earthquakes, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave, sacrifice, mass hysteria!”

Everyone else stared at the pink pony strangely at that, but King Solomon’s expression did not change. “I see,” he stated simply. After a moment, he said, “I believe we should see for ourselves how deep that connection is.” Without another word, he released the vial from his grip and it fell to the ground, the glass shattering upon contact.

A moment later, the Essence began to glow brightly and it lifted off the ground, turning into a streak of white as it flew around King Solomon’s throne and then down towards the passage out into the main dome area. Sonic and Rainbow hurried after it as it left the throne room, both coming to a stop when they reached the dome. The streak had come to a stop high above the ground, now appearing as a glowing white ball. As they watched, it began to glow brighter and little bits of the powder began to sprinkle down from the ball over the area. The particles glowed brighter when they touched the ground and then vanished from sight. It wasn’t long before every bit of the Essence had rejoined with the Skeleton Dome, the ball of light vanishing afterwards.

As they stood in the entryway, both Rainbow and Sonic looked around a little bit. After a couple of seconds, Sonic asked, “Do you feel that, Rainbow?”

The pegasus nodded, “Yeah… Something about the air in here feels different now. The Essence must already be doing its thing.” The two hurried back to King Solomon’s throne room to tell the king and the others about this.

“Indeed. I can feel the change in my domain from here. It seems that foolish sorcerer was correct about the connection shared between the World Rings and the lands where they were found,” King Solomon rumbled once Rainbow and Sonic were finished. He turned to Shahra, “I believe that solves that problem. If you would do the honors, my dear…” Shahra nodded and let her arms drop to her sides, cutting off her magic and causing all of the vials to crash to the ground. All of the remaining Essences did the same thing as the first one, six differently colored streaks of light shooting out of the throne room back to where they belonged.

“There they go,” Ali Baba, who was standing next to Sinbad, commented.

“Yep. With all the digging Haman did, they should be able to get out of here pretty easy,” Rainbow nodded.

Sonic turned to King Solomon at that and said, “Uh, sorry we weren’t quick enough to stop him from causing all that damage, King Solomon, especially to the, uh, cemetery.”

The king of bones replied, “Fear not, blue hedgehog. Much of that damage was caused by my servants when that sorcerer took control of them. They will get the punishment of repairing the Skeleton Dome, not you.”

Ali Baba turned to look at the Eye of Gazeem in Sinbad’s right hand and said, “Well, then that just leaves us with the matter of what to do with that stone.”

Sinbad glanced down at the gem as he nodded, “Yeah.” He held it up and examined it as he went on, “I wonder how that guy managed to get a hold of this. Obviously, it took him a long time to find, but I wonder why he didn’t get the whole thing.”

Aladdin suggested, “Maybe he knew someone who knew a lot about magical artifacts.”

Badoura said, “If that’s the case, he might not have even gotten the genuine artifact.”

King Solomon spoke, “There’s no telling how he came in possession of it, but I can say for certain that that stone is indeed a piece of the Eye of Gazeem. As for the rest of the gem, I can’t say for certain, but I’m sure it’s out there somewhere, waiting to be made whole again.”

Sinbad held his left hand up to his chin, “Made whole again, huh? The only way that would happen is if someone were to go on a long journey to find it, going to the distant land that the gem is rumored to be found in and maybe even further. It’s a journey that would surely take many months of travel.” After a moment of silence, he flipped the gem up in his hand and smirked, “Sounds like I just volunteered myself for the journey.”

Both Sonic and Rainbow Dash smirked at each other, “Bragger.”

King Solomon pointed at Sinbad, “If you are willing to do it, you have my permission to embark on such a quest, Sinbad. As king of the Skeleton Dome, I would be very grateful to you if you were to find and repair the Eye of Gazeem.”

Sinbad briefly wondered if the king’s gratefulness included any of the treasure in the Skeleton Dome before dismissing the thought as he said, “I would gladly do that for you, King Solomon.” He then gestured to Aladdin and Badoura, who were standing a short distance away, “But first, I’ll make sure these two get back to King Shahryar safely.”

King Solomon nodded and then turned back to Sonic, “As for you and your new friends, blue hedgehog, you’re all in the middle of a journey yourselves, aren’t you?”

Applejack asked, “How’d ya know that… uh, Yer Highness?”

King Solomon replied, “My position has granted me the clairvoyance to sense the future, and at times see beyond what many mortals can perceive. As such, I have seen that there is a larger evil that is posing a threat to many worlds, even some that you may not be aware of yet.” He turned to Shahra, “I believe they will need to return to where they entered our world from, my dear. Perhaps you could assist them with that?”

Shahra bowed, “I will, Your Majesty.”

Twilight asked, “You’re not coming with us, Shahra?”

The genie turned to the unicorn and gave her a sad smile, “I’m sorry, Twilight. If it were possible, I would have stayed with Sonic when he left last time. But this world is where I’m meant to be, and now that Aladdin and Badoura are to be wed, I want to be there for their marriage.”

Sonic grinned, “You gonna be the Maid of Honor, Shahra?”

Shahra blushed slightly, “Perhaps. But at any rate, I will help you all get back to your world faster.”

While Shahra began working her magic, Sonic walked over to Ali Baba and Sinbad and said, “Hey, it was great having another adventure with you again, Ali Baba, Sinbad.”

Ali Baba nodded, “Yeah. Not quite the adventure I would’ve picked, but it was fun in its own way.”

Sinbad smirked, “Just one more job I won’t get paid for. But since it was kind of a personal matter, I won’t put it on your tab.” Sonic just gave a snort of amusement at that.

He turned to look at Aladdin and Badoura as they walked over, the latter bowing slightly as she said, “Words cannot describe how grateful we are for your help, Sonic. I wish you could stay longer, but I understand that you have bigger concerns that could undo everything you and your friends have worked for.”

Sonic replied, “Hey, just have a great wedding, you two. That’ll be enough for me.” He then looked at Aladdin and asked, “You ready to start a new chapter, you diamond in the rough?”

The white hedgehog nodded, “Yes. You and your friends have really helped me today, Sonic. I did get discouraged and believed that I wasn’t good enough for Badoura, but you all reminded me that it’s not all about looks and status; it’s about knowing what you can do and taking responsibility to do the right thing.”

Badoura looked at him, “Does that mean I can count on you to be a loyal suitor who will stand strong and defend me when I need you?”

Aladdin nodded to her, “Absolutely.” He then looked at Sonic and said, “Sonic, I just want you to know that, no matter what, you’ll always be a legendary hero to me.”

Sonic replied, “Thanks, Aladdin.” He reached down with his left hand and gripped Shahra’s ring between his thumb and fingers. After a second of pulling and a slight flash, it came off of his finger. He held it up and looked at it for a moment before looking at Aladdin and saying, “I know it’s probably not going to be your wedding ring,” he held his arm out, his hand pointing towards the ground, “but you’ll take care of her, won’t you?”

Aladdin blushed a bit, but he held out his right hand, allowing Sonic to drop the ring into it. “Of course! Shahra’s ring will be safe with me, I promise. You can trust me,” he replied.

Placing his hands on his hips, Sonic nodded, “I already do.” Afterwards, Spike and the ponies said their goodbyes to Sinbad, Ali Baba, Badoura, and Aladdin as well. By the time they were done, Shahra had finished creating a new magic carpet, this one made up of all the carpets Sonic had wished for earlier. As such, it was slightly bigger than the carpet the group had used to travel earlier, the carpet hovering just above the ground.

As they all gathered around it, Shahra explained, “After Sonic defeated Erazor Djinn, while traveling the world and having other adventures, he looked for a way to return to his world.  I’ve added an extra bit of magic to this carpet that will not only take you all to the point where he left this world, but it will also take you back through the passageway between the worlds. Afterwards, you can keep it as a memento of the adventure we’ve shared if you wish.”

Cadance bowed, “Thank you for everything, Shahra. We couldn’t have stopped Haman and that Erazor Djinn without you.” Everyone agreed with her, all of them thanking the young genie for being strong and standing with them.

Before they all started getting on the carpet, Sonic turned to King Solomon one last time and said, “King Solomon, there’s one last thing I’m wondering about.”

As everyone turned to look, the skeleton king asked, “It has to do with the Erazor Djinn, doesn’t it?” At Sonic’s nod, he answered, “You don’t need to worry. Indeed, what that sorcerer summoned was not the true Erazor Djinn. It was merely another spirit in his guise, one that desired destruction. The real Erazor Djinn is still sealed away.” Sonic nodded and was about to leave it at that, but then King Solomon said, “Although… it feels as though something is… different.”

Rarity asked, “Different how?”

Twilight added, “Is the seal starting to weaken?”

King Solomon replied, “No, but I sense that Erazor Djinn, despite not being freed, has been affected by what the sorcerer tried to do. It feels as though… he has been broken up, separated into smaller spirits that do not have his full power. But indeed, he is still sealed. Perhaps he will have to grant wishes again if he wants to be complete again.”

Sonic nodded, “Hm. Well, maybe this time, he’ll get lucky and have some better masters, and maybe then he won’t be so bad.” With that, everyone began to climb onto the carpet, everyone saying their goodbyes to Shahra before they took their seat.

Sonic was the last one, and as he approached Shahra, he said, “Well Shahra, it was great to see you again.”

Shahra nodded, “It was. I’m glad we got to have another adventure together, Sonic.”

Sonic replied, “Same here.”

Shahra looked at him, smiling for a few seconds before asking, “Will I… get to see you and your new friends again?”

Sonic looked back at her for a moment, then smiled and held up his right pinky finger. Shahra stared at it and then smiled, raising her own pinky finger. As they joined their fingers together, Sonic simply said, “Count on it.” They remained like this for several moments before coming apart, giving each other one last look before Sonic walked over to the carpet.

As he took a seat on the carpet, Spike called over to him, “What did that mean?”

Sonic replied, “Mm, call it as a guarantee that we’ll be coming back here sometime after things settle down.” Spike didn’t really understand how that gesture symbolized anything, but he shrugged and nodded, figuring it was something he either would learn more about later or something he could ask somepony about.

Once everybody was comfortably seated on the carpet, it lifted up into the air and after circling the room once, giving everyone one last chance to shout out their goodbyes, it flew out of the throne room and began making its way back up to the surface, where it would then take them back to Equestria and Tails.

After the carpet had left, there was silence in the throne room for several moments, then Shahra smiled, “They’ll be okay, as long as they’re together.”

Badoura turned to Aladdin and asked, “And so we will, right Aladdin?”

The white hedgehog looked back at her and replied, “Yeah. No matter what.”

Sinbad smirked at them, “Easy there, lovebirds, you’re not even married yet.”

Ali Baba giggled, then put a hand on Sinbad’s arm as he said, “Come on, let’s take them home.”

King Solomon spoke, “I wish you all a safe journey back to King Shahryar, and good tidings for the future.” They all said their goodbyes to him and made their way down the stairs and out of the throne room, making their way out of the Skeleton Dome. Once they had left the room, King Solomon was silent for several moments, his pale yellow eyes glowing. He then murmured, “I sense ambivalence among them…”


UNTIL ANOTHER ARABIAN NIGHT

> Sonic and the Black Knight, Volume One
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


ROYAL SITUATION


One of the royal guards approached Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the two sisters standing in front of the entrance to the tower where the Elements of Harmony had been kept since the defeat of Nightmare Moon. The doors of the tower looked different to the unicorn, but he pushed it to the back of his mind; he had to give the princesses his report. The two turned around to look at him as he got closer and he stopped a short distance away, bowing to them as he said, “Your Highnesses.”

Princess Celestia nodded and asked, “Yes?”

The guard stood up tall and said, “Flash Sentry and the rest of the guards have secured the castle. Prince Blueblood is being kept in his room by a small unit, and no signs of intrusion have been detected. The cooks in the kitchen did say that some of the foods they were making, particularly several cakes, have gone missing, but none of the other castle staff had anything to report.”

Celestia was silent for a moment before replying, “Thank you. You and the other guards may return to your posts now. We are expecting Twilight Sparkle and her friends on the next train to Canterlot. Please let the guards at the gates know that they should let them in, and tell the guards from the precinct that they should continue to keep the citizens inside their houses until this crisis is resolved.” The guard bowed and saluted, turning and heading back towards the castle to report back and pass on the princess’ orders.

Once the guard was gone, Celestia and Luna turned back to the tower, looking up at the tower doors. The rest of the castle may have not shown any signs of abnormalities, but the doors were not supposed to look the way they did. They were red and they each had a hole on them that looked big enough for an alicorn’s horn. Above the holes were outlined carvings; above the left hole, the carvings were shaped like a balloon, a diamond, and a butterfly, and over the right hole, they looked like an apple, a six-pronged star, and a lightning bolt. And in the middle, on both of the doors and surrounded by the other carvings, was a ring.

Luna spoke up after a moment, “Sister, these doors may be just like the doors inside the tower. We should try using our magic inside of those holes; that will likely make them open.”

Celestia did not respond right away, instead thinking about the doors. They had already tried to push them open with their hooves and magic when they’d arrived earlier, but they wouldn’t budge. She agreed with Luna’s theory, but something had to have altered the doors to be like this. Would they be ready for whatever lay on the other side?

Finally, she spoke, “I don’t think we should do that without Twilight and her friends here, Luna. We don’t know what’s in there.”

Luna looked over at the white alicorn and said, “Surely that creature is in there! No doubt it has made this tower its nest!”

Celestia replied, “Yes, but we may need the power of the Elements of Harmony and potentially the Chaos Emeralds to calm it. You saw how Sonic’s friends barely repelled it earlier; it could be too much for us alone.”

Luna asked, “So what do you suggest we do? Simply wait until their train arrives?” She got her answer when Celestia turned away from the doors and sat down. Luna sighed as she turned and sat down next to her, “Why must we always sit around when the fate of Equestria is at stake?”

Celestia simply replied, “We’ve always waited, whether it’s for bad news like when we were warned about Sombra, or for good news such as Twilight and her friends protecting Equestria. I know it’s hard, Luna, but it’s something we had to accept when we became princesses.”

Luna sighed again, “That’s what bothers me sometimes. We can act, but we always seem to have other concerns to worry about as well.” She looked at Celestia, “How do you manage it so well? How are you able to be so patient all the time?”

Celestia turned her head slightly to look over at the younger alicorn, speaking softly, “I had to wait a thousand years to see you again, Luna, hoping every day that, when the time came, we could put the past behind us. For me, no other wait could ever be more agonizing than that.”

Luna couldn’t find any words to properly respond to that, so she decided to drop it. Looking in the direction of the train station, she said, “They’ll be here soon. They may be slowed down by the vortexes like we were, but that won’t stop them, right?”

Celestia nodded, “They know how to resolve problems, and they all work together quite well. They might be delayed, but they’ll get here.”

________________________________________


BACK WITH TAILS


Tails sighed as he stuck his head out from under the Friendship Express’ engine. “Even though we’re in the middle of all this white space, it sure is warm under there,” he said, waving his right hand at his face to fan himself. The repairs were taking a little longer than expected. The fox had to admit, he was a little rusty when it came to steam engines. He glanced towards the cars behind the engine, wondering what the others were doing. “I’m a little surprised nobody’s come to check in with me considering how long this is taking. Maybe they’re trying to avoid making it take longer…” he muttered.

He soon carefully flipped himself over onto his rump and looked up at the engine. “Back home, a train like this might be considered an antique. I wonder if it would be rare enough that someone might consider putting it in a museum,” he thought to himself aloud in an effort to clear his head. After a few seconds, he nodded to himself, “Right, back to work!” He then pushed himself back under the engine to get the last pieces in place. His friends were counting on him to do this, and he wasn’t going to keep them waiting.

________________________________________


THE WAY BACK TO EQUESTRIA


“Wow… This is amazing,” Twilight murmured as she looked around. The magic carpet Shahra had created for the group had flown them out of the Skeleton Dome and over the sea back to the desert. It wasn’t long after that that the carpet had entered the same tunnel of pages that they had fallen through when Haman had pulled them into the world of the Arabian Nights. Now that they were flying up through it and had time to appreciate their surroundings, they could see that the pages not only displayed the words to the various stories in the Arabian Nights, but also various images of the tome’s legendary tales.

“I can see why the Arabian Nights has its own world inside of it. There are so many words to give it shape and life,” Cadance commented.

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. I wonder where Aladdin’s story is.”

Applejack said, “Ah think we’ll get to find out soon, Sonic. It looks like we’re comin’ up on our exit.” Sure enough, the group could see a white light in the distance up ahead that was getting bigger as they got closer to it. Everyone was thinking the same thing as Applejack: once they reached it, they would be back where they started their literary adventure. It wasn’t long before the light was big enough to engulf the magic carpet, an opening forming in the center of it to let it through.

Once they had passed through, however, rather than being back in the sleeper car like they expected, the group instead found themselves in a new space that was filled with red-orange clouds and a yellow horizon.

Everyone looked around in confusion. “What is this place? It looks like a great place for flying!” Rainbow said.

Sonic raised an eyebrow, “I sure don’t remember this…”

Shining looked over at him, “You didn’t pass through a place like this when you left last time?” Sonic shook his head.

Cadance looked up at the yellow sky, noticing there didn’t seem to be any source of light present. “What a strange place this is,” she noted.

Rarity, who was looking down at the clouds below with Fluttershy, added, “I agree, princess. And yet it’s hauntingly beautiful in a way.”

Pinkie simply stared out into space until she noticed something pass by close to her. It appeared to be a wisp of light giving off a rainbow of colors. “Ooh, lookie! Fireflies!” she exclaimed.

Soon, everyone noticed several more around the carpet, seemingly floating around without any particular purpose, not even reacting much to their presence. “Are they fireflies? I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like them,” Twilight murmured as she looked up at one.

Spike stood up and walked around the carpet a bit, looking to see if there was anything else in this odd location. After a few seconds, he turned his head and glanced to the left at Sonic. The blue hedgehog was looking around like everypony else, though he seemed a bit apprehensive about this area. Spike then noticed that something seemed off past him and turned to look fully. He was right; something was forming against the sky and clouds! “Uh, Sonic?” he started.

Sonic turned his head to look at the baby dragon, as did everypony else, and asked, “Yeah?” Spike started pointing, which to Sonic looked like he was pointing at him. He raised an eyebrow, “What?” He received an answer a moment later when he heard a deep laugh coming from behind him, a laugh that sounded vaguely familiar to him.


OFF COURSE


Everyone turned to look and saw a large, imposing, nearly opaque figure a short distance away, looming over the group. It was clad in mostly black armor with large shoulder plates and the top of its helmet looked like a three spike crown. There was nothing below its shoulders, but there were two glowing yellow eyes underneath its helmet’s covering. The group didn’t get a good time to take in its appearance before it suddenly vanished, a circular opening appearing where it had been a moment ago. The opening immediately began to pull at the group, everybody being quickly pulled off of the carpet and into the opening with either a shout or a scream! The opening closed once everyone was through, the magic carpet disappearing into the sea of clouds.

The opening appeared over a path in the middle of a mist-filled forest, everyone being thrown out of it onto the path before it disappeared again. A series of grunts and groans filled the air as everyone landed on the grass. The impact was relatively minor, especially compared to the fall from the sky earlier, and they quickly recovered. As they all sat up, Rainbow groaned, “Ugh, again, I’m really getting sick of these kinds of surprises today!”


WITHIN THE MIST


Fluttershy spoke up, “Well, I don’t think this one was so bad, Rainbow. It seems like we landed on something better this time.”

Rarity huffed, “That’s hardly the word I’d use for it, Fluttershy.” She glared down at the grass she was sitting on, “Water, grass, dirt… my worst enemies, and we’re surrounded by them!”

Applejack groaned, “You’re worryin’ about stains now of all times, Rarity? This is the second time today you’ve made a big deal about landin’ on grass!”

Shining glanced around, “Speaking of which, where did that hole drop us?”

Everyone stood up and started looking around. “I think it’s a forest. There are a lot of trees here. It’s a little hard to see, though,” Rainbow said.

Cadance looked at Sonic and asked, “Do you remember this at all, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog looked down the path, into the mist surrounding everything. The area did seem familiar to him. “I think…” he started before breaking into a run a moment later, heading into the mist.

“H-Hey! Sonic, wait!” Twilight exclaimed as she began running after him, the others doing the same. Spike and the ponies ran, following the path for a short time until they came across Sonic crouching on one knee at the edge of some water. As they slowed down and got closer, they could see a little more of the water, and it looked like it went out quite far. “There’s a lake here?” Twilight asked as she stepped up next to Sonic.

Sonic, while still looking down at the water, nodded, “Yeah. I had a feeling about where we were.” He stood up, “This is Misty Lake. We’re pretty much on the outskirts of the Grand Kingdom.”

Applejack looked at him, “Grand Kingdom? Where in the Arabian Nights is that?”

Before Sonic could reply, they all heard Pinkie exclaim, “TRIPLE SALCHOW!” They all turned to see her running towards them, the pink pony making a large leap in front of the group and doing several spins in the air before landing in the lake a short distance from the shore and spraying water droplets around. She surfaced a few seconds later while some of the others were brushing the water off, her curly pink mane now straight due to the water in it. “Come on in! The water’s great!” she called.

Sonic finished brushing off a few drops before placing his right hand on his hip and saying, “Yeah, uh… I’ll just take your word for it, Pinkie.” The party pony didn’t seem to mind this, seeing as she shifted onto her back and began doing the backstroke aimlessly, still wearing a smile on her face.

“Pinkie, don’t go out so far we can’t see you, dear!” Rarity called. Pinkie didn’t respond, though she did adjust her direction slightly at that.

After a moment, Shining turned to Sonic and asked, “So where is this ‘Grand Kingdom’ in relation to the rest of the Arabian Nights, Sonic?”

The hedgehog replied, “Nah, we’re not in the world of the Arabian Nights anymore. Somehow, we jumped to the next book in the series.”


MISTY LAKE


Twilight asked, “You’ve had more than one literary adventure?” Before Sonic could answer, a loud roar sounded, followed by the sound of loud stomping. Everyone looked back the way they came, Twilight asking, “What’s that?”

Rainbow grinned, “It sounds big!”

Spike said, “It sounds like a dragon!”

Fluttershy murmured, “It sounds like it’s getting closer…”

Cadance turned to look at the lake, but she couldn’t see Pinkie Pie anymore. “Pinkie, it’s time to come in!” she called as loud as she could, but there was no response.

The stomping began to get louder. “I think we’d better get out of here!” Shining suggested hastily.

“What about Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow asked.

Sonic began to push the pegasus forward as he said, “We’re not gonna be helping her if we attract trouble! Come on, this way!” He took the lead, the others running with him as he led them along the shore of the lake. They soon came across the remains of an old structure, a castle from the look of it, and they all ducked inside. They all pressed up against the wall to their left, listening and waiting.

Soon, the stomping stopped, as did the shaking. After a few seconds, Sonic peered around the corner along with Shining Armor and Spike, the former peering from over his head while the latter peered from the side. What they saw was a massive four-legged creature covered in cyan scales with huge wings and a stump of a horn on its forehead drinking water from the lake with its large tongue. “Whoa… That’s a… That is a dragon, right?” Shining breathed.

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. That’s the Mist Dragon. I remember encountering him.”

Spike looked up at the hedgehog, “The Mist Dragon? That’s what you call him?”

Sonic glanced down at him, “That’s the only name I was ever given, Spike.”

The baby dragon looked back at the cyan dragon and said, “Well, he looks pretty cool. Is he friendly?”

Sonic looked back at the Mist Dragon, specifically at what was left of its horn, and raised an eyebrow as he remembered how he met the dragon. Something told him the dragon probably remembered as well, and he figured now wasn’t the time to find out. “Uh, I don’t know. He seemed pretty territorial, though, since he wouldn’t let me by when I ran into him. Kind of like the Earth Dragon,” he shrugged.

“There’s more than one dragon?” Fluttershy meekly asked.

Sonic turned around and replied, “Well, yeah. Not around here, though. I’m sure there’s more in this world. I only met two when I was here, and neither one was really happy to see me. I mean, I don’t know that much about dragons, but that’s the feeling I got.”

Twilight said, “Hm. Some of the larger dragons we’ve met back in Equestria were… I guess you could say they were territorial as well.”

Rarity added, “They’re very protective of their valuables as well. I wonder if the dragons here are the same way.” Suddenly, they all heard the Mist Dragon let out a low roar, followed by the sound of flapping wings and several small bursts of wind going past their hiding place. A couple of seconds later, they all looked up through what remained of the ceiling to see the dragon flying past their hiding spot.

“Hoo, glad we didn’t have ta deal with that that thing. Coulda been mighty ugly if it had found us,” Applejack sighed after the dragon disappeared from view.

Shining Armor peered outside again and said, “I still don’t see Pinkie Pie, though. I think that dragon would’ve reacted if it had seen her, but where is she?”

Cadance looked at Sonic and asked, “Do you think she could be somewhere else in the lake, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Maybe. It’s not really a big lake, but it does stretch for quite a bit. I’ve even seen people living around here.”

Twilight looked at him, “There probably aren’t a lot out right now because of the Mist Dragon’s appearance, right?”  Sonic simply shrugged his shoulders in reply.

Rainbow spoke, “Well, that dragon flew off further ahead. Let’s see if we can find Pinkie and get out of here before it shows up again and I’ve gotta teach it a lesson!”

Rarity rolled her eyes, “Yes, because that worked so great with the one that was sleeping, didn’t it, Rainbow Dash?”

The cyan pegasus looked ready to refute the fashionista’s analysis, but Shining Armor spoke up, “Look, I really don’t think we have time to be dealing with fully-grown dragons right now. We should find Pinkie and make sure she’s okay; once we’ve found her, we can figure out how to get out of this area and what our next move is, okay?” Sonic and the others agreed with this and they moved through the remains of the castle structure, soon coming out on the other side.

A short while later, the group was still looking for Pinkie, even after searching another piece of the old castle remains and crossing several pieces of land that stuck out of the lake’s water. The lake’s shores had been relatively empty so far; evidently the inhabitants had taken shelter when they heard the Mist Dragon after all. The group came to a stop on a stone bridge and Twilight put a hoof to her mouth, calling, “Pinkie!”

Applejack joined in, “Pinkie Pie, can ya hear us?!”

Spike asked, “Where could she be? We have to have come pretty far by now…”

Sonic pointed forward as he finished crossing to the other side, “That arch over there… That’s where I ran into the Mist Dragon.”

Spike and the ponies joined him on the lakeshore, just a short distance away from the bridge. “Really? I-Is there anywhere else we can look for Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked.

Sonic crossed his arms, “Not really. We’ve just about covered the whole enchilada.” He looked over at Twilight and noticed she seemed really nervous about something. “What’s eating you?” he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Twilight realized that the question was directed at her and straightened up, trying to look as if nothing was bothering her. “Uh, nothing, nothing,” she replied, though she couldn’t stop her thoughts turning to that word.

Rainbow groaned, “Ugh! This is just like Pinkie! You want to get away from her, she knows exactly where you’re going! You want to find her… well, she usually shows up right in front of you. But sometimes she doesn’t!”

Cadance looked around worryingly, “How could we have not seen her yet? Out here, she should be easy to see…”

Shining said, “If she really came out this far, she must’ve been really moving. Or maybe she…” He was cut off when they all heard the sound of someone spitting something out coming from behind them, accompanied by the sound of dripping water.

Everyone turned around to see Pinkie’s head, neck, and front legs sticking out of the water next to the shore, somehow wearing a snorkel and an eye mask. She noticed everyone looking at her and smiled happily, “Hi!”

Rainbow flew over to her, nearly getting up in her face as she demanded, “Where were you?! What were you doing?!”

Pinkie simply smiled, “Looking for treasure, silly! I figured there HAS to be a lot of interesting things around here, and there are! Like look at this!” She reached her hooves into the water and pulled them back out with a sword between them, causing Rainbow to yelp and quickly move back to avoid being, at the very least, poked by it. It appeared to be a double-edged broadsword with a brown grip and guard, but the blade itself was cracked and rusty. “I found this by a tree on some stones near here! Can you believe some silly billy left it there?!” she exclaimed.

Sonic pointed at the sword as he said, “Technically, that’s mine, Pinkie. That’s Clarent, the sword I was given for my training, and I left it at that spot you mentioned because that’s where I moved up to a regular sword.”

Pinkie paddled with her back legs over to the shore, Rainbow following behind her. She shifted the sword to her right hoof as she stepped out and held it out to Sonic as she spoke, “You should remember to take your things with you, Sonic! And you should take better care of them; the pointy side looks like it could break easily!”

Sonic took the sword in his right hand and looked down at it as he held it pointing to the side, his left hand under the blade. “It was actually like this when I got it, Pinkie,” he said.

Twilight asked, “Probably a good thing you only used it for training then, right?” Sonic shrugged and nodded in reply.

Shining looked at Sonic and asked, “You didn’t know how to use a sword before?”

Sonic looked up at him as he said, “I didn’t know how to use one PROPERLY. I don’t usually use weapons like this.” He then turned and pointed with Clarent towards the arch as he said, “Anyway, that’s where we have to go.”

Pinkie’s mane and tail suddenly puffed back up to their usual curly state, surprising everyone and sending her mask and snorkel flying. “Ooh, where are we going?!” she asked.

Sonic looked at her as he said, “I managed to figure out where we are exactly while we were looking for you, so now I know which way to go. I know how to get out of the forest that way, and from there it shouldn’t be too far to civilization.”

Rainbow asked, “Aren’t we already close to a town or something here?”

Sonic replied, “I think so, but the city outside of this forest is where we should go first.”

Rarity asked, “There’s a city out there?”

Sonic nodded, “Yep. Capital of the Grand Kingdom, to be exact. It’s going to be a bit of a hike, but it shouldn’t take long for us to get there.”

Cadance said, “Well, as usual, you seem to know your way around, Sonic, so… lead on!” Sonic nodded and started walking towards the brick arch, Spike and the ponies following close behind. After passing through the arch, they soon passed by the spot where Pinkie had found the old sword, the other Equestrians noting that something about the area seemed special, but Sonic kept moving. He led them over a few broken bridges and raised grassy spots before they reached another shoreline, where they soon headed into the trees around the lake.


OUT ON THE PLAINS


As they walked, they began to notice that the mist was getting thinner and thinner until it was gone completely. Not long afterwards, they came to the end of the trees, where they found themselves on a vast plain. Sonic led the group to the northeast, sticking to the grassy area in the hopes that it would make the walking less demanding.

As they were climbing a particularly high hill, Rarity whined, “How much longer now, Sonic?”

Sonic, who was close to cresting the hill, sighed, “I told you, Rarity, it won’t be much longer now. We’re just about…” As he reached the top of the hill, he came to a stop as he looked off into the distance, the others stopping and looking up at him. A moment later, he said, “Ah-ha! Come on!” He broke into a run down the hill, the others reaching the top of the hill after a second later and seeing what looked like a large castle off in the distance before running to catch up with him.

Sonic soon came to a stop on top of a rise and changed his grip on his sword, standing it up while holding it, the others soon catching up with him and standing to his right. At this point, they were close enough to see the structure clearly. Now they could see that the castle was actually built on the peak of a mountain, with various buildings underneath it winding up to the castle itself. “Is that it?” Shining asked.

Sonic nodded, “Yep, that’s it, all right. The city of Camelot.”

Twilight looked at him, “CAM-elot?”

Sonic nodded again, “Mm-hmm. Like I said, it’s the capital of the Grand Kingdom, and lots of well-off people make their home here. Kind of like Canterlot, huh?”

Pinkie smiled, “Hey, yeah!”

Fluttershy said, “It’s amazing.”

Applejack shrugged, “Doesn’t look that big from here. Ah’m sure that’ll change once we get up there.”

Twilight said, “From here, it kind of looks like the castle is on top of a giant tree!”

Rarity sighed, “A castle on a tree, darling? It is nice to imagine, but that seems unlikely…”

Rainbow glanced at Sonic as she asked, “So, why do we need to come here, Sonic? Someone you know that can help us live here too?” When he didn’t  answer right away, Rainbow turned her head to get a better look and noticed the contemplative look on his face. “Sonic?” she said a little louder, prompting the others to look at him too.

Sonic looked up at Camelot Castle as he ran through the possibilities in his head. “Well, maybe… No, because one of them would’ve been there in that case… But then who…?” he muttered to himself.

“Uh, Equestria to Sonic? Hello?!” Rainbow exclaimed as she hovered in front of him, waving a hoof in front of his face.

After a moment, Sonic shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, “Guess it can’t be helped.”

Applejack asked, “What can’t be helped?”

As he looked up again, Sonic replied, “You’ll find out soon enough.” He took Clarent in a normal grip and looked at the others as he said, “I’m gonna run on ahead and find out what’s going on. When you all get to the city, come to the castle. I’ll be there.” Without another word, he suddenly took off, running around Rainbow and heading straight for the city.

“Wha- Sonic!” Twilight called, but he was already out of earshot.

Shining shook his head, “What’s he up to…?”

Cadance spoke, “He must need to clear things up with the Grand Kingdom’s ruler, like how he did with King Shahryar.”

Applejack said, “Well, this time, he actually wants us to meet him there. Let’s not keep him waitin’.” With that, Spike jumped up onto Twilight’s back as she and the other ponies ran after Sonic, heading for the spot where his blur started going up the mountain.


CAMELOT


Once they were on the trail up the mountain, the ponies were able to go up it at a steady rate. It wasn’t long before they reached drawbridge and gate that marked the entrance to Camelot. Upon passing through the gate, everyone stopped and looked around in wonder. Unlike the smooth, bright buildings and streets in Canterlot, the brickwork that made up Camelot seemed darker and more visible, and the buildings themselves seemed to be built closer together, resulting in narrower streets. Still, even though they had just entered the city, it felt a little bit like home to the Equestrians.

After Spike hopped off of Twilight’s back, the group began to move again. As they wandered the city’s streets looking for the path leading up to the castle, they passed by the various inhabitants. Many of them were green elf-like creatures wearing green cloaks, though there were some regular humans here and there as well, and they were all either walking along or huddled in small groups along the sides of the streets or, in the market area, close to the stalls.

“Look at all these people. It really is just like Canterlot,” Shining said softly.

Cadance nodded, “Yeah. I wonder why hardly anyone is looking at us, though. I guess I thought we’d attract some attention, being new here and all.”

Fluttershy murmured, “I-I’m glad they’re not looking at us…”

Pinkie bounced merrily, “That’s because they’re excited about something! Check out those smiles; something must be happening today!”

Applejack glanced at a pair of elves walking past and noted that the pair did have happy smiles on their faces like Pinkie had said. “Wonder if that’s why Sonic ran on ahead. We’d better get up to that castle quick!” she suggested.

“How do we get there, though?” Rainbow asked. She spread her wings and flapped them a bit, hovering above the group as they came to a stop and she said, “Everything in this city is so close together and made so weird, I think I could fly up and still not know how to get there on hoof!”

Rarity sighed, “I must confess, this city is a bit confusing. I guess we couldn’t expect its layout to be exactly the same as Canterlot’s.”

Fluttershy suggested, “Maybe someone here could give us directions to the castle?”

Twilight nodded, “Good idea, Fluttershy! …Uh, who should we ask?” Suddenly, she felt tugging on her left foreleg and looked down to see Spike looking up at her urgently. “What is it, Spike?” she asked. He turned and pointed to her left; she and the other ponies looked to see he was pointing at what appeared to be a shop nestled between two buildings near a set of stairs. They quickly saw what had gotten the baby dragon so excited. There was a sign shaped like a shield on a wooden post outside of the shop, and on the sign was what appeared to be a wizard’s staff with two fox tails on both sides. “Oh…” Twilight breathed as she realized what Spike was thinking.

The baby dragon nodded, “Yeah. Do you think…?”

Shining spoke, “Well, Ali Baba knew him. If it is him, then maybe they know each other in this world too. If nothing else, we can at least stop in to ask for directions.” With that, the group started walking towards the shop.

Twilight, Spike, Shining, Cadance, Rainbow, and Applejack were the first ones to step into the small shop, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity peering in to make sure there was enough room before they walked in too. They looked around; there was a front counter directly in front of them that had barrels behind and next to it, some with swords sticking out of the top. The wall behind the counter had a rack that was filled with various tools and the sign from outside was hanging in front of it. In the back to the left they could see a forge and a fire going, but there didn’t appear to be anyone besides them.


MEETING THE BLACKSMITH


Twilight called, “Uh, hello?”

A familiar voice responded from back near the forge, “Welcome! I’ll be just a moment!”

Rainbow smiled, “Yeah, that’s Tails’ voice, all right.”

The group waited patiently, and a second later, a familiar two-tailed fox cub came out a hidden backroom near the forge. He wore a pair of yellow goggles with a brown strap and blue lenses around his forehead, a blue sleeveless shirt over a long-sleeved white shirt, a tan apron with a two fox tail design near the bottom, a sky blue mitt over his left glove, and red and white shoes with a grayish ring around the top. He had a small mallet in a holder on his right hip, and he was looking down at the brown scabbard in his hands, which contained a sword that had a gold, silver, bronze, and ruby hilt.

As he turned and walked towards the front counter, he spoke, “Sorry about the wait. I was getting this blade out of the back. I was tasked with taking care of it. It’s the most amazing thing to ever come into my shop!” As he finished speaking, he came to a stop near the front counter and finally looked up. His happy expression quickly changed to one of bewilderment as he saw who had stepped into his shop. An awkward moment of silence followed before he shifted the sword to his left hand and pointed at the ponies and baby dragon with his right hand and a sheepish smile, “Okay, maybe SECOND most amazing thing to ever come into my shop.”

Rarity stammered, “I… suppose that’s to be taken as a compliment.”

The Tails lookalike straightened up, “Oh, absolutely!” He placed the sword he was holding on the counter, though he kept his left hand clutched around the scabbard as he continued, “I’ve had lots of customers come into my shop, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a Unicorn, a Pegasus… and a baby dragon.” He added the last as he noticed Spike standing next to Twilight. He then looked at Cadance and asked, “And… are you both, miss? And royalty?”

Cadance nodded, “Yes, I am. I’m an alicorn princess.”

The fox asked, “Alicorn? But I thought… well, never mind what I thought. I’m sure you would know better than I, Princess…?”

Cadance answered, “Cadance. I am Princess Cadance.” She noticed the cub looked like he was about to bow and quickly said, “Oh, but you don’t have to… It’s fine, really! I… When I’m out like this, I don’t expect anyone to bow. I’m even fine with not being called princess.”

The fox replied, “I understand… Cadance?”

Cadance nodded, “Yes. And you are…?”

The boy smiled, “You can just call me Smithy.”

Applejack asked, “‘Smithy’?”

The fox nodded, “Yep. As you can see, it’s my craft.” He gestured to his shop with his right hand as he explained, “I’m a blacksmith, or, more accurately, a metalsmith. Whether it’s combining different materials together into something new, reforging a blade, or making one of my own creations, I take things and make them into something better!” He then asked, “So, is there anything I can help you all with?”

Shining spoke, “You sound and look like you’re a real expert in what you do, Smithy. It’s a shame we don’t have time or anything for you to show off your skills. We were actually wondering if you knew how to get to Camelot Castle?”

Smithy’s eyes brightened, “You’re going up to the castle? Hey, that’s great!” He took the blade he was holding in both hands again, “I was actually about to go up to the castle to deliver this sword! We could all go together!”

Fluttershy smiled, “That sounds wonderful, Smithy.”

Pinkie chimed in, “Yes, indeedy!”

Smithy nodded, “All right! Let me just lock up here, and we’ll go.” Spike and the ponies turned and walked out of the shop, turning to look once they were all out to see Smithy pull the door to his shop closed, pulling a set of keys out of his apron and using one to lock the door. He then put the keys back in his apron and gestured for the group to follow him up the nearby set of stairs.

As they walked, Smithy got to know everyone’s names and a little bit about each of them. As they left the stone streets of the city and walked along the dirt path leading up to the castle, Rainbow asked him, “So you come up to the castle often, Smithy? Is that why you knew about that shortcut you showed us?”

The fox nodded, “Yeah, on occasion. I do take orders for swords from the castle guards, especially from the Knights of the Round Table.”

Spike asked, “‘The Knights of the Round Table’?”

Smithy nodded, “Yeah. You’ve never heard of them?”

Twilight spoke up, “Uh, we’re, uh… We’re not from around here. We come from Equestria, which is PRETTY far away from the Grand Kingdom.”

Smithy replied, “I see. Well, the Knights of the Round Table are the greatest swordsmen in all the land. They personally work with the king, they’re incredibly loyal, and they have the most amazing swords!”

Applejack chuckled, “Heh, is that because you made their swords?”

Smithy replied, “Well, I’ve made quite a few blades for them, but only at their request. The swords they already had are nearly as amazing as this one. I know a good blade when I see one.”

Shining spoke, “I don’t doubt that. You must be well-known in the Grand Kingdom.”

Smithy blushed, “Well, I have heard people say I’m the best in all the land. I’m not entirely sure about that.”

Fluttershy said, “Well, I’m sure you’re very good at what you do. You wouldn’t be making swords for the king’s guard if you weren’t.”

Smithy smiled, “Thanks.” There was a moment of silence before he asked, “Say, I never asked, why are you all going to Camelot Castle?”

Twilight answered, “A friend of ours asked us to meet him there.”

Smithy looked at her, “A friend? I thought you said you weren’t from around here.”

Twilight replied, “We’re not. We just met him recently in Equestria. Maybe you know him?”

Smithy asked, “What does he look like?”

Twilight answered slowly, “Well, he’s blue, spiky, he runs really fast…”

Smithy’s eyes lit up again, “Oh yeah, I know who you’re talking about! Everyone in Camelot is excited to hear he’s back! You know him personally?”

Cadance replied, “Yes. You must know him quite well too.”

Smithy gestured to the sword in his hands, “I first met him when he came into my shop to have his blade sharpened. He would then stop in from time to time to bring me materials to forge new blades with.” He looked down at the sword, “I know what I was told, but I figure he’s going to want his sword back. That’s why, when I heard the townspeople talking, I decided I should deliver it myself.”

Pinkie piped up, “That’s really sweet of you, ‘Smithster’! And look, the castle’s right in front of us!” Indeed, the slope they were on began to level out up ahead, at the end of which was surely the entryway in the castle’s walls to the courtyard.


CAMELOT CASTLE COURTYARD


Reaching the end of the path, they found that the entryway was guarded by two human soldiers, both clad in gray armor and holding spears. As the group approached, the guards moved close together and crossed their spears, essentially blocking the entrance. “Halt!” they both said, and the group complied. The two guards looked at Smithy and the one on the left spoke, “Smithy, why have you come here? And what is this… entourage you have brought with you?”

The fox stepped forward slightly and held up the sword in his hands as he said, “I have come to return the king’s sword.” He then lowered his hands and gestured to Spike and the ponies, “And they have told me they are friends with the king and he requested that they meet him here.”

The two guards began whispering to each other while the Equestrians stared at Smithy’s back in confusion. Was he talking about Sonic? Before any of them could say anything, the two guards stepped aside and the one on the left this time said, “His Highness is in the courtyard. You may go about your business, Smithy.” The fox bowed and walked past them into the entrance.

After he passed them, the guards looked back at the group and the right one said, “And as for the rest of you.” Some of the ponies expected them to say they couldn’t enter or demand proof, but the guards simply bowed. “Welcome to Camelot Castle, esteemed delegates of Equestria. We hope you enjoy your stay.” Despite their confusion continuing to grow, the ponies and Spike awkwardly followed after Smithy.

Upon reaching the castle’s inner walls, the group was surprised by the courtyard. The stone path they were on led directly to the front doors of the castle, the grass on both sides of the path appearing to go all the way to the back of the castle. Small fields of flowers, small hedges, and other plants dotted the grass at various spots, adding color and variety to the sea of green.

Looking off to the left, they saw Smithy approaching Sonic, who was holding Clarent and standing near two knights that looked like Knuckles and Blaze. Much like their counterparts in the Arabian Nights, the knights had the basic physical appearance of Sonic’s friends, however, as they were knights, they were both clad in armor. Knuckles’ counterpart’s armor and helmet were a crimson color and he had two small swords sheathed at his hips while Blaze’s counterpart wore gray armor (save for the dark pink caps of her shoes) and had a rapier sheathed at her left hip.

As the Equestrians approached the small gathering, the two knights quickly took notice of them. The Knuckles lookalike drew his swords and held them up, quickly leaping in front of Sonic to Blaze’s counterpart’s right as he demanded, “Who goes there?!” The group quickly came to a stop at this.

Blaze’s lookalike, meanwhile, seemed more shocked at the sight of the group than anything. “Smithy, what…?” she started, seemingly unable to find the words to finish her question.

Before anything else could be said, Sonic stepped forward and spoke, “Sir Gawain, Sir Percival, relax. These are the new friends I was telling you and Lancelot about.”

Blaze’s counterpart, Percival, looked back at the group, seeming much calmer now. “These are the Equestrian delegates?” she asked, to which Sonic nodded in reply.

“Aw, there I go again,” Gawain groaned as he lowered his swords, quickly sheathing them. He then looked at the group and said, “I apologize if I scared any of you. It was not my intention; I was only thinking that harm might be coming to our king.”

Shining spoke, “Uh, that’s all right, uh, Sir Gawain. No harm done.”

Sonic stepped between Gawain and Percival and looked at Smithy, the fox kneeling as he stepped forward. “Smithy, what are you doing here? Did you help my friends?” he asked as he pressed Clarent’s tip against the ground.

Smithy looked up and answered, “Yes I did, Your Highness. I have also come to return your sword.” He then held out the scabbard as he stood up, presenting it to the blue hedgehog.

Sonic leaned Clarent against his side as he took the scabbard in both hands from the fox; stepping back slightly, he used his right hand to grasp the hilt, starting to pull the sword out. He quickly recognized the gold ornamentation that stretched down to the blade, especially when the part on the middle of the hilt slid down to reveal a face. “Hey, old friend,” Sonic whispered, the face on the sword smiling slightly as it looked up at him. He then pulled the rest of the longsword out and, after adjusting his right arm slightly, handed the scabbard back to Smithy, saying, “Thanks for making this delivery, Smithy. I was wondering where he was.”

The fox took the scabbard in his right hand and bowed slightly as he said, “I have kept him safe as I was ordered to, my king.” Standing up straight, he eyed the blade at Sonic’s right side and said, “That blade may be cracked and rusted, but I can tell it is of good quality. I can repair it for you if you want.”

Sonic looked down at the Clarent at that, “Oh, right.” He took it in his left hand and held it up, looking it over for a moment before looking back at Smithy and saying, “I don’t know. I’ll pay you, obviously, but are you sure? I mean, I’m sure you’re busy and all.”

The fox replied, “It’ll be no trouble. As for pay, there’s no need; this is only slightly more work than the sharpening job you first came to my shop for. I will gladly do it free of charge.”

Sonic looked at him for a moment, considering his words before saying, “Well, all right, then. I’ll take you up on your offer.” He spun the Clarent around into a reverse grip and pointed its tip towards the scabbard, Smithy holding it up with both hands for him. The blade slid in easily, nearly fitting into the scabbard perfectly.

Tucking the scabbard under his left arm, the Smithy bowed again, placing his right hand on his stomach as he said, “I will bring it back once I have completed the repairs, my king.” He then stood up straight and turned, walking back towards the entryway.

As the fox walked away, Spike and the ponies turned back to Sonic, their confusion clearly evident in their expressions. “Okay, what the HAY was THAT?!” Applejack blurted out.

“Why is he acting like you’re a king?! Hay, why does it seem like everyone in this world is calling you a king?!” Rainbow added.

Both Percival and Gawain were confused by these outbursts. “What is this all about?” Gawain asked.

Percival looked at Sonic, “Do they… not know?”

Sonic glanced back over his shoulder, “Uh, I guess it’s a detail that never really came up before, so…” He shrugged and looked back at the group, rubbing the side of his head with his left hand as he started, “I don’t really know how to explain this, guys. Kind of an interesting story, though. You see, the last time I came to this world…”

Pinkie suddenly piped up, “You were summoned by a wizard because the king of the Grand Kingdom at the time had become a tyrant and she needed your help to stop him, so you trained to become a knight and gathered followers while searching for a way to defeat the king, but as it turned out, that king was a fake and the wizard was planning to use his magic source of power for her own reasons, so you teamed up with the Knights of the Round Table to stop her and then you found out that YOU were actually the real king all along, but you couldn’t stay forever, so now that you’re back, that means you’re the king again, but it also means there’s trouble in the kingdom again!” She finished with a big intake of breath, followed by a squee and a big toothy smile.

All of her friends stared at her with open mouths and varying levels of bewilderment and concern. Sonic, Percival, and Gawain stared at her too, but their mouths had fallen open in shock, shock that clearly showed on their faces. And though nobody would have seen it, the face on Sonic’s sword bore a similar shocked expression.

Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with her left hoof. “…Yeah, I’m gonna guess that’s NOT what he was going to say, Pinkie,” she said.

“Nay,” a new male voice spoke up, everyone turning to look at Sonic, who was looking down at the sword in his right hand. With a quick flick of his wrist, he flipped it over, holding it in a reverse grip so the face in the hilt faced the group. Its eyes settled on Pinkie after a moment and its mouth moved, “The pink maiden is quite correct.”

Rarity, unsurprisingly, freaked out a bit at this. “That sword can TALK?!?” she screeched.

While Spike and everypony looked on in surprise, Sonic nodded, “Right, introductions.” He released his grip on his sword’s hilt and it dropped for a second before stopping before its tip hit the grass, the sword hovering as it glanced up at Sonic. The blue hedgehog looked over at his new friends and said, “Guys, this is Caliburn, the sacred sword that decides who is ruler, and you’re acquainted with Sir Percival and Sir Gawain.” He then looked between Caliburn and the knights, “These are my new friends from Equestria: Twilight Sparkle, her assistant Spike, her brother and sister-in-law Shining Armor and Princess Cadance, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and of course, Pinkie Pie.” He gestured to each one as he said their names.

Gawain and Percival bent forward slightly, the former saying, “An honor.”

Caliburn, who was tipped forward in as much a bow as a sword could manage, added, “Indeed.”

As they all straightened up, Percival looked at Pinkie and asked, “Pray tell, Lady Pie, if Sir Sonic did not mention before that he is the true King Arthur, how did you know all that?”

Pinkie shrugged, “Just a hunch!”

Applejack spoke up, “Wait a minute! ‘Sir Sonic’? ‘King Arthur’? Ah’m still confused here!” Spike and the other ponies’ expressions, save for Pinkie Pie’s, indicated that she wasn’t the only one.

“Do none of you know the tale of King Arthur?” Gawain asked.

Twilight thought for a moment before answering, “I’m not sure there are any stories in Equestria that specifically mention that name. I’ve read a lot of tales, so there may be a similar story in our world, but if so, I never thought of it as anything more than a fantasy.”

Percival spoke, “Well, ‘tis quite real in this world, Lady Sparkle, as Caliburn and your pink friend can certainly attest to.”

Fluttershy looked at Sonic, “Everything Pinkie said was…?” Sonic nodded as she trailed off.

Shining said, “I’m not sure I caught everything she said…”

Gawain spoke, “Well, we can do better than tell you. We can show you as well.” Both he and Percival turned and started walking towards the castle entrance, Sonic following the two with Caliburn floating at his side and Spike and the ponies following behind them.


INSIDE CAMELOT CASTLE


As they entered the castle, Sonic, Spike, and the ponies came to a stop behind Gawain and Percival and looked around the foyer in wonder. They had stepped onto a soft red carpet that led to a wide set of stone stairs, where the carpet split and went to the right and left, no doubt leading to other parts of the castle The rest of the floor was not covered, revealing a tile pattern consisting of alternating blue and purple. The stairs themselves were all carpeted similarly, and at the top, there was a smaller set of stairs on both the right and left sides beneath a large stained glass window. The picture in the glass seemed to be of the Grand Kingdom, as Camelot Castle and the outlying areas appeared to be shown.

Shining noticed Sonic seemed as amazed as the rest of them. “You seem surprised by this place, Sonic,” he noted.

The blue hedgehog looked back at the stallion and said, “Well, I am, Shining. I’ve never been in this castle before.”

He turned to look at Caliburn as the sword spoke, “True. You returned home when this castle was still being raised up. As for the old castle, you only saw the dungeons when you were freeing the prisoners there and the Knight’s Passage when it was being destroyed.”

Twilight noted, “What I’m really amazed about is how much this looks like Canterlot Castle.”

Percival looked back at her, “CANTER-lot?”

The lavender unicorn nodded, “It’s the capital of Equestria, and it’s on a mountainside, almost like your Camelot.”

Percival replied, “Really? Fascinating…”

Gawain nodded, “Yeah. Maybe you’ll notice other similarities as we go.” He started walking forward, everyone walking after him. He led them up the stairs and then up the stairs to the right, leading them down a hall.

As they walked, Rarity looked at a vase on a table and a statue of a fully-armored soldier along the side of the hall before noting, “For appearing so… unassuming on the outside, Camelot Castle certainly is vibrant on the inside.”

Percival nodded, “It is pleasing to know you think that, Lady Rarity. When arrangements were made to rebuild the castle, we wished to preserve the memory of the old castle as much as we could. Even under a rule of fear, the old Camelot Castle was home to many, including us Knights of the Round Table.”

As the group approached a large set of red stone double doors guarded on the sides by two human soldiers with spears, Gawain spoke, “Even so, we wanted to keep the memory of not only recent events, but also our kingdom’s history alive as we made plans. Certain things were changed or added as the new castle became a reality.” The two knights came to a stop in front of the doors and turned to look at the group. “And what we chose to add here, in the throne room, is what we want to show you all,” Gawain said.  He turned to the guards and nodded to them, both of the guards moving to push the doors open.


THE KINGDOM'S HISTORY


Once the doors were open all the way, the group peered inside. The red carpet in the middle of the room ran all the way up to the far end of the room, where a tall throne sat upon a dais for the ruler to sit upon while receiving an audience, three tapestries that were blue, yellow, and red in color hanging from the ceiling above it. There were a number of windows and decorations on both sides of the room, and behind the dais were two openings leading outside, no doubt to a balcony. As they all walked in and came to a stop close to the doors, Spike looked off to the left and something about the closest window caught his eye. “Hey, is that…?” he started.

Caliburn turned to look at him and, after a moment, said, “Very good, young Spike. You appear to possess a keen eye.”

Spike replied, “Uh, thanks.” He thought to himself, “Wow, it’s really weird having a weapon talk to you. Talking weapons… Wait, is that really the strangest thing I’ve seen today?”

Percival spoke, “As your young squire has observed, these stained glass windows you see are what we wanted to show you.” The Equestrians were reminded of the throne room in Canterlot Castle at this. As they started walking again, Percival explained, “These were all made to record moments in our kingdom’s history. The former King Arthur’s rise, the knighting and exploits of the Knights of the Round Table, the king receiving the sacred sword Excalibur…” As they walked, Cadance noticed that Shining Armor had stopped and was looking up at one window nervously. She quickly saw why; it showed a familiar black and red hedgehog, identified at the bottom as Sir Lancelot.

Shining snapped out of his nervousness when Gawain announced, “But as grand as all those tales are, this is where Sir Sonic’s tale begins.” Shining quickly walked to join the others, receiving a loving nuzzle from Cadance as they caught up. They looked up at a window on the left. It seemed to depict a juxtaposition, as near the top was the upper body of a knight clad in gold armor while near the bottom, upside-down as if it was a reflection, was the same knight but with his armor more black than gold. And in between the two was a long scabbard with ornate designs on it.

“What is this showing?” Cadance asked.

Percival spoke, “When our king was given Excalibur, it was a gift that was meant to make him great, but looking back now, it ultimately revealed how false he was.”

Gawain explained, “Excalibur had a blade capable of cutting through anything, and its scabbard granted whoever held it the power of immortality.”

Shining asked, “Immortality? It allowed him to live forever?”

Sonic answered, “Maybe. I got more of the ‘you can’t hurt me’ kind of immortality from it, but it might’ve been possible for him to live a really long life.”

Gawain went on, “One day, Excalibur was lost, and the king became corrupted by the power of the scabbard. This depicts his transformation from a kind and wise ruler to a tyrant who spread fear across his kingdom, even allying with the Knights of the Underworld to spread his rule as far as possible.”

Cadance sighed, “How awful and sad that he became corrupted by such a power.”

Rainbow looked ahead to a window showing the three knights bowing to the black knight and asked, “And you guys still followed him, even though he had changed?”

Gawain replied, “We are knights. It is not part of our duty to question our king or his decisions. That’s what kept us together at the time, anyway.”

Percival spoke, “Amidst it all, Merlina, granddaughter of the wizard Merlin, who had prepared King Arthur’s tale, tried to take the scabbard for herself, but between the king, the Knights of the Underworld, and us Knights of the Round Table, she could not take it by herself.” As they started walking again, she went on, “Thus she summoned Sir Sonic to our world to aid her.”

Sonic looked up at the window showing Merlina receiving him as he came down in a beam of light and thought to himself, “Yeah, that’s totally NOT how that happened. Though I’m sure somebody told the weaver to show it that way.”

Gawain took over, “As he traveled the kingdom and became stronger, he confronted each of us in battle. He bested us all, but chose to spare us, taking only our swords. As it turned out, the swords that I, Sir Percival, and Sir Lancelot held were the key to stopping the scabbard’s magic. With them, he was able to strike the king down, but like us, he didn’t know that he was a fake or what Merlina planned to use the scabbard for.”

Fluttershy looked up at the window showing Sonic holding the scabbard out to Merlina in front of the three knights before looking at the hedgehog and asking, “What did she want it for?”

Sonic answered after a moment, “She wanted to make a never-ending kingdom.”

The room was silent for a moment before Twilight asked, “…Was that a… bad thing? A kingdom like that?”

Sonic turned to look at her, “A kingdom that involved destroying the one that already existed in order to be realized? A kingdom that would result in the death of nearly everyone in the old kingdom? A kingdom that covered the entire planet? Yeah, I’d say it was a bad thing.” His tone softened as he continued, “Don’t get me wrong; Merlina’s heart was in the right place, but she got so wrapped up in the fate she saw for this kingdom, over a vision of the future, that it all got twisted. She had good intentions, but at the time, she was only thinking of herself.”

Caliburn added, “What she became when she was in possession of the scabbard reflected how much she had let it set her path for her. She wished to sacrifice countless others to escape her own sorrow, to create a world that never changed so it suited her needs. Does that sound like a world you would wish to be a part of?”

Twilight stared wide-eyed for a moment answering, “No. I see your point.” Despite the differences present, she couldn’t help her thoughts turning to the Future Twilight incident as she glanced downwards.

She looked up when Gawain said, “It sure didn’t look good at the time.” He gestured to the next window, “This depicts the Dark Hollow as it destroyed old Camelot Castle and began spreading its roots across the kingdom.”

Applejack asked, “What’d y’all do?”

Percival answered, “We were rallied by Sir Sonic and Lady Nimue to try to stop it.”

Twilight asked, “Nimue?”

Percival nodded, “She’s also known as the Lady of the Lake. She’s the one who gave King Arthur Excalibur and its scabbard. We tried to contain the Dark Hollow, but the scabbard’s power was too great. Sonic returned to the castle to stop Merlina, and through his determination to not give up and our swords, Caliburn was revealed to be Excalibur. They were able to stop Merlina, and afterwards, Caliburn told us that he determined who our ruler is.”

Rarity looked at the walls ahead and asked, “Where are the windows for these events? Are they still being made?”

Gawain replied, “No, there are no windows for them. Look over there” He pointed above the throne and everyone noticed three tapestries hanging from the ceiling. Percival and Gawain moved to stand in front at Sonic’s right side, the latter saying, “We decided to keep these separate because we felt that they best represent our kingdom’s ideals.”

Percival pointed to the yellow tapestry on the left, which showed the knights holding up their swords together, and said, “That one represents our shared devotion to the king, the kingdom, and its people.” She pointed to the red one on the right, which showed a golden armor-clad Sonic pointing Excalibur at the Dark Queen, “This depicts Sir Sonic’s will to never give up, even in the face of impossible odds and above the code of chivalry, an example that we all aspire to.”

Gawain pointed at the center blue tapestry, which was held slightly above the other two, and spoke, “This one is the most special, though.” The tapestry showed a carnation in Sonic’s right hand, seemingly handing the flower over to a pair of human hands. “Despite all she had done, Sir Sonic forgave Merlina and offered her kindness and words of wisdom. It’s special because such forgiveness was lost in our kingdom when the old king changed,” he explained.

Percival spoke, “Believing in others and embracing that belief by forgiving failure… We were not changed, but in keeping with our duty, we had forgotten that, and Sir Sonic reminded us.”

Gawain looked over at Sonic with a small smile, “He showed us that, yes, there is more to being a knight than just serving a king.” Sonic blinked at this and then returned the smile.

Percival smiled at him as well, but then blinked as she remembered something. “Sir Sonic, there actually is something else that was added. You might want to see it,” she said before she and Gawain moved towards the opening to the right. Sonic, Caliburn, Spike, and the ponies followed behind them, curious. Stepping outside, they found themselves on a balcony overlooking the back of the courtyard. They joined Percival and Gawain near the center of the balcony, and as they looked over the courtyard, they saw it.

In the center of the courtyard, in the middle of a spot cleared out for it, was a large stone statue of Sonic mostly clad in his suit of armor. The only thing he wasn’t wearing was his helmet, which was tucked under his left arm. His face was one of determination, and he was pointing Excalibur towards the castle as if he were giving an army orders or challenging his enemy to come face him.

“That’s a… nice touch?” Shining shrugged, not sure what else to say.

“We swear, we did not commission for that to be made. Even Lancelot said no,” Percival said to Sonic.

Gawain nodded, “We tried to convince the sculptor not to do it. We told him that he didn’t have to, that it was unnecessary and you wouldn’t like it, but he wouldn’t back off.”

Cadance said, “Well, I think it ties the courtyard together nicely.” She thought to herself, “I really should have the Crystal Ponies make a statue for Spike.”

Sonic leaned on the balcony railing, “Yeah, it’s… great. Glad the sculptor used stone instead of gold or something.” He glanced at Caliburn, “You look good, though.”

The sacred sword replied, “Well, of course I do. Excalibur’s magnificence is unmatched, even in stone.” Sonic rolled his eyes at that.

He then felt something hitting him against his leg and looked down to see it was Spike’s elbow. When he noticed he was being looked at, the baby dragon said, “You’re looking pretty good yourself, you know!”

Rainbow flew around to Sonic’s left side and said, “I’ll say! That armor looks pretty good on you, Big Blue!”

Sonic shrugged, “If you say so.” He grabbed Caliburn’s hilt with his right hand and started walking back inside.

“Sonic, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

Sonic stopped short of the opening and sighed. He looked back at the others, “Look, I get it. I’m a king in this world, and maybe that’s awesome. Can we talk about something else now, something a little more important?”

As he turned to continue walking, Rarity suddenly appeared right in front of him. She stood up and pressed her hooves against his chest as she got up in his face, a big smile on her face. “More important? Darling, you’re a KING now! What could possibly be more important than that?”

Pinkie popped up next to her, “Yeah, you’re King Sonic now! You know what that means?” Before Sonic could answer, she exclaimed, “It means we’re gonna have a BIG party!” She began to bounce inside as she went on, “It’ll be great! We’ll celebrate your return to the throne, we’ll get everyone in Camelot involved, we’ll invite Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, we’ll – hrk!” She was cut off suddenly by something wrapping around her neck in midair, causing her eyes to shoot open and pop out a bit.

Sonic pressed the fingers on his left hand against his cheek as he muttered, “Oh boy… Talk about lousy timing…” As everyone else peered inside, they saw that Pinkie had been grabbed by a silver metal gauntlet, which was connected to a mostly black arm. They didn’t have to look any further to see that it was Shadow’s counterpart, Sir Lancelot.
> Sonic and the Black Knight, Volume Two
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


THE GRAND KINGDOM'S PLIGHT


The black and red hedgehog lowered his left arm a bit so he could look Pinkie squarely in the eye, keeping his hand steady so he wasn’t squeezing. “May I ask who you are and what you think you’re doing in here?” he asked in a calm voice, though the tone behind it indicated he was expecting an answer.

Pinkie shook her head and then smiled at Lancelot, acting normal despite her surprise a moment ago. “Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie, and I love parties! I’m also good friends with your king, just like my other friends! He told you about us, didn’t he? The guards out front seemed to know!” she spoke.

Lancelot’s eyes shifted to look at Gawain and Percival, the two stepping inside as the former said, “Take it easy, Sir Lancelot. She’s one of the Equestrian delegates. You don’t want to spark an international conflict over this.”

Lancelot looked back at Pinkie as she twisted her head around to look at the echidna, “Conflict? Don’t be silly, Gawain! Equestria’s peaceful now!” She turned back to Lancelot, “And that’s why I want to start preparing a big celebration to welcome the return of your king! Everyone in Camelot’s already excited about him being back; we can go even further and invite everyone in the Grand Kingdom! And of course the rest of our princesses will be there to show how welcoming we are, and there will be – wah!” She was once again cut off by Lancelot, this time due to him suddenly releasing his grip on her, causing her to fall to the floor rump first.

As she looked up at him curiously, the black and red hedgehog placed his right hand on the hilt of the sword sheathed at his side and said, “You’re fortunate I was not on edge when I came in here, otherwise, you might have been on the receiving end of my Chaos Punishment.” He then leaned down, getting close to her face as he continued, “And I suggest you learn to keep that mouth of yours under control. The dungeons have not seen much use since the castle was rebuilt. I would rather not have you quarantined, but I will motion for it if you’re going to continue disturbing the peace.”

He looked up as Rainbow exclaimed, “What’s that supposed to mean?!”

Gawain cut off any sort of exchange the two might have had by stepping forward, walking up to Lancelot and pointing at him with his left fist as he spoke, “What did I tell you, Lancelot? You may not be ‘on edge’, as you said, but you still need to chill out! Just because she’s excited, that’s no reason to say that to her!”

Lancelot countered, “Maybe not now, but she’s already suggested making it known to the entire kingdom that our king is back. How long will it take to get to that point?”

Percival stepped forward, “Sir Lancelot, while I think Sir Gawain and I can both agree that a celebration should not be at the forefront of our minds right now, Lady Pie is simply trying to instill optimism with her ways. We need that in these troubling times.”

Lancelot replied, “I don’t doubt that, Percival, but she still must be reined in. Yes, we are in need of something to be happy about, but her rose-colored glasses are something we can do without. Were it not for Sonic and Merlina, our undying loyalty to the former king would no doubt have led to similar consequences. We all vowed that we would not make that mistake again, and with Merlina still missing, we certainly have no reason to break that vow now.”

As the knights continued talking, Shining focused his attention on Lancelot. Earlier he had looked at the tapestry showing the black hedgehog with fear because he looked like Shadow, but after listening to him just now, the stallion’s mind was beginning to see things differently. Once again, he felt bad about judging Shadow because of his words, but the hedgehog in front of him was showing a side of himself that showed more than just anger and scorn. He knew Lancelot wasn’t the hedgehog that had threatened him before, but if these worlds had shown him anything, it was that the characters that looked like Sonic’s friends had very similar personalities to them, so surely…

He was brought out of his introspection when Cadance turned to Sonic and asked, “What happened to Merlina, Sonic? Do you know?”

Sonic replied, “I don’t, Cadance, and that’s a big problem. See, when I left, I appointed Merlina as ruler in my stead, and from what they were telling me earlier, she’s been a good ruler.” He gestured to the knights, “They said they’ve had to keep her disappearance a secret to everyone while keeping the kingdom running on their own for almost a week now. They’ve clearly managed so far, but as you can probably see, it’s getting to them; they can’t keep going like this.”

Applejack spoke, “Well, they do seem a bit huffy right now, ain’t gonna argue with ya on that, Sonic, and Merlina goin’ missin’ suddenly ain’t good either. But they can get over it and find her if they work together, right? What’s the problem?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Mainly their history, Applejack. Merlina and I both have had to step in between the knights, especially Gawain and Lancelot, to help them resolve their problems peacefully. Merlina used to be worried about their rivalry signaling the end of this kingdom, but by the time I left, she was stepping between them so that their comradeship didn’t end in an argument. Percival’s still doing what she can to help them, but even she can’t keep it up all the time on her own.”

Twilight asked, “So, in a way, Merlina and the Knights of the Round Table are like a council? They consult each other and try to arrive at the best decision for the kingdom?”

Sonic nodded, “Exactly. That’s why I ran ahead: to find out what’s going on around here. I was hoping Merlina would be here too, but the fact that she’s gone makes this even more urgent. Whatever caused her to disappear is probably also responsible for us ending up here, and we’ve gotta help them figure it out. Not just because Merlina’s magic can help us get back to Equestria, but also because the kingdom and the Knights of the Round Table need a ruler. I thought she would be the best choice for taking care of everything, and so far, it seems like she’s been able to handle all that responsibility.”

Caliburn opened his mouth to speak, but he was stopped when Rarity grabbed Sonic’s left arm with her hooves and said, “Well, now that responsibility falls on you, darling, and the first thing you need to do is look the part!” She wrapped her magic around his arm and then took off towards the doors, using her magic to drag him by the arm!

Percival, Gawain, and Lancelot all heard Sonic and Caliburn’s shout at this action and they stopped their debate, turning to see them being dragged by Rarity. “Wha-?” was all Gawain could utter. Lancelot said nothing; instead, he narrowed his eyes and, with a brief flash of blue, vanished.

The ultimate knight reappeared right in front of the throne room doors, causing Rarity to gasp and plant her hooves on the ground, coming to a stop right in front of him while Sonic had to do the same due to the momentum from being carried through the air, stopping next to her. “And where do you think you’re going with our king, miss?” Lancelot pointedly asked Rarity.

The fashionista replied, “Why, to get him dressed, of course! Like you said, he is your king, and at the moment, he does not look like a king! I will take him to get his kingly dressings and give him a makeover!” Sonic made a face at the unicorn’s words.

Lancelot spoke, “As nice a gesture as that is, our king does not have ‘kingly dressings’. He has not needed any help in being identified as King Arthur, and this is hardly the time for that.” He turned to Sonic, “I was coming to tell you that I have prepared the council chamber so that the Equestrians can join our meeting, sire. We are ready to begin.”

Caliburn nodded, “Ah, so there is to be a council meeting. I was wondering about that. And the delegates from Equestria will be present at this meeting as well? An interesting decision to say the least, Sonic.”

Sonic released Caliburn and let the sword hover before saying, “Well, they’re used to dealing with problems that threaten kingdoms, Caliburn. Twilight and her friends have protected Equestria lots of times both with and without their Elements of Harmony, Spike’s kind of a big hero too, and Shining Armor and Princess Cadance rule over the Crystal Empire. They’re like a council as well, and after everything we’ve seen today, I’d say they’ve definitely earned the right to sit in on this meeting.”

Lancelot said, “Then let us not waste any more time. Get the rest of the delegates and let’s go to the council chamber.”

As he was about to turn around, Rarity exclaimed, “Wait!” When the black hedgehog looked back at her, she asked, “Where is the king’s chamber? You must’ve had that included when the castle was rebuilt, yes?!”

Lancelot raised an eyebrow, “Yes, there is a chamber for our ruler, but it was intended for use by Merlina.” He gestured to his right, “As for where it is, you can reach it if you head that way. Why do you ask?”

Rarity’s horn lit up and her light blue aura wrapped around Sonic’s left arm again. “I apologize, Sir Lancelot, but I simply cannot let such an injustice go! Sonic is a king and he should look like one! I will do this quickly!” She looked back over her shoulder and called, “Spike, I require your aid with this matter, please!”

Her words quickly registered in the baby dragon’s head and he quickly ran across the throne room towards her saying, “Yes, Rarity! Coming! Right away!” As Rarity ran out of the throne room, Sonic tried to grab the door jamb with his right hand, but he soon lost his grip and found himself being dragged down the hallway, looking down at Spike as the dragon tried to keep up with them.

Lancelot growled at this and said, “Get back here!” He took off running after them, Caliburn floating out of the room after him.

Back in the throne room, Gawain, Percival, and the other ponies just stared at the doors, the knights particularly surprised by the scene they just witnessed. “Lady Rarity is… persuasive, isn’t she?” Gawain asked after a moment.

Applejack sighed, “That girl just can’t help herself when it comes to that high class stuff. She’s gotta get involved, gotta be the pony everypony should know.”

Percival spoke, “Well, this presents a problem. We cannot begin the meeting without everyone present, especially a meeting as important as this one.”

Shining Armor looked over at the cat and said, “I can see why it would be important, what with all that talk about Merlina disappearing and the Underworld army.”

Fluttershy asked, “What do we do now?”

Twilight sighed, “I sure wish we knew a little more about the Underworld. It would probably be a good thing to know about going into this meeting…”

Percival thought for a moment before saying, “A capital idea, Lady Sparkle!” When everyone looked at her, she explained, “Even if the king had not said all of you should be present at the meeting, knowledge about the Underworld is invaluable, especially now. While Lady Rarity, Sir Spike, and Sir Lancelot are away with Sir Sonic, I can help you all learn more about it.”

Gawain nodded, “Sounds good, Percival. I’ll leave it to you how best to handle that.” He started to walk towards the doors as he continued, “I’ll go see how Lancelot is doing. I’ll come down to the castle library to find you when we’re actually ready to begin the meeting.”

Percival put her hands on her hips and asked, “How did you know I was intending to take them down to the library, Gawain?”

As he continued walking, Gawain rolled his eyes and smirked as he replied, “Lucky guess.” With that, he hurried out of the throne room to catch up to Lancelot.

Twilight looked at Percival and asked, “There’s a library right here in the castle?”

The lavender cat nodded, “Indeed. I do enjoy visiting it when I get a chance to.” She looked back towards the doors, “I believe Sir Gawain is exaggerating how much time I actually spend there, however.”

Twilight smiled and was about to say something, but Rainbow spoke up first, “Do we really have to go to the library to learn about this Underworld place? I mean, with the Crystal Empire, it was one thing, but this? Geez…”

Percival blinked as she turned to the pegasus, “Well… yes. I feel that would be the best way to go about it. Unless you would rather I simply tell you what I know about it?”

Rainbow groaned, “They both sound boring right now, Percival.”

Percival crossed her arms, “Well, that’s not a healthy attitude, is it, Miss Dash?”

Pinkie suddenly popped up next to Percival and wrapped a leg around her shoulders as she said, “Don’t worry, Perci! Dashie’s just anxious to help Sonic and the kingdom out! She isn’t the Element of Loyalty for nothing, after all!” She turned and began trotting towards the throne room doors, “Come on! I’m sure you can convince her that what you have to show us will make her an even better Element of Loyalty!”

Percival just stared blankly at the pink pony as she trotted away. “‘Perci’?” she mouthed.

Cadance placed a reassuring hoof on the knight’s shoulder and said, “It’s okay. That’s her way of showing she likes you. Please, show us down to the library, erm… Sir Percival?” The lavender cat looked back at the princess and nodded softly, her mind still reeling not only at her apparent new nickname, but also Pinkie’s… odd behavior. They joined the party pony outside the throne room and Percival took point, leading the group in the same direction the others had gone, but taking a different turn than them later on.


PASSING THE TIME


After a few minutes of walking, the group stopped outside of the double doors leading into the castle library. Percival looked up at the doors as she said, “We’re here.” She turned around to look at the ponies before continuing, “Before we go in, I must remind you all to keep your voices down while we’re inside.”

Applejack spoke, “Yeah, we’ve all been in a library before, Percival. …Uh, no offense intended.”

Percival replied, “None taken, Applejack. As for why I’m telling you this, it’s because the librarian might not be of the type you are used to. She has been in the library since the days of the former king and as such is intent on taking good care of it.”

Cadance commented, “She must have a lot of passion for her work if she’s still around after everything that’s happened here.”

Percival nodded, “She does. Her passion for this place has led to her getting the title of caretaker as something of a derogatory nickname, but she’s actually quite kind when you get to know her. She simply does not have a good tolerance for troublemakers and loud talkers.” She turned to Pinkie Pie and started, “That being said… Miss Pie, I hate to request this of you, but for the time being, do you think perhaps…?” She was stopped short when Pinkie suddenly gave a salute… as well as a series of motions that started with her zipping her mouth closed and then a series of different motions as everyone stared at her. “Um… what is she doing…?” Percival asked, utterly confused by what she was seeing.

Twilight answered flatly, “She zipped her mouth closed, then locked it with a key, then dug a hole and buried the key, then built a house on top of the hole, and then moved into that house.”

Percival stared at the unicorn blankly. “That seems… a bit excessive,” she said after a moment.

Twilight glanced at Pinkie, who was now smiling a toothy smile, as she replied, “Well… at least it involves her still having her mouth. I’d say that’s better than that time when it was magically removed for a while…”

Again Percival stared at her before saying, “Yes, I would have to agree with you on that.” Deciding not to press the matter further, she turned back to the doors and used her hands to push them open, the ponies following her as she walked into the library.

While Percival began her lesson with the ponies, Gawain found Sonic, Caliburn, and Lancelot standing outside the double doors of Merlina’s private chamber. Sonic was leaning against the wall on one side with Caliburn at his side while Lancelot was standing across from him with his arms crossed. As Gawain approached the two, the black hedgehog turned his head to look at the echidna and simply said, “Gawain.” He raised a hand, waving it in reply as Sonic and Caliburn turned to look at him.

Once he was standing in front of the two, Gawain asked, “So, what’s going on here?”

Sonic answered, “Rarity’s in there with Spike, working. She took my measurements and then pushed me out of the room. Said I was distracting her.”

Gawain nodded, “Ah. At least she didn’t push you out to keep Lancelot company.”

Sonic replied, “He and Caliburn showed up pretty much right afterwards. Wouldn’t be surprised if she did it partly to buy her some time.”

Caliburn looked up at Sonic with a stern gaze, “This is no time to jest, Sonic. You do realize we do not have time for such frivolity, correct?”

Sonic glanced down at his sword and said, “Trust me, Caliburn, I’m well aware of that fact. Let Rarity get this out of her system. She is a lady,” he paused, glancing over at the doors before continuing in a hushed tone, “but she’s not quite the kind of lady she seems to believe she is.”

Lancelot looked at him for a moment before turning his head towards the doors and loudly asking, “What’s your progress, Miss Rarity?”

The white unicorn’s words came through the doors, sounding a bit rushed but as refined as ever, “Not to worry! I’m almost finished! This surely would’ve gone much faster if I had had a better plan in mind and several things from the Carousel Boutique, but a fashion designer learns to adapt! Normally adapting involves trends, but there are other circumstances one can adapt to as well!” A yelp from Spike was heard after she was finished speaking.

“Hm. Bet he’s letting her use him as a pincushion,” Sonic thought aloud.

“Well, if he’s used to having pins in his scales, I’m sure he’s fine. And hopefully she’s as good a seamstress as she makes herself out to be. We had to go through quite a few before we got the staff that we have today,” Gawain said. He looked at Lancelot and asked, “Remember that one seamstress who came to Camelot to work for Merlina, Lancelot?”

The black hedgehog raised his right hand to his face, “You don’t even need to remind me, Gawain. After seeing her designs, I can safely say she was not put out fast enough.”

Caliburn chuckled, “Quite a scene that was, I must admit. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Merlina quite as flustered as she was that day.” Gawain let out a laugh at the memory and, even as he raised his hand to his forehead, a small smile could be seen on Lancelot’s face. Despite not knowing what happened, it was enough to get Sonic smiling as well.

Suddenly, Rarity announced, “I’m finished~!” Sonic glanced towards the doors as the one next to him opened inwards slightly, the blue hedgehog pushing off the wall and using his hand to push it open a little more as he walked inside. Lancelot and Gawain looked at each other, both of them moving with Caliburn into the room to get a better look.

As they stood in the doorway looking inside, the two knights saw that Merlina’s room was exactly as they remembered it. It was a fairly sizable room with a few pieces of furniture in it, the most prominent being the large bed with magenta sheets sitting against the wall opposite the doors with a small wooden nightstand next to it. In addition, there was also a wooden chest with drawers of varying size for the wizard’s clothes and belongings sitting against one wall, a familiar metal glove and mirror resting on top of it. The two knights could see the loom Rarity had been using sitting near the middle of the room and a small dressing area she had set up off to the side. Looking towards the latter, they saw what the unicorn had created.

Rarity had woven a red cape for Sonic, which was attached to a gold shoulder plate that went over the hedgehog’s left shoulder. As she put it on him, they saw that the cape was almost long enough to touch the floor and spread out as it went down, leaving part of his backside exposed. Spike and Caliburn stood off to the side, watching as she moved around Sonic and made sure everything was right. Once she was sure, she trotted around to his front while using her magic to pick up a golden crown that was sitting on the bed. She placed it on top of his forehead and adjusted it a bit before stepping back to admire her work once more.

A moment passed before she smiled, “Perfect! Now you look like a proper king, darling! You have GOT to see yourself!” She used her magic to pull a full length mirror she had set up against the wall to Sonic’s left to her and propped it up against the chest.

Sonic stepped over to the mirror and took a look at his reflection. After several seconds, he said, “Well. That is something, isn’t it?” He turned to Rarity, still standing next to the mirror, “Thanks, Rarity. You didn’t have to do this, but it is nice.” He then turned his head to look at the plate on his shoulder before saying, “I’m not much of a cape fan, though. They usually don’t work out for me.”

Rarity walked over to the hedgehog’s side and said, “Well, I don’t know what sort of troubles you’ve had in the past with capes, Sonic, and I certainly don’t have time to do anything more, but I implore you to give this one a chance.” She pointed to the cape, “I specifically designed it with your, ahem, abilities in mind. It’s less likely to get caught while you’re running, and it won’t slow you down like a regular cape might. You should even be able to roll around with it on!”

Sonic glanced down at his left shoulder again, “Is that so? Huh.”

Rarity nodded, “And even then, it’s a garment worthy of a king.” She slowly began to lean the side of her face closer to Sonic’s as she murmured, “And I’m well aware that there’s only one throne in the throne room, but surely a king needs to have a queen as well.” Sonic was beginning to feel very nervous about how close Rarity was to him, and he could just imagine what Spike might be feeling right now…

Fortunately, Lancelot came to his rescue by loudly clearing his throat. This caused Rarity to stop her advance, both her and Sonic looking back. Lancelot, Caliburn, and Spike all had unamused looks on their faces while Gawain was at more of a middle ground; he didn’t look as angry as the other three, but he wasn’t grinning either. “We ARE still here, and we ARE able to hear,” Lancelot stated.

“As you yourself said, this is hardly the time for such antics, Lady Rarity. Save your attempts for later,” Caliburn added.

“Wha-! I wasn’t…! I didn’t…!” Rarity stammered, not noticing the flat look Sonic was giving her.

“So are you all done now?” Gawain asked.

Sonic answered, “I think so, Gawain.”

The armored echidna nodded, “All right. I’ll go get Sir Percival and the other ponies then. We’ll meet you at the council chamber.” With that, he turned and walked out, heading for the castle library.

As Sonic and Rarity headed for the doors with Spike and Caliburn in tow, Lancelot held up his right hand as they reached him, causing all of them to come to a stop. “Sire, a moment of your time, please,” he stated as he lowered his hand. Although confused, Sonic nodded in response. Lancelot looked at Rarity and Spike and said as he pointed out into the hallway, “This will take but a minute. Go stand out there until we are done.”

Rarity stammered, “What?! Why?!”

Although he was still a bit miffed at the unicorn, Spike agreed, “Yeah! Anything you have to say to these two, you can say around us!”

Lancelot put his hands on his hips as he replied, “Perhaps you two have been privy to certain secrets in your homeland, but this is not Equestria. This is the Grand Kingdom, and I ask that you respect my request for privacy. This is not a matter that calls for either of your opinions.” Spike and Rarity looked at Sonic. While the hedgehog still seemed to be a bit confused about what Lancelot wanted, he tilted his head toward the door all the same. Taking the hint, the two stepped out into the hall and Lancelot pulled the door closed behind them.

Once the doors were closed, Sonic asked, “So what’s up, Lancelot?”

As he let his arms drop to his sides, Lancelot spoke, “Forgive me, Sir Sonic. You may think me foolish, but I have… misgivings.” He moved closer to Sonic and murmured loud enough for him and Caliburn to hear, “Are you sure about bringing the delegates into this matter? After that display just now…”

Caliburn nodded as much as he was able to as he whispered back, “Indeed. That seemed quite an obvious attempt to curry your favor.”

Sonic sighed and replied, “I get what you’re both saying. I know I’ve just met them today, so there are things about them I don’t know. I’ll probably never know everything; I’m sure there are things they don’t like to talk about. But I’m sure that was just Rarity being Rarity. She’s prim and proper, and there are some bad habits that come with that. I swear, though, they’re all more than willing to help us.”

Caliburn said, “You seem to have formed quite an opinion about them, Sonic.”

Sonic replied, “After what I’ve seen them all do today, I think I’ve made a pretty sound opinion about them, Caliburn.” He looked at Lancelot and said, “Believe me, you can trust them.”

Lancelot stared back at him for a moment before curling his right hand into a fist. He held the fist up and pressed it firmly up against Sonic’s chest, the blue hedgehog looking down at it before looking back up at Lancelot. “I trust you. Therefore, I believe your words. But as you said, there are certain habits that tend to come up, and in my case, I tend to analyze what I see.” The black hedgehog lowered his hand, uncurling it as he finished, “I will do my best to remember that I can trust the Equestrians, but you’ll have to forgive me if I’m unable to stop myself from carefully observing their words and actions.”

Sonic was a bit taken aback by the black hedgehog’s words, but he soon shrugged, “Well, you told me beforehand, so… that’s a good thing to know. As long as you make the effort, I’m cool with it.” Lancelot nodded and turned to the doors, moving to one and pushing it open, allowing Sonic and Caliburn to go first.

As Lancelot was making sure the doors were closed properly, Sonic and Caliburn went over to Rarity and Spike. As they stopped in front of the two, Spike, with his arms crossed, spoke, “That didn’t take long. What were you talking about in there?”

Sonic replied, “Just clearing some things up, Spike. There’s nothing to worry about. Promise.” He made a few motions with his right hand like he did before to show he was sincere.

As Lancelot came over and they started walking, Spike grumbled, “Still not a Pinkie Promise.”

Meanwhile, in the library

“Okay, so those creatures act like scouts for the most part. It’d be important to take care of them when we see them to keep them from alerting the rest of the soldiers,” Shining murmured to himself as he looked over the pages of the book in front of him. He and the others were sitting at a long wooden table that was covered with nearly every book in the Camelot Castle library on the Underworld army.

Percival finished the explanation she was giving Cadance and Pinkie and asked, “So is that a bit clearer now?”

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically to show that she understood the cat’s words while Cadance said, “Yes, thank you, Sir Percival. Unless they group together to make one large soldier, the soldiers of the Underworld can be easily taken down with a well-placed attack.” Percival nodded in agreement.

The three of them heard a noise and looked to see a pig approaching the table. He was dressed in a blue tunic and white tights along with white gloves on his hands and red shoes on his feet. He walked up to Percival and said, “Forgive me, Sir Percival. I checked every shelf I could, but I couldn’t find any other books on the Underworld that would be helpful to you.”

Percival held up her right hand as she replied, “That’s quite all right, Oscar. What you have gone to the trouble of providing us with is more than satisfactory.”

The pig put his hands behind his back and said, “Well, if there’s anything else I can do to help you…”

Rainbow spoke up, “Actually, there might be.” Oscar, Percival, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Cadance looked over at the pegasus while the others tried to stay focused on their reading. “Do you know of any way to make all this… I don’t know, faster?” she asked.

Oscar looked confused at her words. “‘Faster’? I’m afraid I don’t understand, miss…”

Rainbow waved a hoof at him, “Ah, never mind, then.” She sighed, “There’s gotta be a way to make this less boring.”

Oscar perked up, “Boring? It’s not boring, it’s…”

He stopped short when a new voice spoke up, “Oscar, that will do.” Everyone looked to see the librarian stepping out from a set of shelves. She was a dark gray mink clothed in a yellow-colored dress that went down to her uncovered feet. Though she was walking fine, she still had a few signs of her age showing, particularly the glasses in front of her blue eyes and a few patches of white fur on her head. She walked over to Oscar and said, “I’ll take care of this. Please return to your duties.”

The pig bowed slightly, “Y-Yes, Mrs., uh, Venita. I’ll get back to work immediately.” He stood up straight and left, looking for either books lying around or someone else to help.

Venita let out a chuckle as she shook her head, “That boy really needs to learn to relax. He likes to be helpful, but he can’t seem to get over his nervousness.” She then looked over at Rainbow with a hard stare, “Which is why I would appreciate it if you didn’t try to drag him into your learning problems, miss. He may be here to help, but he does not specialize in your particular problems.”

Rainbow got defensive at that, “Hey, I was just asking him a question, okay? He’s the one who had to press it. He should’ve just kept quiet.”

Venita replied, “Be that as it may, you have been a bit of a disturbance ever since you came in here, and that’s putting it nicely. You may be with Sir Percival, but if you don’t silence your mouth, I’m going to have to fine you for disturbing the silence of my library.”

Rainbow’s mouth fell open at that. “Fine me?!” she gagged.

Venita got closer to the pegasus before saying, “And believe me, if you know what’s good for you, you’ll pay it when you receive it.” She then stood up straight and calmly said, “You have a nice day now.” With that, she left, disappearing back to the front desk.

Rainbow watched her walk until she disappeared from view. “Fine me for talking? What?” she asked.

Percival rested her cheek in her right hand as she smirked, “I’m sure it’s something that’s been long overdue, Miss Dash.”

Rainbow turned and glared darkly at the cat, “Oh, you’re so funny, Percival.” Twilight, meanwhile, was trying her hardest not to giggle too loudly.

After a few minutes, Gawain entered the library and found the group’s table, letting them know that they were ready to begin the meeting. Everyone got up to leave at that, with Twilight quickly finishing up the section of the book she was reading when she realized they were leaving. As they all stepped out into the hallway, Pinkie trotted over to a spot on the carpet and made a motion like she was opening a door, followed by more motions. As everyone watched her, Gawain started, “Uh, what is she-?”

Percival stopped him by putting her right hand on his left shoulder and saying through clenched teeth, “Don’t. Ask.”

After a couple of seconds, Pinkie finished what she was doing and gave a big gasp as she turned to face the group, taking in a lot of air. She then said, “Hi, Gawain!”

The armored echidna awkwardly replied, “Uh, hi, Lady Pie.” For a moment, he thought about finding out what was going on, but then thought better of it, instead motioning for the ponies to follow him and Percival. The two knights then led them through the halls of the castle, the ponies walking close behind them.

After a few minutes, Percival announced, “We’re here.” The ponies looked to see that they were approaching a large pair of ornate stone doors. In front and off to the left of the doors were Sonic, Caliburn, Lancelot, Spike, and Rarity. As they got closer, both Percival and the ponies took notice of Sonic’s new attire.

As they came to a stop, Twilight asked, “Where did you get that crown and cape, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “The crown was in that room we were in.” He then gestured to Rarity, “And guess.”

Pinkie piped up, “I think you look great! You’re a real hedgehog king now!”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, I was wondering if Rarity was gonna go way overboard and make you look all fancy, but she didn’t.”

Lancelot glanced at Rarity as he said, “Well, she certainly didn’t go overboard in the aesthetic, but she did try to overstep her bounds nonetheless.” Rarity turned her head to glare at him at that.

“What does that mean?” Twilight asked.

Lancelot looked at her, “She knows what I mean.”

Cadance looked back at Sonic and said, “Well, I think it suits you, Sonic.”

Percival nodded, “Yes, it does. Most definitely…” She turned her head away slightly, hoping the heat she was feeling in her cheeks was not showing through her fur. Shaking her head, she cleared her throat and looked at Lancelot and Caliburn, saying, “Well met, Sir Lancelot, Caliburn.”

Caliburn replied, “Well met indeed, Sir Percival.”

Lancelot nodded and then spoke, “The wait was longer than expected, but I trust you’re all ready for the meeting?”

The ponies nodded, with Fluttershy saying, “We are. Sir Percival brought us up to speed on the Underworld army while we were waiting. It was a very informative session.”

Rainbow muttered, “I guess that’s one way to look at it.”

Both Twilight and Percival turned their heads to look at the pegasus, the latter soon facing forward again as she said, “Despite what Miss Dash thinks, I do believe they were able to learn much in the allotted time.”

Caliburn nodded, “That sounds like a reasonable assumption, Sir Percival. Now, shall we begin the meeting?” Everyone nodded in agreement.


COUNCIL CHAMBER


Lancelot uncrossed his arms and turned his head to the right, looking at a section of the wall. He tilted his head towards it and said, “Keep an eye on things. Make sure we’re not disturbed.” Sonic, Spike, and the ponies were confused about who he was talking to, but they soon got their answer when a familiar purple head appeared up against the wall Lancelot was looking at and nodded before fading out of view again. It looked like Espio, but the Arthurian counterpart had a slight goatee hanging under his chin. The rest of him was cloaked, so they couldn’t tell if he had any other physical differences from the Espio they knew.

Lancelot and Gawain then moved towards the doors, each pushing one open. Once they were open all the way, Sonic and the Equestrians were able to get a good look at the council chamber. The room had a high ceiling from which a fancy-looking chandelier was hanging from in the middle of the room. There were several candelabras hanging on the side walls to provide extra light, and along the walls were the extra chairs that Lancelot had gathered earlier. And in the center of the room was the Round Table itself, a circular table made of gray stone with a map of the Grand Kingdom unfolded on top of it. Around the table were six wooden chairs; five of them looked the same aside from a mark at the top of the chair being different from each one while the sixth looked more like a throne, being far bigger and more majestic than the others. On the ground to the right of it was what appeared to be a seventh chair that looked far too small for anyone they had seen so far.

Lancelot entered first, motioning for Sonic to follow him. The blue hedgehog did so with Caliburn following at his heels, everyone else filing into the room afterwards. Percival and Gawain moved to the side walls while Spike and the ponies moved around the room and looked around a bit. Looking towards the table in the center of the room, Cadance, hoping to break the silence, asked, “So is this why you’re called the Knights of the Round Table?”

Percival, while she was grabbing a chair along the left wall of the room and pushing it towards the table in question, replied, “Indeed. The name was conceived by the old king when he was still a just ruler. That’s why we’ve kept it: to remember the time when we still saw him as our true king and not the twisted Black Knight he became.”

Shining asked, “So this is where all your important decisions are made?”

Gawain answered while dusting off the cushion on one of the chairs he’d pulled up to the table, “Right. Nearly every decision regarding the kingdom is made here before anyone else is told about it. We discuss what’s going on in the kingdom, we debate what to do, and we, eventually, come to a decision. We’ve spent lots of hours in this room doing just that since the castle was rebuilt.”

As he came to a stop next to the large chair, which faced the doors and was centered between the other five chairs, Lancelot said, “Sadly, it’s been some time since we’ve been able to do that. Our meetings have been lacking something, or rather someone, very important to the process.” He turned his head to look at Sonic at that and the blue hedgehog took the hint, moving to the front of the chair and sitting down in it, sliding into it rather easily despite the fact that it was evidently made for someone taller than him. Caliburn and Lancelot nodded, the former then floating over to the smaller chair next to it and resting his blade across it in a sort of cross between sitting and lying down.

After Lancelot took his seat in the chair to Sonic’s right, Rarity happily trotted over to the chair to his left and said, “Right then, let’s all get seated and start this meeting! We have much to discuss after all.” She placed a hoof on the chair’s armrest and started to move around to sit in it.

Suddenly, Lancelot slammed his hands down on the table as he stood up and angrily yelled, “Don’t sit there!” Rarity froze at that and slowly backed away from the chair, nearly everyone in the room staring at Lancelot at his outburst. As he sat back down again, Lancelot said in an annoyed tone, “That seat is for Sir Galahad and Sir Galahad alone.”

Although still a bit freaked out by Lancelot’s yell, Fluttershy weakly asked, “S-S-Sir G-Galahad?”

Sonic held his right hand to his chin as he said, “That’s right.” He looked at the chair to the left of Galahad’s, “Sir Galahad and Sir Lamorak aren’t here right now.”

Gawain pushed up a particularly comfy looking chair up next to Rarity, the fashionista looking at him as he spoke, “Sorry about that. Lancelot’s a bit of a stickler when it comes to these things. That’s part of the reason Sonic wanted him to get these chairs in here. Here, you can have this one.” Rarity thanked him and plopped down on the chair’s cushion, getting comfortable.

After a few minutes, everyone was properly seated. Gawain sat to Lancelot’s right and Percival sat to his right, right across from where Sir Galahad would be sitting. Rarity, Shining, and Cadance were sitting between Galahad and Lamorak’s seats, Rainbow, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie were between Lamorak and Percival’s seats, and Spike, Fluttershy, and Twilight were between Percival and Gawain’s seats. “Are we all ready?” Sonic asked as he looked around.

“We’re all present and accounted for, sire,” Gawain replied.

Percival nodded, “So let’s begin. Now then-”


HOSTING THE MEETING


Her words were cut short when the doors suddenly banged open, everyone turning to see Pinkie pushing a small food cart into the room stacked with small plates, cups, several teapots, and cupcakes that each had different colored frosting. “Sorry! I didn’t break anything! Just had to go get these!” the pink pony chirped as she wheeled her cart over to Percival.

“Lady Pie, what are you-?” Percival started to say before Pinkie placed a small plate with a cupcake that had purple frosting on it in front of her.

As she was pouring tea into a cup, Pinkie replied, “I know I’m supposed to be a guest here, but I couldn’t resist! See, I’ve hosted a lot of things back home: parties, cute-ceanaras, parties, weddings, parties, birthdays… Did I mention parties? All sorts of fun stuff! But I also know how to host meetings, and I’ve noticed that being a good host makes a meeting turn out better!” She finished pouring the tea and placed the teacup in front of Percival before bending down underneath her cart and coming up with a bowl of sugar cubes. “One lump or two?” she asked Percival.

Percival stared at her for a moment before replying, “Uh, two will be fine, thank you.” Pinkie dropped two cubes into her tea at her request and left her a stirring spoon before moving on.

As the pink pony continued serving, Caliburn tilted towards Sonic while staring at her and whispered, “Where did she acquire all of that?”

Sonic whispered back, “I have no idea. I didn’t even see her step out.” By this time, Pinkie was finishing up with Gawain, having been able to breeze through her friends since she knew their preferences, and was starting on Lancelot, giving him a cupcake that had black frosting with red stripes.

“How many lumps, Sir Lancelot?” she asked after she gave him his tea.

“None… but thank you,” Lancelot replied while holding his right hand over his cup.

“Aw, come on! It’s good sugar! It adds a great taste, and it’s sweet too!” Pinkie said.

“I think I’m ‘sweet’ enough,” Lancelot grumbled in response.

“That’s for sure! You might want to listen to him, Lady Pie; he gets any sweeter on us, he might melt!” Gawain joked.

“Sir Gawain, really!” Percival chastised while Lancelot shot him a dark look. Pinkie decided to get out of their way and moved on to Sonic and Caliburn.

After she finished serving Sonic, she turned and offered a cupcake to Caliburn. The sword stared at it for a second before saying, “I… do not believe that is feasible, Lady Pie.”

Pinkie blinked, “Huh?”

Caliburn explained, “Well, that confection does look delicious, but I am assuming that because I have only seen what others refer to as ‘delicious’; I would not know myself.”

Pinkie tilted her head, “What?”

Sonic interjected, “He’s trying to say he can’t eat anything, Pinkie.” Caliburn tilted his hilt in agreement with Sonic’s words.

“Oh! Well, that’s a shame. You should really be able to eat, Caliburn; you are a living sword after all,” Pinkie said. She put the cupcake back on her cart, “I’ll just eat it for you then, okay?” With that, she moved on with her cart. As she continued, Sonic lifted his teacup to his lips and took a sip. When he set it back down, he gave a murmur and a nod of approval.

Soon, everyone in the room was served, and Sonic looked at Pinkie as she sat down in her chair and said, “Thanks, Pinkie.” He then looked at Percival and asked, “Now, as you were saying, Percival?”


THE MEETING


The cat nodded, “Right.” She addressed their guests, “Based on what Prince Shining Armor said earlier, I'm sure you're all aware of the situation plaguing us at the moment?”

Rainbow spoke up, “Yeah. He told us your ruler, Merlina, has gone missing for some reason.” Percival nodded in response.

“Yeah, what happened ta her? He didn’t seem ta know,” Applejack said.

Lancelot answered, “To be honest, we’re not sure ourselves. We weren’t with Merlina when she disappeared.”

Gawain nodded, “The last time we saw her, she was leaving with Caliburn on a diplomatic journey to see the kingdom. That was over a week ago.” He looked over at Caliburn and asked, “Speaking of which, Caliburn, how did you end up in the care of the Smithy?”

The sword replied, “I was left there by Merlina after we left the castle. She told him to keep me hidden until she returned. I protested, as you might expect, but she would not listen. I could only assume she left Camelot on her own. I was not informed that she had gone missing until this day.”

Sonic looked at the knights and asked, “How did you guys find out she was missing?”

Lancelot replied, “We were contacted by Lady Nimue. Ever since you left, she and Merlina have been keeping a correspondence with their magic. For the most part, Nimue has been helping Merlina settle into her role of being the new ruler of the Grand Kingdom, but Merlina reassured us that she would be in contact with the Lady and we should keep to our posts in the castle until she returned. Imagine our surprise days later when Nimue used her reflecting pool to tell us that Merlina had disappeared.”

Cadance tilted her head, “Reflecting pool?”

Percival answered, “Merlina and Lady Nimue are able to observe faraway events through them, and it’s how they communicated with each other. She didn’t tell us anything beyond the fact that she was unable to find Merlina, so she must not know what happened to her either. All she told us was that we must be ready to defend the kingdom at a moment’s notice. She said she was going to try to locate Merlina and she would let us know when she found her, but we haven’t heard from her since.”

Applejack asked, “So y’all have just been sittin’ around in the castle waitin’ fer word from ‘er?”

Gawain replied, “It’d be different if things had been quiet this entire time. Unfortunately, ever since we received word that Merlina disappeared, we’ve been receiving reports from around the kingdom of attacks by the armies of the Underworld. At first, we were able to respond to these reports and be back at Camelot Castle in a timely manner, but then the places we’d just been to reported more attacks, multiple attacks started popping up…” He gestured to the map on the table, which had small scraps of paper with writing attached to the different locations around the Grand Kingdom.

Percival continued for Gawain, “It became too much for us to handle on our own. You may have noticed that there are very few guards posted around the castle. In order to deal with the multitude of attacks, we’ve had to send out squads of the royal guard to protect these locations. We are getting down to the last of our reserves and the new recruits because of this.”

Gawain spoke, “Keeping what we have left in line hasn’t been the problem, and neither has supporting the soldiers we’ve sent out. When it became clear that we were needed here at the castle, we sent Sir Galahad and Sir Lamorak out not only to provide support, but also to help Nimue search for Merlina.”

Sonic spoke, “That makes sense. Galahad and Lamorak were positioned pretty far out on the kingdom’s outskirts when I was here. They missed a lot of what happened and had to be told about it when we sent them orders to return to Camelot.”

Gawain nodded, “That’s exactly why we thought they should be the ones to search for Merlina. Their time away gifted them with an intimate knowledge of the kingdom that the three of us do not possess, and despite mainly acting as scouts, they are good warriors. Much like you thought Merlina would be the best choice to assume the throne in your place, we thought they would be the best support we could send out while we kept the kingdom running.”

Twilight asked, “Have you heard anything from them?”

Percival answered, “They’ve been sending their reports when they can, often with the reports of the soldiers they’ve helped. They haven’t mentioned finding any leads to Merlina’s whereabouts, but there have been mentions of rumors they’d like to discuss with us before they look into them further. Hopefully they’ll return and discuss their findings with us soon.”

Spike asked while looking at the map, “Is there anything else you guys can do to, you know, resolve this?”

Lancelot glanced over at the dragon as he replied, “Unfortunately, we are not in a position where we can just leave the castle at our leisure. Without Merlina, the kingdom needs our leadership, so we cannot simply leave the castle without a solid lead anymore.”

Percival said, “We have been doing what we can, but we are in desperate need of someone to lead us.” She looked over at Sonic, “Sir Sonic, we require your leadership if we are to overcome this crisis. After hearing all of this, do you have any thoughts?”

Everyone turned to look at Sonic at that, the blue hedgehog resting his chin on top of his hands as he looked down at the map. After a moment, he spoke, “Well… I can’t really tell much from what you’ve been putting here, but,” he placed his left hand on the table and pointed at the map with his right, “is there any sort of pattern to these attacks? Anything unusual you might have noticed from what you’ve been hearing?”

Lancelot looked at the map as he replied, “Not really. Sirs Galahad and Lamorak haven’t been present for a number of these attacks, but many of the reports indicate that the Underworld army attacks for a short time before retreating regardless of the situation.”

Sonic asked, “The reports always say that?”

Lancelot looked at him, “More or less.” After a moment, he asked, “Do you think…?”

Sonic held up his right hand, “I don’t want to jump to that conclusion just yet. I’m trying to gather my thoughts right now, get a better idea before I make a decision.”

Gawain spoke up, “Actually, there’s something that’s been bugging me for a while.” Everyone looked at him, so he explained, “It’s about Merlina’s diplomatic journey. Just the way it… kind of came out of nowhere.”

Percival asked, “What do you mean, Gawain?”

The red knight shrugged, “I don’t know, Percival, just… she started having all these face-to-face meetings with Lady Nimue, and then she suddenly announced that she was going on a diplomatic journey, and she didn’t take Caliburn with her… Something just doesn’t seem right.”

Sonic asked, “What do you mean by ‘face-to-face’ meetings, Gawain?”

Lancelot answered, “It’s true that prior to leaving Camelot, Merlina had been leaving for the Deep Woods to visit Lady Nimue, but I don’t really see how anything bad could have come of it. Nimue happens to be a skilled enchantress, and while I don’t think Merlina could be up to something, without the Scabbard of Excalibur, she would not have an easy time overpowering Nimue when it comes to magic.”

Sonic held his right hand to his chin, “That’s right… Say, now that you bring it up, do we have any idea what happened to that thing?”

Gawain answered this time, “We still have no idea what happened to the scabbard, sire. We searched the remains of the old Camelot Castle long after you left, but we never found any trace of it. We were hoping Lamorak and Galahad’s search could turn up some results, but unless they’ve heard rumors about it, they’ve had no luck either.”

Sonic nodded and glanced down in thought. A few seconds passed before Caliburn asked, “Care to share your thoughts, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog was silent for a moment. Then he looked up and said, “I think I’m gonna have to pay the Lady of the Lake a visit.”

Rarity commented, “Well, that decision didn’t take long.”

Sonic shrugged, “I don’t know what else to do, Rarity. Merlina’s missing, the Underworld army is as active as it was when the old King Arthur was around, our forces are spread thin, and we haven’t heard a peep out of Nimue. At the very least, I’d like to know she’s okay.”

Percival spoke up, “There have been no reports of attack on the Deep Woods. We sent a squad of guards out there to protect it, but it remains one of the few places that hasn’t been attacked yet.”

Lancelot nodded, “That’s because even the Knights of the Underworld know better than to mess with the Lady of the Lake. It doesn’t matter if they managed to get past our guards; they would stand no chance against her.”

Gawain looked at Sonic, “We can go for you, my liege.”

Sonic replied, “No. You three know best how to keep the guards organized. From the looks of this map, Camelot hasn’t been attacked yet either, and the last thing we need is to lose the city because the guard got disorganized due to not having three of our best knights with them. Besides, Nimue has to know I’m back by now. No matter how busy trying to locate Merlina she is, she should’ve realized I’m here and tried to contact us by now.”

Gawain sat back in his seat, “You’re right. She wouldn’t be able to ignore the return of the true King Arthur. Either she’s close to finding Merlina, or something else is going on. Either way, you should be the one to go see her.”

Percival said, “I suppose you do have a point there, Gawain.” She looked over at Lancelot and noticed the black hedgehog was looking down at the table, his hands resting atop it with his fingers slid together. “Lancelot?” she asked.

Everyone looked at him, the knight still looking down at the table. “What’s wrong, Lancelot?” Sonic asked a little louder, trying to get his attention.

Lancelot looked up at Sonic and said, “I know better than to worry about your well-being, sire. You’ve charged into hordes of enemies and tackled massive beasts before and have often come out unscathed. Still, the situation in the kingdom right now worries me. With all the sporadic attacks and so little information available to us right now, it would give me peace of mind if you had an escort.”

Percival spoke, “An escort wouldn’t be a bad thing to have, Lancelot, but I don’t know if we have enough guards to spare for one.”

Gawain nodded, “Yeah, we are kind of minimally staffed right now.”

Shining glanced around the table before sitting up straight and saying, “I’ll go with him.”

Everyone turned to look at the stallion. “You will?” Gawain asked.

“The prince of the Crystal Empire, an escort?” Caliburn added.

“I wasn’t born into royalty, I was accepted into it. Before I married Cadance, I went to the Canterlot Academy to get the training to join the Royal Guard. I was eventually accepted and rose to the rank of Captain of the Royal Guard. Yes, Cadance and I rule over the crystal ponies, but I still hold that title, and I have been using all I learned to train the crystal ponies who want to become guards,” Shining explained.

Everyone looked at Sonic when he spoke, “It’s true. From what I’ve seen, he does have the skills necessary to protect both royalty and the innocent.”

Gawain and Percival turned to each other, both making a few gestures before nodding at each other. “Very well, then,” Percival started. She looked over at Lancelot, “What do you think, Lancelot?”

Gawain nodded, “You are the one who brought it up after all.”

For what seemed like a long while, there was silence in the room. Lancelot glanced from his fellow knights to his right to Shining Armor across the table. Several seconds went by before he blinked and glanced towards Sonic before returning to the stallion, Shining trying to remain upright and keep himself from showing any signs of fear the entire time. Even if Lancelot wasn’t exactly Shadow, his red eyes were still intimidating and seemed to scan him as they stared deep into his blue eyes, searching for any trace of weakness or lying.

Finally, Lancelot broke eye contact by blinking, clasping his hands together as he said, “I suppose I have no reason to object.” Shining relaxed at that, letting out a breath he’d been holding in for a while.

He turned to look at his wife as Cadance asked, “Shining, I do think you would be the best choice to protect royalty, regardless of who that royalty is, but you and Sonic aren’t going to set out for the Deep Woods by yourselves, are you?”

Before Shining could respond, Rainbow piped up, “Yeah, you’re not leaving the rest of us behind, especially not me!”

Rarity huffed, “Please, Rainbow Dash, we all know your interest is usually more vested towards performing for royalty, not protecting it. You are a fighter, no doubt about that, but some things require a more delicate touch.”

Applejack retorted, “And you should know by now, Rarity, that towns and cities bein’ attacked ain’t no laughin’ matter!” Suddenly, the room seemed to erupt into an argument, Spike and the other ponies either trying to quell the argument or add to it. Sonic, Caliburn, Cadance, Shining, and the knights all tried to resolve the matter peacefully, but their efforts were lost amidst the flurry of words flying back and forth.

Finally, Percival stood up from her seat, grabbing the map on the table with her left hand and yanking it off while raising her right hand over her head. “Silence! Silence all of you!” she yelled as she slammed the palm of her right hand down on the table. Immediately, a column of fire shot up towards the chandelier stopping just short of touching it, everyone immediately shutting up and staring at it in surprise! It burned for several seconds, the fire disappearing when Percival clenched her hand into a fist, moving it to her side afterwards. She then stood glaring around the table, making sure to look at Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash in particular.


END OF THE MEETING


Gawain leaned towards Lancelot and whispered, “Wow, usually one of us is on the receiving end of that.” Lancelot looked at him at that.

While she took the map in both hands, Percival stated, “Such bickering is pointless!” She raised the map above her head and swung it towards Sonic, who stood up and grabbed his end of it, both of them setting it back down flat on the table with some aid from the others. Twilight, Shining, and Cadance used their magic to put the scraps of paper back in their proper places while Percival said, “We all have to make sacrifices during these trying times. All of you accompanying Sir Sonic for this is a luxury we can’t afford right now.”

Fluttershy asked, “Wh-What do you mean, S-Sir Percival?”

Lancelot answered, “For one thing, Sonic cannot be away from the castle for too long. He is in charge now that he has returned, and while a larger group could potentially be better defensively, it would also slow him down unnecessarily.”

Gawain nodded, “And speaking of defenses, we’re sorely lacking in those right now. We’ll take just about any help we can get at this point.”

Percival looked at Sonic, “Sir Sonic, this is your decision to make. Who do you think would be best to accompany you, and who would be best for keeping Camelot Castle safe?”

Sonic crossed his arms and leaned back in his seat, thinking for a minute. “Well, I do want to get to Nimue and back here as fast as possible.” He nodded and leaned forward, “All right, here’s what I’m thinking. Shining Armor volunteered first, so obviously I want him with me. I’ll also take Rainbow Dash with to back him up in case we run into trouble.”

Rainbow pumped her hooves, “Yes! Finally, a chance to stretch my wings properly!”

Sonic continued, “If Twilight and Princess Cadance want to come with us, they can. I’ll leave that up to them.” Cadance and Twilight looked at each other across the table for a few seconds before they both turned to Sonic and nodded. Sonic nodded back and said, “All right, then Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, you’ll all stay here and help keep an eye on things while we’re gone.” Lancelot looked uncomfortable at the last name he said, but he kept his tongue in check.

Spike blurted out, “Hey, what about me?!”

Sonic looked over at him, “Well, that’s up to you, bud. I wasn’t gonna make any plans for you, especially since I didn’t know what Cadance and Twilight wanted to do, but now I’ll let you take your pick. You can stay here or you can come with us.”

Spike gave it some thought, looking at Rarity across the table, who gave him a pleasant smile. He stared at her for a bit before looking back at Sonic and saying, “Uh, I guess I’ll go with you guys.” Rarity frowned slightly at that.

Sonic spoke, “All right, does this work for everybody?” While there was a little hesitation, he received no objections, so he said, “All right, then.” He turned to Lancelot and Gawain, “Sir Gawain, Sir Lancelot, I’ll leave it up to you two to explain what you want them to do, okay?”

Both knights nodded at that, “Understood.”

Sonic turned to Percival, “Sir Percival, you’ll be helping them as well, but first, the Knight’s Passage was rebuilt, right?”

The cat replied, “Yes, Sir Sonic. It is exactly as it was in the old castle.”

Sonic nodded, “Cool. Show Twilight, Rainbow, Spike, Cadance, and Shining where it is. I’m gonna stop by Merlina’s chamber to get something real quick, but Caliburn and I will meet you there.”

Percival placed her right arm across her chest and bowed, “As you command, my liege.”

Caliburn spoke up, “Very well. Meeting adjourned!” He tapped his blade across his seat twice and Lancelot and Gawain stood up, both of them and Percival bowing, Sonic, Spike, and the ponies doing the same after a moment.

Afterwards, Percival turned and walked towards the doors, pulling one inwards and holding it open. Gawain and Lancelot headed for the doors first, the latter saying, “Come with us.” Pinkie, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity started after them at that.

Before she exited, Rarity stopped and looked at Percival. “Forgive me for asking, but aren’t you LADY Percival?” she asked.

Percival blinked at that. “‘Lady’? I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean, Lady Rarity.”

Rarity asked, “Well, isn’t that your proper title?”

Percival shook her head, “No. I am a Knight of the Round Table. I am a Sir.”

Rarity asked, “And you’re okay being called that?”

Percival nodded, “My friends call me ‘Sir’. I have no objection to it.”

Suddenly, Applejack called, “Rarity, come on!”

The fashionista straightened up at that and realized she had fallen behind. She blushed as she looked at Percival and quickly ran out of the room saying, “Sorry, sorry!"

Percival smiled at the unicorn’s behavior. Looking back at the others, she saw they were all looking at her. “Don’t worry. I’ve gotten that from people who don’t realize the difference before,” she said. She then moved towards the hallway saying, “Come. I’ll show you to the Knight’s Passage.” Rainbow, Twilight, Cadance, Shining, and Spike quickly followed after her at that, leaving Sonic and Caliburn as the last ones to leave the room.
> Sonic and the Black Knight, Volume Three
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


SETTING OUT FOR THE DEEP WOODS


After several minutes of walking, Percival came to a stop in front of a brick wall. She raised her right hand to the wall and pressed it against one brick, pushing it inwards. She then placed the palm of her hand on the brick underneath it, pushing it and the bricks underneath it down. In response, the section of wall next to it slid to the side, revealing a passageway behind it. “This is the Knight’s Passage?” Cadance asked.

“This is the entrance to it. The Knight’s Passage is connected to the castle’s sewers and waterways, stretching under the city,” Percival explained. She looked at Spike and the ponies, “It may be a bit of distance to cover, but there are boats manned by ferrymen who can guide you through the waterways, and it will put you relatively close to the Deep Woods. It will likely be faster than leaving through the city.”

They all turned to look as they heard something approaching and saw that it was Sonic. The blue hedgehog came to a stop in front of them holding Caliburn in his right hand and said, “We’re here. Let’s go.”

Twilight quickly noticed something different about him. “Where are your cape and crown, Sonic?” she asked.

“In this pack,” he said, gesturing with his left thumb to a brown backpack he was wearing that they hadn’t seen. Sonic let Caliburn go before he pulled the backpack off and slid it down his right arm. He opened it up with his left hand, revealing the folded cape and the crown sitting on top of it. “I figure I’ll probably be noticed anyway, but it can’t hurt to try to not draw attention to myself,” he explained as he reached his left hand inside the backpack. A second later, he pulled out the metal glove that had been sitting on the dresser in Merlina’s room. “I also wanted to grab this,” he said as he closed the backpack again.

As he was putting it on his back again, Shining asked, “A metal glove?”

Sonic slid the glove over his right hand before saying, “This was a gift from Merlina when I started training to become a knight. Just doesn’t feel the same without it.” He held his right hand up and waggled his fingers a bit before grasping Caliburn’s hilt again.

Percival nodded, “It is yours, Sir Sonic.” She faced the group, “I’ll close the passage entrance behind you. Please hurry to Lady Nimue’s side.” Everyone nodded and Sonic led the way into the Knight’s Passage, Spike and the ponies hurrying in after him. Once they were inside, Percival raised the lowered row of bricks back into place, the brick that had been pushed in sliding back into place once it was raised. This caused the section of the wall to slide back into place as well, Percival leaving once the entrance was hidden from view once more.

After a short jog through the straight corridor, the group reached a flight of stairs that led down into the castle’s sewers. “Guess Percival wasn’t kidding when she said we’d be going through the sewers,” Rainbow commented as they ran.

“A lot of the castle is connected by the sewers. Heck, even the dungeons in the old castle could be reached through the sewers,” Sonic called back.

“Yes, though they certainly weren’t this deep, considering you had to break a hole in the castle wall to reach that part of the sewers,” Caliburn reminded him.

Sonic shrugged, “Well, it’s not like we could’ve just walked up to the front gates and asked them to let us in for a jailbreak.”

Shining caught up with Sonic and asked, “Jailbreak? Oh, is that what Caliburn meant when he mentioned the old castle’s dungeons?”

Sonic looked over at him, “Yeah. Freeing the prisoners in the castle was one of the tests Lady Nimue gave me.”

Rainbow grinned, “Really? That sounds like an awesome test!”

Spike pointed ahead at where light seemed to be coming in from outside, “Hey, are we almost out?”

Caliburn answered, “Nay. That is part of the castle’s waterways.” Sure enough, when they made it to the opening that Spike had pointed to, they found themselves out on part of the castle, a pool of water underneath the walkway they were standing on.

“There’s this much water in the castle? That’s amazing,” Cadance commented as they stopped for a moment.

Caliburn spoke, “There are many such areas where the water freely flows. Even in the castle courtyards, there are waterfalls coming from several of the castle wall’s parapets.”

Twilight looked at him and asked, “How much water is in the castle, Caliburn?”

The sword replied, “There is a giant water tank further ahead. It stores water for both the castle and the town.”

Twilight asked, “So the castle supplies all of Camelot’s water?”

Caliburn answered, “Indeed. As such, the first order of business when reconstruction began was to get fresh water back up here. The water tank was the first thing to be repaired because of that.”

Cadance said, “So Merlina even destroyed the Knight’s Passage when she used the power of the scabbard…”

Sonic nodded, “Right. It was a rush for us and the Knights of the Round Table to get far enough away while navigating the passage and fighting off the Knights of the Underworld. Let’s see how quick we can get to the end when the ceiling’s not coming down and things are, hopefully, more open for us.” Spike and the ponies nodded and they started moving again.

As Sonic had hoped, more of the Passage was available to explore, the guards that were still in the castle opening closed gates and pointing them in the direction they wanted to go. It wasn’t long before the group got onboard one of the boats in the waterway, the elf in the boat rowing surprisingly fast while they sat back in the boat, Sonic sitting close to the elf with Caliburn at his side, Twilight sitting between him and Shining and Cadance, and Rainbow and Spike sitting near the front of the boat.

While looking around, Cadance commented, “It’s actually quite nice down here.”

Shining nodded, “Yeah. Normally I’d expect waterways and especially sewers to look grimy at the very least, especially considering the sewer we were in earlier today, but not the case here.”

Twilight nodded before looking back at Sonic and asking, “So Lady Nimue actually made you take tests, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog nodded, “Yeah. She wanted to make sure she could trust me with the secret of the scabbard’s power, see what kind of knight I would turn out to be.”

Caliburn commented, “Perhaps if you had carried yourself in a more kingly manner and had been more serious, she would’ve been more willing to part with the secret when you met her.”

Sonic rolled his eyes, “Seriously, Caliburn? I don’t need another etiquette lesson from you, especially since I’ve gotten enough of them from Rarity today already.”

Rainbow glanced back, “Yeah, no kidding. Besides, if she knew the secret, she probably wasn’t gonna part with it easily anyway.”

Caliburn replied, “After hearing her reasons, I have no doubt about that. I was merely making an observation.”

Sonic glanced at the sword, “Right. That’s why we’re talking about this at all: because you’re making an observation.”

Caliburn retorted, “I am entitled to my own opinion, as you are to yours.”

Spike looked back and asked, “Well, what’s the big deal? Sonic seems like he would be a good enough ruler. I mean, he’s no Princess Celestia, but he also hasn’t been ruling for, like, a thousand years.”

Caliburn replied, “‘Good enough’ does not exactly elicit confidence, does it, young squire? And I am not denying Sonic’s progress. He was far more unruly when he first took me up, so evidently he listened to some of the things I told him.”

Sonic spoke, “Well, it’s a good thing I don’t listen to everything you say, Caliburn. I would’ve failed Nimue’s final test if I had, remember?”

Caliburn replied, “Ah… Yes, that is correct.”

Cadance looked at Sonic, “What do you mean, Sonic? What was Nimue’s final test?”

Sonic answered, “Well, we were heading back to the lake after completing all the tasks she had given me. We pretty much had enough time to get back there and still make her deadline, but we ran into an elf girl crying in the woods. She told us her village had been taken by a dragon.”

Caliburn added, “Sonic wanted to help her, but as I reminded him, there was not enough time before the appointed time to go and rescue a village.”

Rainbow smiled, “But you went anyway, right?”

Sonic nodded, “Yep. After she pointed us in the right direction, we went across the Titanic Plain, fought with Gawain, and rescued her village from the cave, managing to avoid the dragon in the process. When we got back to the woods, the girl revealed herself to be Nimue in disguise.”

Shining asked, “So you made the right choice?”

Sonic replied, “Yep. For passing her tests, she told us how to disable the scabbard’s power.”

Caliburn said, “In that situation, you were wiser than I, Sonic, but that can’t always be the case. Never forget that you can’t always make the right choice in every situation.”

Before Sonic could respond, the elf rower spoke, “We are approaching your destination, Sir Sonic.” Everyone looked forward and saw that the boat was drifting towards a wooden dock up ahead. The elf stopped rowing, allowing the boat’s momentum and the flow of the water to carry the boat to the dock, coming to a stop next to it.

As he stood up, Sonic reached into his quills with his right hand and pulled out a couple of gold rings. “Thanks,” he said as he handed the rings over to the rower, the elf gladly taking them. He then took Caliburn by the hilt and climbed out onto the dock with the others.

Spike climbed onto Twilight’s back and sat down before saying, “Okay, let’s go see this Lady Nimue!”

A thought occurred to Sonic at that and he turned to look at, the baby dragon, saying as they all stepped out of the Knight’s Passage, “Oh yeah, that reminds me. Spike, you might not have noticed earlier, so I’m gonna give you an early warning: when you see Nimue, try not to freak out too much.”

Caliburn asked, a bit crossly, “What do you mean by that, Sonic?”

Sonic replied, “Don’t worry, Caliburn. I’m just giving him a heads-up. You remember how I reacted the first time I saw Nimue?” Caliburn nodded slightly, so Sonic said, “He might have a similar reaction when he sees her. It’s got nothing to do with Nimue herself.”

Shining spoke, “Well, we’ll worry about that when we find her. How do we get to the Deep Woods from here, Sonic?”

Sonic pointed Caliburn at the path ahead, “If we follow this path, it’ll lead us to the woods. Come on!” He broke out into a run at that, the ponies following his lead. As they were running, Twilight, along with Spike, and Cadance noticed Camelot Castle in the distance off to their right, causing them to wonder how the others were doing.


IN PREPARATION


Meanwhile…

“Ahh~! Mmm… Lovely,” Rarity sighed as she snuggled into cushion on the table she was lying on. Off to her side was an elf servant, moving her hands across the unicorn’s backside, rubbing and pressing against her. “Darling, you are a miracle worker,” Rarity said.

“Thank you, Lady Rarity. I am pleased that you’re pleased,” the elf said as she continued her treatment. Rarity murmured softly as it continued, sinking deeper into the cushion.

Her reverie was interrupted when the door to the room opened and a familiar voice exclaimed, “Wha- Rarity!” The elf servant stopped her massage and Rarity’s eyes shot open, the unicorn looking to see Applejack standing in the doorway. The earth pony walked over to her while demanding, “What the hay are ya doin’?! You’re supposed ta be helpin’ us!”

Rarity began to settle back into her cushion and motioned for the servant to continue as she said, “Don’t fret, Applejack. I said I would help and I am… going to. I’m just getting ready.”

Applejack argued, “Looks like you’re gettin’ a massage ta me!”

Rarity let out a murmur as the servant resumed her work before saying, “Exactly. I work much better when I’m properly relaxed. You’ve seen me work before; you should know that.”

Applejack asked, “Does Lancelot know that, though?”

Rarity let out a sigh and looked at Applejack with a stern gaze, “Listen, darling, I can go without a facial, I can skip a hooficure, but right now, I DESPERATELY need a massage. Getting a chance to sit down is simply not good enough right now. After all we’ve been through today, I need something more if I’m going to get through this stress. I asked her to keep it short, and I will be doing what I said I would do once it’s over. So if you could just leave and close the door behind you, I’ll be back on my hooves much sooner.”

Applejack glared at her, but complied and turned to leave. As she was leaving, she looked back over her shoulder and said, “Well, Ah’m not gonna tell Lancelot what Ah saw here, but if he asks, Ah also ain’t gonna lie ta him. So you can explain ta him why you decided ta take advantage of the fact that you’re friends with Sonic if he finds out.” With that, she pulled the door closed behind her as she left. The servant looked at Rarity with a worried look, but the unicorn just motioned for her to continue.

Fortunately for Rarity, Lancelot was not inside the castle at the time. He was patrolling along the castle walls, keeping an eye out for trouble. As he was making his way along the back wall, he noticed a small gathering in the courtyard below, near the statue of Sonic. He paused to look for a moment before deciding to get a better look, leaping off the wall and using his shoes to slow his descent before he hit the ground. He then ran forwards, seeing Percival and Gawain standing together, looking at something in front of them.

When he joined his fellow knights, he saw that they were looking at Fluttershy and Pinkie as the latter talked to a lion with tan fur and an orange mane who was wearing a royal guard outfit and a black eyepatch over his left eye and a gray and white furred bunny wearing a long red jacket and light blue tights holding a spear. He immediately recognized them. “What are they doing with General Tybalt and Sir Frederick?” Lancelot asked his fellow knights, referring to the lion and bunny respectively.

“Seems like Lady Pie is the one doing most of the talking,” Gawain replied.

“I can’t tell what she’s saying, but my guess would be that it involves protecting the castle,” Percival added. The three of them then looked back at the exchange, all of them noticing the uncertain glances that Tybalt and Frederick exchanged at points as they talked with Pinkie. After about a minute, the two nodded to the pink pony and left, heading for the castle’s back entrance.

Lancelot initially thought about going after them, but instead turned his attention back to Pinkie Pie. Already it seemed like the pink equine was on her way to becoming a handful and he wasn’t going to have it. Percival and Gawain watched as he stepped forward, coming to a stop near Fluttershy as he noticed Pinkie walking back over to the yellow pegasus. “Oh, hello, Sir Lancelot,” Fluttershy said when she noticed him, the black hedgehog giving her a noncommittal grunt in reply while he kept his focus on Pinkie.

Pinkie trotted over and stopped in front of Lancelot, Fluttershy in between them. “Hi, Lance!” the party pony chirped.

“Do not mock me. Use my full name or do not use it at all. And what were you doing just now?” Lancelot demanded.

Pinkie giggled and said, “Silly! You and Sonic wanted us to protect the castle, so Fluttershy and I came up with a new defense system for it!”

Lancelot turned to Fluttershy as she murmured, “Um, it was mainly Pinkie coming up with the ideas for this, um, system. I just mentioned I had some concerns about it…”

Pinkie walked over and patted Fluttershy on the head with a hoof, saying, “Don’t worry, Fluttershy! It’ll work, and it won’t take any extra money to build!”

Lancelot asked, “And when are you going to tell the rest of us about the specifics of this new ‘defense system’?”

Pinkie tapped her front hooves together as she replied, “Weeeeellllllllllll… I kind of based it on how I do surprise parties, so… I can’t really share it with you! Only Lady Fluttershy, Sir ‘Fluffy Neck’, and Earl ‘Long Legs’ can really know the details!”

Lancelot moved closer to Pinkie, getting almost up in her face as he growled, “Don’t get cute.”

Pinkie giggled, “I can’t help it! I was born that way!”

Lancelot narrowed his eyes, “I warned you before about detaining you for creating a disturbance. Now I may have to detain you until Sir Sonic returns if that’s the only way to keep you from turning this into a game.”

Pinkie blinked, “Game? This isn’t a…”


A SUDDEN CHANGE


Lancelot cut her off, “General Tybalt is responsible for training many of the soldiers that are protecting the Grand Kingdom now, and Sir Frederick is a respected dragon knight. You may think your nicknames are cute, but they’re disgraceful. And the king made you our responsibility while he’s gone; therefore, you do not come up with plans and put them into motion without clarifying them with us first.” By this time, Gawain and Percival were starting to move closer towards them, worried that the situation would continue to escalate.

As the two flanked Lancelot, Pinkie changed in a way they weren’t expecting. Her seemingly natural curly mane and tail suddenly fell straight with the sound of a deflating balloon, the pink pony looking down sadly as she seemingly became darker. Whatever had happened, it worried Gawain and Percival further, and it was evident they were not the only ones who felt that way, as Fluttershy moved forward to hug Pinkie. “Pinkie, don’t cry. Sir Lancelot is just worried about Sonic and the kingdom. He didn’t mean anything by what he said,” she tried to comfort.

“Indeed I did not, but you still have to get yourself under control. This is not a fantasy zone; this is real life with consequences you’ll take with you wherever you go. Do you understand?” Lancelot asked, not as worried as his fellow knights and not backing down.

Pinkie was silent for a moment, but as Lancelot was about to make sure she heard him, she spoke up, her voice lacking its usual bounciness, “You think I don’t already know that?” Lancelot blinked; the change was not lost on him. “You think I’ve always been surrounded by parties and rainbows all my life? When I saw that rainbow that bound me and my friends together, it set me on a new path away from what I’d known, but I’ve never forgotten growing up on the rock farm. I remember those days…” she went on.

She raised her head up and Gawain and Percival’s eyes widened when they saw her blue eyes, now no longer vibrant and deep. Instead, they were as cold as ice. They actually started backing away at the sight, and even though Lancelot stood his ground, he felt a bit intimidated himself. Pinkie raised her forelegs up and made Fluttershy lower her hooves, though she looked at her shy friend with a soft look that told her she appreciated her kindness. For a moment, it looked like, despite her straight hair, she was back to normal.

But that was all it was. When she turned back to Lancelot, she was somepony else again. She began to slowly walk towards him, saying, “Let’s make one thing clear, Sir Lancelot. No matter what you’ve been through, you do NOT have the right to assume you know me and my friends better than we do. Just like we don’t know about your past, you don’t know about ours. You don’t know what we’ve done, what sorts of problems we’ve had to solve, what’s worked for us… you don’t know anything about us.”

She stopped in front of him, “And let me remind you one thing: Sonic may have made us your responsibility as you say, but he decided that WE would be the best choice to help you protect Camelot Castle.” She raised her right hoof and pressed it against his nose, slowly applying more pressure as she went on, “He’s fought alongside us RECENTLY. He’s seen what we’re ABLE to do. He trusts US as much as he trusts you.” For a moment, she held there, the tension in the air so thick that everybody was holding their breath.

Suddenly, Pinkie backed off, pulling her hoof back and spinning around on one hoof as her mane and tail poofed up back to their usual curly state. “So lighten up, will ya? Quit being such a grumpypants!” she exclaimed. She turned to Fluttershy, “Come on, Fluttershy! Let’s go see how Sir Frederick and General Tybalt are doing!” Without another word, she turned and happily trotted off. Fluttershy looked at Lancelot with a worried look for a moment before nodding and hurrying after the pink pony.

After a moment, Gawain broke the silence, “What did we just witness…?”

While rubbing his nose with his right hand, Lancelot grumbled, “I don’t know, Gawain.”

Percival spoke, “Lady Pie certainly said quite a lot… It makes me wonder what she’s specifically seen in the past. And she changed so suddenly! It was as if she became possessed by a demon…”

Lancelot crossed his arms, “Don’t be ridiculous, Percival. Demons don’t come in pink.”

Gawain raised an eyebrow, “How would YOU know, Lancelot?”

Percival shook her head, “Never mind that, Gawain. For now, I think we should have more faith and believe that Lady Pie knows what she is doing. The fact that she was as quiet as she was in the library tells me she is capable of all sorts of things, even if they border on the outlandish.”

Gawain nodded, “Yeah. Let’s try to avoid seeing… that again.”


THE FARMLANDS


Meanwhile…

Sonic and Caliburn led the way down the dirt path leading to the Deep Woods, Shining walking along the hedgehog’s right side and Rainbow flapping her wings to hover over him to his left. Behind Caliburn, Twilight, Cadance, and Spike brought up the rear, Spike still riding on Twilight’s back. As they were walking, the Equestrians noticed the elves working around the area, causing Rainbow to note, “There sure are a lot of people out here.”

Shining noticed some chickens wandering around, causing him to add, “They must be farmers.”

Caliburn nodded, “Indeed. These are farmlands we’re passing through.”

Twilight looked off to the side as she asked, “Where do they all live? There don’t seem to be a lot of houses around here…”

Sonic pointed ahead, “You see that big tree over there?” Twilight and the others looked ahead, nodding when they saw the large tree he was pointing at. “That’s a major marker for the Deep Woods. And in the forest, there are two settlements, one for the people in the woodlands and one for the people on the mountainside. I’ve had the idea that they became a place for people to seek shelter after old King Arthur went full tyrant.”

Cadance nodded, “Interesting thought. This is part of the reason Twilight and I wanted to come with you, Sonic: to see the Grand Kingdom firsthoof.” Twilight nodded in agreement.

Spike noticed that some of the farmers were starting to look up from their work, noticing the entourage passing through. “Hey, they seem to be getting excited about something,” he noted as the ones that saw them began talking to one another.

“They’re probably surprised and excited to see their king again. You saw how everyone in Camelot was acting while we were wandering around, Spike,” Shining said.

Sonic spoke, “I recognize some of them as the villagers I rescued from the dragon. They probably remember that more than anything.”

Caliburn nudged Sonic from behind, “You don’t think it could be because they know you’re the true King Arthur? You still did plenty for this kingdom after you put a stop to Merlina’s plot.”

Sonic looked back at the sword, “Yeah, but I did way more when I was just a knight.” He looked forward again and muttered under his breath, “Not really comfortable having king as my title; it doesn’t fit me, and besides…”

Rainbow heard him muttering and turned her head to look at him, asking, “What’d you say, Sonic?” The blue hedgehog looked up at her, but before he could respond, Shining suddenly came to a halt and held his left foreleg up, causing everyone to come to a halt. Looking forward, they saw why: a little elf girl and her mother were running towards them, the mother trying to catch her daughter. Rainbow quickly landed in front of Sonic, causing the elf girl to stop before she could reach him. “All right, what’s the big idea here?!” the pegasus demanded.

The girl reeled back at this, the mother crouching and putting her arms around her as she caught up. After making sure her child was okay, she looked up and said, “My apologies. My daughter saw King Arthur and she really wanted to meet him and I couldn’t catch her in time.”

Shining spoke, “Well, that’s not a problem, ma’am.” He raised his left foreleg again, this time placing it on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder to tell her to ease up, the rainbow-maned pony moving to the side after a moment. “If she wants to meet the king, that’s fine with us,” he stated.

Caliburn nodded, “Indeed. The king does enjoy meeting his subjects.” As he finished speaking, he raised up enough to poke Sonic with his tip, forcing him to step forward.

Sonic suppressed a yelp at the poke and gave a sour glance back at Caliburn over his shoulder before looking back at the elf girl. Her mother let her go, allowing her to walk up to Sonic, the girl looking excited at being allowed to meet him. He spoke as he knelt down on one knee, “H-Hi there. It’s nice to meet you.” He held his right hand out to her, the girl eagerly taking it with both of her hands and shaking it.

“You were amazing rescuing us all from the dragon’s cave, Sir Sonic! It’s such an honor to get to meet you like this! C-Can I get your marking?” the girl squeaked, pulling out a small sheet of paper and a quill as she finished speaking.

Sonic looked at her for a moment before replying, “Uh, sure.” He took the quill, figuring that marking meant the same thing as autograph, and began to write on the paper as she held it up.

The Equestrians smiled a bit at Sonic seeming to get into his role of being a ruler, but their joy was cut short when they realized it was getting darker. It wasn’t just them that noticed; Caliburn, Sonic, and the elves around them looked up as well to see that dark, gray clouds were rolling in overhead, blocking out the blue skies. “What’s going on? Do they have rain scheduled?” Twilight wondered.

“‘Scheduled’?” Caliburn asked, perplexed by the unicorn’s wording.

“Those aren’t rainclouds, Twi’. I don’t like the look of them, though,” Rainbow said. As they kept looking up, a dark laugh filled the air and something suddenly came through the clouds behind the group. A few bits of cloud hid its appearance for a moment, but they dispersed as it floated down, stopping above the top of a nearby plateau. They all stared at it, an armored figure lacking anything below its chest and still hovering in the air. Everyone who saw it recognized it for one reason or another.


THE KING HAS RETURNED?!


“That’s that thing we saw earlier!” Spike exclaimed, pointing up at it.

“It is the Black Knight!” the elf mother cried, some of the other elves also referring to it as the Black Knight and starting to panic.

“King Arthur?!” Sonic asked. The specter hovered in the air for a moment more, seemingly looking down at the blue hedgehog, before it began to float forward.

At this, Rainbow said, “Okay, that thing’s definitely bad news and it’s going down!” She spread her wings and shot up at the spirit, aiming for the center of its chest. Just as she was about to reach it, however, it suddenly separated into pieces, its chest, head, and shoulder plates detaching and moving away from each other, causing Rainbow Dash to miss before the pieces reconnected. The cyan pegasus came to a stop and she looked back in disbelief, “What the-?!”

Shining stared, “What? How did it do that?” The specter of the Black Knight flew over the group and continued going forward, resuming its laughter. As it left the area, the elves began to calm down, but their problems weren’t over yet.

“It’s heading for the Deep Woods!” Cadance realized.

Sonic grunted and realized he still had the girl’s quill in his hand. He quickly bent down and finished signing his name before handing it back to her and saying, “Sorry I gotta leave so soon, kiddo, but, uh… duty calls!”

The elf girl didn’t seem too disappointed, instead saying as her mother ushered her away, “Yeah! Go get him, Sir Sonic!” Standing back up, Sonic grabbed Caliburn’s hilt and ran down the path, Rainbow flying down alongside him as Shining, Cadance, and Twilight ran to keep up, all of them heading into the trees after the spirit.

After a short while of following the main path, Sonic led the way into the woods off to the left. Soon afterwards, they all went over a small ledge, landing on the grass below. Looking up, they saw the spirit of King Arthur hovering overhead between the trees a short distance ahead, staring at them. They also noticed he had a purplish-black mist emanating from underneath him. “What’s that?” Spike asked, pointing at the mist.

Noticing shapes beginning to materialize within the mist, Caliburn said, “It’s summoning the Knights of the Underworld!” A moment later, a swarm of red Fish-Ones emerged from the mist, all of them flying towards the group. Some went higher to rain down red energy spheres while others simply flew straight towards them, intending to attack head-on.

Shining quickly cast a weak force field around the group, the Fish-Ones that weren’t quick enough to break off crashing into it and breaking down into a puff of smoke, the force field also stopping the incoming energy spheres. “Guess their scouts are a bit fragile,” the stallion remarked as he lowered the force field.

“Kinda looks like it,” Sonic replied. He took Caliburn in both hands, “Anyone up for some fishing?”

Rainbow smirked, “I’ll land the ones that fly!” She spread her wings and flew up to intercept the higher Fish-Ones, dodging another round of energy spheres before striking and managing to knock out three at once. The others began to scatter, trying to get away from the pegasus while still trying to continue the attack. Their separating meant Rainbow couldn’t follow all of them, so Cadance took to the air as well to back her up.

On the ground, Sonic, Twilight, and Shining were easily dispatching the ones that tried to dive bomb them. A well-timed strike with Caliburn or a bolt of magic was all it took to dispatch them. Spike even managed to take out two Fish-Ones himself, managing to jump on one that came at Twilight from behind and cover its single eye with his claws, causing it to crash into another. It didn’t take long for all of the Fish-Ones to disappear into thin air.

Once the area was clear, they took a moment to get their bearings. Looking around, Rainbow asked, “Hey, where’d that flying tin can go?” Everyone else looked around at that, realizing the spirit must’ve slipped away during the confusion.

“It’s probably long gone by now,” Shining said.

“Oh man,” Sonic groaned. Everyone looked at him and he explained, “There’s gotta be more Knights of the Underworld just up ahead. He probably didn’t even need to slow us down; they’ve probably been attacking the settlements and heading for the lake before we even got to this point.”

Cadance gasped and said, “Then we need to hurry. Where do we go from here, Sonic?” The blue hedgehog turned and ran in the direction where they’d seen the spirit of King Arthur, Spike quickly jumping on Twilight’s back as the ponies hurried after him.

As Sonic suspected, more Knights of the Underworld showed up on the path they were following in the form of Soldier-Ones lined up in rows under arches running over the path made by the large tree they’d seen earlier. Several rows of Soldier-Ones wielding spears took the front while ones that carried crossbows were at the end of the line to provide support. Rainbow and Cadance initially helped Sonic, Twilight, and Shining deal with the spear-carrying Soldier-Ones, but when the arrows started coming, they flew over the roots and caught the six crossbow-wielding Soldier-Ones off guard, managing to deal with them before they could retaliate. With that, they continued onwards.


PROTECTING THE SETTLEMENT


It wasn’t long before they arrived at the forest settlement, finding it to be overrun with Knights of the Underworld. The soldiers Percival had mentioned earlier were doing their best to fight back against the Underworld army, but it was clear to the group that they were losing ground.

“This is bad,” Spike commented as he looked around.

“Yeah. They need our help!” Shining agreed.

“Well, let’s get cracking, then!” Rainbow exclaimed. With that, they all jumped into the skirmish, the soldiers soon realizing that the Equestrians were allied with their king and gratefully accepting their aid. With their help, the tide of the battle began to turn.

Not long afterwards, Sonic was fighting off a Soldier-One with a sword when he heard a cry from nearby. He looked over to his right and saw it was one of the townspeople, standing near one of the structures built with logs. On top of the structure were five Crawling-Ones, all looking down at the elf. “Oh no!” Sonic gasped. His friends were nearby, but they were preoccupied at the moment, as were the closest soldiers.

Quickly dodging a slash from the Soldier-One in front of him, Sonic finished it off and ran towards the villager, the Crawling-Ones already looking like they were about to jump down. Spike and Cadance finished off their Soldier-One in time to see his mad dash, the blue hedgehog managing to get in front of the villager as the first Crawling-One jumped down. He was able to cut it down in midair, but then the rest of them moved to jump down at him and the villager together. Cadance gasped and spread her wings, hoping she could intercept the creatures before Sonic was overwhelmed.

Suddenly, two swords shot through the air at the Crawling-Ones. One looked similar to Gawain’s Galatine, though the blade looked larger and had a serrated look to it, and the other looked more like a dagger and was surrounded by a cyan aura. Both swords hit a Crawling-One before it could jump and went back to their owners, the former whipping around like a boomerang while the latter was pulled backwards by an invisible force. With only two Crawling-Ones left, Cadance landed next to Sonic and used her magic to dispatch one in mid-jump while Sonic cut down the last one with Caliburn.

The two then turned to their right to see where the help had come from. The larger sword returned to the right hand of a knight who looked like Jet, a second sword in his left hand, and the dagger-like sword was pulled back to the right hand of a knight that looked like Silver. Both of them were running towards Sonic and Cadance as they retrieved their weapons. “Sir Lamorak, Sir Galahad!” Sonic said as they got closer.

“Sire! What are you doing here? How have you come back to us?” Galahad, the Silver lookalike, asked as he and Lamorak came to a stop.

Sonic shrugged, “Can’t really answer that last one, but we were on our way to see the Lady of the Lake when the Underworld army started attacking.”

“‘We’? Who’s with you?” Galahad asked. Sonic nodded towards Cadance who waved awkwardly at the two knights. Spike, Twilight, Rainbow, and Shining came over when there was a break in the fighting, joining the huddle.

“Wow… You’ve seen some things, haven’t you, sire? Very colorful things,” Lamorak commented as he eyed the ponies and baby dragon.

“Hey, watch it, pal! Sonic wanted us to come with him, and Lancelot didn’t argue with him! He agreed to let us be his guards!” Rainbow said.

“Really? That’s surprising. Hope you didn’t lie to him about what you’re able to do; he hates that,” Lamorak replied.

Before Rainbow could retort, more Knights of the Underworld appeared around the group, surrounding them. As they all turned to face them, Twilight nudged Rainbow, “This should be better than an arguing with him, right?” The pegasus smirked and nodded back.

As he held up his sword, Galahad said, “Hope you don’t mind us cutting in, sire.”

Caliburn spoke, “Not at all, Sir Galahad.”

Sonic nodded, “Let’s show ‘em who they’re messing with!” With that, they all jumped back into the battle, more Knights of the Underworld beginning to spawn as they dealt with their attackers. While this was going on, the villager Sonic had rescued took the first available chance to run to get away from the fighting.

It didn’t take long for the soldiers and the assembled group to clear the settlement of the Knights of the Underworld. As they all took a moment to catch their breaths, Lamorak looked towards settlement exit leading deeper into the forest and spotted a group of Underworld Knights crossing the bridge. “Look! More of them! They’re heading for the other settlement and the lake!” he yelled, everyone looking up as he started running after them.

“Wait, Lamorak!” Galahad called, holding out his left hand for a moment before running after his fellow knight, Sonic and the others following him. After a short time, the lake and the small pavilion stretching out into it from the shore came into view; it was at this point that Lamorak leapt into the trees, cutting around to the other side of the lake. “Argh, I hate when he goes off like that,” Galahad muttered.

“Where’s he going?” Shining asked.

Sonic answered, “If he goes that way, he’s gonna enter the settlement from the back. There might be some Knights of the Underworld trying that way, but…” He turned to Rainbow, “You go after him, Rainbow! We’ll keep going this way and meet up with you two!”

The cyan pegasus saluted, “I’m on it!” She then flew up and around the trees along the edge of the lake, flying after Sir Lamorak.

Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, “How do we get to the settlement, Sonic?”

Sonic looked back at her, “We just have to follow the shore around. It’ll lead us to that side of the lake too.”

Galahad nodded, “Right.” He turned and pointed his sword forward, “We have to go that way. The path cuts through a marsh, so watch your step, especially if there are any Knights of the Underworld there.”

As they started moving again, Sonic glanced down at Caliburn and asked, “See? That wasn’t too hard an early warning, was it?”

Caliburn simply replied, “I have never claimed to have a fairy’s wealth of knowledge.” Dropping the matter, Sonic turned back to the path, both he and Galahad leading the way through the small den that led to the marsh.


THE CHASE AND AFTERMATH


A small number of Underworld knights appeared as they entered the area, but Galahad dispatched some of them by using his powers to launch his sword at them while Cadance flew up and used her magic, both of them making short work of the knights. Galahad, Sonic, and Shining had no trouble running and jumping across the planks while Twilight needed to use her magic once or twice to get her and Spike over and Cadance flew over the murky water. It didn’t take long for them to make it through the marsh.

They soon entered the mountain settlement and found it to be under considerably less siege than the forest settlement. Most of the Knights of the Underworld in the settlement were there to slow the group’s progress, lining up and attacking in rows to stop their advance. Their swords, spears, and crossbows did initially force them to stop, but they were able to quickly cut through their numbers, the Equestrians especially used to dealing with them at this point.

As they reached the other side of the settlement, they saw a squad of Underworld knights pressing deeper into the forest and gave pursuit. Further in, they found that the large bridges that Sonic and Caliburn had had to get creative to reach the other side of had since been repaired. As they reached the other side of the first bridge, however, a Giant-One suddenly dropped down out of thin air, blocking the way and forcing the group to stop.

“Great, just what we don’t need: a roadblock,” Shining grunted as the Giant-One shouldered its large axe.

“These guys are pretty sturdy, that’s for sure,” Sonic agreed, holding Caliburn out to the side.

The sword spoke, “We must act quickly! We cannot allow those knights to reach the lake!”

Sonic nodded, “All right then, let’s cut him down to size!” He dashed towards the Giant-One, leading with a spinning slash that struck it several times. The knight retaliated by swatting him away with his left hand, though the blue hedgehog managed to land on his feet. The Giant-One then raised its axe up high and swung it downwards, Sonic leaping to the side while Galahad intercepted the blade with his own, using his power to push the tip of his sword up against the blade of the axe. While the two pushed against each other, Twilight, Cadance, and Shining all fired their magic beams at it and Spike unleashed a burst of green flames, all of it pushing the knight back. Sonic and Galahad then each landed a strike with their swords across its chest.

Despite all this, the Giant-One only slumped for a moment before standing back up and raising its axe. “Hm, upgrades,” Galahad commented. The knight then swung its axe several times, first a vertical slash followed by two horizontal slashes. Everyone moved around to avoid the axe, Galahad jumping up to avoid the last strike. As the silver knight came back down, he said, “Well, how about THIS!” As soon as his feet hit the ground, he struck a battle pose, holding his left arm across his chest while his sword was angled towards the ground. A cyan glow surrounded him and two similarly-colored circular seals spread out from him, one larger than the other. Everyone else leapt back at this while the Giant-One was caught within the seals, the knight groaning as their power cut into it.

The surge of power only lasted several seconds, but it caused the Giant-One to collapse and disappear into thin air. With their path clear, the group hurried across the second bridge after the squad of Underworld knights, finding that it had been stopped by Rainbow Dash and Sir Lamorak. The two looked a little beat up, but they were giving the seemingly sturdier knights a tough time, keeping them from advancing further. The rest of the group joined them and, after a minute of trading blows, Galahad seized them all with his psychokinetic powers and, with a wave of his arms, blew them all off of the ground. While they were up in the air, Rainbow shot up and blazed through as many as she could while Lamorak jumped up and used his twin swords to slice the rest into ribbons. When the two landed, the squad of knights was no more.

“Ha! Takes care of them!” Rainbow exclaimed.

“Yeah, not bad. Guess those wings aren’t just for show after all,” Lamorak said as he slipped his swords into the scabbards at his sides and lifted his helmet’s visor up.

While putting his own sword into the scabbard on his back, Galahad sighed, “I swear, that ego of yours is going to get you killed one of these days, Lamorak.” He turned to look at Sonic and lifted up his visor before saying, “It is good to see you again, Sir Sonic.”

Sonic nodded, “Likewise.” He let go of Caliburn, allowing the sword to float, and held his right hand to the side of his head with his left hand underneath his right elbow as he asked, “So what’s going on around here?”

Galahad answered, “I don’t know. From the looks of it, this was another attempt at a siege by the Knights of the Underworld.”

Cadance spoke, “We heard about these sieges from your fellow knights. They said they’ve been happening a lot recently.”

Galahad nodded, “That’s for sure. As for us, we were just on our way back from visiting the Lady of the Lake when we heard the commotion. This is the first time there’s been any sort of attack on the Deep Woods…”

Twilight asked, “So Lady Nimue is okay?”

Lamorak nodded, “You got it, girl. She told us she was expecting guests when we were talking to her.” He looked at Sonic, “Guess she was referring to you, huh sire?”

Caliburn glanced up at Sonic and said, “It seems you were correct, Sonic.”

Rainbow asked, “How’d she know we were coming?”

Galahad replied, “She has her ways. Like her cards, for example. When she gets a premonition, she might use her cards as a way of showing what she has seen.”

Lamorak spoke, “She didn’t bring them out while we were with her, but even if the Underworld army hadn’t started attacking, this isn’t the time for card games. With the Deep Woods, we’ve finally finished doing our circuit of the Grand Kingdom, so it’s about time we head back to Camelot Castle.”

Sonic let his arms drop to his sides as he nodded, “Right. You two head on back to the castle. We’ll go see the Lady of the Lake and catch up to you afterwards.” Both Galahad and Lamorak saluted him at that.

As he lowered his hand, Lamorak glanced over at Galahad and smirked, “Hey Galahad, race you back to the castle!” He then took off running, not even giving the silver knight a chance to respond.

Galahad groaned as he ran after his fellow knight, “Can we go anywhere without you saying that?” The group watched the two run off into the distance for a few seconds before turning back to look at each other at their behavior. With a shrug, Sonic turned and led the way deeper into the woods with Caliburn at his side, the Equestrians following after him.

After a short while, the lake came within sight again. They stared at it for a moment before Rainbow asked, “So where’s this Nimue lady?”

Caliburn glared at her, “Don’t you dare address the Lady of the Lake in such a disrespectful way!”

Sonic didn’t comment; instead, he pointed to the pavilion atop the lake water and said, “Over there. You see that walkway going out into the lake? That’s where she lives.”

As they began moving towards the pavilion, Shining looked at the water again and commented, “That water sure looks different…”

Caliburn nodded, “Indeed. What you’re seeing is a result of the Lady’s magic.”

Twilight looked at the sword and asked, “Really?”

She would’ve said more, but Spike gave her a sharp tug on her left foreleg. When she looked down at him, he said, “Don’t ask her how she does it. We don’t have time, plus you probably can’t even drink that stuff.”

Twilight looked over at the shimmering lake water. “Well…” she started after a moment.

“We’re here,” Sonic announced. Twilight looked forward and saw that they had reached the pavilion walkway. They stood looking down it for several moments, looking for any sign of life in the pavilion. There didn’t appear to be anyone there, and the silence in the area was starting to worry them. Sonic took the first step onto the walkway, still looking for any sign of Nimue.


THE LADY OF THE LAKE


Suddenly, something began to appear just ahead, almost halfway down the walkway and everyone stared at it. It started as a blue light with blue motes of light floating around it before something began to appear from it. As they watched, a dress that was sky blue, white, and tiffany blue with a gold belt and golden buttons was the first thing to come into view. A pair of arms shrouded with white and black arm warmers appeared next, along with gold bracelets and white gloves over the hands. A transparent garment with sky blue edges went around its back, and finally its face appeared. They could see pink fur, peach skin, and, when they opened, green eyes. A sky blue hairband with gold metal circle ends was atop its head.

Spike let out a yelp and ducked behind Twilight, grabbing her tail and pulling it down in front of him. Twilight, Rainbow, Cadance, and Shining looked at him peering out from behind Twilight’s tail for a moment before looking forward again while Caliburn looked at him a bit angrily. “How rude,” the sword commented.

Sonic blocked out what was going on behind him, instead steeling himself and trying to keep from running again. Instead, he knelt down on his left knee and placed both hands on top of his right knee, his head angled downwards as he murmured, “L-Lady Nimue…”

The pink hedgehog came forward until she was standing in front of Sonic and spoke, “You may rise, Sir Sonic.” The blue hedgehog stood up at that, looking the Lady in the eyes as he reminded himself that it wasn’t Amy. “I’ve been expecting you,” she said.

Sonic blinked and replied, “S-So we’ve heard. From Lamorak and Galahad, I mean.”

Nimue peered around Sonic at that, noticing Rainbow and the others. “Oh? I thought I’d foreseen others accompanying you, but I couldn’t tell for sure,” she said.

Sonic looked back as Twilight waved a hoof at Nimue. As she was doing so, she felt a sudden poke at her flank and she let out a little yelp. She looked back to see Caliburn lowering his blade downwards and she guessed he was the one who poked her. He gave her a stern gaze, “You are all in the presence of the Lady of the Lake! You are not excused from etiquette; kneel!” Twilight glanced at the others; Rainbow rolled her eyes and Shining and Cadance gave her an uncertain look, but they all knelt down as if it were Princess Celestia as Nimue and Sonic approached. Caliburn glanced at Spike and said, “That includes you as well, Spike!”

The baby dragon glared back at him, “I AM kneeling! You just can’t tell from where you’re… floating.”

Nimue overheard as she was greeting the ponies and peered around Twilight, asking, “Hm? Who’s that?”

Twilight looked back at the baby dragon for a moment, noting that he was still tightly clinging onto her tail, and then looked back at Nimue and said, “That’s Spike, Lady Nimue. He’s a baby dragon. He means well, he just, uh… he almost met a terrible fate earlier today.”

Nimue smiled, “Oh. I’ve never had the privilege of meeting a baby dragon before.” She moved around Twilight towards Spike, who ducked back behind the unicorn’s tail at her approach. Suddenly, he felt something warm press against his head and looked up to see Nimue rubbing his head with the back of her fingers. “There, there, Spike, it’s okay. I know not what you’ve been through, but it is a pleasure to meet you and your friends. Please, try to relax,” the Lady spoke softly. Spike began to feel himself relax under her caressing.

Rainbow spoke up after a moment, “Don’t we have something we need to talk about? Like, right now?”

Caliburn glared at her, “What did I say about being disrespectful to the Lady of the Lake, Rainbow? I believe your manners have earned you a royal poking!”

Nimue stood up straight and held out her left hand, pressing the palm against Caliburn’s blade and causing him to stop. She spoke, “It is all right, Caliburn. She is focused on the task at hand, and she is correct; we do have much to discuss.” She turned and started walking towards the pavilion, “Come with me.” Sonic, Spike, and the ponies looked at each other for a moment before they followed her, Spike coming out from behind Twilight as he and the ponies followed Sonic and Caliburn onto the walkway.

The group was soon sitting on the stone bench going around the back of Nimue’s reflecting pool. Sonic sat across from Nimue with Caliburn leaning against the bench on his left side and Rainbow Dash sitting to his right. Spike sat between Caliburn and Lady Nimue, and Twilight, Shining, and Cadance sat to the Lady’s left. Nimue looked down at the pool for a moment before looking around and asking, “Am I correct in assuming you’re all aware of what’s going on in the Grand Kingdom right now?”

Sonic answered, “Pretty much. We’ve heard that Merlina’s gone missing and it doesn’t sound like things have gotten any better for the kingdom since then.”

Twilight spoke, “Not on the inside, anyway. We’ve heard about all the attacks by the Knights of the Underworld. The Knights of the Round Table at the castle are working hard, but they’re hoping for word on Merlina’s whereabouts either from Galahad and Lamorak or you.”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, they said they haven’t heard from you since you told them Merlina was missing. Why haven’t you been talking to them?” Nimue did not reply to that, instead closing her eyes and tilting her head down slightly.

“M’lady?” Caliburn asked, concerned.

“They didn’t say it, but I’m sure they’re worried about you, Lady Nimue. Sonic was certainly worried when he heard; that’s he wanted to make sure you were okay,” Cadance said.

Nimue was silent for a moment more before she opened her eyes partway and spoke softly, “I have been doing my best to locate Merlina myself. So far I haven’t had much success, but I’m not giving up. I haven’t been communicating with the Knights of the Round Table because I fear that once again, the current state of affairs in the kingdom… is my fault.”


THE LADY'S EXPLANATION


Everyone stared at her at that. “What? Why do you say that?” Shining asked.

“I gave the false King Arthur Excalibur and its scabbard to lead the kingdom to prosperity, and instead he became corrupted by the scabbard’s power. Now I feel history is repeating itself, as Merlina likely wouldn’t be missing now if it weren’t for my advice,” Nimue explained.

Sonic asked, “Your advice? …You mean those meetings Gawain mentioned to us earlier?”

Nimue looked at him, “Yes. Prior to her setting out from Camelot Castle and her subsequent disappearance, Merlina had come to see me directly several times. She’d been having nightmares in recent times and sought my counsel because she feared they were prophetic in nature.”

Shining tilted his head, “What did she see?”

Nimue replied, “She relayed a number of things to me. The Knights of the Underworld, the false King Arthur, the Dark Hollow… But there were two things she saw that she was most worried about. One was the silhouette of a figure moving in darkness that she claimed looked familiar, and whenever she saw that silhouette, she always saw it as well: the Scabbard of Excalibur.”

Everyone stared in surprise at that. Sonic spoke after a moment, “So… it is still out there?”

Nimue answered, “I believe it is. It was my gift, so I know the power it contains well. I too believed that it had been destroyed when you stopped Merlina, but I later realized I was incorrect; its power is still present somewhere in this world. After you left, I started looking for it before it could cause further tragedy.” She looked at the reflecting pool, “When Merlina came to me about her dreams, I didn’t know what to think. We both hoped that they would pass in time, but they didn’t, and they were starting to wear on her psyche.”

Caliburn spoke, “That would explain why she was anxious and irritable for a time.”

Nimue nodded and said, “I was worried about her, so the last time we met was when we put together the diplomatic journey idea. She hadn’t left the castle to visit the settlements and villages around the kingdom in some time, so we thought it would be a good chance for her to do that and get her away from some of her responsibilities at the same time. Before she left, I told her not to tell anyone about what we had discussed and to put Caliburn in a safe place.”

Caliburn stared at Nimue with wide eyes. “Thou meanst… she left me with the Smithy at your insistence? But why, m’lady?” he asked.

Nimue stared at him sadly, “I’m sorry, Caliburn. I know you’re as loyal to Merlina as you are to Sonic, but I didn’t want to risk your capture in case Merlina’s nightmares were an omen. Even without the other knights’ Sacred Swords, you’re still Excalibur and the one who decides who deserves the throne. I thought the risk was too great.”

Silence ruled the pavilion for several seconds, being broken when Spike asked, “So… what happened to Merlina? You were in touch with her, right?”

Nimue replied, “Yes. After she left, the journey was going as planned. She spent some time in each location she visited before moving on, all the while working towards the final stop on her journey: the cave where her grandfather, Merlin, once lived. She had learned much from him there when she was younger, and she thought spending some time there before returning to Camelot would be perfect. For the first few days she was there, all was well. But then the day came where she disappeared…”

Everyone in the group glanced at each other, knowing the question that needed to be asked but not wanting to ask it. After several moments, Sonic asked it himself, “What happened?”

Nimue took a deep breath and explained, “I was meditating that morning when I heard Merlina’s frantic voice come through the reflecting pool. I quickly answered her, asking what was wrong. Her image looked as anxious as she sounded. She said that during the night, she’d seen the face of the one hidden in the darkness, and that he was apparently done playing with her. I tried to find out more, but I heard a crashing sound and Merlina turned away from me, towards the cave entrance. Based on her reaction to whatever she saw, I can guess that the figure she’d seen had come for her.”

Rainbow asked, “You didn’t see it?”

Nimue answered, “After she shouted, our connection began to break up. I couldn’t see her, but I could hear the sounds of a struggle, along with the sound of someone laughing. I was able to get the image back fairly quickly, but by the time I did, Merlina and her assailant were gone and the cave was a mess. When I focused, I realized I couldn’t sense her magic anymore. That was when I contacted Lancelot about her disappearance.”

Shining said, “And you’ve been trying to locate her since then.”

Nimue closed her eyes as she spoke, “I’ve done everything I can think of to try to find her. I’ve even gone out to her grandfather’s cave to see if there’s anything there that would hint at who attacked her.”

Rainbow shrugged, “Well, it’s gotta be those Knights of the Underworld, right? Aren’t they usually responsible for bad stuff happening around here?”

Nimue opened her eyes and replied, “More than likely they’re involved, but that doesn’t help. The Underworld is not a place just anyone can go, and Merlina might not even be there. With as dangerous as it is to get there, it’s not the place that should be investigated without knowing whether it’s a dead end or not, and such an action could lead to war.”

Twilight asked, “So… what do we do?”

Nimue placed her face in her hands as she sighed, “At this point, I am at a loss. My investigations have turned up nothing, and any further waiting in the hopes that Merlina will find a way to contact me would likely be in vain. I’m reduced to hoping for a premonition, a sign, anything that could tell us what to do.”

She looked up as Sonic rubbed his forehead with his right hand and said, “The only other thing I can think of at this point would be to break out a dartboard, tack a bunch of options on it, and see where the dart lands. Too many misses and not enough hits…” While he was rubbing his forehead, Nimue looked at the red gem in the metal glove’s wrist. For some reason, she seemed to see sparkles of light coming off of it. She stared at it intently, fascinated…


THE VISION AND THE THREAT


Suddenly, she closed her eyes and put her hands on her head as she let out a gasp, causing everyone to look at her. “Lady Nimue?” Cadance asked, but the pink hedgehog did not respond, only groaning softly with her head turned towards the reflecting pool.

“What’s wrong?!” Sonic exclaimed, reaching his right hand out to her. Before he could make contact, she stood up and held her arms out to her sides, a circle of blue light forming underneath her. Wisps of blue light shot up from the circle around her, going a short distance above the pavilion before stopping and beginning to swirl in a circle. Everyone stood and stared up at the circle, wondering what was going on.

As they watched, four wisps broke away from the circle one at a time, floating in the middle of it and beginning to change. The wisps flattened out and seemed to become more solid, changing into cards. A faint blue aura appeared near the bottom of the cards, seemingly supporting them as they floated down and came to a stop above the reflecting pool. The rest of the blue light wisps shot back into the circle underneath Nimue, the circle disappearing as the Lady collapsed backwards onto the bench. Everyone looked at her worriedly, but she appeared to be fine, despite being unresponsive.

They all looked back at the cards, Twilight wondering, “Are these… tarot cards?”

Spike asked, “She did that whole display for some cards? Why?”

Sonic thought of something and held his left hand to his chin as he spoke, “Wait… Remember what Galahad said about Nimue having visions?”

Caliburn nodded, “Yes. She must’ve just had one, and these represent what she saw.”

Everyone looked at the cards closer, seeing what exactly they were. “The Emperor, the Chariot, the Tower, and the Ace of Swords… That’s what they are,” Cadance said.

“What does it all mean?” Rainbow asked.

“I’m gonna guess it’s not a typical tarot reading, but it’s gotta mean something,” Sonic muttered.

Shining stared at the cards for a few moments before asking, “Do the Emperor and the Chariot go together?”

Twilight murmured, “It could be… Are you thinking that the Chariot indicates that whoever the Emperor stands for is moving towards whatever the Tower represents, Shining?” The stallion nodded in confirmation.

Caliburn looked at the Ace of Swords and said, “The Swords suite tends to represent a duality. This may indicate that the Lady has learned something… or that something is going to happen.”

They looked back at Nimue as she began to stir, murmuring softly as her eyes opened. Once she was fully aware, Cadance asked, “What did you see, Lady Nimue?”

The pink hedgehog hesitated a moment before saying, “I saw… the false King Arthur. He was floating through the air without his steed, as if he was a specter.”

Sonic asked, “A specter?” He looked down, “That thing we saw earlier…?”

Nimue looked worried as she continued, “He was heading for Camelot Castle!”

Shining shook his head, “That can’t be good. If he is heading there, we have to get back as soon as possible!”

Rainbow looked at Twilight and asked, “Can’t you teleport us straight there, Twilight?”

The unicorn replied, “I can… but I don’t know the map of the kingdom all that well yet. It wouldn’t be very helpful if I overshot it.”

Nimue said, “If you have enough magic to teleport all of us, Twilight, then I can handle making sure we arrive at Camelot Castle. Just combine your magic with mine and I’ll take care of the rest.” Twilight nodded and stepped in front of Nimue, closing her eyes as she focused her magic into her horn. As her horn became surrounded by her magenta aura, Nimue brought both of her hands together and focused her own magic, light blue motes of light beginning to rise up around her. Everyone got close to the two as the light blue joined with the magenta, a light blue circle forming under the group due to Nimue’s magic. Seconds later, a light blue barrier surrounded them and with a bright magenta flash, they all disappeared.

Galahad and Lamorak were just running in through the entrance in the castle’s outer wall and heading for the castle entrance when a bright magenta flash appeared in front of them. Galahad gave a shout as he skidded to a stop while Lamorak practically screeched as he fell onto his back while trying to stop due to being closer than Galahad. As the flash faded, Galahad noticed the light blue barrier underneath fading to reveal Nimue and Sonic’s group. They all looked around and noticed they were in the castle courtyard.

Galahad caught their attention when he spoke, “Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said you’d catch up to us, sire.”

Lamorak groaned as he sat up, “Not complaining about you guys being quick or anything, but maybe a little more warning next time would be nice? Thought I was about to get zapped into a trap or something…” Sonic offered him a hand up and the green hawk accepted it, using it to stand up again.

The rest of the Knights of the Round Table heard Lamorak’s loud shout and came running to investigate and, once they realized who was there, joined the gathering. Lancelot, Gawain, and Percival all expressed relief at Nimue being well and Galahad, Lamorak, and Sonic’s group returning safely. Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy all came running as well and were relieved to find there was no trouble, but Rarity’s attention soon fell on Sonic. “Sonic! Where are your crown and cape?” she asked.

Sonic slowly pointed at his backpack with his left thumb, saying, “Uh… in here?” A dramatic gasp from Rarity was followed by her getting behind him and wrapping her forelegs around him, pinning his right arm to his side as her horn lit up. “Hey, let go!” Sonic exclaimed, trying to grab her left foreleg.

Muttering under her breath, Rarity got the backpack open despite the hedgehog’s struggles and used her magic to pull the cape out first. “What did I tell you about folding things before? Now it’s going to be full of wrinkles and creases,” she chastised as she shook it out and put it on him properly. She then pulled the crown out and set it atop his forehead before releasing him. As he turned to face her, she said, “And why would you EVER take that off? You’re a king; it’s your crown! You should always have it on!”

Before Sonic could reply, a new voice was heard, “Yes, you should. Wear it all the time at your leisure.” Everyone turned towards the wall entrance and looked up to see the owner of the voice was none other than the ghost of King Arthur. “Perhaps it and the image that comes with it will weigh your feet down!” the ghost mocked.

“It’s the ghost of King Arthur! He’s back!” Spike gasped as he wrapped his arms around Twilight’s left hind leg.

“What?!” Percival asked, shocked.

“Impossible! What are you doing here, faker, and how are you doing this?!” Lancelot demanded.

Galahad raised his right index finger as he said, “Um, I may have heard some of the citizens claim that they had seen the ghost of our old king while we were out. Lamorak and I never saw anything to prove those rumors, though, so…” He trailed off.

The ghost spoke, “I only want what it is rightfully mine. I claimed this kingdom long ago, and I demand it back! Kindly return it and my knights, ‘King’ Sonic, and there will be no need for bloodshed.”

Gawain was the first to speak up, “You really think we’re just going to serve you again without question? Do you really think we were completely blind to what was happening to the kingdom when you became what you are?”

Percival spoke next, “We were all ready to disband the Knights of the Round Table because your being an illusion meant everything we’d believed was a lie! Sir Sonic opened our eyes and gave us more to believe in than you ever did!”

Lamorak growled, “You pushed me and Galahad to the side because you believed us to be weak! We went along with it because we believed it was for the good of the kingdom, but not again, not for you!”

Galahad nodded, “We will never kneel to you again!”

Lancelot grunted, “We accept no imitations, and we never have.”

The ghost was silent for a moment before asking, “So this is how it is? You’ve all forsaken me, even you, Lady Nimue?”

Everyone looked at the Lady of the Lake as she closed her eyes and said, “I granted you Excalibur and its scabbard because I too believed you were true. And for a time, you were; you did wonderful things for this kingdom. But when you discarded Caliburn as worthless, threw away Excalibur, I knew I was wrong about you.” She opened her eyes and angrily looked up at the ghost, “That’s why I made sure Caliburn was hidden away safely, made sure our hope was not lost with you. Surely someone would be able to pull him free one day and rightfully claim the throne. When that day came, it was proof that your rule had come to an end. You condemned yourself by giving into the darkness, and there is nothing you can do to change that now.”

The ghost replied, “If that’s what you’ve all decided, then very well.” He looked at Sonic, “And I’ve no words for one who pretends to be a knight, one who doesn’t follow the code of those around him and allows someone as false as him to become ruler.”

Sonic’s grip on Caliburn tightened as he glared up at the ghost, “You can question me all you want, but Merlina earned the right to rule in my place. We all agreed she would not only make a good ruler, but she’d be true to what she had learned.” He pointed Caliburn up at the ghost, “This kingdom was rebuilt on a shared belief. No more lies, old king; it’s not all about you anymore. We shoot for the truth together.”


DEFENDING THE CASTLE


The ghost’s slit-like eyes narrowed at the hedgehog’s words. “You dare raise that blade in defiance of me? So be it; now I will show you the error of your ways,” he said. Much like when Rainbow tried to attack the ghost earlier, the pieces of his armor separated, but this time it wasn’t to dodge an attack. As he came apart, multiple Knights of the Underworld squads appeared around the gathering. They were mostly Soldier-Ones, but they still had the advantage of numbers. “Kill them all,” the ghost of King Arthur ordered.

Sonic glanced between the Knights of the Round Table as they glanced at him and he gave them a nod. They all nodded back and flipped their visors down; they then drew their swords and held them up while Spike and the ponies similarly prepared for battle. “We must protect Lady Nimue and drive them out!” Percival said.

“I’m giving everything I’ve got!” Galahad stated.

“Good, ‘cause it’s crunch time!” Gawain grunted.

Sonic pointed Caliburn forward and said, “For Merlina and the kingdom!” With that, the gathering broke up, everyone moving towards the Knights of the Underworld. Only Sonic and Nimue remained where they were, Sonic turning to Nimue and putting his left hand on her shoulder as he spoke softly, “Stay back, Nimue; we’ll take care of this.”

Nimue nodded and replied, “Prove him wrong.” She stepped back and Sonic looked forward again, running towards the nearest group of Underworld knights.

The ghost of King Arthur watched silently as the fighting broke out, observing the fighting style of the knights and the Equestrians. Percival was staying close to Twilight and Rarity, the former unicorn using her magic to stun Underworld knights and allow Percival to spiral through several of them with her rapier while the latter unicorn made use of both her magic and hooves to fight off the knights. Gawain, Lamorak, and Galahad stayed close to Applejack to maintain a full attack range. While Applejack was limited to fighting at close range, Galahad, Gawain, and Lamorak were able to attack at close and far, Lamorak and Gawain using their Gail Meteor to attack while Galahad used his psychokinetic abilities to guide his blade. When close quarters fighting came up though, Applejack was doing just as much fighting as the knights were.

King Arthur turned his attention to the others as another wave of Underworld knights, this one a little more varied, materialized. Fluttershy wasn’t really fighting with them, mainly getting underfoot and tripping the ones that weren’t watching where they stepped, the Crawling-Ones in particular being tripped up by her. Fortunately, Cadance and Spike were watching out for her, the latter staying by the pegasus’ side while the former flew overhead and used her magic to attack. Finally, Sonic, Rainbow, Lancelot, and Shining had ended up in close proximity to each other. Despite his initial awkwardness with the cape, Sonic and Rainbow were cutting down the knights at a fast rate, as were Shining and Lancelot. It seemed that the Underworld army’s numbers weren’t really an advantage after all.

After Shining took down one last Soldier-One with a crossbow, Lancelot noticed an Eyeball-One a short distance behind the stallion and flipped over his back, landing and performing a horizontal slash with his sword to send its energy beam back at it before it could fire a second. Afterwards, he adjusted his sword so it was back in his preferred reverse grip style and looked around to see that the others were mopping up the rest of the wave of Underworld knights. Once that was done and it seemed there were no more reinforcements coming, everyone save for Nimue gathered together again and looked up at the ghost of King Arthur. “Got anything else, or are you next?” Lancelot questioned. The ghost only gave an ominous laugh before the pieces of its armor momentarily separated again.

Suddenly, eight Giant-Ones appeared in the courtyard, surrounding the group! Everyone stayed where they were, all of them looking at the Giant-Ones as they began to approach. They were all still able to keep going, but after the previous waves, it looked like King Arthur was going to put pressure on them now. “Great, looks like our work is cut out for us,” Gawain grumbled as he held up his swords.

Lancelot glanced at him, “Don’t tell me you’re backing down now, Gawain.”

The echidna glared back at him, “Don’t be ridiculous, Lancelot. Sir Sonic isn’t giving in; nobody here should have any reason to do so.”

Applejack looked at one of the approaching Giant-Ones as she said, “Still, if what we read is true, these ones ain’t gonna go down easy.”

Shining grunted, “They don’t; the books weren’t exaggerating their endurance. The one we fought in the Deep Woods certainly proved that.”

Percival clenched her teeth, “We’ve never had to deal with this many at once. We CAN get through this, but it will not be easy…”

Twilight glanced around and noticed something she’d realized earlier, but the appearance of King Arthur had kept her from voicing it then. “Where’s Pinkie Pie?!” she asked, receiving shrugs and confused looks from Lancelot, Percival, Gawain, Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy.


NEW ARRIVALS


Suddenly, the party pony’s voice rang out in a loud voice that would make Princess Luna proud, “IT’S PARTY TIME!” The Giant-Ones seemed to stop their advance at that, everyone looking around for the pink pony. Their attentions were redirected when, suddenly, the sound of cannons firing sounded around them and confetti and streamers shot up out of the ground, right up into the faces of the Giant-Ones! Despite the flavors being harmless, it still caused the Underworld knights to stumble backwards.

“What the-?! When did you guys install those?!” Lamorak exclaimed.

“We haven’t put in anything new,” Lancelot growled.

“Is this part of Lady Pie’s new defense system?” Gawain wondered. As soon as he was finished speaking, a number of hidden panels on the castle wall slid back and multiple light blue cannons came into view.

“What are those?” Percival asked.

“Party cannons!” Rainbow answered. The cannons were all pointing down at the battlefield below, some pointing at the Knights of the Underworld while the rest pointed elsewhere.

Upon realizing this, Shining called, “Get down, everybody!” At this, they all threw themselves onto the ground; moments later, the party cannons started going off. All the trimmings and treats Pinkie would normally load in her party cannon were all fired from the cannons, the treats having been provided courtesy of the hard-working Camelot Castle bakers. They all heard the sound of treats going splat and confetti, streamers, and even tablecloths whooshing as they went flying overhead, but surprisingly, only a few of them actually felt anything touch them, and it didn’t even feel like it was a lot.

When they looked up, they saw that the Giant-Ones were disoriented and, in a sense, blinded. They all had confetti, streamers, tablecloths, and pastries including cakes, pies, and cupcakes stuck to them, especially around their heads. Everything that had missed a target was instead scattered across the courtyard. They all looked back and up when they heard Pinkie call from the top of the castle, “Hope you like the colors and the decorations!”

The ghost of King Arthur glared at her as he demanded, “Who or what are you? What is the meaning of this?!”

Pinkie giggled and called back, “Silly! I prepared this party just for you!” She got a devious grin on her face as she finished, “And it’s a party celebrating the fact that YOU LOSE!”

King Arthur’s ghost growled, “We are not defeated yet! All of you, GET THEM!” Normally, the Giant-Ones would’ve readily carried out this command, but they were all still disoriented, none of them sure which way they were going with their vision impaired.

As everyone began to stand up, a new voice sounded from the top of the castle, one that Sonic recognized, “You and your knights have done nothing but trespass on the lands under this kingdom’s jurisdiction, you false king! If you’re going to try to claim it by force, then we’ll answer in kind!” Seconds later, a spear shot down into the chest of one of the recovering Giant-Ones, followed by Sir Frederick diving down and pressing his feet against the knight’s chest as he pulled his spear free. The Giant-One fell onto its back and broke apart as the bunny did a backflip to get down onto the grass. He turned to look back at the group as he shouldered his spear and said, “Let’s go! These numbers are nothing; we can defeat them even without armor!”

Sonic blinked, his eyes wide with surprise as he stared at Sir Frederick. His attention was redirected when he heard talking behind him and looked back to see General Tybalt talking to Lady Nimue. Again he was surprised upon seeing the lion and didn’t catch what they were saying, but seeing as the Lady stepped back, it was likely that he had been telling her to stay where it was safe. Tybalt then exited the castle, pulling a pair of crossbows holstered on his legs out as he did. He called to the group, “The battlefield may have changed, but the battle has not! If you must get close to attack, watch your step!” So saying, he turned and fired two arrows from each of his crossbows, the tips of the arrows exploding when they hit the Giant-One coming towards him. The explosions were enough to destroy the Giant-One and Tybalt tapped his crossbows against his legs to reload them, turning to attack the next closest Giant-One with normal arrows.

Sonic faced forward, looking at one of the Giant-Ones for a moment before saying, “Come on, let’s keep this party rolling!” With that, he boosted forward and landed on a tablecloth lying on the stone path, his momentum causing it to slide forward with him on it. Lancelot was by his side in a moment, his air shoes carrying him over the loose bits  of Pinkie’s earlier assault. They both reached the Giant-One at roughly the same time and jumped straight up, both of them performing their own spinning slash as they went up and came back down. The knight collapsed under their onslaught of slashes and broke down as they landed, everyone else having gotten back into the fight in the meantime, all of them working together to bring down the remaining Giant-Ones, especially with the arrival of Pinkie, Tybalt, and Sir Frederick.

The ghost of King Arthur growled as a new wave of Underworld knights appeared, this one having fewer Giant-Ones but plenty of Soldier-Ones and Eyeball-Ones. There were also some knights that looked like crabs, but while they were quick, General Tybalt had no difficulty sniping them with his arrows, not missing a single shot. When he took out the last one, Rainbow flew down to him and said, “Wow, you’re pretty awesome with those!”

Tybalt smirked as he looked up at her with his good eye, replying, “My men like to call me ‘Deadeye’. It’s fitting because my shots are always dead-on!” He demonstrated by pointing the crossbow in his left hand behind him and taking a shot, Rainbow looking up to see that he had hit a Soldier-One with a spear right in the eye with the shot before it could get close enough. She let out a whistle at this, especially since he shouldn’t have been as sharp on that side.

It didn’t take long for the wave of Underworld knights to fall, another one appearing to take its place. Everyone kept going strong, all of them doing their own thing to take down the knights. Pinkie alternated between helping Spike and Cadance protect Fluttershy and setting off the cannons she’d hidden in the ground, and Sir Frederick alternated between using his spear to attack at close range and throwing it to attack the ones farther away.

As the last Underworld knights fell, Sonic and Lancelot ended up close together in front of the castle wall entrance, both of them scanning the area and nodding when they saw that the others had dealt with the rest of the enemies. Suddenly, they heard a sound behind them and glanced back over their shoulders to see a squad of crossbow-wielding Soldier-Ones right behind them, all pointing their crossbows at them. The two hedgehogs glanced at each other for a moment before they raised their blades and started slashing through them. Once they were done, they looked up at the ghost of King Arthur, Lancelot raising his visor as he asked, “So who’s next?”

The ghost didn’t reply, and no more Underworld knights appeared to continue the fight. Seeing that it was safe, Nimue stepped out and looked up at the ghost herself as she said, “This battle has been decided. All of your knights have fallen, former king, and you are no longer able to fight yourself. You have lost.”


THE WARNING


King Arthur was silent for a second before saying, “Hm. So it would appear this kingdom has not grown entirely weak in my absence. But I would advise you all not to rejoice over your victory. You have beat but a fraction of the Knights of the Underworld, and you have revealed your strategies to me without knowing the full extent of my stratagem.” His slit-like eyes narrowed, “This is where the real trial begins.”

With that, he began to disappear from view, his body disappearing into the purplish-black mist. Both Gawain and Lamorak tried to stop him with Gail Meteor, but the former king was gone by the time their swords reached him. They both caught their swords when they returned and Lamorak groaned, “He got away! Burning feathers…”

Gawain looked around as he asked, “What did he mean by ‘the real trial’?”

Nimue shook her head, “I don’t know, Sir Gawain, but I don’t like the sound of it…”

Applejack spoke, “Those knights have been attackin’ all over the kingdom, and now he tried to lead a bunch directly on the Grand Kingdom’s capital. What else could he be plannin’?”

Suddenly, a familiar voice called, “Sir Sonic!” Everyone looked towards the entrance in the castle wall and saw the Smithy running through it. He had the scabbard containing Clarent on his back, a strap going around his front holding it there, and he had an urgent look on his face.

“It’s Smithy!” Twilight and Cadance said together.

The fox came to a stop in front of Sonic and Lancelot, leaning forward and panting with his hands on his knees. Sonic was immediately concerned, moving in front of the fox and placing a hand on his shoulder as he asked, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

The Smithy raised his right hand, but kept panting. “Has something happened?” Lancelot asked.

The fox stood up straight a moment later, taking a breath as he did so. He then said, “Yes. I saw it as I was coming up the slope.” He pointed towards the wall entrance, “Outside the city! It’s still far away, but it looks like the Underworld army is coming straight for Camelot!”

This news shocked everybody. “WHAT?!?” they all exclaimed, Sonic and Lancelot running past the Smithy a moment later to see for themselves. The others soon joined them on the small outcropping of land in front of the entrance and saw it as well. It was still off in the distance so it was impossible to guess the numbers, but they could see a massive wave of black and purple slowly moving towards Camelot Castle.

Lamorak pulled out a small object that almost looked like a mask and looked through it. The object allowed him to see far off into the distance, and he zoomed in to get a better look at the wave. He growled a moment later, “For the love of-! He’s right! It is the Underworld army!”

Percival spoke, “That’s the largest gathering of Underworld knights anyone’s ever seen. The whole Underworld army must be marching towards us.”

Nimue murmured, “Then he was right. This will be the true test of whose kingdom is superior…”
> Sonic and the Black Knight, Volume Four
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


EMERGENCY MEETING


Soon, in the council chamber

Nimue sat at the head of the Round Table in Merlina’s seat with Caliburn at her right in his seat and Sonic leaning against the chair on her left, the three of them observing the collected chaos in the chamber at the moment. Some like Lancelot, Gawain, and Shining Armor were seated at the table while others like Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Lamorak were up and about, pacing or otherwise unable to hold still. It was clear that the impending invasion was on everyone’s mind, and since Sir Frederick and General Tybalt chose not to be a part of the debating that was sure to come up, it wouldn’t be long before word had spread throughout the rest of the castle as well.

Smithy, who had come along for the meeting, was the first to break the silence by asking, “Isn’t there anything that can be done about this?”

Sonic sighed and shook his head as he answered, “There’s not a lot of options available to us, bud. We either fight or we run. I’d rather fight, personally, but I have to admit that option isn’t looking too hot right now either.”

Gawain nodded, “Yeah, not with such a meager amount of force available to us. It’s pretty much us, Sir Frederick, General Tybalt, the Crew, the guards that need to be here, and the new recruits. That’s it.”

Rainbow spoke, “Well, it’s nothing we can’t handle, right? I mean, look what we did earlier, driving that fake king and his Underworld cronies out of the castle!”

Lancelot said, “As he said, that was only a fraction of the Underworld army. This appears to be the entirety of the army that we’re going up against. Their strength may not be in their numbers, but as long as they’re being given orders to march on Camelot, they’ll keep coming back no matter how many times we beat them. They’re too simple-minded to do otherwise.”

Gawain nodded, “We’re not gonna give up, but it doesn’t change the fact that we’re not ready for war.”

Twilight asked, “What about all the soldiers that were sent out? Is there any way to contact them and order them to return?”

Percival sighed, “We could send messengers out, but it would take time for them to reach their destinations, and even more time for the soldiers to return.” She looked at the map, “Some of these locations, the fastest way to reach them would be to go through that army, and that would certainly be deadly for them.”

Lamorak let out a growl and said, “You know, we probably would’ve had plenty time to plan to bring some of the soldiers back and have them back by now if SOMEONE hadn’t slowed us down!” He gave Galahad a meaningful look as he moved over to the hedgehog seated in his chair. He poked a finger into the hedgehog’s chest as he went on, “Tell them, Galahad! Tell them how you insisted on combing every place we stopped for information, how you delayed us moving on from dead ends to hear every rumor and ghost story there was to tell, how we could’ve we been back here a lot sooner if you’d just listened to me!”

Galahad glared up at the hawk and argued, “If we’d gone with your plan, Lamorak, we’d have been back here in like three days with even less to show for our efforts! Your strategy was this: we go into a town, we ask the head of the town if they’d seen anything suspicious, they say no, that’s the end of our search there, we move on! The people you always wanted to ask hardly any information for us, even the ones in the locations that had seen attacks! If you’d listened to what some of them had to say, you would’ve agreed to investigate while we were out instead of waiting until we returned to Camelot to do so! There are leads out there we could’ve found!”

Lamorak yelled back, “Fat lot of good all that does us now! We’ve got war right on our doorstep and we’re not ready! This is hardly the time to be investigating rumors!”

Percival shouted, “That will be quite enough, you two!” Both Galahad and Lamorak looked at her, both realizing how foolish they must’ve looked just now. “We couldn’t have predicted what the Underworld army was going to do.” She gritted her teeth as she looked down at the table, “We didn’t predict they would back us into a corner like this…”

Sonic asked, “So this is totally new for them?”

Lancelot shook his head, “This is not something we’ve seen the Underworld army do before. Of course we’ve seen similar types of attacks from them before, but never anything leading up to something this bold. Someone in the Underworld has been planning for this.”

Nimue sadly said, “And that someone has to be whoever attacked Merlina… They’ve been manipulating us all this entire time…”

Gawain growled, “He was right in our grasp! Our former king made it possible for those Underworld knights to attack us earlier and he has to have been readying them for this war! He was usually good with giving out orders, but he was also a knight too! It wouldn’t surprise me if he was the one who attacked Merlina!”

Caliburn spoke, “I wonder about that…”

Everyone in the room looked at him. “Caliburn?” Sonic asked.

The sword explained, “It may well be the simple fact that it has been some time since we struck him down, but it seemed as if the false King Arthur was behaving differently earlier. He was not so boastful, his initial reaction to being denied the kingdom was not what I would’ve expected, and while his presence may have been needed for the Underworld knights to appear at the castle like Sir Gawain said, I find it odd how he stayed where he was.”

Cadance tilted her head, “That last one is… odd?”

Sonic spoke, “Well, he did hang around when Merlina first summoned me to this world, when we were surrounded by the Knights of the Underworld, but the other two times I saw him, he spent most of the time running. Yeah, he was fighting the entire time, but he was doing it while he was moving away from me.” He placed his left hand on his chin, “I guess I can see how that might be a little weird.”

Applejack said, “Might be somethin’ worth thinkin’ about, Sonic, but like Lamorak said, this ain’t the time fer that.”

Shining nodded, “She’s right. We’re not going to be able to stop the Underworld army from reaching Camelot unless we take action.”

Galahad said, “There’s no doubt about that, but it does go right back to what Sir Lancelot was saying. Staging an attack like this is no simple matter; someone, whether it’s that ghost or someone else, is giving commands to the Knights of the Underworld to attack Camelot. As long as they’re being given orders to attack, they’ll find a way to keep coming until we’re defeated.”

Rarity spoke, “And who knows how many of your soldiers will fall before that happens.”

Galahad nodded and leaned back in his seat, sighing, “Tracking down information like who’s giving out orders is our specialty, but how can we do that now? We barely have time to mount a defense…”

Lamorak placed his right hand on the white hedgehog’s shoulder as he said, “I don’t know, Galahad, but we do have a little time left. Maybe we can figure something out before we have to get out to the frontlines.”

The two knights looked towards the other side of the table when Pinkie piped up, “Don’t despair, never fear, a solution to the problem will soon appear!” Everyone saw that the pink pony had moved next to Smithy between Lamorak and Percival’s seats and had gotten a hold of her fortune teller’s outfit and crystal ball, the latter in her hooves as she set it on the Round Table.

Lamorak stared blankly, “What…?” Beside her, Smithy also looked a little confused.

“It’s Madame Pinkie Pie!” Spike explained.

With her hooves moving a bit as she held them over the crystal ball, Pinkie stared into the orb as she said, “Madame Pinkie can see all that will be, and she can even find your missing keys! Let’s all stare into the crystal ball together, and soon, we’ll know how to stop this war!”

Lancelot growled as he pressed his right hand against his forehead and stood up as he said, “Okay, no.” He walked around the Round Table to Pinkie, saying all the while, “Your defense system, while unconventional, did prove very effective. You have proven that you can plan when you put your mind to it, but we are NOT doing this bit. This council does not support false seers.”

Pinkie glared up at him, “Hey, I take offense to that! My fortune telling is VERY accurate! And it should be; my Pinkie Sense is always right about impending danger! So naturally… ooh!” She put her hooves on the crystal ball and gazed deeply into it, some of the others leaning forward in anticipation. After a few seconds she said, “Yes… I see it! Someone in this room is going to have a totally awesome party today!”

She stopped her gazing when Lancelot roughly placed his hands on the table and glared at her, “You’re not helping your case.” He pointed his left finger at the crystal ball, “Now get it off the Round Table or I will take it away from you.” Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around the orb protectively at that.

Percival turned away from the debacle and pressed her right hand against her forehead as she sighed, “Optimism, pessimism…”

Sonic, Gawain, Nimue, Twilight, Cadance, and Fluttershy all looked at the cat with worried expressions. “You okay, Percival?” Gawain asked.

Percival let her hand dropped and glanced at her fellow knight apologetically. “I’m sorry. I… I suppose I’m getting worked up about us getting nowhere slowly as well.” She leaned against Gawain’s chair, “Just like everyone else, I wish I knew what to do about all this.”

Nimue spoke, “It’s times like this where I wish I had some control over my premonitions. I’ve been able to have them for a long time, but the thing that triggers them is always different.”

Sonic asked, “So you’re saying whatever gave you that vision of King Arthur coming here isn’t going to cause another one?”

Nimue nodded, “In essence, yes.”

Pinkie stood up and trotted around the table to the pink hedgehog, her crystal ball balanced atop her fortune teller’s hat. “Aw, don’t feel bad, Nimue!  Here, if you want, I’ll let you borrow my crystal ball since you left yours behind! Can’t see the future without it!” she said once she was standing next to the chair, shifting the orb to on top of her forelegs.

“What did I say to you about the crystal ball?” Lancelot asked from across the table.

Pinkie turned her head to look at him, “You said to get it off the table.”

Lancelot nodded, “Yes. In other words, stop talking about it and put it away. I told you before to behave.”

Pinkie replied, “And I told YOU to stop being such a grumpypants! I mean, really! In front of a guest no less!” Lancelot turned his head to look at Smithy, the fox cub waving awkwardly at being mentioned in such a way.

Some of the meeting’s participants were beginning to worry that the situation would soon escalate, but Nimue was not one of them. While the two were arguing, she found herself gazing deeply into the crystal ball much like she did with the gem on Sonic’s glove earlier. She tilted her head slightly as she looked into it, raising her right hand slightly to send a small amount of her magic into the orb. She stared intently, moving forward a bit…

Sonic noticed her behavior out of the corner of his eye and turned to look at her. “Uh, Nimue?” he asked, catching the attention of some of the others. A moment later, everyone was looking at the Lady as she jerked back from the crystal ball with a loud gasp, her eyes wide as she stared at it. Sonic backed up enough to avoid her bumping into him and was about to try reaching out to her when she sat forward in the chair, once again closing her eyes and holding her hands to head as she groaned softly.

“What’s going on?!” Smithy asked.

“What did you do?!” Lancelot demanded as he glared at Pinkie, who stuck her tongue out at him.

Applejack shook her head and asked, “Forget about that, what’s she doin’?!”

Galahad answered, “She’s having a vision!” Sure enough, a circle of blue light formed underneath Nimue as she held her arms out, wisps shooting up out of the circle and swirling around the chandelier. After a few seconds, three wisps separated from the circle and changed into cards, the cards floating down and resting atop the middle of the table while the rest of the wisps shot back into the circle underneath Nimue. The circle then disappeared and the Lady slumped back in her seat, breathing softly.

Lancelot quickly ran around the table and stood at Nimue’s side, looking at her worriedly while Sonic, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow, Shining, Cadance, and the rest of the Knights of the Round Table looked at the cards on the table, Smithy and the other ponies soon doing the same. “What did she draw this time?” Rainbow asked, everyone leaning over the table to get a better look at the cards.

“Looks like the Tower, the Devil, and… Death,” Lamorak answered.

Smithy spoke, “They don’t look like good cards to have drawn… But there’s something more to this, isn’t there?”

Shining nodded, “Right, Smithy. These cards represent what Lady Nimue saw in her vision. Until she wakes up, we’ll have to figure it out on our own.”


THE HAND PLAYED


Everyone save for Lancelot looked at the cards and thought about what they could mean. After a minute, Pinkie said, “Well, I’m stumped. I don’t know what she could’ve seen! I mean, really! How can you see the future without a crystal ball?”

Galahad asked, “The future? Hmm…” He looked at the first card, the Tower. “When she drew that card last, she said she saw Camelot Castle… Maybe it represents a castle again?” he mused, remembering what Nimue had told everyone.

Sonic eyed the other two cards. “The Devil… and Death. Something about the Underworld…?” he thought aloud. There was silence for several moments; then, suddenly, a thought popped into both Sonic and Galahad’s heads. They both turned and pointed at each other, saying, “Avalon!”

Nearly everyone else looked at the two hedgehogs in confusion, Twilight asking, “Avalon?”

Sonic and Galahad nodded, the latter saying, “Yeah. See?” He reached for his sword and used his psychokinesis to suspend it in the air with the blade pointing down, making the sword look like an arrow. He levitated it down the map towards the south, stopping it over an island to the southeast of Camelot Castle. “Right here. Faraway Avalon,” Galahad stated.

“There’s a pretty big castle on that island. When the sun is setting, the castle looks like it’s made of gold. That’s really the only other castle that’s close to the Grand Kingdom’s borders,” Sonic explained as he gestured to the map. He then looked up at everyone and added, “That’s also where I struck down the fake King Arthur and retrieved the Scabbard of Excalibur.”

Cadance looked down at the cards Nimue had drawn again, murmuring, “The Devil and Death… Do they represent the false king’s fate?”

Galahad spoke, “They might. I was also thinking of something else.”

Percival asked, “What might that be, Galahad?”

Galahad used his power to move his sword again, moving it to the shore northwest of Avalon. While still holding the sword up, the white hedgehog explained, “A port town has sprung up here. That was one of the places where I insisted on staying a little longer to see if Lamorak and I could gather any more information. I stopped into one of the cafés there during the night, when most of the sailors were getting something to drink.” He levitated his sword back to his right hand before finishing, “Many of them talked about Avalon.”

Gawain shrugged, “So? Sailors like to tell stories, Galahad. They all have their own tales that they like to share.”

Galahad tilted his sword towards the echidna as he replied, “I know, Gawain. Thing is, all the ones that talked about Avalon that night had roughly the same story to tell, and according to the café owner, some of those sailors are pretty well-known and they all have tales that they like to share. So either they all liked telling the same ghost story, or they all believed the same thing: that Avalon has become a cursed island in recent times.”

As Nimue began to stir, Percival held a hand to her chin, “Is that one of the rumors you wanted to discuss with the rest of us?” Galahad nodded in confirmation.

Lancelot looked back at Nimue as she opened her eyes and looked up at him. “Lady Nimue…” he murmured, relieved. She smiled softly at him and placed her right hand on top of his hands.

Caliburn spoke, “M’lady, if you are feeling well, Sir Sonic and Sir Galahad have suggested the possibility that your cards represent Faraway Avalon.”

Nimue nodded at him, “Thank you, Caliburn.” She looked at Sonic and Galahad and said, “You’re both right. I did see a castle on an island. I’m certain it was Avalon, but it was twisted by darkness, as if the Dark Hollow was trying to claim it. It may very well be under the dominion of the Underworld.”

Shining spoke, “If that is the case, then that would mean the Knights of the Underworld have established a foothold just outside of the Grand Kingdom.”

Gawain added, “Which would account for the rising frequency of attacks we’ve been seeing. If they don’t have to travel as far, they can attack like they used to when they were allied with the false King Arthur.”

Rainbow spoke up, “Speaking of that buckethead, I don’t remember seeing him out there with the rest of his army. He’s probably gone back to that castle on Avalon and is holed up there, giving orders!”

Nimue hesitated a moment before saying, “I don’t think the ghost of King Arthur is the one giving the Underworld army orders.” When everyone looked at her, she explained, “Along with Avalon, I also briefly saw a figure moving around in the darkness, possibly the same one Merlina saw. It did have the yellow and black eyes like the Knights of the Underworld, but… they didn’t look like the normal Underworld eyes.” She looked up at Sonic, “They looked more like… our eyes.”

Lamorak held a hand to his beak, “Different eyes? Why would that be? Even our former king’s eyes were like those of the Knights of the Underworld…”

Sonic said, “Well, I’m sure we can figure that out later. This is the best lead we have right now. We gotta investigate it; it could keep us out of war.”

Caliburn spoke up, “Unfortunately, that war is not going to wait for us, Sonic. Regardless of what’s on Avalon, the Underworld army is sure to reach the city and conquer it by the time we get to Avalon, rendering an investigation pointless.”

Lancelot nodded, “That’s true. If we lose Camelot, we’ll have lost. We cannot allow that.”

Gawain argued, “So what would you suggest we do, Lancelot? If we stay here, we’ll get caught up in a never-ending fight and we’ll eventually lose the city anyway. Like Sonic says, Avalon could hold the key to avoiding that.”

Lancelot glared at the echidna, “I’m aware of that, Gawain, but we can’t be in two places at once. This is not like when we had to separate to reach the barrier stones to try to contain the Dark Hollow. The sheer size of the Underworld army will require more than a few of us to overcome it, and depending on how tightly guarded Avalon is, the same may be true there.”

Twilight looked around the table at Spike and her friends, all of them seeming to have the same idea. They all nodded at each other and Twilight said aloud, “We can go to Avalon.”

Shining and Cadance looked surprised at this, as did Sonic, Caliburn, Nimue, Smithy, and the Knights of the Round Table. “Lady Sparkle, you can’t! I mean, you’re all guests here; surely that’s not…” Percival started to say but stopped short when Twilight raised her hoof.

“It’s all right, Percival. Whether we’re ordered to do so by Princess Celestia or not, this is the kind of thing we’re used to dealing with in Equestria,” the lavender unicorn said.

Rainbow nodded, “That’s for sure! First time we ever saved Equestria was when Nightmare Moon returned from her thousand year imprisonment in the Moon! We barely even knew each other then and we still stopped her!”

Fluttershy spoke up, “R-Remember that time that dragon’s snoring was filling the sky with smoke? After we learned about it from Princess Celestia, we were able to convince him to sleep somewhere else.”

Applejack gestured to Shining Armor and Cadance as she said, “Princess Cadance and Shining Armor have done a lot for Equestria too. When Canterlot was bein’ invaded by changelings, they drove them all out of the city at once!”

Rarity sighed, “And let’s not forget the lengths we’ll go to get Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo out of trouble.”

Lamorak spoke, “Okay, we get the picture! You’re almost as adventurous and daring as we are!”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow at the hawk, “I’m sorry, ALMOST?”

Lamorak replied, “Okay, maybe… maybe more than that. But from the sound of things, you all don’t have your own castle or a council chamber or… or…” his eyes darted around the room for a moment before they fell on the Round Table and he gestured to it, “or one of those things!”

Gawain shook his head at the hawk’s behavior before he turned to Twilight and asked, “Are you sure you and your friends want to do this? I’m not questioning what you’ve all been through; I don’t think any of us have any right to do that, but this is still a huge deal. There’s no telling what sort of Underworld creatures have made Avalon their nest. I just want to know, are you sure about this?”

Before Twilight could respond, Pinkie popped up next to her, her fortune teller outfit and crystal ball nowhere to be seen, and wrapped a foreleg around her unicorn friend as she said, “Don’t worry your dreadlocks, Sir Gawain! We’re totally sure about this! We’ll go to Avalon, find the meanie responsible for all the trouble in the Grand Kingdom, put a stop to his plans, and find Merlina and bring her home!” Twilight didn’t say anything, instead nodding at Pinkie in confirmation as she looked at Gawain.

Cadance spoke, “Twilight, Shining and I fully support this plan to investigate Avalon, which is why we’re coming with too. Isn’t that right, dear?” Her husband nodded in confirmation, so she continued, “I doubt Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna would let you march into danger like this without offering their aid, and neither will we. Besides, I have a feeling there’s only so much we could do here.”

Shining held a hoof to his chin, “Well, before we leave, maybe I could give Camelot an extra bit of protection like I did for Canterlot before we got married…”

Lancelot looked at the stallion and asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Shining explained, “Well, uh… as a Royal Guard, I’m naturally supposed to protect ponies from danger. As such, I’ve worked on a number of different protective magic spells for that purpose. My strongest spell is capable of creating a force field big enough to surround a city.”

Lancelot held a hand to his chin, “A magic barrier that can protect a large area?”

Shining nodded, “Exactly, and it’s a strong one too. It would take an extremely powerful force or repeated punishment to break through it. That’s why I made use of it when we received word of an outside threat to Canterlot. Only certain things were allowed to pass through the force field; it repelled everything else. Of course, the spell had to be recast to make sure the field remained strong, and it is a bit of a draining spell, but…”

Lancelot cut him off with a wave of his hand as he said, “Forget it. We’ll do without.”

Shining, feeling a bit slighted at the black hedgehog’s attitude, asked, “You don’t think my spell would be helpful?”

As he walked back to his chair, Lancelot said, “On the contrary, Captain Armor. I think such a spell would be very useful for protecting this city, but I think the negatives outweigh the positives in this particular case.” He sat down in his seat, resting against the back of the chair as he explained, “As you said, it’s a draining spell that needs to be recast to maintain its effectiveness. You’re not going to be here when and if the Underworld army reaches the city, and at that point, it will be more of a last defense. If the army manages to get past us, the barrier will likely just be delaying the inevitable, something that probably wasn’t the case prior to your wedding. As well, what if something is already within the field when you cast it? The Knights of the Underworld may or may not be able to get past it, but even a small number of knights would likely be able to get the drop on the guards posted at the castle, who could become complacent at the idea that nothing could get past the barrier. The Knights of the Underworld could take over the city without us even realizing it. Finally, again, you’re going to be with your wife, your sister, and the rest of your friends.” He leaned forward, “I think it would be better to reserve your magic for protecting them, don’t you?”

Shining blinked, having not expected such a well thought-out answer to come from the black hedgehog. “Uh, yeah. Yeah, those are… all very good points,” the stallion uttered.

Cadance looked over at Sonic and asked, “Well Sonic, what do you say?”

Everyone looked at the blue hedgehog, who was quiet for a moment as he mulled things over. Finally, he spoke, “The only thing is, how are you all gonna get to Avalon?” He gestured to the map, “I mean, it’s right there in the ocean. I managed to get there and back, but how are some of you gonna do it?”

Twilight raised a hoof to her chin, “Hm, that’s true. We did lose the carpet when we were pushed into this world. We’ll probably need to find a ship…”

Smithy spoke up, “I can help with that!” Everyone looked at the fox as he stood up. He pointed to the coast that Galahad had pointed to earlier and said, “I have a friend who lives in the town here. She’s a sailor; she has her own ship and everything. She’ll help if I ask her!”

Lancelot asked, “You’re certain of that, Smithy? You know that your friend isn’t one of the sailors who told Sir Galahad the tale of Avalon being cursed?”

Galahad held a hand to his chin, “I don’t remember seeing any female sailors in the café that night…”

Smithy explained, “Well, even if you did, Sir Galahad, I have a feeling Letha wouldn’t have been among them. She’s a bit… eccentric, to say the least. I’m not sure I believe her claims about the other sailors in town, but she doesn’t really fit in among them. She’s daring and reckless when it comes to traveling the sea, so I imagine she’d be willing to go near an island that others say is cursed. Also, I helped her out one time and… she’s never let that go. It wasn’t anything huge, but she always brings it up every time I see her, always asking if she can pay me back for that time. I’d say now is the time to call in that favor.”


PREPARATIONS


Before anyone else could say anything, the doors to the room burst open and everyone looked to see General Tybalt standing in the doorway. The lion took a few steps in before speaking, “Sir Sonic, forgive my intrusion. Sir Frederick and I have rallied all the soldiers available at Camelot Castle and we await further orders.”

Sonic asked, “Are any of the soldiers messengers? You know, ones who can send word to soldiers at nearby locations and ask them to return to Camelot?”

Tybalt replied, “Yes, we do have some scouts that we can give orders for aid to, but they’re concerned about being able to get the orders to their destination. They’ll either have to go through the Underworld army or around it. Neither option seems particularly good to them.”

Sonic nodded, “All right. Get all the soldiers geared up for battle. Our main goal is going to be to stop the Underworld army’s advance, but first, we’re gonna make sure those scouts reach their destinations safely. We’ll cut a path for ‘em.”

Tybalt asked, “Very well, but what of the Underworld army’s numbers? Even if we were to get timely aid, how are we going to get through this?”

Sonic answered, “Thanks to Nimue, we think we know where the commander of their forces is located. Our friends from Equestria are going to investigate Avalon and see if they can locate him. If we can stop him from sending orders out, we should be able to get the Underworld army to retreat. In the meantime, we need to keep them from reaching Camelot.”

Tybalt’s time as the general of Camelot’s forces made him a bit doubtful that the situation could be resolved so quickly, but he also knew that conditions were far from ideal at this point. He knew as well as anybody in the castle that they weren’t prepared for this; any hope that the Underworld army could be stopped was better than essentially telling everyone to march to their deaths. With that in mind, he bowed slightly and said, “Yes sir.” He then turned and left to go give orders to the soldiers.

Spike turned to Sonic and asked, “So we’re gonna do this?”

Sonic nodded, “Gotta do something, bud.” He turned to Smithy and said, “I hope your friend will be able to help like you said, Smithy. If you don’t want to go to Avalon, that’s fine.”

The fox cub replied, “I’ll go with them. I want to help too.”

Sonic nodded at him and then turned to Twilight, saying, “Take the Knight’s Passage out of here. It should help you avoid most of the Underworld army, and if you can, do a little sweeping for any knights trying to sneak in that way. I wouldn’t put it past them to try that.”

Twilight nodded, “You can count on us.”

Lancelot spoke, “Then let’s put an end to this. Meeting adjourned!” At that, everyone who was sitting stood up, the Knights of the Round Table foregoing the usual pleasantries due to the situation. They were the first to leave the room, Lancelot wanting to check on the soldiers heading for the frontlines while the others went to check in with the soldiers posted around the castle and the city.

As Twilight and her friends started filing out of the room, Nimue turned to look up at Sonic and placed her left hand on his right hand, saying when he looked down at her, “I believe this is a wise decision. By working together like this, we can make sure that this kingdom continues to stand tall.”

As Smithy was about to follow the ponies out of the room, he stopped as he remembered something. He turned around and moved around the Round Table towards Sonic, saying, “Sir Sonic, I almost forgot!” When he reached the blue hedgehog, he lifted the scabbard he was wearing off of him and took it in both hands. “I finished repairing Clarent as I said I would. I was coming up to return it to you when I saw the Underworld army.” He held the scabbard out to Sonic, presenting it to him.

Sonic looked down at the scabbard for a moment, noticing that the sword’s hilt looked like it was brand new, before wrapping his right hand around the middle of it and giving it a slight push towards Smithy. At the fox’s confused look, he said, “Hang onto it for now. It might come in handy. You are going to an island under the control of the Underworld after all.” Seeing what he was getting at, Smithy nodded and slipped the scabbard back on, turning and hurrying out the door to catch up with Twilight’s group.

As the group started moving towards the Knight’s Passage, Caliburn floated out of his seat and over to Sonic. While doing so, he noticed Sonic was still wearing the backpack he had taken earlier. He floated to the blue hedgehog’s side and said, “Sonic, that bag you are wearing…”

Sonic looked at him, confused for a moment before he got what the sword was pointing out. As he took the backpack off, he commented, “Huh, forgot about that. With things escalating so quickly, it must’ve slipped my mind.” While looking down at the empty pack, an idea popped into his head and he turned to Caliburn, asking, “Hey, uh, is there an infirmary or anything like that in the castle?”

The sword replied, “Yes. Why?”

Sonic answered, “Maybe I should throw some extra supplies in here just in case.” He looked over at the hallway outside the room, “No telling what’s gonna happen out there.”


LEAVING THE CASTLE


While the rest of the castle was preparing for the oncoming invasion, Rainbow, Twilight, Spike, Shining, and Cadance led Smithy and the other ponies to the entrance of the Knight’s Passage.  When they reached the hallway that Percival had led the five to earlier, they began pressing and feeling across the wall for the spot with the switch in it. “What are y’all doin’?” Applejack asked after a moment of watching them.

“The switch to open the Knight’s Passage is along this wall. Can’t remember the exact spot, but it was along this wall,” Shining explained.

A second later, Twilight called, “I found it!” She turned back to the wall, looking at the brick that had sunk in slightly from her left hoof pressing against it. As the others came over, she pushed it all the way back and then placed her hoof on the brick below it, pushing it and the bricks beneath it down. The section of wall closing off the Knight’s Passage slid open a moment later in response.

“Good going, Twily,” Shining said.

“Not like anything’s going to get past us, but maybe we should close it behind us anyway,” Rainbow suggested.

Twilight nodded, “Good idea, Rainbow. Head inside; I’ll try to figure out how Percival closed it.” Rainbow and Shining led the way into the Knight’s Passage while Twilight looked at the switch in front of her. After mulling over it for a moment, she wondered aloud, “Maybe it just slides back up?” She turned her hoof over and managed to get it underneath the brick she pushed down. As she raised it back into place, the brick she’d pushed in earlier slid forward on its own, nearly surprising her due to how close her head was to it. The entrance began to close as soon as the bricks were back in place and Twilight quickly ran through it, meeting up with the others at the bottom of the stairs. Once she was with them, everyone started moving again.

As Sonic had suspected, the group did run into Knights of the Underworld that were using the Knight’s Passage to sneak into the castle. Fortunately, it seemed that they couldn’t materialize anywhere they wanted to inside the passage, and the small inside spaces limited how many could appear at one time without getting in each other’s way. This made it easier for the soldiers stationed in the Knight’s Passage to fight them off, with the group helping them when they could and dealing with knights where there weren’t any soldiers close by.

Before long, the group reached the castle waterway and climbed into a boat, the elf manning the boat working to get them to the end of the Knight’s Passage as fast as possible. As they went, the soldiers in charge of the gates raised them for the boat to get through. Even though they knew that opening the gates might give the Knights of the Underworld a chance to get in faster, they knew that Smithy and the Equestrians were allied with their king and they needed to be somewhere urgently if they were using the Knight’s Passage to leave the city.

As they moved through the waterway, Fish-Ones flew out over the water to intercept their boat. “Incoming!” Shining called when he noticed a white one flying straight towards them.

The creature was stopped when an arrow hit it from the side, causing it to go into a spiral and crash into the water before it disappeared. Everyone looked to see that the arrow had come from a soldier holding a bow. He called to the group, “Beware the white ones! Their attacks can turn you into stone!”

Spike asked, “They can actually do that?”

Shining answered, “The books mention that too, Spike. That’s another reason to keep them away from the boat.”

Applejack pointed ahead, “Here come some more!” Shining took point at that, moving to the front of the boat and using his magic to try to shoot the Fish-Ones down before they could attack.

The white stallion was able to intercept the first few, but one managed to fire an energy sphere that stopped his shot, the Fish-One firing another one and causing Shining to fall backwards as he tried to avoid being caught in the resulting blast. He didn’t get petrified, but the opening he had left allowed the Fish-One and another one behind it to get closer. “Look out!” Fluttershy squeaked.

Cadance and Smithy leapt up, both saying, “I’ll get them!” As Cadance charged her magic, Smithy reached his left hand back into his left tail and pulled out a large, light blue slingshot. As the fox readied his weapon, Cadance hit the first Fish-One with a beam of magic. She was about to shoot the other one when Smithy fired a projectile from his slingshot, a projectile that exploded when it hit the second Fish-One!

Rainbow looked at the fox in amazement, saying, “That was awesome! What was that?”

Smithy blushed a bit at that, putting his right hand behind his head and rubbing it. “Well…” he began.

“The walls have eyes!” Pinkie suddenly exclaimed. Everyone looked up at the walls to the sides of the boat at that, seeing Knights of the Underworld that looked like slugs materializing across them.

“Eyeball-Ones!” Twilight cried.

Smithy looked at Rainbow and said, “We can talk about it later.” With that, he turned to the left side of the boat and readied his slingshot again while Twilight turned to the right side of the boat, charging up her magic. They both focused on keeping the Eyeball-Ones from attacking while Shining and Cadance dealt with the white Fish-Ones ahead.

It didn’t take long for the boat to arrive at the dock near the exit, but before they could disembark, a Soldier-One wielding a large axe appeared on the edge of the dock. It raised the axe, preparing to attack the boat. Smithy gasped and stood up as he grabbed the hilt of Clarent with his right hand, pulling the sword out and holding it so its tip was pointing to the side, ready to intercept the axe. The Soldier-One stopped in mid-swing, however, and, when Smithy righted the blade, it quickly performed a sideways swing, knocking the blade out of the fox’s hands and causing him to fall onto the floor of the boat.

The others gasped at this, Rainbow soon turning to glare at the Soldier-One as it again raised its axe. Reacting quickly, the cyan pegasus spread her wings as she reached for Clarent, grasping it between both hooves. She then turned and shot towards the Soldier-One, running the blade through its chest plate. This caused it to freeze and she applied enough force to turn it to her left before bucking it with her hind legs, causing it to fall into the water before it disappeared.

Fluttershy was surprised by this, having never seen her childhood friend legitimately use a proper weapon before, but she turned back to Smithy, wanting to make sure he was okay. The fox stood up a moment later and Rainbow hovered over to him, asking, “You okay, Smithy?”

While holding his right hand to his forehead, the fox replied, “Yeah, I-I think so.”

Rainbow sighed, “That’s good.” She held Clarent out to him, “Uh, here. You did a really good job on this sword, you know.” Smithy nodded and took the sword from her, sliding it back into the scabbard.

“C’mon y’all, we gotta get movin’!” Applejack said as she started to climb out of the boat. The others did the same, Smithy taking a moment to tuck his slingshot back into his tail and give the elf rower a few rings he had in his apron as thanks.

After they had exited the Knight’s Passage and had followed the path for a short while, the ones that hadn’t gone to the Deep Woods earlier stopped and looked around, not sure where they were in relation to their destination. “Where are we? How do we get to the town?!” Rarity asked.

Shining pointed a hoof straight ahead as he spoke, “We had to go that way to get to the Deep Woods, which according to the kingdom map is to the west. Therefore…”

Both Twilight and Smithy turned to the left and said, “We have to go this way to go south!”

Spike ran over and hopped up on Twilight’s back. He then looked at Smithy, saying, “Well, let’s get going, then! Let’s find your friend and get to Avalon, Smithy!” The fox nodded and they all started moving again, hurrying towards the town while simultaneously hoping and fearing that the Underworld army had advanced enough for them to avoid the brunt of their forces.

Back at Camelot Castle, Lady Nimue was watching the group from her reflecting pool, observing their progress. The pink hedgehog was currently on the roof of the castle, kneeling down on the grass and observing the group for a moment more before turning and looking to the south, a worried expression on her face. The Underworld army’s approach seemed to have halted, and there was little doubt in her mind as to why. Camelot’s forces had engaged them and were fighting to protect their city, Sonic and the Knights of the Round Table leading the charge. Nimue remained at the castle at their request to keep an eye on Twilight’s group and make sure everything was going smoothly. She was only to leave if things started going wrong on either end, the members of the Crew ready to be summoned when they were needed.

Looking back at her reflecting pool, the scene in it began to change as she whispered, “Please hurry, everyone. Our forces aren’t going to give an inch, but neither will the Knights of the Underworld…”


GRAND KINGDOM WARRIORS


As they engaged the enemy on the fields outside of Camelot Castle, the sheer size of the Underworld army became apparent to Sonic, Caliburn, the Knights of the Round Table, General Tybalt, Sir Frederick, and all of their soldiers. Earlier they had seen the army approaching from the south, coming from the peninsula, but now that they were in the thick of it, they realized that the enemy was coming from the north as well, though thankfully in not as great numbers. Still, it was clear they needed to retool their strategy somewhat.

Their first order of business remained the same: halt the Underworld army’s advance and start to open up a hole for the messengers. General Tybalt and Sir Frederick stayed back with the messengers, which there were only six of, while Sonic and the Knights of the Round Table moved forward to start intercepting the Knights of the Underworld. Sonic led Lancelot and Gawain to the north while Percival took charge of Galahad and Lamorak as they headed south, both teams leading a faction of the Camelot soldiers as well. Thanks to Lady Nimue’s magic, they were able to keep in touch with each other, so the only reason to fall back to the impromptu base at the start of the path up to Camelot would be to start escorting the messengers to their destinations.

While the Underworld soldiers that Percival’s squad encountered were trying to rush and overwhelm them, Sonic’s squad had to deal with Underworld soldiers that tried to take advantage of their surroundings and their fellow soldiers to try to strike unexpectedly, forcing everyone to watch carefully to make sure there wasn’t anything creeping up behind them, but fortunately, the Underworld knights didn’t seem as numerous as they were in the south and their forces mainly consisted of differing types of Soldier-Ones with other units showing up as well.

After a while of fighting, Percival contacted everyone over the magic link Nimue had set up, “The Underworld’s assault appears to have stalled, and our troops’ morale is up!”

Gawain spoke next, “We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but we should be able to get through now!”

Tybalt ordered, “Fall back to the command outpost! It’s time to provide cover for the messengers!” Sonic and the Knights of the Round Table immediately complied, making their way back to the outpost while their soldiers held the line.

After they returned to the base, both squads were given their orders before setting out again. This time, Sonic’s squad headed to the south with Sir Frederick and four messengers, two of which were headed for the Deep Woods while the other two were going to the Molten Mine. Percival’s squad, meanwhile, went north with General Tybalt, the two messengers with them going to the soldiers camped out on the Titanic Plain.

The messengers’ escorts stayed close to them while their fellow soldiers provided as much aid as they could as well, all of them carrying swords, spears, maces, or bows. As both squads neared their respective edges of the battlefield, Giant-Ones suddenly appeared in front of them, blocking the path. Although this worried the messengers, their escorts quickly made short work of the large knights, allowing them to slip away and call for reinforcements.

Having caught a moment for a breather, Sonic shifted Caliburn to his left hand and used his right to adjust the shoulder plate his cape was attached to, fixing both. The earlier attack by King Arthur’s troops had helped him get used to fighting with it on and he could see that Rarity hadn’t been lying earlier. As he moved Caliburn back to his right hand, Sir Frederick came over and said, “The messengers should be safe now. All things considered, things are going well for us.”

Lancelot nodded, “Yes. We just have to wait it out now.”

Sonic spoke, “Not usually my strongpoint, but since we’re protecting Camelot, I think I can manage.” As they turned to resume engaging the Knights of the Underworld, Sonic wondered how things were going with Twilight and the others.


HEADING FOR AVALON


Meanwhile, to the northwest of Avalon

While the waters did not get rougher as they went, the sky overhead began to get worse as Letha’s ship moved towards Avalon. While not as large, her ship had a similar appearance to Sinbad’s ship and was clearly meant to hold up against rough waters. As the Equestrians had expected, Letha appeared to be the Arthurian counterpart to Marine, though her choice of attire was a bit different. While Marine wore a green strapless top, black knee-length shorts, and green and orange shoes, Letha wore a light blue vest with short sleeves over an orange dress that went down just past her waist, a pair of tan shorts sticking out from underneath, the entire ensemble looking a bit torn at the ends. She also wore a pair of dark gray sandals and had no gloves. It wasn’t exactly a normal outfit for a sailor, but it wasn’t that surprising considering what Smithy had said about her earlier.

The raccoon stood at the helm of her ship with Smithy by her side while Spike and the ponies moved around the ship, keeping an eye out for trouble on the waters as well as Avalon. Letha looked down at her passengers for a moment before looking at the fox next to her and saying, “Hoy, Smithy! I sense grave tidings ahead. You ever seen anything like this before?” That was another difference the Equestrians had noticed about her: her accent was less noticeable and she often tried to sound like a pirate when she spoke.

Smithy looked up, eying the reddening sky and dark clouds overhead as he replied, “I remember the sky was like this when old Camelot Castle was destroyed. The structure that came up from underneath the castle, the Dark Hollow I believe it was called, was surrounded from above by swirling clouds. I know everyone in the city was scared and some even fled during that time, but I did my best to hold my post until the crisis was resolved.”

Letha nodded and turned her attention back to the wheel. “Do you suppose this means that this ‘Dark Hollow’ is on Avalon?” she asked after a moment.

“I don’t know. I’m a little surprised you didn’t go out to see Avalon yourself after you heard the stories from the other sailors,” Smithy replied. Letha stiffened up a bit at that, remember the one sailor who had told her about seeing the ghost of King Arthur around the island. That was all it took to deter her and it was almost what made her say no to Smithy earlier, but her insistence on paying back the favor won out in the end, so she decided to keep quiet about it.

Near the front of the ship, Applejack and Rarity were talking with Fluttershy, trying to make sure the shy pegasus’ nerves didn’t get the best of her. “She’s an odd one, ain’t she?” Applejack asked, clearly talking about Letha.

“Yes, if by ‘odd’ you mean her choice of clothing, Applejack. The colors are so garish together, and she clearly doesn’t take care of her clothes! At least Marine’s choice of colors went together and she looked respectable enough to be able to walk around without others staring at her. I swear, if we don’t get to Avalon soon, the only way I’m going to be able to keep myself from thinking about it is to fix it!” Rarity whispered.

“I don’t know. She seems nice, and the colors kind of suit her,” Fluttershy shrugged. Both Applejack and Rarity gave her odd looks at that.

After a few minutes, Rainbow Dash, who was looking through a telescope up in the crow’s nest, called, “Hey! Dead ahead! Land ho!” Everyone looked towards the front of the ship and saw, in the distance, a relatively large island coming into view. Even with the red dominating the sky, they were soon able to see a large castle on the island off to the left of the ship, a mass of clouds swirling around in the sky above it.

“Is that it?” Twilight asked.

“Aye! That be Faraway Avalon ye be lookin’ at! And despite the darkness, it doesn’t look as bad as they claimed! We’ll be making landfall soon!” Letha exclaimed, pointing at the island.

Shining Armor moved towards the bow of the ship, looking over the side and calling upon his magic as he said, “Negative, captain. We’re dropping anchor here.” As he spoke, his magic wrapped around the ship’s anchor and pulled it loose, causing it to drop into the water. Letha’s ship kept going for a little bit before the anchor kept it from going any further, even with the wind blowing into the sails.

Upon realizing that her ship had stopped, Letha furiously came down the wheel and stomped up to Shining Armor, demanding, “What is the meaning of this?! I’m the captain of this ship, and I say we’re going all the way to that island! Are you disrespecting me?!”

Shining stood calm at her shouts and, after she was done, calmly replied, “My apologies, Captain Letha, but that’s not what we agreed to.” At her confused look, he explained, “You made it very clear to us that, even though you would take us on your ship, you weren’t going to actually land on the island.” He gestured to the small dinghy on the ship’s port side, “You said we could take that the rest of the way, but you and your ship were going to remain a safe distance away from the island.”

Letha remembered that that was indeed what she’d forced them to agree to back in town, her relief at there being no King Arthur ghost having caused her to forget. “Well, that was… that was just in case there were ghosts or ghost ships or something else protecting the island! I’ve only got one ship after all! I-I don’t have any cannons or anything like that onboard, so if ran into trouble, w-we wouldn’t be able to defend ourselves!” she stammered.

Smithy came up behind the raccoon and said, “That’s why I convinced everyone to agree to your terms, Letha. I know how much it cost you to get this ship; even with my help, you still barely put together enough money and materials to have it built. And you make a good point; if your ship gets sunk, we’ll be stranded on Avalon until help comes. With the way the island looks now, it’s not worth risking it.”

Letha turned to him and sputtered, “B-But… This is my dream! I want to have adventures like this! I want to help the Grand Kingdom!”

Cadance came up alongside Smithy and said, “And you have, Letha. With your help, we’ve reached a place that most of us would not have the means to reach. Believe me, I understand wanting to be recognized for your accomplishments, but in a war, everyone has to play a part in order to achieve a desirable outcome.”

As Pinkie hopped over to the apparatus holding the dinghy in place and began fiddling with the crank, Applejack said, “So let’s get this here boat down into the water and do what Sonic and the Knights of the Round Table are countin’ on us ta do!”

As he followed Spike and the other ponies over to the boat, Shining addressed Letha, “Stay here for the time being. Once things start clearing up a little, it should be safe to approach the island.”

Rainbow added, “Yeah, give it about an hour. We should be done by then!”

Smithy turned to Letha and said, “I can stay here with you if you want, Letha. I mean, I mainly volunteered because I thought you would be able to help. The king said I don’t have to go to the island; I can give Clarent to someone else…”

Letha sighed softly, her indignation at her ‘crew’ ditching her ebbing away as she listened to the fox ramble. She finally cut him off, “No, th-that’s okay, Smithy. I can keep an eye on things. Go on and help them; they might need whatever’s inside that coconut of yours.” Smithy smiled at her ribbing, but he still looked a bit concerned even as he walked over to join the others on the boat. Once he was on board, Letha stepped over to the crank and began to turn it, lowering the smaller boat down into the water. As she was doing this, she thought, “I suppose I COULD just admit that I was afraid of the ghost rumors and that I always meant to go with them… but that wouldn’t make me a good sailor or captain! I’m not giving this lot any reason to doubt my leadership! And the best way for them to learn is by doing!”


RAINBOOM TO DRY LAND


As the boat touched the water, Rarity looked around suddenly and noticed something. “Oh dear. Did we forget to bring the oars?” she asked, realizing the boat didn’t seem to have any paddles.

“Nah, no way, Rare. We don’t need oars,” Rainbow said, flapping her wings to get above the boat.

Smithy looked back at her as she flew backwards, getting behind the boat. “How are we going to move the boat without oars?” he asked.

Taking a moment to breathe on her hooves, she placed them on top of the boat as she replied, “We did that earlier. It took too long to get out of Camelot Castle, considering we’re trying to stop a war here. This time, we’re going the fast way!”

Smithy looked confused at that, but Twilight quickly saw what she meant and let out a sigh before saying, “Hang on, everypony!” As everyone braced themselves, Rainbow began flapping her wings faster; seconds later, the boat suddenly shot away from Letha’s ship like a rocket, Smithy managing to grab onto the inside before the sudden rush pushed him out.

Up on the ship’s deck, the raccoon captain looked shocked as the boat shot off into the distance. “Bucklers and bonnets! That’s one speedy skylubber!” she exclaimed. She then cheered, “Yeah, go get ‘em, mates! Swash their buckles!”

Thanks to Rainbow, it didn’t take long for the group to reach Avalon, the cyan pegasus holding her wings out straight to slow down as they approached a suitable spot to leave the boat. As they all piled out of the boat, Rarity looked back towards where Letha’s ship was and said, “Well, yes, I suppose that was the better option, Rainbow Dash.” Still, she checked her mane and tail to make sure there wasn’t a hair out of place.


CURSED AVALON


Spike climbed up onto a nearby rise and pointed forward, saying, “Hey, look! We’re not far from the castle.” Everyone came up near him and saw that he was right; it shouldn’t take more than a couple of minutes for them to reach the castle. As they looked, they noticed that it seemed darker on the island than it had been on the sea even though the cloud cover hadn’t changed.

Looking down at the ground, Fluttershy noticed that the grass was all dried up and withering, the trees around the island looking to be in a similar state from what she could see. “This almost looks like the kingdom that the changelings took over…” she murmured.

Pinkie gasped, “It does, Fluttershy! So maybe my secret weapon would work here as well, and I don’t have it!”

Rainbow deadpanned, “No it wouldn’t, Pinkie. Can we just go and not talk about that?” Although Spike, Smithy, Shining, and Cadance weren’t sure what the two were referring to, they agreed that they should get moving, all of them running towards the castle as fast as they could go.

As they got closer to the castle, they began to see that, in the darkness, it appeared to be black rather than gold like Sonic said it was. When they reached it, they walked along a path that ran along the outside of the castle, all of them keeping an eye out for any Knights of the Underworld or any other sort of danger, Smithy clutching his slingshot in his left hand the whole time. As they walked, they noticed that things around the castle looked similar to the rest of the island. The plants in the plant boxes all seemed to be dying, and while the water along the sides of the path didn’t look different, it was a safe guess that, with as dark as it was, one wouldn’t have to sink too deep into it to be plunged into darkness.

After a few minutes of walking, Applejack asked, “How do we get inside this castle? We haven’t seen anythin’ resemblin’ a door yet!”

Twilight said, “There has to be a way in somewhere, Applejack. A castle this big has to have an entrance; why would someone build a castle this big if no one could get inside?” Before anyone could say anything, a flash of lightning came from the clouds above, causing everyone to freeze. They all shut their eyes as several more bolts appeared in succession, Spike grabbing onto one of Twilight’s legs as he kept his eyes closed, though none of them struck anything. Once they were sure no more were coming, everyone opened their eyes and looked around. Twilight looked back and noticed Smithy and Fluttershy huddled next to a wall together. “Are you two okay?” she asked, everyone else looking as well.

The two stood up a moment later and shakily made their way back over to the others, Smithy grabbing his dropped slingshot as he walked. While Fluttershy let out a shuddering squeak, Smithy hesitantly stammered, “I-I’m afraid of lightning…”

Shining said, “I think we’d better find a way to get inside quick. While not necessarily safer, it’s gotta be better inside the castle than it is out here.”

Cadance called, “Everyone, come look at this!” They all looked to see that the pink alicorn had gone on ahead a little bit and was looking off  to the left. They hurried over to her and saw what had caught her attention. Right in front of her was a large hole in the path that seemed to have a set of dirt stairs leading down into it. From the looks of it, the hole seemed to go pretty far down.

“What’s this doing here?” Rainbow asked.

“I don’t know, but it might be connected over there,” Cadance replied, looking up and pointing straight ahead. Everyone looked to see, across several water-filled basins and another path running along the castle, was a large gray tower. It stood nearly taller than the castle around it and didn’t seem to be connected, appearing to stand separate from the black castle.

“That’s strange,” Twilight said.

“Yeah. I wonder if it that was built recently and it’s not actually part of the castle,” Cadance agreed.

A flash of lightning overhead cut off any more thoughts on the subject, both Fluttershy and Smithy leaping and wrapping their forelegs/arms around Spike, rubbing their chins against his head much to his displeasure. Shining looked at them for a moment before turning to everyone and saying, “Let’s see where this hole goes.” They all nodded and, after some coaxing to get Smithy and Fluttershy to let go of Spike, they started down into the hole after Shining, Cadance, and Twilight used their magic to project a beam of light from their horns to light the way.


UNDERGROUND ENTRANCE


After a short while of walking, the tunnel came to an end at a rocky wall. In the center of the wall was what appeared to be some sort of circular seal with a small set of stairs leading up to it. The group moved forward up to the seal, Twilight and Shining stepping up to it while Cadance stayed back to light it up from behind. Looking the seal over, they saw that it appeared to have some sort of depiction of the Underworld displayed on it, as it showed creatures that seemed to be shrouded in shadows in a dark landscape.

Shining looked up towards the ceiling and, after a moment, said, “This must be the entrance to that tower.”

Twilight kept looking at the seal as she asked, “How do we get past this?” She raised her hooves and pressed on the wall around the seal, but nothing happened. As she looked back up at the seal, Applejack stepped forward and, after a moment, raised her hooves to the seal. Twilight was about to say something, but when she pressed her hooves on it, the seal slid inwards. Pushing it to the left didn’t do anything, but when she pushed it to the right, it slid out of the way, revealing an opening. “Oh,” Twilight uttered as she gave Applejack a sheepish look.

Stepping through the opening, they found themselves in some sort of chamber. Twilight, Shining, and Cadance ran their lights across the room to get a better look at it. The room was filled with some sort of bluish mist that made the air cold and slightly obscured their vision, but most of it appeared to be below their level. In front of the group was a sloped stone path leading to a circular middle platform that had a black stone tablet in the middle of it. Four narrow straight paths branched off from the center platform like bridges, each one leading to a door with a different arch around it. Straight ahead of the group was a fifth path that was wider than the others that led to a wall with a seal on it.

Moving to the center platform, the unicorns and alicorn shined their lights on the tablet in the middle of it and found several lines of symbols carved on it. “Is this writing? I can’t read it!” Pinkie exclaimed as she leaned over Twilight’s shoulder, her voice bouncing off the walls a bit.

Looking back at the tablet, Cadance suggested, “Maybe it’s some kind of Underworld writing, or even some sort of old language from long before the days of Camelot.”

Smithy spoke, “It is an old language, Cadance. I recognize the shapes.”

Fluttershy asked, “What does it say?”

Smithy replied, “I can’t tell off the top of my head. Fortunately…” He reached his right hand into his apron and pulled out a small, pocket-sized red book a moment later. “I always keep this easy to carry guide for translating other languages I specially ordered with me.”

Rainbow deadpanned, “Seriously? You carry a dictionary with you everywhere you go?”

Smithy replied, “Well, everyone needs a hobby, right? I’m interested in ancient history; I’ve even read copies of texts that were written long ago. I ordered this guide so I would always have a reference close by, which has been helpful for my work as well. Sometimes I get orders that are written in other languages and I need a quick reference to make sure I understand it all.” With that, he stepped up in front of the tablet and knelt down on one knee, holding his guide down in front of him. As he switched between looking at the tablet and the book, Shining made sure the tablet was sufficiently lit up while Twilight used her light to give Smithy a light to read by.

After about a minute, Applejack asked, “Well, how’s it goin’?”

Smithy turned his head to look up at her and replied, “Well, this is just a rough translation, but,” he turned his head back towards the tablet, “I believe it says, ‘When the four lights join the darkness, the path will become clear’. And down here, this last part looks like it was recently scratched in, but it says, ‘So sayeth Lord Terios, the undisputed ruler of the Underworld’.”

Rainbow commented, “Scratched in, huh? I wonder if this Terios clown has fans in the Underworld.”

Shining glanced around the room, “Four lights… They must be on the other side of those doors.”

Twilight looked over at the seal on the other side of the tablet and asked, “So, if we find these lights and make them ‘join the darkness’, we’ll be able to move forward?”

Pinkie piped up, “Well, of course, Twilight! It’s written on the stone, and it’s even confirmed on the same stone! So let’s go find some lights!” With that she bounced off to the bridge on the lower left, heading for the door that was surrounded by carvings of strange plants.

“Pinkie!” Rainbow called, but the pink pony kept going. She turned to Fluttershy and said, “Come on, Fluttershy, we’d better keep an eye on her.” The cyan pegasus flew after Pinkie while the yellow pegasus paused to look at the others. Shining nodded at her and she spread her wings, flying after her friends as they started going through the door.

Spike asked, “Should we go after them?”

Cadance shook her head, “No. I think Pinkie’s got the right idea. The sooner we find those lights, the better. Let’s split up and meet back here, okay?” Everyone agreed and, after a minute, decided on how to split up. Shining and Cadance went for the upper left door, which had some sort of banner hanging from the arch around it, Rarity, Applejack, and Spike went for the upper right door, which had an arch that seemed to have lava in the cracks on it, and Twilight and Smithy headed for the lower right door, the arch having crystals on it.


DISPELLING THE SEAL


As soon as Smithy and Twilight stepped through the door, they found themselves in some sort of cavern. Looking around, they saw crystals covering the walls, lighting up the dark area. They walked through the cave while looking and listening for any Knights of the Underworld trying to sneak up on them. “It’s so quiet in here… and these rocks don’t match the ones outside the tower. I wonder why?” Twilight whispered.

“Yeah… Maybe it’s the work of the Underworld’s sorcery? Nothing about this place seems right,” Smithy murmured. Not long afterwards, the two came across a cliff edge, a massive pit in front of them. Smithy held a hand to his chin, “Hmm… I might be able to fly us across, but I wouldn’t know where to go. The crystals are providing some light, but I can’t see where exactly we’re supposed to go.”

Twilight looked off to the left and noticed a spiky yellow crystal a short distance away. She blinked; this crystal was bigger than the crystals they had seen so far, and there seemed to be electric sparks coming off of it. She tapped Smithy on the shoulder with a hoof and whispered, “Smithy, look!”

The fox cub turned and looked at the crystal as well. “Hey… I think that’s a Thunder Dragon’s nest!” he said after a moment.

“Thunder Dragon?” Twilight asked.

Smithy nodded, “I’ve read about them. They live in crystals like that and it’s possible to walk on top of the trails they leave. Let’s see…” He and Twilight walked closer to the crystal, trying to keep quiet, but once they were five feet away from it, a lightning bolt with a mouth on the front of it shot out of the crystal. It flew out over the pit, moving in a zigzag pattern and leaving behind a trail made of electricity as it went.

“Whoa!” Twilight gasped at this.

Smithy ran over to the trail and put a hand on it. “It really is solid! Twilight, let’s see if we can use this to get across the pit!” The lavender unicorn nodded and they both jumped up on the trail, following the Thunder Dragon deeper into the cave.

As the two were traveling through the cave, Applejack, Rarity, and Spike were having a slightly more perilous time due to there being lava in the room they were in. At first, they hadn’t worried much about the lava as they walked down a stone path, but the path soon ended at the pool of lava. Looking across the pool, Applejack noticed the ledges on the rock wall on the other side and said, “Looks like we’re going to have ta get across this ta find the light.”

Rarity asked, “How are we supposed to get across, Applejack? There’s no way to walk along the edge of this lava! It’s like a cauldron.”

The two mares heard grunting and groaning and turned to see Spike trying to pull a big, square-shaped stone block he’d found along the side of the path. As the baby dragon stopped to catch his breath, he said, “Maybe we can use this to get to the other side!” The ponies saw what he was getting at and Applejack moved to help him, getting on the other side and using her hooves to push it. Once they’d gotten it in front of the lava pool, Rarity used her magic to push it into the lava, the block sinking into the melted rock a bit before settling.

Rarity and Applejack climbed on top of the block while Spike nestled himself between the block and solid land, using his feet to push the block towards the other side of the pool. Once it started moving, he leapt into the lava and kept pushing against it with his claws, the block being easier to move while it was in the lava. After about a minute, they reached the other side and Rarity and Applejack climbed off of the block. Spike climbed up onto the block and took a moment to shake the lava clinging to him off like a dog, both Applejack and Rarity taking a step back to avoid getting splattered.

Once he was clean, he walked over to the two and Applejack said, “Good thinkin’, Spike!” She then looked up at the ledges on the rock wall, saying, “Now we just gotta get up there.”

Rarity looked along the wall for a moment before saying, “Hmm. There doesn’t appear to be anything we can use to climb up. No sort of rungs or vines or anything like that.”

Applejack cocked her head to the side, “Well, ya got a point there, Rarity.” She remembered how much of a climber Spike was and turned to him, “Say Spike, do you think…?”

The baby dragon quickly caught on to what she was saying and replied, “You got it, Applejack!” He ran towards the wall and began using the ends of his claws to grab onto the wall, Rarity and Applejack watching as he worked his way up the wall.

During this time, Cadance and Shining were making their way through a room filled with green grass and multiple cages. It was dark in the room, but not dark like it was in the tower entrance; here it felt more like it was nighttime. While they were walking, Shining glanced at one of the cages and wondered, “What is this, like this tower’s prison area?”

Cadance looked down as they walked out onto a wooden bridge, looking down into the black depths below before looking up and saying, “I’m not sure this is supposed to be here, Shining. It’s all a clear contrast to everything we’ve seen on Avalon so far. This might be some kind of trick that the ruler of the Underworld set up.”

Shining replied, “Well, we haven’t seen any Knights of the Underworld yet, so maybe.” They kept walking for a bit, still looking for the light they were supposed to find before coming to a stop outside the entrance to a tunnel. As they looked up at it, Shining suggested, “Maybe the light’s in there.”

Cadance looked at him and replied, “Well, there’s nowhere else to go. The room seems to have been set up to deliberately lead us here, so… let’s be careful as we go in.” Shining nodded and they walked in, being wary as they walked.

While the couple was going about things carefully, Pinkie was bouncing through the snow-covered forest she was in without a care, singing to herself as she went. Because of this, both Rainbow and Fluttershy thought they would have to protect her from any dangers lurking in the forest, but every time they thought something was going to attack her and rush to her defense, it turned out to be nothing. As a result, Rainbow often ended up crashing into trees or the ground while Fluttershy managed to stop herself before she could get hurt.

After one such crash, Rainbow pulled her head out of the snow and groaned, “Ugh, how much farther do we have to go?”

Before Fluttershy could comfort her friend, Pinkie called, “Don’t worry, Dashie, we’re already there! See, come look at this!” Rainbow climbed to her hooves and both pegasi walked over to the pink pony, who was standing at the entrance of a grove. Looking inside, they saw that the grove was covered in snow just like the rest of the forest, but that wasn’t what they focused on. In the center of the grove was a stone monument with a stone bowl containing a single flame in front of it, both the monument and the bowl in the center of small circular platform. The platform was surrounded by stones of varying sizes. From above, the arrangement looked like the top of a cyclone.

The three mares made their way to the center platform, walking up the stairs at the base of it and stood in front of the bowl, looking down at the flame inside it. “So this little candle is the light we’re looking for? Guess that makes sense; it’s brighter than anything else in this forest,” Rainbow commented.

“Smithy said it has to join the darkness. Does that mean we have to put it out?” Fluttershy asked.

Pinkie cracked her hooves as she said, “Leave this to the expert!” Settling back on her hooves, she raised her head up as she took in a big breath of air… and then released a small puff of air from her mouth as she brought her head down. It did the trick as the flame went out, not a single ember landing inside the bowl. A second later, Pinkie let out an “Ooh!” as the monument suddenly lit up, red symbols appearing on it.

“Is that the language that was written on the tablet? What does it say?” Fluttershy worriedly asked.

Rainbow shook her head, “I don’t know, Fluttershy, but we joined our light with the darkness or whatever, so I think we should get out of here.” The three ponies turned and made their way out of the grove, the red symbols on the monument still glowing as they left.

Around this time, the others had located monuments in their rooms that looked much the same as the one in the forest. Shining and Cadance found theirs at the end of the tunnel they were going down while Spike found the flame in the cave at the top of the rock wall, all of them coming to the same conclusion and blowing their flames out. The monuments lit up for them as well and, since they didn’t know what the symbols said, they began to make their way back to the central chamber.


BAD FEELING


Twilight and Smithy were the last to put their flames out, having had to go down through three tunnels in their room to find the hidden monument. After they put out the flame, they saw the monument light up and took a step back as they looked up at it. “What does it say, Smithy?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know. It doesn’t look like any form of writing I’ve ever seen. It might’ve been left here by the Underworld for all I know,” the fox replied.

Twilight looked at him and said, “I think we’d better leave.” Smithy nodded and they turned and left. They made their way back up through the tunnels, Smithy using his twin tails to get back up through the holes left in the floor. For the first two tunnels, everything seemed fine, but when they got back to the tunnel at the top, they realized they were not alone.

As soon as they landed on the floor of the tunnel, the cave suddenly became darker; even the light from the crystals on the wall seemed to become dimmer. When this happened, they also heard the sound of a laugh ring through the air. Both Smithy and Twilight pressed against each other, trying to stick together. They started breathing faster as they looked around in the darkness, unsure of what was lurking within.

After a few tense seconds, they began to calm down slightly and Twilight whispered, “Smithy, get your slingshot ready.”

Shakily, the fox reached back and pulled out his weapon, his right hand ready to grab and pull the catapult back at the first sign of trouble. “C-Can you… get us any more light in here, Twilight?” he asked.

Twilight nodded, “Hold on…” She focused her magic into her horn and used it to create a mote of light at the end of the appendage, providing a light similar to a firefly’s. It didn’t brighten up the whole cave, but it allowed them to see a little farther in the darkness.

Suddenly, there was a noise next to Smithy and he quickly turned, his slingshot ready to fire, but there was nothing there when he looked. A moment later, Twilight heard a whooshing sound beside her and gasped as she turned to look, but she saw nothing. While trying to keep her breathing under control, she whispered, “There’s definitely someone in here with us…”

Smithy took a cautious step forward while saying, “Let’s go… slowly…” Twilight followed his lead, both scanning their surroundings while trying to move at a steady, slow pace towards the exit. They heard sounds beside them several more times as they went and saw nothing each time, causing them to become more paranoid at not seeing their likely attacker. Still, they were making progress towards getting out of the cave, though neither one was sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.


STEPPING OUT OF THE SHADOWS


When they were almost out of the tunnel, a loud stomping noise came from behind them, causing them to freeze. “You heard that too, right?” Twilight whispered, Smithy rigidly nodding in response. They heard it again, and then again, each time sounding like it was getting closer. Deciding it was time to abandon all ideas of cautiousness, they both broke out into a run for the tunnel exit. Before they could reach it, they heard a sound and suddenly several fireballs flew overhead. These fireballs broke apart into smaller fireballs that rained down on the path, both coming to a stop as a wall of flames sprang up in front of them.

Twilight and Smithy stared at the flames for a moment before slowly turning around as they heard the stomping sound again. They saw that their first guess at the source of the fire was correct: a large red and brown dragon with a yellow horn on its head and a peach-colored underside was coming towards them. The beast was a frightening sight on its own, but it wasn’t the dragon that scared the two the most right now.

Perched on top of the dragon’s nose, leaning back against its horn, was a lone figure. It wasn’t any taller than Smithy or Twilight, but its blue and peach colored fur, red and white shoes, white socks, white gloves, blue quills, and yellow and black eyes were more horrifying to the two right now than the dragon it was on top of. As the dragon towered over them, the figure flashed them a grin, revealing a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth as it said in a distorted but familiar voice, “Peek-a-boo.” The figure snapped its fingers and suddenly, the dragon began to fade away, though the flames did not. The figure dropped down and landed on its feet after the dragon disappeared and looked at Twilight and Smithy, its teeth still on full display for them. “I choose you,” it mocked before it lunged at them.

Soon, in the central chamber

Shining and Cadance ran towards the center platform, relieved to see Rainbow and Applejack’s groups heading for the center as well. Once they were all there, Shining asked, “Is everyone okay? Everything worked out all right?”

Rainbow nodded, “Yep. Pinkie found and put out the light in that room.”

Applejack said, “Spike really pulled through fer us.” Rarity put a hoof on the baby dragon’s shoulder at that, causing him to stand proudly.

Cadance looked around and asked, “Wait, where are Twilight and Smithy?” Everyone looked around at that and realized the two weren’t back yet.

Pinkie pointed past the tablet and said, “Well, they must’ve found their light and are on their way back, because look!” Everyone looked at the wall she was pointing at and saw that the carvings on it, each representing one of the four rooms, were all lit up. They all closed their eyes a second later as a bright light shone from the wall, looking when it faded a second later to see the wall was no longer there. They also noticed that the light had somehow brightened up the room and caused the mist to dissipate, making the room feel warmer as well.

“Now we can get into the tower and find and capture this Terios jerk and end the war!” Rainbow said.

“But Rainbow, we can’t go without Smithy and Twilight,” Fluttershy murmured.

The cyan pegasus replied, “I know, Fluttershy. They’d better hurry up, though; we’re wasting time here!”


FACES OF EVIL


A familiar voice spoke up, “Sorry, we’re not as fast as you are, Rainbow.” Everyone looked to see Smithy and Twilight walking across their bridge towards the center, both seeming to be fine.

Shining and Cadance moved around the tablet to the two as they reached the center, the former saying, “Oh, Twily, Smithy! You’re both okay! You are both okay, right?”

Twilight gave him a confused look, “Well, yes. Didn’t you say we’re okay? We look okay, right?”

Shining gave a sheepish look as he replied, “Oh yeah. That’s right, my bad.”

Smithy gave him a sidelong look, “Hm. For a second there, it almost sounded like you wanted us to have either been in or escaped from some kind of trouble.”

Shining blinked, “What? No, that wasn’t my intention! Why would you think I’d want you to be in any danger, Smithy?”

The fox shook his head, “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”

Twilight looked over at where the wall used to be and said, “So we can get into the tower proper now. Let’s get going.” Without another word, both she and Smithy started towards the opening, Spike and the other Element bearers following after them. Shining and Cadance stayed where they were for a moment, both looking at Twilight and Smithy and then sharing a concerned look before they hurried to catch up.

Inside the opening, they found a staircase going upwards, and from the look of it, there were more stairs after the first one ended. Smithy and Twilight silently started up the stairs, the others following suit after a moment. As they made their way up, Cadance took notice of the way Twilight carried herself. She seemed a lot more confident than usual, her movements carrying little trace of shyness or modesty in them. The unicorn seemed to realize she was being observed since she glanced back over her shoulder and, a moment after seeing Cadance looking at her, asked, “Is something wrong, Cadance?”

The pink alicorn replied, “No, just… Are you sure you’re all right, Twilight?”

The lavender unicorn blinked, “Y-Yes. I said I’m fine. I mean, we didn’t run into anything in that room. Did anyone else?”

Cadance shook her head while Spike piped up, “Nope! Aside from the lava and the rock wall in our room, we didn’t have any trouble.”

Rainbow sighed, “I kind of wish there was something in that room. Then maybe I wouldn’t feel bad about all that crashing I did.”

Twilight looked back at Cadance and said, “See? No problems all across the board.”

Cadance nodded, “Right…”

Applejack asked, “Say Twilight, what was in yer room?”

As she faced forward again, Twilight shrugged, “Just some cave. It was pretty boring.” Applejack and Rarity raised an eyebrow at this, but didn’t comment.

After a minute, the group reached the very top of the stairs, where they found a large pair of red doors with a locking bar laid across them. The doors seemed to have a carving of a black face with spikes on top of its head and eyes that lacked pupils. Eying the bar, Rainbow saw that there was nothing holding it in place, meaning they could just lift it up to get through the doors. “I’ll get that bar up out of the way,” she said, spreading her wings and preparing to fly up to it.

Before she could do so, Smithy put his hand out in front of her and spoke, “I’ll do it. Let me.” The tone of his voice left no room for argument and Rainbow folded her wings to her sides and stood up straight as the fox spun his tails around, flying up to the bar and beginning to lift it up. Rainbow stared up at him while he was doing so, wondering why he was taking charge so suddenly.

During this, Twilight felt something to her side and looked down to see Spike trying to climb up onto her back. She quickly stepped to the side, causing the baby dragon to stumble a bit. “What are you doing?” she asked as he regained his balance.

Spike looked up at her in confusion, the others turning to look at her as he said, “I just wanted to hitch a ride, Twilight.”

Twilight gave him a confused look that had a touch of disgust in it. “Why? Is there something wrong with your legs? You can’t walk all of a sudden?” she asked.

Spike looked surprised at this, as did the other ponies. “Twilight, that was rude! Apologize to Spike right now!” Rarity said.

Twilight gave the white mare the same confused look as she asked, “Apologize for what? I’m not a chair; he doesn’t get to sit on me whenever he wants.”

Pinkie gasped and got up in Twilight’s face, cupping the unicorn’s cheeks with her hooves and turning her so she was forward before saying, “Twilight, what’s gotten into you?! How could you be so mean towards Spikey-Wikey?! He’s been sitting on you for years; why are you suddenly mad at him for it?!”

Twilight gave the mare an expressionless stare as she simply stated, “Remove your hooves.” Pinkie did not comply, still glaring at Twilight.

The silence was broken a moment later as a creaking noise filled the air, everyone save for Pinkie and Spike looking to see that Smithy had pushed up the locking bar all the way and was pushing the doors open. Once they were open a little bit, he turned and hovered in front of the doors, crossing his arms as he said, “All right, enough of this show. Lord Terios is expecting you lot, so get in there.”

Before anyone could say anything, Twilight, with Pinkie’s hooves still on her cheeks, swung her head from left to right, the pink pony not seeing the magic gathered around her horn until she finished swinging her head, and by then it was too late. A sudden force swept behind the group, managing to lift them off the ground somewhat as they were thrown through the doors. The only ones who remained were Twilight and Smithy, the latter pulling the doors closed and moving the locking bar back into place while the former simply said, “Slap shot.” Once he was done, Smithy lowered himself to the ground and looked at Twilight, both nodding at each other with half-lidded eyes before they both disappeared.

Inside the room, everyone groaned as they tried to pull themselves free of the pile they landed in. “Ow… What was that?” Rainbow moaned.

“Consarn it, Twilight, Ah swear…” Applejack muttered as she tried to pull her hind legs free, thinking the lavender mare was in the room with them.

Once everyone was disentangled, they all realized that the room they were in was pitch black, making them unable to see anything, not even the doors they had been pushed through. “Wh-Where are we?” Fluttershy murmured.

A new yet familiar voice, though distorted, spoke up, “Don’t you know? You’re my guests.” Everyone looked around, trying to find the source of the voice when suddenly, a pair of glowing yellow eyes appeared in the darkness, staring in the group’s direction. “I wasn’t expecting the king to send his pets to see me, but I suppose you’ll all have to do for now,” the voice spoke again.

“Hey, we’re nopony’s pets!” Rainbow yelled.

Cadance stared at the eyes, noticing how similar in shape they looked to Sonic’s eyes. “Your eyes, they’re…” she murmured.

Shining heard her and noticed what she was getting at, remembering Nimue’s words. “You’re Lord Terios, aren’t you?” he asked.

A slow, sarcastic clap sounded, the movement of hands barely visible underneath the yellow eyes before the figure said, “Very good. You’re not as out of it as you look.”

Applejack yelled, “Cut the funny business and call off the Underworld army!”

Terios asked, in a mocking tone of voice, “Now why should I do that? The Grand Kingdom lacks a strong leader; if the people knew they had no leader, they’d be begging me to take the throne.”

Rainbow replied, “They’ve already got a strong leader! His name is Sonic, and we’re here on his orders to put a stop to what you’re doing!” She half-expected Twilight to speak up at this point, but there was no response from the lavender mare.

Terios was silent for a moment before he said, “So you’re here under the orders of a king who, if it weren’t for me, would never have returned to the kingdom he ran away from. That’s hardly reassuring, and besides…” Suddenly, two spheres of light appeared underneath Terios’ eyes, remaining there for a moment before being suddenly thrust to the sides, both spheres flying until they hit the walls. As soon as they struck the walls, the room was bathed in light, causing everyone to cover their eyes. As their vision cleared, Terios finished as they opened their eyes, “I’m way more of a ruler than he’ll ever be.”

Everyone stared at Terios’ form in dread, hoping their eyes were playing tricks on them, but even closing and rubbing them didn’t change what they were seeing. He looked like just like Sonic, save for his mouth full of sharp teeth and his black and yellow eyes. The hedgehog stood in front of a throne in the middle of the room, and behind him on the wall opposite to the group was a painting of him, clearly intended to drive the point home.

Rainbow’s shocked expression soon turned to one of anger as she spoke, “Why, you… Who do you think you are, looking like Sonic and mocking him like this?!”

Terios huffed as he sat back down in his throne, “It seems more like I’m the one being mocked here, seeing as that wannabe of a king doesn’t seem to consider me important enough to come here and face me himself.”

Rarity yelled, “He’s got better things to do than waste time dealing with trash like you! How dare you sit here and mock him when he’s not even here!”

Pinkie growled, “That’s not going to go unpunished, you meanie! We’re definitely taking you down now and bringing you back to Sonic so he can punish you!”

Terios waved a hand as he said, “Pony, please. I rule over the entire Underworld, and very soon, the Grand Kingdom will be underneath my foot for not getting the message I was sending. I don’t have time to waste on jokers like you. If you want my attention, you have to earn it.”

Shining glared, “What’s that supposed to mean? We made it all the way up here. Don’t you see that we’re here to face you?”

Terios spoke, “I made it easy for you to get up here. You think solving a puzzle is commendable? As much as I enjoy delivering a good beatdown, I usually prefer if they’re able to last a little while.” He gave a devious smirk, “Tell you what. You all get past my bodyguards, who I’m sure you’re already well-acquainted with, and maybe I’ll consider it.” With that, he snapped his fingers and two figures dropped down from the ceiling beside the throne, both raising a cloud of dust towards everyone as they landed. The group was blinded for a moment, but when they looked again, the sight was even worse than when they first saw Terios.

Twilight and Smithy were at Terios’ right and left side respectively, both standing up with their heads tilted downwards and their eyes closed. As they stood up straight and opened their eyes to glare at the group, they all saw that their eyes were the same black and yellow as Terios’.
> Sonic and the Black Knight, Volume Five
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CAMELOT BATTLEFRONT


Meanwhile…

Sonic performed a spinning slash to strike down a Soldier-One with a spear, leaping to the side after he landed to avoid a swing from an axe-wielding Soldier-One and then performing a horizontal slash to take it out. He then started to back away as a group of Soldier-Ones approached him, trying to get the right angle to attack them from, but Lancelot solved the problem by launching what looked like several Chaos Spears at the knights, causing them to disperse. Sonic turned to look at the black hedgehog and they both nodded at each other.

They both looked to the side when they heard a grunt and saw Gawain leaning against a large rock while trying to catch his breath. “They’re actually starting to push now. We might have to start doubling our efforts to keep them back,” the echidna said.

Lancelot nodded, “We’re going to have to do something. Reinforcements haven’t shown up yet and several squads have already fallen back to the city for medical attention.”

Before Sonic could say anything, he looked to see that a school of Fish-Ones was flying in their direction and held Caliburn ready, Lancelot doing the same when he saw them. Before the school could even reach them, however, several light blue magic spheres shot down some of the higher flying Fish-Ones, followed by Lady Nimue appearing in front of the two hedgehogs and casting a wave of magic at the lower ones, knocking them back and causing them to dissipate. “Nimue! What are you doing here?” Sonic asked.

The pink hedgehog took a moment to cast a barrier spell around her, Sonic, Gawain, and Lancelot in case any Underworld knights tried to attack them. She then turned to face the knights with a worried expression and said, “Something’s happened. Smithy and our allies from Equestria are in danger!”

Sonic looked surprised at that. “What?! How do you know?” he asked.

Nimue explained, “I was trying to keep track of their status with my reflecting pool like I said I would, but ever since they arrived at Avalon, it’s been harder for me to keep an eye on them. I’m sure they’re in danger because, while trying to get into a tower that was constructed by the Underworld, Twilight and Smithy were stalked and attacked by someone. And just like with Merlina, I could only hear what was happening; some magical interference kept me from seeing their attacker, but I’m sure of it now. This ‘Lord Terios’ I heard them mention must be the one who attacked Merlina, and now he’s gotten Smithy and Twilight as well!”

Lancelot raised an eye, “‘Terios’?”

Nimue replied, “Whoever he is, he apparently fashions himself the ruler of the Underworld. I don’t know how that could be; it shouldn’t be possible for someone completely unknown to usurp the title of Underworld ruler, but that doesn’t matter now.” She looked at Sonic, “What matter is, I believe they’re all in mortal danger now, and you’re the only one who can help them, Sir Sonic.”

Gawain asked, “But what about our situation?”

Caliburn spoke, “Sir Gawain is correct, m’lady. This battlefield is not something Sonic can easily leave from.”

Sonic gritted his teeth as he looked out through the barrier at the Knights of the Underworld approaching their gathering. “I trust Nimue’s words. Whoever this Terios jerk is, I can see maybe he wouldn’t just let them walk up and capture him. He’s probably prepared for that. Still… I can’t just leave like this. There’s gotta be a way to slow them down more…” he said.

He turned to Nimue when she spoke, “I’ve already checked the status of our reinforcements. The soldiers should be arriving on the battlefield soon, and we have yet to call the Crew into action. The aid will help, and I can command Camelot’s forces in your absence.”

Lancelot thought for a moment before saying, “I have an idea.” He held his left hand to his ear, tapping into the magical link Nimue had created, and ordered, “Percival, Galahad, Lamorak, Tybalt, Frederick, fall back to the command outpost! This is not the time to question it; just meet us there!”

As the black hedgehog lowered his hand, Gawain asked, “You want us to fall back, Lancelot? So basically, we’re retreating?”

Lancelot replied, “It’s too open out here, Gawain. The outpost will give us a chance to discuss what we’re going to do in secrecy.” Nimue nodded at his words and lowered part of her barrier, allowing the four of them to start moving back towards Camelot. The Knights of the Underworld that saw this thought they were actually retreating and this information began to spread among them.

Soon, everyone had regrouped at the command outpost and Nimue used her magic to create a blue portal in front of her. A second later, the Crew stepped out of it and Sonic immediately recognized the group due to it being composed of Chaotix counterparts. The Espio lookalike from earlier was there and Sonic could see that he was wearing a blue tunic with a black shirt underneath. He was the first to introduce himself, revealing that his name Suterusu. Vector’s counterpart was named Cooper and he wore a greenish-black Aussie hat and tan vest in addition to Vector’s chain necklace, and Charmy’s counterpart was named Chami and he wore a metal helmet with goggles that were similar to Charmy’s as well as a brown jacket that he left open.

Surprisingly, they weren’t the only ones to have been summoned, as four others also stepped out of the portal as well. In particular, Sonic recognized the black and red-shelled armadillo and the yellow-furred flying squirrel that came with them. The armadillo introduced himself as Kaz and he was wearing black fingerless gloves with brown cuffs and brown and black boots that almost went up to his knees. The flying squirrel’s name was Glide and he was wearing a pair of blue goggles, white gloves with blue cuffs, an open blue jacket, a blue scarf, and a pair of dark blue shoes.

The last two, Sonic wasn’t sure he knew who in his world they represented. One was a golem made of gray stone with red hands and black shoulders with short arms and legs. The other was a floating, glowing red sphere that stayed close to the golem and did not say anything. According to the golem, their names were Golo and Pyre, respectively.

Once all the introductions were made and the situation was explained to the Crew, Gawain turned to Lancelot and asked, “So what’s your idea, Lancelot?”

Glide added while balancing on his tail and holding his right hand over his eyes, “And how come the Underworld army seems to be approaching slower now? I feel like they should be closer than they are…”

Lancelot answered, “They must think they’ve backed us into a corner when really it’s quite the opposite, which works in our favor. As Lady Nimue said, Smithy and our allies from Equestria have walked into a trap, and if they’re lost, not only is there no chance of this battle ending, but the Underworld will have time to prepare Avalon for any future invasions. Sonic must go to their aid now, before they have that chance, and he’ll need to get there fast. So we’re going to make sure the Underworld army gets that message.”

Nimue asked, “What are you saying, Lancelot?”

Sonic held his left hand to his chin, “I might be wrong about this, but… are you suggesting a bum rush?”

Lancelot nodded, “Exactly. We’re going to mount an offensive blitz on them. If we can catch them off guard, then it will be even more effective, but at any rate, we have to force them back, give the rest of our reinforcements more time to arrive.”

Lamorak spoke up, “I like the sound of this plan. I say we go for it!” Sonic, the other knights, the Crew, Caliburn, and Nimue all agreed with the hawk’s statement and began preparing their strategy. After a minute, they settled on a plan of attack. Nimue would remain in the outpost until Sonic had left the battlefield, the blue hedgehog heading west with Glide and Kaz until they were past the Underworld army, at which point the two Crew members would return to the battle and Nimue would take his place. As for the others, Lancelot, Gawain, and Frederick would push to the southwest, Suterusu, Chami, and Cooper would go south, Percival, Lamorak, and Tybalt would go to the northwest, and Galahad would aid Golo and Pyre in the north.


ESCALATING SITUATIONS


Once the Underworld army had drawn closer to Camelot, the teams began their blitz. Everyone started their part with an offensive attack; Golo threw Pyre at the Knights of the Underworld, the sphere giving a massive explosion in front of the marching knights, Percival led with a tidal wave made of flames, Lancelot rained Chaos Spears down on the enemy, Cooper breathed fire while Suterusu threw throwing stars, Chami following up by dive bombing with his stinger, and Sonic led Kaz and Glide, all of them attacking while running. Their team was intentionally the first one to start pressing forward, all the other teams starting to move once they were going.

Sonic, Kaz, and Glide lined up side by side as they ran, charging headfirst into the Underworld army, crashing into the first soldiers and leaping up, trying to catch as many as they could with a Spin Jump. They then shot towards the ground and resumed running, bowling into more knights and sending them flying, causing them to knock down others of their kind as they landed. The other teams were following a similar strategy, slowly but surely pushing back the Underworld army and leaving their forces in disarray.

It didn’t take long for Sonic, Glide, and Kaz to reach the edge of the battlefield, ending up near the Deep Woods area. The trio came to a stop and Sonic turned around to look at Kaz and Glide, the former saying, “This is as far as we can accompany you, Your Highness. We have to go back and help protect Camelot. The rest is up to you.”

Sonic nodded and held his left thumb up as he said, “I know you’re more of the peaceful type, Kaz, but you and Glide sock it to ‘em good!” The armadillo and flying squirrel nodded and turned to head back, hoping to get a few Underworld soldiers from behind, while Sonic turned and started heading south for the coast. He didn’t get far when he suddenly planted his feet against the ground upon seeing Camelot soldiers emerge from the woodlands in front of him, skidding to a stop in front of the battalion. “Whoa! Are you the reinforcements we requested?” he asked the leader.

The soldier nodded, “Yes we are! What are you doing here, my liege? The situation was explained to us by the messengers. Are we too late?”

Sonic replied, “Nope, I’d say you’re just in time. The Underworld army’s starting to knuckle down and march on Camelot. We could use the extra help. As for me, there’s been a hitch in the plan. I need to get to Avalon, but Lady Nimue has assumed command. You’ll want to report to her as soon as possible.”

The leader replied, “Understood, sir! Come on, men! For king and country!” The soldiers behind him echoed the shout, Sonic moving past them before they started moving again. He waved back to them before he took off at high speed again, the soldiers heading straight for the battlefield.

As Sonic was running, Caliburn looked up at him and said, “I only hope that whatever the situation on Avalon, it does not get worse.” Sonic said nothing, focusing on the path in front of him, but he was thinking the same thing. If Spike and the ponies were in trouble, then Lord Terios had to be a dangerous player, ruler of the Underworld or not. He only hoped they could hold on until he got there.

Meanwhile…

Everyone in the group stared at Twilight and Smithy, desperately hoping that this was just some bad joke or illusion that Terios was pulling on them, but that didn’t seem to be the case, especially after how they were acting earlier. The two were still glaring at the group, both standing ready at Terios’ sides and daring any of them to make a move.

The period of silence was shorter than it seemed to them, but Terios finally snapped them out of it when he smirked, “What’s the matter? No one’s got a witty retort all of a sudden?”

Cadance was the first to speak, glaring at the faux hedgehog as she demanded, “You! What did you do?!”

Terios rolled his eyes as he said, “I added some fresh bodies to my army, sweetie, and it just happened to work that it was a way of dealing with invaders as well. Just because I made it easy to open the way up here doesn’t mean I was going to wait for all of you to arrive.” He tilted his head towards Smithy, “Like my toy here said, I’ve been well aware of your little incursion ever since you arrived. No one just struts around on my territory and gets away with it!”

Applejack yelled, “Don’t you call him that!”

Cadance argued, “Why attack without making your presence known? As if what you’ve done isn’t low enough!”

Terios replied, “I hail from the Underworld, honey. NOTHING is beneath me. And for your information, they knew I was there and they still weren’t ready for me. I think it’s safe to say my assumption that the rest of you would react the same way was correct.” He then smirked, “Besides, I seem to recall it was you who agreed with the divide and conquer strategy. Sacrificing safety for speed… is that how you handle things back home?”

Rainbow spread her wings as she shouted, “I’ll give you a taste of speed, you faker!” She shot straight towards Terios, but as soon as she was off the ground, Twilight’s eyes narrowed. Her horn lit up with a red aura and a similarly colored rune appeared in the air in front of Terios. A large, glowing stone hand came through the rune, the hand closing around Rainbow Dash once she was close enough. Surprisingly, it didn’t do anything to hurt her; it just flipped over and opened, Rainbow standing up in confusion. Suddenly, a second rune appeared in front of the first and another hand came through it, this one using two fingers to flick the pegasus back into the locked doors.

While Fluttershy tended to her friend after she fell down onto the floor, the others looked back at Terios as Twilight banished the hands and the runes, the unicorn’s glare seemingly deepening as she looked back at the group. While she was glaring, Terios reached over and ran a finger under her chin as he said, “That’s a good girl.”

Shining gritted his teeth as he looked on. “This is disgusting! I can’t believe this is happening!” he thought to himself. He yelled, “Release them at once!”

Terios glanced at the stallion and pulled back his finger a moment later, holding it to his chin as he seemed to contemplate the demand. He soon spoke, “As you wish. Seems we both want the same thing.” He glanced between Smithy and Twilight as he said, “They’re all yours. Have some fun with them.” He then looked at Twilight and put his index finger and thumb under her chin as he added, “And doll, feel free to use any means you’d like. Up to and including… deadly.” With that, he pulled his hand back and his throne began to move backwards, stopping in front of the painting behind it while Twilight and Smithy stepped in front of where it had been.


VS. TWILIGHT AND SMITHY


As the two stared down the group, Pinkie cried, “Twilight, don’t listen to that meanie! He doesn’t care about you like we do! Fight it!”

Smithy spoke up, his voice sounding like a distorted version of his regular voice with Terios’ voice behind it, “No love for me? I can live with that.” Before anyone could respond, his tails started spinning and he shot towards the group, Rainbow and Fluttershy taking to the air while the others scattered. Smithy turned after he landed and began to unleash a flurry of kicks, punches, and tail whips as he began to spin almost like a top, bouncing around the room as he attempted to hit anyone he could, though never once coming near Terios.

Twilight, meanwhile, remained in the center of the large circular room and followed Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash with her eyes. As the two flyers came to a stop after escaping Smithy’s charge, they noticed the way she was looking at them. “Twilight, I know you have things you’re afraid of, but don’t you remember what the Nightmare Forces did? How they tried to prey on our fears and that’s why they took Rarity? Terios is doing the same thing; he doesn’t actually want to help you,” Fluttershy tried to reason, but it seemingly fell on deaf ears as Twilight’s expression didn’t change.

Instead, the unicorn’s horn lit up red again, a rune appearing on the floor behind her. Upon seeing it, Rainbow spoke up, “Hey, whatever you’re planning to do with that, Twilight, don’t! We can work this out another way; we don’t need to do this!” Again, Twilight paid the words no heed, instead glancing back as she pulled a large wooden bridge out of the rune. For a moment, she just stared at it, but then her eyes narrowed and the bridge began to wobble as she applied magic force to it. Suddenly, the bridge broke apart and she glared up at Rainbow and Fluttershy again, now holding the broken pieces of the bridge with her magic. She then began throwing them at the two pegasi, both of them splitting off to hopefully make it harder for her to hit them, but while she focused on Rainbow Dash, her magic threw pieces of wood at where she thought Fluttershy was too.

As she began to run out of wooden shrapnel, the unicorn created another rune to summon something else. Meanwhile, Smithy’s spin had run out and he had his hands on his knees, whether he was trying to catch his breath or shake off dizziness, it wasn’t clear. Still, Applejack took the opportunity to break out a rope and try to hogtie him while Spike made a break for Twilight. He leapt on her back, breaking her concentration and causing the rune to disappear. He then grabbed onto the unicorn and cried, “Come on, Twilight, snap out of it! I don’t know what this guy did to you, but you’re way better than him! Show him who he’s really messing with!” In a softer tone, he added, “I don’t want you to do this too…”

Twilight turned her head to glare back at him with a yellow eye. She spoke, her voice like Smithy’s since it was her normal voice distorted with Terios’ voice behind it, “Pathetic. You call yourself a dragon?” Without another word, she managed to get him up off of her back and bucked him into the wall with her hind legs.

“Spike!” Rarity cried when she saw him hit the wall. She, along with Pinkie, Shining Armor, Rainbow, and Cadance, had helped Applejack restrain Smithy, the fox’s arms and legs tied together by the rope. They all looked up at her cry and what had happened, so Applejack got up and produced another rope, moving towards Twilight with it. The unicorn turned her head to look at the earth pony as she got closer, Applejack throwing the rope so it went around Twilight before tightening it before it hit the floor, tying the unicorn’s legs together and flipping her over onto her back.

Twilight struggled for a moment, but stopped and looked up when Applejack was standing over her. “Sorry, Twilight, but you ain’t in yer right mind right now. You’ll thank me later,” the earth pony said.

Twilight narrowed her eyes, “How about I thank you right now?” Her horn lit up red as she finished and Applejack looked surprised for a moment before trying to punch Twilight with her hoof to get her to stop. The unicorn was able to roll onto her side to avoid the blow however, and her attention focused on the end of the rope. She gripped it with her magic and made it tie itself around the end of Applejack’s tail. The earth pony glanced back at it in confusion, but her attention was soon redirected when she heard her friends shout.  She saw that, during her confusion, Twilight had created a rune right underneath Smithy to transfer an updraft that blew them all up, Smithy using his tails to hover while the others landed on the floor. While the fox struggled to break out of the rope, Twilight caught Applejack off-guard again by using her magic to send electricity through the rope, seemingly not concerned with also being shocked by it. While the earth pony was stunned, Twilight rolled back onto her back and smacked her in the side of the face with her bound legs, knocking the stunned earth pony onto the floor. Twilight then used her magic to cut herself and Smithy free.

Throughout the whole fight, Terios remained sitting in his throne as he watched, though he had shifted to a more comfortable position, his upper thighs resting on top of one of the chair’s arms. “Ah, I do love some drama. It’s always worth a chuckle, and at this rate, I should be entertained for quite a while,” he smirked to himself.

Shining overheard the hedgehog as he picked himself up off the floor and glared over at him, angered not only by what he’d done to his sister and Smithy, but also by that smug, all-knowing look on his face that never seemed to go away, so assured of his victory over them. No longer able to put up with having to entertain his sick mind any longer, Shining charged at Terios from the side.

The hedgehog noticed the white unicorn coming, but simply rolled his eyes and leaned his head back, further infuriating the stallion. He was so infuriated that he didn’t even notice Twilight until she teleported directly in front of him and reared up on her hind legs, placing her forehooves against his chest when he reached her. She was pushed back a bit, but she managed to force him to stop before he could reach Terios. Shining struggled to push past her, but Twilight wasn’t giving an inch. “Argh… Twily, please, fight it. This isn’t like you,” Shining begged.

Twilight let out a snarl before saying, “That’s a stupid name. And not like me? What, I have to fit perfectly into the neat little submissive box you’ve made for me?” With that, she threw Shining to the side with just her hooves, the stallion letting out a gasp before he hit the ground.

Spike looked up from tending to Applejack and saw that Twilight was moving towards where he had fallen. “Oh no, Shining Armor!” he cried, Applejack looking up as well. Though she was still reeling from the electric shock, Applejack climbed to her hooves and charged at Twilight, hoping to distract her. Her advance did catch Twilight’s attention and she stomped on Shining with her hooves once before charging at Applejack, the two ponies meeting halfway and getting locked in a struggle of hooves.

Rainbow, seeing an opportunity now that Twilight was distracted, spread her wings and shot towards Terios again, hoping to reach him this time. She didn’t count on Smithy suddenly managing to get underneath her and throwing her off-course with an uppercut to her chin. She landed on her side and, as she opened her eyes, she saw Twilight overpowering Applejack, grabbing the orange pony’s head and slamming it into the ground. Rainbow was about to go help her friend, but a shout redirected her attention. She looked up to see Smithy fly up above her and then drop down towards her, his left shoulder held out in front of him.

Reacting quickly, Rainbow rolled onto her back and bucked the fox as hard as she could when he was close enough, knocking him back up into the air. She then flipped herself back onto her hooves and shot up after him, grabbing him with her forelegs and swinging him around, throwing him at Twilight. The fox landed on the unicorn’s back as she was rearing up to stomp down on Applejack with her front hooves, the earth pony taking advantage of the opening to swing her head up to knock Twilight further off-balance, followed by her getting up and pushing both her and Smithy away with her hooves.

The two landed in a heap on the floor, both of them looking up a moment later to see that the ponies were all moving closer to them. Undeterred and unshaken, the two stood up, Twilight’s horn lighting up red while Smithy pulled Clarent from its scabbard, spinning it around in his hand a few times and making a horizontal slash with it before pointing its blade forward. The ponies stopped moving closer at that, seeing that the two were about to get serious. Still, they hoped there was still a chance of snapping them out of Terios’ spell without getting any more violent with them.

Suddenly, Spike yelled, “Get out of the way!” Everyone looked to see the baby dragon leap up and unleash a burst of green flames from his mouth, aiming for Twilight and Smithy! The ponies in the path of the flames leapt out of the way and, before it could hit, Twilight teleported away, leaving Smithy to take the full brunt of the flames. The fox tried to shield himself, but the flames hit him and he was set on fire almost immediately.

The ponies turned to Spike to find out why he did that, but they saw Twilight appear right behind the baby dragon. “Spike, look out!” Pinkie cried, pointing. He turned and saw Twilight about to grab him with her hooves and leapt out of the way, leaving the unicorn with nothing. As she got her forelegs under her again and stood up straight, Spike suddenly leapt at her, sinking his claws into the sides of her neck and dragging them most of the way down.

“Spike, what are you think-” Shining started, but he stopped when he noticed something. Spike had managed to get his claws beneath Twilight’s skin, but she wasn’t bleeding. Instead, long trails of black against the lavender on both sides of her neck marked where Spike’s claws had been.

The unicorn’s eyes looked down at the scratches in surprise for a moment before looking back up at Spike as he exclaimed, “I knew it! I knew you were a fake! Your magic’s way too different from Twilight’s!”


EXPOSED PLANS


The ponies looked back at Smithy at that and realized the fox had been completely changed from being set on fire. He was black, but not because he was burned. Everything about him had changed to a dark black color: his fur, his shoes, his clothes, even Clarent was completely black. He looked more like a shadow of Smithy made solid, and when he opened his eyes, they saw that his irises and pupils had disappeared and his scleras were both a glowing yellow color.

“They’re both imposters!” Cadance realized, and at her words, the fake Twilight’s body lit up red as she unleashed magic from within. It caused a brief flash, and when it faded, they saw that she was completely black with glowing yellow eyes just like the fake Smithy. The shadowy Twilight didn’t even have any sign of the streaks of violet and rose in the real Twilight’s mane and tail.

Despite being found out, the fake Smithy and Twilight looked like they weren’t about to back down. Seeing this, Rainbow yelled, “This game is over! Two words: eradicate ‘em!” The two dark copies resumed fighting at that, but so did Spike and the ponies. Now that it was clear they’d been played from the start, the group wasn’t holding anything back against the fakes. They used their numbers and abilities to overwhelm them, Cadance and Shining Armor using their magic to stun them and allow the others to close in with less risk of being attacked.

While she was admittedly mad at being led to believe that her friends were under mind control, Fluttershy resolved to be the one to keep her anger in check and not lash out with it again. She was content to watch the brawl unfold. It didn’t last long; soon Cadance used her magic to hold the fake Twilight in place while Rainbow quickly flew around the fake Smithy, spinning him around. Shining ran up to the fake Twilight and punched her, his hoof connecting with her right eye, which was followed up by Rarity using a flying jump kick to knock her towards the wall, the imposter hitting hard and crumpling on the floor afterwards. The same thing happened to the fake Smithy, with Pinkie popping up from underneath him to get him in the air, at which point Applejack bucked him into the wall. Both dissipated into nothing shortly after their collapse.

As they all caught their breaths, Terios spoke up, “Well, that was mildly entertaining, even at the end there.” They all looked towards him and saw him twirling both Smithy’s slingshot and goggles around his index fingers, the hedgehog still lying in a relaxed position on his throne. “Wouldn’t have minded seeing it go on longer, but those are the breaks,” he shrugged, his eyes looking up at the ceiling.

Panting, Shining spoke, “Enough of your games, Terios! This is your last chance to call off the Underworld army and surrender peacefully!”

Terios’ eyes shifted downwards to look at the stallion, still twirling Smithy’s possessions around his fingers. “Hm… nah. I don’t think I have any good reason to do that,” he replied.

“Well, how ‘bout we give ya one! We beat yer bodyguards, so how ‘bout you reconsider facin’ us!” Applejack said.

Terios was silent for a moment before he replied, “I did say that, didn’t I? Well, you’ve certainly proven you’re willing to sacrifice.” He smirked, “Maybe you lot can be cold as ice after all.”

Rainbow yelled, “Whatever, pal! Stop stalling! Let’s get this over with so we can actually save Twilight and Smithy!” Terios stopped his twirling at that, the slingshot and goggles flying off of his fingers and landing on the floor. He stared at the cyan pegasus for a moment before a smile started to spread over his face. “What? What do you look so happy about?” Rainbow asked.

Terios swung his legs off of the arm of his throne and placed his feet on the floor, standing up. “Do I look happy? Maybe it’s because I find that a very funny statement,” he answered. Before Rainbow could respond, he held up his arms, his hands open and the palms pointing towards the group. “The way I see it, you might’ve made sure you’re too late for that,” he said before swinging his arms down. Two runes appeared on the sides of the portrait behind his throne and something emerged from each one. Looking up, they saw that what came through was worse than they thought it would be.

It was Smithy and Twilight, both suspended in the air and a barrier that appeared to be made of electricity surrounding them. Smithy’s body was curled up a bit, his hands clutching at his stomach, and Twilight was lying on her side, only twitching a little bit. They were both unconscious and appeared beaten and bruised, marks from various blows visible on their bodies. From the looks of it, though, being beaten wasn’t the only torture they went through.

Looking down, Rarity glared at Terios as she said, “You… You monster! How could you do whatever it is you did to Twilight and Smithy?!”

Terios looked shocked, placing his right hand on his chest as he replied, “Me? You’re pinning how they look on ME? Well, that doesn’t seem fair.” He gestured his head up left towards Smithy, “Just look at the pup. In addition to looking beat up, he also looks a bit singed, like someone set him on fire. And he looks like he’s trying to reach for his stomach, as if someone, ahem, kicked him really hard there.” He then gestured to Twilight, “And she’s got some nice red scratches running down her neck, and that black eye forming on her right eye? Kind of looks like it’s shaped like a horseshoe.” He sent the two back through the runes and put his hands behind his head as he gave the group an unnerving grin, “Much as I’d like to take credit for all of that, I don’t think I can.”

The meaning of his words was not lost on the group, as they realized he’d managed to play them twice. Rainbow gritted her teeth, her anger bubbling over at the thought that he’d gotten them to do what they were trying to avoid without realizing it. “Why, you-!” she growled before she shot straight towards him with her wings spread, closing the gap between them in less than a second.

Before she could hit him, Terios jumped straight up into the air, going up high enough to pull a flip while Rainbow crashed into the back of his throne and landed on the floor in front of it. As she rubbed her face with a hoof, Terios landed on the throne, standing on the arms of it. Looking up, Rainbow saw him looking down at her, still wearing that grin on his face. “Now I’m gonna have some REAL fun,” he whispered.


VS. TERIOS


Pinkie had been struck silent at the revelation, but when she heard that whisper even as far away from Terios as she was, she snapped back to reality, an angry look forming on her face. The hedgehog looked up as she screamed, “He’s gone too far! He’s crossed too many lines! Forget surrender, forget capturing him; he’s going back to Camelot in a GIFT BOX!” With that, she reached over and grabbed Cadance with her hooves, the pink alicorn seeming confused until Pinkie pointed her straight at Terios, at which point she charged her magic up and left it to the pink earth pony to fire it. Pinkie began rotating her tail around in a circle, causing shots of magic to fire from Cadance’s horn.

As the first shots came towards him, Terios leapt to the side, his throne surviving most of the shots while he rolled upon landing. As soon as his feet touched the ground, he ran up the nearest wall and began running around the room at Sonic speed. Pinkie kept firing Cadance’s magic at him and Shining joined in as well, but despite the barrage of shots being fired at him, even when it looked like he got hit, Terios didn’t seem to get hurt.

This continued for about a minute until Terios changed course, suddenly running down from the wall and crashing into Shining and Pinkie from the side, sending both them and Cadance flying. They landed on the floor and looked up a moment later to see Terios standing over them, frowning in disappointment. “Okay, it was fun at first, but now I’m starting to get bored. Try something else,” he grunted.

“You want a challenge?! Well, here it comes, you jerk!” Rainbow yelled and Terios looked to see her flying straight at him, the pegasus having ducked out of the way like the others when Pinkie and Shining tried to magic down the hedgehog. Now that the air was clear, she was ready to take the fight to him again.

Terios smirked and answered her challenge, racing towards her. The two collided near the center of the room, both of them throwing a shoulder at each other. For a moment, it looked like Rainbow was pushing him back, but he retaliated by introducing her to the back of his hand. He landed on the floor while she was knocked back, but she quickly recovered and flew after him, the two side by side as Rainbow tried to get in front of him. Terios used his left hand to slap away Applejack as she tried to intercept him and grinned, “This is more my speed!”

Rainbow began to move closer to Terios and pushed her left shoulder against him while yelling, “Shut up, you creep! The only reason you’re this fast is because you look like Sonic! It doesn’t actually belong to you!”

While pushing back against her, Terios replied, “I beg to differ!” He managed to get his right arm underneath her and punched her in the chest, causing her to crash. He came to a stop a short distance in front of her and turned around to look at her as he said, “I’ve got all the moves, all the looks, and I actually know how to use them!” He grinned, “I AM Sonic the Hedgehog, or more accurately, what he would be if he didn’t surround himself with namby-pamby idiots like you! I’m him at his full potential!”

A shout caused him to look up and he saw Rarity sailing through the air at him with her left hind leg held out. “Don’t you dare sully Sonic’s name! You’re nothing but a twisted reflection!” she cried.

As she was about to reach him, Terios held up his right hand and cleanly caught her hoof, the kick only managing to push him back a little bit. He grinned up at her and, before gravity caught up, said, “Mirrors are so much fun, honey. They show more than most people can see.” With that, Rarity leaned backwards with a yelp, gravity pulling her down while Terios still held her hoof in his hand. He looked off to the side and saw Shining running towards him, his horn glowing. Terios leapt straight up and performed a full spin before releasing Rarity, sending her down to the floor and underneath Shining’s legs, causing him to trip.

“Rarity!” gasped Spike, seeing the white unicorn sprawled out on the floor. He glared at Terios and ran straight for him, fire already welling up inside his mouth.

Before he could unleash it, Terios dashed in front of him and grabbed him by the neck, cutting off the flames. He held the baby dragon up in front of his face and smirked, “Wait your turn, baby. I’ll get to your spanking soon enough.” With that, he swung his arm back and threw Spike towards the wall, Fluttershy diving to catch him before he hit the floor.

Applejack looked over at the two from where she had been knocked before turning to look at Terios. She soon started charging straight at him, Rainbow climbing to her hooves and joining her, hoping they could take him together. Terios punched Applejack away and kicked Rainbow Dash in the chin, knocking both of them back, but as he brought his foot down, Pinkie suddenly dropped down on top of him, causing him to buckle forward.

Seeing this, Cadance called, “Everypony, help Pinkie!” She demonstrated the kind of help she meant by spreading her wings and diving down on Terios from behind, forcing the hedgehog onto the floor. They all got the message and they all did the same except for Fluttershy and Spike, the two not joining due to the former being concerned for the latter. As they all piled on top of Terios, Cadance ordered, “Lock legs! Hold him down!” As they all tried to restrict his movements, they could feel Terios struggling underneath, inspiring them all to make it harder for him to get out.

Shining looked over at Cadance and spoke, “I think we got him down, Cadance. Now what do we do?”

Cadance replied, “I don’t know. But if we can keep him from running, then he can’t attack us!”

Before Shining or anypony else could respond, Terios spoke up, “Let me ruin the moment for you.” They all began to feel vibrations welling up from underneath them, and suddenly, their attempt to chain him in place was ruined as he sent them all sprawling with a Spin Jump. Landing on the floor, he pirouetted before grinning, “Cute plan, but no lolly for you!”

Spike broke free of Fluttershy’s hooves and ran towards Terios, flames already starting to build in his mouth. Once he was close enough, he leapt up and shouted, “Eat this!” before unleashing a burst of green flames from his mouth.

Terios, however, merely sidestepped the attack, the flames flying just over Cadance and Rainbow’s heads, and quickly dashed over to Spike, once again grabbing and lifting him up by the throat. “You really want to get spanked, don’t you? Fine, I’ll make sure to teach you some respect, something Twilight apparently couldn’t do!” he said.

“Stop!” Fluttershy cried as she flew towards Terios. It wasn’t a loud cry, but he looked up anyway, only to lower Spike a bit as his eyes widened. Fluttershy was giving him the Stare as she hovered in front of him, her eyes becoming an icy blue as she looked into Terios’ yellow eyes. “You put Spike down and put a stop to what you’re doing right now, you rotten hedgehog!” Fluttershy commanded. Everyone looked on as Terios stared at her in silence, Fluttershy moving her head closer to his when he didn’t respond right away, staring only into his eyes and seeing little else.

Suddenly, Terios smirked and swung his left fist upwards, striking Fluttershy under the chin and sending her flipping backwards with a yelp. As she landed on her side, he laughed, “Did you really think I was going to listen to you?! You poor, gullible fool! You can wallow in your own insignificance with this dragon!” As Fluttershy tried to stand up, Terios suddenly punted Spike straight at her, sending them both flying into the wall.

He heard a shout and turned around. Pinkie was leaping at him forelegs outstretched. He caught her hooves with his hands and, as they started pushing against each other, she yelled, “That’s another line you’ve crossed! No one, NO ONE, hurts Fluttershy!”

Terios just smirked as he toyed with the pink pony, “Really? No wonder she doesn’t have any skin.” He then forced her forelegs out and grabbed her by the waist, lifting her up over his head.  She began beating on his head and face with her front hooves, but he hardly flinched at this. He simply leaned his head back a bit and asked, “So what’s my punishment? I don’t get invited to one of your picnics now?”

Applejack shouted, “No, this is what you get!” He glanced down and saw Applejack running up to him. Once she was close enough, she planted her front hooves on the ground and swung around, bucking him in the face as hard as she could. This caused him to let go of Pinkie, the pink earth pony landing on Applejack’s back, and sent him flying into the wall near Fluttershy and Spike, the two moving away as he landed on the floor and slumped forward. Panting, Applejack turned herself around and asked, “There, how do ya like that, Mr. Fake Ruler?”

Terios was silent for several seconds, the kick having seemingly knocked him out if his slight movements were any indications. Then suddenly, to Applejack’s horror, his head snapped up with a wide grin on his face. “Aw, that’s so cute. You want to compare legs. Okay,” he said. He quickly stood up and, before Applejack could react, dashed up to her and crashed into her, knocking Pinkie off. As Applejack was pushed up off the ground slightly, he brought his legs up, kneeing her underside several times before pulling back and performing a spinning kick to her face, sending the earth pony flying into the wall. As he landed, Terios dusted his hands off and grinned, “Who’s next?”

While Rainbow, Rarity, and Pinkie answered his challenge, Cadance moved to Shining Armor’s side and helped him up. “Are you okay, Shining?” she asked.

The stallion replied, “I’m fine, Cadance, but this is ridiculous. We’re throwing everything we’ve got at this guy, but it’s like we’re just tickling him! How is he so durable?!”

Cadance turned and looked on in worry as Terios pushed Rarity onto the floor and threw Pinkie to the side. “I don’t know, but I don’t know what else we can do,” she admitted.

While looking at Terios, Shining thought about how, when they were firing lasers at him, he always seemed to have his back to them when they hit, and, aside from Applejack’s earlier buck to the face, he never let anything hit him from the front. “Well, hitting him in the head didn’t seem to do anything, but maybe another spot…” he murmured.

Cadance heard him and turned back to him, asking, “Shining?” The unicorn looked at her a moment later and nodded before turning back to Terios and running straight at him.

As he ran, the hedgehog jumped over a tackle from Rainbow Dash, landing in the center of the room and looking at the pegasus, his back to Shining. At a shout from the stallion, he started to turn around and, as he did, he noticed his head was lowered. As he turned around completely, he felt the unicorn’s horn go into his chest and his eyes widened, a legitimately shocked expression appearing on his face as he choked out, “Guh…!” There was no time for anything else as Shining filled his horn with as much magic as he could and released it, a shot surrounded by a wall of magic blasting into Terios, sending the hedgehog flying until he crashed through what remained of his throne and the portrait behind it.

Shining panted heavily with his eyes closed for a moment before opening them, seeing the dust that had been raised by Terios’ crash. He couldn’t tell for sure at the moment, but it looked like the portrait might’ve been hiding a passage behind it. As everyone stared, Shining caught his breath and yelled, “How about that?! Do you like that?!”

There was silence for several seconds. Then Terios spoke, “Well, I must say I’m rather displeased.” Everyone immediately noticed the change in his voice. He still sounded like Sonic, but before, his voice had made it clear he took great pleasure in beating them down and mocking their efforts. Now his voice sounded completely dry, as if he no longer found humor in the situation.


BEATDOWN


As the dust began to settle, Shining could see Terios standing, turned slightly away from him, his head tilted down as if he was staring at something, though with his left eye closed, it was likely that the right one was too. And he was shaking. It didn’t look like it was much more than a tremor running through his frame, but one could guess that his composure was starting to slip. “I rather liked that painting,” Terios stated, still in that same dry tone, a few seconds later.

He slowly turned around to face Shining, and the stallion could see a hole in his chest where his horn had entered. What looked like cracks lined its circumference and it was black inside the hole. He also noticed that Terios was quite noticeably frowning, and when he opened his eyes, he saw that they had changed from yellow to red. “I was having fun, but now you’ve gone and upset me,” the hedgehog snarled. A dark blue aura started to appear around him and he began to hover just above the ground a moment later. “It’s time to put you in your place.”

In a quick flash of movement, Terios moved forward and then dropped into a Spin Dash, reaching Shining before he could react and bouncing up to hit him in the chest, knocking his forelegs off the ground. While he was reeling from the hit, Terios landed on the floor and immediately launched into another Spin Dash, this one knocking Shining into the locked doors behind him. The stallion juddered and groaned as Terios held there, still spinning into him. After holding there for a few seconds, he moved back and broke out of his spin before floating forward, this time punching Shining repeatedly in the face without any mercy.

“Shining!” Cadance cried, spreading her wings and flying towards Terios. The hedgehog, however, only glanced back over his shoulder to see where she was and went from punching Shining to swinging his left hand back and slapping the pink alicorn in the face, the force strong enough to knock her backwards.

Shining hoped he could get a chance to attack Terios while he was distracted, but all too quickly, the hedgehog turned back to him and pinned him to the door again, this time by wrapping his left hand around the stallion’s throat. As he held up his right hand, red electricity began to spark around it and he sneered, “I bet you’re wishing your sister was here to save you now.” With that, he slammed his right fist into Shining’s face. The last thing the stallion registered before everything went black was his body hitting the floor.

“NO! Shining!” Cadance cried as she saw her husband collapse and not get up. Terios spun around to look at her and she shivered as his eyes focused on her. Still, she climbed to her hooves and called on her magic. She fired at him, but he just flew at her, not even bothering to get out of the way, her shots bouncing off as they hit his head. He quickly reached her and wrapped his left hand around her horn, clamping down on the magic within it and sending electricity through it. The feedback from both caused Cadance to scream out in pain, Terios then pulling her up off of her hooves and swinging her up and down by her horn several times before throwing her up, followed by him flying up to grab her and slam her back into the ground.

As he stood on top of the defeated princess, Terios looked up to see Rainbow flying at him. Easily sidestepping her, he turned around to look at her as he held up his right hand, a light blue orb forming above it. Rainbow turned around and attempted to fly at him again, but he held his right hand out and released the orb, which split into two smaller orbs as it flew at Rainbow. Both hit the base of her wings, and immediately ice climbed up both of them, quickly encasing them completely. Terios leapt off of Cadance as Rainbow crashed into the floor and then the pink alicorn, both flopping across the floor at the impact.

While Rainbow recovered and tried to break the ice on her wings, both Rarity and Pinkie Pie tried to take Terios together, both launching themselves at him. The hedgehog caught Rarity by her hoof and Pinkie by her head, both of them managing to do little more than push him backwards a fair distance. Terios just sneered at them and tossed Pinkie up so he could hold her by a hoof as well. He then slammed them both into each other before slamming them repeatedly down on the floor. When he got tired of that, he slammed them into each other one more time before tossing them up and unleashing a barrage of punches, ending with him crossing and uncrossing his arms in an ‘X’-shape, a large explosion occurring that blew both ponies away when he uncrossed his arms.

Applejack charged at Terios and began trying to stomp and kick him with her front hooves, but he merely stepped around each of her attacks. After several seconds of this, he created a dark purple sphere above his right hand and shoved it into Applejack’s chest, some of the dark purple staying there even after the sphere broke, causing her to stop moving as she began to feel pain from that spot. She refrained from voicing her pain, but she was still left distracted for a moment and in that moment, Terios charged up more spheres. He then fired several from his right hand at her face, then from his left hand, and finished up by performing a kick during a backflip, the orange earth pony’s hat falling from her head as she went sailing into the wall.

Both Fluttershy and Spike wanted to help everyone, but they were frozen in place as Terios turned to glare at them. He looked them over for a moment before deciding they weren’t worth his time and instead simply pointed his right index finger at them, red lightning shooting from the tip of it at them. It caught them before they could move and they both screamed as he turned it up.

Rainbow finally managed to get the last of the ice off her wings, helped in small part by the heat generated by the explosion that Pinkie and Rarity were caught in. With her wings finally free, she was prepared to help Fluttershy and Spike, but then she noticed that Terios stopped sending out electricity from his finger. Horrified, she looked over to see that Spike and Fluttershy had already passed out, both of their nerves too wracked by pain for them to stay conscious any longer. Looking around, she realized she was the only one still standing; everyone else had already been beaten down.

She gritted her teeth as she spread her wings and turned to glare at Terios, the hedgehog turning to face her as well. She noticed his eyes were orange now, but she didn’t care about that; all that mattered was stopping him and getting her friends some help. He smirked at her and knelt down on one knee, saying to her in a voice that still had some seriousness to it, “You ready to get beat, pony girl?” Rainbow responded with an anger-filled shout as she and Terios flew straight at each other.


BRIEF MEETING


Soon…

Letha paced around nervously on the deck of her ship, occasionally looking up at Avalon with a worried expression. “This is bad. This is really bad. Why are they taking so long over there? What are they doing? Are they in trouble?” she wondered to herself, her mind working itself up into a panic. She soon heard something coming from behind her, from the starboard side of her ship, and she whirled around, her right hand already reaching for the back of her dress, towards something hidden underneath her vest, but she relaxed when she saw the blue hedgehog flipping himself over the banister. She sighed as she watched him set Caliburn down and wring the end of his cape out over the banister, saying as he turned back to her, “Gracious! You’re that rightful king fella, aren’t you?”

Sonic nodded as he walked forward, “Yeah, that’s me. And you’re Smithy’s friend, Letha, right?” The raccoon nodded, so Sonic asked, “What are you doing out here? Not that I don’t appreciate having a place to stop where I won’t get splashed, but where’s everybody else?”

Letha pointed to Avalon as she replied, “They all went on to Avalon! They told me to stay put until the weather cleared up or they got into trouble, which I suspect is what’s happened if you’re here!”

Sonic sighed, “I think you’re right about that. Lady Nimue can’t keep an eye on everyone anymore, so she told me to come and help. Apparently they’ve run into someone named Terios and he’s the cause of the Grand Kingdom’s troubles, so…”

Letha noticed the way he trailed off and nodded, “Right, that’s a problem! Dead men tell no tales after all, so better get to them before that happens!” She turned and ran towards the stern of the ship, where she leaned over the side. As she began to pull the anchor up, she said, “No more waiting around; I’m bringing my ship in to land! I’m not leaving it behind and I’m not taking any chances!”

Sonic nodded, “Right, good idea.” Seeing that she was focused on getting the anchor out of the water, he went over to the port side and leapt up, boosting out towards the water. He landed on the surface of the water and kept running, turning and heading straight for Avalon. Even if it was brief, his stop on the ship ensured that he would make it to the island without risking sinking. Letha looked up as he ran by but soon turned back to her work, knowing she needed to hurry too.


RETURN TO AVALON


Once Sonic reached dry land, he headed straight for the castle. It didn’t take him and Caliburn long to find the hole along the side of the castle path and the tower that it led to. Sonic tried to go through the dark tunnel slowly in case they were any holes or traps, but he soon saw a light coming from up ahead that made the tunnel brighter, so he resumed running. He soon reached the tower entrance and headed inside, ignoring the tablet in the center of the room and running up the stairs. He soon reached the doors at the top and, after removing the locking bar from them, pushed one open and went inside.

Inside, he found a mostly empty circular room. Directly across from the doors were the remains of Terios’ throne and portrait, still lying in the opening they had been blocking. Looking around a little more, Sonic noticed Smithy’s goggles and slingshot lying against the wall to his right and Applejack’s hat near the wall to his left. He ran over to the hat first and let Caliburn go before he picked it up with both hands. “AJ’s hat… This is bad,” he murmured.

“She never leaves it behind?” Caliburn asked.

“At least from what I’ve seen, she doesn’t go anywhere without it. Seems pretty attached to it, considering Rarity repaired it for her earlier when it got set on fire,” Sonic replied. He took his backpack off and tucked the hat inside of it, on top of the medical supplies he had left. He then ran over and grabbed Smithy’s goggles and slingshot and put them in the pack too before shutting it and putting it back on, making sure it was underneath his cape.

Caliburn floated over to Sonic as he finished and gestured to the opening, “That passage appears to be the only way forward from here. Smithy and your friends may lie beyond there, but be prepared for anything.” Sonic nodded and took him in his right hand again before running over to the opening, peering inside for a moment before walking into it.

The opening led to another long flight of stairs going up. Sonic quickly ran up, both him and Caliburn keeping an eye out for any sort of danger as they went, but they didn’t encounter any traps or Underworld knights. It didn’t take long to reach the top of the stairs, where they found another large set of doors. He looked up at them for a moment before he ran over to them, pushing one open and moving into the room behind them.

The room he entered looked like a large throne room. There was a dark red carpet on the tiled floor running from the doors to the other end of the room, going up a set of stairs to where the throne would likely be. Sonic couldn’t see one, but given he was at the other end of the room and the dim lighting in the room, perhaps that was more because of his position than anything. The floor to the left and right continued flat for a short distance before it rose up to the level of the top of the stairs. The whole thing made Sonic feel like he was standing in a pit.

He moved forward slowly, both him and Caliburn looking around. When he was close to the stairs, Sonic looked forward and stopped. “Why are you stopping?” Caliburn asked. Sonic responded by bringing his right arm in front of himself, allowing Caliburn to see. He quickly saw the reason.

Now that they were closer, they could see that there was no throne at the top of the stairs. Instead, there was only a sword in a scabbard, no doubt the Clarent, resting against the wall. And above it, scattered all across the wall, were Smithy and the Equestrians. They were all being held against the wall by some sort of black cuffs. Smithy’s were wrapped around his wrists and just above his feet, with the Equestrians’ cuffs similarly positioned, though strangely Rainbow, Cadance, and Fluttershy’s wings were left free, as were Shining, Twilight, Rarity, and Cadance’s horns. Spike was being held differently, having only one cuff that wrapped around his torso, pinning his arms to his sides.

Sonic took a step forward, eying their injuries and noticing the lack of movement from any of them. “Don’t tell me I’m too late…” he murmured, trying to keep his voice steady.

Caliburn was silent for a moment. Then he noticed twitching start to come from Pinkie, as well as some of the other ponies and Smithy. “Look! Movement! They’re alive!” he pointed out. Sonic remained silent at that, watching as they began to groan and move a little more.

Pinkie was the first to open her eyes. When she looked down and saw Sonic, her eyes went wide and she screamed, “AHHHHH!!! It’s Terios! Terios is back!” Her scream caused Smithy, Spike, and the other ponies to start struggling to get out of their bindings, especially Rarity and Fluttershy.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Relax, everybody! It’s me!” Sonic shouted, holding his hands up as he started moving forward again.

As he began to climb up the stairs, Pinkie whimpered, “He’s back, he’s gonna have his fun with us again, he’s gonna drag it out, we couldn’t do anything to him…”

Cadance’s vision was still a little shaky, but she calmed down enough to get a decent look at the approaching hedgehog. “Sonic? Is that really you?” she asked, some of the other ponies going limp at her question, though it might also have been due to them tiring themselves out.

Sonic replied, “Yeah, it’s me, Cadance. Hang on, I’m gonna get you all down from there.” He reached the top of the stairs and started moving towards the wall.

Twilight’s right eye was mostly closed due to the pain, but she could still see fine with her left eye. While looking down at Sonic, she blinked and noticed something that hadn’t been there a moment ago. “Sonic, your feet!” she cried. The blue hedgehog looked down and saw what looked like the top of a black cyclone forming on the floor underneath him. He immediately jumped back with a backflip, ending up at the bottom of the stairs. After he landed, he heard the doors he’d come through close and lock. He glanced back at them over his shoulder before turning his attention back to the top of the stairs.


MEETING OF THE RULERS


As Sonic and his friends watched, a figure rose up out of the black vortex. It was Terios, the hedgehog still looking the same as he did earlier, still sporting a hole in his chest and a blue aura around him, though his eyes were back to being a yellow color, having only a slight trace of orange still present in them. The vortex disappeared once he had fully emerged from it, the other blue hedgehog glaring down at Sonic with a slight frown on his face. “King Sonic… Just the hedgehog I’ve been wounding to see,” he remarked after a moment.

Sonic stood up straight at this, understanding the reason for his friends’ injuries and panic. “Terios, huh?” he asked, trying to keep a calm tone.

“That’s KING Terios, Lord of the Underworld, to you now,” Terios replied.

“…So are you a lord or a king?” Sonic asked.

“I am the king of all that I rule over, and the lord of everything I conquer. I conquered the Underworld, I conquered Merlina, I conquered these worms, and you and your kingdom will be the fruits of my current conquest,” Terios stated proudly.

Pinkie, while balancing a cake that had appeared on her head, cried out, “I’m so sorry I thought you were someone else, Sonic! Here, I got you an apology cake! It’s really good!” Terios turned and glared up at her over his shoulder. He raised his left hand and snapped his fingers; a second later, a bolt of lightning shot down and struck Pinkie, destroying the cake and making her cry out in pain.

Sonic recoiled at this and then dashed up the stairs, shouting, “Hey!” Terios turned to look at him and held his right hand out, generating a barrier around himself that Sonic slashed at several times before Terios made part of the barrier expand. This pushed Sonic away, but he landed on his feet a bit further back than he had been before. “What’d you do that for?!” Sonic yelled.

“She is my prisoner. I judged and sentenced her. Prisoners may not talk unless they’re called upon,” Terios stated simply.

“Judged and sentenced? With injuries of that nature?!” Caliburn asked.

“It was a fair trial! It’s not my fault they tried to resist!” Terios replied.

Rainbow and Applejack tried to speak up, but Sonic held up his left hand, signaling for them to stay quiet. When they complied, he lowered his hand and asked, “So am I being judged too, now that I’ve stepped into your land?”

Terios replied, “Perhaps.”

Sonic nodded, “Then this trial is still going on. And in that case… the defense calls a witness!” While Terios gave him a confused look, Sonic pointed Caliburn at Applejack and asked, “Applejack, what really happened?”

Though she was unsure of where Sonic was going with this, she answered, “He ambushed us! He attacked Twilight and Smithy while we were split up and locked ‘em up, puttin’ phonies in their place ta make us believe that they were under his control! When they didn’t stop us, he beat us all up, as you can plainly see!”

Sonic nodded, “I figured something like that happened.”

Terios asked, “Why would you listen to her? She’s not the biggest idiot in this lot, but she’s right up there, and her accent makes my ears bleed!”

While Applejack angrily struggled to break free, Sonic replied, “Because even though none of them have any reason to lie about this, I figure asking the Element of Honesty really helps drive the point home. She’s not a liar, unlike you!”

Caliburn spoke, “This argument, while not pointless, is getting us nowhere. Release your prisoners and we shall settle this in a diplomatic manner!”

Terios sneered, “Oh, I don’t do diplomacy, butter knife. I do things my way.” He thumped his right fist against his left palm, “And I prefer the way that results in me getting the most.”

While Caliburn quietly seethed at Terios’ insult, Sonic asked, “So what, you would prefer trial by combat or something?”

Terios replied, “Blue, I’m fast, I’m superior, and I LOVE to hurt people. So yeah, that sounds like a fantastic idea.”

Rarity cried, “Don’t do it, Sonic! He’s too strong!”

Spike added, “We all fought him together, but we couldn’t do anything to him!”

Neither Sonic’s stance nor the look on his face changed at their pleading. “I don’t need to be able to sense his emotions to know what he’s thinking. He’s not going to back down after what Terios did to us,” Cadance murmured.

Shining hesitated for a moment before saying, “He might not be as invincible as he thinks he is, Sonic! Try focusing your attacks on his ch- mmph!” He was cut off as a black band suddenly appeared around his muzzle, tightening to the point that it nearly caused him pain and leaving him unable to open his mouth.

While Sonic thought about what Shining had tried to say, Terios said, “Enough out of you peasants. The only sounds I should be hearing from you are those of despair, and that one tiny little hit was insignificant.” Sonic’s eyes focused on the hole in Terios’ chest at that, guessing that that was Shining had been trying to say.

He looked up at Terios’ face when he spoke again, “And it doesn’t matter what you do. Run, stay, try to leave this world, there’s no escape from me, your true form.” He held his arms out and a dark blue aura rose out of the floor behind him, stopping just above his head. The shape of a longsword began to take shape there, forming into the former King Arthur’s Deathcalibur at a size more appropriate for Terios. “I will not rest until I've broken your spirit and driven the fire of life out of you. And since you were so nice to come to me, King Sonic, I might consider granting you a semi-quick death. En garde!”


DUEL OF THE KINGDOMS


With that, he took Deathcalibur in his right hand and showed off with it a little bit, spinning it around in his hand and then spinning around himself before pointing the blade at Sonic. The crowned hedgehog spun Caliburn around in his hand once before performing two quick swipes and taking his trusty sword in both hands, pointing it at Terios. And with that, the fight was on. Terios was the first to move, hovering above the ground and launching down the stairs. Sonic held Caliburn out to his side as he dashed forward. When Terios leapt up at the bottom of the stairs, Sonic did the same, both hedgehogs slashing at each other in midair and the resounding clang of their swords meeting filling the air.

The two hedgehogs landed in a crouching stance, their starting positions reversed. From there, they leapt up and slashed at each other again, their swords meeting and pressing against each other. They remained like this for a moment before Sonic placed his left hand on Terios’ head, vaulting over him. The two spun around to look at each other as they fell, both landing on their feet. They both shot towards each other, a flurry of slashes following. It stopped when Sonic moved his right hand farther than he meant to and hit Terios in the chest, the other hedgehog being stunned and knocked back by the hit. Sonic moved forward again and Terios held his blade up, their blades locking against each other. They both glared and growled at each other, both pressing harder. For a moment, it seemed like Sonic had the advantage, pushing Terios backwards fairly easily.

The back of Terios’ feet soon hit the bottom stair and he gave his opponent a smirk, Sonic raising an eye at this. Suddenly, electricity sparked around Deathcalibur, the bolts running into Caliburn’s blade and shocking him and Sonic both. While they were stunned, Terios performed a horizontal slash, more electricity leaping from his blade as he did so. Sonic was sent flying back and he landed on his front. He looked up to see Terios suddenly dash to his left and jump off the wall there, holding Deathcalibur over his head. Sonic gasped and turned himself so he was facing Terios before rolling to his left. The other hedgehog reached him as he was rolling and his blade caught near the top of Sonic’s cape, tearing it.

“No~! Not that!” Rarity moaned, unable to do much else.

As he climbed to his feet, Sonic looked at his shoulder, staring in shock at what little of the cape was left. He then glared at Terios, “Hey, I was starting to get used to that!”

Terios smirked and swung his sword downwards, generating a wind that blew the cape on the floor past Sonic towards the doors. “Well, now you can get used to THIS going through YOU!” he said before dashing forward and performing a series of thrusts. Sonic held up Caliburn and placed his left behind his blade, a small barrier forming from the red gem in his glove in front of him as he moved the blade up and down to block the thrusts. After a few seconds, Terios performed a horizontal slash that pushed Sonic back, though not nearly as far as Terios himself had been pushed back. He leapt up with Deathcalibur over his head again, but Sonic dropped his guard and dashed forward, leaping up and headbutting Terios in the chest. The hit stunned him and he was pushed back a bit. After they both landed, Sonic readied himself for a Soul Surge, Caliburn’s blade glowing as he ran up to Terios and delivered a series of powerful slashes, ending with a kick that sent Terios flying back into the stairs.

As he sat on one of the steps, Terios glanced down and noticed that the hole in his chest looked bigger than before. He placed his left hand over it and thought, “I’m feeling that strange throbbing again, only it feels stronger now… Is this…?” He looked up when he heard Sonic running towards him and began hovering again, the aura around him beginning to billow. He brought his arms and legs up close together, and a moment later he thrust them out, unleashing a dark blue wave of energy that blew Sonic backwards.

Sonic managed to hold his hands out, putting his left hand on top of Caliburn’s blade, and planted them on the ground to flip himself over so he landed on his feet. He then started running towards Terios again, the other hedgehog hovering higher than before as he held his arms out and created what looked like a molten rock over his head. He swung Deathcalibur several times to break it apart and then held out his left hand, launching the pieces down at Sonic like meteors. The rocks hit the floor hard, small flames coming from the top of some of them, but Sonic kept going, slashing at them with Caliburn to keep the rug from catching fire, even performing a spinning slash to cut through several at once.

As Sonic closed in, Terios raised his sword over his head and swung it down as he stopped levitating. Sonic leapt up at him at full speed, swinging Caliburn and crossing blades with Terios' Deathcalibur. They held for a moment before Sonic broke the lock and took the first swing, Terios responding in kind. They kept swinging at each other for several seconds, Sonic getting up to about Terios' level in the meantime, before Terios performed his own spinning slash, forcing Sonic to break off the attack and respond in kind. Terios was able to force him backwards and to the left, onto the raised section of the floor. They both rested a moment before dashing towards each other, both performing a spinning slash. They both backed off afterwards, though Terios soon ran towards Sonic again, though he left himself open when Sonic suddenly dashed up to him while performing another Soul Surge, slashing him several times before raising his left foot and kicking him away.

Terios’ backside collided with the wall, Deathcalibur falling from his grip as he dropped onto the floor. He shook his head before looking up, his eyes mostly orange now. He saw Sonic walking towards him with Caliburn at his side, watching him carefully. Terios glared at him for a moment before his eyes suddenly darted to his left. His mouth twisted into a smirk before he looked back at Sonic, the crowned hedgehog stopping and raising an eye at this.

Terios began to reach his right hand down as if to grab Deathcalibur, but his hand suddenly began to spark. Then, without warning, he got up on one knee and made a horizontal swipe with his right hand, releasing lightning from it! Sonic’s eyes widened and he dove to his right, missing being electrocuted and falling down to the floor below.

Sonic rolled when he landed on the floor, coming to a stop on the rug, close to the stairs. As he was standing up, he heard screams from Smithy and Twilight, followed by Cadance exclaiming, “Twilight! Smithy!” Sonic quickly turned to his left, only to get knocked off his feet when he was hit in the face by something furry. After landing on his side, he got up and looked to see Terios using magic to carry Smithy and Twilight behind him. He didn’t get a chance to do anything more as Terios was suddenly upon him, alternating between using Twilight and Smithy to hit him.

The beating ended when Sonic was struck one last time by Twilight, Terios’ magic gripping around her neck so her back hooves swung around and hit him under the chin. Sonic was knocked off of his feet again, this time landing on his rear near where he had been standing. As he climbed to his feet, Terios taunted, “Come on, little man, hit me.” Sonic growled and glared in anger at the taunt, running up to Terios ready to swing Caliburn at him.

Just as he was starting to, however, Terios suddenly put Smithy in his blade’s path, both Sonic and Smithy gasping at this, the former managing to stop his swing before his sword touched the fox. While he was frozen, Terios forced Smithy’s head forward, causing him to headbutt Sonic, and another whack forced Sonic onto his side. As he looked up, Terios kicked him in the stomach, causing him to grunt and be knocked back further. He rolled when he landed, stopping when he was on his front and growling as he thumped his right fist against the ground, quickly climbing to his feet. He readied an overhead swing, but Terios put Twilight in his path this time, causing him to hesitate again. Terios grinned and fired a small bolt of red lightning at Twilight’s horn, the unicorn screaming in pain as she suddenly began forcibly firing bolts of her own magic forward, all of them hitting Sonic in his face and chest.

While Sonic was stunned, Terios dropped Smithy and Twilight, Smithy landing on his knees and Twilight on her front, and pointed his index fingers at them. In response, their arms/forelegs were moved behind them and the black cuffs from earlier appeared around them and their legs, restraining them. Terios then dashed forward and did a backflip kick to Sonic’s chin, causing him to drop Caliburn and his shoulder plate to fall off as he was sent skywards. Sonic groaned while he was airborne, but Terios wasn’t done with him yet. He leapt up after him and, when he was just above him, spun around, planting the heel of his left foot against Sonic’s forehead and sending him spinning downwards at an angle, bouncing several times when he hit the ground before he slid to a stop on his right side near his cape, his crown falling off and clattering on the floor before it disappeared into the darkness.

Everyone on the wall gasped at this and Twilight cried out, “Sonic!” She and Smithy began struggling, but their bindings kept them from moving and the unicorn’s horn was still sparking from Terios’ earlier action, preventing her from using her magic.

Caliburn floated over to Sonic, hovering in front of the hedgehog’s head as he moved to place his right hand against the floor to push himself up. “Get up! On your feet at once, Sonic!” Caliburn pushed. Terios halted his efforts by wrapping his magic around Caliburn’s hilt and throwing him against the wall across from Sonic, where black tendrils emerged and wrapped around the sword’s crossguard and above his face, preventing him from moving.

At this, Sonic began trying to get up faster, but suddenly, a glowing white pattern appeared on the floor underneath him and he felt like the gravity around him had increased. He groaned as he kept trying to push himself up, but as he turned his head slightly to the left, the pull latched onto his quills and turned him over as it brought him down, leaving him lying mostly on his back with his backpack beneath him and his arms out at his sides.


TERIOS' TRIUMPH


Terios let out a chuckle as he stepped forward, his eyes back to their normal yellow color. He dismissed the pattern below Sonic as he reached him and raised his right foot, kicking the plate off of Sonic's shoulder before placing it on his forehead and saying, “You just got beat.”

Rainbow yelled from the other side of the room, “YOU CHEATED, YOU CHEATING JERK!”

Shining added, his mouth no longer held shut, “You dirty scum! How dare you use my sister and Smithy as leverage like that!”

Terios lazily glanced back as he said, “Didn’t I tell you? I can do whatever I want, when and how I want to. Besides, this is a duel; there are no rules in a duel.”

Caliburn grunted, feeling the tendrils pull harder on him at his struggling, and spoke, “There are MANY rules that should be followed in a duel! Have you no honor or dignity?!”

Terios replied, “I have plenty of both, because I have POWER. Therefore, I’m able to COMMAND honor and dignity from all who cross me. Might is all anyone needs to make a difference, not some pathetic shows of sympathy or belief in others. Only the strong have any right to rule, and all those underneath them will either make them stronger or perish.” He turned to look down at Sonic, “As I’m sure I’ve just proven.”

Sonic stared back up at him around his foot. “You are one messed-up fake,” he grunted.

“Fake? I’m everything that you are, everything you COULD be! I AM you, only properly focused and driven!” Terios replied. He leaned down closer, “Still, I must admit you’ve managed to impress me. You’ve lasted longer and given me more trouble than any opponent I’ve had in the past. Perhaps I would lose a valuable source of strength and underlings if you suffered the same fate as all who came before…” He gave a wide smile a moment later, “How about a deal? I’ll call off the Underworld army and spare the Grand Kingdom further destruction and bloodshed… if you agree to join with me.”

Sonic’s eyes went wide at this, and Smithy, Caliburn, Spike, and the ponies immediately began to protest. “Don’t do it, Sonic!” Applejack yelled.

“We’re not worth it!” Rarity cried.

“He is lying, Sonic! Do not heed his words!” Caliburn shouted.

Terios glared down at Sonic, “Are you really going to let them make your decisions for you? Let them live your life? Come on, surely you know yourself better than that.” Sonic stared up at him for a moment before he tilted his head a bit and rolled his eyes upward, looking in Caliburn’s direction.

From where he was on the floor, Sonic could manage to see Caliburn’s blade. It might’ve been the stress of the situation or his position on the floor, but in the dim lighting, it almost looked like Caliburn’s blade was beginning to glow. Sonic stared curiously, wondering why it was glowing. As he stared, sparkles of light began to appear down the blade’s length, each sparkle briefly showing the image of someone Sonic knew, from recent times all the way back to his early days. As the last sparkle disappeared, a shining white light went down Caliburn’s blade. Several of those sparkles appeared in Sonic’s eyes as he stared, and as that shining white light appeared, he blinked as words and memories flooded his mind, his mouth hanging open slightly.


LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS


Coming back to reality, Sonic looked up to see Terios mumbling seemingly to himself, “I know what I’m doing… I’ve got him right where I want him, where you never had him! …Will you relax? I’ve got this!” He then glared down at Sonic again, “I’m done waiting! I want an answer NOW!”

Sonic stared up at him a moment before saying, “Fine. …Let’s do this.” Gasps rose up from around the room at his answer while Terios grinned. Before the yellow-eyed hedgehog could say anything, Sonic held up his right index finger and said, “Just one thing.” When Terios raised an eye in confusion, Sonic pointed to his right, “Stop bringing them into this, will you? This is just between you and me. Cut ‘em loose, let them get off the island, let them leave these waters… just let them go!”

Terios replied, “Why would I do that? I conquered these worms, and with your consent, I’ve conquered YOU too! I’m not losing anything that belongs to me!” After he finished speaking, Sonic pointed his finger up, seemingly pointing at something above Terios’ head. “What? What are you doing?” Terios asked.

While still pointing, Sonic replied matter-of-factly, “Hm? Oh, I’m just counting the little birdies flying around your head because, A, I’m not a twisted psychopath, and B, more importantly, you’re crazy if you thought I was agreeing to your little proposal. Obviously you’re not me, because if you were, you’d know that when I say ‘let’s do this’, I mean ‘let’s keep the party going’. In other words, I’m not done yet.” Lowering his hand, he went on, “Since that one flew over your head, let me give it to you straight about your ‘deal’. No, never. Not in a million years. You’re a loon. Go jump in a lake, preferably the middle of one.”

As he talked, Terios was seething inside, his eyes reflecting this as they turned completely orange. This gnat not only had the nerve to spit on his offer, but insult him to his face. “What a shame. It looks like all that pummeling didn’t straighten out your thoughts or your instincts. So now I’ll just have to crush all that along with your skull!” he growled. With that, he began pushing down harder with his foot, applying more pressure to Sonic’s forehead.

Sonic grunted; whatever power Terios had was giving him more strength and he could feel the difference, his head being pushed harder against the floor. Still, he was holding up against it and he could still use it to his advantage. “Hey, Terry! You know what I’ve noticed about you and your rule?” he asked as he rolled his head to the right, Terios growling at the insult as he kept pressing his foot down. “Neither one has a solid FOOTING!” he exclaimed as he suddenly jerked his head up and to the left, managing to force Terios’ foot off of him and causing him to go off-balance, the hedgehog letting out a yelp as he swung his arms around, trying to keep his balance. He may have been able to put more force into his leg, but he couldn’t change the fact that, underneath that strength, he was still lighter.

Quickly regaining his balance, Terios tried to stomp down on Sonic’s head, but Sonic rolled to his left to avoid it and grabbed his cape with his right hand. As he got up on one knee, he turned to face Terios, who growled at him, and threw the cape at him. Terios snarled as he tried to get it off, his face and part of his front covered by it. He got it off after a few moments and threw it to the side before looking at Sonic, only to get another surprise. While he had been distracted, Sonic had leapt back and planted his feet against the doors, pushing off of them and curling into a ball just as Terios got the cape off. Now he crashed right into the dark hedgehog, pushing him backwards for several seconds before backing off, sending him flying headfirst into the stairs.

Sonic looked at his fallen form for a moment after landing before turning and running over to Caliburn. He wrapped his right hand around the sword’s hilt, managing to squeeze his fingers between it and the wall, and held there for a moment. The gem in his glove began to shine, and a second later, he ripped Caliburn free, the tendrils breaking off and falling to the ground. As he took his sword in both hands, he asked, “Ready to get back to work?”

Caliburn replied, “Surely you jest.”


A KING'S WORTH, A KNIGHT'S DUTY


While Sonic’s friends were relieved that he was able to turn the situation around, Terios was obviously less than pleased by the turn of events. He rubbed his head as he sat up and then opened his eyes to glare at Sonic, revealing they were now a reddish-orange. “Do you really think you changed anything?” he asked as he began to hover. He flew over and got behind Twilight and Smithy before saying, “I still have my prisoners, and there’s nothing you can do about it!”

Sonic held Caliburn out to his side and said, “I’ll take that challenge!” He started running again, but instead of going straight for Terios, he began running in a circle around him. Terios shook his head and levitated Smithy and Twilight up again, Smithy’s legs and Twilight’s hind legs dangling down. Sonic noticed this as well as the slight movements they made as he ran and, after completing another circle, came to a stop and nodded downwards at them before running again, leaving the two wondering what he had in mind.

Terios, however, thought Sonic was only delaying the inevitable, that he would either come in to attack again or wear himself down running like this. Hoping to make his victory come to him faster, he called, “Enough of the drama, King Sonic. I’m not in the mood for it right now. Get over here and accept the fact that you’re about to join your soon-to-be former kingdom’s history.”

Sonic came to a stop in the same spot he had earlier before saying, “History’s not exactly my thing, Terry.” He then dashed forward towards Terios, who held up both Twilight and Smithy with his head turned up and to the side, not giving Sonic his full attention. “Physics, however…” he added before he suddenly dropped down, sliding on his rear across the rug. Both Smithy and Twilight realized what he had been getting at earlier and swung their legs out of the way, clearing the way for him.

Terios glanced down and his eyes widened as he realized Sonic was past his shields. While he was sliding, Sonic brought his legs up and pressed his feet into Terios’ chest, knocking him back and releasing his hold on Smithy and Twilight, both of them falling onto their stomachs. Sonic’s slide soon stopped after he kicked Terios and he stood up, dashing forward and ramming his left shoulder into the other hedgehog before he could recover, pushing him back farther. When they were close to the stairs, Sonic held Caliburn up and then swung him down, culminating in an upward swing to Terios’ chest that launched him upwards. Not wasting a moment, Sonic performed another Soul Surge as he leapt up after him, slashing him several times before giving one last horizontal slash that sent Terios flying up into the ceiling.

Sonic held Caliburn at his side after he dropped down and stared up at Terios for a moment, the hedgehog appearing to be stuck in the ceiling. He then turned and ran back to Twilight and Smithy, figuring they could help him free the others as well. The two looked back over their shoulders as he stopped behind them, Twilight saying, “Sonic! We can’t move…”

Sonic replied, “I noticed.” He took Caliburn in both hands, “Just hold still.” Smithy and Twilight watched a bit nervously as he held Caliburn out to the side and quickly made two horizontal swipes with the tip of the blade. The first broke the restraints holding Smithy’s arms and Twilight’s forelegs behind them, and after they brought them forward to rest on the ground, he cut their legs free with the second swipe.

The two moaned as they moved their limbs for the first time in a while. “Are you both all right?” Caliburn questioned.

“Oh… My legs feel really cold right now. It was not fun hanging up there…” Twilight groaned as she shook both sets of legs.

“Keep moving them around. Keep the blood flowing,” Sonic said.

“Hey! A little help over here, please?” Spike called.

Sonic turned and called back, “Be right there, Spike!” He turned back to Twilight and Smithy, noticing they were trying to get up. Suddenly, a crackle rang through the air, causing everyone to freeze. Smithy and Twilight looked back over their shoulders while Sonic turned to look, soon looking up at where Terios was. There were sparks of red electricity coming off of his body and he was shaking in anger again.

Inside his head, Terios could hear the voice of the fake King Arthur chiding him like he had earlier, “I warned you not to take him lightly. Now look at the mess you’ve created.”

Terios mentally growled, “Will you shut up already? The throbbing in my chest is even worse now; my head doesn’t need to be throbbing as well!” He didn’t need to open his eyes and look down to know that the hole in his chest was even bigger now.

King Arthur spoke again, “Your magic is nearly on the level of high ancient magic, you have the best swordsmanship skills in both the Underworld and the Grand Kingdom, you are as swift as the best of the Knights of the Round Table, and you are disappointing me! The first time you are faced with a worthy opponent and you are being overwhelmed! You are proving to be an inferior copy after all!”

Terios gritted his teeth, “Shut it, you clanking mess of armor! You are MY slave because you’re the one who fell! You may carry out my will, but you don’t get to talk back to me! And don’t you EVER call me a copy again! I am the true ruler of the Underworld and the Grand Kingdom, the strongest ruler to ever live!” His eyes shot open, now completely red, “And they’re all going to know it!” He let out a yell as he discharged his power into the ceiling, bolts of lightning shooting out from him across it, disappearing when they hit the walls.

The power he unleashed caused cracks to form in the ceiling, and suddenly, pieces of the ceiling began to break loose! Sonic’s eyes widened at this and he started running, zooming around to grab Twilight and Smithy before running around the room. Thankfully, no pieces came loose near the others, but the three still had heavy pieces raining down on them. Sonic did his best to move around the falling pieces while he held Smithy and Twilight under his arms, finally ducking behind a piece of rubble on the raised section on the right side of the room as the falling pieces slowed.

Below, Terios stomped around angrily, the aura around him billowing furiously as he searched for Sonic, Twilight, and Smithy. “All right, cretins, where are you?! I know you’re here! You can’t hide from me!” he snarled as he looked around.

Sonic peered out from behind the rubble as he sat with his back against it, looking out for a moment before pulling back and looking at the others, “Do you think I upset him?”

Caliburn murmured, “Perhaps a little. Unfortunately, that’s not a good thing right now, Sonic.”

Smithy nodded as he panted, “Yeah. He’s mad, and he’s still got everyone else.”

Twilight added, “And he could use them against us too. Just like…”

Sonic pointed at her, “No. Do not go down that road on me right now. I don’t know what this guy’s deal is, but until we know, neither of you are at fault here. We can figure this out.”

Twilight asked, “With him breathing down our necks? As soon as he finds us, he’s going to come after us! We can’t get everyone free with him around!” As if to drive the point home, they heard an explosion as Terios obliterated a piece of rubble as he searched for them.

They all looked to the right but stayed hidden since the explosion sounded like it was below them and close. “He’s focused on finding us. Seems like he focuses really hard on whatever catches his attention at the moment,” Smithy murmured.

“Yeah, he does,” Sonic agreed. He turned to them a moment later and gestured for them to come closer, “I’ve got an idea.” Caliburn, Smithy, and Twilight came closer to listen as Sonic whispered his idea to them.

When he was finished, they backed off, Caliburn being the first to speak, “It sounds risky… but at this point, I don’t think there’s any way around that.”

Smithy said, “I don’t know how well I’ll be able to distract him. I lost my slingshot somewhere. Twilight and I didn’t make it easy for him to take us down.”

Sonic replied, “Ah, right.” He took off his backpack and opened it up, reaching inside. He pulled out the slingshot he’d found earlier and asked, “Is this yours?” Smithy nodded and took it back. Sonic reached back inside and pulled out the goggles, “I also found these, but I’m guessing you might not want to wear them right now.” Smithy took them anyway and tucked them into his apron. He pulled out Applejack’s hat and looked at it for a moment before saying, “This can stay here for now, but I’m guessing Applejack’s going to want this back.” He set it on the floor and went back to digging through the bag.

While he was doing this, Twilight spoke, “Whatever he did earlier seems to have worn off. I can use my magic again, but I don’t know if I have enough at the moment to distract him AND teleport everyone out.”

Sonic looked at her, “I can give you a hand with that. No need to push your magic past its limit. Just make sure you get everyone free.” Another explosion sounded and Sonic glanced back before going back to the pack. “Before that… I don’t have a lot here, but let’s see if we can patch you two up a bit.”

Terios grabbed another piece of rubble with his magic and brought his hands together, the piece being crushed as a result. Seeing nothing behind it, he growled and yelled, "You can delay the inevitable, but it's still inevitable! Show yourselves!" A moment later, he heard Twilight teleporting and turned to the left side of the room when he heard her reappear, on the raised section of floor behind a piece of rubble, only to hear it again, the hedgehog looking at a nearby piece of rubble when he heard her reappear again. He started moving towards it, holding his hands out.

Suddenly, Smithy shouted, "Heads up, Terios!" The hedgehog spun around, only to get one of Smithy's bombs exploding in front of him. He stepped back at this and glared upwards, seeing the fox hovering above the piece of rubble he'd been behind with his slingshot in hand and a few bandages on him. Wasting no time, Smithy loaded another bomb and fired it, Terios catching it with his magic and throwing it back. Smithy moved out of the way and kept firing more, soon landing and unleashing a flurry of bombs around him, preventing Terios from reaching him while he darted behind another piece of rubble.

Terios growled and then heard Twilight call, "Over here, Terios!" The hedgehog turned and saw the unicorn standing on top of the rubble he'd been walking towards earlier, also sporting some new wrappings as well as Sonic's backpack on her back. He snarled and held his right hand out, unleashing a fireball from it, but Twilight had vanished by the time it came towards her. He looked back when he heard her reappear and saw her running away from him. He growled and turned to go after her, but Smithy stepped out to shoot a bomb at him before ducking back behind cover when the hedgehog turned to look at him.

The two kept up the game for a while, even after Terios summoned Deathcalibur to him. The dark hedgehog eventually noticed that Sonic was not taking part and yelled, “I know you’re still here, you blue pansy! Come out and quit wasting my time!”

Sonic called, “You want something more than a distraction, Terry? Well, here I am!” Terios turned and saw him come out from behind the rubble he’d been hiding behind the entire time, running up and along the wall until he was over the doors, at which point he leapt straight towards Terios, swinging Caliburn downwards as he got closer.

Terios held up Deathcalibur and easily stopped his attack, making a horizontal swipe to push him back. As Sonic landed, he held up Caliburn and readied himself. Terios came at him quick and Sonic crossed blades with him, both pushing against each other. “I can’t believe you! How dense you are, how idiotic you are to think you can stop me, how cheap you are! Those last strikes you made were not allowed!” Terios screamed as he began slashing at Sonic.

Sonic countered his strikes with his own, deflecting them while moving backwards. “Why’s that, Terry? Because you got hurt? Or, more likely, because you didn’t see them? After all, you’ve gotta see everything, don’t you?” Sonic asked.

“Because you ruined my fun! You ruined it all! And now you have the gall to think you can turn things around!” Terios yelled.

Sonic stopped a blow from Deathcalibur and forced another blade lock, getting up close to Terios’ face and grinning, “Don’t you know? Turnabout is fair play, ‘contacts’!” He then pushed hard and slid Terios back, allowing the other hedgehog to come at him again.

As the two continued, Twilight and Smithy peered out from cover across from each other, watching. “Looks like he’s got Terios’ attention,” Twilight thought after a moment. She then looked over at Smithy and signaled him, the fox raising a thumb up in response. They eyed the two hedgehogs one more time to make sure it was safe before they began to move, coming out from behind their cover and heading for the stairs.

Spike and the other ponies brightened up when they saw the two reach the top of the stairs, none of them sure what Twilight, Sonic, and Smithy were doing until now. “Twi-” Spike started, only to be immediately shushed by Smithy and Twilight, both of them looking back to see if Terios had heard while Spike mentally slapped himself. Luckily, Terios was still focused on Sonic, so they put the rest of their plan in motion.

Smithy put his slingshot in his apron and spun his tails around, flying up and placing his hands around Twilight’s sides. He lifted her up, her horn already glowing as she was raised up to Cadance’s level. The pink alicorn smiled softly at her favorite filly, who whispered, “We’ll free you first, Cadance.” She fired a magic laser from her horn at Cadance’s bindings, freeing her hind legs first before doing the same to her forelegs. The alicorn’s wings had already started flapping when her hind legs were freed, so she was able to hold herself up when she was free. Her legs were still a bit jelly-like, but her wings were fine, so she joined the two in helping cut everyone loose, flying over to Shining while Smithy and Twilight moved down to Spike.

When they were almost done, Terios realized that Sonic wasn’t really trying to fight him. While their blades were still locked, he looked back over his shoulder and saw only Rarity and Applejack still on the wall, everyone else already free. Terios growled at this and turned back to Sonic, pushing harder against him and managing to knock him back against the doors behind him with a horizontal slash. He then turned and shot off towards the other end of the room.

Cadance finished freeing Applejack and Rarity, catching them both and setting them down on the ground gently while Smithy set Twilight down with the others, who were still shaking out their limbs. As her hooves touched the ground, both Twilight and Spike looked and their eyes widened when they saw Terios advancing. “He’s onto us!” Spike cried as he pointed, the others looking as well.

Before Terios could reach them, Sonic put his Boost into overdrive, managing to catch up and pass Terios, reaching the stairs before he did. He stood about halfway up the steps and brought Caliburn down, his blade colliding with Deathcalibur’s blade and forcing Terios to come to a stop. “Hey man, I’m feeling a little ignored here!” Sonic said as he pressed down.

“I refuse to lose any of my conquests! And it serves you right for not coming to deal with me yourself!” Terios argued.

Sonic grunted as Terios pushed up against him, his blade moving back slightly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t even know you existed until I got here. I figured the one leading the Underworld army was some two-bit wannabe, which it turns out you are,” he taunted, Terios growling and pushing harder at this. Sonic managed to maneuver Caliburn’s blade around to give him the leverage to press Deathcalibur’s blade up and he struck at Terios’ chest twice, first with a horizontal slash and then a thrust, knocking him backwards.

Seeing that the other hedgehog had been stopped for the moment, Smithy turned and ran over to the wall, grabbing Clarent and slipping its scabbard on around him. He then turned and called, “I’ve got Clarent back!”

Rainbow stood up, her legs feeling alive again even though the rest of her was still bruised and beaten. “Then it’s time for us to get back in this! This fake’s going down!” she exclaimed, spreading her wings and flying down towards Terios.

She was stopped, however, when Sonic suddenly whirled around and used his metal glove to project his personal barrier in front of her, the pegasus being pushed backwards by it. “Nope!” Sonic said, wrapping his left arm around Rainbow as he ran up the steps, stopping and throwing her back at the others when he reached the top.

She was caught by Applejack and Fluttershy, the former looking at Sonic and asking, “What the hay are ya doin’?” Sonic didn’t answer; instead, he got into a running stance and began running around them in tight, clockwise circles, creating a wind that lifted them all off of the ground. Everyone was further confused by this save Smithy and Twilight, the latter readying her magic as she waited.

As Sonic was completing another circle, he planted his feet against the ground to come to a stop, jumping straight up while spinning when he was to the left of the group. He uncurled from his spin and reached his left hand into his quills as he approached the height of his jump, pulling out the white Chaos Emerald. “Shadow’s more skilled at this than I am, but here goes nothing!” he thought. He looked over at the group, focusing on Twilight, and held the Chaos Emerald out to the side. He then raised Caliburn straight up, “Chaos…”

Applejack’s eyes widened at this, realizing what he was planning to do. “No…!” she managed.

As he began to swing Caliburn down, Sonic finished, “…Control!” As he swung downwards, a circular swirl of propelled sparkles shot through the air, the lead sparkle a bright white color. The swirl flew end over end until it hit Twilight’s horn, disappearing into it and beginning to shine brightly. Feeling the energy combine with her magic, the unicorn let out a shout as she used her teleport spell, the resulting flash being both magenta and white, looking like a cross between her usual teleport and a Chaos Control-powered teleport. When it faded, Spike, Smithy, and all of the ponies were gone.

Sonic landed on the ground and tucked the white Chaos Emerald back into his quills. “Excellent! Our allies are now safe, and it would appear you may have the potential to learn magic in you after all, Sonic,” Caliburn commented.

“You…” Sonic looked down and saw Terios approaching him, his red eyes somehow reflecting even more anger than before. “Do you know what you’ve done…?” he snarled.

Sonic started walking to his right as he replied, “I sure do. I got my friends out of here and away from you. Now you can’t use them against me anymore.”

Terios started up the steps, Sonic moving back a bit as he got near the top. “You’ve sent them away… by using a power I have no knowledge of…” For a few seconds, he was silent, seemingly content with staring at Sonic. Suddenly, he raised Deathcalibur over his head, “HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!” He moved forward, swinging his sword down as he went.

Sonic leapt back from the slash and moved around to avoid the series of slashes he made afterwards. “You ask me that while trying to kill me? Somebody’s priorities are messed up here, pal, and it’s definitely not mine!” he said.

Terios kept slashing while he yelled, “I have greater magic than any mage or wizard in this world, better skills with a sword than anyone who ever lived, I’m faster than any living thing, and YOU! You waltz in here and singlehandedly steal my conquests, my property, from me! How can a weakling like you not only do that, but also be in possession of a power I’ve never even heard of?!”

Sonic noticed he was being backed up against the wall and, when Terios made his next horizontal swing, he dove over Deathcalibur’s blade, rolling and spinning around to look at the dark hedgehog as he turned around. “Okay, first of all, you may have left the front door open, but I wouldn’t say I ‘waltzed’ in and took anything! You don’t get to OWN people! As for what I did, what makes you I’m gonna tell you?” Sonic asked.

Terios began swinging Deathcalibur again, Sonic responding this time by using Caliburn to repel his slashes. “That power is clearly some type of magic I don’t know about, and I thought I knew all there was to know about magic! Tell me how you learned to harness it! I WANT IT!”

After deflecting a slash, Sonic replied, “If you weren’t such a butthurt, self-entitled, conniving jerk, you probably would’ve learned about it long ago like I did! How did I learn about it? That’s easy; someone I know had it in him and learned how to use it because he had people he cared about, and I learned about it from him because I don’t kill everyone that looks at me funny!”

Terios let out a shout, “You deluded fool!” After ducking an overhead swing, Sonic moved forward and the two locked blades. “These connections of yours are leeching off of you, making you squander your potential! Can’t you see that?!” Terios asked.

While pushing back, Sonic answered, “The only thing I see right now is someone who won’t accept any view that doesn’t match up with his.” He pressed harder, getting closer to Terios before saying, “You’re the squatter here, not me!” He pushed Terios out of the lock and kicked him away with his left foot, the dark hedgehog flipping over once before he landed.

As he stood with his arms and legs spread out and his head facing downwards, Terios began to breathe heavily. After a few moments, he said in an unnervingly calm voice, “Now you’ve done it. I hate holding back. I think the world should always know just how powerful I am, but I held back this time because I thought it would be more enjoyable if the last face you all saw before you died was yours. But it’s true what they say: give a mortal an inch and suddenly they start thinking themselves your better.” He looked up at Sonic, “Now I’ll show you… my true power.”

He bent over, bringing his arms around in front of himself as his aura began to condense around him. Sonic and Caliburn watched as, slowly, his gloves and shoes broke away into nothing and his blue fur began to change to black, starting at his hands and feet and climbing up his body. When the black reached his head, his face began to change and his quills began to point upwards.

When the change was finished, he stood up straight and stared at Sonic, his arms down at his sides with Deathcalibur still in his right hand. He now had no gloves or shoes, exposing his hands and feet. His entire coloration was black save for the hole in his chest, which was now white on the inside instead of black, and his eyes, which were now completely white and lacked pupils or irises. Aside from his eyes and nose, he no longer had any discernible facial features. The aura around him was now much closer to his body, just above every part of his body with some of it still further out. He now looked like a dark version of Super Sonic. Taking Caliburn in both hands, Sonic braced himself for whatever was about to happen.
> Sonic and the Black Knight, Volume Six
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


BURNING RESOLVE


Soon…

A bright white and magenta flash appeared near the entrance to the tunnel leading to Terios’ tower, the flash depositing Smithy, Spike, and the ponies just a few feet above the ground. After they landed, they all quickly realized where they were. “How did we get back outside the tower?” Cadance asked, looking around as she and the others lay on the ground.

Twilight raised a hoof to her horn, “So that’s what Chaos Control feels like… Wow.”

Shining stood up, some of the others starting to do so as well, and looked at Twilight as he asked, “So that wasn’t your magic back there, Twi- Twilight?” He stammered at the end partly due to getting a good look at her black eye and partly because he caught himself before calling her ‘Twily’.

Twilight was confused at his hesitation, but she replied, “It was a little bit of both. I wasn’t sure I had enough magic available for the teleport, so Sonic said he’d use the Chaos Control to bolster it.”

Her attention was redirected when Rainbow flew around to her, nearly getting her face as she asked, “Why’d you send us out here, Twilight? We’ve gotta go back!”

Applejack nodded, “Sonic’s in there facin’ that creep all by himself!”

Twilight replied as she slid the backpack off, “I’m aware of that, Applejack, but this was Sonic’s plan. And frankly, Smithy and I agreed with him; we’re in no shape to support him like that right now.”

Rarity groaned as she stretched out her legs, “I would have to agree with that as well…”

Twilight set the backpack down and opened it. “What’s in the bag, Twilight?” Spike asked.

“There are still a few things left in here. It should do until we can get back to Camelot Castle,” the unicorn replied. She paused for a moment before reaching her hooves into it and then pulling them out, now holding Applejack’s hat. She held it out to the orange earth pony as she said, “He managed to get this back for you.”

Applejack took the hat and put it on, saying as she was adjusting it, “Ah still don’t like this.”

Pinkie piped up, “Buck up, Applejack! I’m still mad at that meanie Terios too, but I’m not going after him if I’m just going to get in Sonic’s way! We’re not going to have the fighting equivalent of a weekend at Pinkie’s!”

As Fluttershy was looking through the pack with Twilight, they all heard a loud explosion and Fluttershy yelped, hiding her face under her hooves while the others looked around. “Wh-What was that?” Fluttershy asked. It didn’t take long for the others to find out.

Looking back at the tower, they saw two blurs shoot out of the side near the top of it. One blur was blue and stuck close to the castle, and the other was mostly black with a bit of blue mixed in, this one staying above the blue blur wherever it went. It was pretty clear that the blue blur was Sonic and the black blur was Terios, and they began to hear the sound of clanging metal as they slashed at each other. “The fight’s moved outside the tower!” Smithy realized.

Rainbow watched the two blurs moving along the castle for a few seconds before saying, “That’s it! I don’t care where he hit me or how much lightning is up there! I’ve got my wings, so I am not sitting this one out!” She was about to shoot up towards the fight, but she was suddenly surprised when Shining Armor leapt up and tackled her to the ground, his legs wrapping around her wings and pinning them to her sides. After they landed, Rainbow groaned, “Oof! Hey, what’s the big idea?! Are you trying to hurt me now?!”

Shining held onto her tightly despite her struggling as he answered, “Maybe a little if that’s what it’s going to take to keep you on the ground.”

Rainbow kept struggling as she yelled, “He’s going up against that jerk alone! He needs our help!”

Shining replied, “We’re helping him the most by staying out of this, Rainbow.” He looked up at the scuffle, “Don’t worry about him. This is his fight now. It always should have been his fight. Terios is his darkness… and he’s not going to let it win.”

Up near the top of the castle, Sonic ran along the side of it while Terios flew overhead, the black hedgehog constantly moving in for an attack and breaking off when it was deflected. After deflecting one such attack, Sonic noticed he was running out of wall, heading straight for the tower. Pouring on the speed, he went up at an angle, aiming for the top of the tower as he ran off the castle. He whirled around when he heard Terios coming up behind him and held up Caliburn, forcing him into a blade lock. The kept this up as they dropped down.

The lock continued for several moments after they landed, both hedgehogs pushing against each other. Terios then began to push in a different direction, trying to get his blade on top of Caliburn’s, but Sonic wasn’t making it easy for him. Suddenly, he dashed forward, raising one foot and placing it on Sonic’s chest followed by the other. Sonic was stunned by this, but he managed to recover and roll out of the way before Terios could slash him from behind.

Both hedgehogs turned to face each other and Terios moved first again, getting up in Sonic’s face as they began exchanging blows again. As they locked blades again, Terios spoke even though he had no visible mouth, “You’ve been suffering from this taint that’s plagued you your entire life…”

Sonic deflected a horizontal strike as he replied, “Wrong.”

Terios didn’t stop attacking as he continued, “…and you’ve failed as a ruler.”

Sonic held Caliburn up over his head and swung him down as he yelled, “Shut up already!” Terios stopped the strike by holding Deathcalibur out with its side up. He held for a moment before he suddenly kicked Sonic in the chest, knocking him onto his back near the edge of the circular tower. Sonic looked up to see Terios leaping at him with Deathcalibur over his head. Narrowing his eyes, Sonic placed his left hand underneath Caliburn and held him up, stopping Terios’ attack the same way he stopped his. He then pulled his legs up and planted his feet against Terios’ stomach, pushing as hard as he could.

Terios was sent sailing off the tower, but he managed to land, though not neatly, on one of the castle’s lower rooftops. As he stood up, he saw Sonic jumping down to join him, the blue hedgehog taking Caliburn in both hands as he said, “Sounds like you’re running out of things to say, Terry! Not that I’m complaining!”

They continued fighting, slats coming loose and falling off as they ran. Sonic was able to use the sloped roof and uneven footing to his advantage, allowing him to land several blows against Terios, who seemed to be having trouble keeping his footing, eventually hovering to continue fighting rather than trying to continue on foot and slipping all the time. “Your compassion makes you weak!” Terios yelled as he tried to hit Sonic with lightning, the blue hedgehog able to dodge the bolts since he was able to correctly predict how they would bounce.

“At least I’ll have a helping hand in case I become a blind fish like you!” Sonic retorted, leaping over a bolt and then jumping at Terios with a spinning slash, the black hedgehog unable to get his guard up in time.

Terios growled as he recoiled from the hit, though as he looked up from his chest, he noticed the way the roof sloped and got an idea. He held out his left hand and Sonic braced himself for either more lightning or fire, but instead his palm turned blue. “Let me show you just how slippery your ideals are!” Terios said before firing several blue spheres around Sonic, which were revealed to be made of water when they landed.

Although he wasn’t hit by any of the water spheres, the resulting puddles still ran down the slats, getting under Sonic’s shoes, and they had spread out enough to get around his immediate area. Thus when he tried to move, he began to slip and, while he tried to get his footing back, began sliding down. As he went over the edge, he managed to reach his left hand up and grab onto one of the slats, preventing him from falling further. “It will not hold, Sonic!” Caliburn warned, the slat already starting to shake from Sonic’s weight. Thinking quickly, Sonic used the tip of Caliburn to knock a nearby slat off and pushed himself towards where it had been, managing to get his left hand on the newly exposed stone, giving him something firmer to hold onto.

“Not bad, but you’re still in an undesirable position,” Terios mocked. Sonic peered up to see him hovering above the roof with his arms crossed, Deathcalibur still in his right hand. “Now don’t you wish you weren’t so dependent on the land, that you could have my power? If you live to let go, you’ll have a chance to rethink your foolhardy bravado before you land!” he jeered.

Sonic noticed the stone behind the black hedgehog and then looked down at Caliburn and gave him a nod, the sword confused but nodding to show he was ready for whatever the blue hedgehog was thinking. Sonic then looked back up at Terios and narrowed his eyes, holding Caliburn up behind him as he said, “Hey, I might show up at the last minute, but I can make a pretty powerful impression with any chance I get!” With that, he suddenly spun Caliburn around into a reverse grip and threw him like a spear at Terios!

The black hedgehog easily moved slightly to his right to avoid getting hit, Caliburn getting his tip stuck slightly in the stone. As he began to wiggle, Terios mocked, “Aw, too bad, hotshot! Now you really are at my mercy! And I’m not feeling too tender right now, so you got any last words?”

Sonic flashed him a smirk, “Yeah. What goes around comes around!” Terios raised an eye at that. He turned around a moment later when he heard Caliburn pull his tip free, the sword floating above the roof. Before he could react, Caliburn flew towards him and struck him in the chest, causing him to grunt and drop Deathcalibur, the sword sliding off of the roof hilt first. He ended up setting one foot on the slats underneath him and suddenly he too was slipping, being so totally caught off-guard that he couldn’t even try to get a footing like Sonic had.


TAKING THE FALL


Despite his panic, Terios had enough presence of mind to grab Sonic’s torso as he went over, pulling the blue hedgehog down with him, both of them going into free fall. “Sonic!” Caliburn exclaimed, floating over to the edge and allowing gravity to pull him down after his master.

Down on the ground, even though they were a good distance away from where the two hedgehogs had ended up, everyone could see the trouble they both were in. “They fell off the roof!” Pinkie cried.

“They’re too high up! They’re not gonna be able to land okay!” Smithy added.

Rainbow began struggling anew at that, Shining still holding her wings down along with Applejack while Fluttershy tended to her injuries. “Let me go now! I can catch Sonic! He needs help!” she exclaimed.

“No. He’ll be okay,” Cadance assured, remembering Tails’ words.

As they fell, Terios looked up at Sonic and held out his hands, releasing a stream of fire from the palms of both. In response, Sonic straightened out and sped up enough to get ahead of the spot where he was aiming, avoiding the brunt of the flames and introducing Terios’ face to his right fist, cutting off his attack. Caliburn managed to catch up shortly afterwards and he flipped over, allowing Sonic to grab his hilt.

Glancing back over his shoulder, Terios saw he didn’t have far to go and knew he had to act fast. He looked back up at Sonic and held his hands out once again, this time using his magic to pull Sonic towards him. Once he was close enough, Terios moved around him and grabbed his arms, restraining him from behind. “Let’s see how flat I can make you!” Terios yelled as Sonic struggled in his grip.

As he struggled, Sonic knew he only had a few seconds at best to get out of this. Terios easily dodged when he kicked his legs back, but wasn’t prepared when he suddenly curled up into a ball and began spinning. He shouted as he spun along with Sonic, the ground suddenly rushing up much faster now. As they reached it, Sonic put in the extra bit of spin to make sure Terios landed first, spinning against the black hedgehog for a brief moment before he ricocheted at an angle towards the castle wall, breaking out of his spin and jamming Caliburn into the stone before he crashed into it, bringing his legs up and planting his feet against the wall to help stop his momentum.

After a few seconds, Sonic pulled Caliburn out and dropped down, now having much less distance to fall to the ground. He then walked over to Terios to check him. The black hedgehog was lying on his back in the small crater he’d created from his landing. His arms and legs were spread out and he appeared to be unconscious, though it was hard to tell. His eyes were still white and Sonic had not seen him blink once since he revealed his true appearance.

After a few moments, Sonic looked over to his left and saw the others in the distance moving towards him. From what he could tell, it looked like they were all sporting wrappings to some degree. Suddenly, Caliburn exclaimed, “Sonic, look out!” The blue hedgehog turned back to Terios and saw that he was sitting up now. He didn’t get a chance to react as Terios held out his left hand and used his magic to push Sonic back into the wall. He hit with the back of his head first and collapsed onto his back, still clutching Caliburn in his right hand.

After summoning Deathcalibur to him, Terios climbed to his knees and jumped from where he was over to the group, landing on the path in front of them. Most of them began to back away upon seeing him that close, but Rainbow leapt to the front of the group and yelled, “Stay back, pal! I won’t let you hurt my friends any more than you have!”

Terios didn’t give her a verbal response. Instead, he pointed his left index finger at her and unleashed a red bolt of lightning. Rainbow braced herself, ready to take it if it meant protecting her friends, but it stopped short of reaching her and two bolts shot off from it, going around the group before tightening like a lasso. It caught all of them, pinning their upper limbs to their sides and holding them close together as it connected to the initial bolt of lightning. As he began walking forward, Terios spoke, “No more games, fanatics. Your sleight of hand ends now.”

So focused was he on Sonic’s friends that he didn’t hear the hedgehog himself running along the side of the castle wall until it was too late. As he got closer, Sonic threw Caliburn up in the direction of the group before jumping towards the bolt of lightning coming from Terios’ finger. As he was about to touch it, he held his right hand up in front of himself, the gem in the wrist ending up in the middle of the path. It cut off the stream of lightning, though the group was still being held up by the circle of lightning, unable to move much.

Sonic rolled to the side as he landed, Terios looking at him as he wrapped his left hand around his right arm above his metal glove. “Wrong again, inkblot!” he said as he shook his right arm to get the tingling feeling and traces of lightning out.

Caliburn floated over as he got the last sparks off and allowed him to take him up again. As he was held up in front of Sonic, he finished, “It’s your lust for power that’s coming to an end.”


SPEED VS. FLIGHT


Sonic shot forward with Caliburn out in front of him, but Terios dodged the thrust by performing a backflip, leaping back a fair distance. After he landed, he crossed his arms in front of himself as Sonic ran after him. He brought his arms down as Sonic caught up with him, a surge of his aura surrounding him as he floated up into the air. Sonic shielded his face at this and looked up at him when he said, “You might have the fastest feet in the world, but I have that and I can fly! Think you can handle that?!” Sonic’s only answer was to hold up Caliburn, indicating he was ready to answer his question.

Terios began hovering around above Sonic while he adjusted his grip on Caliburn, watching to see what he would do first. Suddenly, Terios vanished in a cloud of black-purple mist similar to King Arthur, only instead of dropping down when he reappeared, he remained in the air and did it several more times, with Sonic trying to keep track of where he was. After the third time, he raised Deathcalibur over his head and began gathering flames into its tip, throwing a large fireball down at Sonic when it was ready. The blue hedgehog managed to avoid being hit by it, but he had to keep going to avoid being caught in the resulting explosion. Sonic then tried to jump up and attack him, but Terios kept moving back, staying out of the way of his slashes. After the fourth time, Terios yelled, "Give it up! You can't hit me!"

As Sonic dropped back onto the ground, Caliburn advised, "Do not rise to his bait! Watch him carefully."

Sonic nodded in response, looking up at Terios afterwards and saying, "You have to come down from there sometime, Terry!"

Terios replied, "Not before I've brought you down!" He held out his left hand and Sonic noticed light beginning to shine up from beneath him. Looking down, he saw that Terios was trying to get him with the pattern he'd used to pin him to the ground before and quickly jumped back in a backflip to get out of it. Terios swung his left hand to the side to dispel the pattern afterwards and looked down at Sonic, "Fine. We'll settle on a compromise." He raised Deathcalibur over his head again, but this time, he shot down at Sonic with his sword out in front of him. Sonic leapt to the side to get out of his way and then watched as the black hedgehog circled him, evidently trying to make a tight enough turn to strike him while he was still close. He went around twice before Sonic raised Caliburn up at his left side, turning to the right and making a horizontal swing a moment later, slashing Terios down his torso. The black hedgehog let out a grunt of pain and moved back, looking at Sonic, “What?!”

Sonic held Caliburn up again as he smirked, “I know how fast I can fly, Terry. Get with the times, man!” Terios growled at this and floated forward, raising Deathcalibur above his head and swinging it down at Sonic, the blue hedgehog blocking the strike and beginning to back down the path, away from the others, as the barrage of strikes continued. As he deflected or blocked each strike, Sonic did as Caliburn advised and watched the other hedgehog’s movements.

After a couple more strikes, he caught an overhead swing and forced Deathcalibur down to the side, quickly pulling Caliburn out of the lock and thrusting him forward into Terios’ chest. The black hedgehog dropped to the ground as he was pushed back. He soon came to a stop and looked down at the hole in his chest before he looked up at Sonic again.

Despite their distance, Smithy, Spike, and the ponies were able to see the two fighting, but most of them were more focused on trying to get free at the moment. Their struggling was brought to a stop when Pinkie, who somehow managed to get her forelegs free, called out like a cheerleader at Sonic’s thrust, “Rick ‘em, rack ‘em, rock ‘em, meep! Stick your sword into that creep!”

Terios glared back at her over his shoulder, “Did I not make myself clear earlier?! Shut up already!”

Pinkie settled down at that, putting on a bored expression and placing her left hoof on her cheek while holding her right hoof up and waving it around like she was holding a flag as she flatly said, “Terry, Terry, he’s our man, if he can’t do it,” she held her legs up and finished in a loud voice that would’ve made Princess Luna proud, “YAY!” Terios growled, but he refrained from teaching the pink pony another painful lesson when he heard Sonic approaching, returning his attention to the blue hedgehog.

As the two resumed their fighting, everyone else began struggling again, still trying to get free. Pinkie pulling her forelegs out had allowed for a little more movement, but the lightning encircling them had tightened in response, Terios’ magic seemingly determined to not let them escape. “We gotta get outta this!” Applejack grunted as she tried to squeeze downwards.

“We know, AJ, but it feels like the harder we struggle, the tighter it gets!” Rainbow groaned as she tried to spread her wings, which were caught between Pinkie on her left and Rarity on her right.

Twilight shook her head, “There has to be something we can do.”

As she looked down at the lightning, Shining looked down at it as well as he wondered aloud, “What did Sonic do earlier?”

Smithy overheard the stallion and looked down as well, thinking back to what little he could see from where they were. “He got in the lightning’s path… and managed to…" he thought, trying to think harder. He got an idea a moment later and looked back over his right shoulder at the Clarent, still sheathed behind him. His arms were still pinned to his sides, though, so how could he reach for it?

He heard Pinkie squeaking and turned his head to look over his left shoulder at her. The pink pony was not directly behind him, but he still had to crane his neck a bit to see her. She appeared to be touching her hooves to the lightning and pulling back at almost the exact instant they came into contact with it. Seeing she probably had the best chance at the moment, Smithy said, “Pinkie Pie!”

The party pony swung her head back so she was looking at the fox. “Hello!” she said.

Smithy fidgeted a little as he spoke, “Can you reach Clarent from where you are? I’ve got an idea!”

Pinkie held her head up and began trying to twist around as she replied, “Okay!” Once she was turned around a little, she began trying to reach for the sword, her right hoof just a little short of reaching it.

Pinkie placed her left hoof on top of Rainbow’s head as she tried to reach further, the cyan pegasus letting out a pained grunt as the hoof pressed down. “Ah! Easy, Pinkie! That spot kinda hurts!” she said.

“Oops! Sorry, Dashie!” Pinkie replied as she moved her left hoof slightly, her head and right hoof close to reaching Clarent.

As Pinkie kept trying to reach for the sword, Sonic landed another strike on Terios, the black hedgehog staggering back a bit and looking down for a moment before looking back up at Sonic. He held Deathcalibur up in front of him and then swung it down at his side, the blade disappearing from view afterwards. Sonic raised an eye at this, prompting Terios to say, “You’re better than I thought, but let’s see you get through this!” As he finished, he began to become transparent, his body fading into the darkness until even his eyes were no longer visible.


ESCALATION


Sonic blinked and looked around, wondering, “Where’d he go?” He got an answer a few seconds later when he was suddenly punched in the chest, the hit sending him flopping backwards onto his stomach. He pushed himself up and shook his head before climbing to his feet, looking around for any sign of Terios, but in the darkness, he was practically invisible, unable to be seen by normal eyes as he continued to attack Sonic, nicking him and knocking him down without revealing himself.

Terios’ change in tactics did not go unnoticed by Smithy and the Equestrians, as even as far away as the two were, they could see Sonic reeling from the attacks and knew what Terios was doing. “I know we agreed to stay out of this fight, but I daresay it may be time for us to intervene!” Rarity said, both Rainbow and Applejack agreeing with her.

“Hurry, Pinkie!” Spike urged, the party pony’s right hoof just short of grabbing Clarent’s hilt. She kept trying to reach for a few moments at Spike’s urging before pulling her hoof back, placing it on top of Rarity’s head and swinging her head forward, aiming for the hilt with her mouth open.

A moment later, she felt something solid between her teeth and moved her head to the right, pulling Clarent up and out of its scabbard. She pulled her head back and managed to twist herself around again to avoid hitting anyone with the sword’s blade, everyone ducking when it came close. “Got it! What now?” Pinkie asked, her voice a bit muffled due to the sword hilt in it.

“Okay, good. Now I would rather do this part myself, but you’re the only one who can really move right now, Pinkie, so what I need you to do is put Clarent in the path of the lightning, preferably with the crossguard first. It may be a bit shocking, but that should be enough to interrupt the current,” Smithy said.

“What?! You came up with the idea of electrocuting Pinkie and you’re not even completely sure it’ll get us out of this?!” Rainbow yelled.

“Sir Sonic cut us loose from Terios earlier by interrupting his lightning, and we don’t have a lot of options right now!” Smithy argued.

Shining glanced up at his horn for a moment before saying, “I think I have enough magic for a small force field.” He closed his eyes and charged his horn again, this time with a new spell and focusing on Clarent. Sure enough, several seconds later, a small, circular force field formed around the sword’s blade, stretching between the crossguard and the tip. Opening his eyes, Shining looked back at Pinkie and said, “Now do it, Pinkie, and make sure the force field is what comes into contact with the lightning!” Pinkie nodded and swung her head to the right while opening her mouth slightly, closing it again a moment later so that Clarent was pointing straight ahead. She then brought it down to her right, aiming for the lightning.

Sonic, meanwhile, was still taking the punches from Terios and it was wearing him down. He staggered forward a few steps before turning around, the last attack coming from behind him. “Where is he?” Sonic grunted, scanning the area for any sign of his black doppelganger. As he turned his head to the right, he was suddenly knocked onto his side by Terios kicking the left side of his face from above, an outline of the black hedgehog visible for a moment before he disappeared again.

As Sonic climbed to his feet, Caliburn spoke, “He may be impossible to see normally, Sonic, but he’s still there, and you know he will come for you! Think! There has to be another way to detect his presence!”

Sonic looked around while panting a bit, trying to find something, anything he could use to locate Terios. “Man, he’s like a ghost right now! I saw him for a second during that last attack, but that was because he was right there. He probably has to be right on top of me before I can see him…" he thought. After a moment, he noticed he could still hear his friends from where he was and got an idea. He placed both hands on top of Caliburn’s crossguard and held him up while placing his tip on the ground, getting down on one knee behind him. “I can’t see him coming… but maybe I can hear him…" he thought as he closed his eyes and placed his head close to Caliburn’s hilt.

The force field around Clarent came into contact with the lightning, the electricity sparking at the sides of it as it tried to remain connected. Pinkie gritted her teeth as she tried to hold it there, a tingly feeling not from the lightning but her Pinkie Sense urging her to release the blade and not get electrocuted again, but she fought to hold the feeling back and keep the sword in place, even as the lightning came dangerously close to the crossguard.

All of a sudden, the connection was severed and the lightning disappeared, everyone dropping down onto the ground below in a heap. As they struggled to untangle themselves, Spike managed to get out from under the ponies and fox and said, “Come on, we gotta help Sonic!” Pinkie managed to get out after that, and soon the others got free as well. The party pony picked Clarent up from the ground and tossed it back to Smithy while Cadance, Shining, Twilight, and Rarity went on ahead, all of them using their magic to create light.

Up ahead, Sonic still had his head close to Caliburn’s hilt, listening. He had heard his friends get free and heard them coming towards him, but he tried to tune them out, tried to focus on detecting Terios. After a few moments, his eyes shot open and he looked straight ahead, though his eyes soon went to the right as he heard the black hedgehog move from in front of him to behind him, perhaps because he sensed that Sonic knew where he was.

In one quick motion, Sonic grabbed Caliburn’s hilt with his right hand and spun around to his right while swinging the sword up diagonally, landing a clean hit across Terios’ chest, the black hedgehog appearing with a surprised shout as the light that Shining, Twilight, Rarity, and Cadance were producing shined on him. Between the hit and the lights, Terios was momentarily stunned and Sonic took the chance, taking Caliburn in both hands and performing a series of slashes with Soul Surge, ending with a thrust that pushed Terios backwards.


TERIOS' RAGE


As he came to a stop, Terios stared down at his chest, the hole there extending nearly to his stomach and littered with various cracks and slashes all across it. He glared up at Sonic a moment later and growled as he held his fists up out at his sides, “YOU WRETCH!” At this, his aura began to change from blue to red and he swung his fists down as his magic surged. Suddenly, the ground in front of him began to crack, the cracking spreading forward and throwing everyone off-balance, especially when rocks began to shoot up out of the ground. Everyone began to scramble to stay upright and avoid getting hit, but many of them were unable to stay up. But Terios wasn’t done yet.

As he stood upon a rock column that had come up from underneath him, Terios held his hands up and created a black vortex much like the one he had come through earlier, only this one was bigger and it was suspended in the air above the black hedgehog. As it finished forming, it became similar to a black hole as it started drawing anything within range towards it. And unfortunately one such thing was Sonic, the blue hedgehog having fallen over due to the rocks coming up from underneath him. He had been trying to climb to his feet as the vortex finished forming, and before he could react, it lifted him off the ground and pulled him and Caliburn in!

“Oh no, Sonic!” Cadance cried as she and the others held onto the rocks Terios had pulled up in an attempt to avoid the same fate.

Upon seeing Sonic disappear into the black vortex, Rainbow stopped holding on and spread her wings, shooting straight for the void in an attempt to catch up to him and pull him out. Terios, however, saw her coming and simply pointed his right index finger at her, a bolt of lightning coming from it and wrapping around the pegasus. As soon as it did, he swiped his finger to his left, crashing her into the castle wall before swinging her down into the ground, getting her caught between some rocks. The cyan pegasus groaned as she tried to get herself free.

“Rainbow!” Twilight cried, the lavender unicorn just a bit in front of where the cyan pegasus was. Being closer to the vortex, the pull from it was stronger and she soon lost her grip on the rock she was holding onto. Fortunately, Smithy had been ahead of her and he managed to grab her hoof with his right hand. This unfortunately left him with less of a secure grip on the rock he was holding onto, but he held onto Twilight regardless.

Before anyone could move to help either the two or Rainbow, Terios looked up at the castle’s roof, and a moment later, Pinkie screamed, “Twitchy taillllll!” A second later, Terios created a large explosion that sent a number of roof slats, some of them on fire, flying.

Shining looked down from the falling slats and realized a number of them looked like they were going to land on Rainbow Dash! Seeing that she was still stuck, he stood up and ran as fast as he could, throwing himself over her as he shouted, “Look out!” As he landed atop her, the slats rained down on and around them, some thrown off by the vortex’s suction while other managed to hit them. Shining grunted at the ones that hit him, but thankfully, he didn’t feel any burning sensation arise.

Satisfied with his work, Terios turned and floated up to the vortex, disappearing into it. Smithy and Twilight looked back at him as he vanished, noticing that the hole was beginning to slowly close. Smithy soon turned his head forward, though, when he felt his grip slipping, his fingers twitching as he tried to hold on. “Help, someone! I’m losing my grip!” he cried.

Applejack, knowing that both Shining and Rainbow were down, reached a hoof up to her hat and took it off, throwing it behind her to Fluttershy as she ran forward. “Hold on! Ah’m a-comin’!” she called, figuring she could grab onto a rock and hold onto them until the vortex closed. Twilight and Smithy began to look relieved as she got closer, but suddenly, the part of the rock Smithy was clinging onto broke away. Applejack’s eyes went wide at this and she increased her pace, reaching her hooves out for the fox’s hand as he tried to reach for her. They both came up short, however, and the orange mare landed on top of the rock Smithy had been trying to hold onto. Applejack could only watch helplessly as the two were pulled into the vortex, which closed soon afterwards.


HOT AND COLD


Inside the vortex, Smithy and Twilight spun end over end for a short while before they landed on something hard. They soon recovered from the landing and pushed themselves up before looking around. The sky above, if it could even be called that, was a dark red, stretching from above them to down past them. They had landed on some sort of black column along the edge of a circular platform, five similar columns also along the perimeter of the platform. Both the platform and the columns were a blackish-gray color with red lines going around the columns and running along the platform, the lines in the center of the platform making a glowing circle.

As the two were looking around, their eyes soon fell on Sonic and Terios, the latter once again using Deathcalibur as the two continued going at it on the platform. Neither one of them seemed to have noticed Twilight and Smithy’s arrival, so, while they did entertain the idea of backing Sonic up, they decided to stay where they were for the time being and observe the fight, leaning over the edge of the column to watch closer.

As the two hedgehogs continued fighting, Sonic managed to stop a high swing from Terios, leaving the black hedgehog open. He managed to push the blade away and brought his left foot up, kicking Terios in the chest. The black hedgehog fell on his back, but he started to get up soon afterwards, though he was clearly struggling to do so. Sonic noticed this and called, “In case you didn’t notice, Terios, you don’t exactly have a spring in your step anymore. I’ve been dueling with you because I don’t want you hurting my friends any more than you already have, but I’m willing to let bygones be bygones. This doesn’t have to end with one of us being struck down!”

Terios, having finally raised himself to a standing position, glared at Sonic and said, “Oh, but it does. The last time you were here, you accepted what your actions meant for this world, but now you seem to be rejecting them now that I’m the one trying to continue what you started. Did you or did you not question the value of a kingdom that would last forever?”

Sonic yelled, “Don’t twist my words out of context! King or not, I wanted to give the people of this world a chance to decide for themselves how they wanted to live! If it meant preventing them from being destroyed along with the kingdom that already existed, I was more than willing to play the bad guy!” He pointed at Terios, “You? You’re a bad guy who, from what I’ve seen and heard, is only driven by controlling as much as you possibly can and punishing anyone as you wish on a whim!”

Caliburn backed him up, “There is no code behind your actions, no higher call, no selflessness; your actions are your own, and they have purely selfish motives behind them!”

Terios grunted, “Hmph. I don’t believe either of you. It seems more like you’re trying to do the same thing I am, but your failing is you don’t want to admit the truth behind your actions like you did before.”

Sonic replied, “Maybe it didn’t come out the way I intended it to, but my goal here has always been the same. I wasn’t going to abandon the kingdom or its people to the whims of those who touched the Scabbard of Excalibur and had their heads messed with, and I won’t run from them, my role here,” he clenched his left hand into a fist, “or from you.”

Terios held up Deathcalibur as he responded, “I think we can both agree on that last one. You’re NOT going to run; you and all those you care about are going to DIE here, more foolish than most!” With that, the two hedgehogs shot towards each other again while Smithy and Twilight continued watching, both of them quietly rooting for Sonic.

After a short while of trading blows, Sonic and Terios ended up near the center of the circular platform. Terios ducked under a horizontal slash from Sonic and jumped up and backwards, flipping over as he reached the height of his jump and then throwing Deathcalibur at Sonic like a spear, which Sonic stepped to the side to avoid. He then dashed towards Terios as he summoned his sword back to him and their blades locked, the two hedgehogs pushing against each other for several moments before Sonic pushed Terios’ blade to the left. The black hedgehog took his sword in both hands, but he froze when Sonic pointed Caliburn at him, the sword’s tip mere inches from his chest. “This is your last chance, Terios! Lay down your sword and surrender peacefully! I’m offering you an alternative!” Sonic said.

Terios held his position for a few moments before he quickly swung Deathcalibur up, knocking Caliburn away and throwing Sonic off-balance. After stumbling a bit, he looked up at Terios, only to be thrown backwards when the black hedgehog held his left hand out and gave him a strong push with his magic. Sonic managed to land on his feet and quickly charged at Terios again, sidestepping around the lightning and flames the black hedgehog threw at him to halt his advance. Before he could reach him, however, Terios held his left hand out and created the glowing pattern from earlier right in front of Sonic, the blue hedgehog stepping into it and immediately stopping as he felt it trying to pull him down.

“The only thing you can offer me is your strength, your power, your LIFE! I’ll take it all from you!” Terios snarled as he kept holding his hand out. Sonic gritted his teeth and struggled to remain upright as he felt his knees buckling. He managed to bring his head up and focused on continuing, soon managing to raise his right foot and take a step forward. Terios’ hand went down a little at this and his empty white eyes widened. “What…? How are you-?! This is impossible…!” he stammered as Sonic continued to slowly move towards him. Their eyes locked and Terios got a good look at Sonic’s green eyes. There was no fear in them, no anger; instead, he saw only Sonic’s stubborn desire to stop him and determination to protect those he cared about. Terios had never seen eyes like that before, and he could feel terror rising up within him at the sight of them.

Trying to maintain his demeanor despite the fear he was experiencing, Terios took a step back and held his hand out again. Chains suddenly shot out of the ground within the pattern as he did, the chains wrapping around Sonic’s arms and legs to stop him. Sonic grunted as he felt them pulling him back, but he kept his gaze on Terios. Realizing he was still not stopping, Terios started casting more spells. The chains began to pull harder, managing to stop Sonic in place while he had his right foot in the air. A claw rose up in front of Sonic and hit him in the chest, causing him to grunt as he took a step back. While he was being held in place by the chains, the claw pried his right hand open and seized Caliburn from him, throwing the sword out of the pattern and getting his blade stuck in the ground at the side of one of the columns around the perimeter.

As Sonic tried to bring his right hand up to reach out for Caliburn, Terios cast another spell. After they managed to bring him down onto his knees, the chains changed into ice that began climbing up Sonic’s body, his limbs being the first to freeze. As his hands and feet were encased in ice and it began to climb up the rest of his body, Terios took a few steps forward and let out a dark but shaky chuckle. “You know, you actually had me going for a minute there. Now look at you; turns out you are just an ordinary hedgehog compared to me. How does it feel to be bested by the superior part of yourself?” Terios gloated, trying to sound like he expected all of this.

Sonic had been looking down at the ice while Terios had been speaking, noticing that it had reached his chest. As it began to climb up his neck, he looked up at Terios and stared hard at him, the ice quickly climbing up over his quills as Terios began to get unnerved by that stare. Sonic didn’t look concerned at all at what was happening to him; he simply kept staring at Terios as he said, “You’d better hope you live to regret the choices you’ve made, Terios.” After he finished speaking, the ice finished covering his head, encasing him completely in ice.

Terios’ left arm dropped to his side as he let out a gasp, his breaths coming in short, heavy gasps. It would almost seem as if his injuries were finally catching up with him, but in actuality, it was Sonic’s words that had gotten to him, the blue hedgehog still giving him that piercing look as he stared straight ahead in his icy prison. As he tried to calm himself, Terios heard the voice of King Arthur in his head, “What is this? Are you actually displaying fear?”

Terios held his left hand to his chest as he thought, “Sh-Shut up! He just managed to surprise me, that’s all! I know his words mean nothing!”

King Arthur responded, “Your actions tell a different tale. You seemed very desperate to stop him just now. His words may be hollow, but he’s making it very clear you’ve never faced an opponent like him before.”

Terios gritted his teeth, “I told you to shut up! He is helpless now; his end is at hand!”

King Arthur replied, his voice starting to distort as he spoke, “Then why do you waste your time debating with me? Are you going to prove that you have earned the right to rule the Underworld or not?”

Terios’ body began to shake a bit, “You dare question my rule?! Ruling over the Underworld is my birthright! I deposed that old ruler to prove that I was ready to rule! The entire Underworld belongs to me now!” He calmed down slightly and turned to look over at Caliburn, the sword still embedded in the ground next to the column, “And now I will strike down this pathetic excuse for a ruler and take the proof that the Grand Kingdom is mine. That sword and all of Camelot belong to me now.” He began to walk towards the column, intent on taking Caliburn and plunging his blade into Sonic.


STEPPING UP


Before he could get far, he heard Smithy yell out, “NO!” Terios paused and briefly looked to his right before looking up at the top of the column upon hearing the sound of Twilight’s teleportation, seeing both the fox and the unicorn emerge from a magenta flash. He simply stared up at them, his expression hinting at nothing as Smithy drew Clarent from its scabbard and spun his tails behind him, dashing off of the column and swinging his sword downward as he fell towards Terios. The black hedgehog simply held Deathcalibur up horizontally and stopped the attack, though he was pushed back a bit by the impact. He then performed a quick horizontal slash, pushing the fox away from him.

Smithy landed on his feet and held Clarent up in both hands as Terios commented, “You two managed to follow me to my private domain, huh? Too impatient to wait for the bonus round, pup?”

Smithy shivered a bit, but he held Terios’ gaze as he replied, “I’m not a pup! The correct term is fox CUB!”

Terios moved his head around to indicate he was rolling his eyes, “Pup, cub, whatever. You and that horse are still obedient to a fault, continuing to follow someone who’s already dead when anyone else would’ve let me have the thrill of the chase.”

Twilight spoke up, “Sonic’s not dead yet!” She leapt down from the column, landing behind and beside Smithy, “And there’s nothing wrong with anything he’s done or what we’re doing!”

Terios replied, “I would be inclined to agree with that if you all weren’t in a whole other class of meatheads. I girded my knuckles on you two, I made you feel a fraction of what your ‘allies’ were doing to your doubles, I used you against that ‘king’, I relished in every second of it, and you STILL choose to defy me! Seems like the only way to break any of you is to break your heads!”

Twilight hesitantly took a step back, but Smithy remained where and as he was, saying, “The Grand Kingdom suffered enough under the old king’s rule. It won’t be subjected to another dark age by an imposter of its true king, and we’ll fight tooth and nail to make sure of that!”

While Twilight turned to look at Caliburn, Terios asked, “And how do you worms intend to stop me? Or did I give you both a concussion so large that you both have not only forgot what I did, but also refuse to admit you’re scared or defeated?”

Twilight walked over to Caliburn and stared at his face while Smithy said, “I haven’t forgotten what you did, the fear and brutality you subjected me and Twilight to. You’re right; I am afraid of you, but I’m more afraid of what will happen to everyone we know and this world if we turn and run!” He pointed Clarent at Terios, “I refuse to run! I will fight you to protect King Sonic’s ideals!”

Terios rolled his eyes again as he grunted, “How sickeningly pathetic. And you, unicorn? Do you wish to die alone as well?” There was no response from Twilight. After a few moments, both Terios and Smithy turned to look at her, seeing her next to Caliburn.

The two had been like this for several moments, Twilight wearing a hesitant expression on her face while Caliburn gave her a stoic one, looking deep into the unicorn’s eyes as if he was searching for something. After a moment, Caliburn gave as much of a nod as he could and Twilight’s expression switched to one of her determination as she nodded back. She stood up on her hind legs and placed her hooves around Caliburn’s hilt, trying to secure as much a grip as she could as she began pulling up. After a bit of resistance, the sword came free and Twilight used her magic to hold Caliburn up as she dropped back on all fours. She then turned to look at Terios and pointed Caliburn at him as she said, “You’re the one who won’t admit defeat, Terios! Compassion isn’t a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of strength, as those who have it will support one another no matter where they are! My friends taught me that, and now you will get to see its magic for yourself!”

Terios’ shock at seeing her wield the sacred sword soon turned to anger and he pointed Deathcalibur at her, saying, “How dare you! That sword belongs to ME!”

Twilight steeled herself as she stepped up beside Smithy and adjusted Caliburn in her grip. “No, he doesn’t, and he doesn’t belong to me either. But since the true ruler of Camelot, his TRUE owner, is unable to wield him right now, he has deemed me worthy enough to take him up in his stead.” She got into a battle stance, as did Smithy, and said, “You’re not Sonic! At best, you’re a small part of him gone rampant! The real deal hasn’t been lost yet, and until he rejoins us, we’ll continue what he’s started!”

With that, the two charged at Terios with a shout, the black hedgehog taking a step back as he held Deathcalibur up to stop their initial attack. He was actually a bit surprised as the two kept pushing him back, not expecting them to actually have it in them to stand up to him. Despite his earlier disarming, Smithy was having a better time using Clarent this time, and, while he wasn’t exactly the same as the book she’d been using, it didn’t take Twilight long to adapt and learn how to swing Caliburn properly.


DIFFERENT LEAGUE


Their initial push was extremely temporary, however, as Terios mainly did not start fighting back right away in order to get a good look at them. They certainly had ambition and drive, but their skill with a sword was far below his. No longer in the mood to toy with them for a second time, he narrowed his eyes as he took Deathcalibur in both hands at his side. He then gave a strong horizontal swing, striking both Clarent and Caliburn and knocking Smithy and Twilight off-balance. Despite this, they regained their footing and stood ready.

Terios stepped forward while holding Deathcalibur over his head, performing a downward slash that forced Twilight and Smithy to take a few steps back. They swung at him as he came at him again, the black hedgehog stopping their strikes and swinging to push their blades away, quickly performing a horizontal slash afterwards. They both ducked under the slash and stood up, slashing at him. He leapt back to avoid being hit and landed with his knees bent. “This is all you two have to offer? What a joke!” he mocked before jumping up, holding Deathcalibur over his head as he dropped down towards the two.

Smithy and Twilight leapt away from each other as Terios landed where they had been. As the black hedgehog stood up, he turned to face Smithy, the fox holding Clarent in both hands in anticipation of his attack while Twilight stood behind him, hesitant. Suddenly, Terios performed an upward diagonal slash, hitting Clarent’s blade before he spun around and made a slash at Caliburn. Twilight managed to avoid being slashed, but the downward swing pushed Caliburn down to the ground. Before she could pull him out from under the longer blade, Terios took his left hand off the hilt and placed it on Twilight’s forehead. Using his magic, he pushed the unicorn off of her hooves. She gasped at this, but she was able to keep her magic wrapped around Caliburn, so he was pulled free as he followed after her. Before she could get far, Terios created a sphere of dark energy behind her, which exploded as soon as she hit it, sending her flying off to the side!

Twilight landed hard on her side, groaning as the pain from the earlier beating began to come back in full force. Still, she was able to push the pain down enough to realize she was no longer holding Caliburn and she opened her eyes. She gasped when she saw Terios coming straight at her with the tip of Deathcalibur scraping along the ground. She raised her head to look around and noticed Caliburn lying on his side near her. She quickly wrapped her magic around his hilt and started to climb to her hooves.

She wasn’t able to stand up in time, but she was able to raise Caliburn in order to block the overhead strike Terios switched to when he saw her getting up. Grunting, she remained on her bent forelegs as she focused on pushing Terios’ blade back. She was able to keep Caliburn held up against the three overhead swings from Terios, but then he caught her off-guard when he made a step forward and swung his right foot up, kicking her under the chin and knocking her onto her back with a yelp, Caliburn being pulled back to her in response.

Before Terios could continue, he heard Smithy shout and turned to see the fox rushing at him with Clarent. Deciding to take a moment to amuse him, Terios held up Deathcalibur and met the Smithy head-on, their blades locking as they began pushing against each other. After a few seconds, Smithy pushed forward and began slashing at Terios, the black hedgehog stepping back to avoid his strikes before using his magic to pick up and suspend the fox in midair. Smithy flailed for a moment before calming down and using his tails to push himself forward slightly, his feet managing to connect with Terios’ chest and push him back, also managing to score a slash across his chest that caused the black hedgehog to fall onto his back.

Jumping to his feet, Terios glared as the fox charged at him again. He leapt to the side and, when Smithy turned to him, locked blades with him again, but only for a moment. While they were close, Terios quickly took his left hand off of Deathcalibur’s hilt and slapped the fox with the back of it, causing him to groan and take a step back. Not wasting another moment, Terios swung his hand around and launched red lightning from it, the full force of the lightning sending Smithy flying across the platform and into one of the columns. The fox slumped at the base of it, letting out a shaky groan as his body shuddered and twitched from the electricity running through him.

Twilight and Caliburn gasped at this, the unicorn quickly climbing to her hooves as Terios turned back to her. She ran towards the black hedgehog and they began slashing at each other. In her rage-filled state, Twilight managed to score a lucky blow on Terios, hitting him diagonally from under the chest up to under his right shoulder. The hit caused him to reel and turn away, his eyes widening for a moment before they narrowed. He turned back to her and attacked with a flurry of slashes, their blades locking at the end of it.

As their blades locked, Terios pointed his left index finger at Twilight and fired a small bolt of electricity at her horn. Twilight let out a shout as she felt the shock from the bolt, the glow around her horn disappearing as well. With one swift movement, Terios swung Deathcalibur to the side, sending Caliburn flying end over end to Twilight’s left, landing with his tip stuck in the ground. Recovering from the surprise attack, Twilight looked up at Terios as he held his hand out towards her, lifting her off the ground with his magic. He then bent his fingers inward, causing the force holding her to painfully close in around her, Twilight’s body being force to curl up slightly. He then slammed her against the ground several times before throwing her up into the column behind her, Twilight sticking there for a moment before she fell to the ground below, landing on her front. Satisfied with her lack of movement, Terios turned and started walking towards Caliburn.


DESPERATE STRUGGLE


Caliburn was struggling to pull his tip out of the ground, doubling his efforts when he saw Terios approaching. Unfortunately, while he wasn’t as embedded in the ground as he was when he was left at the lake, his sturdy blade didn’t allow for much bending or twisting around, especially in his current predicament. He kept trying to pull himself out of the hard ground, but with Terios approaching unopposed, it wasn’t looking good for him.

Suddenly, Caliburn began to feel something pulling at him, but he didn’t feel anything around his hilt and Terios was still a short distance away. He ceased his attempts to escape as he felt himself start to move up while shaking, the shaking stronger than when he tried to do it. Terios stopped when he noticed what was happening to the sword and immediately realized it was being caused by magic. He turned and glared back at Twilight, but he was confused when he saw her still lying on the ground, just now attempting to get up with small sparks still coming off of her horn. This wasn’t her doing, but then whose was it?

He faced forward when he heard a cracking sound and saw Caliburn flying straight at him, hilt first. Before he could react, the hilt collided with his face, knocking the black hedgehog onto his back with a grunt. Immediately afterwards, Caliburn suddenly changed directions and flew towards Sonic, his hilt managing to get through the ice around the blue hedgehog’s right hand, his fingers wrapping securely around the sword’s hilt in response. Caliburn was a bit confused as to what happened, but he soon noticed a light blue light coming from Sonic’s left. He managed to rotate a bit in Sonic’s grip, enough to get a good look at where the light was coming from. He was a bit surprised when he saw its source, but he soon murmured, “Ah… So it was your doing…”

Smithy and Twilight had managed to recover somewhat from Terios’ harsh treatment, both of them looking up when they noticed the light blue shining in the darkness. What they saw was a slightly transparent figure, almost like a ghost, kneeling down in front of Sonic. The figure wore a tiara, a belt, and a long dress that went down to its feet, which were in a pair of armored high-heel boots, and it had short hair save for a long braided ponytail with a ring at the end that ran down over its right shoulder. Everything about the figure, even its clothing, was light blue, but as it raised its right hand and placed it on Sonic’s forehead, Smithy realized who it was. “Merlina!” he exclaimed, Twilight looking over at him in surprise before looking back at Sonic.

Terios also heard the fox and turned his head to look as well. His eyes widened in disbelief when he saw the sorceress’ transparent figure and flipped himself over onto his hands and knees as he kept staring at her. “You!” he yelled in anger and disbelief.


INTERVENTION


Merlina’s head had been tilted downward slightly in Sonic’s direction, but when she heard Terios’ yell, she raised her head and turned to look at him with her transparent blue eyes. “Surprised, Terios?” she asked, her voice sounding like it always did.

He pointed at her with his right hand, “How are you doing this?! You’re my prisoner!”

The look on Merlina’s face seemed almost bemused as she replied, “Some prisoners try to escape when they’re not being watched, something I’m sure even a certain illusion could’ve told you if you had bothered to listen. I was able to escape him, and I knew it was only a matter of time before I could escape you too.”

Terios stood up and gripped Deathcalibur in his right hand while he clenched his left hand into a fist and hit his chest with it. “You can’t fool me! I still feel you there! You still belong to me!” he shouted.

Merlina responded, “You may still have my body captive, but what you’re seeing is my soul. While I would rather they did not suffer for trying to stop you, all who bravely came to Avalon drew your attention away from me, allowing me enough time to cast the necessary spell. Your fate is sealed now.”

Terios gave a short laugh before saying, “That’s a good one! Let me tell you something: you haven’t changed anything with this move! I’m still in command of you and your magic!”

Merlina smirked, “You can keep telling yourself that, but if you actually knew anything about magic, you would know it stems in large part from the soul. You can try all you like to force my magic out of me like you’ve been doing all this time, but I think you’ll find that it will be a waste of time and energy. Do feel free to try, though; the sooner you’re struck down, the better.”

Terios was beginning to get angry at her words, shouting, “You know, I kept you alive because you were useful to me! If you’re going to abandon your body like this, I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t just disappear forever!”

Merlina replied, “If my time in this world has become drastically shortened with this action, then so be it. You would still destroy me once I stopped being useful to you, only I would have to endure never-ending torment before my end. The light of hope will go out on this kingdom someday, and while I’ve vowed to never let that control my actions again, I will do what I must to ensure you will not be the one to bring darkness back to it.”

Terios sneered, “And what are you going to do to stop me?”

Merlina glanced towards Sonic as she answered, “He will be the one who stops you, but as Twilight said, we’ll all be supporting him.”

Terios raised an eye, “What are you talking about?”

Merlina’s right hand began to glow brighter, and suddenly Sonic was able to be heard as he spoke from within the ice, “You really don’t get it, Terry. Yeah, we are fighting here, but we’re not the only ones. The Knights of the Round Table and everyone back at Camelot Castle are fighting back against you, everyone who came out here to Avalon is fighting against you, and there are way more fighters than you know exist.” Merlina spoke with him as he finished, “I’m not alone in this.”

With that, Merlina took her hand off of Sonic’s forehead and she became completely light blue, her form no longer visible. The light traveled through the ice and into Sonic, a light blue glow beginning to appear around him as he closed his eyes. Memories and faces from the past filled his mind, the glow around him becoming brighter as he remembered each one. In the midst of his remembering, he heard Merlina’s voice, “I will aid you and Caliburn in the fight ahead, Sonic. Terios has been weakened, but he will not surrender easily. Do not worry about me; only by fighting with all your might will you prevail.” Sonic mentally nodded in response.


SHIFTING THE TIDE


After several seconds, he focused and opened his eyes, flexing his arms and legs and then extending them, shattering the ice covering him as he swung his arms down and climbed to his feet, the light blue glow around him beginning to expand outwards into an aura. “Hope you’re ready to dance, Terry! I’m so toasty now I could start an inferno!” he said as he stood up straight and stared directly at the black hedgehog.

With that, he dashed straight towards Terios, the dark hedgehog taking Deathcalibur in both hands at his left side and swinging up and downwards as Sonic got closer. Sonic leapt up at the blade and swung Caliburn horizontally, pushing it to the side and throwing Terios off-balance. The black hedgehog grunted as he staggered, but he was soon upright again and ready as Sonic charged at him, delivering a flurry of strikes that ended with a spinning slash. Terios leapt back from the slash and held his left hand out, focusing lightning magic into it the way he usually did it.

When he released the lightning, however, only a couple of weak sparks came from his hand that barely went anywhere. “What?!” Terios exclaimed as he looked down at his hand, looking up a moment later when he heard Sonic coming towards him. The blue hedgehog crashed into him with his left shoulder, pushing him back a short distance before he swung Caliburn up and diagonally to send him flying further back. Terios landed on his back and tried to stand up a moment later, managing to get up on one knee as he raised his left hand up over his head to snap his fingers. He did this several times, but each time, nothing happened. “What’s going on?!” he asked as he lowered his hand and looked at it.

“Sounds like somebody wasn’t paying attention earlier!” Sonic called as he started moving towards Terios again. The black hedgehog narrowed his eyes and jumped over Sonic as he came in for another attack, landing close to the center of the platform. As Sonic turned around, he noticed Terios had stuck Deathcalibur in the ground to the side and seemed to be focusing, his knees slightly bent and his hands clenched into fists in front of him. His red aura seemed to surge around him as he focused and, a few moments later, he looked up at Sonic and held his hands out towards him, unleashing red lightning from the tips. “Whoa!” Sonic exclaimed as he jumped out of the way. The lightning didn’t look as strong as it did before, but he still didn’t want to get hit by it.

“HA! Yes!” Terios grinned as he turned to follow Sonic, still shooting lightning at him as he ran and jumped out of the way. “What was that about not paying attention earlier? Shows how little you know!” he gloated as he unleashed more lightning.

This time, instead of dodging, Sonic listened to the voice of Merlina in his head and came to a stop, looking at Terios and bracing himself as he held Caliburn up in both hands in front of him. A nearly invisible barrier formed around the blade, the lightning still attracted to it. When it hit, the barrier prevented it from traveling along the sword, the electricity jumping around on the barrier instead. Sonic swung Caliburn to the left to send the lightning flying harmlessly off to the side and looked at Terios, saying as he held up Caliburn, “You’ve got promise, Terry, I’ll give you that, but you still have a lot to learn!”

Terios growled, his anger causing his aura to billow more. “Stop calling me that!” he yelled as he unleashed more lightning, the bolts flying from his fingers looking larger. Instead of holding Caliburn up, Sonic looked up as he held his left arm straight up, the palm of his hand pointing up. When the lightning reached him, it was stopped by an invisible barrier similar to the one Merlina had formed to stop Sonic from attacking her when she had the Scabbard. As he brought his left arm down in Terios’ direction, the barrier began to expand that way, pushing the lightning back. It soon pushed the lightning back at Terios, shocking him and sending him flying backwards.

Terios groaned as the lightning ran its course, dark mist coming off of him as it fizzled out. As he raised himself to his knees, he glared at Sonic, “Is that how you want to play? Fine. I prefer to strike my enemies down myself anyway!” He held his hand out towards Deathcalibur, a black vortex forming underneath it that made it disappear and reappear in front of Terios. He grasped its hilt with his right hand as he stood up, a shockwave of red lightning running down it as he held it. He took his hand off of it and a moment later, it split into two half swords of equal size! Taking one sword in each hand, he said, “I’ll slash and dash you until you’re nothing more than a memory!” He then shot straight at Sonic, the blue hedgehog bracing himself as Terios began to thrust and slash at him.

Twilight and Smithy had remained where they had fallen when the two hedgehogs started fighting again. They were still at the base of the columns they had landed against, though Twilight had managed to raise herself up somewhat while Smithy was still slumped against the column he’d been thrown against. The fox had to admit that both he and Twilight were out of their league compared to the two hedgehogs, but when it came to swords, he still had an eye for things, even in the heat of battle. Right now, he could tell that, while Sonic was managing to avoid Terios’ strikes, the black hedgehog’s two swords were keeping him on the defensive and preventing him from fighting back. No doubt he figured that Terios could distract him with one blade and leave him open to an attack from the other. He’d probably need something to help him get back on equal footing.

Smithy looked over at where the Clarent had fallen, a short distance to his right. “It’s not Caliburn, but…” he thought before throwing himself onto his front, using his arms to pull himself over to the blade as his legs still felt a bit shaky. He reached it after a couple of seconds and grasped its hilt with his right hand. He looked over at Sonic; not only were the two hedgehogs too far away, but he couldn’t throw it well from where he was anyway. He then looked over at Twilight and pressed himself up slightly with his left hand as he called, “Twilight!” When the unicorn looked over at him, he threw Clarent to her across the ground, the sword spinning around as it slid towards her.

The sword stopped a bit short of her, but Twilight used her magic to bring it towards her. She looked at it for a moment before looking back at Sonic and Terios, soon realizing what Smithy had in mind. With her magic, she held it behind her and decided there was no time to calculate what it would take to make the perfect throw. “Sonic, catch!” she yelled before she threw it, the sword spinning end over end before it landed on the ground not far from the two hedgehogs.

Sonic noticed Clarent off to the side and, after jumping back from another thrust from Terios, ran towards it. He planted his feet against the ground as he got closer, sliding to a stop behind it. He then grabbed its hilt with his left hand and picked it up, holding both swords up as Terios came at him again. As their blades locked, Terios growled, “Hey, that’s no fair!”

Sonic grunted as he pushed back, “All’s fair in love and war, Terry, and this sure ain’t love!” They continued trying to overpower each other for a moment before Sonic managed to push Terios back and swung both Caliburn and Clarent at him, the black hedgehog stepping back and leaping away to avoid the strikes. The two hedgehogs continued to keep pressure on each other for a short while. Sonic was inexperienced at having a sword in his left hand as well, but while he did have some difficulty adjusting, his dual wielding didn’t have an overall negative impact on the fight as it seemed Terios wasn’t used to it either.

Terios soon leapt back and spun the half sword in his left hand around so he was holding it in a reverse grip. As he began to slowly bring the two half hilts together, he said, “Let’s see how you like this!” As they got closer, darkness began to flow between the two half swords, bringing them together and sealing the connection between them. Terios took his new weapon in both hands and spun it around for a moment before holding it at his side with one blade pointing forward. He then dashed towards Sonic, thrusting the one blade forward. Sonic managed to leap to the side, but Terios was soon on him, swinging and spinning his sword around so quickly that Sonic’s lack of dual wielding experience began to work against him.

Sonic was thrown back by a wave of dark energy when Terios leapt up and slammed his sword into the ground close to him. As he climbed to his knees, he heard Merlina speaking, “Hold your swords straight up and bring them together, Sonic. You will be able to match him, but in a different manner.” Trusting her words, he held both Clarent and Caliburn up and brought them close together. As they got closer, a light blue light began to shine from between them, getting brighter as they came closer together. It slowly faded when the two swords met, revealing a new double-edged sword with two hilts. Sonic held up the new sword in both hands and looked at it. It wasn’t as impressive as Excalibur, but Caliburn and Clarent together created a large blade that, strangely enough, made it seem like both swords were two halves of a whole.

Sonic looked down at Terios and narrowed his eyes, both hedgehogs dashing towards each other again. They continued trying to overpower each other, both of their swords seeming like an extension of themselves. Terios was having little trouble swinging his long sword around, moving it so he continuously struck with both blades. As for Sonic, while he wasn’t swinging his large blade around as easily as he would Caliburn, having just one blade to have both of his hands on seemed to be better for him than having one in each hand and he continued to play defensively, swinging his large sword so both edges pushed back Terios’ blades.

Although the strikes from the heavier blade were throwing him off, Terios felt assured that he could break through Sonic’s defenses. “Heh, that sword seems a little heavy for you. You having any trouble using it?” he asked.

Sonic swung to knock away one blade and leapt to the side to avoid a swing from the other blade before he replied, “Not a chance.” Terios dashed at him and he held up his combined sword, locking it with one of Terios’ raised blades. While holding that position, the heavier sword began to push down Terios’ lighter sword. As he began to push it down more, Sonic started, “United, we stand.” He suddenly forced it downwards and it broke off part of the blade on Terios’ sword! The black hedgehog staggered back, shocked that part of his sword had been broken. “Divided, you fall!” Sonic finished as he held his sword up over his head. He swung it down and cleaved the conjoined sword hilts, breaking the long sword and making it two half swords again. Before Terios could react, Sonic spun in a circle as he raised his sword up again, ending with a thrust that sent Terios flying onto his back, both half swords falling from his hands.

Sonic held up his sword again, this time with his right hand on Caliburn’s hilt and his left hand on Clarent’s hilt. He strained for a moment before the two swords pulled apart, Sonic bringing them both down as he stared at Terios’ fallen form. Seeing that the fight was over, at least for the moment, both Smithy and Twilight managed to stand up and moved closer to Sonic. He turned around to look at them as they got closer. “Sonic… that was incredible,” Twilight breathed.

“Yeah. I knew the Clarent was a well-made sword, but I never would’ve thought it would combine so perfectly with Caliburn!” Smithy added. Sonic smiled at them, relieved that they were okay. Suddenly, the platform began to shake and the three tried to steady themselves. “What was that?” Smithy asked when the shaking settled down somewhat.

Sonic looked past him and Twilight and pointed with Caliburn, “Look!” The two turned and saw the black vortex that had dragged them into the strange arena just above the edge of the platform, only, as Twilight noticed, it seemed to be spinning in the opposite direction.

“That’s what brought us here. Did it open up to let us out?” Twilight wondered.

Sonic glanced back over his shoulder and noticed Terios was starting to stir. He looked back at Twilight and Smithy and said, “Hurry, you two! Get out of here while you have a chance!”

Smithy and Twilight looked at him, the latter asking, “What about you?”

Sonic tilted his head back, “I’ve got an inkblot test to finish.”

Smithy asked, “Can’t we help you?”

Sonic replied, “You already did. The way I see it, you and Twilight have already gone above and beyond, Smithy.”

Twilight started, “But…”

Sonic cut her off, “I’ll catch up to you two. I promise. Just get to safety, make sure everyone else is all right, and wait for me, okay?”

Smithy and Twilight looked at each other for a moment before turning back to Sonic. “…All right. But I’m holding you to that promise mainly because I know Shining, Cadance, Spike, and my friends will be too,” Twilight said. Sonic nodded in response; satisfied, the two turned and ran towards the vortex, leaping towards it when they were close enough. It pulled them in and vanished soon afterwards, leaving Sonic and Caliburn alone with Terios.

Caliburn glanced up, able to just see behind Sonic with how he was being held, and said, “Sonic, look out!” Sonic’s eyes shifted left and he whirled around, holding both swords up. Terios was slowly walking towards him, holding the complete Deathcalibur in his right hand. Sonic was able to see that recombining the two blades hadn’t repaired it, as one edge of the sword looked shorter than the other. That wasn’t going to make it any less dangerous, however.

Suddenly, Terios dashed forward, his sword coming into contact with both of Sonic’s swords, which were crossed in an ‘X’ shape. “Still kicking, huh?” Sonic asked as he pressed back.

“I told you, you can’t escape who you are, and your kingdom can’t escape its fate!” Terios yelled as he pulled his blade back and thrust it forward, striking Sonic’s guard and pushing him back slightly.

Sonic lowered his arms to his sides after he stopped and said, “Buddy, I know myself better than you think I do. And that second bit? I’ve heard it from Merlina; you sound like a broken record.”

Terios stepped forward, holding Deathcalibur over his head and swinging it down at Sonic, who deflected the strike with Caliburn. As they began to slash at each other, Terios yelled, “Give me that sword! You were the one who pulled it, so it belongs to me as well! I will be recognized as the kingdom’s true ruler with it, and I can do whatever I want to it!”

As they locked blades again, Sonic spoke, “You trying to bore me to death, Terios? I’m actually trying to hold back a yawn here, so you might be onto something.”

Terios growled and pulled his blade back, swinging it down and up, catching Sonic’s block and pulling him up off the ground. Sonic quickly uncrossed his swords and twisted to avoid hitting the blade as he stopped being dragged by it. He landed in a crouched position afterwards and Terios turned to look at him. “You WILL give me that sword! After I’ve run it through you and taken whatever power you have that you think eludes me, the Grand Kingdom will be just the beginning! I’ll find whatever kingdom you were in when I first sensed you and wherever you and your sickeningly sweet friends came from and conquer them as well! And anyone who refuses to give me the respect I deserve will learn the real meaning of terror when I start burning everything to the ground!” he snarled.

Sonic had remained crouched while Terios had talked, but after he finished, the blue hedgehog stood up and turned to look at his black doppelganger with a frown. “You know what, Terios? You DO deserve everything that’s coming to you,” he said. He held up both Caliburn and Clarent and then swung them down to his sides, dashing towards Terios and unleashing a flurry of slashes when he reached him. Terios responded in kind, both hedgehogs going full offensive on each other.

Eventually, amidst the clashing blades, Terios managed to Clarent out of Sonic’s grip, the sword flying off to the side and landing on the ground. The disarming did not deter Sonic, however, as he wrapped his left hand around Caliburn’s hilt and swung at Terios, landing a decisive blow across his chest. The black hedgehog grunted as he fell onto his side, but he soon looked up at where Sonic’s sword had fallen. Blinded by his own anger, he scrambled for it, believing it to be Caliburn. He grabbed the sword’s hilt with his left hand and stood up, holding it over his head triumphantly. “At last, it is mine! All that you believe is good belongs to me now, ‘King’ Sonic, and Avalon and this space will now be YOUR tomb!” he cackled. Sonic didn’t respond, but Terios heard what sounded like an ethereal hum and turned to look.


NOT ALONE


Sonic was standing not far from Terios, both hands on Caliburn’s hilt as he held him up over his head. He was following directions that Merlina had given to him while Terios had been distracted, and now the light blue aura around him had expanded, spreading out from him and surging. As Terios stared, seven glowing light blue Celtic Crosses appeared in the air around Sonic, each cross seemingly a gateway or portal as something began to emerge from each one.

Two hedgehogs, an echidna, a cat, a pig, a bunny, and a lion appeared and moved to Sonic’s sides, all of them staring straight at Terios. The figures that looked like Lady Nimue and the three main Knights of the Round Table were easily recognized by Terios, as were the figures that looked like General Tybalt and Sir Frederick, though the figure that looked like Oscar was completely unknown to him. He didn’t dwell on the pig’s identity, though; there were a couple of things that caught his attention that pushed that thought to the back of his mind.

For one thing, they were all like Merlina was earlier, being light blue and slightly transparent, and that was before he noticed something else. Physically, the figures looked the same as the real deals, but there were other differences present. Nimue appeared to be wearing boots and a much shorter dress, and she was holding a large hammer in both hands, the Knights of the Round Table lacked their armor and Lancelot was holding his sword in his left hand, and Sir Frederick, General Tybalt, and Oscar’s clothes were very different, looking much looser and more casual than the black hedgehog was used to seeing, and Frederick appeared to be wielding some sort of staff instead of a spear. To Terios, they simultaneously were and weren’t who he thought they were.

As Sonic lowered Caliburn to his side, Terios decided he had had enough of the light show and charged towards the blue hedgehog, holding his sword out at his side. The figures around Sonic kept their eyes on him, watching as he got closer. The first to move was the one he believed was Nimue, the hedgehog holding her hammer up and behind her as she leapt forward, bringing it down just in front of Terios and forcing him to stop as its impact actually created a crater. He glared at her and made a swipe at her with his sword, which was stopped by the Frederick lookalike when he shot forward and used his staff to intercept it. The two pushed against each other for a moment before the bunny pulled his staff back and swung it over Deathcalibur, hitting Terios several times before Nimue moved forward again and the two delivered one strong blow that sent the black hedgehog flying back to the center of the platform.

Terios climbed to his feet after landing on his rear and growled as he prepared to charge again, but the Tybalt and Oscar figures both suddenly pulled out some sort of miniature weapon and began firing what he assumed were magic beams from one end at him. The shots hit him in the chest, stunning him and preventing him from moving. The two kept firing as the Knights of the Round Table made their own advance, all of them surrounding Terios. Oscar and Tybalt stopped firing at this point and the three began to attack, all of them hacking and slashing in synch with each other, each one moving in after one had attacked. Since they weren’t physical, they weren’t causing physical damage to him, but Terios could feel their slashes taking their toll on him, striking at his most treasured source of power.

After a short while, the trio stopped attacking and faded away into the light blue, all of them flying over to and joining with Sonic. Tybalt and Oscar opened fire again as Nimue moved forward, raising her hammer over her head again and delivering an overhead swing that delivered an ethereal force that left him lying on his back. As he managed to climb to his feet, a sharp tremble shot through him as Frederick threw his staff at him, the projectile passing through him and breaking apart when it hit the ground. As Terios stood stunned for the moment, the four remaining figures faded away and joined with Sonic, who was holding Caliburn up in front of himself with his eyes closed. A few seconds after the figures joined with him and his aura returned, he opened his eyes to look at Terios and said, “It’s been decided!” He swung Caliburn down to his right side, the sword’s tip nearly touching the ground, and ran forward, Terios struggling to move as he shouted, “Now I’ll show you!”

Back in Avalon, Smithy, Spike, and the ponies were waiting for Sonic to return, some more anxious than the others. They all looked up suddenly as the black vortex opened in front of them again, only this time it was facing away from them. As they watched, five figures shot out of it. Two of the figures were Sonic and Terios, the former spinning in midair once before landing in a crouched position, the light blue aura still surrounding him, while the latter spun end over end multiple times before landing on his feet and, amazingly, not falling over as he wobbled. The hole in his chest had grown so big it nearly stretched down his entire front, his red aura barely visible now. The other three figures were their swords, Caliburn hovering at Sonic’s side when he landed while Deathcalibur and Clarent landed between him, Clarent landing further down the path than Deathcalibur. Both swords’ blades were pointing towards the group.

The group began to move closer to Sonic and Caliburn, Sonic looking back at them as he stood up. They stopped and he faced forward when they all heard Terios groan, the black hedgehog clutching his front with both hands and part of his arms now that he’d found his balance. Sonic glanced back at the others and held up his right hand with his index finger pointing out, silently telling them to hold back while he started walking forward with Caliburn at his side.

Terios looked up when he heard Sonic approaching and thrust his right hand out in front of him, sending a bolt of red lightning flying at Sonic. It came fast, but the aura around Sonic surged in front of him when it got close, preventing the lightning from reaching him and causing it to fizzle out after a few moments as Sonic kept coming. Desperate, Terios slammed his left fist against his chest several times before trying again, only to be met with the same result. Terios’ knees buckled afterwards, his left hand still on his chest as he breathed heavily and slumped while trying to stay on his feet. He managed to raise his head to look at Sonic as he stopped in front of him and spoke, “So this is how it ends, huh? Once again, you’ve somehow managed to defy expectations. Once again, you think you’re the superior one. Well, come on, then, show me your worst; I’m ready for it and I’m sure she is too.”

He lowered his head and Sonic stared down at him in silence with a neutral expression for several moments. He then raised his right hand, but instead of grabbing Caliburn’s hilt, he reached forward and cupped Terios’ chin, tilting his head up so they were looking at each other again. “There’s no mystery here, no feelings of superiority at play. The evidence was presented, multiple times I might add, you chose to debate it, and that brings us to now. The trial is over and the verdict is… we’re not guilty of anything,” Sonic said, his tone even. He released Terios’ chin, letting it drop down before he finished, “So here’s your sentence. You’re going to release Merlina, call off your army, go back to the Underworld quietly, and we’ll all be good with each other. And if you know what’s good for you, don’t even THINK about messing with my friends again.” He then turned to Caliburn and took him in his right hand, raising him up and resting him on his shoulder so he was looking behind Sonic as the blue hedgehog started walking away.

Terios stared as Sonic kept moving away from him, stopping only to bend down and grab Clarent with his left hand. He didn’t get far before Terios shouted, “Hey!” Sonic came to a stop at that, though he didn’t turn to face him. “What’s wrong with you? You could end me right now and be done with it! Why aren’t you doing that?!” he screamed. Sonic remained silent and the others could see he still had a neutral look on his face. Terios went on, “It really is a mystery how you were able to reduce me to this if this is what you’ve become! You really expect me to listen to you just because you managed to overpower me?! You’re hardly worthy of being called a knight or a king if you don’t have the conviction to finish what you’ve started!”

Sonic was silent for a moment before he started, “Conviction? What do you know about conviction?” He turned slightly to look back at Terios, “You wonder why I’m so great? Well, I’m wondering the same about you. You claim to rule over the Underworld, to have stood up to so many enemies, but in reality, you’re just a bully and, at the rate you’re going, that’s all you’ll ever be. When you’re not causing death and destruction, you’re taking the easy way out for the same reason: to get the quick reward.” He gestured to the others with his head, “The rest of us, however, do things the right way, helping others to make something bigger and better than just being mean.” He narrowed his eyes, “I told you I was offering you an alternative before, Terios. My offer still stands as long as you do what I asked you to, and I’d take it if I were you. You can say it’s just because you went up against me, but the reality is, with the way you handle yourself, you’d never last in the long run.”

Terios let out a low growl and started to stagger towards Sonic, his left hand still on his chest. “What do you mean, in the long run? Are you saying I never stood a chance from the start? That as long as I continue, I will be driven to my knees again?” he grunted. He came to a stop as he let out a pained groan, looking up at Sonic afterwards and asking, “You think I can’t defeat you? You think… I can’t win?” His knees buckled and he began to lean backward, falling onto his back. Sonic looked down at him for several moments before he turned and continued walking away, knowing Caliburn was keeping an eye on him.

Smithy, Spike, and the ponies watched silently as Sonic approached them, the light blue aura around shining brightly. He looked just about as beat up as the rest of them, but he kept his head held high and refrained from faltering as he walked. As he got closer, he twirled Clarent around so he was holding it in a reverse grip, holding the sword out to Smithy when he came to a stop in front of the group. “Thanks for letting me borrow this, buddy,” he said.

The fox took the sword from him, saying, “Well, you’re welcome, sire, but this sword does belong to you.”

Sonic smiled at him as he lowered Caliburn to his side, his face still pointed in Terios’ direction, “Yeah, well… you’ve used it more than I have.” He winced as a pain shot through him and he took a step back, Caliburn’s tip touching the ground as he knelt down on one knee.

“Sonic?” Fluttershy asked.

The blue hedgehog looked up, “Don’t worry, I’m good.”

Applejack replied, “Looks more like you’re beat ta me! Ya ain’t in much better shape than we are!”

Rainbow added, “I knew we should’ve been backing you up the whole time!”

Sonic cracked a wry smirk, “And let you two hog all the fun?” The two ponies glared at him, so he said, “Seriously, I’ll be fine. Just gotta walk this off.” He stood up straight, “Besides, it’s like I told Smithy and Twilight earlier. You all did everything you could here, and more.”

Spike squeezed his left arm with his right claw as he muttered, “I can believe that…”

Rainbow spoke, “Yeah, Twilight and Smithy told us you said that when they were telling us what happened.  Can’t say I agree, considering the only thing we’ve done here is get beat up after falling into a trap.”

Sonic replied, “Well, yeah, there is that. But that’s just what anyone could see. I know there’s more to it than that. You had my back even if you weren’t right beside me, as did so many others.” He closed his eyes and thought, “Thanks, Unc.”


CHANGE OF HEART?


Before anyone could ask what he meant, they noticed that the aura around him was starting to fade. “Sonic!” Rarity said, causing him to open his eyes and notice it as well. After several seconds, the light blue was gone completely. “What happened to your… glow?” Rarity asked.

“It seemed like it was Merlina joining with you before. What could this mean?” Twilight wondered.

“Merlina… She wasn’t in that weird place. Was she in that room?” Sonic asked aloud.

Shining shook his head, “There didn’t seem to be anyone else on that wall with us.” He turned his head to look at Terios’ tower, “Maybe Terios has been keeping her somewhere else?”

Cadance spoke, “We’d better head back into the tower and see if we can find her. She’s part of the reason we came here.” Everyone nodded and they started moving towards the entrance to the tower.

They had only gone a few steps when they heard Terios call, “Wait!” Sonic was the first to turn around, but he didn’t see what he was expecting to see. Instead of a black hedgehog, he saw a blue hedgehog reaching his ungloved right hand out towards him, the black fading away to blue as if he was powering down. His peach-colored skin and eyelids had returned as well, the latter apparent as he had his eyes closed while he was trying to raise himself up into a sitting position. Everyone watched as he managed to do it after a few moments, but he almost immediately stumbled forward, landing on his front. He pushed himself up with his hands and opened his eyes to look at the group, revealing that they were now green and black.

Rainbow was about ready to step forward, but Sonic moved his left hand in front of himself and held it up to tell her to wait before turning back to Terios. Smithy had put Clarent away in its scabbard, but he held his right hand up in case he needed to grab it quickly, his hand trembling slightly. Spike and the other ponies also took a slight defensive stance, to be ready just in case. There was silence for a moment before Pinkie asked, “What do you want now, you big meanie?”

Applejack added, “Had your nap, so now you’re ready ta go again?”

Terios coughed and held his left hand over the top of his chest, saying, “No… No more. Grant me mercy, I beg of you.”

Sonic eyed the other hedgehog, noticing that, while he couldn’t get a good look at it, his chest didn’t appear to be damaged anymore. He then glanced down at where Deathcalibur had landed before looking back up at Terios and asking, “You want mercy even though you don’t have any?”

Terios replied, “I only know what I was taught. I was raised by the Knights of the Underworld to be their champion, to be better than anyone in both the Underworld and this world. I was taught to be ruthless; I was taught that mercy is for the weak… But now I’m questioning that. By the logic I was raised with, this should not be, yet it is. I learned everything I was taught; perhaps I can learn to be merciful too.”

Cadance carefully asked, “Are you saying you would be willing to turn your back on the Underworld?”

Terios sat back on his knees, his left hand still over his chest, “The Underworld is the only home I know. I’ve nowhere else to go. But if you’ll allow me to learn what you all know so well, perhaps that can change.”

Sonic remained silent as he continued to look at Terios. “Like… as an example, you could establish peaceful relations with the Grand Kingdom?” Smithy asked.

Terios slowly nodded in response, “It could happen, yes.”

Shining glanced to the side, “That would be good for both sides. Still…”

Fluttershy spoke, “I think he’s being honest. We should take him away from here and help him like he’s asking us to.” Spike and some of the ponies looked at her in surprise at that.

After a few seconds, Twilight said, “Well, I guess we could try. Just because we don’t have the Elements of Harmony right now doesn’t mean…”

Pinkie nodded, “Yeah! We don’t need them for a problem like this!”

Caliburn spoke up bluntly, “I do not believe your words.”

Fluttershy looked surprised at that, even more so when Rainbow said, “I’m with Caliburn on this one! You’ve got way too much to answer for, pal! You agree, don’t you, AJ?” The orange earth pony gave a nod in response.

Fluttershy glared, “Caliburn, Rainbow Dash, Applejack! That’s not very nice! He’s showing his feelings to us and you’re all trying to push him away!”

Terios spoke, “Of course you don’t believe me. What reason have I given you to do so? Just because I’ve expressed a desire to change is no reason for any of you to trust me, or anyone for that matter. Presumably, though, having mercy means you’re willing to forgive to a certain extent. What do I have to do to reach that point?”

Fluttershy smiled, “You don’t have to do anything. There’s more than just mercy involved here. There’s also trust, and because of who you are, I trust that you’re sincere when you say you want to change.” She looked at Sonic, “You think so too, right Sonic?”

Sonic didn’t answer her, still looking at Terios with a neutral expression as he contemplated his words. “Sonic? What are you thinking right now?” Rarity probed.

“Weren’t you giving him a second chance a minute ago?” Pinkie asked. Sonic glanced down at that, still thinking.

“Do not listen to him, Sonic!” Caliburn implored.

“Yeah, just because you know what you’re like doesn’t mean you know what he’s like!” Rainbow added.

Terios spoke up, “They expected me to do great things for the Underworld. They gave me the best training, the best weapons, the best everything they could give me! They gave me power; I was almost consumed by it the way King Arthur and Merlina were. Let me walk away from here. Surely you know I almost made the same mistake they did. They became obsessed with Excalibur’s Scabbard, and I almost did too with the power I was given. Surely you can understand that.”

Sonic looked up at him and said, “Yeah, I do.” He started walking forward, everyone watching him as he did. When he reached Deathcalibur, he took Caliburn in both hands and stood next to the black sword’s tip, on the side. He brought Caliburn down, lined his tip up, and gave the black sword a strong push, sending it sliding towards Terios. It came to a stop short of the other hedgehog, who looked down at it for a moment before looking back up at Sonic in confusion. “That sword belongs to you now. As its owner, it’s your decision on what to do with it, not mine. You can take it up again and help it find a new purpose, or you can leave it behind to show you’re willing to change. I’ll leave it up to you,” Sonic explained as he rested Caliburn’s tip against the ground. He then turned the sword slightly towards him as he glanced down and gave him a nearly imperceptible nod, Caliburn doing the same in response.

As Terios looked down at the sword again, Fluttershy trotted forward and stopped at Sonic’s side, the blue hedgehog looking at her when she spoke, “That’s a very nice thing for you to do, Sonic. Giving him the choice shows you’re willing to trust and help him too.” She then continued forward, Sonic, Smithy, Spike, and the other ponies’ eyes on her. She came to a stop in front of Terios, who was still looking at Deathcalibur. “I know what else will help you feel better about doing this, Terios: kindness,” she said before embracing him, wrapping her forelegs around him.

Terios moved back slightly at this, his body seemingly frozen in place at being hugged for the first time ever. Fluttershy assumed the reason he didn’t embrace her back right away was because he’d never been shown this sort of love and nurturing and simply didn’t know how to process it right away. And it was true that Terios was shocked, his mind was going a million miles a minute at the unexpected action… but not for that reason.

Instead of feeling comforted, Terios was infuriated. He could handle the earlier accusations; while he would’ve liked it, he didn’t expect them all to be so stupid as to believe he was being truthful. He could even handle what Sonic did, even if it did require him to adjust what he was planning to take it into account. But right now, on his knees with yellow pony legs wrapped around him like he was some sort of plush toy, he couldn’t keep his anger in check any longer. He felt like the entire world was mocking him and existence. As if to add insult to injury, he heard King Arthur’s still-distorted voice in his head say, “And with this, your fate is sealed. I suggest you abandon this ploy of yours and start believing in the lies you have concocted. It is your only chance of survival now; you have played your best hand and you have lost.”

Terios’ body began to shake. Fluttershy assumed that it was due to him crying since she couldn’t see the panicked look on his face, a look that had everyone else looking on in confusion. He shut his eyes, “No… NO! This is not how it’s going to end for me! I won’t allow it!” He raised his shaking left hand up and lightly placed it on Fluttershy’s back, “This disgusting display… This will not stand!” The fingers on his left hand began to shake more than the rest of his hand, something beginning to bulge out of the tips. “I’ll show you all! I’m better than them all! I’ll have the last laugh!” His eyes shot open, revealing that they were completely black as sharp claws burst out of his fingertips, “I WILL BE VICTORIOUS! NO ONE IS LEAVING HERE ALIVE!”


REFUSAL TO ACCEPT DEFEAT


Everyone’s eyes went wide when they saw these changes and realized what was going through his mind. “FLUTTERSHY!!!” they all screamed, Sonic and Rainbow already moving towards the pegasus. Fluttershy opened her eyes and looked back in confusion, seemingly not noticing the changes that had come over Terios. The dark hedgehog, meanwhile, was using his anger to make up for his current lack of magic, charging his right fist with electricity while he raised his left hand to slash at Fluttershy. Sonic managed to reach the two before he could bring the claws down and swung Caliburn to knock the arm away while he grabbed Fluttershy with his left hand, the yellow pegasus letting out a yelp as he pulled her as hard as he could, managing to pull her out of her hug and towards him.

Terios wasn’t going to let him get away that easily, however, and he raised his right hand, firing bolts of lightning from it. Sonic stumbled as he tried to go back, falling onto his back and losing his grip on Fluttershy, throwing her up as he fell. Luckily, Rainbow was able to get her hooves under her friend’s forelegs, thus making sure Terios couldn’t get her, but the lightning was still coming. As she tried to turn and fly away, one bolt managed to clip her wing, stunning her and causing her to groan in pain. Unable to flap both wings at the moment, her momentum carried her forward for a moment before she began to fall, both her and Fluttershy landing in the nearby pool of water and going under.

Terios let out a growl as he dropped his disguise, his blue fur and black eyes changing to black fur and white eyes, all the damage he’d taken coming into view once more. He grabbed Deathcalibur with his right hand and shot forward as Sonic got to his feet, the two locking blades. Terios glared at Sonic for a moment before glancing up and noticing the others moving forward to help. Narrowing his eyes, he pulled back, avoiding Sonic’s slash, and leapt over the blue hedgehog, kicking him in the back of the head as he came down. He swung his sword down and hit it against the ground, causing rocks to start shooting up from the ground towards them as it began to crack again. Everyone tried their best to stay upright like before, but just when it seemed like the shaking had stopped, Terios swung Deathcalibur up and to the side. In response, the rocks broke down into nothing, a new hole appearing underneath them that they fell into. It wasn’t a deep hole, but it was enough to slow them down.

Sonic recovered from the kick to his head and stood up. He then turned around and ran towards Terios, the black hedgehog whirling around when he heard him approaching. The two exchanged blows for a few moments before Terios suddenly shot forward in a thrust, Sonic managing to step to the side to avoid being skewered and causing the black hedgehog to go past him. He turned around, but saw that Terios had seemingly disappeared. Before he could look around, his feet suddenly flew out from under him. Terios had reappeared behind him and slid into him, causing him to end up on his back.

Terios stood up and turned, reaching Sonic before he could try to stand up. He raised Deathcalibur over his head and swung it down, the swing being stopped by Sonic raising Caliburn up horizontally. As they held there, Sonic started, “Wow, you are a really sore loser! You remind me of a certain sniveling little-”

He was cut off by Terios raising Deathcalibur up again while yelling, “SILENCE!” He then began to repeatedly swing it down, Sonic’s arm beginning to buckle as he went on, “I don’t care what you have to say! I won’t be cheated by you any longer! I conquered the Underworld, and now I’ll conquer this world too! YOU ARE NOTHING TO ME!” He raised Deathcalibur over his head again, this time wrapping his left hand around its hilt as well, “This is the end of your meaningless existence!” Sonic couldn’t keep his arm held up as strongly at this point, and this strike would surely break Caliburn’s blade…

A bang suddenly rang out through the air and something struck the side of Terios’ face, the black hedgehog grunting as he was splattered with water, some of it dripping down onto Sonic as well. Terios growled as he looked up and Sonic tilted his head back to look as well, Caliburn also looking due to the tip of his hilt being pressed against the ground. Twilight and the others had seen the source of the noise as they were trying to climb out of the hole, all of them stopping as they stared as well.

Standing at the edge of the hole closest to Sonic and Terios was Letha, the raccoon sailor having finally arrived at the castle after reaching the shore of Avalon. Her right hand was holding what appeared to be a flintlock pistol, no doubt the source of the noise. She glared at Terios, “Guess again, you dirty scalawag! You’re not taking my king down with ye, and I’ll make sure of it!”

Terios’ eyes narrowed, “How dare you! Filthy sea rat! I’m going to enjoy-” He was cut off when Letha reached her left hand into her vest and pulled out another pistol, firing several shots from both at him. The bullets they fired broke apart when they hit him, each one being filled with water. When she was finished, his face looked rather soaked.

“Care to repeat that?!” she screamed as he used his left hand to try to wipe the water off.

He’d managed to get some of it off when Sonic spoke up, “Yeah, sailors hate being called that, you know.” Terios looked down to see the blue hedgehog raise his feet and press them against his chest, pushing him off his feet onto his back. Sonic leapt to his feet and looked back at Letha, “Thanks for the assist!” The raccoon smirked as she saluted, still holding her pistols. Sonic then faced forward as Terios leapt up, both dashing forward and getting locked in another fury of slashes.


THE FINAL CUT


Smithy, Spike, and the ponies climbed out of the hole and watched as the two hedgehogs locked blades, at which point Terios began to rant, “You’re only delaying the inevitable! I WILL overpower you and I WILL kill you! You’re inferior; you’re the one who never stood a chance! The curtain is about to fall on this sad play! You and your beloved kingdom will-!”

He was cut off when Sonic forced his blade to the ground and raised his left leg, kicking him in the chest while saying, “Shut up, Terios.” The black hedgehog was pushed back a fair distance, nearly falling over as he stopped. Sonic then took Caliburn in both hands as he said, “That’s another thing you just wasted.”

Rainbow and Fluttershy finally resurfaced as the two hedgehogs shot towards each other again, both holding their blades up. They and everyone else watched as the two slashed at each other when they came close, both coming to a stop almost immediately afterwards. Terios’ arms dropped to his sides when he stopped while Sonic held his stance for several seconds before relaxing. Deathcalibur fell from Terios’ hand a second later, the blade breaking apart when it hit the ground, and a moment later, the black hedgehog gave a drawn-out groan as he fell forward. Sonic turned around as he hit the ground, his face showing no emotion. As Terios lay there, in the same spot where King Arthur had fallen, he began to vanish, his white eyes still open. Suddenly, a beam of white light shot up out of his body towards the dark clouds above, everyone staring up at it in surprise.

Meanwhile…

Lancelot growled as he pressed his back against Galahad’s, Gawain and Cooper on his left and right sides respectively, all of them glaring at Underworld knights in front of them. They and everyone else on the battlefield had been following Nimue’s orders and fighting with all their might, but the Underworld army’s numbers just wouldn’t dwindle. Was their end coming soon?

Suddenly, the knights stopped advancing and began to shake, causing the group to stare. After a few seconds of this, the knights began to vanish without a trace, leaving the four beside themselves. Galahad looked around and realized that it wasn’t just them; all over the battlefield, the Underworld knights just stopped fighting and disappeared for seemingly no reason! “What’s going on?” he asked.

Nimue came over with Chami, Golo, and Pyre at her sides, causing the four to relax. “The Underworld army is in full retreat! I don’t know what’s happened on Avalon, but I can feel that something’s changed. Sir Sonic and the others must’ve defeated their commander!” she reported.

“We won! It’s over! Yay!” Chami cheered.

“How many times do I have to tell you, Chami? No early celebrating!” Cooper chastised.

“He’s right. We’re not done yet,” Lancelot said. He turned his head to look at their soldiers; many of them had suffered injuries during the long battle, some severe. “We have to get the wounded back to the castle,” Lancelot grunted.

Nimue nodded, “Yes, Lancelot. They’ve fought bravely on this day. Now that they have a chance, we should let them rest.”

Golo spoke, “I will carry them all back myself if the need should arise.”

Gawain smirked, “You took the words right out of my mouth, rocky. Let’s get to work.” With that, they all began to move to help their comrades get back to the castle, all the while wondering what was happening on Avalon.


CHANGES


Meanwhile…

Sonic and the others could only stare at what was happening around them. The beam of white light was still shooting out of Terios’ body, which was quickly becoming a lot less physical and much more ethereal, but motes of white light were coming out of it as well now that the beam had banished the dark clouds over Avalon. As they hovered and flew around, the lights began to restore the area to normal. The castle’s brilliant golden colors returned, the dying flowers suddenly sprung back to life, and any lingering presence of the Underworld was exposed and chased away. They all watched as the final resting place of the false King Arthur was restored to its former glory.

After the beam dissipated, Fluttershy’s eyes fell on Sonic as the others moved around him, all of them still looking around at Avalon in wonder. She noticed Rainbow Dash swim over to dry land and climb over the guardrail along the side of the path. As she slowly followed after her friend, she overheard Twilight say, “You were right about the castle, Sonic. In the light of the setting sun, it almost does look like it’s made out of gold.”

Smithy added, “It looks so much more peaceful now. In the darkness, it looked more like a fortress.”

Pinkie piped up, “Hey, it really does look like the sun is setting! Have we really been here that long?!”

Sonic shrugged, “Probably not. It always seems to look like the sun is setting around here.”

Rainbow said, “I think it’s the perfect look. That’s it for that Terios jerk and the Underworld army! It wasn’t the coolest victory for everyone, but we won!”

Shining spoke, “Hopefully we won, Rainbow. We won’t know if the Underworld army has retreated until we get back to Camelot.”

Cadance looked at Letha, “I’m glad you arrived to help when you did, Letha. That was a very brave and impressive display.”

Letha twirled her pistols around her index fingers once before putting them away, the one in her right hand going in the holster on her back under her vest and the one in her left hand getting tucked inside her vest. “Well, thank you, princess. And of course I showed up; a good sailor recognizes danger and responds to it accordingly!” she said proudly.

Fluttershy, meanwhile, was sitting off to the side, looking at the ground, water still dripping off of her. “Terios… Is he really dead…? Did I really see him…?” she wondered to herself.

Rainbow looked over at the shy pegasus and raised an eye. “Hey Fluttershy, you okay?” she asked, catching the others’ attention.

Fluttershy started to look up, but before she could say anything, Pinkie’s tail started to twitch. “Ooh!” she exclaimed as she glanced around, some of the others looking over at her at that. Suddenly, they all began to feel the ground shake, and as it began to intensify, Pinkie cried, “This is not my fault! That tower was clearly not built to code!”

At her words, everyone looked over at Terios’ tower and saw that it was not only shaking, but also beginning to lean forward in their direction! With as tall as the tower was, it was sure to reach the path they were on when it landed, so they began moving as far away from where it would land as fast as they could, Sonic grabbing Fluttershy with his left hand while Twilight used her magic to put Spike on her back. Most of them were struggling to run at the moment, the brief relaxation period coupled with their injuries leaving them a bit burnt out at the moment. Still, they managed to get some distance away before the top of the tower landed on top of the path they were on, creating a strong tremor and raising a cloud of dust upon impact.


CRUSHED


Everyone was thrown off by the falling tower, all of them trying to cover up when the dust cloud was raised. When it had cleared somewhat, they sat up and looked to see the tower lying on its side, the entire structure damaged by the fall from what they could see. “That was… unexpected,” Smithy said as he was on his hands and knees.

“Yeah. Why’d it just fall over like that?” Spike wondered while sitting up.

Sonic stared at the tower in horror for several moments before uttering, “Oh man…” He stood up and ran towards it with Caliburn in his hand, exclaiming, “MERLINA!” Everyone save for Letha quickly realized what had him in a panic, what they had talked about before, and stood up and ran after him and began helping him dig through what was left of the tower in search of the sorceress, Letha joining in despite her confusion.

“Ya really think that ghoulie had your wizard friend locked up in this tower?” Letha asked after the situation was explained to her.

“Don’t know where else she could be! Twilight and Smithy made it sound like she was still alive earlier, so she’s gotta be somewhere! Hopefully, it ain’t too late fer her!” Applejack replied as she bucked loose stones aside.

Shining grunted as he used his magic to pick up a large stone, setting it off to the side and sighing afterwards. He looked at Sonic, “I don’t know if we’re going to be able to find her in time, Sonic, assuming she’s even in the tower. She could be somewhere else for all we know.” Sonic stopped what he was doing and glared at the stallion for a moment before glancing downwards, letting out a shaky sigh as he knelt down and closed his eyes. He knew Shining was being realistic and was probably right, but…

Rarity trotted over to him and said, “We’ll find her, Sonic, even if we do have to dig through this entire tower to do so. There is some hope she’s fine if she is in the tower. Just look!” She used her magic to pull two things out from behind her and Sonic saw that they were his crown and the part of his cape that Terios had cut off. He looked up at her with half-lidded eyes and Rarity quickly said, “I-I know it’s not much, but it is something! They were in the tower; I found them while I was moving stones and look! No dents, no tears, no damage! That means if Merlina is in there…” She stopped talking as she noticed Sonic’s expression wasn’t changing. It had sounded good in her head, but she had to admit that her words had sounded rather hollow.

Sonic closed his eyes and stood up, opening them a moment later. “Thanks, Rare,” he said as he reached for the crown with his right hand. He did appreciate what she was trying to do.

Before he could grab it, Pinkie suddenly popped up between the two, startling them and making them step back. “And there’s even more goodies around here! Look what I found for Caliburn!” she chirped before she stood up on her hind legs and held an ornate-looking scabbard up over her head. Actually, she didn’t just hold it up; it hovered above her hooves, a bright white light surrounding it that caused everyone to look away as it spun around and an odd *BA-DA-DA-DAAA* tune sounded from somewhere.

After his eyes adjusted somewhat, Sonic looked up at the scabbard and his eyes just about went wide again. He reached his right hand up and grabbed the scabbard, pulling it down. The white glow around it disappeared after he pulled it down and Pinkie looked up in surprise. Sonic stared at the scabbard for a moment before he looked back at her and asked, “Pinkie, where did you find this?” While still standing on her hind legs, the pink pony smiled and pointed to her left, Sonic and the others looking to see where she was pointing. They quickly recognized the spot.

“You found it where Terios was?” Twilight asked, Pinkie nodding as she dropped back onto all fours.

Sonic held the scabbard out horizontally as he looked at it again. “Did he have it in him this entire time?” he wondered aloud.

Everyone else looked at the scabbard as well. “Is that it, Sonic?” Cadance asked.

The blue hedgehog nodded, “Yeah. This is the Scabbard of Excalibur.”

Caliburn mused, “Hm. ‘Twasn’t natural, his endurance.”

Spike added, “So that’s why he shrugged everything off before! But then how come you were able to hurt him, Sonic?”

Before he could respond, Fluttershy suddenly reached forward and placed her hooves on the scabbard. Everyone looked at her, Sonic asking, “Fluttershy? What are you doing?”

Fluttershy didn’t reply right away, instead staring intently at the scabbard. Ever since Pinkie held it up, she felt something calling to her from it, beckoning her. She thought it had sounded like Terios’ voice, and for some reason, that gave her hope that it was still possible to save him. “It was a part of him, wasn’t it…? He’s connected to it, isn’t he…? Perhaps…” she uttered absently.

Rainbow placed a hoof against her friend’s chest, pushing her back and asking, “Fluttershy, what’s gotten into you?” Fluttershy didn’t respond; she simply reached her forelegs out further and got the scabbard in the crook of them, starting to pull it towards her.

Sonic felt the pull and started pulling back as he said, “Hey, knock it off, Fluttershy!” They shy pegasus kept pulling, however, still staring at the scabbard. She backed away from Rainbow’s hoof, pulling hard enough to force Sonic to start turning to keep his gloved hand wrapped around the scabbard. The others began speaking up, trying to stop the odd tug-of-war.

When the scabbard’s opening was pointing towards where Terios had fallen, a bright white light suddenly started shining from it, causing everyone to stop and stare. As they watched, the light began to get brighter, and suddenly, a beam of white light shot diagonally upwards out of the opening, Fluttershy letting go with a yelp. It traveled up for several moments before it came to a stop, turning into a ball of light. Everyone stared as the ball condensed into and took on the shape of a person, the white fading away to reveal who it was.


A FALLEN WIZARD?


“Merlina!” Sonic and Smithy exclaimed when they saw it was the sorceress, everyone else staring up at the elf wizard in surprise. She hung in the air for a moment before she began to fall straight down! Rainbow spread her wings and Sonic leapt off the collapsed tower, throwing the scabbard behind him as both he and Rainbow rushed to catch her.

Rainbow reached her first, getting her forelegs under Merlina’s arms and slowing her drop somewhat, the staff in her right hand falling from her hand and landing on the ground below. Rainbow flapped her wings furiously to slow her down further, allowing Sonic to get underneath her and cradle her while Rainbow set her hind hooves on the ground, both of them looking at her. “Oh, geez…” Rainbow muttered while Sonic remained silent as they looked at her. Caliburn, Spike, Smithy, and the ponies leapt down from the tower and ran over after the two had caught her, all of them gathering around and seeing what had shocked the two.

Merlina was wearing the same blue dress with gold markings that she normally wore, minus the purple hooded cloak, but the dress itself was in a sad state. Various rips, tears, and marks marred it, all likely caused by different forms of attack. Some tears looked like they had been caused by a sharp blade while some of the marks looked like they had been caused by magic, especially the burn marks. She was also missing her tiara, belt, and jewelry, but Merlina herself looked to be in worse shape than her dress. Her hair was not braided and was disheveled like after her Dark Queen form had been beaten, streaks of red ran from her forehead down her face, and many of the spots where her dress was torn had red underneath as well. It was clear she’d been tortured worse than any of them had been. Worse still, she didn’t seem to be moving, her eyes closed and a vacant expression on her face.

“Sweet Celestia…” Rarity breathed, horrified at the state Merlina was in.

“That monster… How could he?” Shining growled.

Smithy noticed Merlina’s lack of movement and asked, “Is she…?” Sonic leaned his head in closer, placing the side of his head close to her chest. He knew what Smithy was wondering, and it was what he was worried about. Everyone waited tensely as he listened.

After several moments, he held his head up and said, “She’s breathing… but it sounds weak.”

Applejack said, “She ain’t gonna last long like this. We gotta get her outta here.”

Sonic nodded, “Right. We gotta get her back to Camelot.”

Twilight said, “I can try to teleport us back to the castle…”

Letha spoke, “Wait! Let’s take her to my ship.” When everyone looked at her, she explained, “I’ve got something on board we could use to help her. She’s not looking so good right now.”

Caliburn replied as he looked at Merlina, “She certainly doesn’t. Even if it takes longer, starting treatment now might be best. We could lose her if we don’t do something.”

Shining looked up at Rainbow Dash and asked, “Rainbow, do you think you can carry her by yourself to Letha’s ship?” At the pegasus’ nod, he said, “Good. You go on ahead and take her there. We’ll be right behind you.” He then looked at Sonic, “And don’t forget that scabbard, Sonic. We probably shouldn’t use it on her, but we can’t leave it here either.” Sonic seemed reluctant to let go of Merlina, but he nodded after a moment and let his arms drop, leaving Merlina to Dash.

As the pegasus lifted Merlina off the ground and Sonic moved to retrieve the scabbard, Pinkie turned towards the screen and grabbed it, saying, “I know it’s been a long road to get here and it’s really getting intense now, but I know you can do it, Greenie! You can muster up the strength to finish this if you try! Now give us a good old-fashioned time skip!”

Some of the others stared at her. “Pinkie, who are you-?”

Skip. Because reasons. And Pinkie Pie. Mostly Pinkie Pie.

Sonic let out a low sigh as he sat back against the chair he was on, leaning forward slightly. He, Smithy, Merlina, Spike, and the ponies were in the infirmary in Camelot Castle, the healers having found time for them now that some of their patients were let go. Letha had stayed behind when they returned to the port town, hoping for Merlina’s recovery as she saw them off. Sonic currently had his feet soaking in a pan of warm water to help chase away the chills from being frozen earlier while a maid got his shoes and socks nice and clean again, the elf insisting on doing so. Beside him, Kaz was applying bandages along his left arm, the armadillo having already wrapped up his legs while he was sitting.

Glide approached from the right and crouched down next to the pan, pouring some more hot water in a bucket he was carrying into the pan. He held the bucket up a second later and looked up at Sonic, asking, “Is that good, Sir Sonic?”

Sonic opened his eyes and looked down at the flying squirrel, “Yeah, that’s good. Thanks, Glide.” The squirrel nodded and set the bucket down next to the chair, next to the scabbard resting against one of the chair’s legs. Caliburn leaned against the wall next to Glide, keeping an eye on the scabbard. After all the trouble it had caused, he felt that someone should be keeping an eye on it at all times.

Glide stared at the scabbard for a moment before looking up at Sonic and asking, “Is that really the scabbard the old King Arthur used?” Sonic nodded in reply.

Kaz leaned to the side to look at the squirrel and asked, “Hey Glide, can you fetch me some more bandages? I’m just about done with this arm.” Glide nodded and stood up, walking over to the table the medical supplies were sitting on top of.

Sonic glanced down at his legs, seeing that the bandages were below his knees and almost went down to his feet. The bandages Kaz had already put on his left arm nearly went up to his elbow. “Feels like I’m being taped up here. Tape, bandages… I guess it’s about the same at this point.” At this thought, he looked around the infirmary to see how the others were doing.

Smithy and Spike were being tended to by a silver-brown meerkat doctor, who was currently saying reassuring things to the two as she treated Smithy. Chami had been helping her earlier, but he’d gotten a bit carried away with the bandages, the fox’s arms and legs being wrapped up similar to how Sonic’s were, but a lot looser and messier compared to Kaz’s work, the bandages even wrapped around his shoes. The meerkat had quickly lost her patience with him and sent him away before continuing with her exam, deciding that she would fix the bandages afterwards. The human doctor and elf nurse that took care of the Grand Kingdom’s horses had been called up to help treat the ponies, both of them trying to remember that they were dealing with horses that could talk as they did their work.

Suterusu was also in the room, currently helping with Twilight. The nurse had already applied some ice to her right eye to get the swelling down and now he was rubbing some sort of orange cream on it. Cadance was sitting on a nearby bed with Shining, who having the inside of his mouth checked by the doctor, and she looked down at the bowl containing the mixture the chameleon was using before looking back up at him and asking, “What is that stuff you’re putting on Twilight’s eye, Suterusu?”

The chameleon remained focused on his work as he replied, “It’s a special cream that I learned how to make when I was still with my clan back home. It aids in the healing process and helps reduce scarring.” Cadance nodded in understanding. Suterusu finished applying the cream soon afterwards and noticed Twilight’s eye fidgeting from the cream. “I know it’s a bit irritating, Lady Sparkle, but I must ask that you don’t try to wipe it off. It will help you,” he said.

Twilight groaned, “I know, it’s just… I really want to open my eye, but I know I can’t.”

Suterusu reached for a bandage patch he had prepared and set down on the bed next to the bowl. As he held it up, he said, “That’s why I got this ready. This should help keep your eye closed and keep you from being able to wipe the cream off.” He began to place it over her eye, making sure the whole eye was covered before stepping back. “I can get you some more ice if you’d like,” he said after a moment.

Twilight replied, “I think it’s starting to feel less swollen now. I think it’s going to be fine.” Suterusu nodded before walking away to check on Merlina. Twilight heaved a sigh as she sat on the edge of the bed, wanting to lie down but refraining from doing so. She looked down at the rest of her bandages with her good eye, knowing full well that everyone else was bandaged up as badly as she was, some worse. She looked off to her left when she heard Rainbow Dash complaining and saw that the elf nurse was trying to put bandages on her wings. “Case in point, I suppose,” she thought sullenly as she watched.

By this time, Kaz had finished bandaging Sonic’s right arm and Suterusu was almost done checking on Merlina. The chameleon then walked over to Kaz and Glide and said, “We’ve done all we can for the time being. Let’s go check on Cooper, Chami, Golo, and Pyre.” The two nodded and started for the door, Suterusu behind them.

As he was about to pass, Sonic stopped him and asked, “Hey, how’s Merlina doing?”

Suterusu looked back at the bed Merlina was on for a moment before looking at Sonic and saying, “I think she’s doing better, but it’s hard to say at this point. Bandaging her and trying to help her drink water has likely helped and kept her from getting worse, but while we don’t know the specifics, after being imprisoned for as long as she was, it’s safe to assume she’s going to have some difficulties when she wakes up.” Sonic nodded and looked down while Suterusu resumed walking, closing the door behind him as he left.


THE SCABBARD RETURNED


When everyone had been treated and cared for as much as they could be, the human doctor and elf nurse left while the meerkat doctor double-checked their work. A silence filled the room, only being broken by the doctor asking questions. Sonic continued to look down, some of the others looking over at him. They knew he was thinking about Merlina, but nobody could really think of anything to say to him. Suddenly, the door opened and Nimue stepped in, pushing the door closed behind her as everyone looked over at her. “I’m sorry I didn’t come see you all as soon as you got back. I’ve been helping the Knights of the Round Table and the soldiers with my magic to make it easier on the doctor,” she said.

Shining spoke, “Don’t worry about it, Lady Nimue. I’m pretty sure today isn’t going the way anyone expected.”

Nimue nodded and looked over at Sonic and Caliburn, her eyes falling on the scabbard against Sonic’s chair. “Is that…?” she started.

Sonic nodded, “Yeah.” He grabbed the scabbard with his right hand and held it out towards her. “After all this time, the Scabbard of Excalibur,” he said simply.

Nimue walked over to him and took the scabbard in both hands. As she stepped back while looking down at it, she gasped softly. “What’s wrong, m’lady?” Caliburn asked.

Nimue curled her fingers around the scabbard, holding it tightly as she said, “This sensation… It feels like the darkness of the Underworld is within the scabbard itself.”

Applejack spoke, “Well, we were thinking that that Terios had it inside o’ him, since Pinkie says she found it where he disappeared. Maybe that has somethin’ to do with it?”

Nimue continued to look down at the scabbard. “This is the first time I’ve seen and held it for myself since King Arthur changed. Is this recent or has it been here for longer? Could it have been more than just the scabbard’s power that corrupted King Arthur and Merlina…?” she wondered. She shook her head, “I can only guess right now, and that will not help us.”

Rainbow spoke up, “Maybe you can help answer a question I had, Lady Nimue.” The pink hedgehog looked up and the pegasus went on, “That Terios jerk… He looked just like Sonic when we first saw him, then he turned all black, then he went back to normal, and finally back to black. I get that he was created by the Underworld army and all that, but why did he look like Sonic?”

Nimue replied, “Only two others have held the scabbard since the old King Arthur was corrupted by it. Merlina was the second to hold it.” She looked at Sonic, “And Sir Sonic was the first.”

Sonic was a bit surprised by how she phrased her response, but he said, “Well, yeah, that’s true. I did have to carry it back to Merlina after I got it, but I never used it.”

Nimue replied, “Perhaps, after Merlina was defeated and the scabbard fell into their clutches again, the Underworld army decided to create a new soldier based on the only other person to ever hold the scabbard. Twice they followed the orders of those who used its power for what they wanted, and both times that leader was defeated by someone who had also held the scabbard but didn’t need its power. They may have become interested in having their own version of such a warrior. Am I correct in assuming that you carried the scabbard in your left hand, Sir Sonic?” At Sonic’s nod, she said, “They may have been able to create Terios from something you left on the scabbard, or maybe just the fact that you touched it was all it took. There’s no way we can know now.”

Spike asked, “While we’re talking about the scabbard, how come Sonic was able to hurt him with Caliburn before anything any of us did hurt him?”

Nimue answered, “In order to blunt the scabbard’s power before, Sir Sonic needed the Sacred Swords that Sir Lancelot, Sir Gawain, and Sir Percival hold in order to do so. When he faced Merlina while she was using the scabbard’s power on the kingdom, they sent their swords to join with Caliburn, causing him to become Excalibur once more. The swords separated after Merlina’s defeat, but it’s likely that some of their power has remained in him since.”

Sonic held a hand to his chin, “I think I get it. Since their power is still in Caliburn and it disabled the scabbard last time, hitting Terios sent that power into him and cut off his ability to heal himself.”

Twilight added, “But since it wasn’t the full power of each of the swords, you had to keep hitting him to produce the same effect and make him vulnerable to other things.” Nimue nodded before looking down at the scabbard again.

“So… now that we have it, what do we do with it now?” Rainbow asked after a moment.

“Can we bring Terios back? …To make him good so he can help the kingdom?” Fluttershy asked, adding the second part when she saw some of the others turn to look at her.

“Are you loco in the coco, Fluttershy?! After what he tried to do, there’s no way he was talking serious talk! And you saw how Avalon changed after he disappeared, right? That was the right thing to do!” Pinkie exclaimed, suddenly appearing in front of the shy pegasus.

“But… But…” Fluttershy stammered, trying to find the right words and failing under the intense look Pinkie was giving her.

Nimue spoke up, “I don’t think Terios can come back or had any hope of being changed. If he truly felt he had to come out of Sonic’s shadow, he surely clung tightly to everything he had been taught. As for the scabbard, it’s clear to me, now more than ever, that the power it contains is too dangerous. This is a mistake that has to be rectified.” She turned towards the door, “I need some time to prepare, so there’s no need to hurry, but once you’re able to, Sir Sonic, I need you to gather the Knights of the Round Table and meet me in the courtyard by the statue with Caliburn.” With that, she left the infirmary, everyone watching as she walked out. They were so focused on her that nobody noticed Merlina’s eyes beginning to twitch, her right hand slowly reaching for her staff next to her bed.


THE PLAN


It wasn’t that much later that Sonic walked out into the back courtyard with Caliburn and the Knights of the Round Table in tow, his socks and shoes back on his feet and Smithy and the Equestrians following behind them. They found Nimue halfway between the castle and the Excalibur Sonic statue, the Scabbard of Excalibur lying on the grass next to her and a circle that glowed with magic the size of her reflecting pool in front of her. She looked up as they came to a stop on the other side of the circle and said, “You all came quickly.”

Lancelot replied, “When Sir Sonic mentioned the scabbard, we knew the situation had to be dire, Lady Nimue. What can we do to rectify it?”

Nimue placed her hands together in front of her as she began, “As Sir Sonic has surely explained already, the Scabbard of Excalibur has been found and it was in the possession of the one commanding the Underworld army, Terios.” She gestured to her left at the scabbard as she spoke. “Now that I’ve had the chance to hold it again and sense the lingering traces of the Underworld within it, I’m certain that the Knights of the Underworld will attempt to reclaim it again. Therefore, I believe the only way to put a stop to that and put an end to the false King Arthur’s legacy is to destroy it. And that’s where you all come in,” she explained.

“Us, Lady Nimue?” Percival asked.

Gawain spoke, “I can see it. After all, Sir Sonic needed our swords to get the scabbard from our former king.”

Lamorak crossed his arms, “He needed the swords that you, Lancelot, and Percival carry, Gawain. He didn’t need ours!”

Nimue spoke before Gawain could respond, “Yes, but that was when he was trying to recover it, Sir Lamorak. In order to carry out our task this time, it will require all of your swords.”

Galahad asked, “Forgive me for asking, Lady Nimue, but how much good could the swords Lamorak and I have be? They weren’t required to reform Excalibur, so they’re not part of the legendary Sacred Sword.”

Nimue replied, “That is true, Sir Galahad, but part of Excalibur or not, they are still Sacred Swords. They contain great power that only their rightful holders can use. Surely you’ve felt it when you unleash the power of Soul Surge?” Both Galahad and Lamorak thought about that for a moment and then nodded in confirmation. Nimue continued, “I’ve learned of the power they contain since Merlina became the kingdom’s ruler. I do not know if King Arthur was aware of their power, but that might explain why he sent you both so far away from Camelot. Together with their light, we can do more than nullify the scabbard’s power; we can ensure that its power can’t be used for evil again.”

Sonic nodded, “Okay. So how do we do it?”

Nimue held her hands out towards the glowing circle in front of her, “I created this magic circle to harness the power contained in each of the Sacred Swords. Once the swords are connected to it, it will combine their power with that of their holders and focus it on the scabbard. Together, they’ll strip the scabbard of its power and destroy it completely.” Fluttershy’s eyes had been drawn to the scabbard during the entire talk, but at Nimue’s words, she suddenly began to look nervous.

Gawain looked at the magic circle and asked, “Is the circle ready to be used, Lady Nimue, or do you still need time?”

Nimue replied, “It’s almost ready, Sir Gawain. I’m concerned because Merlina has studied more on the High Ancient magic required for this than I have. She would be able to ensure that it would have the power needed for this, but it can’t be helped. She’s unconscious and badly injured, and we have no way of knowing when she’ll wake up or if she’ll even be able to handle that kind of magic right away. As much as I would like to have her here to help us, this can’t wait. We have to…” She stopped in mid-sentence when she noticed a change in the way the wind was blowing, the others looking around as they noticed it too.

Suddenly, Sonic, the knights, Spike, Smithy, and the ponies heard a whooshing noise behind them and turned to look. They saw what appeared to be a whirlwind of dirt spinning around not far from where they were standing, which was quickly dying down. When it stopped completely, they saw Merlina standing in the middle of where it had been, the wizard crouched down on one knee and her staff pressed against the ground in her right hand. She had her head down and they could tell she was breathing hard from exertion.

“Merlina?!” Twilight gasped.

“You woke up?! When?!” Gawain added. Merlina moved her left hand up to her staff and wrapped her fingers around it. She began grunting as she tried to raise herself to a standing position.

Percival and Galahad moved to her sides, helping to support while also starting to push her backwards. “We have to get you back to the infirmary, Merlina. You shouldn’t be up right now,” Percival said.

Merlina grunted and rasped out, “No…!” She forced herself forward and managed to get out of their grip, her staff falling from her right hand as she fell to her knees.

As she panted, Lancelot stepped forward and said, “Merlina, we all know you care deeply for the Grand Kingdom and still want to see it continue on and prosper, but you don’t need to do this to yourself.”


ENDURING RESOLVE


Before he could continue, Merlina murmured, “Yes I do.” She looked up and said, louder, “This is not about prosperity, it’s about hope. I only cared about the kingdom prospering at one time because I lost hope when I saw how it ended. I only cared about seeing that that never happened because I didn’t believe in the future. Ever since Sonic gave me new reason to believe in the future, my goal as ruler has been to ensure that that hope continues to be felt throughout the kingdom for as long as possible. I will not stand by when I can do to something to help, and this time, it’s not just the kingdom’s inhabitants who need me.” She looked straight at Sonic, “My king needs me. My friends need me. As long as I can move and use my magic, that’s all the reason I need to do whatever it takes to help.”

Sonic and Caliburn looked at each other before Sonic turned back to Merlina and said, “Okay, Merlina, if you’re sure about this…” Merlina reached forward and grabbed her staff, holding it up and pressing the bottom of it against the grass, standing up with a new resolve as she looked at him again. Sonic looked back at her for a moment before giving an affirmative nod.

After several minutes, Merlina had finished adding to Nimue’s magic circle, a six-pronged star now surrounding it and the Scabbard of Excalibur sitting in the middle of it. Sonic and each of the knights stood next to one of the prongs, awaiting further direction while Smithy and the Equestrians watched from further back.

Merlina stood up straight and pressed the bottom of her staff against the grass while she wiped her forehead with her left hand, brushing over the bandages there as she did. Nimue walked over to her and asked, “Are you ready to begin, Merlina?”

The sorceress took a deep breath and replied, “I am.”

Nimue nodded, “Then let’s put an end to this.” Merlina nodded and raised her staff over her head, bringing it down against the grass and channeling her magic into the pattern. It immediately began to glow brightly, small circles beginning to light up at the end of each of the prongs.

Nimue held out her hands, sending her magic into it as well to power it up further, making it glow brighter and causing the scabbard to float in the air above the pattern. After a minute, Nimue called, “Now, everyone! Drive your swords into those circles!”

Sonic and the others looked at each other and nodded. They stepped forward and, with the exception of Lancelot, took their swords in a reverse grip, all of them holding their swords up. Then, with a shout, they all brought their swords down at almost the same time. As soon as they were connected with the pattern, a white light began to shine up out of the ground around the blades, traveling up to their holders. Soon, a ball of light rose up from each of them, stopping over their heads. Sonic’s light was blue, Lancelot’s was red, Gawain’s was yellow, Percival’s was lavender, Lamorak’s was green, and Galahad’s was white.

The balls of light floated where they were for a moment before they changed into streaks of light. They shot up and around each other above the scabbard before splitting off and then shooting straight towards it. As the lights wrapped around it, the scabbard began to shake as a white light began to emanate from within it. As Smithy and the Equestrians watched, it began to turn black, beams of the white light starting to come out of the sides as if there were holes in it. Seconds later, the scabbard broke apart into tiny particles, a blue light coming out of it that dissipated as well as a shrieking black streak that the six holders’ lights flew up after and collided with together, destroying it without a trace.

While Fluttershy continued to stare up at where the black streak had been, the others looked down as the pattern’s light faded, Sonic and the knights pulling their swords out afterwards. Nimue’s arms dropped and Merlina stopped pressing her staff down so hard, the former opening her eyes and saying, “It’s finished.”

Merlina looked over at her and nodded, “It’s finished… Ah!” She suddenly lost her balance and fell onto her knees.


OVERCOMING FEAR


Sonic and the others looked over at her in concern, Sonic running over and putting his left hand on her shoulder as he said, “Merlina!”

Merlina looked up at him, “I am all right, Sonic. You don’t have to worry about me now.” She looked down, raising her left hand to her chest, “Terios… When he attacked me, he sealed me inside the scabbard, making sure that I could feel the power it contained as he did. As long as I was within it, he could do whatever he wanted to me. He tortured me, extracted my magic to empower his own… He always had his eyes on me, always causing me pain because he knew the scabbard’s power would keep me alive…”

Everyone else had come over while she had been talking and heard what she said. “That’s horrible. How did you manage to keep it together for over a week, Merlina?” Percival asked.

A soft glow came from Merlina’s left hand and she held it out to reveal a small red flower, a pomegranate. “It was no small feat. More than once, I was tempted to give in to the darkness I was surrounded by, to give him what he surely wanted. But every time I thought about giving up, I found the resolve to resist his trickery longer.” She looked up at Sonic, “You kept me going all this time, Sonic. When I would start to falter, I would think about your words, about making the most of the time we have, and remind myself that giving in would shame you and my grandfather. That would give me the strength to endure longer and wait for my time.” She gripped her staff firmly in her right hand and, with a soft heave, pushed herself up. She looked down at Sonic and said, “You see? I am fine.”

Gawain spoke, “Well, you might be able to carry yourself, Merlina, but you don’t really look fit to rule at the moment.”

Lamorak nodded, “Yeah. I kind of like the new look, but you probably shouldn’t be showing it off to the citizens of Camelot.”

The Knights of the Round Table moved forward and gathered around her, leading her towards the castle while making sure she was in fact okay. “You must still be thirsty, and you’re surely starving as well,” Percival was saying as they continued.

As he, Nimue, Smithy, and the Equestrians watched Merlina and her entourage walk away, Sonic let go of Caliburn and put his hands on his hips, smiling, “She really has changed, hasn’t she? She seems so much stronger now.”

Caliburn replied, “Indeed. The once foolish maiden who only cared about escaping her own sorrow has grown into a wise leader.”

Nimue spoke, “Speaking of growth, Sir Sonic…” Sonic turned his head to his left to look at her. “Merlina’s long struggle against Terios partly sounds like it was a struggle to overcome her fears about her past, to prove that she can be a strong, just ruler. By being forced to lead the kingdom through a difficult time and defeating a truly dark reflection of yourself, would you say you conquered your fears of not living up to your title and being the type of ruler that this world can count on to protect it?” she asked.

Sonic crossed his arms and tilted his head down slightly, his eyes closed as he thought about her question. After several moments, his arms dropped to his sides and he looked up at her, “I don’t know that I’d say THAT… but I would say I at least overcame them.”

Nimue nodded and held her hands out in front of her, her palms facing up. There was a flash of light a second later and Sonic’s crown appeared in her hands. As she raised it up and placed it on Sonic’s forehead, she said, “And that is why you are the true King Arthur.” Sonic glanced up at the crown as she lowered her arms and then looked down at her with a smile.

Shining smiled to himself at this. “It’s just one day, but I think Sonic’s proved that he earned that crown. If the day ever comes where he becomes the ruler of a nation, I’m sure he’ll make a fine ruler,” he thought. He then rolled his eyes, “Now I feel REALLY stupid for thinking he was like Buck when we first met.”


PEACE RESTORED


Soon…

Smithy and the Equestrians stood along the sides of the hall leading out to the castle balcony as Sonic, Caliburn, Merlina, and Nimue stepped inside flanked by the Knights of the Round Table and General Tybalt. Sonic was still wearing his crown and Merlina had changed into a new dress, her hair braided again and wearing her tiara, belt, jewelry, and hooded cloak once again. She also had a new shroud around her shoulders that she’d made with her magic from what was left of Sonic’s ruined cape. Sonic and Merlina smiled at the others and they returned the smile, Fluttershy’s smile looking smaller than the others.

As they came to a stop, Cadance said, “That was a wonderful speech you two gave.”

Rarity added, “And you both looked so wonderful giving it too! The citizens of Camelot probably hardly even noticed your wrappings.”

Merlina placed her left hand on her shroud, “I must thank you again for allowing me to repurpose Sonic’s cape, Lady Rarity.”

Rarity replied, “Oh, no trouble at all, Merlina! It had already been ruined by Terios anyway, so I’m glad you found a way to use it.”

Tybalt spoke, “It was a good speech. But were you serious when you mentioned that monster, Sir Sonic? Not the leaving part, but the fact that there’s a monster threatening the kingdom from far away?”

Sonic looked back at the lion, “Dead serious, Tybalt.” He gestured to Twilight and her friends, “That monster’s the whole reason we met today, and while it’s probably not responsible for Terios, it probably is responsible for us ending up in this world.”

Merlina nodded, “The threat is most certainly real, General. I have sensed that the bonds that hold worlds together are in danger of being destroyed because of the creature’s power. Worse, it may even be powerful enough to erase all that has been. It must be stopped before that happens.”

Gawain said, “I wish we could come with you on your quest, Sir Sonic, but we are needed here.”

Lancelot nodded, “Indeed. The Knights of the Underworld may have been stopped this time, but this will not be the last time they try to take the Grand Kingdom.”

Twilight asked, “But with Terios defeated, they’ll surely be in disarray for a while, won’t they?”

Merlina looked at her, “I’m afraid not, Lady Sparkle. Terios may be dead, but he was not the true ruler of the Underworld. The real ruler is still out there, and I’m sure he’s part of the reason that the Underworld army retreated when it did.”

Sonic asked, “How do you figure that, Merlina?”

The sorceress replied, “Because of the ghost of King Arthur. Because of how close I was to Terios, I know you’ve all seen it. It’s not really his ghost; it’s just an illusion.”

Spike tilted his head to the side, “An illusion of an illusion?”

Merlina nodded and said, “Terios talked about claiming control of the Underworld by deposing of the true ruler, but that’s just what he was led to believe. I’ve felt the power that the ghost contains; it’s far greater than the power Terios had. I believe that the ruler of the Underworld allowed Terios to believe he’d been deposed of in order to see how powerful he could become while watching over him in the guise of King Arthur’s ghost.”

Rainbow raised an eye, “So… even though he was giving out orders, he could’ve actually been following orders without realizing it?”

Merlina nodded, “That is what I believe, Rainbow Dash. And now that Terios’ plans have failed, I am certain the true ruler has returned and assumed control again.”

Percival said, “So it is imperative we be prepared for anything.”

Nimue spoke, “Then let us not waste any more time. We must begin the preparations to send Sir Sonic and our new allies back to where they came from so they can resume their journey.” Nearly everyone in the hall nodded in agreement.

A short while later, everyone was on the castle roof, on the grassy part. As Merlina was finishing the preparations for her spell and Sonic was saying his goodbyes to the Knights of the Round Table, Nimue walked over to Twilight and her friends, her hands together in front of her. Spike and the ponies looked at her as she said, “I must thank you all for aiding us in our time of need. I would wish you all luck, but given what I’ve seen, I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

They soon noticed what she was holding in her hands. “Are those yer cards, Lady Nimue?” Applejack asked.

The pink hedgehog replied, “Oh no, not my special cards anyway. These are regular tarot cards. I thought it might be interesting to do a reading on all of you before you left.”

Cadance smiled, “Really? What did you see for us?”

Nimue glanced down at her cards for a moment before looking up and saying, “Well, I can’t tell you exactly what I’ve seen, but I can tell you this: there will be hardships ahead, both in the near and distant future, but I always see happiness as well. So I wouldn’t worry too much about your futures; I think everything will be fine for you all.”

While they were conversing, Sonic finished saying goodbye to Smithy, allowing the fox to keep Clarent safe for him. They ended with an awkward but solid fist bump and Sonic and Caliburn went over to Spike and the ponies as Merlina approached from the other side. As they joined the gathering, Merlina looked at Sonic and said, “You don’t have to worry about Camelot while you’re gone, Sonic. I promise to continue watching over it in your stead.”

Sonic nodded, “Thanks, Merlina.” He took off his metal glove and handed it to her, “Here, I’ll leave this with you again.”

Merlina took it from him and then looked back at him expectantly. “Don’t forget about…” she teased slightly.

Sonic glanced up at the crown on his head, “Ah, right.” He reached up with his right hand and took it off, handing it to Merlina.

Before she could take it, Rarity suddenly got between them, pressing her hooves against Sonic’s chest as she cried, “Sonic, wait! You can’t leave your crown behind! It belongs to you!”

Sonic replied, “Yeah, well, it also belongs to this kingdom, Rarity. Do you really think anyone’s gonna acknowledge a storybook king in Equestria, or even in my world?”

Rarity argued, “It’s still your crown! It shouldn’t matter what anyone else thinks; you should be allowed to have it with you at all times!” She sighed dreamily, “I know I would if I had a crown of my own. I’d wear it all day, every day! I’d never take it off!”

Sonic reached around the unicorn to give Merlina the crown as he said, “Okay Rarity, I’ll tell you what. When you get a crown, you can polish it until the finish comes off if you want, and I won’t say a word.”

Merlina accepted the crown and giggled at what Sonic said while Rarity rolled her eyes in annoyance. Merlina then teleported both the crown and glove to her chamber and then sighed, “As much as I’d like to have you all stay longer, I know you have to leave. It’s time for you all to get on your way.”

Everyone nodded and Spike and the ponies started following her over to the spot she had prepared for them while Sonic turned to Caliburn one last time and said, “Well, guess this is it, you oversized letter opener.”

Caliburn turned away with a huff, “Hmph! Knave.”

Sonic noticed his blade was shaking slightly and grinned, lightly pushing Caliburn from behind as he teased, “Your tone of voice suggests you’re not gonna miss me, but your blade says otherwise~.” Caliburn turned around and glared darkly at him. Instead of teasing him further, Sonic simply nodded and said, “See ya.”

Caliburn’s expression softened as Sonic turned away and walked after his friends. “Fare thee well, Sir Sonic, Knight of the Wind,” he murmured softly as Smithy and the Knights of the Round Table gathered around him.

As Sonic caught up, Spike looked up at him and asked, “So how’d it feel to wear a crown for a day, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog glanced down at him for a moment before saying, “You know… I think I was actually kinda getting used to it, Spike.”

Pinkie piped up, “So are you saying you would be happy to come back and become a king for real and we can invite Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to Camelot to see the city and the castle and we can have a super big fun party with the entire kingdom?!”

Sonic winced at her words and said, “Let’s not get TOO far ahead of ourselves, Pinkie. Let’s just focus on what we need to do when we get back to Equestria and worry about that later.”

Merlina smiled, “She really is quite the wild one, isn’t she?”

Twilight sighed, “You have no idea.”

Soon, they all stood close together in front of Merlina near the edge of the roof as she began her spell. After chanting for several seconds, she raised her staff up and brought the end of it down against the ground, a whirlwind whipping up around the group in response. It began to get bigger and stronger until it hid them all from view completely, at which point it began to lift off the ground and go up into the sky. There was no trace of Sonic, Spike, or any of the ponies after it had lifted off, all of them being carried by the wind back to Equestria.

There was silence on the roof as Merlina, Nimue, Caliburn, Smithy, and the Knights of the Round Table looked up at the last spot that they had seen the whirlwind before it disappeared from sight completely. Merlina seemed to be more still than anyone else on the roof, but she soon turned around and smiled at everyone, all of them understanding that she was ready to be the kingdom’s appointed ruler again. They all began to leave the roof, knowing there was still much work to be done and citizens and soldiers to help.

As Smithy was following the others back into the castle, a beam of sunlight shined on Clarent’s hilt and crossguard, causing a silver shine to travel across it. While it wasn’t a divine shine, it was a shine that indicated that the Grand Kingdom had once again survived a near disaster and everyone involved had been brought together closer than ever. As brief as it was, Sonic’s return had restored the people’s faith in the kingdom’s future, the shine a sign that it would continue to thrive for a long time to come.
> Coral Cave, Pt. I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


CATCHING UP


Tails was walking through the train’s passenger cars, looking for Sonic, Spike, and the ponies. He had just finished putting everything back into place under the engine and making sure it was all optimally tightened a couple of minutes ago and planned on checking in with the others while the engine warmed up after being cold for a while. He was surprised when he wasn’t able to find them in the car they had been sitting in for most of the trip, and so far he hadn’t found any trace of them in the rest of the cars. It was like they had just vanished into thin air.

As he stood in one of the sleeper cars after going all the way back to the caboose, he scratched the side of his head with his right hand as he wondered, “Where is everybody?” As if on cue, his radar suddenly began to vibrate in his tails and he turned slightly as he reached for it. He flipped it open and examined the screens; it had been alerting him about all the new portals opening up along the route to Canterlot, but this one looked different. The readings weren’t the same, and the radar was showing that their point of origin was located on the train…

He looked up and noticed a white light coming through the window of one of the rooms in the sleeper car. It shone brightly for several moments before it faded. Tails hesitated for a moment before he moved towards the door, using his left hand to slide it open. He had checked the room earlier, but when he looked in this time, he could only utter, “Huh?” at what he saw.

Sonic and the others were sprawled out on both the beds and the floor, all of them looking a bit disoriented. While they tried to right themselves, Tails noticed that they were all bandaged up to varying degrees. He particularly noticed the bandage patch over Twilight’s right eye, the wrappings around Rainbow’s wings, and the bandages wrapping around Shining’s stomach and on his face, but the amount of bandages they were all wearing worried him.

Sonic, who had ended up on the bottom back bunk on the left side of the room with Twilight and Rainbow sprawled out on top of him, let out a groan as he rubbed his forehead with his left hand, which was still feeling tender after his duel with Terios. Twilight and Rainbow groaned as well as they tried to get up, Rainbow managing to twist herself around and fall off the bed onto the floor with Shining, Spike, and Fluttershy. After shaking off the tumble, the cyan pegasus raised her head and looked around, her eyes soon falling on the book lying in the middle of the floor between Shining and Fluttershy. That was when she realized, “Hey, we’re back!”

Everyone else perked up at that and looked around, seeing that she was right. “You’re right, Rainbow! We’re back on the train!” Cadance said as she flipped herself over on the top front bunk on the right side of the room, Rarity on the bunk underneath her.

Sonic and Twilight managed to get untangled and sit up, the latter saying, “Wow. Merlina and Shahra both have incredible magic.”

Tails cleared his throat, at which point everyone realized he was standing in the doorway. They all looked over at him and he waved awkwardly. “Uh, hi, guys,” he said.

“Smithy?” Shining got out, still a bit dazed and with the bottom of his jaw pressed against the floor.

“Ali Baba?” Applejack asked. With her head against the pillow on the bottom front bunk on the left and positioned the way she was, she couldn’t get a good look at the fox in the doorway.

“Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie exclaimed as she laid upside-down on the top back bunk on the right with her back against the wall, the top of her head and mane sinking into the mattress slightly.

Tails shook his head and spoke, “Okay, could someone, anyone, please start from the beginning and tell me what happened to all of you? Because I’m very worried and confused right now.” Everyone in the room looked around at each other, wondering who should start.

A short while later, everyone had shaken off the disorientation from the teleportation and moved to the back of the car, sitting in a circle on both the floor and the edges of both the top and bottom bunk beds. Tails was sitting next to Sonic, the fox having been brought up to speed on what he had missed. “Wow. What a wild ride,” he commented. He then looked over at Sonic, “So you’re really a king, huh?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Only in another world, buddy.”

Rarity asked, “He didn’t tell you about that, Tails?”

The fox shook his head, “No. Until now, the only one who mentioned anything about this to me was Amy. She said him being a king was the worst excuse she’d ever heard when she confronted him about missing their date.”

Rainbow leaned her head over the edge of the top bunk and looked down at Sonic oddly, “Wait, you agreed to a date with Amy, only for Merlina to call on you afterwards?”

Sonic shrugged, “Well, it was a slow day. I worked up the nerve to agree to a date when she asked me, and yeah, I had just picked up a snack on my way to meet her when, lo and behold, Merlina summoned me to deal with King Arthur.” He crossed his arms, “Still had a price to pay afterwards, though. Amy was already mad because I didn’t show up, and explaining what happened didn’t make things better. Actually made things worse, since that’s when the hammer came out.” He looked at Tails, “I know it’s partly because she was mad about the date, but I get the feeling she wouldn’t have believed me even if she wasn’t already mad. And if she wouldn’t believe me…”

Tails looked back at him for a moment before smiling, “You’re right. If you’d told me at the time, I probably would’ve found it a hard pill to swallow too.”

Cadance asked, “You don’t think you would’ve believed him, Tails?”

The fox looked at her and shrugged, “Did you?”

Pinkie piped up, “Ooh, ooh! When Sonic was about to tell us, I had a hunch that I knew what he was going to say! It just came to me and I was all like- whoa!” She was cut off when Applejack reached up and grabbed the end of her poofy tail between her teeth, giving a sharp pull down. Pinkie’s head swung down as she used her hooves to stop her fall, Applejack letting go of her tail and reaching up with a hoof, pressing it against Pinkie’s muzzle to keep her from going off again.

“That was a close one,” Rainbow muttered as she looked down at Tails, Sonic, and Twilight.

Applejack gave Pinkie a push up, allowing her to sit upright and speak again. She then said, “In answer to yer question, Tails, no, we really didn’t. It was pretty surprisin’, and we had ta hear the whole story before it really sank in.”

Tails replied, “That’s kind of what I figured. I mean, we’ve seen a lot of strange things today, but still, you have to have limits somewhere, right? I wasn’t much of a believer in actual magic until today, when I’ve seen enough to know it’s real.”

Fluttershy, who was sitting the farthest from the others on the floor, looked off to the side and muttered darkly, “I thought I knew what a certain someone’s limits were. Now I know better.”

Shining and Cadance were sitting close to the pegasus and heard her muttering, though they didn’t what she said. They looked at her and Cadance asked, “What did you say, Fluttershy?”

The shy pegasus looked at her in surprise and uttered, “Oh, um, nothing…”

Shining shrugged and looked back at Tails, “Well, you can rest assured, Tails, that Sonic got to prove he can handle the pressures of being a king.” He thought for a moment before adding, “Well, some of them, anyway.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. Didn’t really get a chance to deal with some of the other stuff.”

Spike said, “Come on, I bet you could handle it.”

Sonic replied, “Yeah, well, all things considered, I think I dealt with enough in one day.”

Tails nodded, “Yep. It’s time to go back to being you and get back on track. Speaking of which, I finished putting everything back in place a little while ago and started warming the engine up while I looked for you. We should be ready to get going by now.”

Cadance smiled, “Really? That’s wonderful, Tails. We’re lucky you’re so good with machines.”

Twilight said, “We should have a chance to sit down before we get to Canterlot.”

Rainbow added, “Well, let’s get going, then! We’ve got worlds to save here!”

Tails and Pinkie were the first two to leave the room, everyone else following them out. Fluttershy was the last to leave and, as she closed the door behind her and followed the others, she murmured softly to herself, “I don’t think he’s any different… After that… are we really safe…?”

While everyone else went back to their usual seats, Tails and Pinkie kept going forward, going back to the engine. Once they were there, they saw that, as predicted, the furnace had warmed up enough for them to continue their journey to Canterlot. Tails took the coal shovel and threw in an extra scoopful of coal to be on the safe side while Pinkie blew the train’s horn, signaling that they were about to get moving. Soon, a shudder ran through the cars behind the engine as it slowly began moving again, continuing around the mountain pass.


TENSION


While they had managed to keep their usual demeanors while relating their literary experience to Tails, as they settled into their seats, a mood settled over nearly everyone as they found themselves unable to engage in casual banter like they had before. Cadance seemed to be the only one who wasn’t feeling dour at the moment, but that meant she was the only one who was looking around the car worriedly at everyone else. Shining and Twilight seemed to be preoccupied by something, as did the other ponies and Spike. Sonic might’ve been acting normal, but she couldn’t tell since he was looking out the window again. She wanted to say something, but with how thick the tension was, she knew she’d have to be careful with what she said or she might set everyone off unintentionally.

It didn’t take long for the train to enter the last tunnel on the path to Canterlot. Up front, Tails half-expected something to happen like with the first tunnel they went through. He expected something to attack while they were shrouded in darkness or for a portal warning immediately in front of the train to come up too late for him to stop the train, but instead, the train came out of the tunnel without anything unusual happening. “Well, that was unexpected. You know it’s been quite a ride when it’s surprising that there’s only a light at the end of the tunnel!” he joked to Pinkie.

The pink pony, who had been sitting quietly in the corner looking at the fox after the train started moving again, replied, “Yep, that’s for sure! It’s always what you least expect to happen that’s the most surprising! So surprising that even my Pinkie Sense didn’t go off! Still, everyone loves surprises! They’re good, aren’t they? Surprises, I mean…” She trailed off with a nervous giggle.

Tails looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. She’d sounded WAY too chipper while she was talking, which, considering how she normally acted, was saying something, and that giggle did not sound genuine to him. “Are you… feeling okay, Pinkie?” he asked.

Pinkie looked at him with wide eyes like she’d been caught, but she quickly gave him a wide, nervous smile, “Of course I’m okay, Smi- Tails! Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

Tails fully turned towards her, “Well, uh… You do have quite a few bandages all over you.” Pinkie looked down at her wrappings before looking back up at him, trying to keep an innocent look on her face. “Your encounter with that fake Sonic you mentioned must’ve been pretty rough if you needed medical attention. We should be arriving in Canterlot soon; do you want to go sit and rest with the others until we get there?” he asked.

Pinkie’s pupils dilated for a split second before she cheerfully replied, “Aw, there’s no need for that, Tails! I’m fine, everypony’s fine, everything’s fi- well, not everything’s fine yet, but it will be once we’ve stopped that mean monster and made everything right again!” She turned and stuck her head out the window, “Absolutely fine!”

Unfortunately for the pink pony, her reassurances did little to reassure Tails. Now he was fully convinced she was keeping something from him. “What happened?” he asked calmly but firmly. Pinkie glanced towards the inside of the engine, but kept her head out the window. “I know you can hear me, Pinkie, and I know there’s something you’re not telling me. Are you going to tell me or are you going to keep this charade up? Only the truth can free you, you know,” he stated a little firmer.

Pinkie gulped and looked towards the front of the engine. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she saw an excuse. “Hey! There’s a portal opening up ahead! It’s right in front of the train! You’d better stop it, Tails!” she cried.

Tails was about to pass it off as an excuse when he heard the warning from his radar go off. Pulling it out and flipping it open, he saw that there was indeed a portal forming up ahead, and whether there were tracks on the other side was anyone’s guess. He shut the system and went over to the controls, thinking to himself as he pulled back the throttle, “I might as well give it up. She’s not going to talk. She’s not trying to keep a secret; she sounds like she’s trying to convince herself that nothing’s wrong. Maybe Sonic will be willing to tell me more about what I missed.”

Sonic blinked as he looked out the window, noticing something. “Hey, the train’s stopping,” he said as he looked away from the window. Everyone in the car looked at him at that, almost all of them jerked out of their thoughts by his words. Cadance had been planning to use her spell on her husband to see if that would lighten things up a little, but now that everyone’s attention had been redirected, she decided against it. It wasn’t long before they all felt that the train had stopped moving completely.

Shortly afterwards, the door at the front of the car slid open and everyone looked to see Pinkie come trotting through the doorway with an innocent but nervous look on her face. Tails was right behind her, the fox having stared hard at the back of Pinkie’s head the whole time she was ahead of him, trying one last time to see if she would tell him what was wrong. She had kept it together, though, and as she walked between her friends’ seats, turned around, and sat in the middle of the aisle, he gave her one last meaningful look as she stared back at him. “Tails, Pinkie, why did we stop?” Twilight asked, causing them both to break eye contact with each other.

Tails looked over at the unicorn, wondering more than before why one of her eyes had a bandage patch over it, and answered, “Pinkie saw a new portal open up on the tracks ahead. It’s blocking the way and it’s hard to say if there are any tracks inside of it.” He looked over everyone before rubbing the side of his head, “Uh… I can probably go investigate it myself. You can all wait here if you’re not feeling up to it right now.”

At that, Spike and the ponies, save for Cadance and Fluttershy, knew that their choice was to go with him and they had to convince him to let them. They all knew better; if the alternative was sitting on a train and waiting in such stagnant air, anything had to be better.

“No, no, no! Don’t let our appearances deceive you, Tails! We’re perfectly capable of doing what we’ve been doing all day!” Rarity exclaimed.

“Yeah, Rarity’s right! Things got a little rougher than we were expecting earlier, but we’re totally ready to face anything!” Rainbow agreed.

Tails scratched the top of his head with a finger as he said, “Well, okay. I just don’t want anyone to feel they need to push themselves for any reason. There’s nothing to prove here, just…”

Pinkie piped up, “We’re not proving anything! We’re just doing what we normally do when Equestria is in danger!”

Applejack added, “You’re right, though, Tails. We probably shouldn’t be tacklin’ anythin’ so soon after what happened, but we should be fine as long as we don’t push ourselves too hard. We all remember what happened when Ah did that…”

Spike nodded, “Yeah, we won’t assume anything. If things start looking too rough, we’ll pull back. Don’t want to hurt ourselves further or burn anyone else. …Did I say burn? Where did that come from? I didn’t mean to say that.”

Shining looked at the fox, “Tails, we’re all in this together. We’ve supported each other this whole time, even if it hasn’t exactly been the same amount of support the entire time, and we can continue to do so. I’m sure Cadance and Twi- Twilight agree with me.” Once again he’d caught himself before he could say ‘Twily’.

Cadance looked at her husband a little worriedly, but said, “You’re absolutely right, Shining. We have supported each other this entire time no matter what.”

While she was still confused about why Shining had to stop and say her name again, Twilight nodded, “Right, which is going to be especially helpful with injuries like these. We’ll definitely need to help and protect each other this time.”

Fluttershy finally spoke, “Yes, we’re certainly going to need… protection.” She looked over at Sonic as she said the last word, the blue hedgehog raising an eye at the action.

Tails said, “All right, then. I was able to stop the train a couple of feet in front of the portal, so it won’t be a long walk. Let’s use the steps on the sides of the engines to get down; it’ll be easier that way.” As he turned and led the way to the engine, he thought, “It’s not just Pinkie; whatever happened must’ve affected them all. Now I really hope Sonic will tell me what happened.”

________________________________________


A FAMILIAR, OTHERWORLDLY CAVE


Everyone stepped out of the portal and felt their feet/hooves/claws come into contact with a rocky surface. Looking around, they saw that they were in a large cave with sunlight streaming in through openings in the walls and ceiling. Many of the rocks they could see were of either a cyan or violet coloring, the two colors not quite alternating though they did appear to form stripes in spots on the walls from what they could see. All around them, patches of coral were attached to the rocks.

“Well… this certainly is a bit more colorful than some of what we’ve seen recently. It’s very lovely,” Rarity commented after a moment of silence.

“Where are we now?” Twilight asked as she looked at Sonic and Tails.

Tails held a hand to his chin, “Hmm… I know we’ve been here before, but I can’t quite place it…”

Sonic stepped away from the others as he looked around. “That’s what I’m thinking too, Tails. It’s familiar, but…” He stopped and looked off into the distance, noticing a large metal hook dangling from an apparatus, the entire thing looking like a giant fishing reel. He then looked at the rocks again, noticing that the violet seemed more prominent than the cyan; even the coral looked mostly violet in color. He suddenly had a thought and turned to look at Tails, asking, “Hey, Tails, wasn’t this cave underwater before? And didn’t we…?”

At his words, it clicked for Tails too and he finished, “Reunite with Blaze here?” They both stared at each other in realization and Tails said, “Yeah, that’s it! That’s why this place is so familiar! This is one of the islands we visited when we ended up in Blaze’s world!”

Cadance asked, “Blaze’s world? You mean she’s not from the same world as you two?”

Sonic replied, “Nope. We originally met her when her duties caused her to end up in our world.”

Shining commented, “Considering she was with you guys today, she must have quite the list of responsibilities to have time to jump between worlds.”

Tails, while looking at his radar, said, “Well, the first two times we saw her, it was because our worlds had become intertwined. She was in our world today as sort of a chance to get away and do something more relaxing.” He looked up a moment later, “I’m not getting any readings. Things seem pretty stable here.”

Applejack said, “Seems like that’s been the case with most o’ these portals, Tails. That monster’s just been openin’ ‘em just to slow us down.”

Twilight looked back at the portal they had come through, “I agree with you, Applejack, but that portal’s still right in front of the train, and there are no tracks here so it would be derailed if we tried to ride it in. As slow as it may be, we have to close it.”

Applejack quickly replied, “O-Of course, Twilight. Ah ain’t disagreein’ with you.”

Sonic said, “Guess we’re going spelunking, then. Let’s get going.”

As everyone started moving, Fluttershy muttered to herself, “That is so like you, just deciding that you can take charge. Twilight does that too…”

The group walked through the cave, keeping an eye out for trouble as they walked on top of the brightly colored rocks. Much like the first cave they had gone through on their journey, there didn’t appear to be any robots present, which Sonic and Tails found odd since they had seen plenty of them the first time they had visited the island the cave was located on. It wasn’t so silent that the only thing they could hear was the sound of their footsteps bouncing off the cave walls, but the silence was still unnerving, especially for Spike and the ponies since it made them feel like they were in Terios’ tower again.

To help fill the silence, Shining asked, “So, uh, Sonic, Tails… How did you guys meet Blaze? Originally.”

Sonic answered, “Uh, Eggman was partly responsible for that. Managed to bring the Sol Emeralds, her world’s version of the Chaos Emeralds basically, over to our world. She’s their guardian, so naturally she chased after him to get them back and made friends with Cream and Cheese and later us along the way.”

Cadance asked, “Sol Emeralds? Are those just like the Chaos Emeralds?”

Tails replied, “Pretty much, I think. Obviously they have their differences, but they are alike. I mean, they’re enough alike that our worlds began to merge because they were in the same world as the Chaos Emeralds.”

Applejack raised an eye, “Merge?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. Basically, her world began to occupy the same space that our world did. Thankfully, we never saw any of the end results of that happening, but there was a while where things started to get worse in our world as the dimensional stability degraded further.”

Sonic added, “Yeah. Stuff started turning purple and wavy until we set things right.”

Twilight said, “I can already imagine that would’ve caused destruction on a global scale. Is that why Blaze had to return to her world?”

Sonic replied, “Right. Even if she never lost them again, she said it was too dangerous for them to be so close to the Chaos Emeralds. The last I saw of her was as our worlds finished separating, pulling us back to them.”

Tails looked at Sonic, “Speaking of separate worlds, maybe you could answer a question I have, Sonic.” When the blue hedgehog looked back at him, he went on, “It’s about the world you guys were in last. That fake Sonic you fought… you said his name was Terios? What did he…?”

He was cut off when Pinkie, who had become nervous like most of the others as Tails continued, suddenly shot forward and wrapped her forelegs around the two, pulling them back with her as she cried, “Look out!” The three fell onto their backs, a loud crunching sound filling the air afterwards. The three looked up from the ground and stared with the others at a large stalactite that had fallen from the ceiling where the two might’ve been, the pointed end embedded in the ground. Sonic and Tails glanced down to see the last traces of Pinkie’s tail twitching.

“Whoa! That was close!” Rainbow said.

“How did that happen?” Cadance asked. They all looked up and saw where the stalactite had been, the remainder of it still connected to a low part of the cave’s ceiling.

“It must’ve weakened and broke off,” Tails guessed.

“Thought I had to break a bunch of those off to get through this cave the last time we were here. Are we in a different part of the cave?” Sonic wondered.

Applejack looked at the rock formation and then took a step back to look up at a ledge past it before saying, “Ah don’t know, but Ah think we can use this to get up there.” She walked up to the stalactite and climbed on top of it while Sonic, Tails, and Pinkie got up off the ground.

Rarity went next, but couldn’t quite pull herself up. Sonic sighed and walked over to her, crouching down and putting his hands under her back hooves as he said, “Here, let me give you a boost, Rarity.” The fashionista gratefully accepted his help, the push helping her to get up on top of the stalactite with Applejack. Once she was up, Sonic turned to Tails while Shining helped Twilight and Spike get up and asked, “What were you trying to say, Tails?”

Shining and Spike froze in mid-climb at that. “Oh, uh… I was just going to ask how you got so beat up. Was that Terios guy really that tough?”

Shining and Spike let out a sigh of relief while Sonic replied, “Well… he did hang in there for a long time and he had a couple of tricks I wasn’t expecting, but he also made some pretty cheap moves. He didn’t really want to fight fair most of the time.” Tails nodded in reply and Sonic turned and began to climb up after Shining and Spike.

Pinkie trotted forward to climb up after him and Tails stared at her for a moment before shrugging and following behind her. “I’m glad she and her Pinkie Sense caught that. I was not paying attention. I’d still like to know what else happened, though,” he thought.

As she followed after Rainbow and Cadance, Fluttershy thought to herself, “Funny he should say that, considering he wasn’t fair to Terios.”

After they all got on top of the stalactite and up onto the ledge afterwards, they continued their trek through the cave in silence for a short while, keeping an eye out for any other parts of the ceiling that might be loose. They also began to see small pools of water along the path, the water shimmering with the sunlight on it.

A short while later, as they were walking down a passage with a low ceiling, they saw something large and wooden at the other end. “What’s that?” Cadance asked.

“Um, I’m not sure what it’s called, exactly. All I know is that it’s useful for getting around this cave,” Tails said.

“How does it do that?” Twilight asked.

Sonic got into a running stance, “It’ll be easier to show you what it does.” With that, he shot forward, grabbing onto the object when he reached it. A moment later, it moved back and then to the side, swinging downwards! It swung back up into place a few seconds later, causing Spike and the ponies to realize it was part of an arm.

“Whoa, cool!” Rainbow grinned, running forward next. She wrapped her forelegs around the wood and held on as it swung down. She saw another arm at the end of the passage she stopped at and leapt off, landing on her hooves and running towards it, spreading her wings and flapping them, lifting off the ground as she ran.

This turned out to be a bad idea, though, as before she could reach the arm, a sharp pain shot through her wings, causing her to wince and stop flapping her wings. She managed to reach the arm and grab onto it before she crashed, but after it swung her down, she stumbled a bit when she set her hooves on the ground.

Sonic was waiting just ahead when she came down and saw her stumble. “What’s wrong, Dash?” he asked as he stepped closer while she tried to regain her balance.

Once her hooves were all firmly on the ground, she replied, “Nothing, I’m good. I just flapped my wings a little too hard up there.” She relaxed her wings and walked over to him.

It wasn’t long before everyone else had joined the two. Tails came down next, followed by Applejack and Fluttershy, then Rarity and Pinkie, and finally Shining, Cadance, Twilight, and Spike. Twilight groaned as she got her hooves on the ground and, after stumbling for a second, fell onto her side, Spike jumping off before she started falling.


MISSTEP


Everyone looked at her when she fell, all of them moving closer. “Are you okay, Twilight?” Shining asked.

“You dizzy or something?” Rainbow added.

Twilight rolled onto her front and said, “No, it’s not that.” She raised her left foreleg and placed it on her right shoulder, rubbing it. “My shoulder feels sore for some reason,” she said. At that, Applejack tilted her hat down and looked away.

“Did you get hit by Terios there?” Tails asked.

Twilight looked up at him, “I don’t think so. Then again, he kept attacking quickly and retreating into the dark afterwards. Between trying to figure out where he was and when he was moving, I have no idea how many times he hit me. Or where.”

Sonic stepped in front of her and knelt down, holding his right hand out to her. “Here, I’ll help you- oof!” He was cut off when something firm yet soft hit him from the side, causing him to stagger to the side for a second. Once he stopped himself, he turned and saw that it was Fluttershy, the yellow pegasus in front of Twilight.

“Here, let ME help you, Twilight. I know I normally work with animals, but I can take care of ponies too,” the pegasus said. She helped Twilight off the ground and steadied her before taking a closer look at her shoulder. After a moment, she spoke, “It doesn’t look bad, Twilight. Here, lean on me; I’ll help support you while you were walk. See, when I say I’m going to help, I actually mean it.” She shot Sonic a look as she started walking forward with Twilight. The lavender unicorn was confused by her actions, but she figured she knew what she was talking about, so she followed after her.

She wasn’t the only one confused by the shy pegasus’ assertiveness. Everyone else couldn’t help but stare at her as she helped Twilight walk down the passage. Once they were a fair distance away, Tails looked at the others and asked, “Hey, what’s gotten into Fluttershy all of a sudden?”

Rarity responded as Sonic stood up, “I don’t know, Tails. Come to think of it, she has been acting rather odd recently.”

Spike nodded, “Yeah. It seems like she started acting weird after Terios was defeated.”

Cadance said, “That’s true. She must’ve really wanted to help him become good and she’s upset that it ended the way it did.”

Rainbow argued, “Well, she shouldn’t be! We all saw what happened! He wasn’t serious about changing himself! He just said all those things to take advantage of her! He would’ve ripped her back open if Sonic and I hadn’t gotten her away from him in time!”

Pinkie agreed, “He was one of the worst meanies I’ve ever met!”

Tails looked at the pink earth pony, “Why? What else did he do?”

Before Pinkie could reply, they all heard Twilight call, “Hey, where is everyone?”

Shining called back, “We’ll be right there, Twilight!” He then sighed and looked at Tails, “We’ll tell you what happened, Tails. Just… can it wait until we get back on the train? If we’re going to talk about Terios, it might be better if Fluttershy isn’t nearby to hear it.” Although he was confused, Tails agreed and they all walked to catch up with Twilight and Fluttershy. As they caught up, Fluttershy let Twilight walk on her own at her request and she shot Sonic an unreadable look as they continued onward.


FURTHER DOWN


It wasn’t long afterwards that the group came across a pair of mine carts connected to each other, both filled with various gemstones. Naturally, Rarity and Spike ran ahead to get a closer look at them, Rarity peering over the side of the back mine cart while Spike dove into the gems in the front cart. As the others came over, they heard Rarity saying, “Look at all of these beautiful gems! They’re all so divine, and…” Her light blue magic aura surrounded her horn for a moment before she continued, “My spell reacted! They are real!”

Spike popped out of the gem pile in the front cart with several gems sticking out of his mouth, chewing a few times before swallowing and saying, “Mm-hmm! They taste real too!”

Applejack asked, “Who left mine carts full o’ gems around here?”

Sonic shrugged, “Who knows? Probably whoever came here last before the cave was sent underwater to hide its treasure.”

Twilight asked, “Do you have any idea who that might’ve been?”

Sonic replied, “Uh, probably whoever in Blaze’s homeland decided that this cave was a safe place to store the Jeweled Scepter. You know, they probably left gems in the mine carts to keep any thieves away from the cave’s real treasure.”

Rarity held up a sapphire in her hoof as she said, “Well, a scepter with jewels in it certainly sounds like quite a treasure, but I would consider these beauties treasure enough.”

Tails spoke, “You know, Sonic, Marine, and I rode in several of these mine carts when we were exploring this cave. What do you guys say? Feel like going for a ride in these mine carts?”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, sure, that sounds pretty cool.”

Sonic said, “All right, as long as we don’t have to ride them through the rest of the cave.”

Pinkie asked, “Aw, you don’t think that would be fun, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “You ever tried jumping with a mine cart, Pinkie? As in when it’s going straight and there’s no ramp? I have, and it’s kind of awkward to have to pull it up with you.” He shook his head, “Even in a game, I think it’s odd. That was a weird gimmick to include in a phone game, having to ride in a mine cart for an entire level and jump throughout.”

Cadance said, “Well, that aside, we would certainly get through the cave quicker if we could go straight through in these carts. Let’s try it.” Everyone agreed and they all climbed into the carts, Sonic, Tails, Twilight and Cadance joining Spike in the front cart while everypony else save for Shining climbed into the back cart, the unicorn stallion getting behind the back cart to give it a push to get them going.

Before they could get going, Spike popped out of the gem pile in the cart, holding something interesting in his claws. It appeared to be two red gems stuck in a small slab of gray rock. “Check these gems out! I wonder why they didn’t take them out of this rock,” he said. He shrugged and opened his mouth to eat them anyway.

“Hold it, Spike!” Tails exclaimed suddenly. The baby dragon stopped bringing the find closer to his mouth and everyone looked at the fox as he knelt down to get a closer look, adjusting the rock with his hands while Spike held onto it. “Wow! That’s a really good sample of Red Material!” he said after a moment.

“What’s with the fancy talk, Tails? They’re gems stuck in a rock, and there are two of them, not one,” Rainbow shrugged.

“No, no, no. See, the islands around this part of the ocean are abundant with gemstones and metals called Materials. That’s one of the first amazing things we learned about when we ended up here. Despite them looking like gems and metals, you can actually use Materials to build things,” Tails explained.

Sonic put a hand on his chin, “Oh yeah, that’s right. Isn’t the Red Material one of the Materials you needed to build the hovercraft and the submarine?” Tails nodded in reply.

Twilight looked at Tails in amazement, “You used gems to build a submarine?”

Tails nodded, “Yeah! Marine had a book that explained the whole thing. It’s actually pretty easy once you get the hang of it. And believe it or not, the gems actually come out not looking out of place at the end. It’s amazing stuff.”

Shining grunted, “Excuse me for interrupting, but I’m gonna get us going now, if that’s okay with you.”

Tails blushed, “Oh, of course, Shining. Sorry.” With that, Shining started pushing with his hooves, the mine carts starting to move forward.

As they were moving, Spike looked down at the Red Material and then up at Tails, “Can I eat this now?”

Tails blinked and looked around the cart, “Uh…” His eyes fell on a sizable ruby and he reached for it. He then held it out to Spike, “I’ll trade you for it.” Spike looked back and forth between the Red Material and the ruby for several moments before shrugging and giving him the Material in exchange for the ruby. “Thanks, Spike. I’d kind of like to hold onto this for now,” Tails said as he held the Material in both hands, both Twilight and Cadance looking down at it. Spike just shrugged again as he started nibbling on the ruby.

After pushing for several seconds, Shining used his hooves to pull himself up into the back cart, settling in with the other ponies. Shortly afterwards, the ground in front of the group sloped downhill, gravity taking hold of the front cart as it reached the top of the slope. Everyone grabbed onto the sides of the cart, some of them yelling as the carts rolled down the slope. They kept going forward when the ground leveled out again, though the uneven ground began to affect their forward momentum.

Before they could slow down too much, Sonic, Tails, Twilight, Cadance, and Spike saw that the path was coming to an end up ahead, nothing but thin air at the end of it from what they could see. “The path is ending! Can we stop in time?” Twilight asked, unable to accurately tell due to one eye being closed.

“I don’t think so, Twilight, not at this speed anyway!” Cadance replied.

“We can use our magic to make the carts slow down!” Shining suggested.

Sonic held up his right hand, “Hold on. Let’s see where that takes us.”

Rarity spoke, “I can tell you where it’s going to take us, Sonic! It’s going to lead us to a long drop, and when that’s over…” Before she could finish, the carts got too close to the ledge for the magic users to reasonably stop them in time. The group started falling after the carts went over the ledge… but to their surprise, it was only a short drop. Instead of falling down into the water pooled at the bottom of the cave, the group landed on tracks, the carts rolling much smoother now that their wheels were on the tracks. “Oh. I wasn’t expecting that,” Rarity admitted.

Applejack chuckled, “Leap o’ faith, Rare. Sometimes, ya gotta make one.”

Twilight smiled, remembering the first leap of faith she’d made with all of her friends. “That is true, Applejack,” she said. She then looked at Sonic and asked, “Did you know these tracks would be here, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “No, but we did have to ride some rails like these to get to where the Jeweled Scepter was hidden away. It was pretty dark where we got on, but I had a feeling that the tracks were probably pretty extensive.”

Tails nodded, “Sure looks that way.”

Rainbow asked, “Hey, what’s this ‘Jeweled Scepter’ you guys are talking about?”

Tails answered, “It’s an ancient treasure that’s been guarded by Blaze’s family for generations. It’s hidden in the deepest part of this cave to protect it from thieves, and like Sonic said, the tracks along the way there are pretty dark. That makes a great natural defense to protect it from potential thieves.”

Spike held a sapphire in front of his mouth as he spoke, “I can imagine it must be valuable if it’s called the Jeweled Scepter. Jewels do make things more valuable, after all. Is there something else special about it, though?”

Tails replied, “Yes. The scepter is able to harness something called the Power of the Stars. I’m not sure of all the specifics, but from what I do understand, it’s the power that makes the existence of alternate worlds possible, which makes it more powerful than the Chaos and Sol Emeralds.”

The Equestrians were surprised to hear that. “That scepter makes the existence of other worlds possible? That’s incredible,” Cadance said.

“It either contains or it taps into it. Either way, that scepter is a lot older than it looks,” Sonic said.

“Here in Blaze’s world, it also has an effect on geologic activity,” Tails added.

“Interestin’ name, Power of the Stars,” Applejack commented.

Twilight thought back to her first adventure with her friends again, remembering what her book said about Nightmare Moon. “‘The stars will aid in her escape’,” she murmured.

Cadance looked at the unicorn, “Is something wrong, Twilight?”

Twilight looked at her and replied, “No, just thinking, Cadance.”

Rainbow asked, “So how did you guys get caught up with this ‘Power of the Stars’ thing?”

Tails answered, “Sonic and I were investigating some strange readings when we got caught up in a heavy storm. When we woke up, we were on the shore of Southern Island, which is where we met Marine.”

Cadance asked, “Marine is that raccoon girl, right?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. She had the book that talked about building things with Materials, so went along with being her crew while trying to figure out where we were.”

Tails continued, “Before we reached this cave, we had collected enough Materials for me to build a waterbike and a ship. While we were exploring the nearby islands, we were attacked by robots that we later learned had been sent by robot pirates.”

Rainbow said, “Let me guess. Baldy Nose Hair was actually the one responsible for the robots.”

Tails replied, “Yeah, but we didn’t learn that until much later, and he wasn’t the only one responsible. At the time, we didn’t connect Captain Whisker to Dr. Eggman despite the fact that he had a similar mustache. He was kind of dangerous, but I seem to remember him being a bit of a clown too.”

Shining asked, “So he was the one who was initially after the Jeweled Scepter?”

Tails nodded, “Right. We arrived at the scepter’s resting place just behind him. In the confusion of meeting Blaze again, he managed to slip away with it. We pursued him and his right hand man Johnny across the sea until we finally defeated them and got the Jeweled Scepter back. That’s why we needed to build the Aqua Blast and Deep Typhoon. Some of the places we went out to weren’t really reachable with the Wave Cyclone and Ocean Tornado.”

Shining asked, “Those are the names of the ships you built?” Tails nodded in reply.

“You both seem to have a fascination with naming things after the wind,” Rarity noted.

“Yeah! If I was gonna name ships, they’d all have super happy long names!” Pinkie piped up.

Sonic shrugged, “Well, it’s kind of a nostalgia thing.” He glanced towards the tracks in front of the cart, “Fun times.”


ROLLING INTO DARKNESS


Cadance spoke, “Tails, you mentioned that Dr. Eggman wasn’t the only one who Captain Whisker was taking the Jeweled Scepter for. Who was the other?”

Tails replied, “Oh, right. Well…”

Before he could go on, Sonic tapped him on the shoulder, “Hey Tails, heads up.”

The fox looked forward, as did everyone else, and saw that the mine carts were approaching a dark tunnel. “Oh. That must be the dark part of the cave we’re coming up on.” He moved to the front of the cart and put his hands on it, “Hang on until we get through this.” Cadance nodded and they all straightened up a bit, looking forward as they approached the blackness.

Soon, they were enveloped in almost complete darkness. Looking around, the Equestrians saw that the only source of light was from a line of candles on both walls to their sides. Despite how narrow the tunnel seemed, the flames did not provide much light. It seemed like their main purpose was to mark which way they were going. “Wowie, it really is dark in this tunnel!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Sonic nodded, “We told you it was dark. Keep your eyes peeled; we don’t want to miss the turn that’ll get us back into the light.”

While peering out from the side of the cart, Applejack said, “It’s kinda hard ta do that with as dark as it is. Hey Twi’, can you get us a little light in here?” A moment passed before Applejack pulled back into the cart slightly and looked at the unicorn, asking, “Twilight?” When there was still no response, everyone looked at the bookworm pony.

Twilight ran her tongue across her lips as she looked up at the candles, trying to rid them of the sudden dryness she felt. She was trying to focus, but the pitch blackness was starting to get to her. It was bringing back bad memories of Terios’ castle, how the lights went out and the anxiety that followed before he attacked her and Smithy. It was also causing her to think about the darkness she woke up to after Queen Chrysalis sent her to the caverns below Canterlot and the rush that followed as she and Cadance tried to keep the changelings from taking over Equestria.

She suddenly felt her head get pushed backwards and heard Spike shout, “Twilight, snap out of it!” She looked down to see the baby dragon looking up at her in a mixture of frustration and worry. She also noticed that it seemed to be brighter in the tunnel now. A quick look showed her that Shining and Cadance had lit up their horns to provide some light.

“Are you all right, Twil- Twilight?” Shining asked, catching himself once again. Had she been calmer, Twilight would’ve once again wondered about that, but her anxiety was still there.

She looked up at the candles again and asked, “Are we alone in here?”

Rainbow shrugged, “Of course we’re alone, Twilight! Why wouldn’t we be?”

Twilight replied, “Some things like to sneak up in the dark… or torment you…”

Rainbow sighed, “Don’t start acting weird on us, egghead. There’s nothing in here besides us!”

Sonic shrugged, but Pinkie suddenly gasped and said, “Ooh, you might want to take that back, Dashie!”

Rarity glared at the pink earth pony, “Oh Pinkie, stop it. This is not a good time for games.”

Pinkie replied, “No, I’m serious! My hoof tapped rapidly and I gasped loudly just now! That’s my Pinkie Sense going off, and it’s saying there’s something creeping around in the dark!” Everyone began to look around at that.

Soon, they all began to hear a roaring sound echoing off the walls to their sides. “What is that?” Cadance asked as she glanced around.

“Sounds like a small rocket booster,” Tails said with a raised eyebrow, also looking around.


HIDDEN IN THE DARKNESS


A few seconds later, Shining straightened up and slowly turned around, looking back down the tracks. As he turned around fully, he began to focus the light coming from his horn, changing it to a beam of light that projected down the tunnel. As it reached its full length, he caught a brief glimpse of a pair of red, mechanical eyes before they disappeared, which was followed by the noise starting to get louder. His eyes widened and he shouted, “Get down, everybody!” Everyone looked back at him for a moment before ducking down, both his and Cadance’s lights going out as well. They reacted just in time too; the noise became nearly deafening and something shot overhead, disappearing into the darkness ahead.

Everyone straightened up a moment later, Applejack asking, “What was that?!”

Shining replied, “I don’t know. I couldn’t get a good look at it before it rushed us. All I saw were red eyes…”

Sonic asked, “Speaking of seeing, does anyone else think it’s darker now?”

Twilight looked up at the walls and saw the problem. “The candles are out! Whatever that was must’ve put them out as it flew by!” she said.

“There are turns up ahead we have to take to get out of here! It’s going to be a lot harder to see them without any light!” Tails gasped.

As she lit up her horn again, Cadance called, “Shining, Twilight, Rarity!” At this, the three unicorns focused their magic into their horns as well, all together producing a light that considerably brightened things up around the carts.

Sonic reached into his quills and pulled out his phone. As he began tapping its screen, he said, “Good, good. Keep an eye out for that thing. I’ll keep an eye out for the turn.” He turned on the phone’s flashlight and held it out in front of the cart, trying to illuminate the tracks ahead as much as he could.

Twilight and Cadance considered telling him to put the phone away and let them do that, but they soon heard the sound of the engine getting louder again. “It’s coming back this way!” Twilight exclaimed. The four focused their lights to try to get a visual on their mystery attacker, but even though it flew overhead once again, they weren’t able to catch in their sights.

Shining looked back as it flew back down the tunnel. “It flew over us again,” he said.

“It’s probably coming back!” Rainbow grunted. Tails looked down between the carts and noticed the pin that was keeping them together. He reached down with his right hand and started to pull it out. Rainbow noticed this and asked, “Tails, what are you doing?!”

The fox glanced up as he replied, “If whatever it is attacks low, it’ll be easier to jump with these carts if we’re not hooked together like this!” With that, he pulled the pin all the way out and tossed it back into the cart before pushing the back cart with his hands to better separate the two.

A second later, they heard the engine roaring again and everyone looked back. It once again seemed like it was going high, but this time, before it flew past the front cart, it stopped and shot diagonally down at it! The brief pause caught Sonic’s attention, and when he heard it roaring up again, he yelled, “Jump!” He grabbed the front of the cart while Tails grabbed the back and Cadance and Twilight grabbed the sides, all of them grunting as they managed to lift the cart up off the tracks, allowing them to avoid the attack.

They all heard a crashing sound afterwards, though, and the ponies in the back cart realized that it had gone through a section of the track! “Everypony jump!” Shining called, all the ponies grabbing onto the cart and pulling up as best they could, Rainbow flapping her wings furiously as she pulled up. They were able to get the cart high enough to get over the new gap in the tracks and land on the other side, Twilight and Cadance casting their lights backwards to see them.

Rainbow looked forward while panting and said, “Okay, I’m gonna have to agree with you, Sonic. Jumping in one of these carts isn’t the easiest thing to do, especially when there’s more than one pony riding!”

Shining spoke, “Whoever’s attacking clearly isn’t just able to fly; they must be able to see in the dark as well. Try to stay alert, everyone; we can’t really fend off our attacker in a tunnel this narrow and dark!”

Sonic faced forward again, once again shining his phone’s light ahead as he said, “It shouldn’t be too much farther to the turn now! Let’s try to dodge as best we can until we get out of here!”

Rainbow growled, “At this speed, it’s gonna take forever! Hang on, everyone!” She flew up out of the cart and landed on the tracks behind it, pausing for a few seconds before flying straight at it. Her hooves pressed against the back of the cart and pushed it forward, causing it to collide with the front cart, shaking everyone up and causing the front car to gain speed. The cyan pegasus then flew up behind the cart again, this time pushing it to give it enough speed to keep up with the cart in front of it before landing back inside. Despite being jostled a bit, no one could deny that this was better.

They continued to roll down the tunnel for a short time, ducking and jumping to avoid being hit or falling off the track, the magic users constantly trying to get a look at the attacker while Sonic tried to keep his phone’s light on the track ahead. Soon, Spike pointed straight ahead and asked, “Hey, is that the turn?!”

Tails looked ahead and saw that the track branched off to the left, center, and right up ahead. “Yeah, that’s it!” he said. He looked back at the others, “We’re almost there! We have to go right!” He grabbed the lever on the back of the cart and turned it to his left so that the cart would go down the right path, Shining Armor doing the same. They soon reached the turn and went down the right track, but as they were rounding the bend, the cart started to lean too far! “Oh no, too fast!” Tails cried.

Sonic dropped his phone in the cart and moved to the right side as he said, “Help me with this!” He grabbed onto the side of the cart and started pushing down, Twilight, Spike, and Cadance doing the same. The girls in the back cart saw this and quickly moved to do the same. Soon, both carts had all four wheels back on the tracks and they were rolling normally again.

Their relief was short-lived, however, as they heard their attacker shooting towards them again, flying over both carts and into the darkness ahead. For a moment, it sounded like the sound of the engine was becoming distant again, but then it suddenly, dramatically dropped in pitch. Seconds later, they heard the sound of something being fired three times with a blast that briefly lit up the tunnel following each one, followed by the engine noise returning and then disappearing further down the tunnel again.

“Now what did it do?” Shining asked.

Tails’ eyes widened as he realized what must’ve happened, his suspicions confirmed as he began to see it up ahead. “The tracks have been blown out! I don’t think we can jump over this hole!” he exclaimed.

Sonic grunted, “Well, we don’t have a lot of options right now, Tails! The only thing we can do is chance it!” As they approached the gap, everyone grabbed onto their carts and pulled up as hard as they could while they jumped, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Cadance flapping their wings rapidly to try to get a little more distance out of the jump. Despite this, they couldn’t get the distance they needed to get to the other side, the weight of everyone in the carts and the jewels pulling them down below the tracks short of making it.
> Coral Cave, Pt. II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Amidst all the screams as they were falling, Twilight had a thought and squeezed her eyes shut, focusing her magic into her horn. Suddenly, a magenta-pink bubble surrounded the carts and their descent slowed greatly. Everyone, even Shining and Cadance, recognized the spell Twilight was using, the unicorn trying to raise them back up onto the tracks. Despite being surrounded by darkness, they could tell they were slowly starting to move upwards.

Suddenly, the bubble popped, and after a moment of hanging weightless in the air, gravity pulled the carts down into the darkness, everyone following immediately afterwards. As nearly everyone started screaming again and Rainbow, Cadance, and Tails flew after them, Twilight put her hooves on her head as she closed her eyes again. “No, no, no! Come on, come on…!” she cried internally as she tried to focus more magic into her horn. As the flyers caught up with everyone, Twilight managed to create the bubble once again, but this time, she made it go down after the carts, knowing that would require less magic to do.

After a couple of seconds, the bottom of the bubble flattened and the whole thing popped again, but this time, everyone fell for less than a second before touching solid ground, Spike and the ponies feeling cold rock underneath them. Spike began dancing in place, not liking the cold feeling underneath his feet. He soon ran over to Twilight and leapt on her back, the lavender unicorn stumbling a bit at the unexpected action for several moments before steadying herself. She then looked back at Spike and uttered, “Careful, Spike…”

The baby dragon replied, “Oh, uh… sorry. Are you okay, Twilight?”

Rainbow flew over and asked, “What happened up there, Twi’?”

Twilight groaned as she raised her right hoof to her horn, touching it slightly as she answered, “I’m still running a little low on my magic. I didn’t have enough to get us back up, and now… you can forget it for a while. I don’t think I can do any magic right now.”

Shining said, “All right, just take it easy and stay close to us then, Twilight. Cadance and I can handle providing the light.” Both he and Cadance used their magic to generate a ball of light, lighting up the area somewhat. Nearby, they could see the carts they had been riding in lying on the ground, the back cart on its side and the front cart upside-down, gems sitting on the ground around them.


UNEXPLORED LOCATION


Applejack looked around as she asked, “Where are we?”

Tails replied, “I have no idea. Sonic, Marine, and I didn’t come down here. Why would we, though? We wouldn’t be able to see if there was anything down here.”

Cadance glanced up and said, “Well, there’s no telling where whoever or whatever attacked us went, but it sounded like it kept going straight. That means it’s bound to still be up there.”

Shining looked at her, “Then going back up might not be such a good idea right now. Let’s see if we can find anything down here.” Cadance nodded, as did everyone else, and they decided to go straight ahead from where the carts had landed.

Before they could start moving, Sonic had a thought and everyone watched as he began patting himself with his hands and ran them through his quills. Before anyone could ask what he was doing, he turned his head and looked back at the carts. “Oh. Shoot,” he said, looking and sounding a bit deflated by what he saw.

Shining turned to look and, with the light being produced, saw it as well: his cell phone had been crushed when the front cart landed upside-down. Part of it, while not completely intact, had managed to survive the fall somewhat, the wiring sticking out near the part that had been crushed. Various bits of its inside were scattered on the floor around it. “Ooh,” he uttered. He looked at Sonic, “Uh, sorry about your phone, Sonic.”

Sonic managed a slight shrug as he sighed, “Oh well. At least I wasn’t on a contract with it.”

Tails said, “I’ve managed to make more of my handheld for everyone, Sonic. I can give you one after we’re done.”

Sonic nodded, “Okay. I kind of like that better anyway.” He walked over to the cart and lifted it up enough to use his foot to move what was left of his phone out from under it. He picked it up and tucked it back in his quills as he said, “Guess I’ll find a place where they take this kind of thing later.” With that, everyone started walking forward into the darkness.

The group kept going forward for a short time, everyone staying close together and keeping their ears open for their mystery attacker. While they were walking, Tails thought about how they had been attacked and compared it to what he knew about other Eggman robots. “An ordinary Badnik or Eggman robot wouldn’t have been capable of all of that. I can think of one robot with that kind of speed, determination, and power, but we dealt with him earlier today. It couldn’t be him… could it?” he wondered.

He was brought out of his thoughts when Pinkie exclaimed, “Hey! I think I see a light up ahead!” Tails looked forward and saw that there did appear to be a faint light coming through an opening in the rocky wall up ahead.

“It looks like sunlight! Maybe we found a way outta here!” Applejack said. Everyone started moving faster towards the light, soon passing through the opening into another room. They could see the light more clearly now, shining in through another opening to their left that didn’t seem to be connected to the ground they were on. Despite the light coming in, the room was still dark, and it was quite sizable too, and what they wouldn’t have noticed right away was what appeared to be various lights in the ceiling above.

Tails said, “Well, there’s where the light’s coming from.” He looked around the dark chamber, “But where are we?”

Rarity shivered, “Ooh, this ground is so much colder now! And it’s wet too; why is it wet in here?”

Cadance spread her wings and flew up, condensing her light into a beam and scanning the ground as she flew towards the opening. She soon came to a stop, hovering as she shined her light down at an angle. She called back, “The ground ends here! There’s just water beyond this point!”

Sonic commented, “Huh. Guess that’s why the ground is wet in here.”

As Cadance flew back to everyone, Twilight asked, “Since this is an island, that water has to be coming in from the ocean, right?”

Tails nodded, “Right. That might account for some of the water in this cave. There could be a whole network of tunnels that runs through the cave.”

Rainbow said, “Yeah, all right, Tails. Let’s just leave it that, okay? I’d rather not know for sure.” Sonic and Rarity were quick to agree with her.

Fluttershy asked, “So I guess we’re going back now?”

Shining said, “Before we do that, let’s check around this room. There might be something in here.”

Twilight nodded, “Okay. Let’s spread out and search. Don’t go too far into the dark, just in case there is something here.” Everyone nodded and began to fan out, Cadance diffusing her beam of light to make the room brighter.

As she went to the right, away from Sonic, Fluttershy did her best to look around, but she couldn’t focus. Ever since they returned from Camelot, she had noticed all the things she said and did, causing her to wonder why she was behaving so differently. It seemed to have started after Sonic struck down Terios, followed by her sudden obsession with the scabbard, and it only started becoming more prominent afterwards. It felt like there was something in her head, a voice or presence of some sort, causing her to think differently and behave more impulsively. Now that she had some silence and solitude, she tried to focus on it, closing her eyes and lowering her head as she continued to walk forward.

Suddenly, she was jerked out of her thoughts when the top of her head bumped into something, causing her to step back with a squeak. Whatever she bumped into hadn’t been hard as rock, but it had been firm enough to push her back. It actually felt like she had bumped into someone. “Oh, I’m so sorry…” she murmured as she sat down and felt the top of her head with a hoof.

A voice that sounded familiar to the shy pegasus replied, “Oh, no trouble at all, dear girl. Did you lose something? You were walking with your head down for so long.”

Fluttershy started to open her eyes as she answered, “Um, well, actually…” She looked up and she stopped short as she saw what she bumped into. There was a pair of long, skinny legs in front of her, legs that were clad in red that became yellow and black at the feet. Looking up further, she saw that the red went up to around the figure’s torso, an open mostly black jacket around it. She looked up to the figure’s face, seeing a white mustache, blue pointed sunglasses, a pointy nose, and its white teeth on full display due to the grin it was wearing. At the sight of all this, Fluttershy leapt up with a yelp and ran away.

Near the other side of the cave, Shining and Cadance had noticed the lights on the ceiling and had alerted some of the others to them. “There must be something in here. Why would those lights be up there otherwise?” Shining was asking.

“Ya got me,” Applejack replied.

“Well, there must be something special about this room for someone to go to all that trouble. I don’t think anyone would set up all those lights and a power supply for them if they weren’t going to use them,” Cadance said.

Tails held a hand to his chin, “I wonder how they turn on. It would sure help a lot if we could get them to work.”

Applejack said, “Yeah, no doubt about- Oof!” She was suddenly cut off when she felt something crash into her backside and bounce back. She turned and saw Fluttershy sitting on the ground behind her. “Fluttershy?” she asked, confused.

Shining called, “Hey, everybody! Over here!” Everyone else heard him and started moving towards the small gathering.

As they all regrouped, Applejack knelt down in front of Fluttershy and asked, “What’s the matter, Fluttershy? Why ya lookin’ all scared?”

Fluttershy nervously pointed behind her and shakily said, “D-D-D-Doctor E-E-Eggman!”


THE OTHER DOCTOR


Before anyone could say anything, the lights suddenly turned on. Everyone groaned and shielded their eyes, waiting for their pupils to adjust. As the disorientation began to wear off, they all heard the figure say, “Well, I must say I’m rather disappointed.” They were all able to start seeing again a few moments later and looked in the figure’s direction as he said, “It’s hardly flattering to be mistaken for Dr. Eggman.”

As soon as they saw him, both Sonic and Tails tensed up, the former saying, “Oh yeah, because you’re so much better to be around, Eggman Nega!”

The Equestrians all looked confused at this statement. “Huh? Eggman Nega?” Rainbow asked, looking between Sonic and the Eggman lookalike.

Twilight looked closely at the man, particularly at his face. “That mustache and those sunglasses… they’re just like Haman’s!” she realized.

Shining looked over at Tails and asked, “Tails, who is this guy?”

The two-tailed fox looked back as he answered, “Eggman Nega. He’s Eggman’s descendent, from Silver’s time!”

This shocked the Equestrians further. “Wha-?! Descendent?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

Applejack started, “How in the hay…?”

Tails explained, “The two times he traveled back to our time, Sonic and I didn’t know it was him because he disguised himself as Eggman. The second time he came back, he tried to unleash a creature called the Ifrit from its dimension to destroy our world and bring about the future Silver originated from, but he and Espio were able to stop it and Eggman Nega got trapped in the Ifrit’s dimension. Somehow, he ended up here in Blaze’s world and she’s been dealing with him ever since!” He looked towards Eggman Nega and asked, “What are you doing here, Eggman Nega? Are you after the Jeweled Scepter again?”

Eggman Nega adjusted the green goggles on his forehead as he replied, “Why is that the first thing you assume, fox? If I was after the scepter again, I wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of setting all this up and waiting for your little band to show up.”

Sonic asked, “What are you talking about?”

Eggman Nega grinned, “Let’s just say I was approached with a proposition from a rather, shall we say, interesting party. If I agreed to stop you all in your tracks, I would be allowed in on their grand plan and learn more about what’s happening to our worlds right now. I might even be allowed to be the one to wield the Power of the Stars if I do well enough.”

Sonic glared, “Is it safe to say we already know who this party you’re talking about is?”

Eggman Nega replied, “Perhaps you do, perhaps you don’t. I’m not going to tell you… unless you get past him, Sonic the Hedgehog.” As he finished speaking, the sound of the engine began to fill the air. Suddenly, the group’s attacker flew in through the opening they had come through and flew up, over, and down. It landed in front of Eggman Nega, slamming its left fist into the ground and creating an indent before standing up on two legs, its right hand curled into a fist on its hip and its left fist held up in front of it.

Everyone stared at the robot. “What the…?” Shining stammered.

Spike’s eyes widened. Even though the robot was mostly black and yellow, he recognized it. “Is that Metal Sonic?” he asked.

Tails said, “That must be the one Espio told us about! Metal Sonic Version 3.0!”

Eggman Nega grinned, “Close! After recovering him from the Ifrit’s dimension, I decided to give him some upgrades! He is now Metal Sonic Version 3.0 PLUS!”

Sonic said, “If that’s how he looked before, then he still looks like a knockoff of Eggman’s Metal Sonic, Nega. What’s so different about him?”

Eggman Nega giggled, “Hee hee hee! Why don’t you find out for yourself!” His Eggmobile came down and he climbed into it, beginning to ascend as he said, “Go get them, Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus!” At those words, Metal 3.0 leaned forward slightly, his eyes scanning the group until they locked onto Sonic. He then activated his booster engine, the roaring sound returning as a flame began to come out of it.


VS. METAL SONIC 3.0 (PLUS)


“Get ready! Here he comes!” Sonic said as Metal Sonic 3.0 lifted up off the ground, hovering up for several seconds before stopping high above the group. Suddenly, the flame behind him became much more intense and he shot diagonally downwards at the group! Everyone managed to leap out of the way, Sonic already on the move as he figured Metal Sonic 3.0 would come after him first. And indeed, the dust hadn’t even cleared from the crater that Metal 3.0 had created before he shot out of it, his eyes locked on Sonic.

Spike had been grabbed by Tails as the fox took to the air, the baby dragon saying as they landed, “Wow! He’s just as fast as that other Metal Sonic!”

Tails nodded, “Yeah. Being fast in some way is one thing all the Sonic-based robots we’ve ever seen have in common.”

Nearby, Rainbow grunted as she watched Sonic and Metal 3.0 shooting around the room, going up the walls and colliding with each other in midair. “That futuristic piece of junk isn’t the only one who can fly around at that speed! I’ll show him!” she said as she spread her wings, wincing a bit as she felt the pain from earlier. “Hang on, Sonic! I’m coming to help!” she called.

Before she could take off, she suddenly felt a sharp pull on her tail and looked back to see Applejack with her mouth around her tail. After releasing her, the orange earth pony said, “Simmer down, Rainbow. Ah saw that just now. You ain’t messin’ your wings up anymore on mah watch!”

Cadance came over and lit up her horn, saying, “I think I can help with that. The spell I used to heal Aladdin’s leg should help here too.” Rainbow let out a groan as Cadance began running her horn across her wings.

Nearby, Rarity and Fluttershy were helping Twilight, Pinkie, and Shining up off the ground, the three having lost their balance after jumping out of the way of Metal 3.0’s initial attack. Shining looked over at Twilight as she raised a hoof to her horn, testing how much magic she had, before turning his head to observe the battle. “Sonic doesn’t seem to be running as fast now. His injuries must be catching up with him. We have to be ready to support him,” he thought.

Sonic leapt down from the wall and landed on the ground, ready to start moving again. Before he could take a step, however, his foot slid on the wet ground and he lost his balance, causing him to land on his rear. After shaking off the initial pain, he looked up to see Metal 3.0 hovering in the air above and in front of him, the robot curling up and shooting down at him in what seemed to be a Homing Attack. Sonic narrowed his eyes and flipped himself over onto his front, causing Metal 3.0 to miss him and slide forward a bit when he landed. Sonic then curled up into a Spin Dash and was able to collide with Metal 3.0 as he was turning around, sending the robot crashing into a wall. He stayed down on one knee while Metal 3.0 recovered from the crash and stepped out of the indent he made in the wall.

As Sonic stood up, Rainbow Dash spread her wings and flew up, Cadance having just finished her healing process. The pegasus then shot down towards the Sonic robot, saying, “Let me get a piece of that tin can, Sonic!” Metal 3.0 looked up at her as she flew towards him, running calculations as she flew towards him at high speed. Suddenly, he held his arms out and generated a diamond-shaped black energy field around himself! At this point, Rainbow was too close to break off and hit the field with her hooves, being thrown back from it as she cried, “YOW!” As she landed on her rear, she held up her hooves to examine them. That really hurt! She looked up as Metal 3.0 stopped producing the field and asked, “What was that?!”

Eggman Nega giggled, “Hee hee hee! Just something that was suggested to me when I was thinking of what upgrades to give Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus! Let him show you something really great about it!” Metal 3.0 fired up his engine again and started moving towards Rainbow and Sonic, but once he’d built up enough speed, he suddenly pulled his arms and legs closer to him, hovering just above the ground as he generated the field around him again, still moving towards them!

Sonic and Rainbow’s eyes widened, both of them jumping out of the way mere moments before Metal 3.0 could crash into them. Sonic rolled after jumping and looked in the robot’s direction afterwards, seeing Tails and the other also trying to get out of his way. “What the heck?! He was moving fairly fast before, but with that shield around him, it seems like he’s going even faster now!” he thought.

Rainbow danced in place when she stood up, the burning pain in her hooves starting to become too much to ignore. “Hang on just a sec! I need a moment!” she called as she took to the air, flying over to the pool of water and sticking her hooves down into it.

Metal 3.0, meanwhile, broke out of his shield before he could hit the wall, flipping his body around to press his feet against it to stop himself. After he dropped down, Shining charged his magic and yelled, “Take this!” He fired a magic shot at the robot, but he simply created his Black Shield again, the shot hitting it and bouncing back at Shining, the stallion moving out of the way with a “Whoa!” He looked at where his shot hit afterwards and stared at Metal 3.0 in shock. “It deflects magic too?!” he asked.

Eggman Nega chortled, “It is the most perfect personal defense!”

As Metal 3.0 dropped the field again, Spike asked, “How are we supposed to get through that?”

Tails set the baby dragon down as he said, “We’ll have to watch him carefully. He can’t keep it up forever. A field that strong has to require a lot of power!”

Sonic overheard him as he and the others came over, Rainbow’s hooves still dripping as he added, “And even if he could keep it going, he has to come out of it in order to move. Otherwise, he’s just gonna sit there like a statue and we’re not gonna come near him.”

Twilight nodded, “So we just have to wait for an opening…”

Cadance said, “I have an idea. We might be able to force him out of it if we work together.”

Eggman Nega called, “Struggle however you want! You’ll never defeat Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus!” They all looked and saw the robot rocketing towards them again.

Cadance used her magic to pull Shining, Twilight, and Rarity back with her while everyone else scattered. As they all set down on the ground, Shining asked, “What’s your idea, Cadance?”

The pink alicorn replied, “Well, if we could surround that field with magic and lift Metal Sonic up, we could halt his momentum and force him to come out of it in order to break free.”

Twilight asked, “Then what, Cadance?”

Cadance replied, “I wish I could tell the others as well, but…” She stopped when she looked up and saw Pinkie moving and directing Applejack, Sonic, Tails, and Rainbow Dash around the room. “…Oh. I guess Pinkie Pie might’ve figured it out… somehow,” she said.

Spike called, “Look out, here he comes!” The four looked to see Metal 3.0 flying straight at them, the shield formed around him again.

They took on an offensive stance, Shining yelling, “Surround him!” At that, Twilight, Rarity, Cadance, and Shining channeled their magic into their horns, creating a magic aura around Metal 3.0. At first, he seemed to resist it, but the poured more magic into the aura, managing to force him to stop. They then started lifting him up, which also seemed harder with the shield, and suspended him in midair. As Cadance suspected, he broke out of the shield after a few moments, flailing for a moment as they held him up.

He soon fired up his engine again, gathering as much power as he could before shooting diagonally down at them, managing to get free of their hold as they eased off on their magic. The four then scattered to avoid the attack, Cadance calling as she leapt back, “Pinkie Pie!”

As he stood up, Metal 3.0 heard Pinkie shout, “Pies away!” He turned to his left and saw the party pony shoot towards him out of her party cannon. She slammed into him headfirst before he could react, sending him flying. Pinkie, still wearing a smile as she landed on the floor, called, “Get him, Applejack!”

The orange earth pony was already ready, standing at the right angle as Metal 3.0 flew towards her. Once he was close enough, she bucked him as hard as she could towards Sonic, who performed a backflip kick to send him up towards Tails. The two-tailed fox stopped flying long enough to stop Metal 3.0’s ascent with a tail whip, the robot managing to stop himself before he went too far this time, starting to right himself as he hovered in midair.

While he was unscrambling his systems, though, Eggman Nega yelled, “Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus, look out!” With his auditory systems back online, the robot heard something flying towards him and scanned the area. He soon saw Rainbow flying towards him, but the cyan pegasus suddenly shot downwards and then came up from underneath him, pushing him up and smashing him against the ceiling before he could react. With his systems scrambled again, Rainbow grabbed his right arm and swung him down over her shoulder towards the ground, forming a crater when he crashed. Rainbow then flew straight down at high speed and smashed her hooves against his frame before leaping off of him. Looking at him, everyone saw that Metal 3.0 had gone still, his red eyes no longer visible.

“Hah! What other upgrades did you give him, Nega? Whatever you gave him, it sure didn’t help him any!” Rainbow boasted.

“Impossible! Metal Sonic Version 3.0’s capabilities were based on the original Metal Sonic’s, only superior! This can’t be!” Eggman Nega cried.

Sonic pointed up at him, “Well, you must have a pretty poor grasp of history then, Eggman Nega, otherwise you’d know I’ve been going toe to toe with Metal Sonic for a long time now! And speaking of which,” he got into a defensive stance, “how about you tell us who you made a deal with?”

Eggman Nega yelled, “You can’t be serious! You can’t expect me to sing just because Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus has stopped moving!”

Applejack argued, “You said if we got past him, you’d spill it! And he’s down fer the count, so start talkin’!”

Eggman Nega argued back, “It wasn’t a fair fight! You outnumbered him!”

Shining said, “You sure didn’t have a problem when we started supporting Sonic! From the way you were boasting, it sounded like anyone could go up against your robot and you’d be fine with it! If there was a problem, you should’ve said something!”

Pinkie added, “You had plenty of time to gloat after all, you big meanie!”

Fluttershy seemed to pay extra attention when Eggman Nega stammered, “But… but… you can’t do this!”

She looked at Sonic, unchecked anger starting to fill her eyes as he said, “Well, guess what; we just did! You want to gather him up and try to fix him for another round, be my guest! But you said you’d talk and you’re not going to slip away easily this time! So start talking or else- ugh!” He was cut off when he felt something slam into him from the side and climb on top of him when he landed face first on the floor. He turned his head around and saw Fluttershy standing on top of him, looking down at him angrily. “Fluttershy?! What-?”

The normally shy pegasus cut him off again, “No! Not again! I won’t let you force someone to agree with you again! Eggman Nega would be willing to talk if you actually gave him a chance to! There’s no need to get violent with him like this!”

Sonic just stared up at her in confusion, not sure where this anger was coming from or why Fluttershy sounded so… savage. “What??” he uttered, everyone else staring at Fluttershy in confusion as well.

After a moment, Eggman Nega, who also seemed surprised by the scene, spoke, “Well, I must say, that was unexpected of you, my dear girl. Getting up the courage to stop someone like that. It’s quite remarkable!” He then gave a sneaky grin, “I believe such behavior deserves a reward.” With that, he pressed a button on the console of his Eggmobile.

Suddenly, everyone heard a sparking noise and looked to see it was coming from Metal 3.0. Red electricity was running across him, his entire body shaking like he was being defibrillated. After several seconds, the electricity stopped and he climbed to his feet, his red eyes now visible again. As he began to climb out of the crater, Eggman Nega pressed another button, causing a purple aura to surround him. Rainbow glared, “Huh, guess he’s sturdier than we thought.”


UP FOR ROUND TWO


Twilight noticed something about him as he climbed out of the crater fully. “Is he… getting taller?!” she asked, noticing he seemed bigger now.

Indeed, with the purple aura around him, Metal 3.0 continued to get bigger, soon towering over everyone. “He is, Twilight! He is getting taller!” Rarity cried.

“But how?!” Rainbow asked.

Tails thought for a moment and then his eyes widened. “You equipped him with a molecular expander?!” he exclaimed.

Eggman Nega replied, “Call it what you like, fox boy! All that matters is you’ve got a rather big problem to deal with now!” As Metal 3.0 reached his full height, about halfway to the room’s ceiling, the purple aura around him faded. “Because as you’re going to find out, bigger IS better!” At that, Metal 3.0 curled up into a Spin Dash and shot directly towards Sonic and Fluttershy!

Reacting quickly, Sonic rolled to his left, knocking Fluttershy onto her side and grabbing her with his right arm while pushing himself up with his left hand, managing to get them both out of his path after he missed Cadance and Tails. Metal 3.0 uncurled himself and held out his hands to prevent himself from crashing into the wall. He then turned and Sonic saw he was going to attack again. He let go of Fluttershy and said, “Find a safe spot, Fluttershy! We’ll take care of him!” He then took off running as Metal 3.0 came after him with another Spin Dash.

Sonic leapt out of the way of the attack at the last second, pushing Rarity to safety as he did. Metal 3.0 kept going and once again uncurled to stop himself as he went out over the water. After stopping himself from falling in and crashing he turned around and continued to hover over everyone as they regrouped (except for Fluttershy). “This is a problem. He’s just as fast as when he was our size, which is going to make avoiding him even harder than it was before!” Shining growled.

“Can’t say I’ve personally gone up against a Metal Sonic this big before, but there’s gotta be a way to take him down!” Sonic said.

Twilight spoke, “Did you notice he seems more dependent on his arms at this size? He was using them before as well, but he wasn’t overshooting as much then. He’s using them almost like…”

Rainbow caught onto what she was saying and finished, “Wings! So if we can take his arms out, maybe we can turn his size against him!”

Everyone nodded; it seemed as a good a plan as any at the moment. “Let’s disarm him!” Sonic said as they rushed towards Metal 3.0, the robot still hovering and ready to attack.

As they began fighting again, Fluttershy sat where she was, watching. She seemed to be lost in a haze, seemingly unable to process what she was seeing. She came back to reality somewhat when Eggman Nega asked, “What’s the matter with you? Where did that fire you had go all of a sudden?”

Fluttershy slowly turned to stare up at him, asking, “Why is this happening? I thought you said he was defeated…!”

Eggman Nega replied, “What, that little show earlier? Please! Did you really fall for that? I wasn’t going to pull Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus back when I haven’t even shown him off completely! I was merely noting the similarities he shares with Dr. Eggman’s Metal Sonic, who I’m fairly sure now helped that black hedgehog Shadow close the entrance to the Ifrit’s dimension back then!”

Fluttershy stammered, “But you… you were afraid Sonic was going to attack you, weren’t you?”

Eggman Nega shrugged, “Do you not know what it means to be dramatic? I should think you’d know a thing or two about that, considering what I’ve heard about some of your so-called friends, if they can be so called! After this, they may not want to be friends with you anymore!” He gave her a sinister grin, “I did mean it when I said I was going to give you a reward, and this is it! Your lack of faith in Sonic eliminated any possibility that he could stop me from powering up Metal Sonic 3.0 Plus any further. That’s why you deserve this as a reward; you deserve to have your treachery recognized.” Fluttershy’s eyes went wide at that, a moment of clarity cutting through the haze in her mind as the cruelness she’d been displaying became as clear as day to her.

Suddenly, Sonic slid to a stop next to her, the blue hedgehog having been knocked back by a punch from Metal 3.0. As he recovered from the lingering effects of the hit, he glanced over at Fluttershy and asked, “You okay, Fluttershy? …Fluttershy?” He turned his head to look at her and she did the same, her eyes still a bit wide as she stared at him. He held out a hand towards her, “Hey, what’s wrong?”

Eggman Nega laughed, causing them both to look up at him. “Don’t worry about her, Sonic the Hedgehog! She clearly needed help realizing what she’d done, so she’ll be fine when she finally admits what she did was wrong!”

Sonic glared, “Hey!”

Eggman Nega asked, “Oh my, but what’s this? Have you been ejected from the game you were playing?” He grinned, “Don’t worry! I know a fun game we can play!” He pressed a button on his Eggmobile’s console, causing what looked like a ray gun to come out from the underside of it. Eggman Nega looked down at his craft’s screen, which now displayed what the weapon was pointing at. Eggman Nega let out a chuckle and adjusted his Eggmobile so he was looking at Sonic.

The blue hedgehog began running to the left, Eggman Nega turning to follow him as his weapon finished charging. He then pressed a button on top of his control stick with his thumb, causing the weapon to shoot a charged orange energy shot at him. Sonic easily danced around it, causing Eggman Nega to grunt in annoyance. He adjusted his aim and quickly pressed the button three more times, causing three less powerful shots to fire at where Sonic was going to be. He easily leapt over the first shot and did a cartwheel to avoid the other two. As he landed back on his feet and started moving again, he called, “You can’t hit me like that, Eggman Nega!”

The madman clicked his tongue and said, “So it would seem. I do hate when things don’t go my way.” He then swung his craft around and pointed his weapon at Fluttershy, who, at the moment, was watching Sonic. She looked up at Eggman Nega when he grinned, “So I’ll try shooting something I KNOW I can hit!” Sonic came to a stop when he realized he wasn’t being fired at and looked back, his eyes widening when he saw what Eggman Nega was going to do. He quickly spun around and shot towards Fluttershy as fast as he could, noticing the energy building up at the end of the gun.

Everyone else, meanwhile, was focusing on giving Metal 3.0 a hard time, Although he had pushed them back a bit and Sonic’s ejection had thrown them off a bit, they were starting to overwhelm him. Tails flew past his face to distract him, the robot reaching for him only to receive an uppercut to the face courtesy of Rainbow Dash, the pegasus having shot at him at high speed to make sure he felt it. While he was scrambled, Twilight, Shining, and Cadance took aim, firing their magic in beams at his left arm. They hit about the same time and did the trick, as the arm separated from the rest of Metal 3.0’s body at the shoulder. The robot stopped hovering and dropped down on one knee, clutching his sparking shoulder with his right hand. As he landed, Tails looked to see why Sonic hadn’t rejoined the fight yet.

A loud explosion sounded behind everyone and they turned to look, seeing Sonic being thrown to his side and Fluttershy being blown backwards. Almost everyone immediately assumed they’d both been caught in the explosion, but in the brief moment before the explosion, Tails had seen what really happened. He’d seen Sonic leaping towards Fluttershy, managing to push her out of the way with his hands before the shot from Eggman Nega’s gun exploded underneath him, causing him to take the full force of the fully charged shot while Fluttershy was hardly caught in it, if at all. Sonic hit the ground soon after he was launched, rolling towards the others for a few seconds. He came to a stop on his front, a small bit of smoke coming off of him. “Sonic!” Tails cried as he started to run towards him, everyone else doing the same.

As Sonic began trying to push himself up off the ground, Eggman Nega yelled, “Manual control!” The sound of Metal 3.0’s engine filled the air, much louder due to his bigger size. Before anyone could react, he suddenly shot past everyone, throwing them on their sides as he flew straight towards Sonic. The blue hedgehog tried to get on his feet at this, but Metal 3.0 was upon before he knew it, the robot grabbing him with his right hand. Looking up, he disengaged his engine and tried to plant his feet on the ground, but it was too slippery and he crashed into the wall with his left side. It shook him up again, but he kept a firm grip on Sonic and soon turned to look at everyone.

Sonic groaned from how tight Metal 3.0 was squeezing him. “Hey, let me go, soup can!” he said, Metal 3.0 turning his head to look at him at that.


IN A TIGHT SQUEEZE


Tails and the others picked themselves up and started moving towards the two again until Eggman Nega yelled, “Not another step! Or the hedgehog gets it!”

Rarity shouted, “What?! I can’t believe you, Eggman Nega! You’re incorrigible!”

Eggman Nega smirked, “I try, my dear, I try.”

Twilight said, “Let him go, Eggman Nega! You can’t seriously want to do this!”

Eggman Nega asked, “And why not, little pony?”

Shining backed Twilight up, “Come on, seriously? You built and upgraded a robot for the express purpose of fighting him and you want to end it when he’s in no position to defend himself? How does it prove your model is superior to the original Metal Sonic if they don’t fight each other fairly?”

Eggman Nega glanced back at Sonic with a raised eyebrow for a moment. “Hmm… There was a time when I wanted to do whatever it took to get me out of Dr. Eggman’s shadow…” he said.

Applejack nodded, “See? Now’s yer chance ta do that! We beat him earlier and he managed to get ahead of us this time; it’s even! You’re in control o’ him, so make him put Sonic down and we’ll settle this best o’ three!”

Eggman Nega was silent at that, but Metal 3.0 began to move Sonic forward like he was going to set him down with a little distance between them. When his arm was extended as far it could go, however, he stopped. Everyone looked up at Eggman Nega at that. He was quiet for a moment before speaking, “Oh, you meant the manual control I mentioned, didn’t you?” Applejack nodded and he smirked a moment later, “Funny story about that. I did think long and hard about putting that in him… but I decided to give him something else instead. I was bluffing.”

At that, Metal 3.0 pulled his arm up suddenly and let Sonic go, the blue hedgehog letting out a gasp as he felt himself become weightless for a moment before gravity began pulling him down. As he got his feet underneath him, he realized the hole in Metal 3.0’s chest was glowing bright pink and he realized what upgrade Nega had been talking about. He didn’t get a chance to do much else as a large, pink sphere was fired at him, the sphere pushing him back all the way across the room! It exploded when both it and Sonic hit the wall, the hedgehog exhaling as he fell through the dust cloud into the water below.

“SONIC!” Tails cried as his namesakes began spinning, already propelling him towards the other side of the room. At this, Metal 3.0’s engine fired up again and he rocketed towards the fox, catching up to him in no time.

The ponies managed to avoid being caught in his tailwind this time and Shining, Twilight, Rarity, and Cadance used their magic to grab his legs, what happened to Sonic giving them a boost to stop his pursuit. Tails looked back over his shoulder and Shining shouted, “Go, Tails!” The fox nodded and faced forward again, soon making it to the edge and diving into the water after Sonic.

Metal 3.0 began to make the flame coming from his engine stronger, the magic users letting go of him when they noticed this. This caused him to shoot across the room, not prepared for the sudden release. His one arm wasn’t enough to stop him from crashing headfirst into the wall. He recovered and moved back onto the ground to face them, but this time they weren’t holding anything back. The Equestrians, including Fluttershy when she finally got out of her state of shock, began to attack Metal 3.0 hard and fast.


CRASHING DOWN


Eggman Nega saw that his creation was quickly being overwhelmed again and moved forward to help. Charging up his ray gun again, he took aim at Rainbow Dash as she knocked Metal 3.0’s head back with a hoof to the chin. He fired when she was center in his sight, but she moved back enough after her attack that he shot Metal 3.0 instead. Rainbow noticed he was charging up again and began to fly around the robot, causing Eggman Nega to shout, “Hey, hold still!” He kept firing at her, but he continued to hit Metal 3.0 instead. After Applejack bucked the robot’s right leg back, causing him to wobble, Rainbow flew past the top end of the leg and Eggman Nega’s shot hit it right there. This separated it from his body and he fell onto his back, the wet ground causing his remaining foot to fly out from under him. “Now look what you’ve done!” Eggman Nega yelled, only for Rainbow to fly straight up at him and uppercut his ray gun as hard as she could. This caused it to explode, Eggman Nega letting out a yell as his Eggmobile was jostled.

Rainbow then landed directly in front of the madman, part of her in his craft as she glared at him with her teeth bared and steam coming out of her nose. “Now you’ve pushed your luck, you crackpot! This time, you really don’t have a leg to stand on! You’re going down!” she angrily said.

Eggman Nega looked nervous for a moment at the rage she was displaying, but he soon regained his composure and replied, “Not yet, I don’t! I still have one last surprise for you!” He quickly reached down and pressed a big red button that had a skull design on it.

The others looked at Metal 3.0 in surprise as he began to shake violently, his red eyes disappearing as he looked straight up. “Now what’s it doin’?!” Applejack asked.

Twilight remembered what happened with the robot they had encountered on the Little Planet and called, “I think he’s going to explode!” Suddenly, Metal 3.0’s engine roared to life again and he began rocketing straight up towards the ceiling, his body still shaking and his remaining robotic limbs spread out.

Tails had finished getting Sonic out of the water and back onto dry land, the blue hedgehog not moving, when he heard the sound of the engine. He looked up as Metal 3.0 shot towards the ceiling and, a moment later, the robot was engulfed in a massive explosion as soon as he hit the ceiling! The blast caused all the light fixtures to be blown out of the ceiling and a massive cloud of smoke filled the room, limiting everyone’s visibility and making it hard to breathe.

Holding his breath, Eggman Nega raised a foot and kicked Rainbow Dash off of his Eggmobile before piloting his smoking craft towards the cave exit. As he flew, he yelled, “You may escape this, but you’ll regret it! When you see what’s waiting for you at the end of your trip, you’ll WISH you’d let me destroy you!”

Recovering from the surprise kick, Rainbow turned and shot towards the sound of Nega’s voice, soon flying over the water where the air was still somewhat clear. She flew after him as he flew out of the cave, but some rocks coming loose above the exit caused her to force herself to stop to avoid being crushed under them. Looking up at the ceiling, she realized that, between the explosion and the light fixtures being torn out so roughly, the whole thing had been greatly weakened, rumbling filling the air as bits of the ceiling began to break off. “Hey, we gotta get outta here! The ceiling’s going to collapse!” she shouted as loudly as she could.

Rarity coughed twice before crying out, “How do we get out of here?!”

Shining called, “Twilight, where are you?!”

The lavender unicorn called back from nearby, “Over here! Where’s Spike and everyone else?!”

Tails coughed several times before waving his right hand in front of him to get some of the smoke away from him, knowing they were all in danger the longer they stayed here. He reached his right hand into his tails and pulled out the Warp Ring, holding it up as he shouted as loud as he could, “Listen, everyone! I know it’s hard to hear right now, but move towards the sound of my voice! I’ve got the Warp Ring with me; get to me and you’ll be safe!”

Rainbow flew down next to him as he made the Warp Ring large and began shouting to her friends to help direct them, everyone moving towards them as best they could while trying to watch out for falling rocks and keep out as much smoke as they could. They all managed to reach the Warp Ring and jumped into it. Once the last of their friends had gone through, Tails grabbed Sonic with both hands and flew into it himself, Rainbow following closely behind as the ceiling began to give way completely.

The Warp Ring shrunk down and disappeared as large chunks of rock fell down from above, the size and number of them essentially sealing the room off completely. The room became dark and silent after the last rocks had finished falling, only the water flowing in from outside unaffected by the events that had taken place there.

________________________________________


A NEW ADVENTURE


A small figure stood at the edge of a bluff, looking out at the ocean stretched out before it down below. The figure looked like a yellow mouse with red cheeks, black eyes, black tipped ears on top of its head, and a lightning bolt-shaped tail that was brown near the bottom, the same brown as the two stripes running across its back just above the tail. The small mouse looked nervous yet determined as it looked to the horizon, the setting sun bathing the sky in orange. It was a sight that normally gave the mouse peace, and it was hoping to find peace for the task that lay ahead.

The mouse heard the sound of steps and turned around to see his best friend coming up the steps that led down into the bluff. His friend resembled a bipedal jackal of sorts, his body mostly covered with blue fur as well as yellow and black fur. His reverse-jointed legs lacked fur near the knee and were completely black below the blue fur around the top part of his legs. He had a blue-furred tail and three spikes, one on the top of each paw and one sticking out of his chest over where his heart was located. His red eyes had black fur around them and over the top of his head, causing it to resemble a bandit’s mask. On the back of his head, four dreadlocks hung down, two on the left side and two on the right. A circular badge with what looked like wings on its sides was attached to the flap on the bag swung over his right shoulder, the bag resting against his left hip.

As their eyes met, the mouse asked, his voice sounding youthful, “Did you get everything you think we’ll need for this mission, Lucario?”

The blue jackal nodded, his voice sounding deep when he spoke, “Yes. I think we’ll be prepared for anything that we may come across.”

The mouse replied, “We’d better get going, then. Suicune and Lapras should be waiting for us down on the beach. We don’t want to keep them waiting.”

Lucario nodded, “Right, especially Suicune. She’s invaluable to everyone she helps, but we both know how serious she can get. She doesn’t really care for hold ups when she gets like that.” He held his right arm out slightly from his body and the mouse ran over to him on all fours, leaping up and grabbing onto his arm, pressing his right foot down on the spike before climbing up onto the jackal’s shoulder. Once the mouse was situated, Lucario turned towards the path leading away from the bluff and said, “Let’s get going, Pikachu.” With that, he held his arms out at his sides and started running down the path, heading for the town they called home and the crossroads beyond that would take them to their destination.
> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. I - Station Square (a)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


TRAVELING OVER THE OCEAN


Both the ocean and the sky were a gorgeous blue color, flocks of Wingull flying in the sky in tight circles both near and far from dry land. While flying in flocks was not unusual for this species of Pokémon, they normally did not circle over one area. Much like seagulls, this odd behavior was often done to alert others to some sort of danger or event. A casual observer might not think there could be anything wrong on a beautiful day like this, but Pokémon were greatly in tune with the balance of nature. If something was wrong, most would be able to sense it, and right now, something unusual had happened that could endanger the world of Pokémon if it wasn’t resolved.

Far to the west of the largest island in this region of the world, Lucario and Pikachu saw the flocks of Wingull circling as they continued on their way. They were currently sitting on the back of one of their friends and allies as she carried them across the ocean. The Pokémon, which looked like a light blue sea creature with a long neck and a gray shell on her back, was known as Lapras. Like other members of her species, she was known for carrying others across the sea, but she was a little different from other Lapras. She was a guardian of sorts, being one of only a few in this world who knew how to get to where she was heading, and it was not information she liked to make known. In fact, Lucario and Pikachu were the only normal members of their Exploration Team, Team Defenders, that she would allow on her back for this trip. They had saved this location some time ago and, along with one of the Legendaries on their team, were the best choice for this particular mission.

Lucario looked to his right at the back of Lapras’ head and asked, “Are you doing all right, Lapras? I’m not slowing you down, am I?”

The Transport Pokémon looked back at him and said in a soft voice that had a hint of amusement in it, “I’m just fine, Lucario. The size of your evolved form is not a hindrance to me. You’re as easy to carry as when you were a Riolu.” She returned her attention to the ocean in front of her after she finished speaking, paying attention to where she was going.

Lucario felt a poke against his left knee and turned his head to see it was Pikachu, the Mouse Pokémon smiling up at him. “What’s wrong, Lucario? Are you worried that the Aura training you’ve been going through has been causing you to pack on some extra weight?” he asked cheekily.

Lucario gave him a perturbed look as he answered, “What? No, of course not, Pikachu! I was just asking because I’m worried. Yes, we’ve been to the Hidden Land before, but this is the first time we’ve actually been summoned there. That alone cannot mean anything good.”

Pikachu crossed his arms and closed his eyes, tilting his head downward as he spoke, “That’s true. Even though we’ve met a number of Legendary Pokémon, they usually don’t call for us. We’re usually the ones who do that, and it’s usually only when we need help with our missions.”

Lucario nodded, “Exactly. The world’s been in danger before, and each time there have been Pokémon and/or humans who have been able to resolve it. For Dialga to be summoning us to the Hidden Land, the only thing I can think is that time must be in danger again, but what sort of danger could it be?”

Lapras glanced back, “You won’t have to wait much longer to find out. I’m heading in.” Both Pikachu and Lucario looked forward at that. Suddenly, it seemed as if Lapras began to gain speed as she swam, going faster and soon lifting out of the water, seemingly flying! The two leaders of Team Defenders were not surprised by this, though. They could tell by the blue surrounding them and the disappearance of the ocean and sky that they were in the Sea of Time, which marked the entrance to the Hidden Land. Lucario and Pikachu sat still, slightly gripping Lapras’ shell as the blue shot past them.


THE HIDDEN LAND


After several seconds, they exited the blue tunnel. Now they appeared to be in the sky, yellow-brown clouds as far as the eye could see. In the middle of all the clouds, they could see what appeared to be a floating island that was mostly covered with green trees and grasses. It was the Hidden Land, and floating in the ‘sky’ beyond it was Temporal Tower. Even as far as they were from the tower, Pikachu and Lucario could see that the damage it had sustained some time ago had been repaired. The quest to stop the tower’s destruction and the stopping of time had been one of Team Defenders’ greatest adventures, though for the two, it was also one that brought back sad memories.

As Lapras approached a small piece of brown, rocky ground that stuck out at the edge of the Hidden Land, they all saw a figure that looked like a large dog standing not far from the edge, waiting for them. It stood on four legs, had light blue fur with a few diamond-shaped patches of white fur, a white underside, blue hexagonal diamond shape atop its forehead, a long purple mane that constantly flowed backwards like the wind was blowing through it, and two white streamer-like tails that constantly blew forward.

After Lapras landed on the edge of the outcropping, Pikachu called, “Hi, Suicune!”

The large Pokémon replied in a neutral tone, her voice a bit deep but still sounding feminine, “It’s about time you got here.”

As Lucario and Pikachu slid off of her back, Lapras replied in an amused tone, “I swam as fast as I could, Suicune.”

The Aurora Pokémon looked at her and said, “I know you did, Lapras. I know you take your responsibilities seriously. I simply did not know when Lucario and Pikachu would be leaving Treasure Town.”

Lucario stood up straight and adjusted the strap on his Treasure Bag before patting Lapras on the side of her neck, smiling when she turned to look at him. He then stepped forward with Pikachu next to him and asked, “Now that we’re here, I assume we’re off to Temporal Tower, then?”

Suicune replied, “No. There is no need to go up to Temporal Tower for this. Dialga and Palkia will meet us at the temple where the Rainbow Stoneship is instead.”

The two Pokémon were surprised at this. “Palkia is here too?” Pikachu asked. Much like Dialga, the two had had experience with the Pokémon deity of space in the past, and even though the two seemed friendlier now, the two deities still had a bit of a rivalry between them.

Suicune nodded, “Yes. From what I can tell, it’s not just one or the other that’s in danger this time. They both are.”

Lucario said, “I see… You’re right. We should get going.” With that, the three set off into the Hidden Land, making their way to the temple in the Hidden Highland.

________________________________________


DOWN AND OUT?


Spike and the girls save for Fluttershy were clustered outside one of the rooms in the sleeper car, all of them looking to the left and clearing the way when they saw Cadance approaching. The pink alicorn stepped into the room, holding up a damp washcloth in her magic. She went over to the first lower bunk bed on the right, which Tails and Shining were standing next to. Sonic was on the bed, the blue hedgehog lying on his back with his eyes closed and the covers pulled up to his chest.

Shining and Tails looked up as Cadance approached and held out the washcloth as she said, “Here you go. I couldn’t find Fluttershy in the back, but I was able to find and wet this washcloth while I was there.”

Tails sighed, but took the washcloth from her and replied, “Thanks, Cadance.” He folded it over once and placed it on Sonic’s forehead, “This should help a bit.”

From outside the room, Rarity asked, “Is he doing all right?”

Shining answered, “His forehead’s really warm. It’s like he’s running a fever.”

Rainbow shivered, “I can’t blame him. That water got rid of the stinging in my hooves, but that’s probably because it was so cold! Definitely not something you’d want to take a bath in.”

Twilight asked, “What do you think, Tails?”

The fox replied, “Well, it could be a fever. The only other thing it could be is he finally hit his limit. Suddenly, his napping when there’s nothing going on makes all too much sense.”

Cadance sighed, “I guess it’s true what he said. He really can keep going in the long run, but even he has to stop at some point. Eggman Nega finally pushed him to that point.”

Shining nodded, “Yeah, between him and everything that went on in those storybook worlds, he hasn’t really had a chance to rest on his laurels. It’s amazing how much of a difference that makes.” Rarity began to feel a bit guilty about her earlier massage at that.

Tails crossed his arms, “At any rate, I think it’s safe to say he’s down for the count right now.” He looked at the others, “I think we should just let him sleep for the rest of the trip, let him recover as much strength as he can.”

Cadance nodded, “That’s a good idea.” Suddenly, Sonic raised himself into a sitting position with a loud groan, the washcloth falling onto the sheets and everyone jumping back a bit in surprise.

“Aah! He’s possessed!” Pinkie cried at the sight of his half-lidded, slightly baggy eyes as he stared straight ahead.

After regaining his composure, Shining said, “Geez, you startled us, Sonic. We thought you were asleep.”

Sonic looked over at him with a wry smirk, “Yeah, well, it’s kind of hard to stay asleep with all the noise in here.” Everyone glanced at each other nervously at that. A moment later, Sonic lifted the sheets up with his left hand and swung his legs out from under them, dangling them over the edge of the bed and scooting forward.

Upon seeing this, Shining moved forward and put his hooves on Sonic’s shoulders while saying, “Whoa, hold up there, cowboy. What do you think you’re doing?”

Sonic looked up at him, “We’re still far from Canterlot, right? Much as I wouldn’t mind a nap right now, this isn’t really the time. It can wait.” He began to push himself up.

He was halted when Shining pushed his hooves down on his shoulders. “No. It. Can’t,” he said firmly, pushing down a bit harder on the last word, easily pushing Sonic back down on the bed. He stepped back and spoke, “You see that? I easily pushed you back down. You’re in no shape to go anywhere right now.”

Sonic groaned, “Aw, come on! You think that actually means anything? If so, how about best two out of three?”

Cadance’s eyes narrowed a bit, “This is not a game, Sonic. You passed out on us back there. Regardless of your ability to swim or not swim, you definitely needed Tails’ help to get out of the water. Imagine if he hadn’t been able to reach you in time. We can’t have you passing out like that again.”

Applejack added, “Ah don’t think other ponies always know what they’re talkin’ about either, but Ah ain’t gonna deny that Ah worked mahself past exhaustion when Ah was takin’ over for Big Mac for Applebuck Season. Trust me, it ain’t good when you’re noddin’ off and not doin’ things ya know how ta do.”

Sonic shook his head and asked, “Seriously?” Looking around, he could tell what their answer was by the looks on their faces, and it wasn’t the one he wanted. He let out a loud sigh and grunted, “Fine.” He pulled himself backwards while holding up the sheets and swinging his legs back underneath them, followed by him grabbing the washcloth and placing it on his forehead, this time lying down on his left side and holding the cloth in place with his left hand.

Although they were a bit surprised by how easily he gave in, nobody could deny that it was better than arguing with him about it. “All right, everyone, let’s clear out and give him some peace and quiet,” Cadance said. She, Shining, and Tails walked out of the room, moving back towards the front of the train with the others doing the same.

Before following the others, Rarity poked her head into the room and asked, “Would a bedtime story help you sleep, Sonic?” The blue hedgehog’s response was to raise his right arm and point it straight down his body, his index finger raised. Normally Rarity would’ve been irritated by such a gesture, but as it was, she simply took the hint, slid the door closed, and walked after the others, feeling bad like the rest of them. After they all left the sleeper car, the car’s back door slid open ever so slowly and quietly and Fluttershy poked her head around it to look into the car.


UNEASINESS


The group soon arrived back at the car where their usual seats were and found it to be empty. “Fluttershy’s not in here either,” Spike said worriedly, looking around the car.

“Where did she go? You said she wasn’t in the back o’ the train, right Cadance?” Applejack asked. The pink alicorn nodded in response.

“Seriously, what’s gotten into her? Sonic’s injured right now! This is the kind of thing her cutie mark tells her to do! She should be by his side even after being told to leave!” Rainbow groaned, her worry apparent even underneath her frustration.

Tails glanced back at everyone as he said, “It would be nice to have some idea of what’s going on with her. I was hoping Sonic would be able to shed some light on that for me. Of course, he’s in no position to do that right now, so…”

Shining caught onto what he was saying and sighed before saying, “I did say we’d talk about what happened when we had a quiet moment, didn’t I? Well, I’m not going to go back on my word, Tails. I’ll tell you all about it.”

Before he could begin, Cadance placed a hoof against his chest and looked at Tails as she said, “Actually, Tails, I think we’d better go make sure the engine is, ah, still warm and then talk. I can help with that, and I think Twilight would like to be present as well.”

Twilight looked at her, surprised at being brought up. “Huh? Me?” she asked.

Shining looked at his wife and said, “Cadance, honey, I don’t think we should be going anywhere while we’re talking about this. I’m the one who made the deal with him; I should be the one to tell it.”

Cadance looked back at the stallion and replied, “I’m aware of that, Shining. However, I think I can tell him what happened in less time than you would need. I think I can also avoid inserting too many editorials, ‘Mr. Exploding Polo Mallet’.”

Shining gave her an annoyed look at that, hearing a few giggles around him. “It DID happen!” he argued. Cadance gave him an impish smile in response while Tails raised an eye in confusion.

Cadance turned to Twilight and said, “Come on, Twilight, we’re going to the front of the train with Tails.” Although she was still confused, Twilight nodded and followed behind Cadance and Tails as they started walking to the engine. Shining’s annoyed look eased off, him and the others knowing that Cadance wanted Twilight to know where some of her injuries came from.

After they stepped into the engine, Cadance turned around and slid the door shut. “There. We should be away from any sugarcoating and listening ears, at least for a little while,” she explained as she turned back to Tails and Twilight.

The latter sat down and asked, “Okay, so what is this about, Cadance?”

The pink alicorn answered, “Because this is something you need to hear too, Twilight. I know you’ve noticed everypony else’s odd behavior as much as Tails has. You were out for a while after Terios attacked you and Smithy. I’ll tell you what he tricked us into doing…”

While she started explaining everything to the two, near the back of the train, Fluttershy was quietly peering through the glass into the room Sonic was resting in. She looked at him with a sad expression, noticing he was sleeping so his back was facing her. In her mind, she wondered if he knew she was standing there and didn’t want to look at her, even in his sleep. It was a disheartening thought, and worse, it was an opportunity for the presence in the back of her mind to drag her down further.

“Look at him lying there, so weak and defenseless. I wonder if he’s on his deathbed,” it communicated in Terios’ voice.

Fluttershy’s eyes widened slightly. “N-No, he couldn’t be. He wouldn’t be sleeping so… peacefully if he was dying. And the others wouldn’t just leave him alone if that was the case,” she said.

Terios’ voice taunted, “Death happens to be a very sweet slumber, and yes, the others would know, but how would you? You’re the animal expert among your friends, and where were you while they were making a big fuss over him? That’s right, you were hiding out and leaving them high and dry when they could’ve used your help, just like always.”

Fluttershy shook her head, “He’ll be okay! I… I can tell just by looking at him that he’s going to be all right…”

Terios’ voice came back, “He could be bleeding internally. Are your ‘angry eyebrows’ capable of seeing that?”

Fluttershy asked, “Why are you doing this?”

Terios’ voice replied, “Because you sicken me more than the rest. You honestly thought I would ever allow myself to be written off as an inferior clone because it would make other people happy. You foolishly allowed yourself to get close to me and had to be saved by him because you were too stupid to realize I was about to kill you. Well, here’s what your show of kindness has gotten you. You’re stuck with me, he’s badly injured because you interfered with him, and your ‘friends’ don’t trust you.”

Tears began to fill Fluttershy’s eyes, “No, they wouldn’t… They wouldn’t stop being friends with me because I made a mistake… would they?”

Terios’ voice answered, “Why wouldn’t they? I’m in your mind, so I can see your memories. They’ve had to put up with your cowardice for a long time now, but nothing like this has ever happened. None of them have ever been pushed to the brink of death because of you until now. One of your newest ‘friends’ has suffered and could’ve drowned because of you, but it wasn’t cowardice that has resulted in this. Do you know the reason?” Fluttershy had no answer, so he went on, “Can’t quite think of it? I guess that would imply you ever thought at all. I’ll tell you. It’s because of your lack of faith.”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened further at that, tears beginning to slide down her face.

“Yes, you lost faith in your own deluded ideals because you didn’t bother to learn what he really did when he pulled you away from me. And thanks to that, you’ve continued my work for me. How long will it be before you stop deluding yourself into believing the others still want you around and you get them killed as well?” Terios taunted further.

Fluttershy’s body began to shake, the shy pegasus backing away towards the back of the train.

Soon…

“Yikes. That’s… I guess I can see why all these little details weren’t mentioned earlier, and why you wanted to get away from the others before you told us, Cadance,” Tails was saying. The pink alicorn in question had just finished going over the entirety of the encounter with Terios that she had been present for, particularly mentioning the encounter with the dark imposter’s voodoo doll-like copies of Twilight and Smithy. She nodded in reply.

Twilight shook her head before asking, “Is that why Shining keeps stopping short before he says my name? Because a fake version of me didn’t like being called ‘Twily’?”

Cadance replied, “That would appear to be the case, Twilight. I suppose it is kind of like when Queen Chrysalis was pretending to be me, how she acted nothing like me and made you think I had grown out of our special chant. He might be thinking that, despite that not being the case, that that dark version Terios created was a reflection of how you felt deep down, much like how he himself was all sorts of things Sonic has undoubtedly worked a long time to not become.”

Tails looked off to the side and murmured, “That sounds about right, all things considered.”

Twilight asked, “So Spike and everypony else is acting the way they are because some of this is from them defeating that dark version?” She gestured to her bandages and patched eye as she spoke.

Cadance lowered her head a bit as she said, “Well, I won’t lie to you, Twilight. I’m also partly responsible for some of the injuries you and Smithy suffered. I… I admit, I got angry like the others when I realized he was trying to use Smithy and my favorite filly against us, which only got worse when I realized he did in his own twisted way.” She looked up, “But at the time, we didn’t know, first that it wasn’t you and second that we didn’t know you would feel it to a certain degree. Believe me, if he’d made sure you felt the full extent of everything that hit that doppelganger, you would be in much worse shape right now. I don’t feel comfortable having to tell you all of this, but you have a right to know, and I hope… I just hope you can forgive me and everypony else for not knowing.”

Twilight sat quietly for a moment before reaching her right hoof forward and placing it on Cadance’s. The pink alicorn looked down at the hoof for a moment before looking back up at Twilight, the unicorn saying, “I don’t think there’s really anything that needs to be forgiven in this case, Cadance. It really is just like with Chrysalis. No one knew she’d replaced you, and Shining being under her control didn’t help matters. There was really no way to expose her under those circumstances until you were found. Even if you did notice her not behaving the way I would normally…”

Cadance interjected, “I did notice the way she carried herself, even before she snapped at Spike. I tried to talk to her about it, but she started acting flustered and didn’t want to.”

Twilight continued, “Even so, how would you have known it wasn’t actually me? We didn’t see any changelings in the Grand Kingdom, and we certainly didn’t know the Underworld army had developed the capacity to produce disguises and mimic voices like that. Merlina and the Knights of the Round Table really are going to be busy if they’re going to keep trying that. The point is, I accept your apology, but really, there’s nothing to apologize for. If anything, it’s more my fault for getting caught off-guard in the first place, and even if it was impossible to get away from Terios, I really should’ve done something different at the time.” In the back of her mind, she thought to herself, “Again.”

The thought was banished when Cadance smiled warmly at her and wrapped her forelegs around the unicorn, hugging her. It was a hug Twilight was eager to return. Tails smiled softly at the scene, but after a few moments, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned to his right to look out the engine window and very briefly saw something light pink fly past it. He ran over and stuck his head out the window, seeing Fluttershy for a moment before she disappeared from his view. “Hey!” he cried.

Twilight and Cadance broke their embrace and looked over at him, the latter asking, “What is it, Tails?”

The two-tailed fox kept looking out the window as he said, “That was Fluttershy! She flew on ahead by herself!”

Cadance and Twilight’s eyes went wide at that. “What?! Why would she do that?!” Twilight asked.

Tails pulled his head back in to look at the two as he replied, “It’s gotta be about what happened with the fake Twilight! She must be taking it really hard!”

Cadance shook her head, “That couldn’t be it. She was the only one who didn’t fight back against either of the imposters. It was when we were fighting Terios that she tried to fight back.”

Twilight held a hoof to her chin, “The way she’s been acting since near the end of our time in Camelot, and that whole thing that happened while we were dealing with Eggman Nega and his Metal Sonic robot… Could that be what drove her to fly away?”

Cadance replied, “That’s probably it, Twilight.”

Tails pulled out his radar and flipped it open, looking at the two screens as he said, “We have to get her back. Let me see what’s ahead of us. I haven’t checked since we got back, so let me see if there’s a straight shot to Canterlot now” He went silent for a moment before saying, “Hm… Looks like there’s another portal open up ahead, but there’s something off about these readings. I wonder if it’s not stable…”

Twilight stood up, “Let’s go tell the others. If she went in there and there’s a problem, then we need to get her back as soon as possible.” Cadance and Tails nodded in response, Cadance standing up and the three of them exiting the engine.

Back in the passenger car, the air had become tense around the others as they waited for Twilight, Cadance, and Tails to return. While everyone else sat, Spike was pacing up and down the aisle. “What’s taking so long? What are they doing up there? How is Twilight taking everything that happened? The engine hasn’t exploded yet, but that doesn’t mean she’s taking it well,” he uttered nervously.

Rarity watched him pace, wanting to comfort him but knowing it would be in vain. She didn’t feel she had any right to do so when she was also responsible for her own share of Twilight’s injuries. Looking around the car, she saw that everypony else had similar expressions of worry and grief. Pinkie was chewing her hooves nervously, Shining was looking at the door with dread, and even Rainbow Dash, who was lying on her side on one of the benches, wasn’t looking too confident at the moment. The wait was getting to them all, but they knew better than to interrupt and try to cover up for themselves.

Suddenly, the door slid open and Tails, Cadance, and Twilight quickly stepped into the car. As soon as she heard it, Pinkie turned to look at the door and cried, “I’m sorry! We’re sorry! We didn’t mean to hurt you, Twilight!”

Shining raised a hoof, “T-Twilight, I know you’re really hurting, especially on the inside right now, but…”

Tails interrupted, “This isn’t the time for this!”

Twilight spoke, “Fluttershy’s gone!”

This statement halted everyone in their tracks, their attempts to placate Twilight dying as they processed this information. “WHAT?!” Rainbow cried. She spread her wings and leapt up from the bench she was on, landing in front of Twilight and wincing as a bit of the pain from earlier came back. “What do you mean she’s gone?!” she asked.

“Tails saw her fly past the engine window!” Twilight said.

Rarity gasped, “You mean she flew out on us?!”

Applejack was about to snap at the fashionista, but Tails said, “Well, she was sure going somewhere in a hurry, I know that much.”

Shining shook his head, “She can’t be in her right mind right now. She wouldn’t do something like this normally, would she?”

Rainbow replied, “Of course not! I’ve known her longer than anypony here, and while she’s run off in tears before, flying off into danger is my style, not hers!”

Cadance spoke, “That’s why we came to let you all know. Whatever’s hurting her right now, only her friends can help her get through it. Tails said there’s a portal open up ahead, so that’s most likely where she went. You’ll have to find her and get to the bottom of what’s troubling her.”

Applejack said, “We oughta take the Elements of Harmony with us fer this. Havin’ the Element of Kindness in her hooves oughta remind her of who she is and help her open up. They brought us together after all.”

Spike spoke, “Well, let’s get going, then! Let’s go find Fluttershy!” He started forward, but Cadance raised a hoof and pressed it against his chest, pushing him back. He looked up at her questioningly.

Lowering her hoof, she said, “Wait, Spike. Let Tails and the girls find her. Stay here with me and Shining.”

Both Spike and Shining were surprised by this. “What?! Why?!” Spike asked.

Cadance explained, “With any luck, Fluttershy just needs to be brought to her senses before she’ll come back, and perhaps the portal issue will resolve itself. Tails said there may be some instability in it. If they can’t back through it wherever they go, hopefully the Warp Ring will be able to get them back here. I think the three of us should stay behind to make sure Sonic doesn’t go anywhere, especially after all the shouting just now.” She looked at Tails, “He wouldn’t be able to stop himself from trying to help if he knew, would he?” Tails shook his head to confirm her suspicion.

Shining sighed, “I understand your reasoning for the separation, Cadance, but I insist on going with Twilight and her friends. In case this isn’t a simple search and rescue, I want to be there if it suddenly becomes more complicated.”

Cadance looked back at him for a moment before relenting, “All right, Shining, you can go. I think Twilight would like that too.” Shining looked at Twilight uncertainly at that, unsure of how she viewed her BBBFF after he, in a way, beat her up like a schoolyard bully. Twilight gave him a small smile and a hopeful look, though, as she levitated her saddlebags over and set them on her back, her magic feeling stronger now. Without another word, Tails and the ponies moved towards the front of the train, leaving Cadance and Spike alone.

Outside, they headed past where the portal leading to Coral Cave had been, finding the portal off to the side of the tracks further up. As Tails had suspected, it did not look as stable as some of the others they had seen, the image on its surface flickering and unclear as it shook in midair. Despite this, they knew Fluttershy had to have gone through it, especially since Rainbow flew farther on ahead and found no trace of her, so they leapt into it to search for her.


THE FIRST DESTROYED CITY


As soon as they touched solid ground, everyone looked around. They had landed on a piece of a highway, the road coming to an abrupt stop on both sides of them. Beyond the strip of road were the ruins of a modern city and, when they moved to the side of the road, water as far as they could see. The water had submerged the roads below them, various signs and pieces of the smaller buildings floating on the water’s surface. The larger buildings, though they were still standing, had suffered damage from what was no doubt a massive flood. Windows were blown out and water was pouring out of the top floors of some of them like a waterfall. Some pieces of highway that had not sunk to the bottom had abandoned cars sitting on top of them. Overhead, thick gray clouds, almost like floating steel, filled the sky, blocking out the sun.

Shining looked around as he asked, “What happened here? Where are we?”

Rainbow looked at one of the tilted buildings, “Hey… Doesn’t this place seem kind of familiar?”

Applejack nodded, “It does, Rainbow, but why?”

Tails spoke, “I think this is Station Square, after Perfect Chaos flooded it.”

Twilight said, “That’s it! That- What we saw when we found Fluttershy, Cream, and Cheese! We saw Perfect Chaos and the ruins of this city, Station Square!”

Rainbow pointed a hoof at the unicorn, “That’s right, Twilight! I remember that now!”

Rarity asked, “What’s Perfect Chaos? It sounds like something that ruffian Discord might say.”

Tails explained, “Chaos is… I think he was once a Chao, but now he’s a creature made almost completely out of water. He’s remembered as a God of Destruction, but he’s really a protector of the Chao and the Chaos Emeralds. Eggman freed him once to help him take over the world, but Chaos eventually turned on him and took the Chaos Emeralds for himself, using their negative power to become Perfect Chaos.” He gestured to the city, “Station Square was the only place he attacked before he became nice again, but as you can see, he really did some damage, to put it mildly.”

Pinkie said, “He sure did! This isn’t the fun kind of chaos, it’s just awful!”

Shining asked, “He became nice again? What do you mean by that, Tails?”

Applejack spoke, “Like he told us, Chaos is actually a peaceful sort. But Knuckles said that his tribe angered Chaos long ago, and he held onto that anger for all the time he was sealed inside the Master Emerald. Bein’ defeated as Perfect Chaos was apparently what it took to make him good again.”

Twilight looked around nervously, “I hope we don’t have to deal with him while we’re looking for Fluttershy…”

Pinkie looked around, “It seems pretty quiet right now.”

Tails nodded, “It does. Everyone in the city was moved to shelters following Chaos’ defeat. The water eventually receded, but obviously there was still all the damage caused when the flood hit. City Hall and other parts of the city have been rebuilt since then, but they’re still recovering.”

Rainbow shivered, “The silence here is making me nervous. Let’s find Fluttershy and get out of here.”

Rarity asked, “How are we going to find her? She could be anywhere in this city! It could take hours to find her!”

Tails spoke up, “Maybe not.” Everyone looked at him and saw that he had pulled out his radar. He fiddled with it as he explained, “I have an idea. When we pass through the portals, I think we, briefly, pick up particles that make them up. If I can get my radar to focus on those particles, we might be able to narrow down where to look- Whoa!” The fox suddenly felt himself lifting off the ground due to a magic aura around him. He was carried over to Shining and dropped on the stallion’s back, Tails looking at him afterwards.

Shining looked back at him and said, “Keep working on that. If you can shorten our search, that would be great, but we really should keep moving.” He faced forward, “We can stick to the areas we can easily reach for now and then start to spread out until you’ve fine tuned that thing.” Tails nodded and returned to messing with his radar while the ponies began to move through the ruins of Station Square.

________________________________________


DREAM HILL ZONE


Cadance looked through the door window at Sonic, watching him roll over onto his back in his sleep. Fortunately, the earlier commotion hadn’t roused him, making her and Spike’s job of keeping him on the train much easier for the time being. She noticed the washcloth had fallen off of his head and was resting on the sheets next to him. Ever so carefully, she quietly slid the door open and used her magic to pick the cloth up and levitate it over, keeping an eye on him the whole time.

Behind her, Spike whispered, “Is he…?”

While still focusing, Cadance whispered back, “No, he’s still asleep, Spike.” When the cloth reached her, she pulled her right hoof out of her shoe and touched it. She put her hoof back in the shoe and turned to Spike afterwards, whispering, “I think we should rewet this. The warmth should help him stay asleep.” Spike nodded and the two started moving towards the train’s caboose. The sound of the door opening at the back of the car made Sonic twitch a little, but he didn’t stir.

At the moment, Sonic was completely immersed in the world of dreams. In the dream, he was in the Green Hill Zone as a slightly younger version of himself, running past the hills and stomping on Crabmeat, Buzzbomber, and Newtron Badniks, just like old times. As he made his way through the zone, though, Sonic couldn’t shake an odd feeling in the back of his mind. He was aware that it was a dream, but something about this situation felt so… familiar. He couldn’t place it, though.

Eventually, he ran through a corkscrew loop and found himself back on the green grass, running along the flat ground past waterfalls and cliffs. As he was running, though, he suddenly felt the ground shake and came to a stop, surprised. He looked up and to the left and right, but he didn’t feel any more tremors or see anything out of the ordinary. He tilted his head and held his right hand up against the side of it with the crook of his elbow in his left hand for a moment before shrugging and starting to run again. He didn’t get far, however, before he heard a noise above and behind him and stopped, turning his head up to look.

Up in the blue sky, he saw a dark purple hole, much like the one he’d seen when the party his friends had prepared had been ruined. It hung in the air as he stared up at it, turning his body to look up better. For a moment, nothing happened, but then suddenly the head of a large, shadowed dragon-like creature emerged from it. The head soon turned down to look at him, letting out a hum when it saw him. It snorted a moment later and then lunged down straight at him!

Sonic let out a snort as he came back to the waking world, his dream ending so abruptly. He looked up at the bottom of the bunk above him, taking a moment to remember where he was. His eyes moved across the bottom of the bunk for a moment, wondering if something was wrong before his eyelids slid closed again and he tried to doze off again. Before he could, he heard the snort he’d heard in his dream and his eyes opened partway, feeling a bit exasperated. He heard it again a moment later and he sighed, sitting up as he started, “All right, whoever’s crashing in here with me, would you mind keeping it…?” He stopped as he looked over at the other side of the room.

On the top bunk across from him, he saw a green dinosaur with a big snout, big eyes atop its head, brown shoes, and a white front sleeping on its side atop the sheets. He heard a hum come from its mouth and realized where the sounds in his dream must’ve come from. Sonic stared; he couldn’t tell if it had a row of fins or a red saddle on its back, but he recognized the dinosaur. “Yoshi? Where did he come from?” he wondered. Looking down, he saw that another surprise guest was using the room as well.

A young human boy with blonde hair and pointy ears was sleeping on the bottom bunk, sitting atop the pillow on the bed with his back pressed against the wall. He wore predominantly green clothes, sporting a green floppy hat on his head and a short-sleeve green tunic that had a red belt around his waist and a brown strap that ran up and over his left shoulder. He also wore a pair of brown boots that went partway up his bare thighs. Sonic couldn’t help but think of an elf as he looked at the boy’s attire. Looking down at the floor next to the bed, he saw a small sword and shield suited for a child, the sword resting in a blue scabbard against the shield, which was made of metal on the outside but had wood on the inside. Sonic saw a line of markings running across part of the shield’s inside, but he couldn’t tell what they meant.

He looked up again when he heard the child beginning to stir, no doubt due to the sounds Yoshi was making. His eyelids parted slightly before he closed them again, stretching out his arms and legs as he moaned. He then relaxed a little, raising his left hand to rub the sleep from his eyes. Once he did that, he turned his head to his right a little groggily, soon seeing Sonic looking at him. The boy’s eyes snapped open almost immediately as he looked at Sonic, his blue eyes meeting the hedgehog’s green eyes as they stared at each other. The boy’s mouth was hanging open a little bit, but neither seemed to know what to say to the other.

Just as Sonic was about to try saying hi to the boy, a bright orange-red light began shining from the back of the room, a loud noise accompanying it. Their shared gaze was broken as they both turned to look at it. They both saw a bright, glowing yellow circle on the floor, an orange-red vortex swirling within it and colored lines rising up out of it. Both Sonic and the boy leapt up after a moment, Sonic kicking the sheets off of him and getting up on one knee while the boy pushed himself onto his knees and leaned down, reaching for the sword and shield on the floor. He wrapped his left hand around the scabbard and grabbed the shield with his right hand, holding the shield up in the direction of the light as he sat up on his knees. As they watched, they began to see something beginning to emerge from the vortex…

Cadance and Spike were coming back from the train’s caboose, being just one car away when they saw the light shining out into the hallway. The two shared a glance before they started running towards it. They quickly reached the room, but as they started to peer inside, the light suddenly became much brighter, forcing the two to shield their eyes and look away, Spike dropping the washcloth on the floor as he did so. The light continued to shine brightly for several moments before it began to die down. Spike and Cadance looked a moment later and saw three figures they’d never seen before at the back of the room, between the bunk beds.


TEAM DEFENDERS ARRIVES


Lucario straightened up as he knelt down on one knee, looking around and noticing the room they were in. “This doesn’t look like a Mystery Dungeon…” he uttered as he looked to his left, confused. Pikachu and Suicune tapped him and he looked forward to see that the team was not alone, the boy, Link, still holding up his shield as he looked back at them.

Cadance and Spike stared at the three Pokémon for a moment before turning their heads to look at Sonic, the blue hedgehog still kneeling on the bed. He soon looked over at them and, upon seeing their stares, said, “Don’t look at me. I didn’t invite anyone in here.”

Pikachu stepped forward and spoke, “(Listen, I don't know who or what you guys are, but we're not bad guys! We came from far away because there's a serious problem that could turn into a huge disaster and it's somewhere here, wherever here is! Can you please help us?)”

His words were met with confused stares. Spike looked around, noticing Link for the first time as he shrugged and asked, “Am I the only one who didn’t understand anything that... mouse said?” Sonic, Cadance, and Link all shook their heads in reply.

Pikachu groaned and cried, “(Don't joke around! This is really serious! You have to help us!)”

Sonic looked at the yellow mouse and shrugged, “Seriously, we don’t know what you’re saying! It sounds like bunches and bits of ‘Pikachu’ to us!” He looked up at Lucario, the Aura Pokémon having stood up after Pikachu’s first outburst, “I understood what you said a minute ago, though.”

Cadance nodded, “So did I.” Spike and Link nodded as well.

Suicune suppressed an outward exasperated sigh, instead doing it in her head as she thought, “They must not be able to understand our tongue. I suppose that’s why Lucario recalled being so surprised when he first met Pikachu. Hopefully this will work; otherwise he will have to be the one who does all the talking for a change.” She closed her eyes and focused for a second before opening them and communicating, ~Can you understand this?~

Spike, Cadance, Sonic, and Link all looked around in surprise at that. “What was that?” Spike asked.

Sonic looked at Suicune, “Was that you?” Suicune nodded; Sonic looked at Spike and said, “He’s communicating with telepathy, Spike.”

Suicune gave him an annoyed look, ~I am a female.~

Sonic blinked and rubbed the back of his head as he said, “Oh, sorry. Your voice sounded kinda deep, so… well, this is awkward.”

Link heard some shuffling above him, so he pressed his hands down against the mattress he was on and stuck his head out, twisting it around to try to see what was above him, everyone else soon noticing what he was doing and looking up as well. On the top bunk, Yoshi was finally stirring from the commotion, blinking his blue eyes several times before he pushed his hands down against the bed and pushed himself up, rolling onto his rear. He smacked his lips a few times as he blinked drowsily, humming “Hmmm…” when he was done. Looking down, he could see Sonic from where he was and waved as he sleepily said, “Yoshi…? Yoshi. (Huh…? Oh, hey Sonic.)” Sonic raised his right hand and waved back awkwardly.

Cadance cleared her throat, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Okay, I think we should all take a step back and follow the example Tails set earlier and have someone explain just what’s going on here.”
> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. I - Station Square (b)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


SEARCHING FOR FLUTTERSHY


Tails hovered just above the ground with his spinning tails, his eyes focused on his radar as Shining and the girls followed behind him. Their search for Fluttershy was taking them further into the waterlogged ruins of Station Square, the city’s silence aside from the sounds of the water making them all nervous. Tails had managed to make the necessary adjustments to his radar to track Fluttershy’s trail, everyone using the pieces of road and bits of rubble to follow after her.

After a minute, Tails stopped spinning his tails and landed on the piece of rubble they were currently on, still looking down at his radar. Everypony looked at him as he started fiddling with his radar in silence. They were all silent for a few moments before Rainbow asked, “You good over there, Tails?”

The fox remained silent, still messing with his device. “Tails?” Applejack asked a little loudly.

After a moment, Tails sighed and shook his head, “That’s it. I can’t narrow it down any further. It’s gone cold.”

Shining asked, “What do you mean by that?”

Tails turned to look at him as he explained, “I’m not picking up the trail any more. It might still be there, but at this point, it’s probably so minute that I can’t hone in on it anymore.” He let his arms drop to his sides as he looked up and to the left, saying, “Still, we’ve come this far. We must be getting close.”

Shining sighed and glanced around, noticing the large buildings nearby. “Okay, I guess we’re going to have to move a little slower in that case. We’ll have to search every potential spot carefully for anything that could give us a clue to her whereabouts. Let’s fan out and search these buildings to start. If anyone finds anything, just yell.” After a moment, they all broke off and began searching, Applejack and Rarity sticking with Tails while Twilight went with Shining. Rainbow and Pinkie didn’t necessarily go off together, but they both searched relatively close to each other.

Despite the tension in the air around all of them, the group tried to push it out of their minds for the time being, since they knew what was on Fluttershy’s mind had to be serious for her to run away at a time like this. Shining tried to avoid looking at Twilight as they searched the lower levels of one of the nearby buildings and Rarity and Applejack tried not to talk much as Tails carried them up to the upper levels with him.

Rainbow and Pinkie Pie had relatively little trouble in keeping their minds off of what might’ve been discussed on the train as they searched. Rainbow was quickly scouting several of the buildings thanks to her speed while Pinkie was taking her time, using suction cups on her hooves to scale up the side of one building. Rainbow saw her doing this as she finished searching one of the buildings and flew over to her, saying, “You’re going to take forever doing in that way, Pinkie. I’ll be done searching the rest of these buildings for Fluttershy by the time you’re done climbing.”

Pinkie gave the cyan pegasus an unamused look, “Well, duh, of course you will! And you probably won’t find her ‘cause she’ll hear you coming and get spooked! You need to approach these things more carefully, Rainbow. That’s why I’m doing it this way.”

Rainbow crossed her forelegs, “Oh, of course. You’ve totally got the right idea with those plungers on your hooves, Pinkie. They’re so quiet that she’ll never hear you coming.”

Pinkie smiled, “That’s right! When I find her, she won’t know I’m there until I’m right next to her, because I am Equestria’s greatest detective!”

Rainbow deadpanned, “No you’re not.” She then flew away to continue searching while Pinkie resumed her climb up the building.

Meanwhile, the others were searching for their missing friend together. Shining and Twilight were checking what was likely a hotel lobby, ruined furniture littering the room along with water seeping in through the floor, forcing the two to watch their step, especially where the floor was weak. Stepping around one of the holes in the floor, Shining put his hoof by his mouth and called, “Fluttershy? Fluttershy!”

Twilight looked around, doing her best to scan with her good eye. “She must be hiding somewhere. Maybe on another floor?” Twilight wondered.

“She could be. Normally, she’d probably stick out, but with as wrecked as this place is, she’s got a lot of potential hiding places to choose from,” Shining said as he looked over at her.

Twilight looked down at a smashed coffee table, the chairs for it nowhere to be seen. “What a mess. I think this certainly makes a case for why chaos isn’t such a wonderful thing,” she sighed.

Shining replied, “Yeah, I would have to agree with you there, Twi- Twilight.”

The lavender unicorn turned to look at him, “Stop doing that, Shining.”

The stallion’s eyes widened and he glanced around nervously as he asked, “Stop doing what?”

Twilight answered, “That stopping yourself thing. Please… stop doing that.”

While they continued to talk, Tails, Rarity, and Applejack were searching through another building. Judging from the scattered desks and walls thrown around the space, it used to be an office building. Small pools of water littered the floor, which had a number of holes most likely due to water damage. While Tails was checking a nearby room, Rarity and Applejack looked around at the destruction caused in such a small space. “Goodness, this is horrible. I suppose we’re very lucky that we haven’t had to see something like this happen in Equestria… yet,” Rarity murmured.

As Tails came out of the room, Applejack nodded, “Yeah. Ah can’t imagine how long it would take to rebuild, both this city and the lives o’ the people who made it through.” She looked at Tails as he rejoined them and asked, “You said the reconstruction is still goin’ on, Tails?”

The fox nodded, “Yeah. They’ve made a lot of progress, but there’s still so much left to do. Last I heard, a number of major city areas have been rebuilt, and I’ve heard people have been returning to the city over time. At the very least, Station Square is beyond the point of being called a,” he held up two fingers on both hands and wagged them, “‘shantytown’, if you know what I mean.”

Before they could say anything, they all suddenly heard Pinkie scream, “I FOUND HER!” The loudness of her scream threw them all off, but once the words registered, they glanced at each other and ran towards the large, broken window they had entered through. On one of the upper levels of a nearby building, Pinkie was running after Fluttershy, the yellow pegasus running away due to being found. Pinkie tried to catch up with her, but the suction cups on her hooves slowed her down and Fluttershy reached an opening in the side of the building before she could catch up. The pink-maned pegasus spread her wings and flew away at a faster speed than she usually did, though Tails, Applejack, and Rarity caught sight of her flying away.

Rainbow Dash flew out of a smaller building next to the tall building, having taken longer than she should have due to knocking things over and crashing in her haste to get outside. As she shook off the throbbing in her head from crashing into a storage locker, she looked around and uttered, “Where…?”

She turned her head when she heard Tails call, “Rainbow Dash!” She saw the fox hovering some distance away above her, his left hand next to his mouth while he pointed behind him with his right hand, “She flew that way!” The rainbow-maned pony immediately shot off at that, flying after her friend while Tails and the others regrouped before following. She could still feel small spikes of pain when she flapped her wings hard, but she pushed the feeling aside to focus on getting Fluttershy back.

After about a minute of flying, Rainbow saw a pink and yellow blur disappear around the side of a moderately large building. Narrowing her eyes, she followed it, seeing it disappear around the side of another building and then cut across to another when it came back around. Rainbow stopped and watched for a moment, trying to figure out what Fluttershy was doing. “She’s trying to throw me off with this flying back and forth thing she’s doing, but if I go straight past these buildings, I should be able to figure out where she’s going next,” she decided after a moment. She then did just that, slowly flying straight instead of trying to follow Fluttershy around the sides of the destroyed buildings, looking for a chance to intercept her.

Just as she was flying past a pair of buildings close together, she heard something to her left and turned to see Fluttershy flying straight at her! She managed to flap her wings to get up out of her path and looked afterwards to see her flying away again. Rainbow narrowed her eyes again and flew after her, this time intending to stay right behind her. She soon caught up and yelled, “Fluttershy, stop it! It’s me, Rainbow Dash! Stop all this flying and let’s talk about this!” Fluttershy glanced back for a brief moment, but quickly faced forward again, flying toward some destroyed buildings and weaving in and around them to try to lose her pursuer.

Rainbow had no difficulty keeping up with her, but as they flew out of the last building, she noticed Fluttershy’s head starting to move up and down and her hooves starting to lower. After years of practicing to get into the Wonderbolts, Rainbow knew that these were signs that her fellow pegasus was starting to get tired from all the maneuvers she was doing. She didn’t have to look down to know that this was a bad place to be getting tired while flying in. There were no clouds to stop on and there weren’t a lot of places to land. If she tired herself out completely, then she would either fall in the water, on a road, or in a building, none of which sounded particularly appealing. Rainbow gritted her teeth, “Okay, I was hoping I wouldn’t have to resort to this, but I need to get her on the ground before she hurts herself.”

Rainbow came to a stop in mid-air, allowing Fluttershy to continue flying ahead of her. Thinking that her friend had given up trying to catch her, she slowed down slightly, but Rainbow had other plans. While holding herself in the air, she began flapping her wings as fast as she could, pushing through the pain coming from them as she readied herself. After a few seconds, she pulled her body back and shot straight forward with a burst of speed. She hadn’t gotten anywhere near the power it would take to perform a Sonic Rainboom from a standstill, but what she had gathered was more than enough, as she easily overtook Fluttershy, grabbing her fellow pegasus with her hooves and steering her back towards the city.

The yellow pegasus struggled in her grip, but at the speed they were going, she wasn’t able to get free. Rainbow had a firm grip on her, her hooves close to her friend’s wings to restrict their flapping and she was not about to let go. After a minute, she pushed Fluttershy down towards a building that had one side of its outer structure missing, rubble and pieces from other buildings lying below it on that side. Off in the distance on a stretch of road, Tails and the other ponies saw the rainbow streak she made as she came in for a landing on one of the building’s upper floors, all of them making their way towards it.

Rainbow landed while still flying fast, sliding for a few seconds on the wet floor before coming to a stop, pushing Fluttershy forward all the while. Fluttershy was momentarily stunned by the landing, but once it had worn off, she immediately began struggling again. Rainbow growled and wrapped her forelegs around the pegasus to keep her from running. “Stop trying to run, Fluttershy! I’m your friend, not your enemy!” Rainbow yelled.

“Let me go! I’m too dangerous to be around! I will become your enemy if I don’t stay far away!” Fluttershy cried.

“What?! What are you talking about?” Rainbow asked.

Fluttershy squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remain calm as she spoke, “You saw what happened, didn’t you? What that awful man did to Sonic? It didn’t have to happen… It shouldn’t have happened!”

Rainbow replied, “Well, yeah, I’m not going to argue with you about that, but it did happen, Fluttershy. That doesn’t really explain why you’re doing all this, though. Sonic’s a bit beat up, sure, but he’s fine; didn’t you see him? He’ll recover. So what’s the problem?”

Unfortunately for Rainbow, that last question set Fluttershy off. Her eyes shot wide open for a moment before they narrowed. “You want to know what the problem is?” she asked as she slowly turned her head back, Rainbow picking up on the anger in her voice. Fluttershy glared back at her over her shoulder for a moment before suddenly breaking out of her grip and turning around, screaming, “I’ll tell you what the problem is! The problem is that should NEVER have happened!”

Unsurprisingly, Rainbow flinched at this and stepped back slightly. “Fluttershy, c-calm down,” she stammered.

“No, I will not calm down! This is not okay! Nothing about this is okay…!” Fluttershy yelled. Fresh tears began to run down her cheeks, which were already wet from her crying earlier, “Sonic is hurt right now because of me! I take care of animals, I was chosen by the Element of Kindness, I called myself his friend! Look what kind of friend I turned out to be! I couldn’t even go in and check on him myself like I would for any other animal! I questioned him, I doubted him, and he’s the one who’s paying for it now! And why did it happen! Because I couldn’t be bothered to find out why you both pulled me away from Terios! I should’ve asked, but I didn’t, and now look! He could’ve died because of me! It’s my fault, not his!”

Rainbow held her hooves up nervously, “Okay, Fluttershy, I get it now. Are you done?”

Fluttershy answered, “No! I turned my back on a friend, an animal, something I’ve never done in my right mind since I got my cutie mark! How long will it take for me to turn on you as well?!” Were it not for the blazing anger in the yellow pegasus’ eyes, Rainbow would’ve tried to argue with her, but right now, the anger that she was on the receiving end of had left her with little to say.


LOSING IT


A few floors down, Tails and the other ponies had heard nearly everything that had been said. Although they could hear her, not having Fluttershy screaming directly in their faces meant they had a better grasp of their thoughts than Rainbow did at the moment. “Oh my… She’s far worse than we thought,” Rarity breathed.

“‘Worse’? What are ya talkin’ about, Rarity?! Ah don’t know where she got these ideas from, but they ain’t right! She’s beatin’ herself up over nothin’!” Applejack said. She looked at Twilight, “Right, Twilight?”

The lavender unicorn held a hoof to her chin, “Well, uh… I can certainly see where it’s all coming from and why she thinks that, but…”

Applejack held a hoof up to her face and lowered it as she asked, “So you’re sayin’ it’s okay fer her to be spoutin’ this nonsense?!”

Twilight cried, “I didn’t say that, Applejack! I’m just trying to rationalize this! Surely it would be easier to calm her down if we understand where it’s coming from, right?”

Applejack argued, “We don’t need ta understand where it’s comin’ from! It ain’t true! Sonic got hurt, but that’s the only thing she’s right about! He got hurt tryin’ ta help her, but it didn’t happen ‘cause she doubted him!” She looked over at Tails, “Right, Tails?” The two-tailed fox had an uneasy look on his face as he brought a finger up to his chin. He didn’t exactly have a logical argument to refute Fluttershy’s claims at the moment and looked between Shining and Pinkie, both of them also looking uneasy as they tried to come up with something. Applejack glanced up and groaned, shaking her head before saying, “Ya know what? Ah’m gonna fix this right now before she takes off on us again!” She ran over to Twilight and began running her hooves through her saddlebags.

“Hey, Applejack…!” Twilight exclaimed as she was shaken by Applejack’s rummaging. After a few moments, the orange earth pony pulled Fluttershy’s Element of Kindness necklace out.

She held the butterfly-shaped stone up for a moment before saying, “Rainbow Dash needs some help gettin’ Fluttershy ta come to her senses, and since the rest o’ y’all ain’t bein’ any help, Ah’ll do it for ya!” She turned and ran out of the room they were in, finding a staircase in the hallway outside and running up it, only bothering to make sure the stairs would take her up before she started up.

She quickly made it up to the floor and burst in on the two pegasi, finding Rainbow trying to carefully approach Fluttershy as the latter backed away. They turned their heads to look at the earth pony and Rainbow noticed how she locked her gaze on Fluttershy. “Whoa, Applejack, wait! Whatever you’re thinking, don’t do it!” the cyan pegasus said.

Applejack paid no attention to her and stomped over to Fluttershy, saying, “This has gone far enough, Fluttershy!”

The normally shy pegasus glared back at her, “Well, I’m glad somepony agrees with me!”

Applejack got up in front of her and said, “Ah don’t agree with any of anything you said about what happened in that cave! What happened ta Sonic ain’t all yer fault! Now stop spoutin’ all that nonsense!”

Rainbow ran her hooves down her face as she groaned while Fluttershy asked, “Nonsense?! So you’re saying you wouldn’t have cared if he had drowned?”

Applejack replied, “Of course Ah care what happens ta him, but that doesn’t mean Ah blame you fer what happened! Ah know better than ta do that! You’ve made mistakes before, but that’s never changed how Ah feel about you!” She held up the Element of Kindness, “And Ah think this knows to accept that mistakes happen! Why would it have chosen you otherwise?”

Fluttershy didn’t hesitate as she darkly said, “Maybe it was too quick to choose. Maybe it chose wrongly.”

The others got up to the room as Applejack shook her head in frustration. “All right, then, why don’t we let it decide again?” she asked. She got behind Fluttershy and leaned over her back, the pegasus struggling as she tried to clip the necklace on. “If it chose wrong, it should know if it’s not on the right pony, right? So let’s see how it reacts!” Applejack grunted as she tried to bring the two ends together.

Fluttershy stopped for a moment and Applejack thought she had a chance to get it on, but after a moment, Fluttershy spoke, “Get. Off. Of. ME!” On the last word, she spread her wings and threw her head back, hitting Applejack in the face and causing her to stagger back. Before she could recover, Fluttershy whirled around and flew right into her, lifting her hooves off the ground and carrying her with before she slid off and landed on the floor, her hat landing on her nose. Fluttershy kept flying, heading for an open window at the back of the room. Tails, Twilight, Shining, and Rainbow ran after her, but they were too late. By the time they reached the window, Fluttershy had already flown out and there was no sight of her.

“Well, that could’ve gone better,” Shining muttered as they pulled their heads back in.

Everyone turned to look at Applejack, the orange earth pony still lying on the floor, dazed. “Okay, Fluttershy’s Stare was impressive, but that was… that was something else. I guess I can see why she was able to hold Sonic down,” Tails commented.

Twilight glanced at him as Rainbow trotted over to Applejack and murmured, “She really is stronger than she looks. I’ve seen her wrestle bears before.”

Rainbow stood to Applejack’s left and lifted her hat off her nose with a hoof, noticing that she was starting to come to. “Nice going, Applejack. I was trying to calm her down after she stopped yelling, but you had to go and blow it!” Rainbow said.

Applejack glared up at her, “Well, Ah’m glad ya finally learned to slow down when doin’ somethin’ fer a change, Rainbow, but you couldn’t have asked fer help?!”

Rainbow argued, “I didn’t know where you guys were! I had to chase her across this city; if I took my eyes off of her, she would’ve run away again! And what about you?! Why’d you blow your stack all of a sudden?!”

Applejack snatched her hat out of Rainbow’s hoof and stood up, “Because I couldn’t stand to listen ta her beatin’ herself up like that and no one else was bein’ any help!”

Rainbow replied, “Well, so much for your point about asking for help, then! They probably did want to help, but you couldn’t be bothered to listen to them! No one offered a solution that was fast enough for you?!”

Applejack butted her head against Rainbow’s, “In case you forgot, we’re fightin’ the clock here! We got somewhere ta be!”

As the two kept arguing, everyone else stood on the side watching. “Great. Applejack was already riled up, and now she’s getting Rainbow Dash angry too,” Tails said.

Twilight sighed, “Applejack has been known to focus on a problem and try to solve it her own way. Makes what she said earlier to Sonic ring all too clear.”

Shining leaned over and whispered, “If it makes you feel any better, Twilight, I think trying to rationalize Fluttershy’s behavior beforehoof was a smart choice.”

Tails looked at the two bickering ponies for a moment more before glancing around. Suddenly he noticed something. “Hey, where’s the Element of Kindness?” he asked. Twilight and Shining looked at him and then looked around as well, neither of them seeing it either.


RETURN OF PERFECT CHAOS


Suddenly, a tremor shook the building, bringing an abrupt end to Applejack and Rainbow’s argument. Everyone looked around, Rarity asking, “What was that?!”

Twilight said, “It felt like an earthquake!”

Pinkie exclaimed, “It couldn’t have been an earthquake, Twilight! My Pinkie Sense would’ve warned me!”

Tails looked towards the opening in the side of the building with a nervous expression, “Oh, I think I know what caused that tremor…”

Shining looked at him, “What, Tails?” The fox didn’t answer, instead running over to the opening and putting his right hand on the wall next to him as he looked out. The ponies joined him and looked as well, though none of them were sure what he was looking for.

Suddenly, with a loud, echoing roar, a massive creature burst up into their view off in the distance! Although it seemed to be made of water, parts of it appeared to be solid that looked like scaly skin, especially around the head and along the sides of its body. It looked like a large dragon, even having sharp green teeth and a green tongue in its mouth, along with a few green spikes sticking out of the top of its head and a few watery spikes along its back. It had two ‘arms’ made of water that looked like tentacles stretching up from below, and when it opened its eyes, they were the same color green as its spikes and mouth, and the pupils were narrow slits, giving the eyes an almost reptilian look.

“What is THAT?!” Rarity shrieked.

“That’s…! It’s Perfect Chaos! Where did he come from?!” Twilight exclaimed.

“That doesn’t matter right now, Twilight! What matters is, what are we going to do now?!” Rainbow asked.

Tails spoke, “I think we might have to hold off on finding Fluttershy again until we can find a way to deal with him, or at least lure him away! I don’t think we’ll have much luck locating her if he’s bearing down on us! I mean, as long as everyone’s okay with that.”

Applejack looked over at him, “Ah think you’re right, Tails. Fluttershy’s scared of dragons as it is. That thing’s probably gonna scare her even more.”

Shining spoke, “Okay, let’s go with the idea that we want to try to beat it. How do we beat a creature made of water, Tails?”

The fox pointed at the top of Perfect Chaos’ head, “It might not be easy to see from here, but there’s kind of like a horn on top of his head. The horn itself is made of water, and inside it is Chaos’ brain I guess you could say. It’s the one solid part of him; no matter how many Chaos Emeralds he absorbs, that’s always located around his head. It’s the closest thing he has to a weak spot. Sonic needed to use the Chaos Emeralds’ power to fight Perfect Chaos before, but I think that was mainly because he needed their help to get up to his head. If we can reach and hit it hard enough, we might be able to defeat him without them.”

Rainbow spread her wings, “I can handle that! Just leave it to me!” Before she could take off, though, Chaos’ left eye suddenly stopped on the building where the group was and they all froze. They all had a sinking feeling that he was looking directly at them.

A few seconds later, Chaos bowed his head down and energy began to gather in his mouth. Tails remembered what was going to follow and yelled, “SCATTER!” A moment later, Chaos had finished gathering enough energy and released it as a beam from his mouth, swinging his head up while doing so. Everypony’s eyes widened and they all did as Tails said. Applejack jumped up and let the fox grab her hooves while Pinkie wrapped her forelegs around her hind legs as he flew them both away, Twilight teleported both Shining and Rarity away with her, and Rainbow Dash took off, flying around the beam as it swept up and split the building in two.

Rainbow flew down and landed on part of another building, turning her head up and back as she heard the split building fall apart, the two halves joining the rest of the ruins. Turning her head forward again, she caught her breath and narrowed her eyes. After taking a moment to take her surroundings in, she started flapping her wings again and began flying towards Chaos. She saw him unleash several energy shots from behind him and broke off, following a piece of destroyed road that went between some buildings to avoid being hit.

Chaos could see her when she flew past a gap in the buildings and created more tentacle arms, sending them after her. Rainbow noticed them coming and was reminded of the quarray eels in Ghastly Gorge. She saw the first one moving to intercept her flight path and came to a stop in midair, letting it extend past her before she flew up and over it. Several more tentacles came at her and she skillfully avoided them, no longer stopping for them. The last one nearly struck her in the side and she felt some drops of water splash onto her from behind, but it didn’t hit her.

Flying around the corner at the end, she saw a straight path to Perfect Chaos, also noticing what looked like a swirl of wind surrounding the bottom of his body. She took a moment to reevaluate her attack plan before she began flapping her wings as hard as she could, gaining as much speed as she could as she shot straight at him. When she reached him, instead of crashing into his watery body, she instead broke off to the left and began to ride the wind surrounding him up as she flew in a circle. The last time she flew past his front, she was right under his head and had gotten above him by the time she reached his back. There she got a good look at the ‘horn’ Tails had mentioned and turned to fly straight at it, bringing her hind legs up as she got closer.

As soon as her hooves went through the water and hit the glowing orb underneath, Perfect Chaos swung his head back as he let out a loud shrieking roar. Rainbow hadn’t been prepared for this and was thrown off when he reared back, the roar messing her up further. While she tried to right herself, not far away from Perfect Chaos, Tails, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie had seen what she did from the collapsed building they had landed on. “Sure sounds like that hurt him. He must not be completely invincible ta us. We might be able ta take him!” Applejack said.

“It looks like he threw Rainbow Dash off, though! She might need some help!” Pinkie pointed out.

Tails nodded, “Okay. Let’s see if we can draw his attention away from her and get a hit of our own in.” Pinkie and Applejack nodded, all three of them running down the side of the collapsed building towards Chaos, leaping across pieces of road floating in the water when they reached the bottom and making their way towards a mostly destroyed building to cut through.

As they clambered through the building, they saw through the holes and windows that Chaos was looking for Rainbow Dash. Upon seeing this, Pinkie jumped up and grabbed onto a handle that was hanging in the air, which was attached to a cable that carried her up to the top of the building. Both Tails and Applejack were confused by this, but they guessed she must’ve had something in mind when they saw her waving with a hoof, seemingly gesturing for them to keep going. Deciding to trust that she knew what she was doing, they continued onward, soon making it through the building and once again leaping across pieces of road to get closer to Chaos.

Suddenly, they heard Pinkie’s voice amplified through a megaphone, “HEY, CHAOS!” Tails and Applejack winced at the volume and covered their ears while the water creature turned to look at her at the sound of his name. “I’VE GOT SOMETHING TO SHOW YOU, AND IT’LL BRING YOU HAPPINESS!” Pinkie called. Chaos’ only response was to let out a growl.

Down below, Tails and Applejack were about to start moving again when they noticed the wind surrounding Chaos was starting to move away from him, something new coming from it. “Twisters!” Applejack exclaimed when several blue spinning funnels formed and moved away from Chaos.

Tails began spinning his tails and lifted off, holding his hand out towards Applejack as he said, “Grab on!” The orange earth pony jumped up to him once again, Tails flying away from the twisters once he wrapped both hands around her hoof. “I’ll see if I can get us above them!” he called down to Applejack as he began to ascend.

Pinkie, meanwhile, was dancing on top of the roof as Chaos watched her. She didn’t seem to be doing anything else; she just kept dancing in her usual, unusual way. Suddenly, the God of Destruction saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to look, seeing Tails flying up with Applejack. Upon seeing this, Pinkie stopped dancing and pulled out her party cannon, setting up a one second delay before she slapped a hoof down on the button and jumped into the barrel. It fired her straight at Chaos a second later, the extra strength mixture she loaded it up with shooting her all the way at him, crashing through the side of his ‘horn’ and causing him to screech before she made a perfect four point landing on a rooftop.

When Chaos turned to look where she had landed, Applejack said, “That’s our Pinkie!”

Tails began flying towards Chaos as fast as he could, noticing the twisters were starting to lose strength. “Guess it’s our turn now! Make it a one-two, Applejack!” he called, the orange earth pony nodding as she pulled a hoof free and used it to adjust her hat. Once they were close enough, just as Chaos was preparing to fire energy shots at Pinkie, Tails swung Applejack forward and let go, the earth pony flipping over once in the air before she held her hind legs out in front of her. Her hooves went through the watery exterior of the ‘horn’ and hit the glowing orb underneath, Applejack pressing off as hard as she could to jump. She managed to get up in the air before Chaos swung his head back, Tails flying to catch her as he roared in pain.

Twilight, Shining, and Rarity were watching not far away, the three having made their way closer to Chaos while looking for an opportunity to attack as well. “I think we need to buy them some time, get his attention while they slip away,” Shining said after Chaos stopped roaring from the hit.

Twilight noticed that Chaos was looking for Tails and Applejack. “This might be a good chance to get closer,” she suggested. Rarity and Shining nodded and they began making their through the ruined building again. They had to leap to another building to keep going, where they were able to get on the roof of a lower building after using their magic to bring a broken railing inside to help them over the mostly destroyed floor.

Once they got out onto the rooftop, they moved towards Perfect Chaos, stopping one building short of being right next to him. As they looked up at him, they noticed how he was moving his head all around. “How are we going to land a shot on him when he’s moving like that?” Twilight asked.

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking…” Shining muttered. Suddenly, Chaos turned around and noticed them standing there, bringing his tentacles forward to grab them. With so little time to react, Shining was only able to create a weak barrier around the three unicorns, which Chaos’ tentacles easily shattered when they crashed into it. They managed to avoid being grabbed by the tentacles, though, and they looked up to see Perfect Chaos leaning down over the building in front of him to get eye level with them, opening his mouth and roaring at them.

Once the roar had ended, Rarity up at the creature and said, “I’ve had just about enough of you and your destruction!” Ignoring Twilight and Shining’s protests, she started running towards Chaos, pressing down with her legs as hard as she could as she reached the edge to get as much lift as she could. She managed to get up to the level of his ‘horn’ and brought a hind leg up, aiming straight at it. Her hoof went through the water, but lost some speed before it hit the glowing orb. It still had an effect, though that was not a good thing as Chaos swung his head back due to the pain, sending Rarity flying.

“Rarity!” Twilight cried as her friend was thrown away screaming, but she calmed down a bit when she saw a rainbow streak flying towards the fashionista. It was at this point that she and Shining noticed that Chaos was leaning down, his body almost still. Perhaps Rarity’s attack had done more damage than they thought. Deciding to take advantage of it, the two unicorns ran to opposite sides of his head and unleashed a beam of magic at his ‘horn’, both beams hitting the glowing orb at roughly the same time and exploding, causing Perfect Chaos to rear back and shriek in pain.

As the two unicorns ran to get away from the water that started spilling down from his body, Twilight said, “I guess that works!”

Shining glanced back at Chaos as they ran, “I think he’s getting weaker, Twilight! We just gotta keep this up for a little longer!”


FLUTTERSHY'S LAST STAND


While the fight was going on, Fluttershy had flown off far away from the center of it, currently in a room in a destroyed hotel. She was sitting on the floor, the carpet underneath her wet and ruined. The Element of Kindness was resting in a chair across from her that had survived the flood somewhat, the shy pegasus having grabbed it during her brief contact with Applejack earlier. Now she seemed to be locked in a staring contest with it, as she continued to stare intently at the butterfly shape without saying anything. In her head, though, she was once again locked in discussion with the presence of Terios.

“It’s talking to you, you know. Calling you cruel, that you aren’t fit to wear it,” he taunted.

“You can hear it?” Fluttershy asked.

“Oh yeah. That is one perk I have now, the ability to pick up on these things. If it weren’t for those not-friends of yours, it’d be the other way around. You’d be in my mind and able to hear things you wouldn’t be able to,” Terios replied.

Fluttershy blinked. She guessed that she was supposed to be broken further by that comment, but she had cried herself nearly dry already, the whites of her eyes red at the periphery. There was also the fact that, after how long she’d been subject to his badgering, it was starting to lose its impact. She felt no sting from his words.

“Aw, what’s the matter? Don’t have anything to come back with? If that’s the case, why don’t you open up to me, let me in all the way. I can give you what you wanted. There’s so much we could do together, just you and me,” he said, his voice sounding smooth and welcoming. It felt like his presence was beginning to spread through the rest of her mind.

Before the feeling could get stronger, however, Fluttershy narrowed her eyes slightly, “No.”

Terios’ spreading presence came to a stop at that. “What do you mean no? Isn’t this what you wanted? To help me? To hear things you’ve never heard before?” he questioned, still trying to maintain an inviting tone.

“I don’t need your help to hear things I never have. I’m already able to hear things other ponies cannot. I can understand animals, I can sense how other ponies are feeling, I… I can use all that to help others, and not just because I wield the Element of Kindness,” she replied.

“Oh really? And what makes you think you’re special without that stupid necklace? Go on, tell me,” Terios said, his normal tone of voice returning.

Fluttershy’s eyes narrowed further, “I don’t have to tell you because you wouldn’t understand. You were nothing but a manipulator who took advantage of others and didn’t care if anyone else liked you for it. You fooled me with your words, but Lady Nimue was right. There was no hope of you changing. I see that now.” She nodded her head, “You wanted to take over my body like the Nightmare Forces did to Rarity, didn’t you? Well, now I know why they went after her instead of me. You’ve pushed too much, Terios. I hope you enjoyed your stay, because now you’re leaving.”

Terios taunted, “What, just because you said to get out, you think I’m going to? I told you; you’re stuck with me now! I’m going to keep pestering you until you either give in to me or end your life, at which point I’ll just move onto one of your other so-called ‘friends’. That’s how it’s going to work, sweetie. So what do you say now?”

Fluttershy looked at the Element of Kindness and saw the pink butterfly jewel shimmer as if in agreement with her thoughts. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to make things up to my friends after all this time listening to you, especially Sonic. And you? Don’t you worry; what I have in mind will take care of you too,” she replied, standing up with a determined look on her face and grabbing the necklace with a hoof before flying out of the hotel room.


PERFECT AFTER ALL?


Soon…

Rainbow flew up and away as Perfect Chaos threw his head back and shrieked in pain, the cyan pegasus having just delivered another blow to his weak spot. Everyone had just dealt him another hit after their earlier rounds on him and he was starting to look weak. Rainbow sure hoped he was going to fall soon as she flew back to her friends. She wanted to find Fluttershy and try to get her back to normal.

After she landed on the toppled building the others were on, Chaos let out a loud roar and they all turned to look. Suddenly, water began shooting up underneath various pieces of rubble, lifting them up into the air. Tails, Shining, and Twilight noticed that the pieces that had been lifted up formed sort of a path up to Chaos, the last few pieces just about as high as his head. “Look! He’s made almost like a path for us!” Tails said as he pointed.

“Does he want us to stop him?” Twilight wondered.

Rainbow said, “Let’s just take advantage of it while it lasts, Twilight! One more good hit ought to do it!” Everyone else nodded and they began making their way up the path, jumping onto the pieces of rubble and moving forward. As they were moving, Chaos summoned larger, more powerful energy shots and launched them at the group, destroying the path behind them. Everyone began moving faster when this started, trying to get to the end as fast as they could. Tails, Shining, and Rainbow supported the others, helping them get up to the pieces that were too high for them to jump to. Rainbow got back up near the front while the two boys brought up the rear.

When they reached the third to the last piece of the makeshift path, Chaos let out a growl and used two of his tentacles to grab the underside of the rubble, tilting it up away from him. Everyone tried to get a grip when he tilted the piece, most of them managing to use the holes in the chunk of road as spots to grab onto. Shining and Applejack even hit the road hard with their hooves to reinforce their grips.

Rainbow realized that Chaos probably wasn’t going to let go until they let go, so she began flapping her wings and flew up over the piece of rubble, heading straight for Chaos’ head. Before she could reach him, however, Chaos let out a low growl and held up all of his tentacles, using his power to create a shield around him. Rainbow crashed into the side of it, and then it suddenly expanded for a moment, knocking her back and sending the piece of rubble the others were hanging onto flying! They were all able to let go, everyone ending up back where they started no worse for the wear, but it didn’t take them long to realize the situation they were in. Perfect Chaos was staring down at them, they no longer had a path to reach him with, and even if they did, he was still protecting himself with his shield. Things were not looking good at the moment…


THE HARMONY REAWAKENS


Suddenly, Chaos let out a growl and turned to his right to look. Everyone followed his gaze and saw a yellow and pink blur flying around the buildings. They quickly realized that it was Fluttershy. At first, they thought she was flying straight at Chaos, judging by the way she was going, but she instead broke off before she crashed into his shield and flew around it, dodging around his tentacles when he opened up spots of the shield to reach for her. She maintained her speed while she flew up and down and rolled to the side to avoid the tentacles, briefly flying past where the others were before turning sharply and making an impact when she landed on the building.

“Fluttershy?! What are you…?” Twilight began. She stopped when Fluttershy stood up straight, noticing the Element of Kindness in her hoof and the look of determination on her face. Without a word, the pegasus reached up and clipped the Element around her neck, the gem giving a brief shine as she glanced at each of her Element wielding friends. It was when she looked at him that they realized what she had in mind.

Working quickly, Twilight used her magic to throw her saddlebags off to the side and then opened the pouch containing the other Elements, quickly levitating them over to their respective holders and clipping them on for them. She then levitated over the Element of Magic crown and placed it on her head, Fluttershy stepping forward afterwards and joining with her friends as they got into their usual positions, all of them staring up at Perfect Chaos.

As Tails and Shining Armor watched from the side, the six ponies closed their eyes, a brief wind blowing past them all as they began tapping into the power of their Elements. The jewels began to glow brightly as they gathered energy, each one making a shot several times in the shape of the jewels that circled around Perfect Chaos’ shield.

The water creature was not simply watching them all this time, though. After the shots from the Elements began going around his shield, he began gathering energy in his mouth to charge his energy beam. After several seconds, he dropped his shield as he finished charging his attack, unleashing the beam from his mouth. Shining had been preparing to create the strongest barrier he could to protect them, but he stopped when he saw something happening.

Immediately after Chaos’ shield had dropped, the shots from the Elements raced down to in front of where the group was, the shape of the Element of Magic being surrounded by the shapes of the other Elements, all of them gaining strength as the other shots joined together with them. Together they generated a gold protective field in the shape of a five-pronged star, all of the other Elements linking with the Element of Magic to form the field. Chaos’ energy beam hit the field and Tails and Shining covered their eyes as a bright light was generated from the impact, the beam trying to break through the field. After a couple of seconds, Chaos’ beam died down, but the field the Elements were generating was still standing.

In one quick flash, the shapes of the Elements stopped generating the field and shot back down to their holders, their power returning to the gemstones. A moment later, Twilight and her friends lifted off the ground and opened their eyes, all of them having glowing white eyes. A white light began to form above all of them as well, forming one bright white spot. A rainbow suddenly shot out of this white light, shooting up into the air and forming an arc as it redirected and shot down towards Chaos. The water creature simply stared up at it, expecting it to go through him and do nothing.

Instead of doing this, however, it changed direction once again before it hit him, instead going around him in tight circles as he watched. It went down as it went around him, forming a rainbow cocoon that only the upper part of his body was sticking out of. It began to swirl around him faster, becoming a tornado as the power of the Elements began to affect him. Chaos shook his head several times as he attempted to resist their power before he brought his head up and unleashed a loud, echoing shriek. After that, he began to sink down into the tornado as the Elements sapped his power. His body continued to sink into the water as he lost strength, the tornado twisting tighter and faster after he sank completely.

Suddenly, it fired a rainbow beam at Fluttershy that surrounded her with a couple of tight, rainbow-colored circles that went from her head to her back hooves when it reached her. Shining and Tails, being the only ones who could see this at the moment, watched curiously as nothing seemed to be happening, the rainbow tornado still spinning where Perfect Chaos had been.

In her mind, Terios could feel as the power of the Elements began to work on him, beginning to purge him from Fluttershy. “You… What have you done?!” he growled, feeling himself fading away.

Fluttershy responded, “If you can really see into my memories, then you know this isn’t the first time I’ve been aggressive towards others. I’ve managed to do it without any magic influence, but I’ve been able to return to normal thanks to my friends because I know they support me, even when I haven’t been the best friend I can be.”

Terios groaned and said, “You don’t have any friends! They’ll all abandon you! You’re worthless to them! You can’t destroy me; I’LL DESTROY YOU!”

Fluttershy calmly replied, “This is the only way your presence has made this time worse than any previous time: because you’ve forced me to do this. Twilight may have had to help me remember the first time, but this time I remembered, and since you won’t leave quietly, I have to let the Elements teach you a lesson.” Terios groaned, his presence almost completely eradicated. “There is something I want to say to you before you go, though. Goodbye, Terios, you horrid, twisted copy. I only wish you would’ve left sooner,” she said. Moments later, he let out a loud yell as the Elements of Harmony purged the last traces of him completely, white light filling Fluttershy’s mind as it shone brightly in the outside world as well.

When the light cleared, Tails and Shining looked up to see the girls floating back down to the ground, all of them touching the ground with their hooves before they opened their eyes. They saw no trace of Perfect Chaos anywhere, the God of Destruction’s most powerful form destroyed by the power of the Elements of Harmony. After a moment of silence, Shining and Tails came forward, the former saying, “You did it, girls! The Elements of Harmony totally defeated Perfect Chaos!”

Tails nodded, “That was amazing!” He then looked over at Fluttershy, “I’m not sure what happened to you just now, though, Fluttershy. What was that?”

At that, Fluttershy blinked and sat down, holding her hooves on the sides of her head while everypony turned to look at her. After a few moments, she said, “I don’t hear his voice or feel him anymore… He’s gone. He really is gone!”

Rarity asked, “Fluttershy, dear, what are you talking about?”


EXPLANATION


Fluttershy lowered her hooves and looked around at everyone before saying, “I’m very sorry about the way I’ve been acting, everyone. I… I want to say that I haven’t been in control of my actions for a while, but… that doesn’t seem like a good excuse.”

Twilight tilted her head to the side, “What do you mean, Fluttershy?”

The shy pegasus held her right hoof up to the side of her head, “Just now, what I was doing was checking to see if Terios was gone like I thought he was.”

Rainbow flew over to her friend and said, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Are you saying that creep’s been in your head all this time?!”

Fluttershy responded, “I didn’t know it was him right away. Some part of him must’ve stayed with me when I was close to him and gotten into me. At first, it was just a feeling in the back of my mind that was causing me to question what I was seeing, but then I began to hear his voice. He influenced my thoughts, started making me do things like tackle Sonic to the ground. I… I think he was trying to take control of me.”

Pinkie gasped and looked at Rarity as she asked, “You mean like with Rarity and the Nightmare Forces that messed with Luna’s head?!”

Rarity glared over at the pink pony as Fluttershy responded, “Yes. That’s part of the reason I ran away. Not only did he mess with my mind, but… he made me afraid I would turn against all of you too. I didn’t want that to happen…”

Tails spoke, “But it seems like you managed to overcome him.”

Fluttershy nodded, “Yes. This… This isn’t the first time someone else has made me act… opposite myself. But he refused to leave; that’s why I was hoping the Elements of Harmony would be able to help me.” She paused for a moment before saying, “And it seems they did.”

Applejack stepped forward and took off her hat with her right hoof, holding it against her chest as she said, “Fluttershy, Ah… Ah wanna apologize for how Ah acted earlier as well. Ta you and everyone else. Ah admit Ah got upset when Ah heard you talkin’ with Rainbow Dash and wasn’t thinkin’ straight that whole time. Ah shouldn’t have tried to forcibly solve the problem the way Ah did.” She held her hat tighter, “Can y’all forgive me?”

Fluttershy stepped forward and wrapped the earth pony in a hug, saying, “Of course I can, Applejack. That’s what sharing kindness is all about, right?” The others showed their agreement with her words by coming over and joining in on the hug. Even Shining and Tails joined in.


IT'S NOT OVER YET


The moment was interrupted when Tails felt something wet land on his nose. He blinked and looked up with a “Huh?” The others looked in his direction, but soon they felt it too. First Shining felt it, then Twilight and Pinkie Pie, and then the rest of them. They realized that raindrops were falling from the sky. As they stepped back and Applejack put her hat back on, they saw that the sky hadn’t changed, but the number of raindrops falling was quickly increasing.

“It’s raining?” Twilight asked.

“It didn’t rain after Perfect Chaos was defeated before. Why is it raining now?” Tails asked. By this point, the rain had become a steady downpour, everyone getting drenched.

Shining glanced down the side of the building at the water and said, “I don’t know, but we might want to find some cover on higher ground. If it keeps raining like this, the water level might start to rise.” Everyone agreed with him and started heading up after Twilight grabbed her saddlebags, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Tails carrying the others up when they couldn’t go any further on foot/hoof.

They ended up on the rooftop Perfect Chaos had been draped over when he leered over Shining, Rarity, and Twilight earlier, Twilight using her magic to create a large umbrella to get them all out of the rain. It was coming down pretty hard at this point, water lapping at everyone’s ankles as it rolled under the umbrella after landing. “This is really strange. What’s going on here?” Tails asked.

Rarity groaned as she danced in place, “I don’t know, but I am not enjoying this one bit! My mane is soaking wet and the roof is flooding!”

Rainbow asked, “Hey Pinkie, you got a weather report for us?”

The party pony replied, “My Pinkie Sense doesn’t work like that, Rainbow Dash!”

Twilight looked around at the city for a moment, soon seeing something else happen. “Look over there!” she said, pointing at a tall building that had been leaning forward and was now leaning backwards, getting dangerously close to falling over. As they all watched, more buildings, whether they were big or small, began to get pushed, as if something was crashing into them.

“What the hay is goin’ on now?” Applejack asked.

“I think there’s something over there,” Fluttershy murmured.

“It looks like it’s coming this way!” Shining realized. Indeed, with the way the buildings were being pushed about, it seemed as though it was heading in the group’s direction.

When whatever it was got closer, its direction seemed to change slightly, as the path of moving buildings and rubble changed so that it was going to the side of where the group was. As it moved past a spot that was clear of buildings, the group saw a large shadow under the water, its shape looking similar to a whale of sorts. They all watched with bated breath as the shadow seemed to get bigger, everyone realizing it was coming up. Seconds later, it burst out of the water and everyone stared and gasped in shock at what they saw.

As it leapt out of the water and soared through the air like a majestic bird, everyone saw that it did indeed resemble a whale, but not any whale any of them had ever seen. Its large body was supported by two big pectoral fins that had four white square-shaped nails at their ends along with a short tail that had four trailing parts, two on each side with the inner ones being shorter than the outer ones. Its body was a deep blue color save for its chin stretching past its black and yellow eyes and spikes on both sides, two oval-shaped spots above each eye, and two spots on its dorsal fins, all of which were white in color. It had red lines running around its dorsal fins, on its pectoral fins, and going around the front of its face. And what the group wasn’t able to see from where they were was what appeared to be a large puddle of water clinging to the underside of the outer right trailing part of the creature’s tail, its color the same as Perfect Chaos’…
> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. II - Crisis City (a)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


RETURN TO THE DARK FUTURE


Sonic, Cadance, Spike, Lucario, Pikachu, Suicune, Link, and Yoshi stood on the edge of a rocky cliff looking at the land before them. Overhead, thick black clouds filled the sky, blocking out the rays of the sun. Not too far away, they could see a modern human city below, the only real notable landmark in what was otherwise a bleak landscape. If one could see only the silhouette of the city off in the distance, they might think the city stood as a stark contrast to the land around it, but they wouldn’t have to get too close to see that it fit in quite nicely with its surroundings. Even from where they were standing, the group could see that its buildings were on fire and had been destroyed to varying degrees, a number of them no longer standing upright.

~So this is the world you live in?~ Suicune asked Sonic as she continued to look out at the ruined landscape. Lucario and Pikachu stood at her left side, both of them remembering a time when they had been in a ruined world shrouded in eternal darkness. Although this world seemed brighter than the world they had seen, it nonetheless brought back memories of that brief time, memories of darkness and fear.

Sonic shook his head, “It can’t be my world, not in my time anyway. I’ve never seen a city like this, and I’ve been all over the world.”

Spike nodded, “Yeah, and we’ve been in all sorts of different places in your world today, Sonic. None of them looked anything like this, except for that volcano place.” He held a claw to his chin, “Do you think they could be in the same dimension or whatever?”

Sonic looked down at the baby dragon, “Maybe, Spike.”

Yoshi looked over, Link looking at him as he said, “Yoshi! Yoshi yosh yoshi? Yoshi! Yosh yoshi. (Hey! You know what it could be? The future Silver came from! This kind of looks like the world he once mentioned.)”

Sonic pointed at him, “That could be it, Yoshi. This and the place Spike mentioned could both be in a world that hasn’t happened yet, one that could still be prevented.”

Lucario glanced down and murmured, “Much like the world we hailed from…”

Pikachu looked up at him worriedly and asked, “Pi pika? Pikachu?”

Lucario looked down at him, “I’m fine, Pikachu, don’t worry.” He looked up, “We should go investigate that ‘city’.”

Cadance looked at him and asked, “Do you think Groudon could be down there, Lucario?”

The Aura Pokémon stood up straight and closed his eyes, the locks on the back of his head beginning to shake as he focused. After a few seconds, he lowered his paw and opened his eyes, saying, “We’re still too far away for me to be able to sense it clearly, but I do believe that’s where the Aura I sensed is coming from. It could be from Groudon, or it could be that it’s inhabited. I won’t know until we get closer.”

Suicune looked towards the city again as she said, ~With the clouds covering the sky there, I would say he couldn’t be there, but it may be that he hasn’t been awakened by what’s going on. Normally when he’s awake, the sunlight becomes harsh and clears the skies due to his power. If he hasn’t been awakened yet, that would make it harder to find him, but easier for us to get him back to where he belongs when we do.~

Cadance nodded, “Then let’s not waste any time. Let’s see if we can find this Groudon, and hopefully if the others came here, we’ll find them while we’re searching as well.” Team Defenders, Sonic, Spike, Yoshi, and Link all nodded in agreement. Yoshi let Link sit on his saddle and Cadance lowered her body to allow Spike to easily climb onto her back. Once they were both situated, everyone began making their way down the cliff, following the rocky paths and jumping down when there wasn’t too far a drop. It wasn’t long before they reached the bottom and began making their way across the barren plains towards the city, Cadance flying while everyone else ran.

While running, Sonic thought to himself, “I know Cadance is going to be keeping an eye on me to make sure I don’t overexert myself, but I gotta be ready to recognize when I’m hitting my limit too. I’m still not a hundred percent, but I can’t just sit by after that whole explanation earlier, especially if Tails, Shining, and the girls could be in danger. Man, of all the things I’ve woken up to, I think I might just have a new winner…”


MEET AND GREET


Flashback

Sonic, Cadance, and Spike sat on the edge of the bed Sonic had been sleeping in while Link and Yoshi sat on the edge of the bed across from them. The members of Team Defenders had spread out a little, Pikachu on top of the bed adjacent to Sonic, Spike, and Cadance while Lucario leaned against the bedposts of the two beds with his arms crossed. On the other side of the room, Suicune was lying down next to the back bunks, her legs pulled up underneath her. They had already gone around the room introducing themselves, with Sonic helping Yoshi and Lucario helping Pikachu, and now they were getting down to business.

“You all come from the world of Pokémon?” Cadance was asking. Lucario and Pikachu nodded in reply.

“What’s a ‘Pokémon’? Are there more just like you three?” Spike shrugged.

Lucario replied, “Not quite. ‘Pokémon’ does not refer to a single species; it can be used like that, but it generally refers to hundreds of different types of similar yet very different creatures.”

Sonic tilted his head, “Hundreds?”

Lucario nodded and said, “The Expedition Society in our world is still trying to complete a map of the world and report on all the different species of Pokémon, but last time I checked, over seven hundred different species have been identified in the world.”

Spike’s jaw fell open, “Over seven hundred?! That’s… That’s crazy! Who can keep track of that many?!”

Lucario replied, “It is a large number. Perhaps the Expedition Society will eventually make a reference that any ‘mon that wants to learn more can access.”

Sonic asked, “What about, like, besides Pokémon? What else lives in your world? You ever heard of humans?”

Lucario flinched for a moment at that question, but he replied, “There are legends about humans in our world. Some regions of the world even have old ruins left behind by humans. It’s likely that humans all died out or otherwise disappeared a long time ago.” He looked over at Link, “You’re a human, aren’t you?”

The boy took a breath in as he opened his mouth to reply, but he was interrupted when Pikachu spoke up, “Pikachu pika? Chu pika, pi pika. Pikachu pika?”

Lucario turned his head to look at him and said, in a slightly irritated tone, “That’s not relevant to this conversation, Pikachu! There’s only one part of that that I still think about, and it’s certainly not that! There’s no need to talk in great detail about that.”

Pikachu looked up at him with a saddened expression, one of his ears drooping. “Pika?” he asked. Lucario raised his right paw to his neck and made a swiping motion, telling the Mouse Pokémon to drop the matter.

“What are you two talking about?” Sonic asked.

Lucario turned to look at the blue hedgehog, his arms falling at his sides as he glared slightly, “Personal matters. It’s none of your business.” Sonic raised an eye at that, but didn’t comment on it further.

Before anyone else could say anything, Suicune cleared her throat and, when everyone turned to look at her, telepathically said, ~I am pleased that you brought up the matter of legends, Lucario, because that is exactly why we left our world and ended up here.~

Sonic raised an eye, “You… came here to look for humans?”

Suicune refrained from rolling her eyes and explained, ~Like Lucario said, there are many species of Pokémon that inhabit our world, some rarer than others. Some are less populous in certain parts of the world while others are harder to find in general. In the case of a Pokémon that is known to others as Legendary, such as me, there are no others, or if there are, they’re incredibly rare.~

Yoshi asked, “Yoshi yoshi? (What makes you different from other Pokémon, Suicune?)”

Suicune looked at him blankly, so Sonic clarified, “He wants to know why you have a Legendary status, Suicune.”

Suicune nodded and explained, ~Long ago, I was once a different Pokémon. I don’t remember what I was, but I remember that my life came to an end in a fire. But that was only the end of one life; the great phoenix Ho-Oh, with her sacred flames, gave me and two other Pokémon who had died a new life as new Pokémon. I became Suicune, the embodiment of the north wind. I was blessed with a long life and new powers. One such power is the ability to clean any body of water simply by touching it.~

Cadance said, “I see. I’m sure your other powers are equally as amazing, Suicune, but that sounds like a wonderful power to possess.”

Sonic asked, “Any chance I could convince you to come to the Oil Ocean Zone and clean that water up?” Suicune stared at him, an unreadable expression on her muzzle. “Relax, I’m just kidding,” Sonic shrugged.

Suicune replied, ~I’m afraid this is not a good time to joke. The reason I’ve brought up Legendary Pokémon is because two of them have gone missing from our world – Groudon and Kyogre.~

Spike asked, “What are they known for?”

Lucario spoke, “They’re more mythical than some Legendary Pokémon. The myths say that long ago, they were the ones who brought about the existence of the land and sea. Groudon, with his ability Drought, intensified the sun’s rays and created the land. Kyogre, with his ability Drizzle, called forth heavy rainstorms and created the seas. They were opposites, and as opposites, they came into conflict with each other, battling across the two domains they had created.”

Cadance’s eyes were wide. “Two Pokémon were responsible for your world’s dry land and oceans? Wow…” she said in wonder.

Sonic crossed his arms, “You said they were both guys. You sound like you know them.”

Lucario gave a slight smirk, “Well, that’s because we do.”

Spike asked, “You do?! So why were you talking all mythical just now?!”

Lucario replied, “Those are the tales that most ‘mons know, but Pikachu and I have met them before. See, we’re Exploration Team Defenders.” He tapped the badge on the Treasure Bag with his paw, “We travel around the world, exploring locations and taking various jobs. Over the course of our adventures, we have actually encountered Kyogre and Groudon and convinced them to help us from time to time.” He gestured to Suicune, “Suicune was a slightly different case. She had posted a job for us and agreed to help out after we completed it.”

The Aurora Pokémon spoke, ~At first, I was against the idea of those two being on any team together. I have witnessed a time when they had been awakened long ago and saw the aftermath of their ‘sibling rivalry’ as it were. It is not that they hate each other, but their rivalry is so fierce that it is very difficult to calm them when they become enraged at each other. Over time, though, I began to see them become more docile around each other, being able to tolerate being in the other’s presence. They’re still prone to bouts of rage, but things have changed between them.~


THE SITUATION


Cadance asked, “You said that they’re missing, right? What happened?”

Suicune started, ~We Legendary Pokémon have something of a connection with one another. Not that long ago, I was contacted by Dialga and Palkia, the guardian deities of time and space in our world. They said that both time and space were beginning to disappear, being devoured in a way. They could not pinpoint the cause, but unlike previous times where time and space have been in danger, they believed they knew where the problem was originating from.~ She looked around the car, ~Wherever we are now, this is where they believe the problem lies.~

Sonic turned to look at Spike and then Cadance, “In that case, I think we’re already well aware of what the problem is.” Cadance and Spike both nodded in reply.

Yoshi asked, “Yoshi yoshi? Yosh yoshi? (You guys know what’s going on? Why didn’t you tell the rest of us?)

Sonic replied, “We were going to get to it after they were done, Yoshi. They kind of steered where this meet and greet was going.”

Cadance spoke, “This talk about time and space being destroyed, or devoured as you put it… it happens to sound like what our worlds have gotten caught up in. There’s a creature of some sort that has appeared both here in Equestria and in Sonic’s world that is responsible for this.”

Lucario asked, “You’re not all from the same world?”

Cadance replied, “No. From what I understand, this creature is capable of tearing holes in time and space, and because it opened a rift between our worlds, they’re both being affected by its actions. Sonic, my sister-in-law Twilight, Spike here, and all of their friends have been working all day to repair the damage done and keep it from getting worse.”

Spike added, “Yeah, we’ve been jumping through portals leading to different parts of Sonic’s world or Equestria and doing whatever it takes to either close them or bring life back to the areas. At the moment, we’re on our way to Canterlot, which is where we think that creature might be.”

Suicune spoke, ~I see… I’m afraid that confrontation will have to wait. As much as Dialga and Palkia would like to have time and space restored to normal as soon as possible, the potential danger posed by Groudon and Kyogre’s disappearance is too great at the moment, especially if they have ended up somewhere in one of these two worlds.~

Sonic asked, “I’m gonna go out on a limb and say you’re not just saying that because their land and sea making powers could be wreaking havoc somewhere, right?”

Suicune nodded, ~You would be correct. It is not intentional, but as I’ve said, their fighting when they lose control of their tempers tends to result in massive damage wherever they’re fighting. That would be bad enough, but imagine what other kind of damage they could cause when time and space are in danger of falling apart around them.~

Spike shivered, “I don’t think I need to imagine that. With the power to create the land and the sea, they would probably end up destroying everything we’ve been trying to save.”

Cadance asked, “I was wondering, how did they disappear, exactly?”

Lucario answered, “When we met with Dialga and Palkia earlier, they said they both felt a disturbance in their respective domains and went to investigate. They both said they witnessed a black hole open underneath both Legendary Pokémon and swallow them up without a trace. It’s only because of their mastery over time and space that they can still sense their presence.”

Spike commented, “Sounds like you didn’t need any extra convincing when you heard that.”

Lucario replied, “I like to think that one tends to take things said by guardian deities seriously, especially when, in the past, that one has had to deal with said deities in a state of uncontrollable rage.”

While Spike considered that, Cadance looked over at Yoshi and Link and said, “I wonder if the same thing happened to you two as well, and that’s how you ended up here.”

Yoshi crossed his arms, looking a bit upset as he replied, “Yoshi! Yoshi yosh yoshi! (I hope so! I had just eaten a delicious lunch and was enjoying a nice nap before I woke up here!)”

Sonic gave him a sympathetic smile before looking at Link and asking, “And the last thing you remember before all this is stopping under a tree in the middle of your travels to get some rest, right?” The boy nodded in response.

Suicune spoke, ~The rift between your two worlds must be widening if these holes you’ve described are starting to open in other worlds. It could also be partly related to Kyogre and Groudon’s disappearance.~

Sonic asked, “And that’s why your deities sent you here to deal with this, right?”

Lucario nodded, “Correct. This is something our team in particular is used to resolving. To get us here, they combined their powers to create a Magnagate that had the power to travel across time and space. Magnagates, at least the ones that are stable, tend to send travelers straight to a destination, but I guess in this situation, this is as close as they could manage to get us.”

Pikachu looked up at him and asked, “Pika Pikachu?”

Lucario looked down at him, “Well, we can certainly hope that they’ll send him along if he does show up, Pikachu.”

Spike raised an eye, “What are you two talking about now?”

Lucario looked over at the baby dragon, “Right, sorry. We were actually supposed to have a fourth member with us for this, but the Pokémon we asked for help… He’s an interesting case to say the least.”

Cadance asked, “How so?”

Lucario rubbed the back of his head with a paw, “Well, it’s not any fault of his for him being the way he is, I’m not blaming him for that, but even though he’s a member of our team, he doesn’t exactly have the best assembly record at the moment. Sometimes he’s nowhere to be found, sometimes he’s there whenever we need him, and other times he isn’t quite there or he’s a late arrival. He just happens to be a bit…” He took his paw off of the back of his head and held it in front of himself, shaking it up and down and side to side a bit.

“Inconsistent?” Cadance suggested.

Lucario pointed at her, “That’s the word I was looking for, thank you.”

Suicune stood up, ~Well, now that all of you are caught up, I believe we should be going. We have two missing Legendaries to track down after all.~

Before she could move, Spike spoke up, “Hey, wait! Maybe there’s something we could do to help you guys with this.”

While Suicune glanced over at him, Cadance loudly whispered, “Spike!”

The Aurora Pokémon said, ~I would suggest you listen to her. Considering how much of our time you’ve all wasted, I don’t see how you could possibly help us.~

Sonic, Spike, Yoshi, and Link all gave her annoyed looks at that. Seeing this, Lucario spoke, “You’ll have to forgive her for being so blunt. She gets like that when she’s really serious.” He looked at Sonic, Spike, and Cadance, “We would be grateful for any help that you can provide.” Pikachu nodded with a supportive “Pikachu!”

Cadance thought for a moment before saying, “Well, we might be able to point you in the right direction.” She gestured towards the front of the train, “After we dealt with a portal in our path earlier, our friend Tails picked up another one further up that one of my sister-in-law’s friends may have gone into.”

Sonic interrupted, “Why are you just mentioning this now, Cadance?!”

The pink alicorn gave him a stern look, “Because I knew if you knew, you would take off after them without a word.”

Sonic continued to look at her, “So?”

Cadance answered, “So you’re still healing, Sonic! You can’t go anywhere right now!” Sonic let out a groan and shook his head. Cadance looked back at the Pokémon, “Tails said that the portal seemed unstable. After hearing all this, it may be possible one or both of the Pokémon could be on the other side of that portal.”

Suicune nodded, ~I see. Thank you. If we see your friends, we will tell them to return to you. This situation is ours to handle now.~ She started to move towards the door, but Link and Yoshi suddenly slid off their bed and got in front of her, looking at her. She looked back at them, ~Move out of my way.~ Despite projecting an authoritative tone into their minds, the two didn’t back down. Suicune quickly noticed her teammates were not moving to support her and glanced to her left to find out why.

Lucario was looking down at Sonic with his left paw on his chin and his right paw under his left elbow. “You say he needs to heal. Is he sick? He doesn’t appear to be injured,” the Aura Pokémon noted.

Cadance looked at Sonic closer at that and saw that, while they were still there, many of his wounds were much less noticeable. “Well, yes, he does appear to be better now, but he was badly hurt earlier. He got knocked unconscious and could’ve drowned,” she explained.

“Yeah, well, that nap did wonders! I feel great now!” Sonic argued.

Lucario glanced over at Yoshi and Link and saw how they were blocking Suicune. When they looked over at him, he recognized the looks on their faces. It was clear to him, even without reading their Auras, that they had felt slighted by Suicune’s comment and wanted to prove that they weren’t useless. It was a look both he and Pikachu had made plenty of times during their early days as an aspiring Exploration Team.

He took his paw off of his chin as he glanced at Suicune and said, “You know, Suicune, maybe they could help us further.” At the Aurora Pokémon’s incredulous look, he clarified, “I’m sure we could handle whatever we find like we always do, but these three, while they’ve been trying to save their worlds, have been aiding Dialga and Palkia’s efforts to maintain time and space with their own efforts. Whatever it is they do, they can probably help us, especially if Groudon and Kyogre are awake and angered. And these two… they haven’t said much about what they’ve done, but I sense an unusual Aura from both of them. If they would like to accompany us as well, I would be glad for the opportunity to learn more about what they can do.”

Suicune glanced between him and Pikachu a few times before looking at Sonic, Spike, and Cadance and then at Yoshi and Link. Seeing the looks on all of their faces, she sighed, ~I understand what you are saying, Lucario, but it is ultimately their choice, not ours.~ Both Link and Yoshi gave affirmative cries at that, indicating they were on board.

Sonic turned to Cadance and said, “Come on, Cadance, I swear I’m feeling better now. I won’t pass out on you! You know I can’t just sit by when there’s trouble.”

Cadance softened her gaze, “I do know that.” She took her right hoof out of its shoe and placed it on his forehead. She lowered it after a moment and said, “Your temperature seems to be back to normal now, so I guess that nap did help. …We can go with and help on one condition.” Sonic and Spike looked at her questioningly at that. “I will be keeping a VERY close eye on you the entire time. If you look like you’re about to collapse at any time, I will stop you and all three of us will come back here without another word, is that clear?”

Sonic held his hands up, “Crystal clear.” He then swung his hands down to clap with Spike, both of them excited at finally getting the chance to do something other than wait.

Suicune gave an internal sigh. This was becoming more complicated than it needed to be, but she knew she couldn’t go back on her word now. ~Very well. We shall give this a try.~ she said. Everyone got up at that, Link picking up his sword and shield and putting them on his back.


TIME TO GET MOVING


Sonic, Cadance, and Spike led the way out of the room into the hallway. Yoshi, Link, Lucario, and Pikachu had no trouble following them, but Suicune, due to her larger size, had to do a bit of twisting and squeezing to get her body out of the room. It got worse when they headed toward the front of the train and reached the door leading to the next car over. After everyone else jumped down on the right side, they turned to look and noticed that Suicune appeared to be stuck, the Aurora Pokémon having difficulty twisting her body around in the smaller space. ~Accursed door frames… Hasn’t anyone heard of making these things bigger?~ she groaned as she kept  trying to get herself out.

Lucario looked over at the others and held his left paw up beside his mouth as he murmured, “It’s a good thing she joined up with us after we graduated. Getting her down to dinner in the guild would’ve been a nightmare.” He was blasted with a stream of water a moment later, the force not strong enough to push him into mountainside but enough to have him burbling.

Everyone looked up at Suicune and saw that the water was coming from her. She stopped after a few seconds and gave the Aura Pokémon an irritated look, ~I heard that, Lucario.~ She resumed trying to pull herself out, managing to get half of her body out, though she didn’t have much space to get the rest of herself out. She was about to reach a paw forward and slide the door in front of her open to get a little more room, but Yoshi suddenly stepped forward and opened his mouth, his long lizard-like tongue shooting out and coming into contact with Suicune’s neck just under her head. She looked down at it. ~What…?~ was all she could manage before Yoshi’s tongue retracted, pulling her with it.

The action pulled Suicune completely out of the doorframe, but she ended up with her head inside of Yoshi’s mouth. While everyone else, aside from Sonic, was shocked by this, Lucario and Pikachu were less than pleased with what they were seeing. “What do you think you’re doing?!” Lucario yelled even though Yoshi wasn’t able to respond. Despite her head being in someone’s mouth, Suicune didn’t struggle; instead, as everyone watched, Yoshi’s belly began to bloat from her spraying water down his throat. It didn’t take long for the two to pull away from each other, Suicune pulling her head out of his mouth.

While Yoshi turned away and pressed his hands down on his stomach to force the water back up his throat, Suicune used a paw to wipe the saliva off of her face before turning to glare at the green dinosaur. ~What were you hoping to accomplish with that action?~ she questioned. Yoshi didn’t respond since he was still spraying the excess water out of his mouth.

Sonic spoke up, “Hey, he was just trying to help!”

Suicune turned to look at him, ~I would hardly call him pulling my face into his mouth helping.~

Sonic held his hands up, “Will you relax? Yeah, he does have a big appetite sometimes, but he still has his limits. I’m pretty sure you’re too big for him to swallow whole.”

Suicune gave him an annoyed expression, ~Is that supposed to be a joke at my expense?~

Sonic put his hands behind his head as he replied, “No, I’m just saying there’s probably no chance you would’ve ended up in an egg.” Everyone gave him an odd look at that.

After Yoshi finished expelling the water, he came over to the others and Suicune turned to look at him. ~I thank you for trying to help, in your own way, but if you know what’s good for you, you’ll keep that tongue far away from me from here on out,~ she stated. Yoshi nodded in reply and the group began moving in the direction of the portal to Station Square.

It didn’t take them long to find the portal, still open off to the side of the train tracks and the image on it still unclear, but as they got closer, they realized that there was another portal open nearby, this one floating above the middle of the tracks. Like the portal to Station Square, the image of its destination was flickering and unclear. “Are these those ‘portals’ you mentioned?” Lucario asked as the group came to a stop near them.

“Yes, but… Tails didn’t say anything about there being a second portal,” Cadance replied.

Yoshi looked at Sonic, “Yoshi yosh, yoshi? (Must’ve opened up after they left the train, huh?)

Sonic shrugged, “I guess so.” He looked forward, “So… which one should we check?”

Cadance shook her head, “I don’t know. I didn’t see what Tails’ radar. It probably showed the location of the one he picked up on.”

Lucario stepped forward, “Let me try something.” He stopped when he was about halfway between both portals and held his right paw up in front of him as he closed his eyes. As everyone watched, a blue flame suddenly appeared from his paw, surrounding and billowing around it.

Everyone except his teammates stared in surprise at this. “What is that? Is he able to create fire with his mind?” Spike asked.

~That is his Aura, young one. It is an energy field produced by all living beings. Lucario and his pre-evolved form, Riolu, are very sensitive to it and can utilize it in different ways, such as being able to sense it like he’s doing now,~ Suicune explained.

Sonic scratched his head, “Uh, ‘pre-evolved’? What does that mean?” Cadance and Spike also looked confused by the term while Yoshi looked over but didn’t seem as curious and Link wasn’t really familiar with it.

Before Suicune could explain, Lucario opened his eyes and turned, running back over to the others and saying “I’m detecting a stronger presence coming from that portal.” He pointed to the portal open above the tracks.

Cadance asked, “What do you mean by that, Lucario? Do you sense Groudon and Kyogre, or…?”

The Aura Pokémon replied, “I could not hone in very well from here, but I was able to sense, very faintly, the presence of Aura on the other side of that portal. The other one, I wasn’t able to sense anything.”

Sonic asked, “So it’s probably more likely that your missing Legendaries and our friends are in the livelier one, right?”

Lucario nodded, “That is my guess.”

As they all started moving towards the portal, Cadance thought to herself, “Oh, I really hope Shining, Twilight, and the others haven’t encountered Kyogre and Groudon yet.”

End flashback


ARRIVAL AT CRISIS CITY


As the group approached the city, they started to notice more cracks running across the ground as well as holes that steadily became deeper as they got closer. By the time they reached the city limits, there were steep drops that went down far below the ground around the city. As they searched the area for a spot where they could get into the city without too much difficulty, they looked down to see lava flowing far beneath them. “So much destruction… How did this happen?” Lucario wondered aloud as he looked up at the buildings.

Cadance looked at Sonic, “Do you have any idea at all what could’ve caused this, Sonic?”

While looking up at the burning buildings, Sonic replied, “Well, at first, I thought maybe we’d ended up in the Ifrit’s dimension. There was a city like this there, but I think it was smaller. So I’m starting to think Spike called it earlier. In that case, maybe that Iblis creature we fought is responsible for this.”

Spike nodded as he looked down at one of the fissures while still riding on Cadance’s back, “Yeah, a giant lava worm like that would probably have no problem digging through rock and making all of these holes.”

Cadance looked back and asked, “Spike, you mentioned it was a volcanic region, correct? When did you go to that place?”

Spike held a claw to his chin, “Uh…” He looked at Sonic, “What was that place where we stopped for something to eat, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Chun-Nan.”

Spike nodded, “Right, that place. You and Shining Armor joined us after we’d finished finding Vector and Big Macintosh, so that volcano place was the last place we went to before we went there.” Cadance was still a little confused, but she nodded, deciding now might not be the best time to ask a lot of questions.

Suicune looked over at Lucario and asked, ~Can you sense any trace of Groudon, Lucario?~

The Aura Pokémon held up his right paw and a blue flame surrounded it. “No, but I am detecting a great number of Auras within the city’s walls. From what I can sense, they’re not very friendly. We’ll have to be on our guard once we enter,” he replied a moment later.

Suddenly, Yoshi came to a stop and pointed straight ahead, “Yoshi!” Everyone looked and saw he was pointing at a sizable chunk of rock that extended over one of the fissures into the city. They all saw what he was thinking and moved towards it, making their way up the sloped part of it on their side once they reached it. Lucario, Pikachu, Suicune, and Yoshi were able to climb up it quickly while the others went a little slower, Sonic due to Cadance and Spike being close behind him and Link because he had to climb a little slower due to the rough terrain. Upon getting to the top, they were able to use the rock as a makeshift bridge to cross into the city.

After a short walk, they came to a stop on a ledge surrounded by the large buildings overlooking some of the toppled buildings and damaged roads. Sonic glanced around, “Well, we’re in the city. What now?”

Lucario closed his eyes and focused his Aura, his locks shaking as he scanned the area. After several seconds, he opened his eyes and said, “I don’t sense Groudon… but my sight has cleared up somewhat. It may continue to clear if we go further.”

Cadance looked down, noting that the toppled building below was angled upward, forming a bit of a slope. “Well, until we can get a better idea of where to go, we can start by following this… makeshift road and see where it goes. We’ll have to watch our step, of course, but it seems like a good starting point,” she suggested. Nobody else really had any ideas at the moment, so they all agreed with her idea.

Before they could start moving, they all heard an explosion from the building to their right and turned to look. Looking up, they saw a chunk of the outside of the building falling from one of the upper floors, the burned piece crashing down onto the piece of the rock they were standing on and breaking apart. Thankfully, they weren’t close to where it had landed. “Whoa, that could’ve been dangerous,” Spike breathed.

~This rigid jungle is not natural. It was made by means I am unfamiliar with, and it is currently structurally unsound. I would not be surprised if that continues to happen,~ Suicune said.

Lucario nodded, “So we’ll have to watch our surroundings as well.”

As Yoshi looked over at the broken pieces, he noticed that some brown pieces of metal had come off of the inside that were rectangular in shape and looked big enough to support a person. He turned to Sonic and asked as he pointed with his right thumb, “Hmm? Yoshi… yoshi yoshi, yoshi? (Hey Sonic? Those brown pieces… we might be able to use them, don’t you think?)”

Sonic looked over at the pieces he was pointing at for a moment before turning his head to look down at the building below. He thought for a moment before nodding, “Yeah… yeah, we should be able to get down a little quicker if we use those.” He looked back at the green dinosaur, “Good thinking, Yoshi!”

Spike looked confused, “What, what did he say, Sonic?”

Sonic turned to look at the baby dragon and asked, “You remember when we had to get away from all those police cars after we saw what the ARK was capable of, Spike?” The baby dragon thought for a moment before nodding when he remembered what Sonic was referring to. “Well, Yoshi’s idea is to do what you and Scootaloo did so that we all have a little fun,” he said.

~This is hardly the time for having fun,~ Suicune glared.

Sonic looked at her, “This is all new to you, isn't it?” While they were talking, Yoshi ran over to the broken piece of building and gathered up some a couple of the brown pieces he had been looking at. He then ran back to the others and gave Lucario, Sonic, and Link a piece, keeping one for himself.


INTO THE BURNING CITY


Lucario stared at the brown piece in his paws with a raised eyebrow, turning it over and around a few times in confusion. “What am I supposed to do with this?” he asked after a couple of seconds.

Sonic and Yoshi looked at him while holding their pieces in both hands, the former saying, “Observe.” They both faced forward and backed up a bit before running forward, jumping when they reached the edge and putting their pieces under their feet while they were in the air. As soon as they landed on the side of the building, they immediately began sliding down it, their makeshift snowboards making sparks as they slid.

The Pokémon seemed surprised by this while Link seemed amazed more than anything. “Yeah, Scootaloo and I did do something like that since she had her scooter!” Spike said.

Cadance spread her wings and flapped them a bit to hover above the ground as she called, “Sonic, wait up!” She then flew after him and Yoshi, Spike still smiling as he held onto her.

With a nod, Link went next, jumping when he reached the edge of the ledge and putting his piece underneath him before he landed, imitating what he saw Sonic and Yoshi do as well as pulling his small sword out of its sheath and holding it in his left hand as he followed after them. Lucario closed his eyes and shook his head afterwards, opening his eyes a moment later and saying, “Let’s catch up with them.” He looked down at Pikachu, “Climb on, Pikachu.”

The yellow mouse nodded, “Pika!” He climbed up the right arm Lucario offered him and perched himself on the Aura Pokémon’s shoulder as he followed the others’ example, his right shoulder pointing forward as the two began sliding down. Suicune followed them after a moment, making big leaps down the metal and glass slope instead of running.

Although he had a little trouble keeping his balance at first, Lucario was able to get the hang of it and was soon able to steer his board well as he slid down. He leaned forward and back to maneuver around the standing buildings and geysers of flames that would shoot up in places after a small explosion. Suicune followed close behind, leaping from one spot to the next as he and Pikachu went down, all of them noticing more parts of the buildings around them breaking off or exploding at points.

When they went down a mangled part of the outer wall of a building, they saw Link beginning to slide down a section of street that had been warped into a half pipe. Suicune leapt up onto the left side and ran atop it, somehow able to keep her footing on such a tight strip. As she ran, she saw Sonic, Cadance, Spike, and Yoshi close together about halfway down the street and was relieved to see that they hadn’t fallen too far behind. Out of the corner of her vision, however, she noticed some bird-like creatures made of magma appear out of thin air from bursts of fire. Were it not for the bits of solid rock that stuck out of their body as well as other small differences, she might have thought of them as little Moltres offspring. They flew down the road past Sonic’s group and disappeared back into fire when they reached the end.

As they dropped down onto another fallen building, a few golem creatures that looked familiar to Sonic and Spike appeared in front of them, Yoshi, and Cadance. “Aw man, not these guys again!” Spike exclaimed.

“Yep, totally called it,” Sonic muttered. He then called, “Let’s go around these guys!” He and Yoshi weaved around the creatures while Cadance flew over them before they had a chance to attack.

As Suicune reached the end of the road ahead of Link and stood atop the narrow rim of the half pipe, one of the golems noticed her and summoned a lava ball to its left hand, holding it above itself. In response, Suicune narrowed her eyes, opening her mouth as she said, ~Hydro Pump!~ She then released a high pressure stream of water from her mouth that struck the creature in the chest and sent it flying off of the building.

As he slid down, Link saw her attack and was amazed, so amazed that he stopped paying attention to where he was going. As a result, he nearly crashed into one of the other golems when he looked forward again, but a quick Spin Attack prevented the crash, the blue whirlwind he created by swinging his sword pushing him to the right enough to avoid a crash. The attack also did some damage to the golem, Lucario finishing it off when he came down by unleashing a small burst of Aura from the palm of his paw in a Force Palm attack as he slid past.

The building didn’t last long before the group ended up on a paved road again. They came across a fork in the road a little further up and Sonic, Yoshi, Cadance, Spike, Lucario, and Pikachu took the left fork and Link and Suicune took the right. The two forks met up at the end, the road leading to a short damaged tunnel that ended when the road sloped downwards. When it flattened out again, the road went straight for several seconds before it came to an abrupt end, everyone on boards ditching them as they fell. Sonic, Yoshi, and Lucario landed on another piece of road with Link landing on Yoshi’s back with a grunt and Cadance and Suicune landing near them.

While dusting himself off, Lucario commented, “Okay, I will admit, that was pretty fun.” Pikachu, Yoshi, and Link all nodded in agreement.

Suicune said, ~Yes, that turned out to be a good idea.~ She looked over at Sonic and noticed he was down on one knee with Cadance and Spike around him. She immediately looked concerned, ~Are you okay?~

The others looked over as Sonic replied, “Yeah, I just… landed a little harder than I thought. I’m good, though.”

Cadance spoke, “Are you SURE about that, Sonic? Don’t forget what I told you before…”

Sonic looked up at her, “Yeah, I remember, Cadance, and yes, I’m sure. Look.” He quickly stood up and leapt straight up, curling into a ball and uncurling before landing, hopping up and down in place a few times afterwards. “See? Didn’t even wince. I’m good,” he said. He looked over at Suicune and noticed perspiration seemed to have formed on her face and body. “Hey, you all right, Suicune? You look like you’re sweating…”

The Aurora Pokémon blinked, ~I do?~ She ran a paw down the front of her face and felt the droplets there. ~Hm, it would appear I am.~

Spike asked, “Why are you sweating? Did we go too fast for you?”

Suicune replied, ~No, that’s not it. As a Legendary Pokémon, I suppose I have a better tolerance to heat than most Water Type Pokémon, but it still has an effect on me.~

Cadance asked, “Water Type?”

Suicune nodded, ~Yes. While some may have more than one Type, all Pokémon have specific Types that they can be classified as. As I said, I am a Water Type.~ She gestured to Lucario and Pikachu, the former scanning the area with his Aura as she spoke, ~Pikachu is an Electric Type, and Lucario is both Fighting and Steel Types, formerly only a Fighting Type when he was a Riolu. The Types help determine what a Pokémon is strong and weak against.~

Spike held a claw to his chin, “So that spray of water you did before, that would be like a Water Type thing, right?”

Suicune replied, ~Move. Water Type move. The one you saw before is called Water Gun, and the one I just did is called Hydro Pump. Every move has a Type as well, and they all have different strength levels.~

Before anyone else could say anything, Link let out a gasp and everyone except Lucario looked at him and saw he was pointing up behind them. They all looked to see what appeared to be an orange dragon with wings not much bigger than the teenage dragons flying overhead. As it flew over them, they got a better look at it. It had a yellow belly, blue on the inside of its wings, and, perhaps most surprisingly, a sizable flame on the tip of its tail. It continued flying past where the group was, heading deeper into the city. “Yoshi? (What was that?)” Yoshi asked.

Suicune figured that Yoshi had asked what the others were probably thinking, so she said, ~That was a Charizard, a Fire and Flying Type Pokémon. But how did it get here?~

Sonic asked, “You said you were told that Kyogre and Groudon had disappeared because they got sucked up through like a vortex, right? Could that be happening to other Pokémon too?” Suicune stared at him in surprise, realizing he was probably right.

A moment later, Lucario opened his eyes and said, “I think he’s right! Now that we’re deeper into the city, I’m able to sense more, and I just sensed the presence of normal Auras further ahead!”

Spike shrugged, “‘Normal Auras’? As opposed to like, what, unusual Auras?”

Lucario nodded, “Exactly. Normally I see blue when I’m sensing another creature’s Aura, but those creatures that appeared earlier, their Auras were red, indicating hostility.” He closed his eyes for a few seconds to sense again before opening them and saying, “The Auras I’m sensing appear to belong to Pokémon, and just now I picked up on more red Auras that appear to be moving towards them!”

Cadance gasped, “If there are more of those creatures, they must be moving to attack the Pokémon!”

Suicune spoke, ~We have to get those Pokémon out of there! Lucario, lead the way!~ The Aura Pokémon nodded and closed his eyes, Pikachu hanging onto him as he ran ahead and leapt up the side of a damaged building in front of the group, leaping onto the broken pieces of its structure to climb up, everyone following behind him.

After some careful moving and leaping across the tops of a few buildings that had magma running underneath the bits of solid land on top, Lucario came to a stop next to one of the larger buildings, everyone stopping behind him and looking up. High above them, they could see a large hole in the building, opening it up to the outside. Lucario closed his eyes and focused for a moment before saying, “Those red Auras I saw are up there, and so are those Pokémon! We’ve got to help them!”

Sonic looked around and said, “We gotta find a way to get up there first, man. That building’s not as destroyed as the others we’ve seen, and there aren’t a lot of buildings close to here.”

Suicune communicated, ~I can help with that. Everyone, gather close together.~  Lucario and Pikachu instantly knew what she had in mind, Lucario holding Pikachu in his arms while everyone gathered around them, despite their confusion.

Once they were all together, Sonic noticed Suicune stepping back and asked, “What are you gonna do, Suicune?”

The Aurora Pokémon smiled, ~It is time for you all to ride the north wind. Gust!~ As she said the last word, she swung her head skyward, the hexagon on her forehead glowing bright and her streamer-like tails waving more rapidly. Everyone noticed the wind beginning to pick up around them after a moment. While holding her stance, Suicune called, ~Everyone, jump!~ They all did as she said and, suddenly, a twister began swirling up from underneath them! It shot straight up, carrying everyone within its funnel as it went and stopping when it reached the hole in the building, though it did give them a bit of a push towards the hole, ensuring that they all landed inside.

While the rest of them recovered from the uplifting experience, Pikachu ran over to the hole and peered out, seeing Suicune still standing in her spot, though she appeared to have relaxed her stance. “Pikachu pika! Chu pika Pikachu?” he called.

Suicune communicated up, ~Don’t worry about me, Pikachu! Find the Pokémon in that building and rescue them! I’ll search for a way up and assist you as best I can!~ With that, she turned and ran away from the building, searching for a place to climb up. Pikachu turned back to the others and saw that they all seemed to have their feet/hooves/paws under them again in a figurative sense, so they started moving.
> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. II - Crisis City (b)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


RESCUE OPERATION


It didn’t take long for them to run into Iblis’ offshoots, several lizards made of magma leaping out of the ground in front of them. Sonic got in front of everyone and ran forward, leaping at the one standing back from the other two and raising his feet to hit it in the face. It was sent flying backwards with a screech and exploded when it hit the ground while Sonic bounced back after the impact, doing a backflip. He landed on one knee, the two lizards at his sides turning their heads to look at him.

Lucario saw flames welling up in their mouths and hardened his gaze before saying, “ExtremeSpeed!” He shot through the air a moment later, grabbing Sonic and carrying him out of the path of their flames. One of them turned to look at the two while the other looked at the rest of the group. Before either they or anyone else could do anything, Pikachu leapt up and unleashed a Thunderbolt on the lizards, electrocuting them and causing them to break apart.

The Mouse Pokémon landed on a few seconds later and quickly noticed everyone except Lucario staring at him in surprise. Sonic, who was sitting down on the floor with Lucario’s paws on the front and back of his torso, asked, “Dude, did that just come out of you?”

Lucario answered, “Yes. That did come from Pikachu.” He pointed at his partner, “See his red cheeks? They’re natural for his kind. They contain electric sacs.” He looked down at Sonic, “As such, you don’t ever want to touch them, unless you’re a professional masseur, that is.”

The blue hedgehog smirked as he pointed up at the Aura Pokémon, “I see what you did there.”

Lucario looked confused as Pikachu and Yoshi snickered and Link and Spike laughed, Cadance cracking a smile as well. “What? What are you talking about? What did I…?” He stopped short as he considered what he had said and let out a groan as he ran his right paw down his face. “Really? I helped you and this is how you repay me?” he asked as he lowered his paw.

“Hey man, I do appreciate it, and whatever you did just now, I gotta admit that was pretty cool. I’m just trying to lighten things up. Relax,” Sonic replied as he started to stand up.

Cadance nodded, “Yes, don’t get upset, Lucario. Everyone’s okay now, so there’s nothing wrong with being happy about that, although we should probably get back to the reason we’re taking this detour.”

The jackal replied, “Right, the Pokémon.” He focused for a moment before saying, “Keep going straight.” He stood up and led the way, Sonic and Pikachu running close to his sides and everyone else following close behind. More lizards leapt out of the floor as they ran, a few Iblis Worms emerging along the sides as well. Most of them were easily dispatched by Lucario, Sonic, Pikachu, or Cadance, though Yoshi and Spike leapt into the fray as well, often defeating an enemy as Link was about to attack it, much to the boy’s chagrin.

After dealing with the last enemy, they found the Pokémon they had been looking for… which looked like a pink puffball with feet and a hair-like curl on its forehead in front of its ears. As soon as the Pokémon green eyes saw Lucario and Pikachu, it smiled and pirouetted before striking a pose on the tips of its feet with a “Jig!” It then spun around on one foot and puffed up as it looked at them, winking as it said, “Jigglypuff!”

Spike stared in confusion, as did everyone else aside from Lucario and Pikachu, who actually looked a little annoyed at the performance. “That’s the Pokémon we were looking for? What is it?” Spike asked as he stared.

“Is it a balloon or an eyeball?” Sonic added.

Lucario let out a sigh before saying, “This is a Jigglypuff. It’s a Balloon Pokémon that is rather talented at singing, and this one in particular is a frequent client of ours.” As he stepped forward, he thought, “All the time with this one, always showing up! It will just not go away!” As he stood in front of the Balloon Pokémon, which was still smiling up at him, he knelt down on one knee and reached for the badge on his bag as he said, “Yes, it’s nice to see you too. But now it’s time for you to go home.” He pulled the badge off and pointed it at the Jigglypuff, which suddenly shot upwards in a beam of yellow light, though it disappeared through the ceiling above rather than hitting it.

Cadance and the others looked surprised by this. “How did you do that?” the pink alicorn asked.

Lucario looked back over his shoulder and held up his badge as he explained, “This is one of our Exploration Team Badges. It contains a power that makes it possible to teleport Pokémon that have wandered into a Mystery Dungeon out. We can also make use of that power after completing a mission.” He looked down at the badge as he held it in his paw, “It’s good to know that it still works, considering the current situation.”

Link let out a gasp and Lucario turned to look at him, seeing the young boy standing near a hole in the wall to the group’s left and Yoshi walking over to him. The green dinosaur spoke, “Yoshi! Yoshi yoshi! (Look! Link found a way through this building!)”

Lucario closed his eyes and reached out with his Aura for several moments before opening them and saying, “I’m detecting more Pokémon on the other side! We have to help them too!”

Sonic nodded, “Then let’s get going!” Link and Yoshi led the way into the hole, Lucario, Sonic, Cadance, Spike, and Pikachu following them in.

Shortly after they disappeared into the wall, Suicune leapt into the hallway through one of the broken windows, having leapt all the way over to it from a building not too far away on this particular side and managing to avoid the shards of broken glass as she landed. She went over to the hole, having caught sight of one of her teammates disappearing into it, and examined it. “It’s a bit narrow, but it should be open enough overhead for me to enter. Sometimes this large form can be a bit cumbersome… No matter. I should be able to get through here with a little… coolness,” she thought. She inhaled air for a moment and then breathed it back out, the air coming out light blue as it was released as an Icy Wind. It didn’t create much ice, but it did form little ice patches on the sides inside the entrance that began to quickly melt due to the hot air. Suicune began to move through the hole, using the melting ice to wet her sides and squeeze through faster.

On the other side of the hole, the rest of the group was busy fighting more of the Iblis’ spawn. Lucario and Pikachu were taking charge of the situation, alternating between attacking the creatures up close and from a distance, Pikachu launching himself with Skull Bash and kicking Electro Balls with his tail while Lucario used his Aura to create a staff for Bone Rush and created and threw Aura Spheres. The others chipped in where they could as they made their way through the building, warping a Squirtle and an Eevee back to the Pokémon world before leaping over to the adjacent building.

Shortly after they got over to the other building, a horde of Iblis Worms emerged from the ground around the group along with a couple of lizards, everyone pressing their backs together as they faced the enemies. Lucario brought his paws together and channeled his Aura between them, slowly moving them apart to form his Bone Rush staff as he and Pikachu stared down an Iblis Worm that was flanked by a pair of lizards. The two lizards leapt at the duo, only to be sent flying when Lucario swung his staff twice and hit them both in the head. With the path clear, Pikachu charged up an Electro Ball on the tip of his tail and batted it with his tail at the Iblis Worm, knocking it clean out of the ground into the cracked wall behind it, the creature exploding when it hit.

Behind them, Sonic, Cadance, and Spike were facing down a lizard flanked by a pair of Iblis Worms. Spike was the first to move, managing to run under the lizard before it could unleash its flames at him and got underneath its head, swinging his own head up and knocking it back a bit when his spines and head hit it. He then leapt up and dealt an uppercut to it, knocking it on its back and making it explode, much to the baby dragon’s surprise. In his moment of surprise, the Iblis Worms reared up to attack him, only for Cadance and Sonic to come to his defense, Cadance flying up and blasting the one on Spike’s left with a beam of magic while Sonic took care of the other with a Homing Attack, the alicorn princess setting down on all fours while the hedgehog landed crouched on one knee.

Nearby, Yoshi leapt up as he ran towards an Iblis Worm, kicking his legs in the air for a Flutter Jump to help him get above the creature’s head, going “Hm~!” the whole time he was kicking his legs. Once he was sure he was above a part of the head that was more rock than magma, he stopped, spun over once, and suddenly dropped straight down bottom first on it in a Ground Pound attack. It did some damage to the creature and brought its head down on the floor, Yoshi leaping off of it with a cry due to some of its heat suddenly coming up underneath him. Link quickly ran over and stabbed his sword into the middle of its mouth, the Iblis Worm’s body shaking for a moment before it disintegrated in a burst of flames, causing Link to grunt in pain.

The boy recovered from the blast and turned to his right to see a lizard coming towards him. Link knelt down on his right knee and held his shield up as the creature breathed fire at him, his metal shield able to keep the brunt of the flames from reaching him. As soon as the flames stopped, he leapt at the creature with a yell, swinging his sword down over his head in a Jump Attack. He missed when the lizard leapt to his left, however, and only succeeded in getting a burn on his left hand. Lucario looked over and called, “Finish up with that last one! We have to get moving!” He and Pikachu then started moving over to a raised section of the floor that had a small pool of lava in it.

As he started to climb up, Sonic yelled, “Heads up! Flyers!” Lucario looked up at that and saw three of the fiery birds from earlier flying in from outside and flapping their wings as they flew in a straight formation above the lava pool. They soon swooped down and stopped when they saw Lucario, flapping their wings to stay in place above the lava. The Aura Pokémon stepped down and stared up at them, knowing they were going to attack but not sure what how they were going to do it.

Yoshi, having recovered from his tail almost being set on fire, decided he didn’t want to wait around to see what the creatures were going to do and turned to look at the last lizard as it and Link kept their distance from each other. He suddenly dashed towards the lizard, catching nearly everyone’s attention. Once he was close enough, he stopped and extended his tongue, the tip latching onto one of solid rocks sticking out of the lizard. He then quickly retracted it and swallowed the lizard down when he pulled it into his mouth, wincing a bit at the burning sensation in his stomach before a red-white egg with green spots on it popped out from behind him. Spike, Cadance, and Link were shocked by this, Spike uttering, “Did he just…?”

Not wasting a second, Yoshi took the egg in his right hand as he looked up at the bird creatures. “Mmmmmmm… Wah!” he hummed as he took aim and said as he threw the egg. He managed to throw it hard enough for it to reach the creatures and exploded with a fiery burst when it reached them, taking all three of the creatures with it.

Everyone was briefly struck silent by this, Lucario and Pikachu finally turning to look at Yoshi in surprise. The silence was broken when they all heard a familiar voice in their heads, ~So that’s what you meant by ending up in an egg.~ Everyone looked back and saw Suicune approaching them.

“Pika, Pikachu!” Pikachu said.

~I told you I would catch up to provide support, Pikachu,~ the Aurora Pokémon communicated as she came to a stop near the others. She looked over at Yoshi, ~That’s a very unusual ability you have. Your tongue is much like a Lickitung’s, but I’ve never seen that before.~ She then looked at Link, ~You are brave, young one, but I would advise you to be cautious around these creatures. Try to attack them from a distance if you can.~

A cry from up ahead caught everyone’s attention, causing them all to look forward again. “All right, let’s get moving,” Lucario said as he and Pikachu began to climb up on the raised section of the floor again. Everyone began to move after the two save for Link, who glanced down at his sword for a moment before glancing down at the floor as he considered Suicune’s words.

On the other side of the lava pit, Pikachu and Lucario used their badges to send an Oshawott, a Scizor, and a Togepi back to their world. While they were doing this, Suicune used Hydro Pump to cool the lava in the pit since there wasn’t enough room on the raised section of the floor for her to stand on and be able to get a good jump over to the other side. She hopped down onto the solidified rock while her teammates put their badges away and Sonic and the others sans Link climbed up onto the raised section. Once Sonic was on top, he asked, “Are there any more left, Lucario?”

The Aura Pokémon closed his eyes and focused for a several seconds before looking to his right out the large hole that the flying creatures had flown in through. There were two buildings that were still standing but were tilted next to the building they were in, a third that was standing up straight just past them. “There’s just a few left in the next building. Once we help them, we can resume the search for Groudon,” he replied.

Everyone looked towards the building in question, noting that it was pretty far away from where they were. “How are we going to get over there? There’s no way to enter those other two buildings up here,” Spike said.

~If our fourth member were here, we could easily create a bridge so that we could all cross,~ Suicune grumbled.

Sonic looked at the Aurora Pokémon, “How?”

Suicune answered, ~I could easily hit the side of that building with my Hydro Pump. While I would be doing that, he could use his Psychic powers to suspend the water in midair and I could freeze it. It wouldn’t last long, especially in this location, but it would be satisfactory enough for us all to reach that building.~

Cadance suggested, “I could use my magic to grasp and hold the water up, Suicune.”

Suicune replied, ~I have seen what your magic is capable of, Princess Cadance, but it is a high pressure stream. The initial grasp may be difficult, even for your magic.~

Before Cadance could reply, Link let out a shout and everyone turned to look at him. They saw him standing on the raised section of the floor with a wooden bow in his right hand, his left hand pulling back its string slightly as well as holding an arrow in place. “Hey Link, that’s a pretty cool bow. What’s up?” Sonic asked. The boy responded by looking to the first building over and pointing his bow at it. As he pulled the arrow back all the way, a blue, icy aura formed around the arrowhead that went down the projectile partway. Before anyone could ask, he released the arrow and it shot towards a flame on the side of the building, creating a large block of ice when it hit that snuffed out the flame. “Whoa! What are those, ice arrows?” Sonic questioned, surprised like the rest of them. Link nodded with a grunt.

Suicune looked at him, ~I believe I know what you are thinking, child. Come over here with me.~ Link leapt down onto the solidified lava and followed Suicune as she climbed up next to her teammates, looking over at the next building to make sure she had a straight shot at it.

As they both got into position for their respective shots, Spike whispered to Cadance, Yoshi, and Sonic, “Where did he get that?” Upon noticing that Link had gotten another arrow for his bow, he added, “And those arrows?” The three looked at each other for a moment before they all gave the baby dragon a shrug.

Suicune nodded at Link, the boy nodding back in reply, and turned to look at the building again. She then took a deep breath and unleashed Hydro Pump with as much force as she could. The cascade of water lost force as it got farther away from her, but as she predicted, it managed to reach the building, hitting just a bit below the opening in the side. While she kept the water flowing, Link readied his bow, aiming high before he let the arrow go. The ice-coated projectile flew in an arch and hit the spot where Suicune’s Hydro Pump was hitting.

Almost immediately, the water began to freeze, the ice magic around the arrow spreading out from it and beginning to move back towards Suicune. Lucario kept a careful on the spreading ice, observing how fast the water was freezing. When the ice had moved about halfway up, he called, “That’s enough, Suicune!” The Aurora Pokémon stopped spraying water at that, the last drops leaving her mouth just moments before they froze in front of her. Lucario grabbed the newly frozen water with both paws and set it down on the floor.

While he was making sure the water stayed where it was, Sonic looked over at Link and said, “That’s some pretty COOL magic you got there, Link. Pun totally intended.” Link smiled in reply.

Lucario let go of the frozen water and looked at the others, “I don’t know how long it will last, but it looks like we have a pretty solid bridge to use for the time being."


ANGRY CHARIZARD APPEARED!


Link suddenly let out a gasp and was about to say something, but Spike spoke up first, “Look!” Everyone looked towards the other side of the ice bridge and saw the Charizard from earlier hovering near the end of it, looking at it with an unreadable expression. It glanced in the group’s direction for a moment before looking back at the bridge, its wings flapping harder.

“I don’t like the way he’s looking at the bridge!” Lucario growled.

~Neither do I,~ Suicune agreed. She looked at the others and said, ~Get to the other side, quickly! We’ll try to ward him off!~ With that, she took a running leap towards the first building, managing to press her paws against the side and jump to the adjacent building, running up the side of it.

While she tried to find a good position, Lucario looked at the first building and said, “ExtremeSpeed!” He suddenly shot towards the edge and made a leap of his own, managing to reach the first building and climbing up the side of it, alternating between using Metal Claw to get a grip and jumping up from spots where he could put his paws down.

When he initially jumped, Cadance had spread her wings and flew out, saying, “Lucario!” She stopped not far from the others when she saw that he had reached the building and was able to climb it on his own.

Pikachu called, “Pikachu!”

Sonic looked over at the yellow mouse, “He looks like he’ll be okay. We’d better get across while we still have a chance.”

Spike clambered up next to the frozen water cascade and looked at it, noticing that the way it was sitting meant it was angled slightly downwards. “Hey, I’ve got an idea!” he said. He took a running start and leap onto it facing sideways, beginning to slide down it. He initially had a little difficulty keeping his balance, but he quickly got over it. As he slid, he noticed a few uneven and narrow spots ahead, but otherwise it was a straight shot to the next building. He called to the others, “This is even better than running on the ice! We can just slide to the next building!” As he leapt over a rise in the ice, he noticed a wet feeling underneath him and knew it was water under his claws. “Hey, you guys had better hurry! I think it’s starting to melt!” he yelled from partway down.

Sonic looked at Yoshi and Link and said, “Come on, let’s go!” They nodded, Link picking up Pikachu in his hands before sliding down the ice like Spike, having noticed that the mouse seemed a bit hesitant at following Spike’s lead. Sonic was next followed by Yoshi, all of them noticing that Lucario was throwing Aura Spheres and Suicune was shooting water at the Charizard, which was easily dodging their attacks and unleashing flames from its mouth at them.

As Spike made it to the end of the ice bridge, Cadance swooped by and used her magic to pick him up, lifting him up to the hole in the side of the building, landing next to him as she placed him on the floor. They looked at each other for a moment before looking back out, noticing Link and Pikachu coming next with Sonic and Yoshi not too far behind. Spike and Cadance noticed that Suicune and Lucario were still keeping Charizard distracted before looking down at the ice bridge again, both of them realizing that Link and Pikachu seemingly had no way to get up to their level.

Cadance was about to use her magic to grab them when Link leapt up off the ice just enough to turn himself around, holding Pikachu close to him with his left hand while he reached his right hand into a pouch on his waist. He pulled out an odd, gold-colored tool with a hook on the end a moment later, pointing it up towards the hole, more specifically at one of the exposed girders near Spike and Cadance. After taking a moment to adjust his aim, he pressed a button on the handle, causing the hook to shoot out of the tool with a *BOING*. The chain that the hook was attached to rattled as it extended, the hook catching on the side of the girder and causing the chain to pull Link and Pikachu up towards it.

While Pikachu leapt down onto the floor and Link pulled the hook free, Suicune paused for a moment as she looked down at the green-clad boy, thinking, “I don’t know much about humans, but that child is clearly no ordinary human. All these unusual tools he possesses, and whatever strange power that I can sense from within him… I can’t shake this feeling that there is a greater force at work around him.”

Unfortunately, her momentary distraction, combined with the rattling sound that Link’s spring-loaded tool had made just now, caused Charizard to turn its attention back to the ice bridge, its red-tinted eyes glaring down at it. Sonic noticed this and he looked back at Yoshi, gesturing at Charizard with his head. Though no words were spoken, Yoshi got what Sonic was getting at and nodded, prompting Sonic to jump up higher than Link had, allowing Yoshi to get underneath him so he landed on the green dinosaur’s saddle.

Before Charizard could attempt to melt the frozen cascade, Sonic called, “Hey, you!” His voice caught the orange dragon’s attention and it looked to see Yoshi jump up as Sonic, curled into a ball, leapt into his hands. He threw the blue hedgehog as hard as he could at Charizard, which brought its wings in front of itself to protect itself from being hit and knock Sonic backwards. Yoshi extended his tongue and pulled the blue hedgehog into his mouth, spitting him out immediately and leaving Charizard with no time to react as Sonic crashed into its face and kept going towards the building. He managed to land on a solid piece of floor a little ahead of Spike, Link, Pikachu, and Cadance while Charizard shook off the disorientation and Yoshi landed back on the ice bridge, which shuddered under his weight. The orange dragon soon turned its head to glare at Sonic as he called, “Come on, let’s see what you can do!” Charizard flew after him at that as he ran on ahead, giving Yoshi plenty of time to Flutter Jump up to safety, with a little help from Cadance.

Yoshi took off running to catch up with Sonic immediately after landing, Lucario and Suicune joining the others inside the building and doing the same with Pikachu following, leaving Link, Cadance, and Spike alone for the moment. “Come on, we’d better go help too,” Cadance said, Spike and Link nodding in response.

Before they could start moving, Spike looked back at the ice bridge for a moment and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw several lizards making their way down it! “Look! More of those lizards!” he cried, Link and Cadance seeing them as soon as they did look.

“We can probably handle them, but we should still stop them before they get here!” Cadance said. She and Spike both heard Link grunt and turned to see he had pulled out his bow again, though this time when he readied an arrow, a flaming red aura surrounded it instead of the cool blue aura it had before. Once again, he fired in an arch, the arrow hitting the side of the building they had come from after going through part of the ice bridge, the ice melting back into water quicker due to the Fire Arrow. Spike noticed that the lizards began scrambling to get to the other side of the bridge faster at this and quickly stuck his head out over the edge, breathing green flames down at the part of the cascade that was frozen to the side of the building, causing the whole thing to fall down with the lizards still on it seconds later. The three watched it fall for a moment before turning and hurrying to catch up with the others.


TIGHT SPOT


Rounding a corner, they found the others hiding behind large slabs of stone to shield themselves from Charizard’s flames. Sonic and Yoshi were huddled together with a Squirtle and a Charmander next to a spot where the floor dropped off, a stream of lava flowing towards the other side of the building below, while Team Defenders, along with an Ivysaur and a Chikorita, were to their right. There wasn’t anything else that could be used as adequate cover in the vicinity and, as demonstrated when Pikachu stepped out during a break in the Charizard’s flames to try hitting it with a Thunderbolt, the dragon had little difficulty flying out of the way of their attacks with its powerful wings.

Upon seeing Spike, Cadance, and Link, Lucario quickly stepped out of cover and launched a quick Aura Sphere at the Charizard to distract it, the small orb managing to scrape along the side of its face. The attack angered the dragon, however, and it turned its head to look at the Aura Pokémon. Seeing this, he quickly waved the trio over, all of them managing to join Team Defenders before the Charizard unleashed a yellow-colored orb that exploded when it hit the floor. “What was that?” Cadance asked as she, Link, and Spike caught their breaths.

“That was Dragon Rage. It’s a Dragon Type move,” Lucario said.

“Well, you got the rage part right! What’s this guy so angry about?” Spike asked.

Lucario gestured his head in the Charizard’s direction as he said, “Those red eyes of his are not normal. The red and his anger are both being caused by something else, something beyond his control.” His expression hardened slightly, “We’ve seen it plenty of times before, usually when something is happening in our world.”

Cadance asked, “Really? So your world has seen a number of crises that can cause Pokémon to act like this, not just the one your team has dealt with?”

Suicune communicated, ~Despair overpowering hope to empower darkness, time and space being disturbed, natural disasters due to a falling star, the Tree of Life being targeted by our own darkness… yes, there have been a number of close calls that have affected the balance of things, and our closeness to nature has left us somewhat susceptible to such changes.~

Sonic pressed his back up against the slab while holding onto the Squirtle and looked over at Suicune, asking, “Speaking of which, is there anything that this guy is susceptible to that could help us out here?”

Lucario spoke up, “That flame on Charizard’s tail… Just like with Charmander and Charmeleon, it has to keep it lit at all times. We might be able to force it to land if we can hit it.”

Suicune grunted, ~That’s not going to be easy from this vantage point, Lucario. Every time I stick my head out, it immediately targets me, so I don’t have time to use my Hydro Pump. If we could find a way to get it without exposing ourselves, that would be better.~ A moment later, everyone heard the sound of musical notes being played and turned to look at Link. The boy was sitting with his back up against the stone slab, eyes closed as he held the mouthpiece of a blue ocarina to his lips. Everyone continued to look at him, wondering what he was up to now.

Suddenly, there was a clap of lightning outside and they all began to hear rain falling, some of the rain water coming down through the building’s damaged structure. While Yoshi tried to keep the drops from landing on the Charmander’s tail flame, Spike looked over at Link as he lowered his ocarina and asked, “Did you do that?”

Before Link could answer, they all heard Charizard groaning loudly. Peering out, they saw him holding his claws on the sides of his head, shaking it even as his wings held him up. “I don’t know if it’s the song or the rain, but there’s something different about this guy now,” Sonic said.

Suicune looked out at the falling rain and then at the Charizard’s tail flame, noticing steam beginning to rise off of it. ~Perhaps I can lengthen the duration of this downpour and make it stronger,~ she mused aloud. She stepped back from the slab and spread her legs out, standing in a wide stance. A second later, she let out a loud “CUUUUUUU!” as a blue light surrounded her body. It didn’t take long afterwards for the others to notice that the rain was falling even heavier now.

With the rain falling so heavily, steam was really starting to rise off of the Charizard’s tail. The orange dragon, still feeling disoriented from the song Link had played, was forced to come in for a landing, its tail flame not as big as it was before. While it was shaking its head, Lucario leapt out from behind cover and said, “Come on! We need to calm him down before he hurts himself further!”

Suicune and Pikachu leapt out at his sides at that, the former saying to the others, ~Keep the other Pokémon safe! We’ll send them back once Charizard has calmed down somewhat!~

Yoshi suddenly let out a cry, the Charmander he’d been huddled over to protect its tail flame suddenly dashing out from underneath him and out into the open before he could grab it. It ran towards the Charizard, the larger Pokémon’s still-red eyes opening before it could get to him and letting out a roar at the Charmander, causing it to stop. Yellow energy began to build up in its mouth, causing Yoshi to leap on top of the stone slab and extend his tongue, the tip of it latching onto the back of the Charmander’s head. He started to pull the small lizard back, but Charizard finished charging up another Dragon Rage and unleashed it in their direction. Both Sonic and Yoshi tried to get out of the way, but they were still knocked for a loop when the attack hit the stone slab, destroying it and sending stone fragments flying everywhere.

As Sonic recovered from the rough landing, still holding the Squirtle in his arms, he looked up and realized that the Charmander was no longer on the end of Yoshi’s tongue! His eyes moved to the left and saw the fire lizard with its back against one of the flying stone fragments, which landed in the lava stream below. He wasn’t the only one who had noticed this, as Spike suddenly ran past him crying “Hang on!” He jumped over the edge into the lava stream, landing head first and sinking beneath it. Sonic pulled himself over to the edge with Squirtle and looked to see the baby dragon resurface, immediately swimming after the Charmander.

Cadance called to Sonic, catching his attention, “Dragons can touch lava safely, Sonic! Spike will be fine!”

Sonic called back, “Gotcha, Cadance!” Turning his head to look towards where the lava was flowing, he said, “But I’m thinking there’s a bigger problem right now.”

Cadance looked and saw the opening in the side of the building, realizing the lava was flowing straight towards it. “Oh no…” she murmured.

Yoshi put his hands on the sides of his head, “Wah!”

Sonic and Link looked out and noticed that Team Defenders was fighting the enraged Charizard, the orange dragon’s attention focused on the Exploration Team. “Looks like they’re keeping dragon tail busy,” Sonic noted. He looked at the others, “Come on, let’s go help them!” The others nodded, all of them instructing the stranded Pokémon to stay put before dashing out of cover to go help.

Spike, meanwhile, managed to catch up to the stone fragment and grabbed onto it with his claws, saying to the scared Charmander, “Hey, calm down. I’m here to help you.”

Cadance called, “Spike!” The baby dragon and Charmander looked to see her, Sonic, Yoshi, and Link running on the floor above and along the stream. “You two have to get out of there! You’re going to go over soon!” Sonic urged.

Spike and the Charmander looked ahead and saw the hole they were flowing towards, both of them letting out a gasp. The Charmander leapt onto Spike’s back as he turned himself over and began trying to swim against the current as he cried, “It’s getting faster! I don’t know if I can get away!”

As they were getting to the end of the solid ground, Sonic looked over at Link and asked, “Link, you got anything?” The boy reached into his pouch and pulled out his Hero’s Bow as they all came to a stop, readying an Ice Arrow and shooting it so it hit right in front of the opening, directly in Spike’s path. The arrow’s effects caused the part of the lava that it hit to become solid, but it had ended up on top of the lava and was looking ready to be pushed along.

Just as Link was getting ready to nock another arrow, they all heard a whooshing sound. Suddenly, three large glowing shurikens that looked like they were made of water shot over Spike and the Charmander’s heads, two landing on the sides of the piece of lava that had solidified and the third in front of it, all of them sinking into the lava slightly before they broke apart, the water that they were made of causing the lava to solidify. They supported the piece that Link had created, forming a small dam that blocked part of the opening. Spike and the Charmander reached it shortly afterwards, the latter holding tightly onto the top of Spike’s head as he used his claws to grab onto the top of it.

Despite being surprised at what had happened, Link fired another Ice Arrow at the lava near Spike, cooling another chunk of solid rock on top of it. Seeing this, Cadance called, “Spike, get on top of that!” Spike did as he was told, swimming over to the rock and climbing on top of it. Once he was on top, Cadance used her magic to lift it up and move it over to solid ground, Spike and the Charmander getting off once they were there. The improvised dam broke away and went down the side of the building shortly afterwards.


A MOMENT OF CALM


The Charmander hugged Spike gratefully, the others coming over as he groaned, “Aw, come on. It’s all right.” They all looked up when they heard Team Defenders and Charizard approaching, the Charizard’s eyes no longer red. The Charmander let go of Spike and ran towards the Charizard, the orange dragon scooping up the Lizard Pokémon and hugging it back.

Sonic asked, “Uh, we good now?”

Suicune nodded, ~Yes, there’s nothing to worry about. After we defeated Charizard, he returned to normal when he got up. He’s grateful to us for helping him as well as saving his child.~

Cadance asked, “Child? So that’s…”

Lucario nodded, “Right. He’s also offered to help us to repay us for our help.” He turned to the Charmander and said, “You sit tight back at the Wigglytuff Guild, little guy. Your dad’s going to help us for a little while, but we’ll send him right along once we’re done here.” The Charmander was silent for a moment before nodding in reply, Lucario touching him with his badge afterwards and teleporting him back to the Pokémon world.

“Has everyone else been sent back too?” Cadance asked.

Pikachu nodded, “Pika!”

Spike shrugged, “So now we can get back to what we were doing before.” He looked at Link and noticed the boy was rubbing the side of his neck with his left hand. “Hey Link, you okay?” Spike asked, Sonic, Cadance, Yoshi, and Pikachu looking at him as well.

Link looked up, “Ah…”

Lucario suddenly spoke, “Wait!” Everyone looked at him and realized he was reaching out with his Aura again. “I’m sensing something near here. Something large.” He opened his eyes a moment later and pointed forward, “We have to go that way.”

Suicune spoke, ~Let’s hurry.~ The two began moving, Pikachu climbing up onto Lucario’s shoulder while Charizard spread his wings and flew after them. The others glanced at each other for a moment before hurrying after them, Link rubbing his neck one more time as he ran. As they ran, none of them noticed a flash of light coming from the outside of the building, a mostly blue figure clinging to the side of it, supported by its hands and feet.

A short while later, the group was walking down a road that went up and down, winding its way around a number of destroyed buildings. As they were walking out of a destroyed tunnel, Lucario was saying, “That was very lucky, Spike. It’s a good thing that lava stopped you two from going over the edge.”

Spike nodded, walking next to Sonic and Cadance, “Yeah, I know. Good thing Suicune found a chance to throw those water stars while you guys were fighting.”

Suicune communicated, ~Shurikens. I believe the move you’re referring to is Water Shuriken, and I do not know that move.”

Sonic shrugged, “Well, if it wasn’t you, then who did it? Did we miss somebody?”

Lucario held a paw to his chin, “I didn’t sense anyone near us… However…” He was stopped short when Pikachu suddenly leapt ahead of the group and got down on all fours, glaring to the group’s left. “Pikachu?” Lucario asked, also noticing that Charizard was looking in the same direction and appeared to be agitated as well. He closed his eyes and focusing his Aura, opening them a moment later and saying, “That presence I sensed… It’s below us.”

Suicune nodded, ~I felt it too.~ Everyone turned and walked over to the side of the road, peering over the side of the stone guardrails at the lava below. They could see fire rising up from the lava, accompanied by some sort of light that appeared to be tinged red due to the rising flames. As they stared, something began to rise out of the lava, a massive golem that appeared to be made of rock and magma. It continued to rise until it was just above the road that the group was on, letting out a roar and flames from its mouth as it held out its arms, its red glowing eyes soon turning to look back at the group.


RETURN OF IBLIS


“What is THAT?!” Cadance exclaimed, both her and Yoshi backing away slightly.

“I think that’s Iblis!” Spike said.

“Either that or Groudon looks remarkably similar to it,” Sonic added.

Suicune shook her head, ~That is definitely not Groudon. Groudon looks nothing like that.~

Lucario opened his eyes and said, “Its Aura… That creature is full of nothing but anger and hatred. It must be stopped before we can continue our search.”

Sonic replied, “Right. Aim for his head. Seems like that’s where it was weakest the last time.” Iblis let out a growl before anyone could move, causing more of its worm, lizard, and bird spawn to appear out of thin air around the group. As they all turned around to look at the new arrivals behind them, Sonic grunted, “Great. He’s called in the cavalry.”

Yoshi groaned and clutched his stomach as it let out a rumble. “Mmm… Yoshi… (Mmm… I’m hungry…)” he groaned. He looked up as one of the lizards began to approach him and his eyes lit up, “Hmm!” He extended his tongue, the tip latching onto one of the creature’s rocks and pulling it into his mouth. After swallowing it and depositing it as an egg, he glanced up as he said, “Hmm… Hmph. (Hmm… Not so good.)” He then whirled around and threw the egg into Iblis’ face, the creature letting out a grunt as the egg exploded. Yoshi then turned and decided to sample one of the worms, turning it into an egg as well. “Mmm, yoshi! (Mmm, that tastes better!)” he said.

As the others watched, Spike commented, “Wow, and here I thought Pinkie Pie was the only one who could eat things whole.” He then cheered, “Chow down, Yoshi!”

After Yoshi threw the egg he had at Iblis and turned back to the spawn, Sonic called, “Dig in, dino buddy! It’s an Iblis smorgasbord, and he’s getting eggs in his face for it!” Seeing that Yoshi had Iblis’ minions well under control, the others, save for Link and Spike, turned and started throwing their own attacks at it, Charizard making use of his wings and strength to ball up a lizard or worm and fly up to Iblis’ face before using Rock Smash. Link and Spike, meanwhile, stayed close to Yoshi, Link having his sword and shield out while Spike did his best to aid them both against any back and side attacks.

Suicune’s Water Type attacks were, unsurprisingly, the most effective against Iblis, easily chipping away at the monster and making the rocks stuck to him fall off. Unfortunately, the heat was starting to get to her now. After leaping over fire spewed by Iblis, she retaliated with a Hydro Pump, though everyone noticed it looked weaker than the other times she had used it and she was panting when she stopped. Lucario and Pikachu hurried over to her, Lucario asking, “Suicune, are you all right?”

The Aurora Pokémon glanced at him and replied, ~I’m fine, Lucario. I’ve just… overexerted myself a bit.~

She looked down at Pikachu when he said, “Pikachu pika, pika pi! Chu pika Pikachu!”

Suicune replied, ~I’m aware of the heat’s effects, Pikachu, but we have to stop that thing.~

Lucario spoke, “Still, you’d better take it easy on the Water Type moves for a little bit. You don’t want to use up all of your water and exhaust yourself further.”

Sonic called, “Yeah, especially right now. Heads up!” The three Pokémon looked to see that Iblis had raised its right arm, the monster swinging it down at everyone as they scrambled to get away. They all managed to avoid the attack, but it crashed right through the road and made a new hole, forcing them to keep running as more of the road collapsed behind them. While they were running, Iblis began to step back, moving back closer to the center of the lava encircled by the road.

Once they were all safely away from further road collapse, Cadance was the first to notice Iblis’ new position, saying to the others, “Iblis has moved too far away! We can’t attack him conventionally now!”

Suicune grunted, ~Perhaps another Rain Dance…~

Lucario argued, “What good will that do? Rain may have worked earlier, but it’s not going to draw him closer! We need to come up with something else!”

Sonic looked at Link and Yoshi and noticed that, while they were turned in Iblis’ direction, they were looking up at the sky. He looked and quickly saw what had caught their attention. “Hey, check out the clouds,” he said. Everyone else looked at that and saw that the gray clouds overhead seemed to be parting, rays of sunlight beginning to break through.

“The cloud cover is clearing. But why?” Cadance wondered.

“Is it something Iblis is doing?” Spike asked.

Lucario spoke after a moment, “No… This must be Drought.”

Sonic looked at him and asked, “Drought? Does that mean…?”

Suicune nodded, ~I sense it. Groudon approaches.~


GROUDON VS. IBLIS


Shortly afterwards, Iblis turned slightly to the left, looking down as a red head with black and yellow eyes began to emerge from the lava, its sharp teeth being the next detail to emerge. It continued to raise itself out of the lava, revealing its gray-colored underbelly and red backside, black lines running across its arms and the rest of its body. Its arms ended in four sharp, white claws, its backside ended with a tail that curled up somewhat at the end, it had what looked like spikes protruding from its sides under and above its arms and on the sides of its face, and it had four crests on the top of its head. When it had emerged completely, its feet were the only part of it that was still underneath the lava, the creature being a little shorter than Iblis was. It stared at Iblis for a moment before unleashing a loud  “GRRRROOOOOOARRRRR!”

Once everyone’s ears had stopped ringing from the roar, Spike asked, “That’s Groudon?!”

Lucario nodded, “That’s him all right. The creator of dry land, the bringer of harsh sunlight.”

Sonic commented, “He looks like a regular red carpet with teeth.”

Suicune replied, ~Not the best way to put it that I’ve heard, but that will do.~ She looked back at Iblis and Groudon as the former let out a roar of its own and said, ~Let them fight.~

Despite Groudon not being the same size as Iblis, he proved to be more agile than the lava monster, able to step around its punch and slash attempts before retaliating with a Slash attack of his own. The scene called the memory of watching Chip square off against Dark Gaia with the Gaia Colossus to Sonic’s mind.

After a short while, Groudon ducked to avoid Iblis’ flame breath before charging forward as he raised himself up, crashing into Iblis’ chest and forcing the monster back a ways. As Iblis attempted to recover and get back into the fight, Groudon managed to turn itself around and swing its tail high enough to strike Iblis just below its chest, knocking it back into one of the buildings and causing it to collapse around Iblis. Seeing no movement, Groudon began to move closer to get a closer look.

Suddenly, Iblis recovered from the impact and charged at Groudon, placing its hands on the Continent Pokémon’s sides and pushing him back as it continue to charge. Groudon planted his feet and tried to stop the charge, but Iblis continued to push him backwards, not stopping until Groudon’s back collided with one of the buildings near the group’s location. Groudon took the full brunt of this sudden attack, some pieces of the building raining down on him while the rest fell backwards destroying part of the road ahead of the group.

Iblis didn’t stop there, however, as it reached for another building with its right hand while still holding Groudon with its left. It grabbed the upper part of the building and pulled it up, separating it from the rest of the building and beginning to bring it up over its head. “It’s going to attack Groudon with that building if we don’t help him!” Lucario realized.

~My Hydro Pump’s power hasn’t recovered yet,~ Suicune grunted. Link looked at her for a moment before looking to the right at what was left of the building that Groudon’s back was pressed up against. Seeing an opportunity, he began to move towards the building while reaching into his pouch with his right hand.

Sonic quickly noticed Link’s movements and called, “Link, what are you doing?” Everyone looked in the boy’s direction as he pulled out a pair of rabbit ears and put them on his head, and suddenly he started running faster than ever. It didn’t take him long to reach the remains of the building and duck into it, removing the rabbit ears with his left hand while reaching into his pouch again. The others were planning to go after him when he ducked inside, but a few moments later, they heard him let out a scream of agony.

A moment later, someone that looked like Link but was very clearly an adult began climbing and leaping up Groudon’s back. The human had empty white eyes, red and blue markings on his face, a large sword that had a blade that looked like a double helix strapped on his back, and wore silver-gray clothes, gauntlets, and black tights. “Is that Link?” Sonic asked, totally shocked by the change.

“How did he…? What?!” Cadance stammered, equally shocked. The others seemed surprised by the change that had overtaken the boy as well.

“What is he doing?” Lucario asked, trying to keep his surprise under control.

Iblis finished raising the building over its head by the time Link reach Groudon’s head, the monster using both hands to hold it up. Link quickly dashed to the end of Groudon’s head and came to a stop, pulling his sword off of his back with his left hand before taking it in both hands and holding it straight up above his head. While holding it, it began to gather power, the power surrounding the blade as a shaft of light. As Iblis started to bring the building down, Link let out a loud grunt as he swung his sword down vertically. The beam of light went through the building and scraped along the top of Iblis’ head before it vanished at the end of his swing. A second later, the building was sliced in two and Iblis let out a cry of pain as it backed away, its hands clutching the spot where the beam of light had hit.

“WHOA! Did you see that?! That was awesome!” Spike cried.

“It was, Spike… It was…” Cadance breathed, unable to gather her thoughts. A moment later, Link returned to normal as he pulled a mask off of his face, his regular sword and shield on his back once again. Groudon let out a growl, indicating it was ready to resume the fight, so Charizard let out a grunt as he flapped his wings and flew up close to Groudon’s head, allowing Link to jump onto his back. Once the boy was on, Charizard flew back to the others while Groudon began to stomp towards Iblis, which was still clutching its head in pain.

Iblis looked up when it heard Groudon approaching. It lowered its arms and was about to start moving forward when the Continent Pokémon held his arms up and out at his sides, his body beginning to glow red as he let out a roar. Suddenly, spears of land shot up out of the lava around Iblis, the tips stabbing into its legs and remaining there. As it began struggling to free itself of the land blades, Groudon closed the gap between them, reaching forward and stabbing both sets of claws into Iblis’ midsection. Iblis grabbed them and tried to pull them out, but Groudon held strong, slowly moving his hands away from each other as he prepared to finish this fight. 

Thanks to the now strong sunlight coming down, Groudon was easily able to gather solar energy, the lines all over his body absorbing the light into his body. In a matter of seconds, he had charged up completely and opened his mouth, firing a beam of sunlight out of it at the opening created between his two hands, the solar energy beginning to spread across the rest of the monster’s body. Iblis continued to try to resist, but it didn’t matter; after several seconds, its struggles died down as the creature exploded in a blast of fire and lava, Groudon’s arms dropping to his sides as he let out a triumphant roar.

The group had shielded themselves when Iblis exploded, not sure how far the lava it was made up of would be thrown, but they were all thankful when they didn’t feel anything suddenly hot touch them. As they looked at Groudon, Sonic commented, “Well, Groudon sure sent Iblis out with a bang, huh?”

Lucario nodded, “A fitting end. There’s no telling how long it will take for this world to be restored, but at least the ones living here won’t have to live in fear of that Iblis.”

Yoshi looked at Link and said, “Yoshi yoshi! Yoshi yosh yoshi! (You did great, Link! You really helped Groudon defeat that thing!)”

Link looked confused, “Uh…”

Sonic answered, “He says you did a great job back there, Link.”

Link nodded, “Ah.” He looked down at the Fierce Deity’s Mask in his hands for a moment before putting it away.

Suicune watched as he did this, thinking to herself, “That mask is not the source of the power I sense in that boy, but it clearly contains some sort of power if it is able to change him so greatly. I wonder how it came to be in his possession…” Her thoughts were interrupted when Groudon let out a low growl.


CONVERGENCE


Everyone looked at him to see that he was looking to his right and, judging from his right eye, he was glaring. He began to walk in that direction a moment later, his attention focused on whatever had caught his attention. “Groudon, wait! Stop!” Lucario yelled as loud as he could, but the Continent Pokémon paid him no heed, crashing through part of the road as he continued walking.

“Where’s he going?” Spike asked.

Cadance looked at Suicune, “Has something gotten into him?”

The Aurora Pokémon replied, ~I’m not sure, but I don’t like that look he had on his face. It may be because he’s sensed Kyogre’s presence. We must follow him and try to find out.~ The group began to move at that, Charizard using his wings to fly over the others as they followed the road.

When they reached the section that Groudon had walked through, Sonic peered down and saw that the broken road had formed a slope down to a series of pieces of roads that seemed to follow Groudon’s path. He looked at the others and said, “Looks like we can keep going this way. Let’s go!”  He leapt onto the road and slid down, Yoshi, Link, and Team Defenders sliding down after him while Cadance with Spike and Charizard flew down. They kept moving once they reached the bottom, following the pieces of road that led to more destroyed buildings that they could use to pursue Groudon.

At the same time as Sonic’s group was pursuing Groudon, Tails’ group was following the large whale they had seen earlier, all of them now sporting new rain outfits courtesy of a combination spell from Rarity and Twilight. With none of them able to identify it, they had decided to follow it to determine what it was and what it was planning to do. Of course, it was no whale they were following; it was actually the Sea Basin Pokémon, Kyogre, and he too was being drawn to one spot like Groudon was, where each sensed the other’s presence. Despite having some difficulty moving through the flooded ruins of Station Square, the group continued to follow after him.


BREAKING THE BARRIER


Both groups ended up stopping at roughly the same time, Tails’ group having found a shelter from the rain in the ruins where they could see Kyogre where he had stopped while Sonic’s group had caught up to Groudon inside of a destroyed building after climbing across the things being held up by a flame tornado. As the two groups looked on, they could see a white glowing spot like a star hanging in the air that the two Pokémon were staring at. Both groups wondered what the light was, but they wouldn’t have to wait much longer to find out.

While still staring at the white light, both Kyogre and Groudon reared back as they readied their attacks, water beginning to spill out of Kyogre’s mouth as it gathered there and solar energy shining in Groudon’s mouth, Kyogre unleashing Hydro Pump and Groudon firing Solarbeam nearly simultaneously. When the attacks reached the lights, they both struck and held there instead of surrounding the lights. As everyone watched on, the ground began to shake and the lights began to shine brighter, leaving everyone nervous about what was going to happen.

Suddenly, both lights began to expand outwards, beginning to fill the horizon of both destroyed cities as a shockwave traveled outwards. Tails’ group was thrown back into the wall of their makeshift shelter by the shockwave while Sonic’s group was blown off of the support beam they were standing on, everyone landing hard on the floor below. Their crashes and the force of the shockwave caused everyone to lose consciousness, the white in front of both Groudon and Kyogre continuing to expand as they broke through to each other…
> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. II - Crisis City (c)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


FIRE AND WATER


Cadance groaned as she returned to the waking world, raising a hoof to her head as she lay on her back, wings spread out. She opened her eyes and looked around to see the others recovering as well, glancing down at her stomach when she felt pressure there and seeing Spike and Pikachu pressing themselves up. After they slid, or rather stumbled, off, she used her wings to raise herself into a sitting position and gasped when she saw what the others were also starting to notice.

The pinkish sky and orange sun that had been revealed by Groudon’s Drought was still above and behind the group, but almost directly in front of them was a sky filled with thick gray clouds. There was still a destroyed city under the clouds, but instead of lava, water surrounded the buildings, the rain falling from the clouds causing water to spill out of some of them. What couldn’t be seen from the building the group was in were the two rifts marking where the two contrasting cityscapes joined together, electricity being generated by the break in time and space along with a strange purple mist seeping out from the break that was difficult to see.

“What… What happened?” Cadance breathed as she stood up and walked forward as far as she could go, the others joining her.

Yoshi looked at Sonic and asked, “Yoshi yoshi? (Isn’t that Station Square, Sonic?)”

The blue hedgehog looked at him, “How’d you know that, Yoshi?”

The green dinosaur shrugged, “Yoshi yosh yoshi? (Wasn’t there an ice skating show where it was the backdrop or whatever?)”

Sonic nodded, “Ah, right. Forgot about that.”

Spike spoke up, “Okay, I don’t know what you guys are talking about, but this looks way more urgent right now. Why does it look like that other destroyed city we saw earlier is in front of us? And what’s keeping both the lava and the water from spilling over into the other?”

Sonic replied, “Pretty sure that’s what it is, Spike. That’s Station Square after Perfect Chaos flooded it.”

Lucario continued, “As for how, it’s safe to say that both Groudon and Kyogre have created their own Passage of Time in order to reach each other. The place where they’re meeting is acting as a dam, holding back the water and lava and keeping the two cities from merging together.”

Suicune looked to her right, ~Unfortunately, that’s not going to stop them from resuming their feud.~ The others looked as well and saw both Groudon and what they assumed to be Kyogre in relatively clear spots devoid of buildings, Groudon standing in the lava and Kyogre floating on the surface of the water. The two were currently staring at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Suicune exhaled before looking at Station Square again and saying, ~We’ll work on pulling them apart, but first I need a moment.~ Without another word, she leapt from the building over to the Station Square side, landing on the roof of a smaller building that was tilted and laying down to let the rain fall on her.

While staring at the Aurora Pokémon, Lucario reached for his badge and said, “I’d say you’ve done more than you actually agreed to do. It’s time for you to go back to your little Char; we’ll handle it from here.” He tapped the back of the badge against Charizard’s chest, the orange dragon letting out a brief growl of protest before he teleported away. After Lucario clipped the badge back onto the Treasure Bag, Pikachu leapt up and clambered onto his right shoulder, the Aura Pokémon jumping and using ExtremeSpeed to get over to Suicune.

“We should go over there too. I’m getting a little tired of all this heat myself. A little time under the rain should do us some good,” Cadance said as she looked at Sonic, Yoshi, Spike, and Link.

“Aw, man,” Sonic groaned, Cadance flying up behind him after Spike climbed onto her back and picking him up under his shoulders with her forelegs before flying towards Team Defenders. While she was doing that, Link climbed onto Yoshi’s back and the green dinosaur ran back and took a running jump, using his Flutter Jump to help him get over the rest of the way.


REGROUPING


As they all rested for a moment on the rooftop, they heard Groudon and Kyogre both let out a roar at almost the same time. Turning to look, they saw Groudon starting to move towards Kyogre, a rush of water from a Hydro Pump attack coming from Kyogre’s side shortly afterwards. Groudon intercepted it by swinging one of his claws in a Slash attack, breaking up the geyser of water and reducing its power, the drops of water that flew off being much less damaging to him. Groudon glared at Kyogre after the attack ended, the Sea Basin Pokémon doing the same.

“Those two are starting up,” Sonic said.

Spike looked at Team Defenders and asked, “What do we do now?”

Suicune, while still lying on her front and soaking up the rain, responded, ~We can’t simply jump into the middle of that fray. We must approach this situation smartly.~

Lucario held his right paw up in front of him, “I’ll start by using my Aura to scan the area around us. Since this is a different city, there could be different circumstances present that we’ll have to take into account.” He closed his eyes and began to reach out with his Aura, his dreadlocks shaking and a purple flame appearing in front of his paw. After several moments, he spoke, “The area closest to Kyogre and Groudon’s fight appears to be empty, but I’m detecting the presence of Auras nearby.”

Cadance asked, “What are you able to see from here, Lucario?”

The Aura Pokémon replied, “They’re at the edge of my vision and they appear to be close together, but they appear to be friendly. As for where they are…”

Spike suddenly called from one edge of the roof, “Look! Down there!” Sonic, Cadance, Yoshi, and Link quickly ran over to him, standing at his sides as they looked down to where he was pointing. Not too far away, above the surface of the water, they could see several figures staggering out of an opening in some of the rubble, its position likely allowing for a good view of the fight going on. They appeared to be dressed fancily, the hats and jackets they had on looking far too stylish at first glance to be suited for all the water around them, but there was something familiar about the designs, especially since most of them appeared to be walking on all four legs.

“It’s Tails, Shining, and the girls!” Sonic said after a moment, his hunch being proven right when the only one walking on two legs pulled his hat off to reveal Tails’ face. Upon seeing how dazed he and the others looked as the rest of them came out, Spike climbed onto Cadance’s back and Sonic held his arms out, allowing the Princess of Love to lift him off the ground again. Sonic called “Hey!” as Cadance flew towards the toppled building the rubble was sitting on top of.

Tails’ ears caught the call and he turned to look, seeing Cadance flying towards him while carrying Sonic with her forelegs. “Hey guys, look!” the fox said, catching Shining and the Main Six’s attention as they turned to look. It didn’t take Cadance long to reach them, the princess setting Sonic down first before landing as well.

“Cadance! Spike! Sonic!” Twilight started, surprised.

Shining quickly took over the conversation. “What are you doing here?” he asked Sonic in an annoyed tone. He didn’t wait for an answer, instead looking at Spike and Cadance and saying, “Cadance, Spike, I thought we agreed he was supposed to sit this one out! And what happened? You look like you were in a fire.”

Cadance replied calmly, “That’s kind of because we were, Shining.” She gestured backwards with her head, “We just came from that burning city that’s now sharing space with Station Square. As for Sonic, yes, I did protest when he wanted to leave the train, but I wasn’t going to fight with him over it, and considering how bad this situation has become now, even I wouldn’t try to stop him from helping.” They all heard humming behind the three a moment later, Sonic, Cadance, and Spike turning to look as well and seeing Yoshi and Link coming towards them, Yoshi humming as he did a Flutter Jump and landing on his rump close to everyone.

Tails looked surprised when he saw the green dinosaur. “Yoshi? What are you doing here?” he asked.

Yoshi stood up and said as Link got off of him, “Yoshi! Yoshi yosh yoshi yoshi! (Beats me, Tails! I was taking a nap when I suddenly woke up on your train!)”

Tails held a hand to his chin, “You just woke up there? Nice as it is to see you again, that can’t be good…”

Rarity asked, “You can understand that… green thing, Tails?”

Sonic looked at the fashionista, pointing a thumb back at Yoshi as he said, “Yeah, that ‘green thing’ can understand you too, Rarity.” Indeed, Yoshi did have an annoyed look on his face due to Rarity’s question.

They all turned to look again when they heard splashing water and saw Suicune with Lucario and Pikachu on her back running on top of the water towards them, leaping when she was close enough and landing near Sonic, Cadance, Spike, Yoshi, and Link. Suicune looked at Tails and the other ponies for a moment before turning to Cadance and saying, ~So these are the others you mentioned. They ran afoul of Kyogre after all.~

Spike noticed the others looking around in confusion at Suicune’s words and deadpanned while pointing at Suicune, “Will you guys calm down? She said that. She’s telepathic or whatever. Ain’t no need for no mares to catch no ghosts.” Suicune and Twilight both gave him an odd look at that while some of the others seemed surprised to learn that Suicune was a girl.

While Lucario climbed off of Suicune’s back with Pikachu on his shoulder, Cadance spoke, “This is Lucario, Pikachu, and Suicune of Exploration Team Defenders. Like Link and Yoshi here, they’re from another world that’s being affected by what that creature we’re after is doing.”

Pinkie popped up with an “Ooh!” at what Cadance said as she looked at the newcomers. Her eyes soon focused on Pikachu as she said, “Look at that mouse’s red cheeks! They’re so cute!” She began to bounce over to Lucario, “I bet they’re squishy! I have to feel them!”

Before Lucario or Pikachu could react, Sonic zipped over into Pinkie’s path and caught her as she was coming down, saying, “Pinkie, no! No touchy!” He set her down, “Pikachu’s cheeks are filled with electricity and they’re sensitive. So unless you want to find out how much more curly your hair and tail can get…” Pinkie simply stood still and looked back at him blankly at this.

Tails peered over at Pikachu, “The cheeks have electricity inside of them?”

Lucario spoke, “They contain electric sacs if you want to be specific, and yes, they are very sensitive to being touched.” A few noticeable sparks came from Pikachu’s cheeks to further prove it.

Tails said, “They can contain electricity with minimal danger of self-electrocution? That’s amazing.” Twilight as well looked surprised by this.

Applejack spoke, “Yeah, it’s really somethin’, Tails. Now would someone mind explainin’ what they’re doin’ here and what’s goin’ on now?”

Sonic said, “Well, I don’t think we really have time for the full explanation, so I’ll give you the shortened version.” He turned and pointed towards the brawling Legendaries, “The big whale-looking dude is Kyogre, and the big dragon/dinosaur guy is Groudon.” He gestured to Team Defenders, “In their world, the world of Pokémon, which is what they all are, Kyogre created the sea and Groudon created the land. They both made homes for Pokémon, but they don’t exactly get along with each other. They’ve fought before, and now that our situation has thrown them far from home, they’re at it again. Link and Yoshi ended up here by chance, but our Exploration Team here came all this way to find Groudon and Kyogre and get them back to their world.” He looked at Lucario, “Did I miss anything?”

The Aura Pokémon replied, “No, I think that about covers it.”

There was silence for several moments save for the rain hitting and the sound of the two Legendary Pokémon fighting in the background. Finally, Shining said, “Uh, that WAS short, but it was still a lot to take in.”

Sonic replied, “Yeah, well, it was a lot shorter than what we were told, believe me.”

Pinkie piped up, “You mean the one in the long flashback you had?” Sonic gave her a knowing look in response.

Tails spoke, “Uh, well, it would appear you guys found, uh… the ‘Pokeys’ you were looking for. So what are you going to do now?”

Lucario turned to look at the fighting as he said, “Well, we certainly don’t want to bring THIS home with us if we can help it. It would be best if we could find a way to calm them down before we call in Dialga and Palkia to take them back.”


FIGURING OUT A PLAN


Spike asked, “Well, you guys know how to do that, don’t you? I mean, you’ve dealt with them before, right?”

Lucario answered, “Individually, yes. We don’t have a lot of experience of getting in between them when they’re fighting. I’m sure very few ‘mons have gotten between those two on purpose to stop them and lived to tell it.” He looked at Sonic, “You were right about your situation being a big reason why they’re fighting again. With the connections we have, we usually have a number of Pokémon that can keep an eye on these two as well as the other Pokémon on our team that don’t get along so well. Without them here, we’ll have to figure something out.”

Sonic looked at the others, “Anyone got any ideas they want to throw out?”

After a moment, Fluttershy spoke up, “Um, what about the Elements of Harmony?”

Rainbow said, “Ha! Got it in one, Fluttershy!”

Pinkie added, “Of course! It’s so simple; I’m surprised Twilight didn’t bring it up!”

Lucario spoke, “Wait, hold on! What are these ‘Elements of Harmony’ you’re all talking about?” Pikachu, who was still on his shoulder, also looked confused.

Shining explained, “Uh, well basically, they’re these six gemstones my sister and her friends found on their first adventure together. They were picked because of the virtues they represent: honesty, kindness, laughter, loyalty, generosity, and magic. Together with these gemstones, they’ve been able to defend Equestria and resolve serious threats that they normally wouldn’t be able to… alone.” He added the last part when he noticed Rainbow giving him a look.

The cyan pegasus soon said, “The point is, we’ve done some pretty awesome thing with these gems, and we can totally fix this fighting problem with them too! Isn’t that right, Twilight?”

The lavender unicorn spoke carefully, “Well, it’s true that this seems like the kind of situation where we would use the Elements of Harmony to resolve it, and of course they’re still with us.” She reached up with a hoof and took off the fancy rain hat she was wearing, revealing the Element of Magic underneath it. At the same time, her friends pulled down on the front of their coats to reveal they still had their necklaces on. After glancing up at the tiara for a moment, Twilight continued, “But we did just use them recently, and we’ve never had to use them so soon afterwards. What if they need time to recharge?”

Rainbow said, “Ah, you worry too much, Twi’! I’m sure we can use them right away! We took care of Perfect Chaos with them, now we’ll take care of these guys and put an end to their fighting!”

Suicune communicated, ~How exactly will your ‘Elements’ resolve this situation, I pray tell?~

Pinkie piped up, “Super-powered rainbows!”

Applejack said, “Well, they kinda work differently dependin’ on the situation, but the rainbow they make is usually involved somehow. Uh, when Princess Luna returned from her banishment and she was still Nightmare Moon, the Elements removed the darkness from her and left her magic weakened fer a little while. When Discord broke free and was spreadin’ chaos all over Equestria, the Elements turned him back into stone.”

Rainbow took over, “And earlier, they totally removed Perfect Chaos’ power and broke that water monster down to nothing! See, they always do something different, but they always fix things, and in this case…”

Suicune interrupted, ~They will be useless.~ Rainbow got an angry look on her face, both at being interrupted and for hearing someone who was supposedly their ally call the Elements of Harmony useless, something the other girls save for Fluttershy looked annoyed about.

“What do ya mean they’ll be useless?” Applejack asked.

Before Lucario could say something, Suicune explained, ~Your lavender friend has a point. Do you have any idea how those stones work beyond them all needing to be together? They may need time to recharge like she said. But more importantly, it sounds as though you’ve never used them against more than one adversary, and, I’m going to hazard a guess, no adversary you’ve used them against was quite like Kyogre and Groudon.~

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “Okay, so they’ve got us beat in the weight competition. What does that matter?”

Suicune glared, ~It matters quite a bit, impetuous one. I’m willing to bet they would need to charge longer to have an effect on those two, and let’s go back to the point of your previous adversaries. From what little I’ve heard from you, they were all either being affected by some outside force that had to be banished or they were so twisted that imprisonment was the only option available. There is no Bittercold, no Dark Matter, no falling star affecting Groudon and Kyogre. The damage to time and space that’s been done might be pushing them to go primal, but what we’re witnessing is normal for them. This is nothing more than what some would call sibling rivalry. Now let’s go back to the ‘weight competition’ as you put it. If it takes your Elements a long time to charge up and they can only affect one of them, it will have been a waste of time and energy because the other will simply spark the rivalry again. In case it hasn’t become clear yet, we don’t have time to waste with guesses and empty boasting.~

Rainbow glared at the Aurora Pokémon, her body shaking angrily as she flapped her wings to hover in the air, but silence filled the air again as her words settled in. “Shot that idea down like Eggman’s Egg Carrier shot down the Tornado,” Tails uttered after several moments as he scratched the side of his head.

Sonic spoke, “Okay, so that option’s in the ‘maybe’ pile along with using the Chaos Emeralds. Instead of deciding right away what we’re going to do, let’s go back to the basics first.” Noticing the looks he was getting, he clarified, “Lucario already scanned the area around Groudon and Kyogre to see if anyone was going to be in danger from their fighting. He was sizing up the situation, so let’s keep doing that.” He turned to Suicune, “Now I’m aware that this is probably even more basic, Suicune, but I’d like to clarify.”

The Aurora Pokémon asked, ~Yes?~

Sonic said, “So let’s say we were doing this on, like, paper. Kyogre vs. Groudon. Going off of everything we’ve learned so far, is it safe to say that Kyogre, a Water Type Pokémon like you, has the advantage over a Flame Type Pokémon like Groudon?”

Suicune responded, ~It’s Fire Type, and Groudon is actually a Ground Type Pokémon. But yes, your scrutinizing is correct. On Type matchups alone, Kyogre does have an advantage over Groudon.”

Tails scratched his head, “‘Type matchups’?”

Sonic looked back at him, “No idea how they did it, but they’ve got this whole thing figured out. Think Rock Paper Scissors, basically.”

Tails nodded, “Okay, I can wrap my head around that. I’m learning.”

Everyone looked at Cadance when she spoke, “Seems like with the Types, things tend to work like they would in nature. So Ground Type moves might have some impact on Water Types, but Fire Type moves would definitely be weaker.” She looked at Suicune, “What’s the basic victor over Water? Is it like a Plant Type?”

Suicune corrected, ~Grass Type.~

Tails held a hand to his chin, “Right. Grass and other plants soak up water.”

Spike asked, “Does Groudon know any Grass Type moves?”

Suicune replied, ~That move he used earlier to defeat that monster, Solarbeam, is a Grass Type move, but it will not be much help here.~ She turned her head to look at the fight, ~In the strong sunlight, Solarbeam charges up in almost no time at all, but under a downpour, it loses power.~

Sonic said, “So as far as Types go, he’s kind of swamped. In theory, anyway.”

Applejack asked, “So what are we gonna do with all this?”

Sonic said, “Still trying to figure that out, Applejack. We need to be prepared since their fight’s probably not going to end the ideal way.”

Lucario spoke, “More than likely it won’t. The ideal ending would be for them to come to their senses and stop on their own, but as far as we know, they’ve never simply stopped in the middle of a battle. The next best scenario would be for one of them to win and that be the end of it, but if the time-space damage is making them lose their senses like Suicune suggested, that might not happen either. If the victor didn’t stop, we would have to step in and finish the fight ourselves.”

Rainbow said, “Well, Sonic said Suicune’s a Water Type. If Groudon were to win, she could probably do something to him, especially if he’s weakened.”

Shining asked, “But what if Kyogre is the winner? Like they were saying, that’s more likely, and it doesn’t seem like there are any Grass Type moves available to us that would help us take him down quickly.”

Cadance looked at Lucario and Pikachu, “What about Electric Type moves?”

Lucario replied, “They are effective against Water Types, and Pikachu has given Kyogre some nasty shocks in the past, but even then, Kyogre was not easy for us to defeat in our initial encounter. We’ve all gotten stronger since then, but if we had to stop Kyogre quickly, I’m not sure Pikachu will have enough power to defeat him with one Electric attack. It would partly depend on how much strength Kyogre has left.”

Twilight groaned, “Ugh, I’m starting to lose my train of thought here.”

Tails nodded, “I know. I’m spinning my wheels here too.” He stopped as he considered what he’d just said. “Wait, wheel. Wheel… Spinning wheels can generate electricity,” he mused.

“Like a waterwheel?” Rarity asked.

“How is that gonna help us?” Rainbow questioned.

Tails held a hand to his forehead, “I’m thinking, I’m thinking… I’m thinking something smaller, more streamlined, more… portable…” He took his hand off of his forehead, “I have an idea.”

Soon…

Sonic looked back over his shoulder, “You sure this is okay, Lucario?” At the moment, he, Yoshi, and Link were each standing on top of the pedals of bicycles that Rainbow had managed to locate in the ruins of Station Square, the bikes upside-down and damaged by the flood. All three bikes had generators on them, the generators in position against the back wheel with wires running from them. Tails was currently attaching the wires coming from Link and Yoshi’s bikes to Pikachu’s left cheek while Lucario was attaching the wires coming from Sonic’s bike to the mouse’s right cheek. The entire group was currently on a section of road that was a reasonable distance away from Groudon and Kyogre’s scuffle.

Lucario answered while still working, “It’ll be fine, Sonic. It’s true that storing too much electricity in a Pikachu’s cheeks can cause a fever, but once the excess electricity is discharged, the fever will pass, with exhaustion afterwards being the worst thing that happens. If we have to do this as a Last Resort, it won’t matter because Pikachu will be able to use the extra electricity to stop Kyogre.” After a few seconds, Lucario took his paws away from Pikachu’s cheeks and stood up, stepping back while Tails doubled-checked his own wiring work and the jackal’s.

After a second, the fox stood up and stepped back too. “Okay, everything looks good. If Kyogre wins and doesn’t stop, this should allow you guys to give Pikachu some extra power in case he needs it,” Tails said.

Fluttershy asked, “Are you sure this is really what it will come to?”

Lucario looked at her, “Battling is in our nature, I’m afraid. It’s one way for us ‘mons to understand each other better. A number of the members of our team fought with us before they joined.” He knelt down and looked at Pikachu, “You ready for this, pal?”

The yellow mouse nodded, “Pikachu!”

Spike asked, “You know, I’ve been wondering… how come we can’t understand him like we can understand you and Suicune, Lucario?”

Lucario glanced back at the baby dragon, “That can wait, Spike.” He stood up and turned to Suicune, saying, “All right, Suicune. We’re all set; we’ll be waiting on your signal.” The Aurora Pokémon nodded and turned around, leaping off the road down onto the water and dashing off towards the fight on the surface of it.

Everyone watched as she ran, water splashing out from underneath her. “She sure is fast,” Shining commented.

Lucario nodded, “She is the embodiment of the north wind for a reason.” He turned back to the others, “We just have to wait and see what happens.” They all nodded, Sonic, Link, and Yoshi leaning forward and getting ready.


CLASH OF THE LEGENDS


While they continued to watch the fight as best they could from where they were, Suicune navigated the ruins of the city, moving through the rubble and getting on a rooftop that was closer to Kyogre and Groudon’s fighting. It was much more dangerous, as evidenced by Suicune needing to drop down seconds after landing on the rooftop, part of an errant Fire Blast from Groudon just barely missing her. She stood up and looked back after the heat had passed to see the weakened attack collide with the side of a smaller building.

Turning back to the fight, she saw Kyogre unleash a Hydro Pump attack at Groudon, the Continent Pokémon holding both of his claws up in front of himself to block it. The force of the water pushed him back some, but as it did, it also became more exposed to the intense sunlight on Groudon’s side, causing it to become weaker. After several moments, Groudon swung his claws outward, breaking the attack and sending water droplets flying. As Suicune watched the droplets fall, she noticed the purple mist seeping out from the connection between the two cities, now seeming more noticeable. She looked at curiously for a few moments, not sure what it was, but soon shook her head and returned to watching the fight.

The battle continued for a while with Groudon and Kyogre both fighting fiercely, the attacks that missed their mark flying off into the other’s city and causing damage. Some of Groudon’s Fire Blasts and Solarbeams even came hit close to where the others were positioned, and they always felt the effects of his Earthquake attack, but they all did their best to remain steadfast as they waited for a sign from Suicune. It seemed to be an even fight between the two for a while, but Kyogre eventually began to land more hits on Groudon than he was able to respond in kind with.

Despite all the hits, Groudon refused to back down from the fight, though it was becoming clear that all the damage he had suffered was starting to become apparent, and he was well aware of it. Gathering his strength for one final attack, he held his arms out and let out a roar as his body began to glow red. Spears of land began to emerge under the water as Kyogre swam towards Groudon, but before they could burst up, the Sea Basin Pokémon leapt into the air, managing to get above them. While in the air, his body began to glow blue as he let out a roar, three blue spheres forming around him, one above him and the other two above his fins. Once they had formed completely, they each shot a series of watery shots at Groudon, each one striking him hard due to leaving himself open. The last ones that hit him pushed him backwards through the lava, the Continent Pokémon crashing into a large building that collapsed on top of him.

When the dust from the collapse had cleared, Groudon was lying on his back amidst the building’s remains, his eyes closed. Suicune noticed he didn’t seem to be moving and looked up, noticing that the sunlight was starting to become weaker. Her attention was redirected when she heard Kyogre let out a low growl; moving to another rooftop for a closer look, she saw that the Sea Basin Pokémon was slowly starting to move towards Groudon’s side. ~Kyogre, stop this now! You have won; there is no need to fight further!~ she attempted to communicate, but Kyogre did not heed her words. She wondered briefly if his behavior had anything to do with the purple mist, but she did not dwell on it; it was time for their backup plan. Turning her head in the group’s direction, she looked skywards and unleashed a rainbow-colored beam from her mouth.

Lucario looked up and saw the Aurora Beam fly across the sky, the beam’s power diminishing the further it went. “That’s the signal!” he said. He turned to Sonic, Yoshi, and Link, “Go!”

The three nodded, Sonic saying as Link put his bunny ears on, “One supercharged Thunderbolt coming right up!” They then began to pump the bike pedals as fast as they could, Yoshi going “Hmmmmm!” as he pedaled. Link’s Bunny Hood gave him the extra speed to generate about as much electricity as Yoshi while Sonic’s legs were a blur, generating more electricity than either of them could produce on their own. The electricity ran along the wires to Pikachu’s cheeks, mingling with the electricity he already had stored up.

Pikachu began to groan as the electricity began to build, his eyes clenched shut as he tried to keep it all in. Lucario and Tails stood close off to the sides while Spike and the ponies tried to stand at a safe distance, especially as small bolts of lightning began to come off of his cheeks. Tails especially kept a close eye on the yellow mouse, trying to gauge in his head how close he was to overloading his electric sacs. It didn’t take long for him to move forward, ripping the wires off of Pikachu’s cheeks as quickly as he could and saying, “That’s enough!”

Lucario moved forward next, grabbing Pikachu with his paws and swinging his arms in Kyogre’s direction as hard as he could, sending his partner flying as he yelled, “Do it, Pikachu!” Once the mouse was far enough away, Twilight and Shining combined their magic to generate a force field around the group, knowing the electricity would probably travel quite far. Suicune, meanwhile, saw Pikachu up in the air and, when she saw him looking ready to unleash his electricity, lowered herself close to the ground and then jumped up as high as she could, trying to get far away from the water.

As he felt himself begin to get pulled down, Pikachu knew he could hold the electricity he was carrying no longer. “PIKACHUUUUUU!” he screamed as he unleashed it all. He had no idea where he was in relation to Kyogre, so he simply shot it downwards, knowing everything was wet enough from the rain that it would find its way into the deep water one way or the other. He hung in the air, temporarily suspended where he was as the electricity left him. Above the sound of the discharging electricity, he could swear he heard Kyogre roaring in pain.

Sonic and the others looked around as the electricity from the Thunderbolt ran along the surface of Twilight and Shining’s shields, the two unicorns groaning as they continued to pour their magic into it to keep it strong. They both had their eyes shut, perspiration beginning to form on their brows as magic surged around their horns. The others could only watch and hope that Pikachu’s overload would run out of power before they did.

Suicune, meanwhile, had reached the height of her jump and looked down as she began to fall to see she was headed straight for water. She gritted her teeth as she fell, seeing electricity still running through the water below. As it began to get closer, she opened her mouth and unleashed a strong, cold wind, a Blizzard attack. It began to freeze the water as soon as it hit, freezing some of the water and causing a column of ice to begin to rise from it. She cut off the attack and planted her paws on the top of the ice column, letting out a cry as she leapt forward, feeling a shock. She managed to reach the side of a building and twisted herself around to plant her paws against it, leaping off of it and heading straight for the frozen water. She shut her eyes as she got closer, not knowing what to expect.

She crashed through the ice on the surface, but aside from the impact, she felt no pain. Opening her eyes and looking up, she saw she was under the ice she had created and swam out until she reached the water that hadn’t been frozen before resurfacing. She looked around, seeing and feeling no electricity running through the water around her. Remembering Kyogre and Pikachu, she began to swim, looking for her teammate first.

Back with the others, they were currently making their way towards Kyogre’s location, Lucario leading the way with his Aura, Twilight sitting on Yoshi’s back due to Shining insisting. The rain seemed to be letting up some, but they had to be sure. They soon came to a stop on a toppled building and saw Kyogre not far away. The Sea Basin Pokémon appeared to be floating on top of the water, sparks of electricity coming from his body every few moments. He didn’t appear to be moving.

“Is he…?” Cadance asked as Twilight got off of Yoshi.

Lucario held his right paw forward and closed his eyes, feeling with his Aura. He opened his eyes after a few moments and said, “He fainted. He’ll be all right, though.” He lowered his arm, “Looks like your plan worked, Tails.” Looking up, everyone noticed that the rain seemed to have come to an end, further indicating Kyogre’s defeat.

“But… what happened to Pikachu?” Fluttershy asked after a moment.

“And Suicune! Did she manage to escape that shock?” Twilight added.

Before Lucario could scan the area, they all heard a “Pika!” coming from behind them. They turned and saw Suicune swimming towards them, her head above the water and Pikachu atop her forehead. The Aurora Pokémon soon reached the building and allowed Pikachu to climb up first, the yellow mouse quickly being scooped up into a hug by Lucario while Suicune pulled herself up out of the water.


IT'S OVER


Rainbow whistled, “Wow! I don’t know what you did, Suicune, but it must’ve been impressive if you managed to avoid getting shocked!”

Suicune gave a wry smirk as she shook her back left leg, ~Well, I didn’t miss it entirely.~ She looked at Lucario, ~What of Kyogre?~

While still holding Pikachu, Lucario replied, “He’s fainted. The battle’s over.”

Suicune nodded, ~Good. We have to get in touch with Dialga and Palkia and have them send Kyogre and Groudon back. Hopefully they can repair the damage that has been done here.~ She looked at Tails and, after a moment, said, ~It was a good plan.~ The fox rubbed the back of his head in reply.


SPOKE TOO SOON


Suddenly, Kyogre let out a loud roar, catching everyone’s attention. They looked and saw him thrashing in place, his fins and tail flailing as his body shook. “Yoshi, yoshi?! (Hey, what’s going on?!)” Yoshi exclaimed.

“What’s he doin’?!” Applejack asked.

~Something’s wrong. He should not have regained consciousness so quickly!~ Suicune said.

Lucario held out his left paw and closed his eyes, focusing his Aura to scan Kyogre. “He’s in a blind panic, like he’s experiencing a nightmare! He’s not really awake!” He scanned further for several moments before saying, “Wait, I sense something inside of him, something that wasn’t there before! It appears to be some kind of creature that’s made of water…”

Tails, Shining, Sonic, and the girls’ eyes went wide. “Chaos!” Tails exclaimed.

“How did he end up inside Kyogre?!” Sonic asked.

“What’s he doing in there?!” Rainbow added.

Lucario gritted his teeth as he tried to continue his scan. “I… can’t tell! The only thing I can tell is that he’s surrounded by darkness! It’s closing him off from me!” he said after several moments.

Cadance looked back up at Kyogre, but soon noticed something past him, off in the distance on Groudon’s side. She looked closer and gasped. “Look!” she said, pointing with a hoof. Everyone looked and saw a swirling mass of fire floating in front of Groudon.

“Is that Iblis?!” Spike asked. Nobody was able to answer him as they watched, the fire suddenly shooting towards Groudon and disappearing into him. The Continent Pokémon’s eyes shot open for a moment before they closed, a loud roar escaping him as his entire body began to twitch erratically, much like Kyogre’s. It was as if they were trying to fight back against their invaders.

Suicune soon looked from Groudon back to Kyogre and realized that the Sea Basin Pokémon’s form was sinking into the water, his struggles starting to die down. She could only stare as he sank completely, getting the sense that he was losing whatever battle he was caught in. She wasn’t the only one who noticed, as Lucario soon looked down and noticed Kyogre sinking, but something else had caught his attention as well. “I feel something,” he said, catching everyone’s attention. “It feels like a buildup of power, and it’s concentrated around Kyogre…”

Suicune thought about what he said and what she knew about Kyogre and Groudon and her eyes grew wide a moment later as she remembered something, something that had happened recently. “No… That shouldn’t be possible! But if they are…” She spoke, ~We must get to higher ground at once!~ Everyone looked at her as she turned and began moving towards a spot where they could all climb higher, all of them hurrying after her. They began to climb up after her, but a bright flash from behind them caught their attention. They turned to look and saw it coming from where Kyogre was, the water around that spot churning furiously. They tried to keep climbing, but suddenly the water formed a large tidal wave that was headed in their direction! Everyone tried to help each other climb faster, but the wave was upon them before they could get much farther, pushing them into the water along with the rubble they’d been on. Suicune managed to leap up on top of the building she’d been leading them to and, as she saw her teammates and the others get washed away, telepathically screamed, ~NO!~

Sonic gave muffled groans as he flailed his arms and legs. He was disoriented and his eyes were shut, but he knew he was sinking like a rock. He was able to open his eyes after a few moments to look around and saw pieces of rubble sinking around him, but no sign of the others. He could see the surface overhead and kept swinging his arms and legs to try to get himself up to it, but to no avail as he kept sinking. He looked around for something, anything that he could use to help him out of the water. Suddenly, his eyes fell on a humanoid figure swimming towards him. He stopped flailing as he got a better look at it. It looked like some kind of light blue fishman. He had no idea what it was, but he quickly noticed the brown gauntlets and boots and green skirt it was wearing and got an idea of who it was.

The figure swam past him and turned itself around, using its legs to propel itself forward while it pressed its hands against Sonic’s back, pushing him up towards the surface. Sonic let himself relax slightly as he was being pushed up, leaving the swimming and avoiding the sinking rubble to the expert. As they neared the surface, he felt the figure’s right hand leave his backside, the two of them breaking through to the surface moments later. Sonic let out a loud gasp and coughed out water while trying to breathe, the figure behind him taking a considerably smaller breath and seeming smaller now. Sonic felt an arm wrap around his neck and across the right side of his chest and, as his head fell back, he looked back to see a familiar face. “Thanks for the save, Link,” he breathed, the boy panting slightly as he nodded in reply.

They soon heard a splash nearby and looked to see Tails poking out of the water, the fox coughing and taking a gulp of air before looking down at the water as he kept himself afloat. “Oh no! I’ve got to go back down there for…” While he was talking, his eyes had been looking around and he soon saw Sonic and Link floating not too far away. “Sonic?” he asked, the blue hedgehog raising his left hand out of the water to wave at him. “How did he…?” Tails started to wonder before a splash close to him caught his attention. He turned to his right and saw Rarity panicking as she tried to get her bearings. He noticed her fancy rain hat and coat were gone and felt with his hands, realizing his were gone too.

Yoshi was the next to resurface, followed by Applejack, Fluttershy, Cadance, Pinkie Pie, Shining Armor, and Spike, all of them coughing out water and taking breaths of air once they were out. Spike swam over to a floating board and draped himself over it as he breathed, calming down slightly. He then looked around and realized who was missing. “Where’s Twilight?! And Team Defenders?!” he cried. Twilight burst out of the water a moment later, her saddlebags in her mouth. She hurriedly swam over to what used to be part of the outside of a building, dropping her saddlebags on it and letting her head and forelegs drop on it as she took ragged breaths, her body aching for oxygen.

“Twilight, are you okay?! What happened?!” Cadance asked as she swam over to the unicorn along with Shining and Spike.

Twilight spent several moments taking long breaths before she recovered enough to raise her head up and say, “My saddlebags were knocked off! I had to grab them before they sank!” She reached over and opened the flap on one bag with her hooves, peering inside. “They’re still in here. The Elements of Harmony are still here,” she breathed upon seeing the tiara and necklaces inside, closing the bag afterwards.

Seeing that she seemed to be okay now, Sonic asked, “So where’s Team Defenders?”

Tails started, “I think I saw Suicune jump, but…” He was cut off when Lucario and Pikachu surfaced near Sonic and Link, Pikachu in Lucario’s paws.

Sonic pointed at them, “You guys okay?”

Lucario replied after catching his breath, “Yeah, we’re fine. The Treasure Bag stayed on.” He looked down at Pikachu, “And I didn’t lose you…” The yellow mouse leaned against his chest around his spike and he hugged him in reply.

Shining looked up and around as he treaded water, soon spotting Suicune on top of a nearby rooftop. “Suicune…!” he said, everyone else looking as well. The Aurora Pokémon looked down at all of them. Despite the neutral expression on her face, she was relieved that they all seemed to be okay. She soon turned her head upwards, looking up at the cloudy sky.


PRIMORDIAL SEA


Everyone followed her gaze and saw that the gray clouds now looked darker and allowed very little sunlight through, making Station Square seem darker. “Oh, this doesn’t look good…” Sonic muttered.

Rainbow, on the other hoof, started speaking aloud, “Come on, it’s gotta be over! The rain just stopped! You can’t…” She was cut off by a flash of lightning, a clap of thunder, and an even heavier amount of rain falling. “You did,” she grumbled.

Rarity let out a cry and asked, “How much worse is this going to get?!”

Lucario looked up and noticed Suicune take off across the rooftops. “Suicune!” he called, but she was already out of earshot.  He looked down at the others and said, “I have a bad feeling it’s going to get much worse. Come on.” He shifted Pikachu to his shoulder and swam over to a piece of rubble behind Sonic and Link, using his paws to climb up. Once he was on top, he turned around and brought his paws close together before pulling them away, creating a staff made of Aura between them. He then took the staff in both paws and crouched down, holding it out. “Grab on!” he said as Link swam over.

The boy grunted as he used both hands to push Sonic up towards the staff, the blue hedgehog wrapping his hands around it and feeling Link’s arms wrap around his torso. As Lucario pulled them both up, Link felt something wrap around his waist and looked down to see that it was Yoshi’s tongue, the green dinosaur dangling like he was on a hook below him. Pinkie Pie suddenly leapt out of the water and wrapped her forelegs around Yoshi, saying, “Hey, I wanna come too!” Despite the additional weight, Lucario was able to pull them all up to his level while Tails, Cadance, Rainbow, and Fluttershy began airlifting Spike and the other ponies out of the water. Once they were all out, they began to search for Suicune.

Despite the heavy rainfall making things slipperier, they were able to move through the destroyed city in the direction Suicune had gone fairly easily. As they moved, Lucario picked up on her Aura signature and led the way. They soon found her on the roof of another building and joined her. They looked to see that they could see the other city again from the rooftop as well as Groudon and Kyogre.

It was not hard to see the two Legendary Pokémon considering they both had gotten much bigger than they were before; they were both about double the size they had been. The lines and markings on their bodies were glowing brightly, Kyogre’s red and Groudon’s blue. While their bodies were still blue and red respectively, the coloring had become more saturated, making them look darker. Kyogre’s body also appeared to be tinted purple while Groudon’s body glowed brightly, almost like he had lava inside of him. When they opened their eyes, Groudon’s eyes were glowing red with no pupils or irises and Kyogre’s irises had changed to a green color, his eyes looking more reptilian as the pupils narrowed to slits. The sunlight on Groudon’s side appeared to be even more intense than it was before, some of the light spilling over to Kyogre’s side, though very little made it through the cloud cover.

“What… is this?” Cadance breathed, unsure of what to say.

~I can’t believe it…~ Suicune muttered.

Lucario looked at her and asked, “What happened to them?”

Suicune responded while still looking straight ahead, ~I don’t know how it’s possible, but somehow, combining with Iblis and Chaos has caused… this.~

Sonic asked, “Well, what IS this, Suicune?”

Suicune replied, ~What you’re seeing is the form Kyogre and Groudon took when they originally created the sea and the land. These are their true forms, so to speak.~ Her tone turned grave, ~They’ve achieved Primal Reversion.~
> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. III - Delta (a)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


DESOLATE LAND


Rainbow let out a groan as she ran a hoof across her brow to get rid of the sweat that had gathered there. “You know, I’m pretty used to sweating. I’ve had to push myself pretty hard to get into the Wonderbolts Academy. Rain or shine, hot or cold, windy or calm, I’ve worked out in plenty of weather conditions, but I’ve never experienced anything like this before!” she said. At the moment, she and the rest of the group were in a hallway in one of the destroyed buildings on Groudon’s side of the time-space split. They originally had Twilight teleport them over to that side to shake off the chill that had come with being soaked to the bone by Primal Kyogre’s rain, but now they were trying to stay out of the intense sunlight being created by Primal Groudon. A hole in the side of the building offered a good view of the two Legendaries, who, for the moment, were back to staring each other down. 

Applejack let out a huff as she felt her forehead, “You think you’ve sweated up a storm before, Rainbow? Try doin’ my work at Sweet Apple Acres instead of sleepin’ in our trees all the time!” She lowered her hoof, “Still, can’t argue with ya too much. Ah ain’t never sweated this fierce before, not even in the summer!”

Tails said, “It’s one extreme or the other right now, guys. We either sweat or we get soaked, and right now this extreme seems more preferable since it’s less likely to be swallowed or break away due to sunlight.”

Suicune communicated, ~Hm. Desolate Land and Primordial Sea. They really are two extremes that few can tolerate.~

Shining looked at Sonic, who was sitting down with his back up against the cement under one of the windows, and asked, “Did you have any idea that this was going to happen, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Not a clue, Shining.” He pointed a thumb at Lucario and Pikachu, who were seated a little further down next to Suicune, who was currently looking out the hole, “They never mentioned anything about this Primal Reversion thing to us.”

Suicune glanced over at them, ~I didn’t think it would be possible for it to happen! The last time they underwent a Primal Reversion, it was because they had absorbed the power of nature, thus restoring their true forms.~  She looked back out at the two Legendaries, ~Both of these cities are very similar to the locations where they’re both normally found in our world, and that’s never been enough to cause Primal Reversion. For Iblis and Chaos to trigger it is nothing short of a miracle.~

Lucario spoke up, “Seems more like a nightmare from where I’m sitting.” Pikachu gave a slight nod at that.

“Oh, I would have to agree with that!” Rarity complained. She ran one hoof through her thoroughly disheveled mane and the other above her eyes, “All that rain was bad enough, but this heat has turned my hair into a nightmare and ruined my makeup! …And those two aren’t doing us any favor with all of their fighting.” She added the last part when she noticed some of the looks she was getting from the others.

Yoshi looked at Tails and asked, “Yoshi, yoshi yoshi? (Hey Tails, do you think you could supercharge Pikachu to knock out Kyogre again?)”

The two-tailed fox replied, “I don’t know, Yoshi. Everything I threw together for that, if it wasn’t washed away by a rush of water, it’s probably submerged by now. Plus, I know what Lucario said, but I don’t think two electrical overloads in one day would be good for Pikachu.”

Lucario said, “I wouldn’t recommend it anyway, not without a plan to deal with Groudon.”

Rainbow asked, “What do you mean? Can’t Suicune take over for Kyogre like we were planning for her to do before in case Groudon won?”

Suicune answered, ~That plan would have already been difficult before since I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t be able to have the same impact on Groudon that Kyogre does, but now it would be extremely risky to perform. It’s the sunlight on this side that is the main problem.~

Twilight asked, “What if you jumped back and forth between the two sides? You know, attack Groudon for a little bit, then jump over to Kyogre’s side and cool down and regain your strength?”

Suicune replied, ~It’s a possibility, but I doubt Groudon would wait for me to get back to full strength. And I would be stuck using my Ice Type moves since I wouldn’t be able to use my Water Type moves against him. Desolate Land causes offensive Water Type moves to evaporate almost immediately while Primordial Sea quickly extinguishes offensive Fire Type moves.~

Cadance looked down, “So even if we were all in agreement with that plan, it would not work out so well…”

Sonic asked, “Is that why they’re locked in another staring contest?”

Suicune replied, ~Yes, they most likely are trying to figure out what to do next at the moment, but you know it’s not going to last.~ As if on cue, both Kyogre and Groudon let out a roar at the same time, their roars sounding like a mix of their own roars and those of Perfect Chaos and Iblis respectively, before they charged at each other, the two beginning to physically tussle at the split between the two cities.

Pinkie Pie, her mane and tail an even bigger mess of frizz after being soaked and exposed to the heat, said, “There they go! You totally called it, Suicune!”

Spike, who was the only one pacing up and down the hallway, walked over to Suicune and asked, “So now what do we do? Just sit around and wait for those two to tire themselves out and go to sleep like they did in the past, all the while hoping things don’t get any worse here?”

Suicune narrowed her eyes, ~No, because that is not how it played out in the past.~

Lucario leaned his head back and stared up at the ceiling, a weary look on his face as he grunted, “Uh, right…”

Fluttershy asked, “What do you mean, Suicune?”

The Aurora Pokémon turned around to look at everyone, ~There is another.~

Sonic spoke, “Okay, first of all, you totally took that from a movie. A good movie I’ll grant you, but still taken. And second, another what?”

Suicune answered, despite her confusion at what Sonic said, ~Groudon and Kyogre are not the only Pokémon that have an effect on the weather. They are part of a trio; the third Pokémon is known as Rayquaza. Rayquaza is not mentioned as much in the myths that most ‘mons have heard as few have ever actually seen her, but she is the Pokémon that put an end to their fighting and made them go into deep slumber so long ago.~

Applejack asked, “Well, why didn’t ya bring this Rayquaza ‘mon with ya fer this? Or mention it until now fer that matter?”

Suicune answered, ~Because we didn’t know what we were going to find. We had no way of knowing if we would find Kyogre and Groudon fighting or if they had not been awakened by the disturbance. We couldn’t ask for Rayquaza’s aid without knowing for sure.~

Rainbow asked, “But you could’ve told it about this and it would’ve come to help just in case, right?”

Suicune shook her head, ~It’s not that simple. Rayquaza tends to be more reclusive than Groudon and Kyogre, and she’s not always… welcoming to those who breach her domain. That is rather difficult for many to do, but it has been done before and she has responded by showing her wrath to intruders.~

Spike asked, “You mean it’s hard to reach where she lives? Well, where does she live?”

Suicune said, ~Kyogre’s home is the sea, and Groudon’s home is the land.~ She turned her head to look up at the sky outside, ~That leaves only one place.~

Tails followed her gaze and asked, “She lives in the sky?”

Suicune looked over at him, ~Correct, very high up in the sky in fact. She sometimes goes beyond the sky, but rarely does she leave it.~

Tails asked, “So she lives in the ozone layer?”

Suicune replied, ~If that is what you call the boundary between the sky and the stars in your world, then yes. And she is constantly circling the world, very rarely needing to stop and rest.~

Twilight asked, “How do you find something like that?”

Lucario spoke up, “With a lot of patience and hope. Hope that when you do find her, she’s not in a bad mood that is.”

Twilight nodded, “Oh.”

Rainbow spoke, “Well, so we know where to look for her. Let’s go find her! Where did she end up in all this?”

Suicune replied, ~She was not reported to have gone missing, so I would assume she’s still back in our world, which we currently do not have the means to return to. Even if we had Entercards to create a Magnagate with, I do not know if they would be powerful enough to travel there or even if it would be able to hold up with all of the damage that has been done to time and space.~

Pikachu looked up at Lucario and asked, “Pika pika, Pikachu?”

The jackal replied, “Yes, I know, Pikachu. I would even put up with Giratina’s sense of humor at this point.”

Rainbow asked, “What are you guys talking about now?”

Lucario looked at her, “Dialga and Palkia, our keepers of time and space and the ones who sent us here, are also part of a trio. The third in their trio, Giratina, makes his home in another world we simply call the Reverse World. If he was here or we could get in contact with Dialga and Palkia, we could easily get back to our world.”

Suicune communicated, ~Time and space between worlds has been stretched rather thin. Perhaps there is a chance we could contact them from here.~

Sonic held a hand to his chin, “Or… maybe we don’t have to.” Everyone turned to look at him. He glanced over at Tails, “If time and space really are that weak right now, maybe we can just WARP to your world.”


ALLIANCE


Tails got what he was getting at and stood up. “It’s worth a try,” he said as he reached into his namesakes and pulled out the Warp Ring. He turned and threw it down the hallway, the ring stopping in midair after a few seconds and reorienting itself before expanding to its full size with a *PHVWOW*.

Link and Team Defenders were surprised by this, Lucario asking, “What is that?”

While walking over to the ring, Tails explained, “It’s a Warp Ring, a rare object from our world.” He stopped in front and off to the side of it and continued, “Most Warp Rings are passageways to the Special Zone, but some, like this one, can be used for personal travel. Because that monster messed up time and space between our worlds, we’ve been using this ring to travel back and forth between our world and Equestria. Maybe it’ll allow us to travel to your world too.”

Suicune stepped up to the ring and looked at it for a moment before turning to Tails, ~How does it work?~

Tails answered, “All you have to do is think of where you want to go and touch the ring. If it can’t reach the place you’re thinking of, then the portal will close, but if it can, you’ll be able to see your destination in the portal. Go ahead, try it.”

Suicune looked back at the ring. “It’s almost like a Hoopa ring,” she thought to herself. Pushing the thought aside, she thought about what would be a good location that she could think of to test the ring’s traveling capabilities. She soon had one and placed her left paw on the side of the ring. She then looked at the shimmering surface in the center of the ring and saw the image of a small town square appear on it. Curious, she stuck her head into the portal and pulled back out a second later saying, ~Yes, that is definitely it. That is definitely in our world.~ Everyone else began to get up as she said, ~This may work for the plan I have in mind.~

Lucario asked, “What plan, Suicune?”

The Aurora Pokémon turned to Tails and asked, ~Is it possible for you to keep this open?~

The fox replied, “Uh, sure.”

Suicune communicated, ~Then do so. I will not be gone long.~

Link opened his mouth to say something, but Pinkie Pie piped up, “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take us with you!” Suicune ignored her as she thought of her new destination and then disappeared into the Warp Ring before anyone could get an idea of where she was going.

“What is she thinking?” Shining asked.

Cadance held out a wing to stop him before he could move, “Wait. Let’s give her a chance to come back on her own.” They all waited for several seconds, then a couple of more, and before they could get impatient waiting, Suicune came through the ring.

“Suicune!” Lucario said when she had her paws on the floor, but she didn’t acknowledge him. Instead, she turned around, placed her paw on the Warp Ring, and disappeared into it again. She continued to do this several more times, being gone for a short while each time, before finally returning through the ring and not going back to it. “What were you doing?” Lucario asked, feeling at least a little frustrated by her unexplainable behavior.

Suicune simply smiled at him, ~I was just making a few important visits.~

Sonic started, “You mean…”

Suicune said, ~Yes. I alerted Dialga and Palkia to what’s going on here and they’re going to call for aid to help contain this situation. Hopefully the word getting out will cause our missing team member to show up. I apologize for not saying anything, but I thought it would be best to get that out of the way first.~

Tails asked, “So where did you go the other times?”

Suicune answered, ~To visit my fellow Legendaries, ask them about Rayquaza, and call in a team of my own.~ She moved off to the side after she finished and moments later, two large Pokémon leapt from the Warp Ring, both landing further down the hall past the group and coming to a stop, both of them turning to look at everyone.

Like Suicune, they both stood on four legs, but their looked very different from her. One had brown fur all over its body except for its face. On the sides of its face were two red plates with three points that together formed a six-pointed star and on its forehead was a yellow crest with three points that went down between its orange eyes. It had a long winding mane coming off the back of its head that was gray-white in color and billowed like a cloud of smoke. It had two gray plates on the sides of its back that looked like wings as well as a gray plate under its mouth that came down from the yellow crest that looked like a mustache on both sides of its cream-colored mouth and another sticking out of the cream fur on its chest. On each leg was a black metal band that sat above each gray paw.

The other Pokémon had yellow fur with black markings on the sides of its torso and each leg and white fur on its underbelly that went about halfway down the inside of its legs. The white extended up its chest to its head, with the only part of its head that was yellow being the area around its red eyes. It had a black, face-shaped crest that jutted out from its forehead and went down between its eyes. It had a light blue X-shaped crest on the front of its face with two sharp teeth sticking out of its mouth. It had three white claws on each paw and a light blue lightning bolt-shaped tail that extended from the yellow and white fur on its rear.

“Entei, Raikou!” Lucario said.

Suicune nodded, ~Correct. Everyone, I would like you to meet the fellow members of my trio, my family so to speak.~

Sonic pointed at Entei and Raikou and looked back at Suicune, “Were they, uh…?”

Suicune finished for him, ~Resurrected by Ho-Oh as well? Yes.~

Entei looked at Suicune and communicated telepathically to her, ~Why did you tell him that, Suicune? What business is it of his or anyone else here?~

Raikou chimed in, ~He’s not a member of any team we’re allied with, and he does not appear to be a Pokémon. In fact, it seems that the only Pokémon here…~ His eyes fell on Link and, after a moment, his eyes widened slightly and he began to feel nervous. ~Is that a human?! As in one that was not transformed into a Pokémon?!~

Before anyone else could respond, Suicune walked towards her fellow ‘mons while saying, ~I am quite aware of the company we’re keeping. None of them have ever seen a Pokémon before, so some explaining was in order to quell any worries they had and to make sure they understood our situation.~ She stopped in front of the two, ~I had intended to only gather any information from them that could aid in Team Defenders’ search for Groudon and Kyogre, but they insisted on accompanying. I was skeptical at first, but they have proven to be dependable.~

Entei scoffed, ~Well, they can’t be as dependable as any of the ‘mons on the teams that call upon us. I already believed your words on how bad things have gotten, but now I can see it clearly from here! Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre! Did they know to anticipate this?~

Suicune countered, ~Entei, Primal Reversion occurs when Kyogre and Groudon absorb power from nature. Did you have any idea that there are other things that can cause it? Because I did not! So you do not have any reason to talk; either you did not know either or you knew and you did not share that knowledge with me.~ Entei did not respond to her words, but there was also no change in his expression.

Raikou chimed in, ~Well, I certainly did not know either, Suicune, and I like to think Entei and I communicate quite a bit. He never shared anything like that with me, so he couldn’t have known.~

Entei turned to him, ~What is that supposed to mean, Raikou?~

He replied, ~I’m just saying you in particular have spent time in Groudon’s preferred habitat while we tend to travel elsewhere. Knowing what sets Groudon off is kind of more your responsibility than ours.~

While the three continued to communicate, Sonic remarked to the others, “Well, I guess we now know what runs in this family.” This cracked a couple of smiles, including from Lucario and Pikachu.

“True. They’re very dedicated to Ho-Oh and what they do, and they all tend to come across as calm and collected. They still fight like siblings, but their fights never get as bad as those of Groudon and Kyogre,” Lucario said.

After a few more moments of talking, Suicune turned back to the others and took a few steps towards them before looking at Lucario and saying, ~There will be more Legendaries coming here to join us soon, but in the meantime, we’ll try to draw Kyogre and Groudon’s attention away from each other. That should hopefully lessen the amount of damage they’re doing.~

Lucario nodded, “Right. What about Rayquaza?”

Suicune answered, ~According to Zapdos, she was last seen in the vicinity of the Sky Tower. It’s a safe bet that’s where she’ll be.~ She looked around at the others before saying, ~It probably goes without saying, but I would assume you’ll all accompany Lucario and Pikachu in gaining Rayquaza’s aid.~ Everyone gave her a look that confirmed her thought. She nodded and said, ~Find Rayquaza. Convince her to help us put a stop to this.~ She then turned and followed after Raikou and Entei after they leapt out through the hole. Inside, everyone turned and nodded to each other, Lucario going over to the Warp Ring and thinking of the Sky Tower to set it before ushering everyone to go through it.

________________________________________


TO THE SKY TOWER!


Sonic emerged from the Warp Ring, soaring through the air for a moment before landing on one knee with his right hand pressed against the ground, feeling it press in a little. As Spike and the ponies came through followed by Yoshi and Link, he looked around and realized that they were standing on top of a cloud. He gave it a squeeze with his right hand and felt that it was fluffy and soft like a cloud should be, yet it was somehow solid enough to allow them to stand on it.

Behind Sonic, Twilight realized what they were standing on and exclaimed, “A cloud?! …I haven’t cast my cloud-walking spell!”

Applejack spoke up, “Ah don’t think ya have ta worry about it here, Twilight. This one seems to be solid.”

Lucario, Pikachu, and Tails stepped out of the Warp Ring as Pinkie Pie spun a cartwheel past them, her mane and tail somehow back to normal. “Ooh! This is just as much fun as the clouds in Equestria!” she said as she continued to spin sideways. The three watched her for a moment before they heard a whooshing sound behind them like someone or something was there. They looked back, but saw only the Warp Ring, which shrunk down a moment later and landed in Tails’ right hand. The fox joined the others in looking around, but Lucario raised an eyebrow in confusion, closing his eyes and focusing his Aura to try to determine if someone did follow them through the ring.

While Shining tapped the cloud with his hooves and Spike took slow steps across it while looking down, Fluttershy looked ahead and noticed that there seemed to be more clouds that swirled straight up with an opening in the center. Tilting her head back, to look further, she saw that they made the shape of a large tower. She looked over at Lucario and Pikachu and asked while pointing at the opening with a hoof, causing the former to open his eyes and look at her, “Um… is that where we have to go?”

Lucario nodded while everyone else looked where Fluttershy was pointing, “That’s correct. This is one of the Mystery Dungeons located in the sky and one of the few places Rayquaza is known to stop and rest at. This is the Sky…”

Tails suddenly interrupted, “Sanctuary!” Everyone looked over at him and followed his gaze to see something that they hadn’t noticed before. Floating close to the Sky Tower was what appeared to be some sort of small city built atop floating stone. From where they were standing, they could see vegetation growing in places on the stone walkways as well as tall towers and other buildings. They could also see a large gray orb with lights on it that appeared to have Eggman’s eyes, nose, mustache, and grin on what was likely the front of it.

“What is that and where did it come from? That’s not supposed to be here!” Lucario said, surprised.

“That’s the Sky Sanctuary from our world! It must’ve been ended up here due to everything that’s going on right now!” Tails replied.

“Yeah, and from a point in time when it was still around. Pretty much the whole thing broke apart because of Eggman’s Death Egg over there,” Sonic added.

“So that’s what the Sky Sanctuary looked like,” Shining commented.

“It’s incredible,” Cadance added.

“Yeah… I guess it is pretty cool,” Rainbow admitted.

Lucario spoke, “Enough. We have to get going.” He and Pikachu started towards the tower opening, everyone else starting to follow them.

Well, almost everyone. “WAIT!” Rarity cried, causing everyone to stop and look at her. “My hair and makeup are a mess! I have to fix them!”

Sonic groaned as he held a hand to his forehead, lowering it as he said, “Can’t you wait until later to do that, Rarity? They’re just going to get messed up again when we go back to deal with Kyogre and Groudon.”

Lucario nodded, “He has a point, you know. Just make your hair decent for now and worry about being presentable later.” Rarity glared at both of them for a moment before sitting down with a huff and using her magic and hooves to push her mane down so it went down along the sides of her head. She then stood up and stiffly trotted forward with her eyes closed, walking past everyone into the Sky Tower. Lucario watched as Pikachu and everyone else filed in after her, but he noticed someone was missing. Looking back, he noticed Link standing off to the side, looking up at the Sky Sanctuary with an odd look on his face, like he was remembering something from long ago. “Link?” the jackal called, catching the boy’s attention. “Come on, let’s go,” he urged, Link nodding and following him in.

Inside, they found everyone standing in a rectangular room, the walls made of clouds and three passages in them that they could take. Twilight noticed Lucario and Link and asked the former, “Which way do we go, Lucario?”

Lucario looked towards the passage on his left as he said, “I’m not sure.”

Rainbow asked, “What do you mean you’re not sure? You’ve never been here before?”

Lucario replied, “That’s not it. As I said, this is a Mystery Dungeon.”

Cadance spoke, “I’ve heard you use that term several times now, Lucario, ‘Mystery Dungeon’. What does that mean?”

Lucario explained, “Mystery Dungeons are locations created by an unusual force that are different from ordinary caves and towers. While they may look normal on the outside, this force has an effect on the layout of the inside. To put it simply, a Mystery Dungeon’s layout is essentially never the exact same between two visits.”

Tails asked, “So… you’re saying there could only be minor differences between visits or the whole thing could seem completely different?”

Lucario replied, “Correct. Pikachu and I did come here once before, but this was not the room we ended up in when we entered. It was smaller.”

Shining let out a sigh and asked, “So we have to wander around until we can find a way up then?”

Lucario nodded, “Right. There are always stairs leading up or down depending on what kind of dungeon it is. Keep an eye out for them as we go.”

Tails looked at Sonic, “Maybe we’ll find the stairs faster if we split up. We can use the radios to stay in touch.”

Sonic nodded, “Right, good idea. The faster we can get to the top of this tower, the better.”

Lucario said, “I suppose that will work. Pikachu and I will take one group, you guys take the other.” After a minute of talking, Sonic headed into the right passage with Twilight, Cadance, Shining, Fluttershy, Spike, and Link while Lucario and Pikachu took Tails, Yoshi, Rainbow, Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity.

As they were walking, Sonic noticed that Link and Twilight seemed to be hanging back. He looked back and noticed that Link was holding what looked like a notebook in his hands while Twilight walked next to him with a pencil and an eraser suspended in her magic. She seemed to be drawing lines in the notebook, occasionally using the eraser to erase something she’d drawn, causing Sonic to wonder if she was drawing a map.

They soon entered a small, square-shaped room that had the entrance to another passage across from them. They entered it and followed it, ending up in a slightly larger room that had two passage openings as well as a winding staircase of clouds near the middle of it. Shining was the first to see it and said, “Look, over there. Those must be the stairs Lucario was talking about.”

Spike looked up and saw that the stairs went straight up to a layer of clouds up above, undoubtedly the next floor. “Well, that was pretty easy. No problems at all,” he commented.

Sonic pulled out his radio and clicked it on. “Come in, Tails,” he said.

The fox’s voice soon responded, “I’m here, Sonic. We ran into a few Pokémon here, but Lucario and Pikachu were able to handle them. How are things on your end?”

Sonic answered, “We managed to find the stairs. There are two openings in the cloud walls across from us in this room. Maybe they’re connected to the way you went.”

Tails replied, “Okay, we’ll be right there.” Sonic’s group stayed where they were to wait for the others to catch up. After a minute, Lucario and Pikachu came out of the opening on the left, the opening on the right leading to a dead end. Reunited, they all made their way up the staircase, which put them in another small room.

They continued on like this, the two groups splitting up on each floor to search for the stairs that led to the next floor with Tails and Twilight making simplified maps to help guide the other group to the stairs when they were found. Along the way, they encountered various species of Pokémon roaming the passages of the tower that Lucario identified for the others. These included Forretress, Lunatone, Shuppet, and Masquerain among others, but while some proved to be sturdier than others, the group was able to deal with the ones they came across and keep moving, occasionally finding loose treasure as they made their way up the tower.

After a while, upon reaching another floor, Pinkie spotted something through a short passageway leading to another room. “Ooh, I see sparklies! Lots of sparklies!” she exclaimed as she started trotting towards the passageway.

Lucario blinked, “Lots of sparklies?” He had a thought and turned, running after Pinkie as he yelled, “Pinkie Pie, don’t go in that room!” Everyone hurried after him, the blue jackal making it to the end of the passageway and poking his head into the room to see Pinkie bouncing around the room, picking up Poké and the other treasures on the floor. “What? But I was sure…” he muttered as he glanced down.

Rainbow flew up behind him and asked, “What’s the matter, Luca’? There something about this room that we should know about?”

Lucario responded as he slowly began to move into the room, “I thought there might’ve been a trap in here. While lots of treasure in a room is not too unusual, in a place like this, it usually means there’s a…” He stopped short when, upon setting paw all the way into the room, a number of figures suddenly dropped down from the ceiling. “Monster House,” he finished with a groan.


MONSTER HOUSE!


Pinkie glanced around at all of the Pokémon that had come down around her while Rainbow stared in surprise. “Uh, wow. No wonder it’s called a Monster House,” she said.

Pinkie looked over at three Pokémon, a Koffing, a Ledian, and a Shuppet, and noticed that they appeared to unusually angry looks on their faces. She looked down at the Poké and berries in her forelegs and then back up at the Pokémon, asking in a nervous tone, “Do these treasures belong to you? If so, I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to take them from you!” She held her forelegs out, “Here, you can have them back if you want.” The Koffing began to float towards her, seemingly willing to take her up on her offer despite the angry look on its face, but after a moment, it suddenly shot forward in a Tackle attack! Pinkie let out a yelp as she retracted her forelegs, unable to move as it shot towards her.

Rainbow suddenly shot into the room over Lucario’s head, calling, “Hang on, Pinkie!” She managed to reach the pink pony before the Koffing did and grabbed her with her forelegs, the treasures she was holding falling onto the floor as Koffing shot over them and Rainbow flew her over towards the passage on the other side of the room, landing next to it.

As they turned to face the room full of Pokémon, Lucario burst in from the passageway with a Force Palm, sending a Forretress flying into the wall on the right. Pikachu was right behind him followed by Sonic and the others. As far as numbers went, the group almost matched the wild Pokémon, but before a brawl could break out, the tower suddenly shook, throwing the group off and causing the hovering or flying Pokémon to look around in alarm. “What was that?!” Applejack cried.

“Felt like something hit us!” Sonic said.

Yoshi, being the closest one to the passageway the group had come from, looked towards the room they had started in and, a moment later, pointed with a cry, “Wah, yoshi! Yoshi! (Oh no, look! It’s a monster!)”

Tails spun his namesakes around to jet over to Yoshi’s side and looked. The far wall in the room had been broken somewhat and a large piece of stone was floating a short distance away from it. “That’s no monster, Yoshi! That’s part of the Sky Sanctuary! That must be what caused that tremor!” the fox said.

“The Sky Sanctuary hit the Sky Tower?! Does that mean the tower is going to collapse?!” Twilight asked.

“I sure hope not. Pikachu and I have climbed a tower in danger of collapsing before and it was not fun,” Lucario grunted. He then said, louder, “We have to get moving!”

Spike leapt back from a Shuppet diving towards him before looking at Lucario and asking, “How much farther to the top?”

Lucario answered after slashing a Lunatone with Metal Claw, “We’re not even at the summit yet. We’ve still got a ways to go.”

Sonic said, “Okay, this is gonna take way too long at the speed we’re going. I’ve got an idea. Let’s get back to the room we were in.” He heard Link grunt a moment later and turned to look. A Ledian was firing a multitude of stars from its mouth at him as he held up his shield to protect himself, trying to stand his ground. The last star that came out was bigger than the others and it sent him flying back with a scream, Link hitting the wall behind him hard. The Ledian tried to follow up with a Comet Punch, but Yoshi used his tongue to pull Link over to him and out of the way, leaving the Pokémon with only the wall to punch.

Shining moved out of the way of a Dragonbreath from an Altaria before saying, “We’re not going to be able to go anywhere as long as these guys are focused on us, Sonic. We need to do something about them first.”

Lucario reached his right paw into the Treasure Bag as he said, “I believe I can help with that.”  He pulled a small orb out of the bag a moment later and held it up before throwing it down at the ground, a small glow appearing as it broke against the ground.

Tails noticed the Masquerain he had been dodging froze in midair suddenly. Even its wings had stopped fluttering. “Huh?” he voiced before looking around and noticing that the other Pokémon in the room, save for Lucario and Pikachu, had similarly frozen up. “They all stopped moving?” he asked.

“That was a Petrify Orb. It stops Pokémon from moving for a short while,” Lucario explained. As he looked at a shaking Solrock, he thought, “Why can’t we ever find Petrify Orbs like this back home?”

Cadance spoke, “Well, now’s our chance to move. Let’s get back to that room and see what your idea is, Sonic!” The blue hedgehog nodded and everyone began to move back to passageway, Yoshi carrying Link on his back.

As she ran, Pinkie scooped up the treasure she had found, left undisturbed during all the fighting, and looked at the Koffing from earlier and stuck out her tongue as she said, “You’re a meanie! And you should really be careful with all that gas!” She then hurried after the others, running and hopping somewhat awkwardly on two legs.

Once they were all back in the first room, Pinkie passed her treasure to Lucario for safekeeping while Shining took a headcount. After a few seconds, the stallion said, “Looks like we all made it out of there.” He looked at Lucario, “I’m not sure how that orb did what it did, but it was a good choice to use it back there.”

The blue jackal replied, “Thanks. It really was a lucky find.” He then looked for Sonic and saw the blue hedgehog over by the hole that had been created in the tower wall, peering out. “So what did you have in mind, Sonic?” he asked.

Sonic looked up the side of the tower, trying to see how much higher they had to go to reach the top. He then looked over at the Sky Sanctuary and, after a few moments, nodded, “Yeah, I think this’ll work.” He looked back at the others, “It looks like we’re pretty high up. I’m thinking we might be able to take advantage of the Sky Sanctuary’s appearance and use it to get to the top of the tower. It’s bound to be faster than wandering around this tower looking for stairs.”

Everyone else thought it sounded like a good idea, with Lucario saying, “Not a bad idea. The part of it that hit the tower isn’t that far away either. A little time and energy should be all it takes to get over there.”

Sonic said, “Or we could do this.” He leapt out of the hole and started falling to everyone’s surprise, but a second later, he came back up flipping end over end. There had been a small white cloud below the hole that Sonic had landed on and had used to bounce on, his momentum carrying him to another cloud and then to another. He soon reached the Sky Sanctuary piece and called back to the others, “Use the clouds! They’re like trampolines here!”

Despite the surprise, Link soon ran towards the hole with Yoshi close behind, the boy turning a somersault as he jumped while the green dinosaur simply leapt out of the hole. Link bounced off the cloud and spun a cartwheel as he went back up and Yoshi followed behind him. It didn’t take them long to join Sonic and the others quickly followed, Tails, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Cadance simply flying over while everyone else used the clouds to bounce their way over to the Sky Sanctuary. They then began making their way into the floating ruins.


SKY IN TIME


They hadn’t gotten very far when they heard a screech ring through the air. They glanced back and saw the Altaria and the other Pokémon from the Monster House coming out through the hole. “Looks like the effects of the Petrify Orb have worn off,” Lucario grunted.

Tails had his radar out and was fiddling with the buttons and dual screens as he ran. “Looks like there’s a fork in the road up ahead. One path goes low and the other goes high, but from the looks of it, they both have teleporters that go up,” he reported.

Sonic looked over at Lucario and asked, “Think we should split up and make it harder for those Pokémon to follow us?”

The blue jackal nodded, “Sounds like a plan. We should be able to regroup at the top.” When the group hit the fork, Sonic, Tails, Link, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Applejack took the low path to the left, sliding down a railing going down from the top of one of the floating towers, while Lucario, Pikachu, Yoshi, Twilight, Spike, Fluttershy, Rarity, Cadance, and Shining started up the high path on the right.

Lucario’s group continued to follow the stone path they were climbing up until they reached a tower that housed a spring. It bounced them up to the tower’s roof, allowing them to move onto another path that was covered with moss growing on it, the group passing a fountain spraying water at one point. As they ran, Shining looked up at the Sky Tower and noticed more figures flying down from further up. “Look! Looks like more than just the Pokémon in that Monster House are after us now,” he said.

“The Sky Sanctuary’s collision with the tower must’ve angered them,” Lucario guessed. Two large Pokémon, one blue with red wings and the other mostly green, suddenly swooped down in front of the group and growled at them, forcing them to stop. “A Salamence and a Flygon,” Lucario said.

“From the sound of those growls, I’m going to guess they’re not going to let us pass,” Shining grunted. His suspicion was confirmed a few moments later when the Salamence reared back and unleashed a Dragonbreath at them, everyone leaping out of the way to avoid the green flames.

Before they could attempt to retaliate, the Flygon let out a cry and flew up, flapping its wings as it hovered in the air and whipped up a Sandstorm. Yoshi, Spike, the ponies, and Team Defenders shielded their eyes as the bits of sand flew at them, the wind making it hard to move. Lucario was able to shrug it off after a moment due to his Steel Type characteristics and brought his paws close together, letting out a yell of “Aura Sphere!” as he formed an orb between them and threw it at Flygon, the attack hitting its mark and knocking the Pokémon out of the air, causing the wind to subside.

Once the wind had died down completely, everyone looked to see the Salamence still hanging in the air, an orange ball of energy beginning to form in front of its mouth. “What attack is that?” Twilight asked as it began to get bigger.

“It’s a Hyper Beam!” Lucario grunted. Suddenly, Pikachu leapt in front of the group and, with a cry, unleashed a powerful Thunder attack at the Salamence. This caused it to unleash the attack nowhere near the group, instead hitting the side of one of the towers in the Sky Sanctuary. Sparks could be seen coming off of the dragon’s body after the attack had subsided, indicating that it had been paralyzed. As it began to drop down, Lucario began gathering light blue energy in front of his mouth after saying, “Dragon Pulse!” At the same time, the Flygon flew up, ready to fight again. Seeing this, Pikachu leapt onto the Treasure Bag and quickly dug into it, pulling out a blue spike, an Iron Thorn, and throwing it at the Flygon.

Both attacks hit their targets, Lucario’s Dragon Pulse knocking the Salamence down onto its back while Pikachu’s Iron Thorn hit one of the Flygon’s wings, causing it to stop its ascent and begin to lose altitude.  In a flash, Yoshi dashed towards it and extended his tongue, latching onto the end of its tail and performing a Ground Pound to drag it down with him. It didn’t try to get back up right away when it hit, prompting Cadance to say a moment later, “I think they’re down.”

Spike said, “Then let’s get moving before they get back up!” Lucario nodded and began leading the way again.

Elsewhere in the Sky Sanctuary, Sonic’s group had their own Pokémon blockade to deal with. Their biggest problem at the moment was an Aerodactyl, but they were also being stopped by a Forretress, an Altaria, a Ledian, and a Tropius. Rainbow had the Tropius and Altaria following behind her, flying around, over, and through the floating structures trying to lose them, while the others were stuck taking care of the other Pokémon.

As she flew towards one of the floating buildings that didn’t have a path leading to it, Rainbow looked back to see if she could see the others. She noticed them running while trying to keep their balance, the path underneath them shaking due to an Earthquake attack from the Aerodactyl, the large prehistoric Pokémon flying around trying to attack them from the sides and above while the Ledian and the Forretress, the latter of which was carrying some damage from the Earthquake attack, pursued them from behind. She saw them duck into the building at the end of their path before she turned her attention forward again, beginning to fly around the outside of the building to lose the Pokémon on her tail.

A minute later, a beam of red light shot above the building that Sonic, Tails, Applejack, Pinkie, and Link had ducked into, each of them dropping down on top of the teleporter that had brought them there. As soon as they touched down, they all began moving again and for a short while, it seemed like they were in the clear. As they reached a path leading downwards, however, Aerodactyl suddenly swooped up alongside them and swung a wing at them, missing Applejack, Sonic, and Tails but smacking Link and Pinkie clean off. “Pinkie, Link!” Tails cried as he got up and moved to the edge with Sonic and Applejack at his sides.

Peering over, they saw that the two had landed on a small floating platform off to the side with a large vase of flowers on it. The three waved down at the two and they waved back, both sides relieved that they hadn’t fallen far. Hearing a cry from the Aerodactyl, Sonic, Tails, and Applejack turned back to it, knowing they would have to deal with it before they could help Pinkie and Link. “All right, that was just plain uncalled for! Ah’m gonna knock some sense into ya, ya overgrown flyin’ lizard!” Applejack yelled as she got into a fighting position, Sonic and Tails doing the same.

While they began fighting with the Aerodactyl, down below, Pinkie and Link heard a buzzing sound and turned to their right to see the Ledian flying up to the edge of the platform. When it reached them, it shot forward with a Comet Punch, prompting Pinkie to jump behind Link as he held up his shield. The boy tried to stand his ground as the Pokémon punched his shield repeatedly several times, pushing him and Pinkie back into the flowerpot. Once the punching stopped, he thrust his shield forward to push the Ledian back and, as he noticed it readying another attack, grabbed a small nut from his pouch and threw it at the ground with a shout, the nut exploding with a flash of bright light. The Ledian let out a cry at this, temporarily blinded by the flash.

“Ooh, ninja skills!” Pinkie said as she peered out from behind Link, but he didn’t respond. The Deku Nut had given him an idea, the boy looking up at the pathway he and Pinkie had fallen off for a moment before looking back at the flowerpot behind him. While he was in thought, the Ledian recovered from its disorientation and glared at him and Pinkie, readying a Swift attack. As it sent the stars flying at them, Pinkie leapt in front of Link and pulled out a full-length mirror, holding it up in front of her as she called her own attack, “Reflect!”

When the stars came into contact with the reflective surface, she imitated Link’s shield thrust and sent the stars that didn’t break back at the Ledian. She managed to bounce back a couple of stars, each one breaking apart when they hit. When the last star hit, the Ledian let out a groan as it slumped to the ground, for the moment, fainted. As she banished the mirror, Pinkie said, “You know, you just gave yourself a ton of bad luck if you broke that mirror!” She then turned around to check on Link but didn’t see him, instead seeing part of a long, floppy green cap disappear into the flowerpot. A second later, a green-clad wooden figure shot up out of the pot and into the air, Pinkie watching in surprise as it, while holding onto a pair of large spinning pink flowers, began to fly to another floating platform.

Meanwhile, the others were still dealing with the Aerodactyl when the Forretress from before showed up to aid it, the Bug/Steel Type showing up by crashing into Applejack’s side with a Tackle attack. As the three steadied themselves to face the angry Pokémon, a Deku Nut suddenly fell from above, landing in front of the Forretress. It let out a grunt, stunned by the flash, while Sonic, Tails, and Applejack were surprised by what had happened. They turned to the Aerodactyl when they heard it let out a cry due to a Deku Nut dropping right in front of its eyes. As they looked up, they saw the wooden figure flying away, aiming for another floating platform.

Seeing an opportunity, Sonic ran over to the Forretress, getting behind it and crouching down on one knee. He then called, “Hey, AJ! Think you can bank it?” The orange earth pony looked over at him for a moment before she got what he was getting at and turned around, getting her hind legs ready. Sonic then began to charge up a Spin Dash and, a second later, shot into the still stunned Forretress, sending it flying towards Applejack, who kicked out and up with her legs when it came close to her, managing to redirect it up into the Aerodactyl’s chest, pushing it backwards.

The Fossil Pokémon let out an alarmed cry as it reached the edge and stopped, trying to keep its balance and allowing the Forretress to fall to the ground. It lost its balance when, a moment later, Pinkie came rocketing up over the opposite edge while somersaulting. She landed on its nose, staring into its still unfocused eyes as it teetered on the edge. As they were about to move to help her, several water shurikens suddenly flew over everyone’s heads, hitting the Aerodactyl in the chest and giving it the push to make it fall off, its head falling back fast enough to make Pinkie slip out from under it, landing on the pathway instead of following it over.

After Pinkie landed, there was a moment of silence as she recovered from landing on her flank a bit hard and everyone else wondered who had thrown the shurikens, but then she whined, “Aww! I’ve tried it three times, but I can’t get any flying flowers!”

Tails, Sonic, and Applejack turned and walked over to her, Tails asking, “Pinkie, what are you talking about? What do you mean by ‘flying flowers’, and how did you get back up here?”

Sonic added, “And where’s Link?”

Pinkie perked up a bit, “Oh, he flew on ahead with those spinning flowers of his. I was trying to do the same thing, but I couldn’t get any flowers to fly with even though I jumped into a flower like he did.” Although they were a bit confused, they didn’t see Link anywhere when they went to check where he and Pinkie had fallen, so they decided to keep moving, hoping she was right about what she’d said.

As they began following the paths again, they all kept an eye out for Link, hoping to find him. It didn’t take long for them to reach the entrance to another tower, the inside looking like it was smaller than the last building they’d been in. As they stood looking around outside, Rainbow flew in from the side and landed next to them. “Hey guys! You have any trouble with that flying lizard?” she asked.

“Well, a little bit, but we got some help from above. Was that you, Rainbow?” Tails asked.

Pinkie was about to say something, but Rainbow spoke first, “Me? No, I was busy dealing with those two things that were after me. They were pretty persistent, but I left ‘em eating my smoke.” She looked around and asked, “Hey, where’s that kid? You know, the one in green who’s just tagging along?”

Sonic said, “His name’s Link, Rainbow. And Pinkie said she saw him fly on ahead of us.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, “How could he fly? He doesn’t have any wings.”

Applejack said, “Ah don’t know, Rainbow, but Ah’m sure Pinkie ain’t just whistlin’ nothin’. If she said she saw him flyin’, then…” She stopped short when they all heard a grunt come from inside the tower. Looking towards the entrance, they saw Link jumping down a series of small ledges, the boy running over to the group when he reached the bottom.

“Wha…? How…?” Rainbow stammered, surprised by his sudden appearance.

“Link, how long have you been here?” Tails asked.

Before Link could answer, Pinkie rushed up to him and stood up on her hind legs, putting her hooves on his shoulders as she demanded, “How did you do that?! I saw you flying with those flowers and looking all different! I want to do that! Tell me how you did it!” He was once again unable to answer as they all heard the sound of something firing followed by the sound of an explosion. Everyone looked back and saw green lasers being fired at the path they had been on, which were coming from the Death Egg’s eyes.


COLLAPSE OF THE SANCTUARY


“The Death Egg’s destroying the Sky Sanctuary!” Tails realized. As they looked, they noticed a number of Pokémon, including the Aerodactyl from earlier, flying towards the Death Egg, presumably to try to stop it from destroying them as well.

“We gotta get outta here before there ain’t nothin’ ta stand on!” Applejack said.

Sonic looked towards the Sky Tower and saw that they weren’t far from the top, but they were also a fair distance away from it. “Let’s get to the top of this tower! We might still be able to get to the top of the Sky Tower from here if we’re quick!” he said. They hurried inside, using the ledges Link had climbed down to reach another floor of the tower, which was beginning to collapse as the tower shook from the Death Egg’s shots. They were able to get to the other side despite the holes forming in the floor and went out through an opening, which led out to a walkway that went up and around the tower to the top.

With the shaking becoming stronger, they all began running up the walkway, Link putting on his Bunny Hood to get a speed boost in order to keep up with everyone, especially as the walkway began to break apart behind them. They managed to stay ahead of the collapsing walkway and reached the top of the tower, which was close to one final stone pathway that went straight towards the Sky Tower. They were able to jump to it and, as they landed, they saw Lucario’s group heading towards them. They started running again and the other group soon caught up with them.

“Looks like we met up at the top after all,” Lucario remarked as he and Pikachu ran alongside Sonic.

“Yeah, lucky us, huh? Now let’s get back to that tower and find Rayquaza!” Sonic replied. As they ran, the Death Egg, despite the Pokémon swarming it and being confounded by its interior, tilted upwards to aim for the pathway they were all on. It fired several shots at it, the lasers breaking through the stone and getting the rest of it to start collapsing as well.

As they ran, it began to become apparent that the walkway come as close to the Sky Tower as they were hoping. “It’s too far away! How are we going to reach it?!” Twilight asked.

“Easy, Twilight, we can fly to it!” Rainbow said.

Cadance looked back, “We’re going to have to grab as many as we can carry, then! There really isn’t time to leave anyone waiting!”

Sonic looked over at Lucario, “Maybe we’ll have to use up a little extra energy after all.”

Lucario glanced at him, “You want to jump for it?” The blue hedgehog nodded in reply. Lucario looked ahead at the Sky Tower for a moment before saying, “Well… it’ll give the others a chance to get the top at least.” As they got closer to the end of the pathway, Sonic grabbed and pulled Pinkie Pie over to him, the pink pony holding onto his back, while Lucario let Pikachu onto his shoulder and grabbed Yoshi, the green dinosaur doing the same as Pinkie. The two jumped towards the tower when they reached the end while Tails took Twilight and Applejack, Fluttershy carried Link, Rainbow grabbed Rarity, and Cadance picked up Shining with her magic while allowing Spike to sit on her back, all of them flying towards the top of the Sky Tower.

Sonic and Lucario flew through the air until they reached the side of the Sky Tower a little ways down from the top, Lucario using Metal Claw to get a better hold on the side while Sonic held on tight with his fingers. “Now what?” Lucario grunted as he tried to keep his extended claws where they were. Sonic didn’t answer with words; instead, he looked up the side of the tower and, a second later, pushed himself up with his hands and shot into a Boost, Pinkie cheering as they shot up towards the top. Lucario got the message and focused for a moment before saying, “ExtremeSpeed!” He then did the same after pulling himself up and pulling his claws out, shooting up after Sonic. It didn’t take him long to reach the top, grabbing the edge with a paw and vaulting over onto the solid clouds, Pikachu leaping off of his shoulder as he landed and rolled on his side, Yoshi doing the same after he let go.

They ended up near Sonic and Pinkie, who were both sitting on the clouds. “WOW! That was so much fun! Can we do it again?” Pinkie asked.

Before anyone else could say anything, Shining asked, “Where’s Rayquaza?” Everyone else looked around at that, quickly noticing that they seemed to be the only ones on top of the Sky Tower. They all began to look up at the sky around them, seeing if they could spot the Legendary Pokémon.


SURPRISE ATTACK


While he was looking close to the edge of the clouds, Sonic simultaneously felt something fly past his back and grab him! He let out a yell to alert the others and they all turned to see a large, snake-like dragon flying along the edge of the clouds with the blue hedgehog in one of its claws. It was mostly green in color with yellow lines running along its back as well as small areas of red, especially around its mouth. “That’s Rayquaza!” Lucario exclaimed.

Rayquaza flew around the tower for a moment before flying up and away from it, still holding Sonic in her claw. Seeing this, Rainbow spread her wings and shot up after the dragon, yelling, “Hey, come back here!” They began flying around each other for several moments before Rayquaza became annoyed and brought her tail up, twisting around to swing it at Rainbow. The cyan pegasus was hit by the end of it and got knocked back down to Sky Tower, bouncing backwards once and sliding afterwards, managing to grab onto the edge of the tower with her hooves, gasping a bit. Sonic, meanwhile, looked up at Rayquaza’s face and noticed her eyes were glowing completely red. She growled at him a moment later and opened her mouth, blue energy beginning to gather in it.

Seeing this, Pikachu quickly charged up and unleashed a Thunder attack, the electricity reaching Rayquaza and electrocuting both her and Sonic, both of them letting out a cry. The shock was powerful enough to get Rayquaza to let go of Sonic, the blue hedgehog falling limply through the air. Tails began spinning his namesakes and Rainbow spread her wings when she saw him falling, both of them flying up towards him. They both managed to grab him and flew him back down to the top of the Sky Tower, both noticing sparks of electricity coming off of him. They got underneath his arms to support him as they landed, Tails asking, “Sonic, are you okay?”

Sonic shook his head slightly before saying, “Uh… That was some jolt. Very refreshing.” The others began to move over to him, but they didn’t get far when they heard Rayquaza let out a roar. Everyone looked up to see her coming down, stopping when her long body was above the surface of the clouds. She seemed to be glaring at everyone as she showed off her sharp teeth, making it clear she wasn’t happy to see them.
> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. III - Delta (b)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


VS. RAYQUAZA


Lucario noticed the red in her eyes and held out his left paw to tell her to stop, hoping that she was still within reason despite her anger. “Rayquaza, please calm down! We’re all aware that we have come up here without your permission, but we wouldn’t have done so if it wasn’t serious! We need your help!” he said. Rayquaza responded with a loud, angry cry that Lucario noticed had no words to it, but he could still understand what she was saying. “She’s like how Primal Dialga was at the Passage of Time… but she hasn’t been changed like that yet! There must be something else that’s causing her to act this way,” he realized.

Spike stepped up beside Lucario and Pikachu and asked, “She’s a Dragon Type or something like that, right? Do you think she might listen to a fellow dragon?” Before either of them could respond, Rayquaza opened her mouth and began gathering blue energy in it again, quickly charging up a Dragon Pulse and firing it at Spike and Team Defenders.

Lucario had already sensed what Rayquaza was planning to do with his Aura and grabbed both Pikachu and Spike, jumping away before the Dragon Pulse hit, everyone that was standing close to where it hit jumping back as well. After landing, Lucario answered Spike’s question as he set him and Pikachu down, “I don’t think so, unless you know that you grow wings at some point and can quickly get them. Even then, though, I think she’s too enraged to listen.”

Yoshi spoke, “Yoshi; yoshi! Yoshi! (She can’t attack us like this; we didn’t do anything to her! She’s being mean!)”

Tails said, “Well, Pikachu did kind of electrocute her, Yoshi, but she was going to attack Sonic after grabbing him unaware and slapping Rainbow with her tail.”

Sonic looked over at Lucario and asked, “I’m guessing we’re going to have to convince her to help us the old-fashioned Pokémon way?”

Lucario nodded, “That appears to be the best option available to us right now.”

Rainbow said, “Well, all right! Let’s get cracking and start fixing this mess!” Everyone readied themselves for battle at the pegasus’ words.

Rayquaza curled up the lower portion of her body, still hovering above the clouds. With a growl, she dipped her head down and charged headfirst at the group, everyone jumping to the side to avoid her. While Rayquaza was not very large around, the top of the Sky Tower was not very big, so they didn’t have a lot of room to move around, especially with such a large group. They all took a moment to look around and get a better idea of how big the area was while Rayquaza stopped herself and turned around to face them all again.

After a moment, Pikachu attacked first by unleashing a Thunderbolt attack at Rayquaza. The attack hit and looked like it did some damage, but it was clear afterwards that it didn’t do a tremendous amount as she shook it off and let out an angry growl at the yellow mouse. Sonic and Lucario moved next to catch her attention, Sonic dashing forward and attacking Rayquaza’s body several times with his Homing Attack while Lucario crashed into her with ExtremeSpeed. They were able to make her reel back a bit, but she tried to catch them off guard when she swiped at them with Dragon Claw. Lucario was able to evade the attack by dropping down onto the clouds while Sonic, having gone up after his series of Homing Attacks, was able to twist his body around as he fell to avoid it.

After they landed, Rayquaza set part of her long lower body down on the clouds and swept her tail around in a circle. Lucario managed to jump over it but Sonic was swept off of his feet, the long tail almost reaching the others as well. “Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy murmured afterwards as she noticed Rayquaza’s focus had gone back to Sonic, the shy pegasus spreading her wings and flying towards him, grabbing him by the shoulders as Rayquaza lunged at him. She managed to pull him up out of the way in time, leaving the green dragon with nothing but air. While her head was close to the clouds, Yoshi, Applejack, and Pinkie charged forward to attack, Yoshi jumping up and kicking his feet across the top of her head multiple times, Applejack bucking as hard as she could, and Pinkie bouncing up and down on top of the dragon’s head.

Sonic’s attempt to thank Fluttershy after she set him down was cut off when Rayquaza let out a roar and swung her head up, sending Yoshi, Applejack, and Pinkie flying. Cadance and Rainbow flew up to catch Yoshi and Pinkie while Twilight used her magic to stop Applejack in midair. As they looked up at Rayquaza, she began to hover above the clouds again. Unable to take standing on the side anymore, Shining began firing beams from his horn up at her, Twilight, Rarity, and Cadance joining him after a moment. Their magic seemed to be having an effect on her since each beam that hit made her flinch, but she soon growled as she twisted her body around and over, flying down along the outside of the Sky Tower.

“Where did she go?” Shining asked. Tails and Rainbow flew up near the sides of the top to look down to try to stop Rayquaza while Lucario closed his eyes and focused his Aura to locate her.

A few moments later, Tails cried “Whoa!” as he darted backwards, Rayquaza shooting straight up past where he had been a moment later. She took on a more horizontal flight path a second later, occasionally going up and down as she continued to fly above everyone. The way she was flying brought up memories of another dragon for Link, but he shook his head to try to banish the thought while the ponies began firing up again.

As the magic shots began firing up at her, Rayquaza hardly even batted an eye; she continued to twist and turn as she flew, her distance and long body making it difficult to land a shot on her. Rainbow quickly got annoyed with the dragon’s ability to dodge and flew up to intercept her, shooting up as fast as she could and slamming her hooves up against Rayquaza’s underside, surprising her. Her momentary shock was enough to allow several beams to hit her, throwing her off further and causing her to descend somewhat. It didn’t take her long to recover, however, and she quickly twisted her head around, locking her gaze on Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegasus was able to avoid Rayquaza’s mouth snapping at her, but the dragon followed after her and grabbed one of her hind legs with a claw.

Rainbow let out a shout as she found herself being swung through the air, unable to stop herself when Rayquaza let go of her leg. Fortunately Tails was able to fly up and get in her way to stop her from being thrown too far from the tower, but she ended up crashing into him, stunning him and causing them both to quickly fall down towards the tower. Twilight, Cadance, and Shining were going to use their magic to catch them, but Yoshi beat them to the punch when he extended his tongue, latching it onto one of Tails’ tails and pulling the fox and Rainbow Dash towards him. He ended up with the majority of the two tails in his mouth, his snout pressed up against Tails’ backside. “Uh, thanks, Yoshi,” Tails uttered after he was let go, the fox letting go of Rainbow Dash and looking back at his wet namesakes while Yoshi let out a happy coo.

Link turned to look up at Rayquaza and saw that she was hovering closer to the Sky Tower’s roof, having not ascended back up to her previous height. She let out a roar a moment later and he guessed that she was about to move again. Not wanting to give her that chance, he suddenly ran towards the edge of the tower and pulled out his Hookshot as he came to a stop. Taking the tool in both hands, he pointed it up at Rayquaza, aiming for the end of her tail, and shot it at her with a *BOING*. It managed to reach her before it extended to its full length and latched onto her tail, Rayquaza letting out a cross between a growl and a roar in surprise at the feeling.

She was only surprised for a moment, however. She then extended her body and began to fly up and away from the tower, Link letting out a cry as he began to get pulled closer to the edge! Before he could go over, Sonic, Yoshi, and Lucario ran to his sides, all three of them grabbing onto the Hookshot and pulling as hard as they could. They were able to stop Link’s sliding and Rayquaza’s flying, but the green dragon didn’t give up trying to pull them over the side. They were soon joined by the others as well, everyone pulling together to go backwards and bring Rayquaza back to the tower. They seemed to have more strength than her at the moment as she slowly but surely started to be pulled back.

Suddenly, it seemed like they were starting to move backwards faster, causing Lucario to look up at Rayquaza. His eyes widened when he saw she had turned her head around and was gathering orange energy in her mouth. “Hyper Beam!” he exclaimed, causing everyone else to look up as well.

Pikachu let go of Spike and jumped to the side to get a clearer look at Rayquaza, his cheeks sparking with electricity. Sonic noticed when he tensed his body and yelled, “No, Pikachu…!” It was too late though as Pikachu unleashed what appeared to be a weak wave of electricity at Rayquaza that wrapped around her when it hit. It clearly affected her as she began growling and electricity sparked along her body, but the others didn’t feel it coming back to them. “What?” Sonic asked.

“Thunder Wave. It’s a non-damaging Electric Type move that paralyzes that target. Now’s our chance!” Lucario said. They all began pulling harder at that, many of them still expecting a shock to travel along the Hookshot’s chain. Now that she was paralyzed, Rayquaza offered much less resistance and was quickly pulled closer to the tower. When she was right next to the tower, it seemed like the paralysis was beginning to wear off, so Link let out a shout to the others. Not knowing what he was getting at, they all let go.

Suddenly, he jerked the Hookshot down and to his left and then to his right, pulling Rayquaza a little bit closer each time. He then finished by standing up straight and holding the Hookshot over his head as he spun in a circle, jerking it down hard as he faced forward again. Rayquaza was brought down by the final pull, her head and her body slamming against the top of the tower, temporarily stunning her. Despite their surprise at this display of strength, everyone quickly took advantage of Rayquaza being brought down to their level and rushed forward to attack her while Link put his Hookshot away.

After several moments of her being attacked by everyone, Link ran in front of Rayquaza and held his right arm straight up, a burst of yellow-colored energy radiating out from him as he stood there. It slammed into Rayquaza and lifted her up off of the tower, flipping over once before she landed in a pile at the edge. She raised her head straight up a moment later and let out a roar before she tried to fly up, only to quickly flip over and fly straight down along the side of the tower. Everyone quickly rushed to the edge and looked down to see that a portal had opened not far down from them. Realizing that Rayquaza had gone into it, they quickly leapt down into it after her.


ANOTHER WHITE SPACE?


As they came out of the other side of the portal, the group didn’t feel any sudden changes in orientation so the bipedal members landed normally while the ponies set their hooves down first before bringing their hind legs down. Reassured that their legs were securely underneath them, everyone looked around to see where they had ended up. They quickly realized that they had seemingly ended up back in the white space, yet they couldn’t see Ponyville or Canterlot anywhere they looked, and there was no sign of Rayquaza in the space either.

“Where’s Rayquaza? She should be easy to see now that we’re back here!” Rainbow said.

Shining nodded, “That’s true. Anything with color should stand out in this white world. Maybe she managed to fly far away before we exited that portal.” When everyone looked at him, he shrugged, “Well, we can’t see Ponyville or Canterlot anymore. We have to be pretty far away not to see any trace of them.”

Pinkie piped up, “I don’t think so.” Everybody looked over at her and saw her sitting a short distance away. She raised her right hoof and moved it a short distance to her right, making a tapping motion with it, a sound being made each time she did it. She then did the same with her left hoof, once again making a tapping sound.

Sonic looked up above Pinkie a moment later and noticed something he hadn’t seen before. The space behind the pink pony seemed to converge right behind her, almost like a corner. Looking back down at her, he asked, “You think we’re in a room, Pinkie?” The party pony nodded in confirmation.

“Well, if we’re in a white room, Rayquaza should definitely be in here! Where is she?” Twilight wondered.

Tails looked at her, “If she was in here, she must’ve found a way out.” He reached into his namesakes and pulled out his radar and opened it to check the readings. “Let me take a look around. I might be able to find where she exited,” he said as he began to walk slowly, still looking down at the dual screens. Pikachu walked after him, curious.

Suddenly they all heard a “Yea-hey!” ring through the air. Everyone (save for Tails, who was fixated on his radar) turned to look behind them, where the voice seemed to have come from. Not that far away, in what was presumably the center of the ‘room’, they saw a man about their height holding up a yellow star in his hands, which had white gloves on them. In addition, he was wearing brown boots, blue overalls, and a green shirt and hat, the latter of which had a green ‘L’ in the white circle on the front of it. He had a small but fine brown mustache and his brown hair ran down the back of his head, sticking out from underneath his cap.

Yoshi immediately recognized the man, letting out a “Wow!” before running towards him. As he got closer, he said, “Yoshi! (Luigi!)”

At the sound of Yoshi’s voice and his running, the man’s arms dropped down and he looked at the green dinosaur in surprise for a moment. “Yoshi? How did-a you get here? I thought you were back in the…” He trailed off as he looked behind Yoshi and noticed the rest of the group, Sonic and a few of the others waving to him. Luigi’s eyes widened and he turned to look at Yoshi, nervously saying, “Uh, I’m-a gonna go now, okay? I’ve got to help the other Yoshi and Mario rescue Princess Peach. …Oh, and find and rescue Wario, too.” He then turned around and began running in place for a moment before shooting off with a cry, running towards a door the group hadn’t noticed before and going through it. The group could see there was a room on the other side of it, but they were too far away and the door wasn’t open long enough for them to get a good look at it.

Yoshi tilted his head to the side in confusion, “Huh?”

Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, “Do you know who that was?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. That was Luigi.”

Lucario asked, “Friend of yours?”

Sonic replied as he scratched his head, “Yeah. Didn’t seem like he recognized me or Tails, though…”

Fluttershy said, “Well, he seemed nice.” Sonic nodded in agreement.

Cadance spoke, “That door seems to be the only way out of here. Do you think Rayquaza could’ve gone through it?”

Shining replied, “I think she probably would’ve crashed through it rather than going through it all proper based on how she was acting earlier… but she might have, Cadance.”

Applejack said, “Well, let’s follow that Luigi fella then. This room is givin’ me the creeps.”

Rainbow nodded, “Me too. I’ve never seen a room this white before…”

Before they could move, Tails called, “I think I found it, guys!” They looked and saw him crouched about halfway down the wall to the left. They all walked over and gathered around him, seeing a glowing spot on the floor in front of him.

“What is it?” Rarity asked.

“I’m not sure exactly, but based on these readings, I think we might be able to use it to open a portal,” Tails said. He lowered his radar and looked down at the glowing spot, “Now if we could just find a way to energize it…”

Pikachu spoke up, “Pika, Pikachu!” Everyone looked at the yellow mouse and noticed his cheeks were beginning to spark. They quickly backed away as his body became surrounded by electricity, a bolt shooting at the glowing spot. He stopped after a few seconds and opened his eyes to look. The spot was surrounded by electricity for a few moments before the spot began to glow brighter, the electricity disappearing as it did. Suddenly a beam of white light shot out from it and stopped a few feet later, a portal opening out of thin air a second later.

“Whoa!” Yoshi exclaimed.

“Well, I guess that works,” Tails commented.

Lucario nodded down at his partner, “Good thinking, Pikachu.” The yellow mouse gave a “Pika!” at that and they all began jumping into the portal, which closed after they were all through it.


YOSHI'S ISLAND


Upon exiting the new portal, the group immediately found that they had ended up in a much more colorful location. In addition to the blue sky overhead, they could see grass, dirt, and bushes with fruits around them, and when Rainbow flew up to get a better look, she said that she could see mountains nearby and a larger landmass to the north. As she flew back down to join the others, they all noticed a nearby structure nestled close to several trees. Curious, they started walking towards it to investigate.

As they got closer, they could see a white picket fence, a mailbox, a table with chairs around it, and what looked like a lit fireplace with a chimney attached to it near the trees. “Is that a… house?” Twilight asked. After a moment, Yoshi let out a “Wow!” and ran on ahead of everyone, everyone running after him to find out what had him so excited.

When they reached the house, they saw Yoshi standing on the table and using his tongue to eat the fruits growing on the trees as well as the name on the mailbox. “‘Yoshi’. I guess this is his house then, huh?” Spike asked.

“Well, some Yoshi’s house, anyway,” Sonic shrugged.

Shining said, “Well, it seems like a nice house, even if it is a little open to the elements, but we don’t have time to sit down and relax. We need to find where Rayquaza’s gone. Yoshi…!” He stopped short when he looked up and saw that the green dinosaur, after eating all of the fruits on the trees, seemed to be sitting down and taking a nap near the fireplace.

“Looks like he wants to catch up on that nap he was having,” Tails commented.

Lucario spoke, “It’s true that we don’t have time to sit around, but why don’t you all sit down and rest for a few minutes? Pikachu and I will go look for Rayquaza; if she’s here, we should be able to find her. We’ll come back once we know for sure one way or the other.” Pikachu nodded and climbed up on Lucario’s shoulder, the blue jackal taking off afterwards.

“Well, that sure was a quick decision,” Fluttershy murmured.

“So what, we’re just supposed ta sit around here and let them search by themselves?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow spoke, “Yeah, I’m not doing that. Who knows how long it could take those two to find Rayquaza? We’ll find her much faster if we help, especially since we’re dealing with a dragon that lives in the sky.”

Tails said, “That’s a good point, Rainbow. That would be the most likely place for Rayquaza to go right now.”

Rainbow nodded, “Right! Unless that guy’s Aura or whatever is supersensitive, he’s not gonna have an easy time spotting Rayquaza if she’s above the clouds. So I’m gonna go up and see if I can find her there. Be back soon!” With that, she spread her wings and shot up towards the sky, searching for the green dragon.

Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, “What do you think we should do?”

Sonic looked at her, “Well, why don’t you guys do what Lucario said and sit down for a few minutes? It’s probably not gonna take Dash long to search the sky over Yoshi’s Island and the Dinosaur Land or whatever the neighboring island is called for Rayquaza.”

Spike asked, “What about you?”

Sonic replied, “I’m gonna go help Lucario and Pikachu speed up their search. Might as well try to rule out as many places as we can as quick as we can.” He got into a running stance, “Give me a ring if Dash finds anything! I’ll be back soon otherwise!” He then ran in the direction Team Defenders had gone.

As he and the others watched Sonic disappear across the plains, Spike suddenly heard the sound of steps close to him and turned his head to the right to look. He saw Sonic standing there with his right hand on his brow, looking in the direction he had just gone. “Whoa!” Spike exclaimed, surprising everyone else and causing them to notice Sonic standing there, the blue hedgehog waving at them all. “You weren’t kidding when you said you’d be back soon! I thought you just left!” Spike commented. Sonic tilted his head at this as he looked down at the baby dragon. Spike pointed, “You know, you went to go help find Rayquaza.” Sonic had crossed his arms while Spike was talking and turned his head to look where the claw was pointing. A second later, he turned and took off running, his arms at his sides.

“Uh, okay? That was… weird for him,” Shining said.

“Super weird! He didn’t even say anything! That is so unlike him!” Pinkie agreed.

Applejack nodded, “Yeah. A simple ‘didn’t find anythin’’ would’ve worked.”

Twilight looked confused as Sonic vanished into the distance again. “Did he… look a little different?” she asked after a moment.

Tails turned to look at the lavender unicorn, “So it’s not just me.”

Rarity said, “I must admit he did look a bit younger than he did a minute ago. I swear, if he has a secret method that he doesn’t want to share…” Link and a few ponies looked at her for a moment before looking at the path again. They didn’t ponder Sonic’s odd behavior for long, instead deciding to do what he said and take the opportunity to sit down like Yoshi.

After a few minutes of waiting, Rainbow Dash flew down and landed on the grass, the cyan pegasus having had no luck finding Rayquaza in the sky. Given the annoyed look she had when she landed, it was safe to say she was pretty upset about this fact, but she calmed down after a minute and sat down with everyone else. Afterwards, it was another couple of minutes before Sonic and Lucario came running in, Pikachu still sitting on Lucario’s shoulder. Putting aside any questions about Sonic’s earlier behavior, Tails asked him after he and Lucario came to a stop, “Did you guys have any luck finding Rayquaza? Rainbow checked the skies, but she said there was no sign of her.”

Sonic answered, “Well, we didn’t see her per se, but Lucario said he picked up on her Aura.”

The blue jackal nodded and said, “I sensed it while we were on the next island over, and it was in the last place one would expect to detect Rayquaza: underground.”


SEEKING RAYQUAZA


Yoshi, who was still sitting near the fireplace totally undisturbed by anything that had happened since he fell asleep, suddenly woke up at that. He looked at Lucario as Twilight asked, “Underground? How far underground? Like you said and Tails explained to us, we’re on islands right now; if it’s essentially going to require us to go underwater to find her…”

Lucario held up a paw to silence her before saying, “Don’t worry, Twilight, we don’t need to go that far down. The area I detected Rayquaza’s presence in appears to be some sort of valley below the island, however there appears to be more than one way down to it. We found some sort of winding tube on the next island that Sonic called a ‘Warp Pipe’ that is connected to this cave. We came to get the rest of you before going further.”

Shining stood up, “Then let’s not waste any more time.”

Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, let’s get going!” Everybody else got up at that.

Before they could start moving, Yoshi suddenly jumped up and ran over to Sonic and Tails saying, “Yoshi!” When everyone looked at him, he said, “Yoshi… Yoshi yoshi! (That place Lucario described… Its sounds like the Valley of Bowser!)”

Sonic held a hand to his chin, “‘Valley of Bowser’, huh Yoshi? Sounds familiar… Is that where Bowser’s ‘Disco Palace’ was?”

Tails spoke up, “I think the name everyone used was ‘Neon Castle’, Sonic.”

The blue hedgehog looked at him and shrugged, “Same thing.”

Tails deadpanned, “Not really.” He looked at Yoshi and asked, “Is there something we should know before we go there, Yoshi?”

The green dinosaur nodded, “Yoshi! Yoshi yo yoshi, yoshi! Yoshi yosh, yoshi! Yoshi, yoshi! (Yeah! That Warp Pipe you found does go down to the valley, but the other end is on the top of a steep cliff! That would be a difficult climb, but don’t worry! Me, Mario, and Luigi found another spot where the valley can be accessed from, and it would put us right on the castle’s front step!)”

Tails said, “Well, your way does sound better, Yoshi. Is there a catch to it?”

Yoshi shook his head, “Yoshi! Yoshi! (Nope! In fact, the closest entrance isn’t far from that Warp Pipe!)”

Sonic smiled, “Well, all right then! Let’s get over there and you show us where it is, Yoshi!” The green dinosaur nodded and he, Sonic, Tails, Lucario, Link, and Pikachu set out for it.

Spike and the ponies were stuck in place for a few moments, a bit stunned by the whole exchange. “Seriously, Fluttershy being able to understand animals is one thing, but how do they know what that guy is saying?” Rainbow asked, voicing the thought they all had. They all looked at each other for a moment before they hurried to catch up with the others.

After making their way across the island and crossing the bridge to the next island, the group went off the beaten path and to the right around the lake to the spot where Sonic, Lucario, and Pikachu had found the Warp Pipe, off to the side of a spooky-looking house. There, Yoshi led the group to a second path that led to a secret alcove containing a glowing yellow star-shaped rock on the ground. Yoshi pointed at the rock with an excited “Yoshi!”

Cadance asked, “What is it?”

Tails answered, “If I’m not mistaken, it’s an entrance to a secret location called the Star Road.” Yoshi nodded and then jumped up onto the rock. Everyone watched when he jumped a moment later and began spinning before shooting up towards the sky.

“Cool!” Sonic said before jumping on the rock himself, the same thing happening to him when he jumped. When the spinning stopped, he found himself in a new location. Looking around as he stepped off the star rock he had ended up on, he saw that the area he and Yoshi were in was shaped like a five-pointed star with a hill in the middle of it, both of them on the lower left point. Up above, the sky was clear, showing the stars lighting up the sky.

After several moments, Yoshi and Sonic looked to see Tails joining them, the fox looking a little dizzy as he stepped towards them. “Uhhh… I think my head is still spinning…” he uttered as he held his left hand up against the side of his head. They were soon joined by everyone else, Twilight, Spike, and Fluttershy appearing dazed like Tails while everyone else seemed to have handled the jump fine. Once they had gotten their bearings and everyone noticed where they were, Yoshi led them to the star’s lower right point and leapt on the star rock there to leave the Star Road, everyone else doing the same.

The warp deposited the group amongst some moderate-sized rocks. As they walked away from the rock, they were able to peer beyond some of them and see that it did look like they were in a valley, albeit a barren one. Looking forward, they saw Yoshi peering over a rock at their destination: a large castle with thunderclouds around it and a sign on the roof with letters that spelled ‘BOWSER’. “Wow… that’s a large castle,” Shining breathed.

Cadance asked, “What did you call it, Tails? The ‘Neon Castle’?”

The fox nodded, “Yeah. I’m guessing the neon hasn’t been on since Bowser got out.”

Sonic looked over at Lucario and asked, “So? Is she in there, Luca’?”

The Aura Pokémon closed his eyes and focused for a moment before opening them and saying, “Yes… Yes! Her Aura is coming from inside that castle! But she doesn’t seem to be moving…” Pikachu looked shocked to hear that and the two of them leapt out from behind the rock, heading for the castle’s front entrance. Sonic and the others were quick to follow, crossing the bridge leading to the opening left by the now missing front door.

Stepping inside, they instantly found themselves in the castle’s main foyer. While it was a little hard to tell for sure due to how big the foyer was, there appeared to be doors leading to other parts of the castle in the walls. “Hm. This is roomier than I thought it would be,” Tails commented, noting the high ceiling.

It didn’t take long for them to spot Rayquaza, or rather her head and part of her body, near the center of the room. The rest of it seemed to be down a circular hole as there was a guardrail encircling her beyond the reach of her claws that Lucario and Pikachu were standing near. Rayquaza’s eyes appeared to be closed and there were metal bands wrapped around her arms and body that seemed to be attached to the circumference of the hole. “Hey, someone’s captured Rayquaza!” Rainbow realized, everyone moving towards her at that.

Lucario and Pikachu, meanwhile, were looking down the hole to see that there were more metal bands wrapped around Rayquaza’s long body, effectively keeping her from moving when she regained consciousness. “I don’t know who would do this to her, but we have to set Rayquaza free!” Lucario said. Pikachu nodded and sparks began to come out of his cheeks; Lucario noticed this and quickly said, “Uh, that might not be such a good idea right now, Pikachu.” The yellow mouse guessed what he was getting at and nervously rubbed his head with a paw. Turning back to Rayquaza, Lucario held out his left paw and began gathering energy for an Aura Sphere, “This should be enough to break those.”


SEND IN THE CLOWN


Suddenly, a loud “Ye hee hee hee!” rang out through the air, causing Lucario’s focus to break and the rest of the group to stop in place, everyone looking around for the source of the laughter. A moment later, while Lucario and Pikachu were looking off to the sides, something appeared in front of them from a puff of smoke and shot forward, crashing into them and knocking them backwards. As everyone else ran over to the two, they all heard the voice come from the new arrival, “You intruders do not belong here! And after all the trouble it took to get this dragon here, it’s not going anywhere!”

Everyone looked to see that their new arrival had a yellow-colored turtle face with two fangs sticking out of the side of its mouth. It wore thick black-rimmed glasses and a pointy blue hat. They couldn’t see much below its head as it was in what appeared to be a large white bowl with a smiley face on the front of it, the mouth orange and the eyes blue, and a green propeller on the bottom of it. Tails looked at the turtle’s face for a moment before saying, “A Magikoopa… Kamek?!”

The Koopa wizard said as he flew up above everyone, “One of Lord Bowser’s lesser enemies remembered me. I’m touched.”

Sonic asked, “Speaking of which, how’d you get Bowser to let you use his Clown Car?”

Kamek replied, “That’s for me to know, hedgehog!” He held up his right hand, revealing he was holding a wand with a red jewel atop it, “You won’t be finding out because you and your friends are going to be burnt alive!” He waved the wand around, multicolored magic coming off of its tip and surrounding the Koopa Clown Car. After a moment, flames appeared on the underside of it and the eyes changed to a yellow color, taking on an angry appearance. The mouth then changed to an ‘O’ shape and spat several fireballs at the group, forcing them to break up.

Link let out a grunt as he finished rolling to the right, remaining down on one knee as he pulled out his bow and readied an arrow, firing it up at Kamek’s magic wand. The Koopa wizard let out a yelp when it hit and almost caused him to lose his grip on the wand, but he held on and turned to glare down at Link afterwards. He had to duck to dodge another arrow, but he then said, “You’ll pay for that, you little brat!” He waved his wand and sent a shot of swirling magic at the next arrow, saying, “How do you feel about Bob-Ombs?!” When the magic hit, it stopped the arrow and changed it into a black bomb with white eyes and legs a moment later, the bomb immediately running towards Link with its fuse lit.

Link was able to avoid getting seriously hurt by holding up his shield, but the explosion still sent him flying backwards. Lucario saw this and glared up at Kamek as he held his left paw out and prepared an Aura Sphere, letting go of it when it was ready. The attack was reflected when Kamek created a magic field in front of himself, however, redirecting the sphere up into the ceiling. Some of the stonework that made up the ceiling came loose when it hit, causing it to rain down and throwing off Rainbow Dash as she was going for a direct attack, allowing Kamek to dodge around her. The wizard then aimed his magic at several of the falling stones, changing them into robotic Koopas. “Mechakoopas!” Tails said as they directed their attention at the members of the group.

“You like that, fox? Well, how does THIS bowl you over?” Kamek asked as he waved his wand around, creating a large metal ball and dropping it down on the ground, causing it to roll forward.

“Whoa, it doesn’t!” Sonic exclaimed as he leapt over the ball while Twilight, Applejack, and Shining scrambled to get out of its way. As he came down, Sonic bounced on the heads of two of the Mechakoopas, causing them to slump to the ground. He looked down at one of the robots and then up at Kamek before looking down at the Mechakoopa with an idea. As he picked it up with both hands, he quipped, “Looks like you Mechakoopas just got a new name: MASHED Koopas!” He then spun around once before letting it go, sending it flying up at Kamek. The wizard managed to duck to avoid it and swerved to avoid the second one when Tails ran over and sent it flying with his namesakes. Kamek looked down at the two and held up his wand, waving it around in a circle again.

Suddenly, the Koopa Clown Car doubled in size, the crate’s eyes locked onto Sonic and Tails as it lowered down. After a moment, its eyes narrowed to slits and it began to bounce across the ground, trying to crush them underneath. Tails hopped backwards to get out of the way while Sonic fell forward, both of them managing to avoid it. As he raised his head up, Sonic noticed the last Mechakoopa land in front of him and looked to see Pikachu a short distance away gesturing to him. Sonic nodded and rose up onto his knees, hitting the Mechakoopa on the nose with his right fist as he said, “Enough of this clowning around, broom boy!” He stood up and grabbed the Mechakoopa, swinging it around and letting go as he finished, “You’re KOOP-put!”

The Mechakoopa flew towards Pikachu, who redirected it with his tail as he was using an Electro Ball attack, the ball of electricity causing the robot to shoot up towards the Clown Car, which was currently holding position overhead. It seemed to be too strong an attack as it looked like it was going to overshoot the Clown Car’s opening, but Lucario, having already sensed what Pikachu was planning, had Yoshi throw him up at the vehicle. He ended up meeting the Mechakoopa above the opening, at which point he yelled “Knock Down!” as he swung his right paw down, sending the robot down into the opening. While he was still in the air, he saw Kamek being bounced around inside after letting out a cry from being hit. He also saw the smile on the Clown Car change to a frown as it began to lose altitude.

It wasn’t over yet, however, as the damaged Clown Car began to fire fireballs on its own, which had grown in size with the car. The first one it fired where the face was directed towards the floor, the fireball creating a crater when it hit. It kept firing even as the vehicle flipped over and Kamek held onto it. “If we don’t stop that thing, it’s going to bring this whole castle down!” Shining yelled over the explosions.

Kamek held onto the car with his left hand as he attempted to use his magic wand, but Sonic wasn’t about to give him the chance to do whatever he was planning. He ran towards the Clown Car and curled up into a ball, shooting up towards it. Rainbow was about to do the same thing with Kamek, but a light blue ball suddenly shot inside the castle and beat her to the punch, crashing into Kamek and sending him flying out of the back of the castle while Sonic sent the Koopa Clown Car spinning end over end out through the front of the castle, where it smashed against the ground, finally shutting down. As he was flying through the air, Kamek muttered to himself, “Lord Bowser is not going to be happy about this…”


THE SONICS MEET


Back inside the castle, Sonic landed on the ground crouched on one knee while the one who helped him landed on both feet, arms held out sideways. Sonic turned to look, as did everyone else. Its back was to all of them, but they could make out plenty of details from that alone. Its fur was a lighter shade of blue, yet it had familiar though shorter spines going down its back, familiar red shoes, and familiar white gloves. And when it turned around slightly, the face was almost exactly the same… Everyone’s eyes widened as they realized they were looking at another Sonic.

Tails looked at his Sonic in surprise for a moment before looking at the other Sonic and saying, “Sonic!” Both blue hedgehogs instinctively turned to look at the two-tailed fox at the sound of their name, surprising everyone further. The two hedgehogs then looked over at each other silently, Sonic rising to his feet and walking towards the shorter hedgehog as he did the same. When they were in front of each other, they both stared at each other’s face, examining. The two perfectly mimicked a few poses and actions before they went back to staring at each other with their hands on their hips, neither one sure what to make of what they were seeing, though Sonic was getting the nagging feeling that there was something familiar about this.

The silence in the air was suddenly broken when a small form ran up to the shorter Sonic’s side, exclaiming, “There you are! I finally caught up with you!” Both Sonics and everyone else looked at the source of the voice to see what looked like a smaller version of Lucario that lacked spikes and with only one dreadlock on both sides of the back of his head. The smaller Pokémon, a Riolu, continued to speak to the shorter Sonic as everyone else just looked on, “Your Speed is amazing! Are you sure you’re not a Pokémon? You sure are fast enough to be one that’s hard to find!”

Pikachu could only stare at the Riolu in disbelief, even as he looked between him and Lucario, who seemed just as shocked as him. After several seconds of listening to him run his mouth at the shorter Sonic, who was unsuccessfully trying to back away, Pikachu called to the Riolu, “Pika, Pikachu!”

The Riolu heard what he said and stopped talking as he looked over at the yellow mouse, his eyes lighting up as he saw him. He ran over to Pikachu, causing the shorter Sonic to breathe a sigh of relief, and said, “Pikachu! You’re here too? It’s so good to see you! This guy I bumped into seems pretty cool, but I’m so glad to see a familiar face here, wherever here is!”

Pikachu held out his paws as he carefully spoke, “Pikachu, pika… Pi pika pi, Pikachu…”

Riolu seemed to stop paying attention to what Pikachu was saying as he began to look around while he was talking, his eyes falling on Lucario after a few moments. He ran over to the Aura Pokémon before he could react and looked up at him. “Hey, aren’t you…?” he started.

“No. Not necessarily. Just because we are from the same evolutionary chain does not mean anything,” Lucario quickly said as he turned his head to the side and held his right paw up in front of his eyes to avoid making contact.

“You didn’t even let me finish,” Riolu argued.

“You’re a Riolu. Your Aura alerts others to how you are feeling. And I am a Lucario. I’ve become rather good at sensing certain things. Perhaps with the proper discipline, you too will be able to do that someday,” Lucario half-lied, still trying to avoid looking at Riolu.

Everyone looked on at the odd exchange taking place, particularly the two Sonics. They looked back and forth between Riolu and Lucario several times before they both blinked in surprise and looked at each other. The taller Sonic was finally beginning to understand what evolution meant for Pokémon, but more importantly, both Sonics were realizing something important about each other.

They weren’t alone in this realization either, as Pinkie suddenly popped up behind them and wrapped her forelegs around them, saying, “Ooh, I get it now!” She shook her left foreleg slightly as she held onto the shorter Sonic, “This Sonic is actually you, Sonic, only from a different point in time! He looks younger than you! That would make him… Classic Sonic!” She let go of the two Sonics, spinning them around as she sat down with a hoof on her chin and a contemplative look on her face. “Hm… nah, that’s what everyone who’s reading this is going to expect me to call him. There’s gotta be a better name for him…” She suddenly smiled, “I’ve got it! He’s… Old-Timey Sonic! And you’re Fun-Timey Sonic! Those names are much better! Use those names from now on, Greenie!” Old-Timey Sonic turned to his older counterpart while pointing a thumb at Pinkie in confusion, Fun-Timey Sonic just shrugging to him in reply.


THE SOURCE OF RAYQUAZA'S ANGER


The awkward silence was broken when Rayquaza suddenly let out a roar, reminding almost everyone present what they were there for. They all looked to see that was awake and trying to get out of her bindings, but that wasn’t the only thing they noticed. As her eyes opened and closed, they saw that they were alternating between the glowing red color they had seen before and her normal yellow eyes. They could also see some sort of purple mist seeping out of her mouth, more of it coming out when she began to cough.

As the mist hit the ground, it began to spread around the room, everyone looking at it as it seeped around them. “What is this stuff?” Twilight asked as she eyed it.

“It doesn’t appear to be Phantasmal Fog… but it sure looks familiar,” Tails noted. After a few moments, he heard Link let out a gasp and looked over to see a pillar of mist rising in front of the boy. “Link?” Tails asked as the mist began to take on a more definitive shape, becoming a blackish-purple copy of Link that was slightly larger and had glowing red eyes. It also had its sword and shield drawn, prompting Link to draw his own sword and shield. The copy suddenly swung its sword downwards, causing Tails to call, “Look out!” Link simply responded by thrusting his shield, striking the sword’s tip and knocking the copy backwards. He then quickly stepped forward and stabbed it in the torso with his sword, causing it to be knocked back.

“What… What’s happening?” Rarity asked. Any sort of answer she might’ve gotten was interrupted when they heard what sounded like a spring coming from in front of the two Sonics. Looking up, they all saw that a ball of mist had shot up into the air, the ball changing into a copy of Fun-Timey Sonic when it reached the height of its jump. As gravity began to pull it back down, it stuck out its right foot and shot down towards the two Sonics.


VS. DARK COPIES


F-T Sonic braced himself at this and, as the copy got closer, he dropped onto his back and held up his left foot, halting the copy’s foot when it reached him. It wasn’t done, though, since it immediately lunged forward, trying to grab at him. Reacting quickly, F-T Sonic dropped his left foot down and brought up his right foot, getting it underneath the copy and pushing straight up, letting the copy’s momentum send it flying. Sonic sat up afterwards and looked back at the copy lying on the floor and quipped, “Ninja’d.”

As the copy began to get up, Yoshi ran over and extended his tongue, latching it onto the side of the copy and pulling it into his mouth. Instead of swallowing it down, he held it in his mouth and began moving it around inside while biting it, causing more damage. He was interrupted when something crashed into him from the side, causing him to let out a “Wah!” as the seemingly smaller copy was spat out of his mouth. It became apparent that he had been attacked by two things due to a second weight suddenly being thrown on top of him. The first was a copy of Rainbow Dash and the second was a copy of Yoshi himself. It didn’t take long for everyone to realize that the mist was forming a copy of each of them, including Riolu and O-T Sonic.

Seeing that their doubles had no intention of being friendly, Rainbow spread her wings and shot towards Yoshi, crashing into her copy and throwing the copy of Yoshi off as well. She began wrestling with the doppelganger while everyone else turned their attention on their own doppelgangers. Despite them all being the same blackish-purple color, there were enough physical differences amongst the ponies for them to identify their doubles, everyone, including Fluttershy, choosing to focus on dealing with their own copy first.

In the midst of their fighting, everyone was able to get at least a quick look at how O-T Sonic and Riolu fought. While they both used jumps, kicks, and their speed against their doubles, F-T Sonic also made better use of his fists and used more stylish, varied moves in his fighting compared to O-T Sonic. Riolu, as far as anyone could tell, lacked the long-distance attacks of his evolved counterpart, though he did pack a powerful punch and a forceful palm in his fighting. It also became apparent that as they hit the dark doubles more, they began to get smaller.

It didn’t take long for everyone to shrink their copies down to normal size and make them smaller than that, each one breaking apart in a burst of mist afterwards. Having defeated her own copy and noticing that everyone else had done the same, Rainbow dusted off her hooves as she asked, “All right, anything else we need to do? Or can we leave with Rayquaza now?” The green dragon in question had finished coughing up the last of the mist a while ago and seemed to be recovering from it, though she was still straining to get free.

As if in answer to the pegasus’ question, all the mist left behind by the destroyed doppelgangers suddenly shot to the center of the crater in the floor the Koopa Clown Car had created with its fireball earlier, swirling together and starting to form a solid shape once again. “Ah wish ya hadn’t said anythin’, Rainbow,” Applejack groaned, not really feeling up to any more surprises at the moment.


GATHERING DARKNESS


As the mist swirled more closely together, discernible features began to appear. Two two-toed feet that were black-gray in color were the first to appear, followed by legs that connected to a torso that sprouted a long bulb-tipped tail that stood straight up behind the new creature. Lucario noticed how the tail seemed to curl around the underside of the creature joining with its front and, as its upper body began to form, he began to get uneasy. “Oh, it couldn’t be… It can’t be taking on HIS appearance!” he yelled.

His hopes went unanswered as a pair of arms took shape below the creature’s shoulders as its head began to form. Once the cat-like creature had finished forming, its cold purple eyes looked at everyone for a moment before it hunched over, bringing its arms and legs close to its body for a moment before bringing them out, causing a cloud of darkness to spread out from it. With as quick as the cloud was rushing towards them, nobody had a chance to get away, so they all instead tried to shield themselves as best they could as the cloud engulfed them. They tried to stand their ground as best they could, but the ground beneath them began to shake before something began shooting out of it where the cloud had been, everyone on the ground being sent flying towards the creature by whatever had burst out of the ground.

Upon landing, everyone looked up and around to see that they were surrounded by numerous dark purple crystals sticking out of the ground, some much larger than others. The larger crystals blocked out their view of Rayquaza, but that was the least of their worries right now. They soon heard what sounded like a grunt and turned to see the new creature lowering itself to the ground, landing on the tips of its feet. They all noticed the long orange crystal sticking out of its left shoulder as it glared at them all with its cold purple eyes once again.

> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. III - Delta (c)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


DARK MEWTWO APPEARED!


“Okay, what are we dealing with now? Anybody?” F-T Sonic asked as he lay on his back, his head turned to look at the creature.

“It looks like Mewtwo, but not quite. Perhaps it’s what Mewtwo would look like if darkness had corrupted him and made him achieve a different Primal state,” Lucario said as he rose up onto one knee. Any questions anyone might’ve had for him were to remain unasked due to the Mewtwo curling its body inward again, a purple Aura surrounding it and a rainbow-colored shape appearing and shining brightly in front of it. After several moments, the light and Aura faded away to reveal that the dark Mewtwo’s appearance was different, now looking more like a close-range fighter and having blue eyes. “Make that a dark Mega Mewtwo… X,” Lucario grumbled as he stood up and ran towards the opponent, Pikachu dashing over and getting behind him to provide support.

The dark Mewtwo glared at Lucario as he got closer, raising its fists to block his first punch before retaliating with one of its own. Lucario managed to sidestep it and they both began to punch and kick at each other, the Dark Mewtwo leaping back when Lucario spun around and tried to strike it with his tail. Upon landing, it brought its hands close together and began readying an Aura Sphere that was orange in color. Lucario created an Aura Sphere of his own at this and threw it moments after the Dark Mewtwo threw its sphere. The two attacks met in midair and pressed against each other for a moment, the Mewtwo’s sphere looking like it was about to overpower Lucario’s when they both exploded, raising a cloud of dust.

Lucario closed his eyes and tried using Detect to catch the dark Mewtwo’s next move as it burst through the dust cloud. It grabbed at him with its three-fingered hands and Lucario leapt back to get out of the way. He was able to duck when the Mewtwo swung its left fist at him, but it ended up colliding with Pikachu as he leapt to try to help Lucario. The jackal’s eyes shot open as the mouse went sprawling across the ground, “Pikachu!” His distraction cost him as the Mewtwo punched him in the face several times before swinging its tail around and sweeping him off the ground.

By this time, everyone else had recovered from being uprooted and was ready to join in. F-T Sonic was the first to move, dashing towards the dark Mewtwo and distracting its attention away from Lucario. Once he was close enough, he jumped up and launched into a Homing Attack, managing to hit the dark Mewtwo before it could put up a guard. The attack pushed it back and it sidestepped to move away from Sonic, but the blue hedgehog was still in the air, so he locked onto the dark Mewtwo’s new position and launched into another Homing Attack. This repeated several times, the dark Mewtwo stepping back and to the side to get away only to get hit by another Homing Attack. O-T Sonic watched how his future self quickly attacked the way he did in amazement, resolving to not only learn the technique but to master it.

It didn’t take long for the dark Mewtwo to grow annoyed at Sonic’s repeated attacks. After taking another hit, instead of stepping back, it steeled itself and delivered an uppercut to Sonic’s face with its right fist, interrupting him and sending him flying back end over end, though he did manage to land on his feet in a crouched position. Almost immediately after he slid to a stop, Rainbow shot over his head with Tails flying close behind her. The dark Mewtwo noticed them coming and stepped around Rainbow, striking her in the back of the head with his right for good measure, and then tried to grab Tails with its left hand. Fortunately, Tails had better control over his speed and was able to stop himself and reverse direction to avoid the hand, only to be grabbed by the dark Mewtwo’s Psychic powers. It held the fox in midair, allowing him very little movement.

Before it could do anything more, the dark Mewtwo let out a grunt as a pink shot of magic struck its chest from above, breaking its concentration and causing it to release Tails. It looked up and saw Cadance hovering up in the air at the edge of the field, her horn glowing brightly. She fired several more shots at it, but it held up its right hand and created a small blue barrier in front of it that the shots were unable to breach. The dark Mewtwo felt several shots hit its side a second later, however, and looked to see that they had come from Shining and Twilight. It didn’t take long for everyone else to join in, both Sonics, Rainbow, and Riolu using their speed to perform quick attacks before moving away while Shining, Twilight, Cadance, Pikachu, Lucario, and Link attacked from far away while it was distracted, the others moving in to either attack or draw its attention when they had a chance.

Their strategy was not effective for long, however, as the dark Mewtwo soon realized how they were trying to overwhelm it. After taking a strong kick to the side from Applejack, it spun around and whacked her away with its tail. It then heard Tails and Rainbow flying at it and used its Psychic to stop the latter with its left hand while it punched the former away. It then released Rainbow and let her crash into the ground while it leapt straight up, the shots from Twilight, Cadance, and Shining missing it as it ascended. It soon came to a stop in midair and held its arms out to its side, projecting its Psychic powers outward.

Everyone soon noticed walls of light forming a box around the field as a result of the dark Mewtwo using Reflect. It then began to bring its hands together in front of it, causing the walls to move inward while passing through the crystal formations unhindered. The same couldn’t be said for the group, though; instead of passing through them, the walls began roughly pushing them towards the middle of the arena as the dark Mewtwo came down. Once it was a short distance above the ground and in the optimal position, it stopped moving the walls and curled its body inward. Before anyone could recover from being pushed, it uncurled its body as it unleashed a powerful burst of Psychic energy that shattered the Reflect walls and swept everyone off of the ground, all of them being sent flying and many of them crashing into the crystal formations outside of the central arena.

Pikachu, Lucario, Riolu, and O-T Sonic were the only ones who weren’t thrown out of the arena by the dark Mewtwo’s blast, though they did end up at the edges of it. Lucario was the first to recover and he stood up and shot towards the Mewtwo, bringing his paws close together as he ran and creating a staff of Aura between them for a Bone Rush attack. As he got closer, the dark Mewtwo held its left hand up and back, creating an orange blade of energy from its palm and swinging it at Lucario, who held up his staff horizontally to block it. They began swinging at each other, the dark Mewtwo alternating its blade between its hands as it tried to block and parry.

After a few minutes, it made a vertical slash at Lucario and, as the Aura Pokémon was bringing his staff down, it reached up with its right hand and grabbed the exposed part of the staff, holding it for a moment before suddenly thrusting its hand straight up, hitting Lucario on the underside of his head with both its fist and the staff. The surprise attack only stunned Lucario for a moment, but that was all the Mewtwo needed. It grabbed Lucario by the neck and lifted him off of the ground, holding him for a moment before it began slashing at him with the blade. After several seconds of this, in one quick motion, it let him go and punched him in the stomach, sending him flopping back across the ground.

Pikachu, Riolu, and O-T Sonic all had had a good view of what Lucario was put through and they watched him as he was sent back and slid to a stop before they all turned and glared at the dark Mewtwo, all of them running towards it. Pikachu reached it first due to using Agility and used his increased Speed to launch a combination of Double Team and Quick Attack, all of his copies flying towards the Mewtwo and disappearing as it swung its arms and tried to strike at the real one, but the real Pikachu managed to hit it before jumping to its left side and turning around, attempting to follow up with an Iron Tail. The dark Mewtwo was quick, however, and was able to intercept him, grabbing him and throwing him down to the side.

Riolu and O-T Sonic were just about on top of the Mewtwo at this point, both of them immediately launching their attacks. Sonic managed to land a Spin Dash on Mewtwo’s side and Riolu managed to hit it with a Force Palm, but the latter attack did not cause paralysis. Mewtwo turned and grabbed Riolu and threw him across the ground. O-T Sonic tried to use another Spin Dash, but Mewtwo heard him coming and punched him when he leapt off of the ground, causing him to break out of his spin and slide back across the ground a bit dazed. Pikachu tried to intercept the Mewtwo as it started to approach O-T Sonic, but it blocked his Thunderbolt attack and punched him away when he attempted to use another Iron Tail. O-T Sonic looked up at the Mewtwo as it stood over him and created its blade of orange energy in its right hand, raising it above its head.

Before it could swing it down, though, a loud shout rang through the air. The Mewtwo looked back up over its shoulder and saw Link coming down from above with both sword and shield drawn. The Mewtwo cancelled its attack and moved to the side as Link swung his sword down, missing Mewtwo but being far away enough to not hit O-T Sonic by accident. The Mewtwo looked at O-T Sonic and saw a blue blur shoot by and grab him, F-T Sonic getting his past self to safety. Looking around, Mewtwo saw that everyone had recovered from the earlier blast and was moving back in to continue the fight. It turned its attention back to Link as the boy ran up to it and focused on him.

Glaring down at the boy, the Mewtwo suddenly swung its tail to the left at him, but Link saw it coming and leapt to the left, rolling sideways as he landed and getting up behind Mewtwo before delivering an upward slash to its back, causing it to grunt in pain. The Mewtwo whirled around and tried to punch the boy with its right fist, only for Link to retaliate by thrusting his shield forward against the fist. The force from his thrust managed to surprise the Mewtwo and Link took advantage of its surprise to leap up and slash down at it from above. The Mewtwo’s tail wrapped around his legs as he was coming down, however, causing him to land hard on his front. Link managed to flip himself over a moment later, but the Mewtwo lifted him up with its Psychic and punched him hard in the chest, Link letting out a cry as he was sent flying back. He rolled on his side when he landed, coming to a stop on his front near the edge of the arena.

Lucario noticed that Link wasn’t trying to get up right away and feared that the Mewtwo had hurt him severely. The Aura Pokémon ran and leapt to the boy’s side, reaching into his Treasure Bag and pulling out an Oran Berry. “Here-” he tried to say but was cut off when the berry suddenly exploded in a shower of blue juice. He looked over at the Mewtwo and saw it was holding out its left hand, indicating it had used its Psychic powers to destroy the berry. It then lowered its left hand and raised its right, creating an orange Aura Sphere in front of it. “Oh no…!” Lucario muttered as he looked back at Link, seeing the boy still on the ground. He looked towards the Mewtwo when he heard Pikachu shout at him and saw the Aura Sphere coming straight at him and Link.

The dark Mewtwo’s Aura Sphere exploded when it reached Lucario and Link, a thick cloud of smoke being generated from the explosion. Assuming they were both defeated and satisfied with that, it turned to face the rest of the group, everyone having made it back to the arena and now angered at what it had done. Before anyone could move, a golden glow began to shine brightly from the cloud of smoke and Mewtwo quickly looked back over its shoulder with an eye raised in surprise. Everyone else looked as well, wondering where the light was coming from.


GOLDEN POWER


As the smoke began to fade, they all saw Link standing in front of Lucario, who was still kneeling down, glaring at Mewtwo with his sword and shield in his hands. Lucario looked up at Link and saw that the golden glow seemed to be coming from his left hand, some sort of symbol visible there. “You… What is…?” Lucario breathed, not sure what to make of what he was seeing. Link didn’t answer him, instead remaining focused on Mewtwo. He held his left hand up in front of himself so the back of his hand could be seen. Looking, they all saw that the symbol was of three golden triangles, one on top of the other two and the bottom right triangle was shining more brightly than the other two.

The golden light looked terrifying, but the dark Mewtwo wasn’t about to back down. It glared at Link once again as the boy put away his sword and shield, his stance hardly changing as he did. He glared back at Mewtwo for a second before his left hand went behind his back for a moment, Lucario’s eyes widening when he saw the mask in the boy’s hand when he brought it forward again. The others noticed it as well, Spike saying, “Whoa, is that the mask he had on before?!”

Pikachu, Sonic, and Cadance were just as surprised as he was when they saw the mask’s face. “I think it is, Spike!” Sonic said. He then called, “Get clear, everyone! Link’s about to go all out!”

Tails asked what many of the others were thinking, “What do you mean he’s about to go all out?”

As Link raised the mask to his face, Cadance said, “You’ll see in a moment, Tails.” Once the mask was on, a change came over Link. He hunched over as he alternated between groaning and growling. After a moment, he raised his head up and brought his arms down at his sides as he let out an anguished, inhuman roar. Everyone was shocked when they saw the mask’s face. Before it had empty eyeholes and a closed mouth; now the eyes had white scleras and small eyes that were made even more frightening by the mask’s now narrowed eyebrows. The mouth was open as well, revealing sharp fangs inside. Link’s contorted mask face remained for a few seconds before a flash of white light forced everyone to look away.

When the light faded, they could all see that Link had assumed the form he had taken when he had aided Groudon. No longer a young child, he now looked more like a human adult, wearing black trousers, gray and red gauntlets, and a silver tunic and cap, the tunic looking like it had armor around the torso. He had white hair sticking out from under his cap, his face had blue and red markings, his eyes were an empty white color, and he had a large sword with a double helix blade on his back. Despite the surprising change the boy had undergone, the dark Mewtwo refused to be intimidated. It let out a growl, but Link’s expression didn’t change. He simply grabbed the hilt of his sword with both hands and drew it, taking a few steps forward while Lucario ran for the edge of the arena.


(FIERCE DEITY) LINK VS. DARK MEWTWO


As Sonic, Pikachu, Yoshi, Cadance, and Spike did the same as Lucario and cleared out, Link and the dark Mewtwo stared at each other for a moment. The latter was the first to move, summoning three dark projectiles and holding them up in front of itself. As it raised its hand to send them flying, however, Link made a vertical slash with his blade, a blue crescent-shaped beam of energy flying off of it. It went through the attack Mewtwo was preparing, breaking the projectiles, and through it as well. Tails and the remaining ponies saw this and quickly followed their friends’ example as Link swung three more times, each one launching a beam at the dark Mewtwo. It grunted in pain as each one hit it, but it was still far from finished.

The dark Mewtwo suddenly rushed at Link, throwing its right fist straight at his face. Link managed to dodge it while letting out a gasp and leapt back a moment later, doing several handstands and flips as the Mewtwo unleashed a flurry of fast punches at him. He managed to stay ahead of its fists and, after his last backflip, took his sword in both hands and swung it diagonally upwards. The Mewtwo managed to step back from the slash and grabbed the tip of the sword with its right hand before he could pull it back, grabbing it partway down the blade with its left hand as well. The two glared at each other as they began grunting, both trying to overpower the other. After a couple of moments, Link managed to wrestle his sword free and swung it around in a Spin Attack that hit the Mewtwo in the chest. He followed up by jumping up and thrusting the blade down into the ground, the resulting impact blowing the dark Mewtwo back.

The Mewtwo managed to stop itself in midair and right itself after a few seconds. After setting its feet on the ground, it stared at Link for a second before it held both hands out to its sides, the right hand forming an orange Aura Sphere while the left hand created a Shadow Ball. Link looked between the two spheres for a moment before a memory clicked and he lowered his sword down to his left, waiting.

Once both orbs were fully formed, the Mewtwo threw them both at Link, the Aura Sphere flying through the air faster than the Shadow Ball. Link steadied himself as they approached, swinging to the right horizontally to send the Aura Sphere back and then quickly swinging to the left to reflect the Shadow Ball. The dark Mewtwo remained calm at this and used its hands to knock them back when they reached it. The two kept this volley up for a minute until the Aura Sphere came back at the Mewtwo too fast to reflect. It was stunned for a moment when the orange orb hit, that moment costing it as the Shadow Ball came back at it and hit as well, stunning it further as the black-purple matter that made up the second sphere clung to it.

Determined to end the fight, Link put his sword on his back and brought out his bow, taking aim. A holy yellow light formed around his arrow when he readied it and continued to surround it as he let it fly. When it hit the dark Mewtwo, it began to spasm wildly as the light energy chased away the remnants of the Shadow Ball and dug into it. It let out a pained, wordless scream as it felt its power sap away, returning to its normal form and placing its left hand on the ground to hold itself up as Link ran towards it. He began slashing at it as soon as he reached it, the Mewtwo letting out pained groans as he slashed at it.

Suddenly, the dark Mewtwo shook off the effects of the Light Arrow and returned to its Mega Evolved form, surprising Link with an uppercut to the chin and knocking the mask-wearing boy onto his back. As he sat up, he noticed the Mewtwo float up into the air and hold its right hand above its head. After a moment, purple-black energy began to build up above it into a sphere that grew until it touched the palm of the Mewtwo’s hand. Link could tell it was preparing to finish it with one last attack and decided that he should answer likewise. He stood up and held his sword above his head in both hands, white light surrounding the blade and extending from the tip as he gathered energy into it. After a few moments, he let out a loud grunt as he swung the sword straight downwards, the white light going through both the Mewtwo and the sphere it was forming, the latter exploding and exposing the Mewtwo to the gathered energy.

Everyone watched the dark Mewtwo drop down, once again reverting to its normal form as it fell to its knees. Looking at Link, they saw that he too had returned to normal, the boy pulling the mask off of his face and putting it away. Despite this, he wasn’t done yet as he drew his Kokiri Sword and Hero’s Shield and ran up to the Mewtwo, slashing at it. After a moment, he jumped up and hung in midair as translucent white wings sprouted from the top of his boots. He then began dashing around the Mewtwo at high speed while dragging the tip of his sword across the ground. His blade hit the Mewtwo a few times, but he was focused on tracing a series of golden lines on the ground. When he was finished, the lines formed the shape of the three triangles on the back of Link’s hand. He came to a stop at his starting point at the base of the triangles as his wings faded and held his sword up towards the sky a moment later with a shout. In response, golden light shot up from the triangles with the dark Mewtwo caught in the middle.

As the light began to die down, the dark Mewtwo floated upward, its eyes closed and teeth gritted as black-purple mist began to come off of its body. After a moment, it began to writhe as it hung in the air, the mist floating around its body like ethereal flames as everyone watched. Suddenly, a rainbow-colored light began to shine from within it and moments later, the dark Mewtwo exploded in a burst of cloud of mist, everyone looking away as the light shone brightly, the crystal formations beginning to fade away into nothingness.


A STRANGE STONE


After several seconds, the light started to dim and they all heard the faint sound of something landing on stone. Looking, they all saw that the interior of the castle was back to normal, some of them having fallen down to the floor as the crystal faded away underneath them. Everyone looked at Link, Tails and most of the ponies staring at him in shock at what they had just seen him do, but his attention was directed towards the floor, at the center of where the three triangles had been. He put his sword and shield on his back and walked forward after a moment, kneeling down on one knee and picking something up off the ground, holding it in the palm of his right hand. F-T Sonic, Lucario, Pikachu, Riolu, and Cadance walked over to him to see what it was.

It appeared to be some sort of stone not much bigger than a marble. Despite the castle’s dim lighting, they could see it clearly due to its bright coloration. It was perfectly round and somehow had all the colors of the rainbow, the symbol they had all seen when the dark Mewtwo Mega Evolved visible beneath its surface. “What is it?” Cadance asked as some of the others began to move closer.

“I don’t know,” Lucario said after a moment. “It kind of reminds me of an Emera, yet it’s different.”


RAYQUAZA MAKES A BREAK FOR IT


Riolu looked up at him, “What’s a…” He was cut off when a loud roar came from Rayquaza’s direction, catching everyone’s attention. They all looked to see her struggling to break free of her bindings once more, though she was doing so more forcefully than before. She paused after a moment and made one strong jerk to the side, causing the binding around her neck to break away from the wall. It didn’t take long afterwards for her to break out of the rest of her bindings and her head slumped forward and her claws sat on the edge of the hole as she rested. As she breathed in and out, everyone could see that her eyes were back to their normal yellow color.

After a few moments, a new portal opened up near Rayquaza. She turned to look at it for a moment before her head darted towards it, the rest of her snake-like body following her into it. “Wait, Rayquaza!” Lucario called, but the last of her was already disappearing into the opening. More portals began to open up around the room, depositing random objects from across time and space. A Motobug, a large red carpet with a confused Kecleon and his wares on it, several Dry Bones that went to pieces when they hit the ground, one of the large bookshelves from the Golden Oak Library… Twilight looked horrified to see it displaced, though it faded when a familiar organ crashed against a wall and a huge, metal hammer fell straight down from the portal in the ceiling, its impact lifting everyone considerably off the ground.

Once they all landed and were all standing up without any shaking, Riolu pointed at the first portal and said, “After that… whatever you called it!” He then took off running towards it, both Lucario and Pikachu hurrying after him. The others were quick to follow, Link tucking the stone away in a pouch as he started to run. The other portals were still ejecting things, seemingly trying to stop them from following Rayquaza. Bob-Ombs, empty Koopa shells, and large objects like tables and ladders were thrown out, everyone either moving around or clambering over them as they kept moving. They all managed to reach the portal without getting hit by anything or being blown up and dove into it after the Pokémon, leaving Bowser’s old castle behind.

The portal emptied out into a new area, the ground beneath them feeling rugged. They could see the sky above them again, but it was colored orange, indicating the sun was setting. Looking down from the sky, they look around and quickly realized they were on a mountain, fairly high up from the looks of it. “Where are we now?” Spike asked.

“Yoshi. (Doesn’t look familiar.)” Yoshi shrugged. Neither Lucario nor Pikachu said anything, both of them scanning the skies for Rayquaza.

Sonic noticed the excited look on Link’s face as he looked around, an unusual sight to see, surprisingly. He guessed that Link knew where they were, his mouth opening as he drew in a breath. He was unable to get any words out as Pinkie suddenly pointed up towards the mountain summit and said, “Ooh! Look up there!” Everyone looked to see what had caught her attention.


DUELING DRAGONS


Rayquaza was in the sky above the mountain, even higher than the cloud ring encircling its summit, battling what appeared to be another Rayquaza. Unlike her, the other dragon was black instead of green, but it was more of a neon black. The yellow and red markings and red eyes appeared to be neon as well. It reminded F-T Sonic of how Dark Gaia’s minions and temple guards looked. They watched the two Rayquazas battle; suddenly, their Rayquaza swooped down along the side of the mountain with the black Rayquaza in pursuit. As she twisted around and flew in front of the mountain, a bright shine lit up further up from the group before it faded.

“What was that?” Shining asked.

“Don’t know, but it seems like Rayquaza triggered it,” F-T Sonic said.

Tails held a hand to his chin, “Maybe. It could be Rayquaza, but it also could’ve been triggered by something else. Could be a reflection from the sun or something about this mountain or…” He paused as Rayquaza flew past again while slashing at the black Rayquaza with Dragon Claw. “Oh. No, it looks like you were right, Sonic,” he corrected as he saw the shine appear and fade away again.

Lucario spoke, “Perhaps it’s an Emera.”

The others looked at him, but Riolu was the first one to speak, finishing his earlier question that was now on everyone’s mind, “What’s an Emera?”

Lucario grunted, “We’ll talk about it later. Rayquaza is probably still carrying the damage from our earlier fight and whatever that wizard did to her. If there’s something up there that can help her, we should get it while she draws that other Rayquaza’s attention.”

Rainbow spread her wings and said, “I’m on it!” She shot straight up towards the summit, coming to a stop partway up and looking down, searching for where the shine had been. She noticed a faint glow coming from what appeared to be a raised platform a little ways down and flew down to it. Upon landing, she found a circle of rocks on the platform with one that looked different from the rest sitting in the middle of the circle. Hopping up onto the platform and taking a closer look, she saw that the center rock was the source of the glow she had seen. “This is what was shining earlier? How’s it… Wait, is this…?” she wondered as she held it in her hooves and began to examine it, noticing the extraterrestrial look it had.

Suddenly it began to shine brightly, lighting up with all seven colors of the rainbow, but as Rainbow looked away, something crashed into the mountain just above her, causing the ground to shake. She looked up and saw Rayquaza on her back with the black Rayquaza on top of her. The latter’s attention soon turned from Rayquaza to Rainbow Dash, glaring at her when it saw what she was holding. Rainbow stared back with wide eyes for a moment before she narrowed her eyes, spreading her wings and preparing to rush to Rayquaza’s aid. Before she could move, however, the black Rayquaza opened her mouth and began to gather purple mist into a sphere. It fired the sphere at Rainbow Dash a moment later, the cyan pegasus flapping her wings hard to go straight up to get out of the way. She managed to avoid the sphere, which broke apart when it hit the ground, but she soon found herself being sent back down the mountain courtesy of the Rayquaza’s tail to her face, the rock falling from her hooves.

The distraction gave Rayquaza a chance to force the black Rayquaza off of her and she took to the air with her opponent flying up after her. Everyone noticed the rainbow light still shining, even though the mist from the black Rayquaza’s attack was starting to obscure it, but their attention was focused on Rainbow as she was sent flying down towards them. Lucario, Applejack, and Shining braced themselves to catch her, but Yoshi stepped in front of them and extended his tongue when the pegasus was close enough, pulling her into his mouth. The force from her momentum nearly sent her down his throat, but he managed to hold her in his mouth.

F-T Sonic quickly rushed in front of Yoshi and pushed his hands into the dinosaur’s mouth, grabbing Rainbow and pulling her out. “What happened, Rainbow? What did you find up there?” he asked as she shook the saliva off of her.

“Yuck!” Rainbow groaned as she flapped her wings to try to get the remaining bits of Yoshi slobber off of them. Once they seemed to be clean, she focused on the questions. “There’s some kind of weird rock up there that’s glowing like that! It’s like a falling star!” she said.

“You mean a meteorite?” Twilight asked, intrigued.

Rainbow shrugged, “Yeah, sure, whatever. The point is that thing seemed to react like that because Rayquaza got close to it! I think Lucario might be right about it being able to help Rayquaza!”

Lucario replied, “Well, if it is a meteorite, then yes, it should. I remember hearing something about meteoroids helping Rayquaza maintain her pure form, otherwise known as the form she took on when she calmed Groudon and Kyogre long ago.”

Shining asked, “Is that so? In that case, we’d better get that rock and get it up to Rayquaza fast!”


OVERCOMING DEATH MOUNTAIN


Looking up towards where the light from the meteor had been, everyone noticed they could no longer see it and the mist from the black Rayquaza’s attack had spread out more, dark figures starting to emerge from it as it became thinner. Like earlier, the figures appeared to be dark copies, but they shared the black Rayquaza’s black neon and lit up features instead of being blackish-purple with red eyes like before.

The black Rayquaza noticed the group and, after evading a Dragon Claw from Rayquaza and slapping her away with its tail, started making several more pink spheres. It then fired them at various spots on the mountain, causing more of the mist to spread across it. One of the spheres shot straight towards the group and splitting them apart as they jumped out of its path, Both Sonics, Link, Yoshi, Lucario, Pikachu, Riolu, and Spike on one side while Tails and the ponies were on the other side. As they stared at the dissipating mist, multiple copies began to take shape and glared at the two sides, daring them to try to push through.

Lucario growled, “We don’t have time to deal with all of them!” He called, “Everyone, start heading up the mountain!”

Twilight called back, “Wait, what are we doing?! What’s the plan?!”

F-T Sonic noticed a copy of Applejack jumping out of the mist and aiming from him. He caught it in his arms and fell onto his back, rolling a few times before kicking the copy up and away from him while Link used his shield to protect himself from a Tails copy whipping its tails at him before using his shield to push it back. Lucario, meanwhile, used Force Palm to push back a Cadance copy before answering, “We need to find that meteorite! One of these things must have it! Look for it; we’ll keep in touch as best we can!” He then turned and started heading up the right side of the mountain with the others while the others started up the left side after Rainbow punched an F-T Sonic copy and Applejack bucked a Twilight copy.

Along the right side of the mountain, the Sonics’ group ran along the side of a rock formation that stretched over the path. As they got underneath it, the purple mist began to seep down from above, behind, and to their right, forcing everyone to stop. They all looked around as more copies began to materialize around them, boxing them in. Everyone gathered close together, everyone facing a different direction as the copies began to move closer. They all braced themselves for a fight.

Suddenly, Lucario sensed something coming from their right, something new. He began to turn to look, hearing F-T Sonic utter “Huh?” as he did; the taller blue hedgehog must’ve seen whatever it was. Both Lucario and F-T Sonic saw several of the copies turning around to look at something. A moment later, a large shuriken made of water blasted through the copies, beheading or otherwise cutting through the copies. “Get down!” F-T Sonic called as he realized the thing was still spinning towards the group. Everyone crouched down at his words, even Pikachu and Riolu, and the shuriken flew over their heads, breaking against the rock and spraying them with water droplets. Looking at the other two copy groups, everyone saw them get hit by several smaller Water Shurikens followed by a much larger one, both groups being taken out. Seeing that the projectiles seemed to be coming from the other side of the drop to their right, everyone looked to see who was helping them.

On the other side of the gorge was a dark blue frog-like figure hanging upside-down as it looked over at them, its webbed feet on the ledge above being the only thing keeping it from falling. It had its arms crossed over its chest as it hung there and it had a long tongue that seemed to be wrapped around its neck like a living scarf. It had some lighter patches of blue on the back of its legs and head, raised white spots on its knees and elbows, and yellow coloration on its stomach, on the webbing between its fingers and toes, and around its red eyes. After a few seconds, the frog raised itself up onto the ledge with only its feet, its arms remaining crossed as it went up. It turned slightly and looked at them over its right shoulder with its same half-lidded eyes for a moment before uncrossing its arms and bending its knees, making a powerful jump. It went out of sight for a moment, but then it landed just ahead of the group, its posture seeming more relaxed now.

“A two point landing,” F-T Sonic commented as everyone stood up.

Lucario looked intently at the frog as it began to approach the group. “A Greninja… What’s a Pokémon like you doing here?” he asked.

The Greninja stopped in front of the group and explained, “Gre, Greninja. Greninja, gre Greninja, ninja. Greninja ninja gre, Greninja.”

Spike looked up at Lucario and asked, “What did he say?”

Lucario answered, “He says he’s been following us for a while now. Says he caught sight of us while he was investigating that destroyed city and has been keeping an eye on us since from a distance since then. Now he wants to help us put an end to Kyogre and Groudon’s rampage.”

F-T Sonic looked at Greninja, the blue frog’s poker face a bit unnerving. He saw the end of the long tongue moving back and forth a little bit and notice that it actually seemed to be tied like a real scarf in the front. “That’s one long tongue you’ve got there, Greninja. Pretty cool,” he said, O-T Sonic nodding while Yoshi turned away and crossed his arms with a “Hmph!”

Spike also seemed unimpressed, shrugging as he said, “Eh. My tongue can do that too. I just can’t do it all the time.”

On the other side of the mountain, Tails’ group hadn’t run into any major roadblocks yet. There were scattered copies that tried to get the jump on them from above, but they didn’t seem to be doing much to keep the fox and the ponies from climbing up the mountain. It did make them worry about how the Sonics’ group was doing since it seemed pretty quiet on that side of the mountain.

The group soon reached a split in the path and stopped to examine both paths. If they kept going straight, the path would be a little wider, but there was a steep drop to their left that went on for a while. On the other hand, if they went up and to the right, things would probably become a little narrower, but it could also be a little safer and the tighter space could work in their favor. “Which way should we go?” Cadance asked.

“It doesn’t look like there’s anything on the path in front of us. They’re probably hiding that meteorite more in towards the mountain, so that would probably be best,” Shining said.

“So… go right, then?” Rainbow asked. At Shining’s nod, she shrugged, “You know, you could’ve just said that instead, right?” Shining looked like he wanted to say something, but a gasp from Fluttershy caught his and everyone else’s attention. Looking forward, they saw what it was: a cloud of purple mist had appeared at the top of the path they were considering and a wall of copies was moving down towards them.

“I don’t think we’re going this way!” Tails said.

“Nope. We’d better go the other way. This ain’t exactly a good place ta be,” Applejack agreed. Everyone turned and continued up the path they were on. The climb was going well until, when they were about halfway up, more copies appeared at the top of the path, forming another wall. They all came to a stop, seeing the copies beginning to approach them. Looking back down the path, they saw the other copies advancing up towards them.

“It’s a pincer attack. They caught us,” Tails realized.

Shining gritted his teeth. “Didn’t even think about them doing that,” he grunted as he looked back and forth between the two advancing copy groups.

“Now what?” Twilight asked worriedly. As if in answer, a portal opened up over the nearby chasm, five black bombs with tan boots being deposited from it in front of the group.

“Bob-Ombs!” Tails exclaimed.

“I didn’t even say it this time!” Twilight cried.

Rarity eyed the Bob-Ombs. “These things raise a lot of… unsettling questions,” she admitted.

“I hope they don’t have a short fuse,” Cadance said.

Rainbow grunted, “Hey, no problem! We’ll just have to do this the hard way! Right, Tails?” The fox didn’t reply; somewhere in the back of his mind, something about this situation and where they were seemed familiar…

Suddenly Pinkie Pie cried out, “Twitchy tailllllllll!” This snapped Tails out of his thoughts, him and nearly everyone else looking up to see what was falling this time. They didn’t see anything for a moment, but then a portal opened up in the sky that was facing in the direction of the mountain’s base. A moment later, a small red biplane with silver metal wings came through it, its flying becoming a bit erratic after a moment. Tails’ eyes widened; he recognized that plane.

Suddenly the plane turned sharply to the left and started rolling over and over as it went into a nosedive towards the mountain. The pilot seemed to be wrestling with the controls as the rolling seemed to be slowing down, though it was still heading towards the mountain. It began trying to pull up as it approached the path Tails’ group was on, but there wasn’t enough time to pull up completely. The plane did manage to level out moments before it was on top of the first group of copies causing them to scatter, some of them being hit by the plane as the tip of its right wing scraped along rock. Tails and the ponies dropped to the ground as the plane’s impact with the ground  caused it to jump, all of them hearing a familiar-sounding “Whoaaa!” as it missed them. It then plowed through the second group of copies before it began to pull back up into the sky, narrowly missing scraping the left wing as the sound of explosions rose out of the chasm. It continued to ascend as it turned to the right; as it did, Tails looked up and caught a brief glimpse of the two-tailed fox in the pilot’s seat.

He wasn’t the only one who noticed as Pinkie suddenly appeared next to him and wrapped a foreleg around his shoulders, saying, “Guess what, Tails! You’re now Fun-Timey Tails because Old-Timey Tails is here~!” F-T Tails gave her an odd look at that. Her choice of names had been bothering him since she first used them; surely he and Sonic weren’t THAT much older now.

Twilight’s attention went from Pinkie to the sound of a fuse burning a moment later. Looking forward, she saw that while most of the Bob-Ombs had fallen into the chasm due to the sudden appearance of the plane, one had managed to stay on the path and now its fuse was lit. She let out a yelp and quickly stood up, grabbing it with both hooves and holding it up over her head, preparing to throw it over the ledge. As Fluttershy stood up, however, her head bumped into Twilight’s left side, causing the unicorn to spin on her hooves and lose her balance, her hooves moving forward as she tried to throw it while falling onto her back. It landed amidst the first group of copies as they were regrouping, the resulting explosion outright destroying some while others were thrown over into the chasm by it.

Looking back at where the Bob-Omb had exploded, they saw that a new portal was forming, an empty green Koopa shell and what looked like a red ray gun falling out of it. They looked back at the portal. “Did that explosion cause that portal to form?” Shining asked.

“If so, then time and space must be getting stretched really thin. We have to hurry,” Cadance said.

F-T Tails looked back at the second group of copies and noticed they were still disoriented from the near crash earlier. He looked over at the green Koopa shell and got an idea. “Come on! We still have an opening!” he said. He stood up and ran over to the shell, grabbing it and running towards the copies before jumping on it, riding it like a board into the thick of the copies and using his tails to propel himself forward.

Pinkie, meanwhile, had grabbed the ray gun and was examining it while holding it up with her hooves. She soon had it figured out and pointed it at a Rarity copy that was approaching her. She pulled the trigger and it shot a sticker into the copy’s face, blinding it and causing it to lose its balance. Pinkie stared in surprise for a moment before grinning, “Time for a sticker party!” She then turned and shot a Lucario copy in the side of its face.

O-T Tails, meanwhile, had managed to avoid crashing and continued flying the Tornado over to the right side of the mountain as he tried to figure out where he was and what was going on. As he flew over the dividing line, he noticed fighting on the slopes below and flew down to get a better look. Amongst the flurry of movements, he could see several blue figures and soon was able to recognize one of them. “Hey… Sonics?” he called and started to wave as he flew overhead, hesitating when he noticed that there were two blue hedgehogs instead of one. Everyone looked up as the plane passed by above them and both Sonics waved back up at the fox, F-T Sonic taking a moment before doing so due to his own hesitation.

Lucario looked down when the copy of himself growled at him and quickly blasted it away with a Force Palm, the copy breaking apart when it hit the ground. This caused everyone else to remember they were in the middle of something and they quickly dispatched their copies as well. Seeing that they had a moment to breathe and there was no sign of the meteorite, Lucario turned to the others and said, “This is taking too long. We need to find that meteorite.”

F-T Sonic shrugged, “Hey, I agree with you, Lucario. The sooner we find that rock and get Rayquaza focused, the better, but you checked a minute ago; they’re cloaking it from your Aura. How are we gonna narrow it down?”  He heard the sound of Yoshi moving around and turned to see him running to different spots on the path and sniffing. “Uh, isn’t your nose tuned to pick up on fruit, Yoshi?” Sonic asked, the green dinosaur glancing at him and shrugging in reply.

Riolu urged, “Come on, keep sniffing, green guy! You’ll pick up the scent if you just keep it up!” Beside him, Pikachu closed his eyes and held a paw to his forehead.

Lucario said, “It’s not a bad idea, but like Sonic said, it would surely take a sense of smell specially for rocks to be able to detect a meteorite.” He and the others turned to look at Link when, a moment later, he let out an agonized scream. As the flash of light cleared, they saw he had changed into a large, brown, muscular creature that looked like a living rock. He now had white hair on his face, a necklace that had blue beads, and a large scar across his stomach. “Link?” Lucario asked, wondering what this transformation was.

Link didn’t answer him; he got down on the ground instead, sniffing a bit as he tried to see if his Goron senses could pick up anything unusual. As he lay there, he found he could feel things through the ground significantly better than he could as a human. He could feel the clopping of hooves against the ground from the other side of the mountain as well as footsteps, some normal-sounding and others unusually light. And not far away, he could smell something otherworldly… He stood up suddenly and pointed to the other side of the mountain with a grunt. “It’s on that side?” Spike asked. Link nodded and then dropped to the ground again, this time curling up into a ball and rolling up the nearby slope, heading for the other side.

As Greninja leapt up onto higher ground and took off after the boy, F-T Sonic commented, “Huh.”

Spike looked up at the older hedgehog and asked, “What’s up, Sonic? Are you not impressed this time since you can do that too?”

O-T Sonic looked down at Spike with his hands on his hips while F-T Sonic replied, “No… Those masks Link has are something else, though. I mean, how do they change him like that?”

Lucario said, “A question for later, I suppose. Come on! Let’s make like Greninja and follow that Rollout!” They all hurried up the slope after Link, who had made it to the other side of the mountain and sprouted spikes from his body as he closed in on a group of copies. He bowled through them and crashed into part of the rock wall. He bounced up and broke out of his curl, turning around to look when his feet were on the ground. He saw that, while most of the copies had been sent flying, one had dodged out of the way: a copy of his normal self. And under its right arm was the rainbow-colored meteorite.

As soon as their eyes met, the copy turned and dashed away from Link, unhindered by the rock under its arm. The copy hurried down the path Link had come up, the darkening skies causing it to move faster than Link normally could, but as it reached the junction, a large Water Shuriken struck the path to the right. Startled, the copy turned and went left instead, but realized too late that Spike, the Sonics, Yoshi, and Team Defenders were standing in its way. It tried to go right, but Greninja leapt down from above, Lucario, Riolu, and Pikachu joining it while Yoshi, Spike, and the Sonics stayed where they were, cutting off its escape routes.

It looked around at them for a moment before turning to go back the way it came, only to find Link there, the transformed boy having caught up. As it looked up at him, the copy finally drew its sword, pointing it up at Link as dark mist swirled around its blade, causing it to suddenly extend until it was just inches from Link’s neck. Although he was surprised, Link responded to the challenge. In one surprisingly quick movement, he used his right hand to push the blade away while lunging forward, his left hand surrounded by flames as he threw it in a punch. It knocked the copy on its back, its sword falling from its hand, though it still held onto the meteorite. Link moved forward, getting over the copy and curling up again. He then leapt straight up and squished the copy when he came back down, the mist seeping out from underneath him.

There was silence for a moment, then Sonic asked, “Link? You got it?” The boy uncurled and stood up, smiling as he held up the meteorite in his left hand.

A few seconds later, they all heard Twilight ask, “Link?” The boy turned around while the others looked to see F-T Tails and the ponies standing there. Link reached up with his right hand and gave his face a tug, feeling the change come over him as he pulled the Goron Mask away. With a flash of light, his body was back to its normal Hylian form. He peered out from behind the mask and smiled at the other group. “That’s incredible,” Twilight said, now properly awed by the fascinating items that Link carried around.

Lucario took the meteorite out from under Link’s left arm while the boy put his mask away. The Aura Pokémon looked down at the rock for a moment before he looked up at Rainbow and asked, “I just want to make sure… Rainbow Dash, are you certain this is what you saw?”

The cyan pegasus nodded, “That’s it all right. That’s how that rock looked when Rayquaza got close to it.”

Lucario looked back down at the meteorite before turning to look up at the top of the mountain, seeing Rayquaza still locked in battle with the black Rayquaza. “Now we have to get this meteorite up to Rayquaza. It’s not going to be easy, but we have to do it,” he said.

Rarity spoke, “Might I suggest we do it quickly as well? We had some portals open up near us earlier. They helped us get out of rather tight squeeze, but it’s not necessarily a good thing, especially if it’s going to keep happening.” As if in agreement, a portal suddenly opened behind Greninja, Pikachu, and Riolu, the three Pokémon looking back at it. Greninja noticed something coming through it and shot forward, pushing Link to the ground as the object came flying out while Lucario jumped back to avoid it, the object crashing into the rock face and landing on its side.

Instead of being surprised by the oddly coincidental timing of the portal, Tails and the ponies were surprised as they noticed Greninja for the first time. “What is that thing? Looks like a frog,” Applejack said as the ‘mon helped Link to his feet.

F-T Sonic spoke, “It’s called Greninja. We can do the introductions later; Rarity’s point has been made.” He looked over at Yoshi as the green dinosaur ran over to the object that had come out of the still-open portal and used his tongue to pull on it, flipping it right-side up. “Is that a kart?” Sonic asked noticing the four wheels, the Yoshi egg on the front, and the simplistic design of the light green carriage.

Yoshi hopped into the driver’s seat and started the kart, the engine turning over a few times before it roared to life. “Yoshi, I know that kart races are a big deal both in and outside of the Mushroom Kingdom, but there’s no time for that. We need to stay focused,” F-T Tails said. Yoshi didn’t answer him as he checked over everything in the kart, making sure it all worked. As his fingers ran along the sides of the steering wheel, the wheels suddenly moved out and turned downwards, the kart hovering in midair where it sat. “Wait, is that kart equipped with anti-gravity? That… might actually be useful,” Tails said.


RACE TO THE TOP


Suddenly something shot by and bumped into the front of Yoshi’s kart, causing it to spin in a circle once as Yoshi let out a cry. They all looked up over the right path to see that it was Rainbow Dash copy. They then looked down at the path and then back at the left path to see that a large group of copies was approaching from both sides, no doubt planning to overwhelm them. Lucario looked up towards the mountain summit for a moment before turning to O-T Sonic and thrusting the meteorite into his hands, saying, “Here! Get this to Rayquaza! We’ll hold them back!”

F-T Sonic started, “What?! Dude…!”

Lucario interjected, “Just go! We’ll catch up! We named our team Defenders for a reason.”

Riolu spoke, “Hey, my team’s named Defenders too! What are the chances of that?”

Lucario grunted in exasperation and held a paw to his face for a moment before saying, “I’m sure it’s just a coincidence.”

F-T Tails noticed the two copy groups were starting to draw closer and asked, “Can anybody use their magic to help this kart get up the mountain?” After a few awkward moments of Cadance and she and her brother trying, Twilight was able to use her magic to help enhance the kart’s abilities, its anti-gravity allowing it to go forward and backward freely even with the weight of Spike, two Sonics, and several earth and unicorn ponies climbing onto the back of it. Twilight lifted it up so it could reach the center trail leading up the mountain while Link, Greninja, and Team Defenders stayed behind to deal with what was essentially a Monster House of copies.

Yoshi drove straight up towards the summit while Twilight used her magic to keep the kart in the air above the trail. Scattered shots from the fighting up above rained down at them, but Yoshi kept an eye on out for them as he kept driving, moving to the sides to avoid getting hit while Tails, Fluttershy, Rainbow, and Cadance did the same as they flew close by. Suddenly something shot past below them, almost hitting the underside of the kart but missing as it turned to go down towards the ground. A second later, a purple laser shot up from the ground and hit the back of the kart, causing it to flip over and sending everyone spilling out, the kart falling with them. Thankfully they weren’t too high up so everyone on the kart didn’t get hurt too badly when they landed, but when they looked to see who had attacked them, they saw the Rainbow copy from earlier along with a Twilight copy. Looking around, they saw mist starting to seep up over the sides of the trail, bringing more copies with it. The flyers flew down and joined the others on the ground, all of them preparing for a fight.

Back down the trail, Team Defenders, Greninja, and Link were still trying to fight off the copies that were forming around them, but no matter how many of them they destroyed, more would simply rise to take the place of the fallen. There seemed to be no end to them and they were getting overwhelmed; something had to happen soon if they were going to have a chance of joining the others without being followed. Link and Greninja pressed their backs up against each other, both panting from exertion but both still ready to keep fighting. As they stood like that, they began to feel as though they were starting to join together even though nothing seemed to be happening. Greninja recognized the feeling and became calmer, feeling as Link began to breathe in sync with him, their heartbeats, for a moment, slowing.
> The Alpha and the Omega Pt. III - Delta (d)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


BATTLE BOND


Team Defenders turned to look at them as they let out a shout in unison, seemingly challenging the enemy to come at them. Pikachu and Riolu didn’t notice anything different about the two save for how loud they had shouted, but Lucario saw something. His time mastering the ways of Aura made it easier for him to pick up on small things and this was no exception. He noticed the way they were breathing, how they made the exact same movements, and, when he used the Aura to look, their hearts pulsing at the same rate. Suddenly, water began to swirl around Greninja, forming a sphere around him while Link stood his ground. After a second, the ninja frog broke out of it, sending drops of water flying in all directions as he spun a somersault in midair before landing on his feet, but as Lucario, Riolu, and Pikachu looked at him, they realized that he had changed. 

While the general shape of his body was the same, various features had changed. The yellow on his stomach and chest had almost completely disappeared, with only a single stripe above his chest that formed the shape of a collar below his neck being all that was left. The top of his head was now red and most of the peach around his eyes and on the sides of the red had changed to black, with red lightning bolt streaks next to his eyes. Finally, there appeared to be a large, solid Water Shuriken on his back. “Did he…? But that can’t be! Greninja can only be awakened! I’ve seen it before!” Lucario thought to himself, trying to process what he was seeing. 

While he was thinking, the copies were still closing in on the group. Greninja and Link kept their backs together for a moment more before they broke apart, Link rushing past Team Defenders as he threw himself into the approaching horde. As he ran, he held his Kokiri Sword out to his side, energy gathering into it. Once he had copies all around him, he unleashed the energy in a powerful Spin Attack, the boy spinning in a circle several times and sending numerous dark copies flying. Greninja, meanwhile, was creating more Water Shurikens between his hands, these forming quicker and being much larger than normal due to his changed form. They held together longer and were stronger as well, so it only took a few for him to wipe out nearly all the copies on his own. Link, with only his sword, dealt with the rest and the two hurried up the mountain trail to help the others with Team Defenders following. 

Up ahead, F-T Sonic and the others were still trying to fight off the copies that had stopped them, but there seemed to be no end to them, making everyone reluctant to try to make a break for it and risk either themselves or the others being overwhelmed. After kicking away a Yoshi copy, the older blue hedgehog heard a shout and looked down the path to see Greninja dashing up with Link alongside him and Team Defenders close behind. Sonic noticed how the ‘mon had changed as well as the pointed look in his eyes and realized he was probably going to try to get that meteorite up to Rayquaza himself. 

F-T Sonic turned and looked up at the summit for a moment before turning to O-T Sonic as the younger blue hedgehog came out of a Spin Jump after dealing with a Rainbow copy. O-T Sonic caught F-T Sonic’s gaze as the older hedgehog gestured for him to give him the meteorite. Almost immediately he thrust his hands forward, throwing it to him. F-T Sonic caught it in both hands and looked back at Greninja, who had almost reached the group, nodded, and let out a shout that attracted everyone’s attention as he threw the meteorite straight upwards as hard as he could. The copies all either flew or jumped up after the rock, trying to get it back. 

None of them noticed Greninja’s approach, being solely focused on the meteorite, and so they were surprised when the frog came to a stop a short distance away for a moment before using his stronger legs to make a powerful jump diagonally towards the meteorite. The force of the jump allowed him to reach it before the flyers could, grabbing it in both hands and then tucking it under his right arm as gravity began to pull him down. His leap had put him ahead of the copies on the ground, but the ones in the air turned and tried to intercept him mid-fall. As they closed in, Link, finding that he was now acutely aware of what Greninja was feeling and seeing, pulled out his bow and readied an arrow, aiming as he kept running. With all the skill of an archery master, he shot one arrow after another in quick succession, each one hitting the head of its target and breaking it apart. 

As Greninja approached the ground, he did an aerial somersault and straightened up afterward with his left arm pointing out to the side. When he did this, a series of perfect doubles split out from him, each one holding a meteorite like he was. “What?!” Twilight asked as Greninja and his doubles made a break for the summit and Link ran ahead, putting his bow away and stabbing his sword into the back of a few copies. 

“Double Team!” Lucario called as he, Pikachu, and Riolu got closer. “We have to cover him!” he said as they continued running, going for the copies after Greninja with the others joining them. 

As they continued to fight the copies, F-T Tails was headbutted back by a Pinkie copy. As he recovered from landing on his rear, he noticed a portal open up beside him and turned to look at it. A yellow, metallic-looking cube with a question mark on four of its sides and an odd-looking red flower on top of it suddenly came out of it, landing in the fox’s hands. He immediately recognized the flower due to its colors and the black eyes it had. “A Fire Flower?” he asked as he looked down at it. He looked up a moment later and saw the Pinkie copy was coming at him again. Pushing aside any questions he may have had about the odd coincidence, the fox touched the top of the flower with his right hand and, with a flash, his yellow-orange fur changed to orange-red and his white fur became yellow. Feeling new power within, he stood up and spun around, throwing a fireball straight at the copy as he faced forward. It hit and immediately destroyed the copy before it could reach him. 

F-T Tails’ newfound fire powers were quickly noticed by the others as he jumped back into the fray throwing fireballs at the copies. F-T Sonic looked up when he heard a noise and saw that a portal had opened up over the path with what looked like an autumn leaf with black eyes drifting down from it. It took him a second, but once he recognized it, he said, “Cool!” He ran to the side of the trail and Boosted up it, O-T Sonic watching in amazement as he shot up towards the leaf. He grabbed it with his right hand and a moment later, with a poof and a few small white clouds, he had a raccoon tail and ears, the latter replacing his normal blue ears. The wagging of the tail somehow slowed his drop and when he landed, he spun in a circle, the tail knocking any copy it hit off their feet. Facing forward afterwards, he grinned, “I’ve wanted to see what this is like for a while now!” 

While they all continued to fight the copies, Greninja and his doubles kept going for the mountain’s summit, copies still appearing and coming after him despite the others’ best efforts to cover him. He made it with a few doubles to a cliff face at the base of the summit that appeared to be scalable, placing his right hand on it and wincing as he felt pain in his chest, the same pain that Link was feeling from being headbutted by a Spike copy. The boy shook the pain off and dealt with the copy swiftly and Greninja did the same, focusing again on the task at hand. He used his powerful legs to propel himself up the mountain quickly and used his free hand to grab onto the cliff face, all the while trying not to make it obvious which one was the real Greninja. 

The copies capable of flight aimed for the doubles that were trying to climb to the top the fastest as expected, but with so many swarming in, they were going after the others as well. One Rainbow copy was lucky enough to hit him from behind while he was in the air, interrupting his jump and causing him to fall down onto one of the ledges sticking out of the cliff face, Link letting out grunts of pain at both. Looking up, everyone saw that the other doubles had disappeared when the real Greninja had been struck, meaning the copies would be focused on him now. He sat up and got to his feet, clutching the meteorite to his side as the flying copies changed their focus to him, the lone Rainbow copy shooting straight down at him. 

Before it could reach him, a fireball and a pink beam suddenly struck it at a diagonal angle from below, the embers, sparkles of magic, and remnants of the copy drifting down onto Greninja’s face. He looked down and to his left to see F-T Tails, Rainbow, Cadance, and Fluttershy all flying up towards him, Tails’ right index finger pointing forward as he fired smaller fireballs from it and Cadance’s horn glowing with her magic. While Rainbow and Fluttershy flew ahead to intercept the copies, Tails and Cadance began hovering in place shortly afterwards as they attacked from long-range, the former soon using both fingers to throw fireballs. As he continued to shoot down flying copies, Tails looked at Greninja and said, “Keep going! You’re almost there!” The Ninja Pokémon nodded and continued climbing and jumping to the top. 

While Tails, Cadance, Fluttershy, and Rainbow were stopping the flying copies, the ground-bound copies were also trying to stop Greninja, but the others were keeping them in check. They kept the unicorn copies from firing up from where they were and kept the earth pony copies from trying to scale up after the frog. The Sonic copies were proving to be a bit problematic, though, as they naturally possessed Sonic’s speed. Several managed to get past the group and started running up the cliff face after Greninja. F-T Sonic quickly went after them, running up between them and swinging his raccoon tail around to send them flying, slowing down only a bit due to the action. Greninja had managed to reach the top a few seconds before Sonic caught up, the blue hedgehog vaulting over the edge and landing on his feet nearby. 

They both looked up at the two dragons still battling in the sky, though their fighting did pause for a moment and look down at them, seemingly noticing the change in the meteorite’s position. While they were looking up, they also noticed the Tornado had moved up to between them and the Rayquazas, the plane currently flying around from their left. F-T Sonic and Greninja noticed the black Rayquaza began trying to push Rayquaza back, no doubt trying to keep her from getting the meteorite. They looked at each other a moment later and Sonic asked, “Need a boost?” Greninja nodded and held the meteorite between both hands while Sonic knelt on one knee and readied himself. 

As the black Rayquaza suddenly shot down at the two after knocking Rayquaza away, Sonic leapt straight up spinning slower than usual, allowing Greninja to watch his raccoon tail more easily as he waited. When the tail was coming up, the Ninja Pokémon leapt up and forward, placing one foot on it before pressing down as Sonic began to wag it upwards. He then leapt straight up, the tail acting like a springboard as it wagged, increasing his vertical leap. While Greninja shot up into the sky, Sonic landed and looked up for a moment before jumping back as the black Rayquaza came down at an angle and crashed face first into the ground. Sonic ended up going over the edge, but he didn’t worry; he still had the raccoon tail, so he used it to slow his drop. 

O-T Tails saw Greninja up ahead as he was coming around and noticed that he was reaching the height of his jump. He needed to dive a bit as he got closer, but he managed to get the wings of the Tornado underneath the frog. “I’ve got you!” the younger fox said, Greninja nodding down at him. The Ninja Pokémon then turned to look at Rayquaza and then looked down at Tails while pointing at her. While not entirely sure about what was going on, the fox could guess what was trying to be communicated. “You want me to get closer?” he asked and getting a nod from Greninja as a reply. “Okay,” he responded unsurely, starting to turn the wheel to the left. 

By now, Rayquaza had recovered from the unexpected hit and was eyeing the meteorite in Greninja’s hand as the Tornado flew towards her. Not wanting to give the black Rayquaza a chance to interrupt again, she snaked her way through the air to meet them partway. O-T Tails began to worry as she got closer and pushed down to dive, but neither ‘mon was thrown off by this. Greninja simply took the meteorite in both hands and repeated F-T Sonic’s earlier toss as the Tornado descended, Rayquaza shooting straight for it and catching it in her mouth a second later. It lingered there for a moment as her teeth mashed it up and then she swallowed it down, feeling a familiar sensation from further down her body as the pieces were absorbed. 

She looked down and saw the black Rayquaza had recovered from its crash and was now flying back up for another round. A light green glow began to surround Rayquaza’s body as she narrowed her eyes, the green dragon well and truly sick of the dark imposter at this point. It swung its claws as it reached her, only for her to move out of the way and suddenly shoot up into the sky. Rayquaza disappeared from view and then came shooting back down a moment later like a glowing green missile. She shot head first into the black Rayquaza’s body and went right through it, cutting the imposter in two. Rayquaza pulled up and hovered in the air as the glow around her faded and she turned to observe what she had done, the two pieces of the imposter exploding in a cloud of purple mist.


AIR LOCKED AND LOADED


Down below, everyone, including the copies, had had their attention on Rayquaza as she launched her attack and now that the one that had spawned the copies was destroyed, the ones that were left seemingly lost the will the fight as they tried to flee, only to be easily taken down from long-range. Once they were in the clear, Twilight looked at Lucario and asked, “What did she do?” 

The Aura Pokémon replied, “That was Dragon Ascent, her, for lack of a better term, signature move.” They all looked up and saw Rayquaza hovering in front of the top of the cliff face as well as the Tornado coming down towards the top of it, Greninja jumping off the biplane when it was close enough to the ground. Everyone began making their way up to meet up with him. F-T Sonic gave his younger self a lift while F-T Tails, who gave him a cheeky look as they flew past each other, and the flying ponies helped did the same for the other equines. Yoshi went to climb up the side with Lucario, Pikachu, Riolu, and Link after Twilight used her magic to pick up his kart, setting it down on a flat spot at the top so it wouldn’t go rolling off on them. 

Once they were all at the top, they all looked up at Rayquaza, the dragon looking down and regarding them. Her eyes seemed to linger on the two Sonics, but her head soon snapped up and she turned around, gazing at something. Though they could not see it, an angry look appeared on her face, a low growl emanating from her mouth. Without warning, she suddenly twisted her body around and flew off in the direction she was looking. Almost everyone looked surprised at this, Rainbow yelling, “Hey!” 

Lucario held out his right paw in front of the cyan pegasus as she flapped her wings to hover above the ground, preparing to go after the dragon. “Calm down,” he said, Rainbow and most of the others looking at him. He and Pikachu looked back at Rayquaza’s retreating form, seeing a new portal open in the air high above the base of the mountain. “She knows,” he grimaced. 

Riolu piped up, “So what about us? We have to find our own way to follow her to… whatever? That doesn’t seem fair, leaving us like this.” 

Yoshi let out a cry to get everyone’s attention before running over to his kart, jumping into the driver’s seat and starting it up again. “Of course! We can use the anti-gravity in Yoshi’s kart to follow Rayquaza!” Twilight realized. 

They all looked up and to the right when they heard the sound of the Tornado’s propeller. O-T Tails waved to everyone, “Hey guys! Hop on!” The two Sonics and F-T Tails looked at each other with smiles and nodded, all three of them running towards the edge as the plane swooped down. After a moment, Lucario picked up Pikachu and Riolu, both of them climbing onto his shoulders as he ran after them, catching up to them as they jumped over the edge. 

Both Sonics landed on the right side of the wing while F-T Tails and Team Defenders dropped down onto the left side, all of them crouching down. The Tornado shook and dipped a bit due to the landings, but O-T Tails had little trouble straightening it out and pulling up. As they ascended, F-T Tails looked down at the wing as he said, “Wow, this is nostalgic. It’s been a while since we took the old Tornado out for a flight.” 

F-T Sonic asked, “You said you were able to fix it up after the last time, right?” The fox nodded, so he said, “We should do it sometime then.” He then faced and pointed forward, “Now, let’s get after that dragon!” O-T Tails nodded and flew the Tornado straight for the new portal, pushing it to maximum speed as everyone held on tight. 

Link watched as the Tornado flew towards the portal. For a moment, he had considered going with them even though it seemed like the metal bird was already going to be carrying too much. Something about its red color had touched something deep within him, some sort of recognition he hadn’t known about, but he had kept his feet rooted to the ground when Lucario had taken off running. The way he felt connected to Greninja at the moment made him not want to get too far away from the frog again, and there was something enticing about the strange self-driving cart Yoshi had. 

The boy turned to look when Yoshi honked the horn and saw that everyone save for Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Cadance had already climbed onto it, the anti-gravity already activated and Twilight’s magic in effect. “Come on, Link, we’re leaving!” Shining said. Link nodded and ran over to the kart, finding a spot on the back next to Greninja. With everyone onboard, Yoshi drove towards the edge and kept going, Twilight’s magic making a road of sorts for it to drive on as it went past the edge. Cadance, Rainbow, and Fluttershy flew after them once they were sure the others would have no trouble reaching the portal. The kart’s engine didn’t make it as fast as it could be, but it reached the opening shortly after the Tornado disappeared through it, the flyers right behind it. 


THE RETURN


After they passed through the portal and found themselves in the destroyed future city, F-T Sonic and Tails expected to feel the heat of the sun all around them, but to their surprise, even though it seemed to be as bright as it was when they left, it didn’t seem to be as hot as it was then. “What’s going on? Why doesn’t it seem so hot here all of a sudden?” Tails asked. 

“It’s because of Air Lock, Rayquaza’s innate Ability. It negates the effects of weather changes,” Lucario explained. He looked up at the clear skies overhead as he continued, “It’s mainly the effects of the weather that affect a battle that are negated, but as you noted, that’s not all it affects.” 

O-T Tails looked down and noticed that up ahead, there were more buildings either collapsed or completely destroyed than ones still standing. Looking further ahead, he could see a massive figure standing in the lava staring down another massive figure in the water in the ruins of Station Square. “Uh, guys? You might want to see this,” he said while pointing forward. Looking ahead, they were all able to see the two figures, but more details were starting to come into view. 

It was clear to everyone save Riolu and the O-Ts that the two figures were Primal Groudon and Primal Kyogre, but they had changed. Groudon’s body was now covered with large, thick gray rocks and what looked like lava pulsing in the spots that weren’t covered, and on Kyogre’s back, stretching up like some towering extension of his spine, was a familiar purple-tinted water creature. It seemed as though Iblis and Perfect Chaos’ earlier merging with the two hadn’t just triggered Primal Reversion; now they were in control of the two. 

They could also see, in the area around where the two were fighting, a number of Legendary Pokémon that all looked like they had been trying and struggling to get the two to stop. There were four large birds, one looking like it was made of flames, one yellow with a sharp-looking beak and wings, one with light blue feathers and a long flowing tail feather, and one white with a blue underbelly and wings that seemed to end in hands, sprawled out on top of a few buildings that were still standing on both sides as they tried to recover from damage they had taken. There was also a Pokémon on top of one of the collapsed buildings on Kyogre’s side that looked like a large green and black snake, a Pokémon that looked like a large blue deer that had many branches on its rainbow-colored antlers looking on near the dividing line in concern, a large red and black bird or dragon with a long tail that was flapping its wings as it hovered not far from Groudon and Kyogre, and an orange-colored Pokémon that was smaller than all the rest of the newcomers that had a normal left arm while its right arm looked like a DNA double helix on one of the standing buildings on Groudon’s side. 

“Moltres, Zapdos, Articuno, Lugia, Zygarde, Xerneas, Yveltal, Deoxys… Suicune wasn’t kidding when she said Dialga and Palkia were going to alert the other Legendaries,” Lucario said as he looked at all the Pokémon he had named. 

“Things really took a turn while we were gone, and it doesn’t look like it was for the better,” F-T Tails uttered. Moments later, the Pokémon Lucario had referred to as Yveltal charged up and unleashed a black and red beam from its mouth at the Kyogre-Chaos hybrid, the top half retaliating with a purple-colored beam instead of a white one that met it halfway. As the two beams pushed against each other, Kyogre looked up and fired an Ice Beam from its mouth that struck the underside of Yveltal. It was strong enough to make it screech in pain, causing it to lose focus and allow Chaos’ beam to overpower its weakened Oblivion Wing. It was pushed back, the Groudon-Iblis beast getting behind it and wrapping both arms around it when it collided. The beast released several red-orange energy crescents from its body, causing further damage to Yveltal, and then threw it to the side into the side of a standing building. The creature then summoned flaming rocks and sent them raining down on the Destruction Pokémon. 

Not all of the rocks hit Yveltal, though; some ended up flying farther than intended, and one of these rocks was heading straight for the Tornado. As soon as O-T Tails saw it coming, he made a sharp turn to the left to get out of the way. The heat from the fire unexpectedly caused the rock to break apart, however, and the way the pieces broke apart caused a moderately-sized piece to go the same way that the plane was going. F-T Sonic looked back and saw it coming, specifically seeing that, at the rate it was going, it was going to hit O-T Sonic. He quickly threw himself over his younger self to shield him, the burning rock bouncing off him and falling into the lava below. When he pulled back, he and everyone else saw that his raccoon attributes had disappeared. “Aw… Well, it was fun while it lasted,” he shrugged. 

F-T Tails looked back and saw Yoshi’s kart, Cadance, Rainbow, and Fluttershy not too far behind following after them. He then looked at Lucario and asked, “Do you think we should keep our distance for the time being?” 

The Aura Pokémon nodded, “I do, especially now.” He looked up at the sky over the two hybrids and saw a familiar dragon descending. “Look! Rayquaza’s making her entrance!” he clarified, pointing. 

Not far from the center of the conflict, atop one of the collapsed buildings, three familiar Legendary Pokémon also noticed Rayquaza’s arrival. ~Rayquaza! Lucario and the others found her,~ Suicune said. 

~Well, it’s about time! We could’ve found her multiple times over by now!~ Entei growled. 

Raikou looked at him, ~Will you calm yourself, Entei? Your temper’s not helping us, and it’s probably not helping this world considering how unstable the ground is.~ He turned back to the fight, ~We’ve already talked about this. This mess did not occur simply because of that creature Suicune mentioned. Someone or something specifically dragged our world into this, and if they’ve been watching this entire time, they probably know of our allies’ efforts to find Rayquaza.~ 

Suicune nodded, ~Confinement consumes chronology. Whether they were trapped simply or complexly, they surely did not have an easy time returning.~ She looked up at Rayquaza again, ~They’ve brought Rayquaza here, however, and they’re surely here as well. She’s the only one who can get through to them now. She only needs to change into her pure form now to better achieve that.~


THE FATED BATTLE


The two hybrids looked up as Rayquaza descended out of the clouds towards them while roaring angrily. The controllers just sneered, causing their Pokémon to sneer as well, and began focusing their attacks on her. Kyoas was the first to move, Chaos firing another purple beam while Kyogre unleashed a Hydro Pump. Rayquaza twisted around both attacks, the Hydro Pump not evaporating immediately when it crossed over due to the Air Lock effect. Groublis made its move next, the Iblis half forcing Groudon to walk forward while he readied a Fire Blast. The resulting attack was not as strong as it could be, but Rayquaza still had to get out of its path. 

As she swooped around, she headed for Groublis and held up her glowing right claw as she dragged it diagonally across his chest, cutting into the exposed areas and leaving claw marks on the rocks. The beast kept moving as it swung its right claw, forcing her to break off and get out of the way. She turned to Kyoas as she pulled away, the water creature having not moved at all while she was in front of Groublis. Once it had a clear shot, the Kyogre half unleashed a Hydro Pump at her that seemed certain to hit, but she disappeared just as it reached her. She suddenly reappeared above the surface of the lava and water and twisted up to hit Kyogre from below with Aerial Ace, managing to knock the conjoined beasts up out of the water. Perfect Chaos’ tentacles tried to grab at her as it was being lifted up, but they were unable to wrap around her. 

The fight continued this way for a short while, Rayquaza coming in to attack Kyoas and/or Groublis before moving to get out of the way of their attacks. Occasionally she took a hit or two, but they only managed to graze her. The group and all of the Legendary Pokémon kept their distance from the fight. The latter was still recovering from trying to get between the two earlier, but as they watched, many of them wondered why Rayquaza seemed to be unable to change like she did to save the Tree of Life. 

Eventually, Rayquaza went in for a Dragon Tail attack on Groublis, swinging her glowing tail around to strike it in the chest. She broke through the rock covering it and landed a critical hit, but despite the pain, the beast was ready. Even as it cried out, it focused its power, causing new rocks to quickly climb up onto its chest to replace the ones it had lost, trapping the end of Rayquaza’s tail underneath them before she could pull it away. She was about to try struggling when Groublis seized her in both claws and stretched her out, pulling her tail free with magma dripping from the end of it. The Kyogre end of Kyoas unleashed an Ice Beam from its mouth, getting a direct hit on her and causing her to screech. Once the beam had stopped, Groublis shifted both claws to the end of her tail and began swinging her in a circle, letting go after a few moments and causing her to crash into a standing building on the Station Square side. Perfect Chaos then turned around and fired a horizontally sweeping beam at the base of the building, causing it to fall backwards with her still embedded in it. 

While the two roared and turned their attention back to each other, the group was already en route to aid Rayquaza, the effects of Air Lock seemingly starting to lessen as the harsh sunlight and heavy rain began to pick up again. Rainbow and Fluttershy were the first to arrive, landing on the building and moving to help the dragon as the Sonics, F-T Tails, and Team Defenders leapt off of the Tornado, Cadance and Yoshi’s kart landing as O-T Tails flew away. They all got to work throwing off the rubble that had fallen on Rayquaza when the building landed and checking around to make sure nothing had gotten stuck in her. They were able to get her uncovered fairly quickly, but she did not move to take off, only twitching and shaking a bit as she lay there, her head turned up and back. 

Fluttershy and Cadance began checking across her body from top to bottom, seeing if they had missed something. After a minute, Twilight asked, “Is she okay?” 

Shining gave his sister a slightly annoyed look as he said, “Twilight, she technically had a building fall on top of her. Who would be okay after that?” 

F-T Sonic shrugged, “Godzilla?” 

F-T Tails shook his head and looked at Rayquaza as he knelt down. “I don’t think the impact and subsequent crash is the problem here,” he mused. 

Lucario nodded, “I agree. Her scales are thick; even something as heavy as this should just be a minor hindrance to her.” 

F-T Sonic shrugged, “Exactly my point. Just like Godzilla.” 

Lucario continued, “The real problem is undoubtedly that earlier Ice Beam. Because of her type, Rayquaza is rather weak to Ice Type attacks. But the bigger concern is why she hasn’t changed yet. She shouldn’t need an Awakening Emera to be able to unleash her true power.” 

Yoshi asked, “Yoshi, yoshi? (Well, what can we do about it?)” 

While everyone mulled this over and Fluttershy and Cadance continued to check Rayquaza, Link and the still changed Greninja walked up along her neck, standing just above her on the stone. As they looked down at her, she suddenly brought her head up, catching everyone’s attention. She had an angry look on her face as she looked in the direction that the sound of fighting was coming from, but the ones who had been through numerous fights before knew it was more than that. She wasn’t angry; she was determined, ready to keep fighting even when her body was telling her otherwise. It was a no-surrender look that they all knew so well.


MEGA EVOLUTION!


Suddenly, a bright light began shining from one of the pouches on Link’s waist, once again causing all eyes present to change their focus. Reaching into the pouch, Link pulled out the small stone he had found earlier, the source of the bright light they were seeing. Further down along Rayquaza’s body, a similar light began to emanate from a special sac. As the lights began to shine brighter, Link found the stone lifting up out of his hand, the boy holding both hands up as it hung in the air. 

From a building still standing a fair distance away, Suicune, Raikou, and Entei could see the strange phenomenon as could O-T Tails as he circled in the Tornado. As the light began to recede, they saw Rayquaza rising up out of it, but she looked different. She now had what looked like two pinchers on the sides of her face, long orange-yellow strands like whiskers extending from the back of them and the top of the horns on her head, and while her long snake-like body was the same, there were now areas of black on her underside and amber-colored spots on her sides. As she brought her head down, Rayquaza’s eyes locked with Suicune’s, the latter nodding to let her know that she was glad to see her and that they would all have her back in the coming fight. Nodding back, Rayquaza fully extricated her body from the building before flying away, a mysterious air current following in her wake. 

The strange current soon caught the attention of both Groublis and Kyoas as a new cloud covering filled the two skies, blocking the intense sunlight and causing the heavy rainfall to stop. They turned to look as she swooped around towards them, soon flying straight towards them down the dividing line. Growling, they once again focused on her as she flew in to engage them as she had earlier. With their attention diverted, Suicune, Entei, and Raikou began moving around the two cities and communicating with the other Legendaries as well as the group, everyone in the latter getting airborne again to get ready.


CLASH OF LEGENDS


Once the orders were given and the plan was explained, Suicune made her way up onto one of the buildings not far from the fight, keeping an eye on Kyoas as she got into position. Rayquaza spotted her as she flew around Groublis. The beast took a swing at her with Slash and kept its eyes on her as she flew away. The green dragon then changed course and shot straight up into the sky, getting out of Suicune’s way as she fired a Hydro Pump at Groublis’ face, the air currents helping to carry the attack to its target. It didn’t do much damage, but it did hit the hybrid’s eye and caused it to focus on her for the moment, which was all she needed. 

Groublis took the time to charge up and fire a Solarbeam at the Aurora Pokémon in retaliation. While it was charging the attack, Suicune stole a glance over at Kyoas and adjusted her position as she noticed where it was. Once the Solarbeam was ready, Groublis unleashed it. It shot straight towards Suicune, an orange-red energy barrier forming in front of her before it hit. She groaned as she stood her ground against the powerful attack, but after a few moments, her Mirror Coat was able to redirect the shot, sending it towards Station Square where it hit the Kyogre part of Kyoas in the back and side. 

The redirected Solarbeam managed to do quite a bit of damage and threw it into the side of a building, but more importantly, it caused something to stir within Kyoas. Deep within the recesses of its mind, the repressed Kyogre part realized there was only one Pokémon present that could hit it with a Solarbeam, especially one that powerful, and it caused Kyogre’s blood to boil. Managing to fight through the dark haze over his mind coming from whatever force was within Perfect Chaos’ body, Kyogre regained control of his body and spun around, his body knocking against several buildings as it sent a Hydro Pump in Groublis’ direction. The attack managed to pierce Groudon’s body beneath the rocks and had the same effect of pulling Groudon’s conscious back to the forefront of its mind. Temporarily back in control, the two Legendaries rushed towards each other, their rivalry renewed. 

The two met at the dividing line and began going at each other’s faces, fins and claws flying as they fought. They could still feel the presence of Chaos and Iblis in their minds beginning to take over again as they resorted to base instincts, but they didn’t care; they were more focused on each other. As such, they were taken by surprise when an Ice Beam attack came from above and partially froze them together, Articuno swooping overhead. Their struggling to get free was halted when a Thunder attack from Zapdos came down from above, Groudon even being shocked a bit due to the attack hitting the ice between him and Kyogre. The ice shattered afterwards and Lugia swooped down from above, an orange orb forming in front of its mouth and being fired as a beam that that struck the space between the two disoriented Pokémon, causing an explosion. 

Kyogre was lifted out of the water and Groudon was pushed backwards by the explosion, the two, for the moment, separated. Seeing this, Rayquaza, Deoxys, and Moltres flew for the two, Rayquaza aiming for Groudon while Deoxys and Moltres were focused on Kyogre. Once they were close enough, Deoxys charged up and fired a Psycho Boost attack while Moltres unleashed a Fire Blast, a glowing orb and a star-shaped Fire type attack hitting Kyogre and pushing him back into the ruins of Station Square. Rayquaza, meanwhile, had twisted around and slammed into Groudon, her claws on his shoulders as she pushed him back away from Kyogre and back into the city, letting go of him when his legs were thrown out from under him due to colliding with a collapsed building. She then flew up and away, Moltres and Deoxys doing the same. The two were separated; it was time for the next phase. 

The Tornado flew over the dividing line, Yoshi’s kart, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Cadance close behind it. As everyone in the plane looked over at the Station Square side, F-T Sonic noticed the slight shaking from his younger self as he looked down at the water and knew that his, no, their fear already ran as deep as the depths of the Labyrinth Zone. F-T Sonic nodded to himself, “Well, it’s time for us to complete this ring.” He looked back at Lucario and called, “You guys ready for this?” 

The Aura Pokémon nodded, “You bet! Let’s go!” They looked back down and saw a spot to jump down: one of the larger buildings floating on its side in the water, yet it was tilted upwards somewhat due to it being collapsed on another building. After a moment, F-T Sonic and Lucario (with Pikachu and Riolu on his shoulders) leapt off of the Tornado, the biplane turning to fly towards Groudon with Yoshi’s kart and the flyers behind it as they fell. The two managed to roll upon landing and kept their momentum going as they started sliding down once they were standing again. They felt a slight tremor beneath them a second later and knew that their aid had joined them. Suicune and Raikou were running down after them while Lugia, Articuno, Zapdos, and Deoxys flew overhead. 

Kyogre, meanwhile, had been pushed to the back of his mind as Chaos took control again due to the stress of the situation, Iblis likewise doing the same to Groudon in the other city. As Kyoas emerged from the water, Chaos’ vantage point allowed him to see the Pokémon while Kyogre’s eyes picked up movement above the water moving closer. Choosing to focus on the bigger targets first, both parts of Kyoas focused their attacks on the flyers, Lugia countering Kyogre’s Hydro Pump with its own while Zapdos and Articuno used their Electric and Ice attacks to stop the beam that Chaos fired. 

Deoxys, meanwhile, flew down to follow F-T Sonic, Lucario, Suicune, and Raikou through Station Square’s ruins. Lucario used ExtremeSpeed to keep up with Sonic while the Legendaries had no trouble keeping up as the two ran over the floating roads and cut through the destroyed buildings to move through the city. As they got closer, Kyogre’s eyes caught sight of them, alerting Chaos to their presence. Realizing it was a two-pronged attack, Chaos turned to focus on them while Kyogre kept the Pokémon busy. Seeing this, Sonic and Lucario glanced back at Suicune and nodded, the Aurora Pokémon nodding back before she turned right and started looking for a destroyed building to climb up while everyone else kept going forward. 

Once they got close to Kyoas, they all came to a stop and focused on drawing Chaos’ attacks, using the buildings and roads around to move around as best they could, Deoxys using its Psychic powers to aid them. Suicune, meanwhile, had managed to locate a building that she could use and began heading for Kyoas again, firing an Aurora Beam off to the side as she ran as a signal. It was seen by the other Legendary Pokémon, including Xerneas who began to make its way towards Kyoas at it. 

Suicune soon reached the top of a building near Kyoas and positioned herself at the edge of it as Articuno came down from above, the light blue bird flapping its wings to stay airborne as it prepared to unleash a Blizzard attack. Suicune readied the same attack and they both unleashed a freezing gust of wind from their mouths straight at Perfect Chaos. The water creature began to growl and screech at the cold, feeling itself begin to freeze underneath. It began trying to get Kyogre to move them away, but Xerneas came bounding through the city as Lugia got over Chaos and dropped down. 

As soon as it landed on Chaos’ back, Lugia wrapped its wings around the beast to try to restrain it as best it could. The two main tentacles were caught under its wings, but Chaos kept trying to get Kyogre to move them away and summoned more tentacles from its body to attack Lugia. Sonic and the others watched as Xerneas galloped past them and got up in Chaos’ face, its many antlers catching the new tentacles while its front legs pressed down on Kyogre’s head, messing with him. It wasn’t exactly a secure spot to be standing, but the large cervine stood its ground as it tried to keep Chaos restrained. 

Thanks to the Delta Stream, the cold winds of the two Blizzards didn’t hurt Lugia as much as normal and after a minute, it released Chaos and flapped its wings to get away while Xerneas backed off. By this time, Chaos’ entire lower body had been frozen and the ice was quickly climbing up to its head. Suicune and Articuno stopped when it was completely frozen, a layer of ice having spread down over Kyogre as well. They didn’t have long. 

Sonic, Lucario, and Riolu quickly got in front of Kyoas while Raikou took Pikachu with him up onto a nearby rooftop. Nodding at each other, the three jumped up as high as they could as Deoxys flew down behind them, both sets of its tendrils forming into arms. It held both hands out with its palms facing forward as it unleashed a powerful wave of Psychic energy that sent the three flying straight at Chaos. Lucario gritted his teeth as he tried to remain Steadfast while readying a Focus Punch, throwing his right fist forward while Sonic curled up and Riolu readied a Focus Palm as they approached Chaos. 

For a second the frozen form held against them, but with a little extra push from the Psychic wave, they broke through it and kept going. They emerged from Chaos’ back and managed to grab onto the side of a building behind it before looking back. They had managed to break the water creature in two, the still-frozen upper half of its body falling into the water in front of Kyogre. Knowing some of him still remained inside the Sea Basin Pokémon, Raikou leapt from the roof he was on with Pikachu on his back while Zapdos hovered in the sky overhead. Deoxys swooped down to get Sonic and Lucario, the latter holding Riolu up against his chest with his left arm while his right paw was in Deoxys’ hand, and flew away with them. Suicune, Lugia, Articuno, and Xerneas, meanwhile, had all started retreating to get as far away from Kyoas as possible before the Electric Type Pokémon all unleashed a powerful Thunder attack on it. 

Meanwhile, in the other city, nearly everyone else was working to take down Groublis. Spike had earlier discovered that the weak spot in Iblis’ forehead was still present in its fused form when he slipped into one of the openings in the rock armor and they were now trying to open the armor up for a finishing blow. It wasn’t easy as Groudon kept trying to shake them off, but they were being aided by Zygarde and Entei, the latter riding on the former as it crawled around on the beast’s body, both of them trying to draw its attention to them. O-T Tails, Yoshi (with Twilight’s support), and Fluttershy kept their distance as they flew around, being the ones to swoop in and catch anyone who fell. 

Groudon wasn’t the only problem; Iblis was constantly calling upon its flying spawn to help it deal with the attackers. Entei, Link, F-T Tails, Cadance, Rainbow, and Greninja were doing their best to send them packing, but they kept coming in swarms. F-T Tails was using both hands to throw fireballs and knock them back, but it wasn’t enough to slow them down. Eventually one managed to land a bomb at his feet. He wasn’t hurt or sent flying due to the Fire Flower’s protection, but he did lose its power. Seeing this, Link began preparing three arrows at a time and firing them at the spawn to pick up the slack. 

After several minutes, something began to shine brightly on Groublis’ forehead as the rock covering became thinner and thinner. “What is that?” Applejack asked when she saw it. 

“It might be Iblis’ core,” Shining suggested. 

“Let’s try to get it as open as we can! We’ve got to give Yveltal as clear a shot as possible!” F-T Tails called. At all this talking, Groublis’ eyes narrowed and it began struggling harder and swinging its head fiercely to try to shake them all off. No one was prepared for its renewed struggles and so nearly everyone was thrown off. F-T Tails took flight and managed to catch Rarity in midair while O-T Tails was able to get the Tornado’s wings in Shining, O-T Sonic, and Greninja’s flight paths, Shining sliding and needing to slam his front hooves on the edge of the wing to keep from falling off. Yoshi caught Pinkie in midair, and Entei leapt off of Zygarde and ran down Groublis’ back, leaping to get underneath Applejack and Spike before they could fall too far. He was able to land on Groudon’s tail and made a running leap to get the two to safety. 

Only Link remained on Groudon’s head, the boy managing to get the tip of his sword lodged in the rock just above the glowing spot and wrapping both hands around it. He did his best to hang on as Groublis shook its head and the rest of its body to try to throw him and Zygarde off. 

Suddenly, Zygarde slid off and plunged into the lava below, the tail end of its body wriggling as it seemingly burrowed down into it. Groublis kept trying to throw Link, the boy still holding onto his sword for dear life. A minute later, Zygarde resurfaced and slithered up on top of one of the drastically shortened buildings, straightening up and looking at Groublis. It began to glow light green a second later, similar rays of light beginning to shine up out of the lava in front of it as the ground underneath began to crack and break. 

The ground cracking underneath it caused Groublis to halt its struggling, swinging its head down as it tried to maintain its balance. Now that he was able to place his feet under him again, Link pulled his Kokiri Sword free and held it in his left hand while he pulled out a bomb with his right hand, throwing it forward. It exploded against the glowing spot, exposing it further and causing damage to Groublis. Link was prepared when Groublis dipped its head, pulling out his Hookshot and turning around to fire it into a gap in the rock to get a secure grip. Groublis covered its head with its claws, leaving the glowing spot only slightly exposed. 

As the Tornado flew around its front, Greninja took a running jump and began creating and throwing Water Shurikens as he soared through the air, pulling the big shuriken off of his back and lodging it into the glowing spot just as he was about to land. Not missing a beat, the frog dashed forward and grabbed Link as the boy pulled his Hookshot free, both being knocked down Groublis’ back as it swung its head up. Greninja’s powerful legs absorbed the impact of landing on the tail and made it easy for him to jump, Entei managing to get underneath them while Rainbow flew up and shot down in a Sonic Rainboom at the almost completely exposed spot, the impact raising a rainbow-colored mushroom cloud that disoriented nearly everyone nearby and sent her sprawling through the air. 

While Cadance and Fluttershy flew to help the cyan pegasus, Yveltal got into position. It flapped its wings so that it could hover in the sky at an angle to Groublis, its sharp eyes locking on to the glowing spot on the beast’s forehead as it gathered energy in its mouth. It fired a black and red beam a second later, striking the spot dead-on. As the beam continued to rain down on it, the rocks covering Groudon’s body began to crumble and fall off, the lava underneath also breaking away. After no more than ten seconds, the Oblivion Wing attack ended. Groudon’s head was facing down and there were only a few hardened bits of lava left clinging to his body right now. He almost looked like a dried husk now, as if the life force had been drained out of him, but that was not the case. Yveltal’s Oblivion Wing had actually been targeting Iblis specifically, pulling the monster’s presence out of their fused form while leaving Groudon little worse for the wear. 

This became apparent moments later when Primal Groudon’s bright red coloring flared to life, the lines across his body glowing yellow as well as his eyes, which were now visible. As he began to regain consciousness, Moltres swooped down and slammed into his back in a Sky Attack. It didn’t do much damage, but it pushed against him for several seconds, forcing him forward and causing him to stagger when Moltres stopped and flew away. He ended up stopping near the dividing line, his claws on his knees as he panted. 

Primal Kyogre suddenly crashed headfirst into the top of his head a second later, the Sea Basin Pokémon having been sent flying by Xerneas and Deoxys after Chaos had been electrolyzed from him. He dropped down into the water on the other side and Groudon looked at him when he resurfaced. He seemed just as dazed as the Continent Pokémon, but he too appeared to be back to normal, his eyes no longer green and having a reptilian look to them and his normal blue color restored. It seemed like they were going to be all right. 

All of a sudden, they both heard an angry roar and looked up. Mega Rayquaza came down from the clouds overhead, a purple aura surrounding her as she shot straight down at them. The two Pokémon let out a terrified screech and hugged each other, knowing there was no chance of them escaping this. She crashed down a second later, creating a large explosion that was heard and seen by all in the two cities.


THE BATTLE HAS ENDED...


As the smoke from the explosion settled, O-T Tails found a fallen building that was long enough for him to land the Tornado on while Yoshi looked for a building to park his kart. He soon found one and set down on it with the wheels down. He began honking the horn to alert everyone else to his, Twilight, and Pinkie’s position. O-T Tails, Shining, and O-T Sonic soon caught up with them, and it didn’t take long for everyone else to join up as well, F-T Sonic, Team Defenders, Suicune, and Raikou making their way over to that side. As they all stood on the rooftop, they saw that Greninja, who was still on Entei’s back with Link, Applejack, and Spike, had returned to normal. They all then looked in the direction of the explosion as the four slid off, seeing the smoke was almost gone. 

Once the air was clear, the three Pokémon that had been obscured could be seen. Groudon was lying on his back on their side, Kyogre was floating in the water on the Station Square side, and Rayquaza was strewn across the both of them, the impact having apparently knocked her out. They noticed that while Rayquaza was still Mega Evolved, both Kyogre and Groudon were no longer in their Primal forms. The two soon awakened and carefully pushed Rayquaza off of them so as not to wake her before standing up. They both seemed dazed and confused, neither one looking entirely sure that they knew what had happened. 

Suddenly Rayquaza jolted up between the two and growled at them as they stared up in fear at her. She seized them both by the back of their heads and slammed them together a few times; she then held them apart and snarled at them while they seemingly tried to placate her, neither one having much success. 

While the group watched the admittedly odd display from the rooftop, F-T Sonic scratched his head and said, “Wow. They really are like siblings, huh?” 

Entei gave him an odd look, ~‘Like’?~ 

Twilight started, “Maybe we should…” 

Raikou interrupted, ~I wouldn’t worry about them. This is…more common than you would think.~ 

Cadance suggested, “Maybe one of my love spells would help them all calm down.”   

Lucario shrugged, “It’s worth a shot, I suppose.” Suicune nodded thoughtfully; it seemed like the crisis was over.
> The Alpha and the Omega - Finale
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


...BUT THE WAR HAS NOT


Before Cadance could even ready a spell, a loud screech rang through the air. Turning to look, everyone saw that it had come from Yveltal, the Destruction Pokémon landing on one of the smashed buildings and bringing the ends of its wings in towards its chest. There was a light coming from the spot on its chest, streaks of light coming out and circling back into it as Yveltal groaned and winced. It began to get brighter, the edges of the light starting to turn orange as it became warmer.

After several long seconds, Yveltal held its wings out and raised its head skyward, letting out a loud screech as flames came out of its chest, steadily coming out yet doing no harm to the Destruction Pokémon. It didn’t take long for the flames to stop coming out, leaving Yveltal exhausted. They quickly gathered together and made a large ball of flames, confirming for everyone who had seen it before that it was Iblis. It simply hung in the air in the middle of the remains of the city. With everyone focused on it, nobody took notice of a fog of purple mist making its way through Station Square towards the dividing line.

Startled cries from the Weather Trio caught everyone’s attention, the group looking to see the mist coming over to their side of the line. ~What is that cloud?~ Entei asked.

~It doesn’t look like anything from the Voidlands… but it almost makes me think of that place,~ Raikou communicated.

~I remember seeing it after the barriers of time and space broke, coming out of the spot where the two cities collided,~ Suicune said.

Rainbow added, “It looks just like the stuff we kept seeing pretty much the entire time we were trying to figure out what was up with Rayquaza!”

Greninja glared, “Gre, Greninja.”

Riolu looked up at him, “‘Pure darkness’?” He glanced up at the sky and noticed the dark clouds that were beginning to blot out the sky and the effects of Rayquaza’s Delta Stream. “Whoa, this is reminding me big time of the paralyzed future world. I think you may be right.”

Lucario tried to block out what his younger self was saying, seeing as he could now remember saying it all before, and instead focused his Aura to get a better look at the fog. “It must’ve come from Chaos! Anything within that cloud is completely closed off to me like he was earlier,” he said after a few moments.

F-T Tails looked back at the spectacle occurring in front of them, the pieces falling into place as he thought of everything they’d seen so far. “Uh-oh…” he uttered with a nervous look. Beside him, F-T Sonic had an uneasy look on his face as he seemed to arrive at the same realization as his fox buddy.

While they had all been talking, the fog had reached the ball of flames and quickly surrounded it, the flames barely visible underneath the purple mist. At first it seemed like nothing was going to happen, but the mist and flames suddenly broke out of a ball, stretching up and down to create the general outline of some giant monster, but with no visible parts. Rocks then began to float out of the lava and rush towards it, attaching and giving it shape. As rocks continued to give it definition, purple and brown “skin” could be seen underneath the rocks like a skin over the creature’s skeleton. When the rocks stopped rising to attach to it, it looked like a massive purple and brown version of one of Iblis’ golems, but it was not done yet.

Seven purple tentacles that appeared to be on fire came out of its back, along with neon blue fins that ran from its lower back up to its head. Two new pairs of arms suddenly burst out of the sides of its body, pulling out and hanging down at its sides. These arms lacked the rocks that covered parts of its original arms but were just as slender and pointy all the way up to their fingertips. The creature’s broad chest began to shake before the rocks pulled away, revealing seven green eyes underneath that sat perfectly between the rocks as they pulled out. The center eye, which was larger than the other six eyes, had what appeared to be two long tongues hanging out on each side of it. A long brown tail burst out of the rocks on the apex of its rear that went down and then curled upwards, hanging over its head. As everyone stared aghast, the creature let out a loud screech and the clouds finished filling the sky, making both cities seem unnaturally dark.

~What is that MONSTROSITY?!~ Entei asked.

“That would be Dark Gaia… and that Iblis thing,” F-T Sonic answered.

Twilight looked at him and asked, “Dark Gaia? As in the Dark Gaia that you guys said sleeps in the center of your planet and awakens to destroy it however many million years or so?!”

He replied, “I don’t know anyone else with that many eyes in their head.”

F-T Tails groaned as he held a hand to his forehead, “It all makes sense now. Rayquaza’s behavior when we found her, the dark copies, that dark… Mewtwo… It was all Dark Gaia. It must’ve slipped through breaks in time and space from when Eggman unleashed it. The parts in the other worlds must’ve acted as extensions of it while it regained its strength here.”

Riolu piped up, “Well, we beat its extensions, and we beat it while it was in Chaos! Is it really that much stronger now?” As if it heard him, Dark Iblis let out a roar as each of its seven tentacles fired purple spheres at the largest targets in the area. Groudon and Kyogre quickly grabbed Rayquaza and pushed her away as four of the spheres shot towards the trio. The spheres weren’t huge, but they were powerful; Groudon went down face first in the lava while Kyogre went limp after he was hit, still feeling weakened and susceptible after having had Dark Gaia in him earlier. Yveltal took flight, but three of the spheres followed after it, two hitting it in the back and causing it to crash into the side of a building. The third missed and ended up crashing through Deoxys instead, taking off its entire right arm. The DNA Pokémon turned its head to look at where the arm had been for a moment before a light began to shine from the stump, the limb completely restored after several seconds. It held up the arm to examine it, pleased that it was back yet surprised that it took longer than usual for it to regrow a missing limb.

Deoxys’ concerns went unnoticed by the group as they were more focused on what Dark Iblis had just done. It had only used its tentacles to attack and already three of the larger Legendary Pokémon had been knocked down. F-T Tails glanced up at Sonic and started, “Sonic… You fought Dark Gaia alongside Chip, so you know how it looked and how powerful it was. Based on what we’re seeing, how powerful is it right now?”

The older blue hedgehog looked down at him and back at Dark Iblis, thinking for a moment before saying, “Uh… well, he’s missing some things that I’m guessing he should have even now, but I think he’s getting pretty close to perfect.”

O-T Tails looked worried at that, as did Spike and some of the ponies. “‘P-Perfect’? So… he’ll be unstoppable once he gets to that point?” the younger fox asked.

F-T Sonic replied, “No, but he will be at full power at that point, and definitely not easy to defeat.” He winced, “I’m pretty sure he’s the toughest thing I’ve ever fought…”

Suicune asked, ~So there is a way to fight him in his perfect form?~

Before F-T Sonic could answer, Shining said, “Look!” Looking back at Dark Iblis, everyone else saw that Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno had formed up and were flying towards the monster with Lugia and Deoxys bringing up the rear.

Entei huffed, ~Well, if it can be fought by one so small, then they should have no trouble handling it.~ Neither F-T Sonic or Tails said anything, but they were both thinking the same thing: that anything fused with Dark Gaia wasn’t going to be easy to take down. Sonic crossed his arms while Tails looked on in worry; all anyone could hope now was that the Legendary Pokémon could handle it.


BATTLE OF THE LEGENDS


As the Pokémon flew closer, Dark Iblis held out its arms and summoned large rocks above its head. It swung its arms forward, sending the rocks flying forward. Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres fired their Thunder, Ice Beam, and Flamethrower attacks respectively at the rocks to try to break them while Deoxys used Psycho Boost to shoot them. Both Articuno and Deoxys were able to interrupt the flight path of the rocks they hit, but Moltres and Zapdos were unable to do more than cause the rocks to crack a bit, forcing the birds to have to move around them while Lugia and Deoxys flew up into the sky. They were able to avoid being hit, but it did slow them down a little.

As they turned back to Dark Iblis, they saw that the beast was starting to walk towards them. Seeing no more attacks coming, the three Legendary Birds unleashed their earlier attacks at it, but aside from Zapdos’ Thunder traveling up its entire body, their attacks didn’t seem to do more than scratch it. It came to a stop after a moment and looked up at the three birds before it began to lash out with the tentacles on its back, each one shooting through the air at them. They began flying around trying to avoid them and get them to tangle each other up, but no matter how much they flew, the tentacles never became twisted. They kept coming, each bird getting hit by at least one as they became more aggressive.

Suddenly Lugia dropped down from out of the sky with Deoxys behind it, unleashing a Hydro Pump attack at Dark Iblis as it flew. The attack hit further up its body, hitting one of the openings in the rock. It wasn’t very effective, but it did cause the monster to stop attacking its fellow birds and look up at the white bird as it dove down, a near-invisible barrier forming around it as the fins on its back laid down flat. It collided into the monster headfirst, forcing it to take a couple of steps back. Lugia then spread its wings and flapped them to go back and then hover in the air as it swung its wings at Dark Iblis’ face, even balling the ends up into ‘fists’ a few times. The creature recoiled from the hits, but it was far from defeated.

Suddenly Dark Iblis reached out and grabbed Lugia, its lower arms seizing the bird's legs while the middle ones grabbed its wings and the top ones wrapped around its neck. The Diving Pokémon struggled to get free while the beast shook it and charged up a laser in its center eye. Deoxys flew up and began firing Psycho Boosts at the creature’s arms to try to get it to let go, but even the first one wasn’t powerful enough to do much to it. In a moment of annoyance, however, Dark Iblis let its middle left hand let go of Lugia to swat the DNA Pokémon away into a building. It gave the bird enough time to swing its wing around and punch the other arm. It managed to loosen the beast’s grip enough to get its other wing free and then it became difficult for Dark Iblis to keep it secured as it flapped its wings.

After several long moments of struggling, Lugia managed to break free and quickly turned and flew away to begin preparing a counterattack. Once it was far enough away, it looked back and saw that Dark Iblis was still charging its attack and began charging its own. When they were both ready, they each fired a beam, Dark Iblis firing a purple one while Lugia fired an orange one. The two attacks collided and, for several moments, held there. Then suddenly, with seemingly no effort on its part, Dark Iblis’ beam began to overpower Lugia’s Aeroblast, even as the white bird tried to put more power behind it. It changed nothing as the purple beam continued to steadily push the Aeroblast back. Lugia was forced to break off and try to get out of the way as the attack came closer, but was still scraped along its back as it flew to the side, the purple beam cutting through several standing buildings before it stopped.

Turning back to Dark Iblis, Lugia flew around a building before flying straight at it again. In response, the beast began to turn slowly before suddenly turning faster, its long tail extended as it did so. The side of the appendage struck the Diving Pokémon along the side of its body up to its face, sending it into the side of a building and causing said building to fall over. Dark Iblis looked over at where the bird had crashed for a moment before turning its attention to the other three birds as they let out angry cries. As they flew forward, Deoxys recovered from its crash and Zygarde dove into the lava, disappearing beneath the surface.

Articuno, Moltres, and Zapdos unleashed their strongest attacks as they got closer, but this time, instead of letting them hit, Dark Iblis held its hands up in the path of the attacks. The attacks hit and held against the palms before stopping as they were doing nothing to it. They were really close to it now and before they could try to retreat, it suddenly brought its arms forward and slashed at them all. The long cuts and pain caused them to stop and before they could recover, Dark Iblis swung its tail around again and sent them all flying, Articuno and Zapdos crashing on the Station Square side and Moltres landing in the lava past where the group was.

Suddenly Zygarde emerged from the lava not far from Dark Iblis and used Land’s Wrath, causing light green rays of light to emerge from the ground as it cracked and moved towards the monster. Unlike Groublis, however, the attack didn’t manage to shake Dark Iblis and several of its tentacles shot down towards the snake-like Pokémon, wrapping around it and lifting it up to eye level. Deoxys, despite still being stuck in its Normal Form, got out of the building and flew towards the two to try to help. One of Dark Iblis’ eyes caught sight of it, however, and it swung its tail around at the DNA Pokémon, forcing it to fly up and around to avoid it. It ended up right in front of the creature, just as it expected, and as it flew to try to help Zygarde, the six claws lashed out at it again. They cut right through the orange Pokémon, leaving sizable holes in its body that barely left it holding together. It also caused it to float up and, when it was just above its eyes, one of its tentacles shot forward, crashing into it and sending it backwards. It didn’t take long for Deoxys’ body to be broken apart completely, leaving only its purple core flying through the air while Dark Iblis finished absorbing a dangerous amount of Zygarde’s strength before its tentacles threw it towards the Station Square side.

Rainbow saw where Deoxys had been when it disappeared and spread her wings when she saw a glint from its core shine in the darkness. She saw it falling as she flew and dove down to catch it before it hit the lava. She managed to grab it between her hooves and pull up before either it or she touched the molten rock, but she didn’t get out of being burned completely. Deoxys’ core still had some of Dark Gaia’s energy surrounding it and it felt like it was cutting into her skin. She began tossing the core between her hooves like a hot potato, gasping as she flew back up to the others, eventually reaching them. She dropped the core on the roof and began trying to snuff out the burning in her hooves, stomping them against the concrete.


DESPERATE SITUATION


While she was doing this, Suicune, Entei, and Raikou all looked around, taking in just how bad the situation had become. Lugia, while no longer Dark Iblis’ target for the time being, was still out of commission as it continued to lay on the building, Deoxys was going to need just as much, if not more, time to recover as it was, Moltres, Zapdos, and Articuno were nowhere to be seen, and Zygarde seemed to be down as well. Yveltal was trying to get back up, but after the earlier attack plus trying to make Iblis a part of itself, it was struggling to do anything beyond pull itself free from the building it had crashed into. Rayquaza, while still in her Mega form, had her arms wrapped around Groudon and Kyogre worriedly while she was roaring up at Xerneas to help them as it stood over Zygarde, the Life Pokémon seemingly at a loss as to who to help first.

While Xerneas bent down next to Zygarde, Entei growled, ~Is history repeating itself once more? Even with so many of us together, are we really not suited to combat a threat to our world once again?~

Suicune glanced at him, ~What is it about the Expedition Society that you feel the need to bring it up when you get angry at something, Entei? You don’t do that with any of the other teams or organizations we’re allied with.~

Raikou nodded, ~Seems hardly the time to bringing it up.~ He looked towards F-T Sonic and Tails, ~Especially when it seems like these two have fought and defeated this… entity before.~

Pinkie piped up, “Yeah!” She suddenly wrapped her forelegs around O-T Sonic and whispered loudly, “Hey, spoiler alert!” She then went in front of F-T Sonic and said, “You fought and beat that Dark Gaia beastie before! You can just do it again, right?”

The older blue hedgehog scratched his head as he replied, “Yeah… It doesn’t feel right doing it without Chip here, but I don’t think that can be helped.” He reached both hands back into his quills and brought them back out a moment later with the red and cyan Chaos Emeralds in his right hand and the white and blue Chaos Emeralds in his left hand. He looked at F-T Tails and the fox nodded, reaching back into his tails to retrieve the other emeralds.

Before his hand could reach into the fur, a loud call and a bright light caught everyone’s attention. Looking towards the Station Square, they all saw Xerneas, now standing tall next to Zygarde, which was raising itself up despite none of its injuries appearing to be healed, and was facing away from the group with its antlers glowing all the colors of the rainbow. “Wh-What is that Pokémon’s name again?” Fluttershy asked.

“Xerneas, the Life Pokémon. He must’ve sensed something,” Suicune answered.

“Why are his… antlers glowing?” O-T Tails asked.

Raikou communicated, ~They glow like that when Xerneas is sharing the gift of eternal life with another, but why now? And who is he sharing it with?~ They didn’t have to wait long to find out; the glow from Xerneas’ antlers diminished after about a minute and it continued to stand tall as it looked at the destroyed buildings. Not long after, a large, three-fingered hand that was made entirely of water rose up  in the distance and rested on top of one of the buildings, followed moments later by a second that rested on a separate building. Even Dark Iblis turned to look as the owner of the hands raised itself up, standing above the destroyed city.

It was Chaos, but he was no longer Perfect Chaos. Now he was a large bipedal water creature with green eyes that had no irises or pupils; they were completely green. Spike and the Main Six remembered that this was how he looked when he had been called on during the changeling attack on Ponyville, his Zero form as Sonic and the others had told them, except for the obvious difference in height. ~Is that… Chaos?~ Suicune asked.

~That thing is still around?! Why would Xerneas share everlasting life with it?!~ Raikou exclaimed.

F-T Tails spoke up, “Calm down, Raikou. Chaos is already immortal; Xerneas must’ve helped him recover his strength. Plus he’s different now…” Chaos’ eyes scanned both cities until they came to rest on the two Sonics. At this, his fingers gripped the top of the buildings tightly as a rainbow light began to shine from within his watery chest, though the colors soon separated, forming seven auras that swirled around as they stayed there.


WILD CARDS


F-T Sonic blinked as he realized what the auras were: the same things that gave Chaos more power. He looked at O-T Sonic and he knew that he had made a similar connection as they looked at each other and nodded. F-T Sonic turned to Lucario and held out the Chaos Emeralds in his hands to the Aura Pokémon while saying, “Here, keep these safe!” While Lucario looked down at the gemstones, O-T Sonic snatched up Deoxys’ core, the essence of Dark Gaia having dissipated from it. The two Sonics looked at each other again before they suddenly ran towards the edge of the rooftop, leaping towards an opening in one of the damaged buildings.

“Wait, Sonic- Sonics!” Twilight and O-T Tails called before they jumped off the roof.

~What are you doing?! Get back here, you fools!~ Raikou yelled. Rainbow, who was near the edge of the roof, spread her wings to fly after them, but Greninja suddenly leapt in front of her and pushed her back towards the others moments before something crashed through the roof where she had been standing. It was like a projectile, but that was a hard label to stick to it. It was purple and surrounded by a similarly colored aura, and it had had a tail stretching out behind it that had been moving around. Whatever it was, it had been alive, and they knew where it had come from even before they looked in Dark Iblis’ direction. It was not the only that the beast had sent out, but they were all being aimed at the two Sonics.

Both Sonics looked up as the sound of breaking glass and shattering concrete filled the air above them, part of the floor above them breaking apart and raining down behind them. F-T Sonic remembered how Dark Gaia tried to stop him from helping Chip when it had the Gaia Colossus restrained and realized it was trying to do the same thing now. It was too far away to use its tentacles to block their path, but it could still attack them from a distance. As they headed for another opening and the hanging section of road beyond it, he looked over at O-T Sonic and nodded at him, the younger hedgehog looking back at him in confusion.

As they jumped out through the opening, F-T Sonic adjusted his direction slightly and shot off in a Boost for a nearby rooftop away from the road. O-T Sonic stared in amazement as he watched his future self shoot through the air and take off running upon landing, soon reaching the edge of the rooftop and go shooting off again as the younger hedgehog landed on the section of road. He stared for a moment longer before he took off running with his hands at his sides again, clutching Deoxys’ core tightly in his right hand. He realized that F-T Sonic was trying to draw Dark Iblis’ attention while, presumably, still heading for Chaos. Taking this into account, O-T Sonic kept going straight for the Station Square side while trying to stay out of sight. He did manage to catch a few of F-T Sonic’s Boosts and aerial acrobatics as he kept moving, adding the former to his list of things to learn when things settled down.

While Dark Iblis did still try to attack O-T Sonic, it did focus more on F-T Sonic, giving the former a chance to find a way to get through the destroyed city. They met up near the time-space split and made it over to the Station Square side. As F-T Sonic led his younger self through the flooded city, they both noticed numerous light green streaks of light go shooting through the sky overhead, all of them seemingly heading for the same spot, but they only glanced up at them briefly before turning their attention ahead once more. They had to get to Chaos.

Before long, they got on top of a rooftop that still had water standing on it, both shaking off the wet feeling as they looked to see how far they had left to cover. It seemed like they were still quite a ways from being able to touch Chaos, but they had to look up to see his head as he towered over them. He nodded after a moment; they were close enough. He pulled his head up and away, thrusting his chest forward as the seven auras within began to move. They soon separated from him and kept going forward while he shrunk back to normal size, disappearing from the two Sonics’ sight. They glanced at each other and nodded before they broke out into one last run.

They jumped onto and ran across several rooftops as the seven swirling auras dropped down, getting closer to them. As they reached the edge of the last rooftop, they made one last leap up at them and curled their bodies inward, a familiar rush of power filling them as gold/yellow fur began to replace their natural blue fur. They brought their arms and legs out after a second, both Sonics stopping and hanging in midair as they finished becoming Super Sonic. That wasn’t all, though; some of the Chaos energy, both free and from the two Sonics, had surrounded Deoxys’ core as well, causing it to lift up out of O-T Sonic’s hand as they hung in the air. It floated above them before stopping, an outline of Deoxys’ form appearing around it before it began to quickly solidify. In no time, Deoxys had reformed, though it now had a gold/yellow aura billowing around it. Its appearance began to change slightly as it changed to its Speed Form, finding its ability to shift forms no longer hindered.

As the three turned back to Dark Iblis, they saw Xerneas looking at Zygarde as it raised itself up, its form different now as well. Before it had looked like a giant snake; now it had two legs it stood up on and two arms, giving it a more humanoid appearance. Two wings extended from its shoulders, the right wing having a blue pattern on it while the left had a red pattern. It seemed to be a little shorter than it was before and it was clearly still carrying the damage that had been inflicted on it, but it stood up regardless, one of its hexagonal eyes looking at Deoxys and the two Sonics, letting them know it would have their back.

Xerneas turned away from the Order Pokémon and began communicating with Rayquaza. Their conversation didn’t last long and the Mega Evolved Legendary soon took her claws off of Kyogre and Groudon and rose up, ready to lend her strength to the fight as well while Xerneas took care of the other Legendaries. It began making its way to where Yveltal crashed while the two Sonics and Deoxys began making their way back towards the other city and Dark Iblis. Rayquaza and Zygarde rose up behind them and followed as they flew on ahead. Back on the rooftop, everyone in the group, especially those not accustomed to seeing the full power of the Chaos Emeralds, could only look on in shock and amazement.


BATTLE FINALE WORTHY OF LEGEND


Dark Iblis looked at the ones flying towards it for a moment before it held out its arms and let out a roar, boulders rising out of the lava in front of it along their flight path while it summoned more of its projectiles to launch at them. Both Super Sonics and Deoxys simply flew around the boulders and dodged the  projectiles when they were unleashed, even threading the needle when a bunch of them tried to close in on them while Rayquaza flew high and Zygarde flew low to avoid the brunt of Dark Iblis’ anti-air defenses. Once they were past the boulders and the projectiles, they didn’t have much farther to go to reach the creature.

Before they could, Dark Iblis held up its arms and created a translucent pink dome that surrounded it on all sides, blocking them out. Both Sonics and Deoxys stopped before they could crash into it, Rayquaza and Zygarde coming to a stop as well as they looked up at it and F-T Sonic grunted, “Argh… I was hoping not being perfect meant it wouldn’t be able to do this.” Zygarde floated back slightly after a moment and its entire body began to glow light green, causing the others to turn around. Suddenly it shot forward, pushing up against them while using its arms to keep Rayquaza’s body compressed somewhat, all of them sinking into its glowing body slightly as it crashed into the shield. It stopped for a second before it began to slowly push its way through, its glowing body causing the others to go through with it. After a couple of seconds, Zygarde managed to get its entire body through the shield and released the others from its makeup of Cores and Cells, its glow fading as they went tumbling through the air for a moment before righting themselves. “Wow! What a rush!” F-T Sonic exclaimed holding his right hand on the side of his head, O-T Sonic looking similarly amazed while Deoxys and Rayquaza’s expressions were unreadable.

They all turned to Dark Iblis, the creature seeming momentarily stunned that they managed to get through its shield. It soon recovered, though, and raised its head as it let out a loud roar. Zygarde was the first to move forward, ducking underneath everyone and coming up in Dark Iblis’ face with an uppercut that connected underneath its center eye. The hit made it reel, but it soon recovered. Zygarde began throwing blows at its face, specifically aiming for its forehead, while moving out of the way of its claws, but the hits didn’t seem to be doing much to it. It didn’t take long for Dark Iblis to get annoyed, at which point it brought its tentacles forward and quickly wrapped them around Zygarde’s body, once again beginning to drain its energy.

While Rayquaza immediately flew up and around to its back to try to do something about the tentacles, which caused several of them to release Zygarde and go after her, Deoxys and both Sonics remained hovering where they were as they tried to figure out a way to damage the beast. They noticed that, while all of the eyes on both sides of it opened and closed like normal, the center eye had been closed since Zygarde landed its first punch. This caused F-T Sonic to think back to his and Chip’s fight against Perfect Dark Gaia. As he’d mentioned before, the beast that slept within the planet’s core for millennia had been his hardest challenge, being one of the few things that had been able to legitimately hurt him in his Super form. As a result, he found that some of the details of that fight were not as clear as they could be, but he did clearly remember two things: Dark Gaia did not like things hitting it in any of its eyes, and the hit to the center eye had been the finishing blow.

He turned to O-T Sonic and Deoxys and pointed at Dark Iblis while saying, “Those eyes are the weakest part of its Dark Gaia half! We need to take them out!” The two looked over at the eyes and noticed how exposed they were compared to any other part of its body. They nodded and they all got into position before shooting towards the beast, both Sonics each Boosting at an eye on its right side while Deoxys switched to its Attack Form and used ExtremeSpeed to rush at an eye on the left. They all bounced back after hitting their targets, but the hit eyes quickly squeezed shut and Dark Iblis let out a roar of pain in response.

It also caused three of the tentacles on its back to stop moving, two falling away from Zygarde while one following Rayquaza went limp. Seeing this, both Sonics and Deoxys moved to attack another eye even as Dark Iblis tried to swipe at them with its claws. After dodging the quick swipes from the large hands, Deoxys and F-T Sonic shot at the last two eyes on the left side while O-T Sonic took the last eye on the right side. Dark Iblis tried to stop them by summoning more floating boulders in their flight paths, but even Deoxys had little trouble dodging the rocks while shooting forward in ExtremeSpeed. With all but the center eye squeezed shut in pain, there was only one tentacle still active and it was wrapped around Zygarde, the Order Pokémon having little trouble getting free from it. Afterwards, Rayquaza came to a stop over Dark Iblis’ back and swept her Hyper Beam horizontally across its back, the orange beam managing to separate the seven tentacles from their origins.

Left with no other way to see, Dark Iblis opened its center eye and looked at Zygarde, the Order Pokémon still in front of it. Almost immediately, it reached out with all eight arms and seized it, energy beginning to gather in front of its eye as it readied a strong attack. Seeing Zygarde’s struggling, Deoxys, Rayquaza, and the two Sonics sprung into action. Rayquaza flew down at Dark Iblis’ original arms and used Dragon Tail on them, the attack cutting through the rock after a few strong swings and leaving both arms amputated. The Sonics and Deoxys, meanwhile, went after the six arms underneath, each hitting two arms with their charges and forcing it to let Zygarde go. It floated back as it was released and dropped down to get out of the way of the beam that Dark Iblis fired, but both Sonics’ eyes widened as they saw where it was going, Deoxys soon noticing as well.

Twilight and the others let out a gasp as they stared with wide eyes. With the size and trajectory of the beam, they were going to be caught on the side of it if not in the very center of it, and with as fast as it was moving, there was no time to get out of the way! Moments before it reached them, a bright flash appeared in front of the group and both Sonics and Deoxys appeared in front of them. Immediately, Deoxys shifted to its Defense Form and crossed its arms in front of itself, creating a force field/barrier that spread out in front of everyone while the Sonics held their hands up to it and braced themselves. The beam struck the field and the three began straining to hold it back while everyone else shielded their eyes from the light. Even with its Psychic powers strengthened by the power of the Chaos Emeralds, Deoxys had to really focus in order to maintain a field to protect not only itself, but everyone else as well. The Sonics could feel the beam’s push from behind the field, both trying to plant their feet as securely as they could in order to keep the beam at bay.

As they continued to hold it back, a ball of flames suddenly shot across the sky overhead, shining brighter than any regular flame as it spun around. It went over Dark Iblis’ beam and hit the creature’s center eye, right at the origin of the beam. The flames were imbued with the power of life, making the resulting explosion especially painful for the beast and causing it to rear back with a screech of pain, cutting off its beam in the process. The energy stopped coming after several moments and Deoxys dropped its protective field, the DNA Pokémon and both Sonics feeling drained after having to hold back the dark energy for so long. Everyone looked at them and became worried when they saw them all slumping forward slightly.

Suddenly, multiple multicolored waves that had a slight pinkish tint to them began to sweep through all of them. Much to the confusion of everyone save most of the Pokémon, the waves caused them all to relax and feel stronger, Deoxys and the Sonics standing up straight after a few moments. Suicune, Entei, Raikou, Lucario, and Pikachu looked up to their left and saw Xerneas standing on top of a nearby building, the waves coming off of its body. ~Heal Pulse,~ Suicune communicated to the others, causing everyone else to notice Xerneas too. The waves stopped a couple of seconds later and the Life Pokémon leapt from the building, making its way towards Kyogre and Groudon to help them as well.

Suddenly, a loud call was heard, Raikou, Suicune, and Entei standing at attention and turning to look up and back as did everyone else. As they watched, a large bird flew in and landed on one of the less damaged buildings, its talons gripping the edge of the roof as its red eyes looked straight at Dark Iblis. Its backside up to its head was red with a green striped around its neck, its feathers were red with green feathers at the tips of its wings, it had a white underside, a yellow crest of feathers atop its head and tail-feathers, and it had black rings around its eyes. It opened its yellow beak and spread its wings wide, its body seeming to glow gold as it let out another loud call, shafts of sunlight starting to break through the clouds overhead in response. ~Mother Ho-Oh…~ Suicune, Raikou, and Entei murmured.

Everyone looked back at Dark Iblis when it let out a roar and saw it receive a Dragon Claw from Rayquaza and a Dragon Pulse from Zygarde to the eye in response. The two Sonics looked at Deoxys and the three nodded at each other before they flew off to rejoin the battle, feeling much better after getting hit with Xerneas’ Heal Pulse. While they were flying, Xerneas was finishing using Heal Pulse on Groudon and Kyogre and Zapdos, Articuno, Moltres, and Yveltal were flying in Dark Iblis’ direction as well to back them up.

As they got closer, Zygarde’s body turned black and seemingly disappeared with a scattering of green hexagons which came together and moved towards Dark Iblis before they broke away and rushed over it like waves. Some of the hexagons surrounded and struck the beast’s body before they disappeared and Zygarde reappeared. Dark Iblis found itself unable to move much afterwards, leaving it open to attack. While Groudon began to move towards the fight, Kyogre leapt out of the water on the Station Square side and Articuno flew around a building to its left, both firing Ice Beam at the leg closest to them when they had a clear shot, covering both in a layer of ice. Once he was close enough, Groudon held his arms out and let out a roar as his body began to glow red. Precipice Blades shot out of the lava around Dark Iblis, their tips breaking through the ice covering both legs and further restraining it.

As they joined the gathering of Legendary Pokémon, both Sonics noticed Xerneas moving across the rooftops to where Lugia was, the Diving Pokémon the only one that hadn’t been attended to yet. Dark Iblis also noticed and, despite all the eyes that were watching it, turned its upper body and raised all of its arms up. As everyone watched, it began to create a large round rock that glowed with purple energy. The Pokémon around it began launching attacks at it to try to stop it, but none of them were aiming directly at its eye and with all the attacks being launched, the Sonics, Deoxys, Rayquaza, and Zygarde couldn’t get close or get through to the Legendaries. As a result, Dark Iblis was able to finish making the boulder despite the attempts to interrupt it.

Before it could throw it, F-T Sonic looked at O-T Sonic as he pointed over at the two Pokémon, his younger self nodding in understanding before they both shot through the air, managing to get in front of Lugia and Xerneas before Dark Iblis threw the boulder. They flew up and intercepted it mid-flight, both pushing up against it with their hands in an attempt to stop it before it reached the two Pokémon who had just noticed what was happening. They continued to push as hard as they could even as the energy inside the boulder leaked out onto them, slowly sapping away at their strength. They managed to stop it after a few moments and threw it straight up into the air. As it came back down, F-T Sonic and O-T Sonic brought a leg back as the former called, “Heads up!” Once it was back in front of them again, they both kicked it as hard as they could and sent it flying back at Dark Iblis. The Legendary Pokémon close to the beast quickly got as far away as they could at this, the boulder breaking apart when it hit Dark Iblis and causing it to screech in pain as it held its head.

Seeing an opportunity to finish this, Rayquaza extended her body to its full length and took off flying into the air, a green outline already starting to surround her. After taking a glance back to see Lugia giving Xerneas a lift, both Sonics flew back towards Dark Iblis, the Legendary Pokémon starting to attack the beast again as it tried to recover from the hit. Both Sonics got slightly above the top of Dark Iblis, hovering in the air not far from it. Moments later, a glint came from the sky above as Rayquaza came shooting back to finish her Dragon Ascent, the green aura surrounding her fully now. Both Sonics shot down at Dark Iblis as Rayquaza came down behind them, the creature making one last desperate attempt to stop the three as it saw them diving towards it.

Its six arms did nothing to stop them as they shot right into its center eye, all three emerging from the back of its head a moment later and flying up once they were out. Turning to look back down, they saw that Dark Iblis had gone completely still as it fell backwards, landing in and starting to sink into the lava. As it sank, the other Legendary Pokémon all unleashed one last round of attacks on it to make sure it wouldn’t get back up, ending with one last Origin Pulse from Kyogre that cooled the lava around where it had been into rock.


VICTORY AT LAST


A long moment of tense calmness passed through entire area, both Sonics, the group, and all of the Legendary Pokémon looking at the hardened lava where Dark Iblis had been, everyone at this point expecting it to break it to pieces and come out, ready to fight again. They continued to look at it, watching for any sign of the slightest disturbance… But there was no movement, no sudden sound ringing out, no sense of wrongness that any of the Legendary Pokémon were able to feel. It was finally over.

The Legendary Pokémon gathered around the beast’s ‘grave’ each let out a triumphant shout as the realization settled in and the dark clouds overhead broke, revealing the sun to both cities. Afterwards, everyone in the air moved to land, Moltres and Yveltal landing on buildings in the destroyed city while Zapdos and Articuno landed on top of buildings on the Station Square side, Lugia flying over to the water-ravaged city as well and lowering itself into the water in an open space after letting Xerneas off. Zygarde, still in its Complete Form, stood in between the divide as Rayquaza flew over between Groudon and Kyogre, the two sharing a respectful gaze with each other. Their fight was done as well, their animosity and rivalry, at least for the time being, long forgotten.

Both Sonics quickly flew over to a nearby rooftop as Deoxys followed them, both managing to get above it before their Super forms faded and they both dropped down onto solid ground. They both turned to look up at Deoxys, the DNA Pokémon in its Normal Form and the aura that had been around it gone. It stared down at them for a moment before the tentacles coming from its right arm socket came together to form an arm and a hand that it extended towards them as it floated closer. Both blue hedgehogs realized what it was getting at and they each took the hand, shaking it.

They all turned when they heard a familiar voice calling “Hey!” and saw Rainbow Dash flying towards them, Suicune, Entei, and Raikou carrying the ones that couldn’t fly as the rest of the group came over. Rainbow landed in front of the two hedgehogs saying, “That was awesome! It was one thing to see Super Sonic in that memory or whatever it was, but seeing you in action, especially two of you, was way better!” After they all made it over to the rooftop and were off the Legendary Beasts, the others expressed their amazement as well, especially Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Shining, and Cadance since they hadn’t been present for the earlier glimpse at Super Sonic.

Raikou, Entei, and Suicune also seemed to be impressed by what they had seen, with Entei somewhat reluctantly admitting, ~I’m not entirely sure about everything we witnessed, but it would appear I was belittling you a bit much. I underestimated you.~

F-T Sonic shrugged, “Hey, no problem.” He looked over at O-T Sonic, “It’s nothing we’re not used to, right?” The younger blue hedgehog smiled as he nodded in reply and the two shared a fist bump.

Everyone looked over to the side when they saw a light green light shining and saw it was coming from Zygarde, light green streaks of light coming off of its body as the Cells and Cores it had called to it separated from its body, causing it to return to its original snake-like form. It held its head up as it wrapped part of its tail around the side of the building it was on in the destroyed city and the Cells and Cores spread out on the roofs of Station Square, three of the Cores joining with some of the Cells to form other Zygardes that stood on four legs and looked like dogs while two Cores seemingly disappeared. As they looked on, a bright glow came from Rayquaza as she changed back from her Mega Evolved form.

Suddenly, the green dragon turned away from Groudon and Kyogre and flew towards the group, her eyes specifically on both Sonics. As she got closer, she began moving her body left and right like she was a snake and flew around the two hedgehogs, wrapping around them and holding them up afterwards as she hovered in the air. F-T Sonic was closer to her head with O-T Sonic below him, both of them looking up at her face with alarmed expressions. From the side, Suicune noticed how she was holding and looking at them as well as the smile on her lips and glared, “Really? Now of all times, Rayquaza? And him? I will not let you do that.”

While nearly everyone else was trying to figure out what Rayquaza was doing, Suicune moved forward and leapt up near the green dragon, bringing her streamer-like tails up and slapping the ends against part of her body like a pair of whips. Rayquaza let out a grunt and loosened her grip, causing both Sonics to fall. Suicune dropped down and got underneath the two, catching them. She glanced back at them for a moment before glaring up at Rayquaza, ~Act your age, Rayquaza.~ The Sky High Pokémon responded with angry growls, almost barking at Suicune who simply replied, ~Don’t give me that! And you are most fortunate they cannot understand what you’re saying. You’re supposed to be above such things, yet you’re indulging in such childishness not only in front of mostly ground-dwellers, but also in the presence of your fellow Legendaries, including Dialga and Palkia.~

As she finished speaking, an odd vortex opened and a ball of bright appeared in the sky above the two cities, the latter catching everyone’s attention. A large Pokémon emerged from the vortex and landed in the lava below on all four legs while the ball of light receded to reveal an equally large Pokémon that flew over to the Station Square side before landing on two legs. The Pokémon standing in the lava was mostly dark blue with gray metallic portions and light blue stripes on various parts of its body. It had what looked like a fin that spread out like a fan on its back, a crest on its head with two horns around it, and a diamond in the center of its chest. The other Pokémon was light purple with stripes and markings that were a darker shade of purple and a gray waist and underarms. It had a pointed white crest on top of its head, round plates on its shoulders that had a pearl in their center, and formations like gauntlets on the sides of its arms. Both Pokémon had red eyes and black scleras.

Riolu pointed as he said, “That’s Dialga! But who’s the other one?”

Lucario glanced down at him with a slightly annoyed expression, “That’s Palkia, just like Suicune said.” Riolu looked at him blankly while Pikachu just shook his head.

They all looked back at Dialga and Palkia as they started roaring at each other, both staying where they were as they kept it up. It soon became clear to the group that they were communicating with each other. Twilight looked at Suicune and asked, “What are they saying?”

Suicune turned around, looking at the lavender unicorn and replying as both Sonics slid off of her back, ~They’re discussing what they’re going to do. Now that time and space are, for lack of a better word, stable again, they can start repairing the damage that has been done.~ She looked over at the two, silently listening for a moment. She then said, ~They’re saying that everyone here has to leave while they do their work. That includes us as well.~

Rarity groaned, “Yes, let’s please get out of here! I really need to fix my hair!”

Riolu spoke, “Aw, but we were just all starting to be buddies! Can’t we hang out together for a little longer?”

Suicune, Entei, and Raikou looked down at him for a moment before looking up at each other. After a few seconds, Suicune spoke, ~Well… perhaps for a bit longer, provided we go somewhere that was not caught up in all of this and is somewhat secluded.~

F-T Tails held a hand to his chin, thinking for a moment before saying, “I might know a place we could go that would fit those criteria.” He looked at Suicune and saw no indication that the Aurora Pokémon had been joking on her face.

The fox felt a tugging on his arm and looked down to see that it was O-T Tails. “Um, I left the Tornado parked on the side of that building. Can we go get it before we leave?” the younger fox asked.

Lucario shrugged, “I don’t see why not. We shouldn’t be leaving anything that belongs to us in the place where Dialga and Palkia will be working, or in the wrong world for that matter. Oh, right…” The Aura Pokémon reached his paws into the Treasure Bag and pulled out the four Chaos Emeralds F-T Sonic had given him, handing them back to the blue hedgehog. As everyone climbed onto the Legendary Beasts and they started moving to the building where the Tornado was, Rayquaza cast a long look at both Sonics before turning away, entering the vortex that Dialga and Palkia opened up next to her to return her home just like the other Legendary Pokémon.

Unbeknownst to the Sonics, the Tails, Link, Yoshi, the Equestrians, or any of the Pokémon involved, two figures had been watching nearly the entire roller coaster of a crisis, one clearly taller than the other. As they watched the situation beginning to calm down, the shorter figure, with its arms crossed, said in an irritated tone, “Never again.”

The taller figure whined, “Aw, come on! That was amazing to watch! And it wouldn’t take much to…”

He was cut off by the shorter figure, “No! That is the last time I leave you to your own shenanigans! You’ve managed to push my patience to the limit!”

The taller figure snorted, “Clearly the fun is not infinite with you. What are you so mad about anyway? I thought you didn’t want them to get here too quickly.”

The shorter figure pointed up at the taller figure, “I’ll tell you why I’m so angry! You little ‘test’ of the limits of the Time Eater’s powers came close to ruining EVERYTHING! All of the history we’re trying to change, every obstacle we’ve thrown in their path, everything they’ve gone through… that titanic clash very nearly swallowed it all up like a black hole! You’re very lucky that Sonic and his past self were able to put a stop to it because it would be all your fault if everything collapsed in on itself!”

The taller figure waved a lion paw, “Oh please, don’t be so dramatic.”

The shorter figure started ranting again, “Don’t you talk to me about being dramatic, you overgrown chimera! You’ve been pushing and prodding me all day, and now you’ve gone too far! I already told you that the hedgehog is mine and mine alone to defeat, and I am not going to have this genius plan of mine undermined by your incompetence!”

The taller figure leaned down and got in the shorter figure’s face. “Excuse me? Look who’s talking!” he said.

The shorter figure shot back, “Do I need to remind you that I don’t need your help to get you back to the way I found you?” The taller figure did not have a ready reply for that, so the shorter figure went on, “Didn’t think so! I’m well aware that you’ve been sneaking around when you think I haven’t been paying attention, and I’m not sure what happened to Sonic and those ponies before they ran into Eggman Nega, but I’m sure you do, so you’d better watch yourself!”

The taller figure stood up straight and glared down at the shorter figure, “So what do we…”

The shorter figure cut him off again, “We’re not going to do anything else until they get here! Whatever’s open on the route to Canterlot is it! They’re getting here before you screw this up any more!” He turned on his heel and started walking away angrily with  his fists held out at his sides as he muttered, “With any luck, it’ll take them long enough for me to pay Bowser a visit and tell him what’s been going on. It’s probably going to take a while since he might just start having a tantrum over the fact that I’ve been working with someone else and I’ll have to convince him that we really are EBFFs…”

The taller figure crossed his arms and huffed as he watched the shorter figure walk away. “He sounds like he’s on the verge of throwing a tantrum himself,” he muttered.
> The Alpha and the Omega - Epilogue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


A SECLUDED SPOT


O-T and F-T Sonic and Tails, with a little aid from Raikou, stopped pushing the Tornado and came to a stop, the red biplane sitting next to Yoshi’s kart under a tree on the grass in a small clearing not far from a paved path. They stepped back and looked at the plane for a moment before looking around. Aside from the path, they were surrounded by trees and grass, but even from where they and the rest of the group were standing, they could see tall buildings past the tree line no matter which direction they looked that, despite their cold exterior, seemed to be full of life compared to the two cities that had served as a battleground.

“Empire City. Nice out-of-the-way choice, bud,” F-T Sonic complimented after a moment, his hands on his hips as he continued looking around.

Everyone turned and looked over as Raikou asked, ~What do you mean by that, Sonic? This ‘Empire City’ seems quite large from here; it doesn’t exactly seem ‘out-of-the-way’ to me.~

F-T Tails answered, “Well, what he means is that the continent Empire City is on didn’t have a Gaia Temple on it, so it wasn’t really a major stop during our world adventure to stop Dark Gaia and repair the planet. If it weren’t for the fact that we got word that Dark Gaia’s minions and Eggman’s robots were targeting it, we might not have needed to stop here during that time at all.”

Raikou wanted to inquire further, but Entei came over and said, ~I do not like being here. There may be trees and grass here, but we are clearly surrounded by intact buildings, buildings that likely house humans. This location may be one of the least affected in your world by this crisis, but I would hardly call it safe.~

Raikou looked over at Entei at that, but F-T Sonic held up his hands as he replied, “Relax, big guy, we’re fine here. It’s daytime here and we’re in the middle of Meridian Park. I think that’s what its name is, anyway…”

F-T Tails glanced at him for a moment before continuing, “Part of the reason you don’t have to worry is because this park is so big. It’s roughly 2.5 miles long and half a mile wide, or 843 acres of land.”

Applejack and the other ponies were wide-eyed at that, the orange mare saying, “Whoa Nelly! That’s more acres than even Sweet Apple Acres!”

F-T Tails nodded, “Yeah, you could probably fit part of another major city here.”

Suicune asked, ~What’s the other part of the reason we don’t have to worry about the humans that live here?~

F-T Sonic answered, “Well, basically the fact that you’re hanging around us.”

The Aurora Pokémon tilted her head, ~Are you saying that if they see us near you two, they’ll just let us be? Forgive me, but I don’t think that will happen.~ As if to put the blue hedgehog’s words to the test, everyone began to hear loud music and turned to look. On the paved path, they saw that the source of the music was a teenaged human male walking along the path. He was wearing a black tank top and shorts, and had a white skull cap on his head. His right arm and hand were supporting a jambox on his shoulder and he was moving his left hand in an erratic manner, his steps bouncy as he moved along to his music.

For a minute, it seemed like he was too caught up in the loud music to be paying attention to his surroundings, but as he passed in front of the group, he came to a stop as his right eye shifted to the side and he caught sight of everyone. His jambox still rested on his shoulder, still playing the loud music as he turned to look at Yoshi, the Pokémon, and the Equestrians, both Sonics and Tails stepping forward after a moment. The teenager’s eyes shifted  to them and after several seconds, he held up his left hand, his fingers curled inwards save for his pinky and thumb, which were both sticking out. He waggled the hand a bit questioningly and both Sonics and Tails by holding up their hands the same way. The teenager nodded after a moment and let his hand drop, turning back to the path and resuming his walk in the park.

“Wow. Looks like you weren’t kidding, Sonic,” Lucario said as he continued to watch the teenager walk.

“Yeah, he didn’t even look all that surprised when he saw us! He must’ve realized that we’re awesome and there was nothing to worry about!” Rainbow added.

F-T Tails spoke up, “I could give you several reasons why I believe the way he reacted was due to that loud, obnoxious music he’s listening to… but I’m guessing you don’t want to hear them.”

Rainbow shrugged, “Yeah, not really.”

Suicune turned to Sonic, ~So it would appear you were right.~ She then addressed everyone, ~No doubt it will take Dialga and Palkia some time to repair the damage done to time and space, so unless we receive word that we have to move or someone comes along that decides to raise a stir, I suggest we remain here for the time being.~

Shining asked, “So Dialga and Palkia will contact us when they’re all done?”

Suicune answered, ~Perhaps not them, but naturally someone will travel here and let us know. We will have to return to our world after all. And of course, the displaced ones will have to return to their proper worlds or times.~ She glanced over at Riolu at that; she did not know when he came from, but she knew Lucario did not want his past self to know too much about his own future.

Rainbow flapped her wings to hover as she placed her hooves behind her head. “So what should we do while we’re waiting? We’ve got a whole undestroyed city around us!” she said.

Lucario spoke, “I don’t think we should leave this park. That… person’s reaction is probably not representative of how other people in this city would react to us. Some might be as easygoing, but I doubt all of them are.”

Rainbow groaned and asked, “So what are we supposed to do instead? Just sit here?”

Everyone heard a rumble a moment later followed by Spike groaned. They turned to look at the baby dragon to see him clutching his stomach with his claws. “Those gems earlier were delicious, but with all the running around we’ve been doing, I’m starving now…” he complained.

“Hm. Come ta think of it, Ah could go fer a little somethin’ mahself,” Applejack said.

“Me too, actually,” Shining admitted. He  looked over at Yoshi, Link, and Greninja. Yoshi seemed excited to hear food being talked about, Link’s knees were bent as the boy crouched down and held both hands to his stomach, and Greninja didn’t look like he was leaning one way or the other.

Lucario slid his Treasure Bag off and set it down on the ground, kneeling down next to it as he said, “Let’s see what I packed in here.” He opened it and began looking through it, raising one eye a moment later. “Hm. This is nowhere near full. Some of the supplies I packed must’ve gotten washed away earlier,” he grunted.

“Pika Pikachu?” Pikachu asked.

“Looks like all the apples are still here, but we lost most of the berries. There’s not much left, certainly not enough for everyone,” Lucario answered.

O-T Tails looked up at his future self, “I guess we’re going to have to find some more food if we all want to eat, huh?” The older two-tailed fox nodded in agreement.

Suddenly they all heard a voice call, “Corndogs! Fresh corndogs here!” Everyone looked at the paved path and saw a man pushing a white cart in front of him. The vendor stopped and stared at the gathering on the grass for a moment before turning back to the path and continuing on, calling, “Corndogs! Get your corndogs here!”

Shining looked intrigued as he watched the vendor walk away. “Corndogs?” He turned to F-T Sonic and asked, “What are corndogs?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Well, there’s no corn in them, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

Twilight looked at him and asked, “Then why are they called corndogs?”

Sonic shrugged, “I guess ‘cause they come on a stick. You know, kind of like…”

Twilight nodded as she said, “Oh, like corn on the cob. Right.”

Applejack snorted, “Pft. Ya don’t need sticks to eat corn on the cob. You just pick it up by the ends and hold it between yer hooves while you’re eatin’.”

F-T Sonic spoke, “Hm. Well, I know a few good eating spots around the city. I can go get some stuff and bring it back here.” He glanced over at Rarity and saw that the white mare was trying to get her mane back to its normal appearance with her hooves. He stared for a moment before turning to Twilight and asking, “Uh, you wouldn’t happen to have a brush or something she could borrow, would you, Twilight? I know where there’s a mirror here in the park.”

Rarity halted her meager efforts at that, turning and trotting over to the older blue hedgehog while saying, “A mirror?! Where?! You must show me! Take me there!” She was up in his face by the time she finished and she turned away to look at Twilight as she said, “Twilight, please tell me you have a brush for emergencies like this!” The lavender unicorn stared at her silently for a moment before using her magic to make a brush appear out of thin air that Rarity eagerly took with her own magic. “Excellent. Thank you, darling. Now please show me to this mirror,” she stated while starting to walk and tug F-T Sonic with some of her magic.

“All right, I’ll show you! Geez, don’t get your mane in a mohawk, Rarity,” the blue hedgehog said as he pulled ahead of her, everyone watching as they walked away.


A (SOMEWHAT) RELAXING LUNCH


Soon…

F-T Sonic raised the chili dog in his left hand up as O-T Sonic did the same with the chili dog in his right hand, both bumping the back of their hands and dogs together in a toast of sorts before taking their first bite. They and everyone else were enjoying a nice post-victory meal, all of them currently sitting at or around one of the picnic tables nearby as they ate the food that F-T Sonic had picked up. They had popcakes, pizza slices, cookies, grapes, salads, kebabs… And of course, Rarity’s mane and tail were back to their usual flowing appearance, the fashionista able to enjoy having Spike feed her grapes now that she was happy with her appearance again.

“Mmm! This food is pretty good,” Rainbow said as she enjoyed a pizza slice with her popcake.

~It surprisingly is. I still think you could stand to add a little something more to what you’re eating, Rainbow,~ Suicune communicated while gingerly eating a salad.

“Nah, I’m good. I’m more of a get up and go pony, so I sometimes get through a day on quick eats and sugar-filled treats. This is more my kind of meal,” the cyan pegasus replied.

“Well, I get by super just eating the treats at Sugarcube Corner! Any kind of meal is great for me, but those are by far my favorite!” Pinkie piped up.

~Hm. The cyan one is clearly active, so her diet shouldn’t do her much harm. I’m not so sure about you though, pink one. Hopefully you have similar habits, because otherwise…” Raikou said, trailing off at the end.

Twilight spoke, “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about Pinkie, Raikou. She takes great care of herself.” Pinkie beamed proudly at that.

F-T Tails looked at F-T Sonic and asked, “Where’d you get this pizza, Sonic?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Eh, I had to leave the park to find a couple things. Bumped into Wentos while I was getting stuff, got a few things from him as well.” He looked over at Suicune and noticed she had not touched her hamburger. “What’s the matter, Suicune? Not interested in that anymore?” he asked.

The Aurora Pokémon answered, ~No, I’m sure it’s good. It’s just that… I haven’t sampled cooked food often, and what I have had hasn’t been palatable.~

Spike said as he took a bite of his burger, “Mmm! Put it behind you! This is great! The sear on this is perfect!”

Entei spoke up as he eyed the meat on his burger, ~Is this what you and humans call a sear, little one? This hasn’t been cooked properly! It’s not black enough! Do humans know anything about fine cooking?~

Suicune turned back to F-T Sonic at that and said, ~He has provided most of the cooked food that I’ve eaten. He apparently likes it, but I don’t enjoy eating something that’s almost as black as charcoal.~

The blue hedgehog nodded, “Hm, good point.”

Lucario and Pikachu looked over at Link and Yoshi, the latter using his long tongue to eat up the fruits and berries, especially the ones they had had in the Treasure Bag, while the former was happily tearing into his kebabs, oblivious to anyone who might have been watching him. Lucario looked down at his partner and smiled, “Those two would fit right in with the other Guild members, don’t you think?” Pikachu laughed while nodding in reply.

Twilight looked at the Aura Pokémon curiously, “What do you mean by that?”

He answered, “Well, let’s just say it’s probably a good thing that the Guild is on the edge of town. Dinner there can be quite the spectacle; once they’re given the signal, everyone starts devouring their food and the whole hall fills with the sound of eating. I’m sure the ‘mons in town would be complaining if they had to listen to that every night.”

Pinkie threw some berries and a regular apple in her mouth, swallowing everything before saying, “Mmm! This stuff is really good and energizing! It makes sense why you guys carry this stuff around with you!” She extended her long tongue out of her mouth and slid the end of it under a particularly big apple. Before she could slurp up her prize, Yoshi’s tongue shot out and wrapped around the other side of it. Both tongues pulled, leaving the fruit hanging in the air at the end of both tongues.

Both Pinkie and Yoshi glared at each other for a moment before they began having a tug-of-war for the fruit. For a moment, it seemed like Pinkie was going to win, but Yoshi suddenly leaned back and pulled both the apple and Pinkie into his mouth! Almost everyone stared in alarm for a moment as Yoshi’s stomach bulged and then shrank as he deposited an egg behind him. It shook wildly for a few seconds before it broke apart, Pinkie seeming no worse for the wear as she stood up on her hind legs and yelled at Yoshi, “Hey, no fair!” The green dinosaur ignored her, simply putting his hands on his cheeks in bliss as he enjoyed the apple’s lasting flavor.

Link had stopped eating as he looked over at the two and was suddenly startled out of his reverie by a wet feeling scraping across his cheek. He turned to his right and saw that Greninja had snatched up a piece of fruit that had ended up on his cheek, the tip of the frog’s tongue going over his ‘scarf’ and dropping it in his mouth. The boy smiled softly and made his way over to the Ninja Pokémon. Greninja watched him come closer, a neutral look on his face the whole time. He then tensed up and gave a happy croak when Link cautiously raised his hand to the frog’s tongue-scarf and began rubbing it, closing his eyes in pleasure.

“Is he actually enjoying that?” Riolu asked as he looked on.

“Of course he is. It’s not surprising that you don’t know that yet,” Lucario said.

~I would hope that it was only now that you learn just how sensitive a Greninja’s tongue can be,~ Entei half-joked.

Raikou looked at Suicune, ~Considering the way that we know anything about humans, it’s nice to see that they’re good in their natural form too.~

Suicune replied, ~Well, the ones we’ve seen so far have been good to us, even if their vernacular is a bit… unusual.~ She turned to F-T Tails and asked, ~What exactly is a ‘selfie’, Tails?~

The older fox groaned, “Please tell me you’re not going to take that word back with you…”

As they kept talking, F-T Sonic glanced over at Fluttershy. With how much she loved animals, he would’ve guessed she’d be intently observing what Link was doing and trying to learn all that she could, but as he looked at her, he saw that she was instead looking at him with a worried expression that she tried to cover up as she quickly looked away. At this, he knew immediately she was still thinking about what had happened earlier before everything that had happened today had gone from a fiasco to a complete crisis. He didn’t know what happened after her, her friends, Shining, and Tails had left the train without him, but he could guess she was blaming herself for how she handled the Eggman Nega attack.

Before he could try to reassure her, he felt a push on his shoulder and heard F-T Tails call, “Hey Sonic, are you listening?”

The older blue hedgehog shook his head and looked at the fox to his left, asking, “Huh? Sorry, I was… thinking about something. What’d you say, Tails?”

The older of the two foxes replied, “I was saying that, while we were waiting for you to get back, Lucario went and talked to Greninja about how he changed back on the mountain.”

F-T Sonic looked at the Aura Pokémon and asked, “Oh? What did he tell you?”


GROWING CURIOSITY


Lucario answered, “He said that, essentially, it’s a form change that hasn’t been seen for a very long time back where he comes from. It’s some sort of unique Ability that only manifests itself when his feelings synchronize with someone else’s. I thought it was something like that since I could feel it in the air and see it with my Aura. It seems his ‘Trainer’, his partner if I understood him right, is the one he normally shares such a strong bond with.”

Cadance added, “From what Lucario was translating earlier, it sounds like he generally synchronizes with anyone that’s as courageous and selfless as he is.”

Rainbow spoke up, “Is that what triggers it? I was too busy sitting in one of the trees here earlier to pay attention. If that’s what it is, then he could’ve syn… synth… He could’ve connected with any of us back there, couldn’t he? We were all being amazing like we always are, especially me.” She spread her wings and flapped her way over to Link and Greninja, wrapping a foreleg around the latter’s shoulder as she asked, “You probably teamed up with me, didn’t you? That’s how great we are together: we aren’t even aware of it when it happens because we’re so busy being awesome all the time.”

Greninja glanced at her for a second after she finished speaking and then quickly brought his webbed hands together in front of him with a “Gre!” A moment later, he vanished in a puff of smoke, leaving a surprised Rainbow with nothing to wrap her leg around.

“He’s gone!” Pinkie exclaimed in shock. She then looked off to the side and flatly said, “Oh no, wait, he’s on that tree branch.” Everyone looked over at the tree and saw that Greninja was indeed on one of its branches, his webbed feet on the side of it with his toes on top as he hung upside-down with his arms crossed. He raised himself up a second later and turned before sitting with his back against the tree’s trunk, his arms still crossed.

Applejack let out a chuckle before saying, “Ah think that’s his way of sayin’ ‘no’, Rainbow.”

Lucario nodded, “I agree, Applejack.” He turned to Rainbow, “I’m sorry, Rainbow, but Link is the one he shares a special bond with, not you.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow, a bit annoyed at that. She pointed to Link with a hoof as she spoke, “What, him? The kid that’s quieter than Fluttershy usually is? I mean, we all saw the weird mask he used and the glowing mark he has, but how do you know that he’s the one? What makes him so different from the rest of us?”

Lucario started, “I know it’s him because I sensed his and Greninja’s Auras merging together before Greninja changed. And you probably didn’t notice the way Link reeled in pain despite not getting hit by anything when Greninja was delivering the meteorite to Rayquaza…”

Rainbow interjected, “No, but I was able to hear him grunting, and if you remember, we were all busy fighting then! Plus I noticed the way your Aura thing seemed to get brighter and stronger the more damage you took! I can recall every time I noticed a change in it!”

Lucario was struck silent for a moment before he continued, “Okay, but my point is still valid: they had become so connected that they could feel each other’s pain. As for what makes him so different, I wouldn’t know. I would say it’s as much a mystery as that mark he bears.”

Before Rainbow could say anything back, Entei huffed at her, ~I hope you, and by extension those you surround yourself with, are not normally this petty.~

Raikou looked over at him and said, ~Be that as it may, Entei, you have to admit that this form change that that Greninja is capable of is highly unusual. Like Lucario said, it’s not exactly a common thing from wherever he comes from, and we’ve been watching over the Pokémon in our world wherever we go. I know I’ve never heard of anything like this before; have you?~

Entei somewhat conceded, ~No… But if it’s something that only humans can bring out, then there should be pockets of other ‘mons, or at the very least Greninjas, that are capable of exhibiting it there as well.~

Shining spoke up, “It was pretty amazing. Too bad there was no chance to really step back and see how it started and really appreciate the change. I’m sure that would’ve made it a little easier to understand, don’t you, Twily?” He looked over at his sister as he finished talking, the lavender unicorn nodding agreement.

O-T Tails said, “That would be pretty cool, but in order for it to happen again, wouldn’t Greninja need to be in some sort of… I don’t know, tense situation?”

F-T Tails nodded, “Probably, and that’s unlikely to happen since there’s nothing serious going on here. The only way we might be able to do it now would be to create a situation, and there’s no way we can do that here.”

Suicune held a paw to her muzzle. ~Actually… there might be,~ she communicated after a moment, catching everyone’s attention.


BATTLEFIELD PREPARATION AND RULES


Soon…

“So… I don’t really want to be that mare, but I’m not really sure what all of this… is,” Twilight said, mainly to Entei and Raikou as they seemed to be the only ones who might know what was going on. The group had moved away from the picnic area back into the clearing after Suicune had explained her idea to Lucario, the Aura Pokémon dragging his Bone Rush staff through the grass and dirt to make lines that formed two rectangles standing on their sides connected to the sides of a larger square while Suicune moved around the perimeter of the area, creating some sort of invisible barrier. F-T Sonic stood in one of the rectangles across from Rainbow and Link while the rest of the group was spread out away from the battlefield, Raikou and Entei in front of them and off to the sides as well.

Without looking back, Raikou explained, ~Lucario is tracing right now to show where the participants may stand and where the battlefield is located, and Suicune is using a variation of her Mirror Coat to ensure that no stray attacks cause any damage to this park or anywhere else. They may bounce a bit, but they will not do any harm, especially not to you since she has already protected this spot.~

Shining started, “So, uh, this fight…”

Suicune, as she walked behind the group still working on the Mirror Coat barrier, corrected without breaking stride, ~Not a fight, Shining Armor. It is a battle. There’s a difference.~

Shining shrugged, “Okay, battle. This battle is going to help Greninja change?”

Raikou nodded, ~Yes. Once Lucario is done, he will stand with Sonic to complete the setup. Do you see it now?~

Shining wasn’t quite sure what he was getting at, but Cadance soon said, “I think I do. Greninja will be on Link and Rainbow’s side and Pikachu will be on Sonic and Lucario’s side. Link is supposed to be the one who triggered the change while Rainbow thinks she’s the one who did it. I’m not sure how Lucario fits in, but Sonic shares some of Greninja’s personality, so maybe he can cause it as well, even if he is on the other side.”

Entei communicated, ~That is correct.~ Suicune soon walked over to the edge of the square and faced the completed field while Lucario joined Sonic in his box. Entei glanced at Pikachu and Greninja and said, ~To your positions, both of you.~ They both nodded and stood up, making their way over to the square.

As Pikachu got down on all fours in front of Lucario and Sonic and Greninja stood in front of Rainbow and Link, Fluttershy looked over at Entei and nervously asked, “Um, are you sure this is okay? With them?”

Entei simply replied, ~Yes. They both agreed to do this. Greninja seemed especially eager to be a part of this demonstration. He must be used to battling a lot. And this battle will not be like the ones you have seen; it will not go to the point of exhaustion.~

Cadance said, “I have to admit, I find it amazing that this is one way that you all become closer to one another. Back home, most of what could be compared to battling tends to involve the fate of Equestria.”

Raikou communicated back, ~Understandable. Now that you have a chance to properly sit back and observe, you may come to understand its appeal better.~

Twilight murmured, “Hmm, I wish I’d brought a quill and something to write on. I’d sure like to take some notes.”

Applejack glanced from the unicorn to F-T Tails and noticed he had his radar out. “You wanna take notes too, Tails?” she asked.

The fox absently answered, “Hm? No, I was just curious about the readings around here. They seem to be steady. No time-space anomalies or anything of the like.”

O-T Tails looked at the older fox in awe. “Wow. It’s amazing that you made something that sophisticated out of spare Badnik parts. I hope what I know and what I’ve learned helps me get to your level soon,” he said, F-T Tails looking up and smiling at him. The silence of the moment was broken by a snort, both foxes and everyone else in the group turning to see that it had come from Yoshi, the green dinosaur seemingly having been put to a snooze by his full belly, his head tilted slightly forward.

Suicune spoke, catching everyone’s attention, ~This practice battle between Pikachu of Team Defenders and Greninja from parts unknown will begin momentarily. Lucario and Sonic will serve as Pikachu’s partners while Link and Rainbow Dash will serve as Greninja’s. Partners may encourage and support in any way that falls under the rules, which brings us to the first rule.~ She turned her head and glared at Rainbow, ~Partners are to remain INSIDE of their box for the duration of the battle!~

Everyone looked over at the cyan pegasus and saw that she was hovering halfway over the line. “Aw, come on! You said we could help! Why are you making that a rule?” Rainbow complained.

Suicune calmly, though with a hint of irritation in her voice, answered, ~This is a battle between Pokémon. Last time I checked, you did not identify yourself as a Pokémon, therefore you do not belong on this field.~

Rainbow gestured back at the rectangle with a hoof as she said, “Come on, you can’t expect us to stay in these boxes when there’s fighting action going on!”

Suicune, the irritation in her voice growing, responded, ~It’s BATTLING action, and yes I do. If that’s too hard for you, I can ask someone else to take your spot.~ She glanced over at the rest of the group as she said, ~Someone like Applejack, perhaps.~

At that, Rainbow backed up into the rectangle and dropped down onto the ground as she groaned, “Ugh, fine!”

Suicune said, ~I’m glad we understand each other. And just so you know, that still stands. If you continue trying to cross the line, someone else will stand in for you and you will get to sit in the corner until the battle is over… in a block of ice.~ Rainbow looked stricken at that, but Suicune looked away as she returned to her explanation, ~As for the battlers themselves, there will be no restrictions on what moves may be used, however I will be watching you both closely. If an attack might breach the perimeter or you start to go too far, I will step in and end the battle. Pay attention to your own limits as your partners will be watching out for you as well.~

As she continued to explain the rules, Applejack said, “Huh, Ah guess there is a difference between battlin’ and fightin’. One’s got a whole bunch of rules ta put limits on it and the other… doesn’t.”

Rarity commented, “I suppose that the occasional fisticuff isn’t such a bad thing, but I still think there’s a thin line between the two. I mean, some of your competitions with Rainbow Dash have certainly gone that way, Applejack. One moment you’re competing as you should be, the next you’re literally at each others’ throats. This feels very much like the latter; how could anyone enjoy watching that?”

Her question was seemingly answered a moment later. “Go, Pikachu! You’re stronger than that ninja frog! Show him whose boss!” Riolu called, the younger Pokémon still a bit annoyed that a random Lucario was picked to be his best friend’s partner instead of him. A sweat drop ran down the side of Pikachu’s face at that while Lucario held a paw over his eyes as he wondered if he really was such a loudmouth prior to his evolution.

Pinkie piped up, “You wish! Pikachu may be a real shocker, but there’s a reason Rainbow Dash and Greninja are together: they both rigorously train!” She then cheered, “Go ninja, go ninja go ninja!” Spike looked like he wanted to cheer as well, but he caught himself as he glanced in Twilight’s direction, the unicorn noticing as he looked away when she looked over at him. The baby dragon felt himself get pulled by magic a moment later followed by a foreleg wrapping around him. He looked up and saw Twilight giving him a smile, a smile that he returned as he snuggled up against her, seeing now that she held nothing against him.

After she finished laying out the rules, Suicune asked, “Challengers, ready?” Both Pikachu and Greninja gave affirmative grunts in response. “Partners, set?” she continued, getting nods from both sides. After a moment, both of her streamer-like tails raised up slightly as she said, “Begin!”


PIKACHU VS. GRENINJA


Pikachu was the first to move with Greninja quickly following, both beginning with a Quick Attack. They both shot at each other, going along each other’s side several times before backing off. As Greninja came to a stop afterwards, he glanced back over his shoulder and saw that Pikachu was readying a Thunderbolt, the mouse’s cheeks already sparking with electricity. He leapt up out of the way when the hundred-thousand volts came at him, the attack hitting the ground and fizzling out.

As he landed, Greninja turned towards Pikachu and brought his webbed hands together, creating and throwing several Water Shurikens. The yellow mouse responded by using Agility, dodging around the spinning stars and making his way towards the Ninja Pokémon. As he got closer, he suddenly leapt up and came to a stop in midair as he seemed to build up energy, soon launching forward and hitting Greninja with a Skull Bash attack. Despite getting hit hard, the frog quickly recovered and grabbed the yellow mouse before he could land, lashing at him with his long tongue several times before throwing him onto his back.

“Yeah, that’s it, Greninja! Show him what you’ve got!” Rainbow cheered, the Ninja Pokémon standing up straight and glancing back as he waved his right hand.

Lucario grunted, “Hm. I might be surprised if we didn’t already know what he’s capable of.” He then called to Pikachu, “Don’t give in, Pikachu! Keep up the pressure!” The yellow mouse flipped over onto his paws at that, ready to continue.

As the two Pokémon continued battling, F-T Sonic glanced at Lucario and asked, “Hey, uh, you mind telling me why we have to stand in these spots, Lucario? You might have mentioned that to Suicune, but I don’t remember you telling the rest of us.”

The Aura Pokémon replied, “I have a feeling we need to be close to the battle to trigger Greninja’s transformation. This team set-up seems like the best way to bring that out; we all agreed to it.”

F-T Sonic said, “Yeah, but… it just seems odd since we’re basically acting as a cheering squad here, something we could do just as well sitting with everyone.” A cheer rose up from the sideline a moment later as if to prove his point. “We’re watching, but that’s about it. It’s not like we’re telling them what they should be doing, which would make this spot make a little more sense if we were.”

Lucario looked at him for a moment before looking back at the battlefield, a thoughtful look on his face. Suicune hadn’t questioned him when he suggested that the two boxes be added onto the sides of the field and he didn’t think of it much at the time, but now that he took a minute to look at it, he did have to wonder why he did it. Was it something he was used to from… before? Pikachu had been a bit confused by it, but Greninja, despite not being part of the conversation, seemed like he had seen it before during the tracing process. Were Trainers similar to partners? He didn’t know, and the only one that might…

He was drawn out of his introspective by a loud yell from the sideline. Looking up, he saw that Pikachu had managed to hit Greninja with an Iron Tail, knocking the frog back. He looked over at the others and guessed that it had been a surprising move since everyone looked surprised. Well, almost everyone; he noticed that Fluttershy still had a worried look on her face as she watched. He also noticed F-T Sonic was looking at her instead of focusing on the battle, meaning they both had been distracted for a short time.

Shaking his head to banish the thoughts, the Aura Pokémon held a hand to his chin as he went back to observing the battle. Greninja surprised Pikachu from behind with a Shadow Sneak, kicking the yellow mouse away. After recovering from the hard landing, the Mouse Pokémon looked back to see Greninja coming at him with a Night Slash and countered with another Iron Tail attack, quickly swinging his glowing tail to block the purple energy sword in his right hand. After the last swipe, Pikachu managed to catapult himself over Greninja, landing on the grass behind the Ninja Pokémon as he stumbled slightly. Seeing an opening and feeling a sense of familiarity, Lucario called, “Shock him, Pikachu!” At that, Pikachu quickly charged up and released a Thunderbolt as Greninja was turning around, catching him off-guard.

The attack lasted for several seconds; when it ended, Greninja let out a groan as his body shook, sparks coming off of him as he tried to stay upright. Pikachu smiled at this, as did Lucario. “Paralysis,” the Aura Pokémon said.

Both Rainbow and Link looked worried for Greninja as he didn’t seem to be able to move much. “Come on, Greninja, don’t give up!” Rainbow cried. Link gave a shout as well, but there were no words in it.

Lucario called to the two, finally causing F-T Sonic to look back to the battle, “This battle might still be able to continue, but Greninja’s in a bad spot now. That paralysis won’t wear off…” Before he could finish, Greninja’s eyes shot open and he glared in Lucario’s direction, causing the Aura Pokémon to stop speaking. Mustering up all of his strength, Greninja brought his arms up and around in front of them and, with a shout, thrust them out, causing the sparks to fly off of his body. As he brought them back down, it seemed that he no longer had any problems moving. “What?!” Lucario exclaimed, Pikachu looking surprised as well.

“You were saying?” Rainbow called, feeling confident now that Greninja was able to keep going.

On the sideline, Shining said, “Greninja shook off the effects of that Electric attack fast, even with the Type disadvantage.”

Twilight uttered, “I really should be checking my saddlebags for a quill and paper, but… this is really exciting to watch!”

Spike nodded, “I know, right?” With the exception of Yoshi (who was STILL asleep) and Fluttershy, everyone else seemed to agree with them.

Lucario continued to stare at Greninja in shock. “How did he recover that fast? I’ve never seen anyone shake off a Status Effect that quickly…” Looking past Greninja, he noticed that Link had the same look on his face as the Ninja Pokémon. “They’re both… Is it about to happen?” he wondered.


ASH-GRENINJA TURNS IT UP


He was proven right a moment later when the mark on the back of Link’s hand began to glow as it did before, catching everyone’s attention. At that point, Link and Greninja began to move in synchrony; they both held out their left hand as they clenched it into a fist and they both brought their heads forward as they let out a yell. Remembering what had happened before, Lucario closed his eyes and reached out with his Aura. Sure enough, he could see both Greninja and Link’s Auras fusing together, with Greninja seemingly being the only one remaining. This time, however, the Aura Pokémon saw something he didn’t see before. Before it joined with Greninja’s, there seemed to be four Auras hovering behind Link’s Aura like spirits. Two of them seemed to be children while the other two looked like adults, and they all bore an undeniable resemblance to Link in appearance and clothing. “One of them could be him as an adult without that mask, but the others… Who are they?” Lucario wondered. He didn’t have time to ponder further since a twister made of water surrounded their combined Auras.

Upon opening his eyes, he saw that a sphere of water had surrounded Greninja and that everyone was watching intently. It soon burst into a multitude of water droplets and Greninja dropped down, his change complete. He pressed his right hand against the ground and held his left arm out to the side as a large solid Water Shuriken formed on his back, growing like a butterfly spreading its wings. Both Greninja and Link looked up a moment later, the latter now able to see through the former’s eyes.

Link nodded his head forward and, in response, Greninja shot forward, preparing a Night Slash blade in his right hand that he grabbed the hilt of with his left hand. Seeing this, Lucario called, “Pikachu, you’ve got to throw him off!” The yellow mouse got what his partner was implying and, when Greninja got close enough to slash, he leapt into the air. As Greninja looked up at him, he suddenly split into multiple Pikachus that all landed at the same time, surrounding the Ninja Pokémon. As the frog looked around, Pinkie screamed off on the sideline, “AAHH! Too many Pikachus! There’s too much cuteness here!”

After recovering from the loudness of Pinkie’s scream, Twilight said, “That’s… what was it called… Double Team, right?”

Cadance nodded, “I believe so, Twilight.”

Lucario smirked, “Let’s see you deal with this.” At that, all of the Pikachus’ bodies became surrounded by electricity, all of them converging on Greninja in a Spark attack. Link let out a grunt and Greninja pirouetted in response, his own series of copies forming as he did a Double Team of his own. All of the Pikachus passed through the Greninja doubles, indicating none of them hit the real one. As the Pikachu doubles regrouped, all of the Greninja doubles leapt up each one with their arms starting to glow light blue as they went into a dive towards the Pikachus. Lucario wasn’t sure which move was being used, but he had an idea how to stop it. “Pikachu, use Discharge to stop it!” he called. All of Pikachu’s doubles disappeared a moment later as he unleashed multiple bolts of electricity at the Greninjas, each one disappearing as the bolts went through them. Lucario smiled again, but it soon faded as he noticed something was wrong: the real Greninja was nowhere to be seen.

He looked over at Link and saw the boy shoot him a smirk. Suddenly, Greninja appeared shooting towards Pikachu surrounded by a white light. “It’s a Quick Attack!” Lucario yelled, Pikachu dashing forward to counter it with another Spark attack. Just as he was about to tackle the frog, however, he vanished, causing Pikachu, Lucario, and F-T Sonic to gasp in surprise. In one quick flash of movement, Greninja reappeared and slashed at Pikachu with his still-glowing arms, sending the mouse flying back. As Pikachu got up, Lucario grunted, “So that’s what he did… A combination of Double Team, Aerial Ace, and Quick Attack. Clever…”

Pikachu glared at Greninja and decided to try another Discharge attack. Greninja leapt back before the bolts started flying towards him to try to give himself more time to find a way to avoid as much damage as possible, but as he stared at the approaching lightning, they suddenly seemed to slow down. It was only in his eyes, though; in reality, the bolts were coming as fast as they were before, but upon realizing that he was still moving normally, the ninja frog saw a way to avoid the attack altogether. As the first bolt came at him, he stepped to the side to avoid it and almost immediately afterwards ducked to avoid the one coming from his right. He then rolled forward to get past two more and made a small leap over another.

As he continued dodging, off on the sideline, Spike said, “Wow, look at him go!”

Everyone else was staring in amazement too as what they were witnessing should’ve been impossible. “How in the hay is he dodgin’ all that lightnin’ so easily?” Applejack asked.

“Is he as fast as Sonic?” O-T Tails wondered, causing O-T Sonic to give him an odd look.

F-T Tails spoke, “I don’t think so… but at the very least, he’s got heightened reflexes.”

Greninja dropped to the ground to avoid another bolt, pressing his back against the grass as he rolled his head to look to his right at Pikachu. Several smaller bolts were flying right towards him, but just as they were about to hit, he vanished and reappeared a short distance behind Pikachu. Lucario’s eyes widened, realizing that Greninja had once again used Shadow Sneak, this time in a defensive way. “Pikachu, behind you!” he yelled. The yellow mouse turned around, his attack over, but it was already too late. As he turned around completely, two small Water Shurikens hit him one at a time that were followed up by a larger third one that once again knocked the mouse back.

As Pikachu got up, Greninja saw that he was getting frustrated and would likely want to end the battle in one attack. Noticing the way that the yellow mouse was gathering electricity into his body, he could only think of one attack that he could be preparing. As the electricity began to surround Pikachu’s body, Greninja grabbed the Water Shuriken off of his back and held it up. As he held it over his head, it began to increase in size, becoming much larger than him. As Pikachu began running towards him in a Volt Tackle, Greninja threw the giant shuriken at him at a slight diagonal angle. Pikachu ended up being faster than the projectile and collided with it before it had flown very far, causing an explosion that raised smoke over the field and sent the leftover electricity flying in Greninja’s direction. Everyone leaned forward with bated breaths, waiting for the smoke to lift.

The smoke soon lifted, revealing that Pikachu and Greninja were both still standing. Greninja had a new Water Shuriken on his back and he had sparks of electricity coming off of him while Pikachu stood across from him on all fours. Both were panting heavily as they stared each other down. After a few seconds, they both made a small leap forward and Greninja held out his right hand, Pikachu taking it in his right paw after he stood up on his hind legs. Seeing this, Suicune nodded and raised her tails as she said, ~And that will bring this battle to a close!~

Everyone looked in her direction and Pinkie Pie asked, “What?! That’s it?!”

The Aurora Pokémon looked back at her as she responded, ~Yes. This battle has gone on longer than expected, but neither one has fainted so we are still within the rules and they have reached a stalemate. There is no need to continue further.~ As she was speaking, Greninja’s body glowed as he reverted back to his normal form.


AFTER THE BATTLE


F-T Sonic ran a hand along his quills, “Whew. For a practice battle, that got pretty intense.”

As she and the others started getting up, Rarity said, “I certainly agree, but I must say,” she looked at Raikou, “I believe you were right. I do believe I have a better understanding of the battling appeal.”

While Suicune began nullifying the Mirror Coat barrier, making them all visible to outside eyes once again, Rainbow nodded, “Yeah, I don’t even care about the whole connection with Greninja thing anymore. That was great!” She looked at Link, “Hey, and I’m sorry about what I said before, Link. It’s awesome that you and Greninja get along so well.” Link smiled back at her, showing that there were no hard feelings.

Lucario looked at Link as Greninja walked over to him and Rainbow, the Aura Pokémon having still so many unanswered questions about the boy, but as Pikachu came running up to him, he decided they weren’t important. He scooped up the mouse and stood up, saying, “That was a tough battle, Pikachu, but I say you did an amazing job. It’s another reminder of how far you’ve come since we started this team together.” His partner smiled up at him at that as F-T Sonic looked on.

Suddenly Riolu, who had come running to comfort Pikachu, piped up, “What are you talking about? Pikachu and I started a team together; we’re partners! When did you…” He stopped short as he thought about what Lucario said. “Wait… if you know he’s changed a lot and you started a team with him… does that mean…?”

He stopped short when a yellow circle with a red-orange vortex inside and colored lines rising up out of it opened up in the grass nearby, catching everyone’s attention. Lucario was thankful for the distraction and calmly turned to look at the vortex with the other Pokémon while everyone else looked at it warily. “What is that?!” Twilight asked.

F-T Sonic soon recognized it and turned to Suicune, asking, “Isn’t that one of those Magnagate things you guys mentioned?” The Aurora Pokémon nodded in reply, causing everyone to calm down as they knew someone recognized it. A figure soon began to appear out of the Magnagate, and as the light faded, a number of them stared in surprise as they saw what it was.

It was a colt from the look of it. Aside from having a slightly different look to it, it looked like it could’ve been a pony from Equestria. Its body from the top of its hooves up to below its neck was cream-colored, as was its face up to just behind its eyes and up to its curved horn. It had a long red mane that stuck out over the back of its neck, long, dark blue protrusions above its eyes that were ridged and looked like eyebrows, blue hooves, and light blue fur running from the back of its head down its neck. Its tail had similar light blue fur, but it also had a few white spots on it.

Due to its appearance, Rarity couldn’t help but swoon as she got a good look at it as it looked at its surroundings. Its attention was soon redirected when Suicune called, ~Keldeo.~ The colt ran over to her and began speaking in the Pokémon language, but Suicune soon stopped him, ~Hold on, Keldeo. If you want everyone to understand you, you’ll have to talk like this. Not everyone here can understand our language.~

The Mythical Pokémon stared at her for a moment before closing his eyes and taking a breath before he began using telepathy as well. ~Is that better?~ he asked, noticing F-T Sonic hold up his thumb in confirmation. Nodding in reply, he turned back to Suicune and communicated, ~Anyway, as I was about to say, Dialga and Palkia have already sent the other Legendary Pokémon home and have managed to undo as much damage as they could to Time and Space. They sent us to let you know and get everyone back to where they belong so they can close the rifts, but they didn’t tell us where you were so I didn’t know where I was going to end up or where to look and…~

Suicune cut him off, ~You’re rambling, Keldeo.~

Lucario asked, “Who’s ‘us’?”

Keldeo replied, ~Oh yeah. We finally managed to track down your team’s missing fourth member. Turns out this whole mess threw him for a loop as well. He couldn’t catch up with you because he was busy trying to find a way back home. He was sent through one of those Passages of Time instead of a Magnagate, but don’t worry. He’s here and he’ll make sure the whole time-traveling thing won’t mess with anything.~ While he was talking, both Link and Greninja sensed something behind them and turned to look. They saw a figure standing under a nearby tree looking back at them, the shade doing little to hide its white and purple body. Its body shape was recognizable, but one look into its purple eyes kept Link from tensing up. The last time he had seen those eyes, they had been filled with a desire for fighting, but this one’s eyes were different. While they were still cold, these eyes had a definite spark of intelligence in them, and beneath that there was something resembling respect.

The two looked back as Suicune said, ~Well, that’s a relief. So how do we get everyone back to where they belong?~

Keldeo replied, ~I believe they said they’ll be opening some kind of portal that will take them home. The way they described it, it kind of sounded like a Hoopa ring to me.~ Not long after that, three portals and two Passages of Time opened up behind where everyone had been sitting during the battle. One portal showed a forested area, another showed a tropical island, and the last showed a field with a castle in the distance.


PARTING WAYS


Raikou turned to look at O-T Sonic and Tails and said, ~Looks like this is it. You all have to go back to where you were before all this happened.~

O-T Tails replied, “Well, it would be nice if we could stay longer, but we probably should get back to our time.” He looked at O-T Sonic, “Now that Eggman’s Death Egg has been destroyed for good, we really should let everyone else know since they helped us find where it crashed. Maybe after that, we can finally get a chance to do the things we want to do instead of trying to track him down.” The younger blue hedgehog nodded in reply.

Entei asked, ~‘Death Egg’? ‘Tracking down’? I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it sounds like you two are in a team yourselves. That or similarly some type of group of rogues.~

F-T Sonic shrugged, “Eh, rogues, rebels, freedom fighters… I prefer Resistance myself, but I guess it all kind of means roughly the same when you think about it.”

Greninja looked towards the portal showing the forested area and saw two small green figures come through it, looking at him. He recognized them as the two Zygarde Cores that had flown off into the distance after the battle. Much as he would’ve liked to hang around with this interesting group a little longer, he knew he and the two Cores still had a job to do as well. He started walking towards the portal without looking back. “Whoa, he’s going already?” Shining asked as he looked on.

Lucario glanced at the stallion, “Well, he did say something about having to stay behind to deal with the remnants of something that threatened the world. I didn’t get all the details, but it sounded important.” He then looked at the Ninja Pokémon and called, “Good luck, Greninja! Hope you get to reunite with your Trainer soon!” The blue frog looked back over his shoulder at everyone and raised his right hand in a wave at that. He soon reached the portal and walked through it, both Cores following him through before it closed.

Yoshi began to stir afterwards, the green dinosaur opening his eyes and looking around sleepily. His gaze soon fell on the island portal and he woke up completely, recognizing it as home. He leapt up with a “Wow!” and ran towards it. As he ran, he called back, “Yoshi! Yoshi yosh! Yoshi! (Bye, guys! I’ve had enough of this adventure for one day! I’m gonna go get some real lunch!)” He then vanished through the portal.

“Uh, that was even quicker than Greninja,” Twilight uttered.

“Well, that’s Yoshi sometimes. One five-minute nap and he’s ready to eat again,” F-T Tails said.

F-T Sonic ran over to Yoshi’s kart and began pushing it towards the portal as he called, “Hey Yoshi, you forgot your ride!” He was able to get it to roll through the opening before it closed. As he turned back to everyone, they all heard a soft tune ring through the air. They all saw it was coming from Link, the boy standing near a bush as he played his ocarina. It was a short song, but it really resonated in the equines present for some reason, especially Applejack.

Suddenly, they all heard a neigh and an orange-red pony with a white mane and tail that was slightly taller than Keldeo and the Equestrians came through the bush as Link finished his song. She stepped over to Link and nuzzled the side of his face, surprising him for a moment before he took the brown end of her muzzle in both hands and smiled at her. He then stepped around to her side and climbed up onto her back, patting the side of the pony’s neck as she looked back at him. As he began to turn her around towards the portal, he caught sight of everyone and gave them all a small smile and nod. The pony then started walking towards the portal, taking them both home, though it was anyone’s guess if they were going back to a life of peace or if there were still more fights to be fought as they watched.

Once the last portal had closed, Suicune turned to Riolu and O-T Sonic and Tails as she said, ~All that’s left now is to get the rest of you back to when you belong.~

O-T Tails nodded and said, “I’ll get the Tornado ready!” He turned and ran over to the red biplane, climbing into the pilot’s seat and getting it ready.

As he turned his attention away from the younger fox, Lucario caught sight of F-T Sonic looking in Fluttershy’s direction and the pink-maned pegasus deliberately avoid his eyes again. This was the third time that he had noticed this display and he couldn’t stand it any longer. “Hold on,” he said loudly. Even O-T Tails stopped what he was doing to look in the Aura Pokémon’s direction. He walked over to F-T Tails and asked, “Tails, do you still have that ring of yours?”

The older fox raised an eyebrow, “The Warp Ring? Yeah, why?”

Lucario replied, “I need to borrow it real quick.” He then pointed in F-T Sonic and Fluttershy’s direction, “And them.”

His words surprised everyone. “What?! Why?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

Lucario looked at her, “You don’t trust me, Rainbow?”

The cyan pegasus countered, “That’s got nothing to do with this! You just up and tell Tails to give you the Warp Ring we’ve been using all day and let you take Sonic and Fluttershy with you without saying why, and we’re supposed to be okay with that, especially when we’ve got a monster to defeat?!”

Lucario said, “I won’t be long.”

Rainbow asked, “Well, what do you need them for? Can you at least tell us that?”

Lucario was silent for a moment. He then said, “To put them at ease.” His words were met with confused looks, but he ignored them and turned back to Tails, saying, “Let me see the ring, Tails.”

The fox wasn’t exactly happy with how cryptic the Aura Pokémon was being, but he could see that he was intent on not going into any further details regarding his requests. He reached his right hand into his namesakes and came back with the ring in the palm. “Here,” he uttered.

Lucario took the ring and eyed it for a moment before he looked back at the fox and said, “This shouldn’t take long.” He turned and tossed the ring away from him, causing it to grow to its full size. He walked over to it and placed his paw on it, setting the destination before he looked over at Fluttershy and F-T Sonic, “Come.” They both looked at F-T Tails for a moment, the fox shrugging while giving them an unsure look, before they complied, walking over to the ring and stepping through it.


TEAM DEFENDERS' BASE


As they came out of the ring, the two found themselves in a seemingly normal location. They were standing on a dirt path that had grass on both sides, with a pair of trees off to their right. In front of them off to the side was a green bush with a mostly red flag next to it. They looked back a moment later as Lucario came through the Warp Ring with Pikachu and the Treasure Bag on his shoulders. They watched him catch the ring in his left paw as it shrunk down, looking down at it for a moment. “Where are we?” Sonic asked, breaking the silence.

Lucario looked at him as he answered, “Sharpedo Bluff.” He walked between him and Fluttershy over to the bush and pulled it away to reveal a set of stairs going down into the ground. He looked up at the two and explained, “This is where Pikachu lived before he joined the local guild, and it’s where we’ve lived since we graduated.” He waved them over, “Come on in. We’ll have some privacy down here.” Sonic and Fluttershy glanced at each other before making their way over and going down the stairs, Lucario following them down while Pikachu put the bush back in place.

As he got to the bottom of the stairs, Lucario noticed Fluttershy and Sonic admiring different parts of the Team Base. Fluttershy was looking out at the view of the ocean while Sonic was looking at the small spring in the corner. They both looked up when Lucario dropped the Treasure Bag beside the barrels next to the doorway, the blue jackal leaning against the frame with the Warp Ring in his paw and Pikachu came down and stood on one of the last steps. “Okay Lucario, what’s this all about?” Sonic asked.


BRINGING PAST EVENTS TO LIGHT


The Aura Pokémon replied, “I know you guys are in a hurry, so I’ll cut right to the point. Ever since we stopped in that Empire City, I’ve noticed there’s something going on between you two. You look at her and she turns away, and I get the feeling that it’s not for the reason that most others would suspect. I decided to get you both to come here so that you would be away from prying eyes and ears. I don’t enjoy that and I certainly don’t enjoy infighting, so you two start talking and work out whatever problem you have. The sooner you do that, the sooner you can get back to fixing the larger problem at hand.”

The two stared at him. “Problem? There’s no problem between us,” Sonic said after a moment.

Fluttershy looked over at the blue hedgehog and said, “Yes there is.”

Sonic looked at her, “No there’s not! You didn’t do anything wrong, Fluttershy!”

Fluttershy exclaimed, in a voice that was only slightly louder than normal, “Yes I did! I lost faith in you! You got badly hurt because of me and I didn’t even try to help you!” Her face scrunched up as her eyes grew wet, “You could’ve died because of me…”

Sonic stared at her for a moment before walking over to her and putting a hand on her shoulder. “Okay, so Eggman Nega, whether he meant to or not, ended up bringing out that kindness in you that we all know and got you to lower your guard. I don’t blame you for that, Fluttershy. It’s not your fault that he’s a creep,” he assured her.

Fluttershy opened her eyes to look at him as she said, “It’s not that… It’s… Terios.” Sonic looked at her intently at that. She bowed her head slightly, “I don’t know how, but when I thought I was comforting him, he… part of him somehow got into my head. After he fell, until we used the Elements of Harmony on Perfect Chaos, I kept hearing him in my head. He kept getting me to question everything… Not just you, but Twilight and the others as well… He was trying to get me to let him take over…”

Sonic stared at her worriedly. He’d had no idea how close she’d come to losing herself to his dark doppelganger. “But… the Elements of Harmony drove him out, right?” he asked carefully.

Fluttershy nodded, “I think so. I can’t hear him anymore. But… it’s not just that you struck him down, um, the way you did that’s the only reason.” She looked away shamefully, “I’ve actually been wondering about you since you told us what you did to Erazor and his lamp…”

Sonic stepped back and glanced down as he said slowly, “Well… I can’t really blame you for that either. I mean, Shahra and I did make the decision to do that together, but he definitely crossed a line with me that day.” His eyes closed partway as he kept looking down, “I can never really get that image out of my head, of Shahra dying because she wanted to protect me and he thought she was useless to him. It’s kind of haunted me since and, when I saw Terios raise that claw like he was going to slash at your back and everyone panicked… I guess it was kind of like I was reliving that, only someone I cared about was the one being targeted. When he just went crazy after you were away from him, I thought he was going down the same road and I acted on instinct.”

Fluttershy looked at him, “You did what you thought was right.”

Sonic met her gaze, “And so did you.”

Lucario spoke up, “That’s really all any of us can do.” Sonic and Fluttershy looked at him, surprised. He pushed himself away from the wall and said, “Sorry for interrupting. I’m not going to pry, but what you both were talking about… it got me thinking about something.”

Fluttershy tilted her head, “What?”

Lucario thought about it for a moment before saying, “Here, I’ll show you.” He walked over to the other side of the room while Pikachu watched him with a concerned expression. Sonic and Fluttershy walked over to him as he came to a stop in front of the tree roots that stuck out of the wall. He looked back at the two for a moment before pulling back one of the roots, revealing a small piece of paper stuck to the wall. It appeared to be a small poster, but it looked to be rather old. The writing was faded and the picture in the center was going yellow, but from what they could tell, it was a picture of a green Pokémon with a long leaf on its head and red running from under its jaw down its chest.

“Who is that Pokémon?” Fluttershy asked.

“Is that a ‘Wanted’ poster?” Sonic added.

Lucario nodded, “It is. It’s a poster for a Pokémon called Grovyle. At the time, he was believed to be doing something that would do great harm to this world.” He looked back at the poster, “He was also my friend from my past life.”

Sonic and Fluttershy looked at him, the former asking, “What does that mean?”

While still looking at the poster, Lucario put his paws on his hips as he explained, “I’m certain of the reason you’re able to understand me when I talk. You see, I wasn’t always a Lucario or a Riolu. I used to be a human.” Sonic and Fluttershy blinked in surprise at this, but he kept going, “Not just any human either. I was a human from a dark, time-stopped future of this world.”

Sonic raised an eyebrow, “‘Time-stopped’?”

Lucario looked back and nodded, “Yes. We both came from a world where time had stopped completely. No day, no night, no clear skies… just darkness no matter where you went. What Grovyle had been doing was stealing the Time Gears, mystical objects that keep time flowing normally in this world, and disrupting the flow of time in the areas where the Gears were located. What we were told was that this would be what caused that future to exist in the first place, but in reality, Grovyle and I traveled back in time to try to prevent that dark world from ever coming to pass.”

Sonic started, “So how did, uh…?”

Lucario answered, “We were apparently attacked when we were traveling back in time. I was separated from Grovyle, suffered amnesia, and was turned into a Riolu. I still can’t remember anything from when I was a human. I do sometimes feel like something seems familiar nowadays, but back then, I never got that feeling. Thus when Grovyle and I met again, we were enemies and Pikachu and I were allied with Dusknoir, a Pokémon that tried to make sure the future wouldn’t change and followed us back to the past, presenting himself as a great explorer.”

Fluttershy asked, “So… he fooled you?”

Lucario nodded, “He fooled us all. It wasn’t until he had Grovyle and dragged him and both of us back to the dark future with him that we learned the truth, about him and who I was.” He turned back to the poster, “I guess sometimes, you can’t really know for sure about someone. Sometimes all you have is your instinct to rely on.”

Sonic asked, “So what happened to Grovyle?”

Lucario answered, “We were able to get back to the proper time with him, but when we were in the Hidden Land trying to get the Time Gears to Temporal Tower to prevent the planet’s paralysis, Dusknoir traveled back from the future one last time to try to stop us. In order to stop him, Grovyle dragged him back with him to the dark future. That was the last time we ever saw either of them.” He closed his eyes and bowed his head, “Dialga was eventually able to restore me, but Grovyle…”

Sonic muttered, “He couldn’t bring back someone who wasn’t around, huh?”

Lucario replied, “No. Someone who I’m sure was a very dear friend to me is gone forever, and so is any chance of me ever finding out what things were like back then.”

Sonic and Fluttershy looked at each other for a moment before looking back at the Aura Pokémon. “Well… not necessarily,” Sonic offered after a moment. Lucario opened his eyes and glanced back at him with a slightly angry look, but Sonic kept going, “I mean, there’s probably no way to say for sure now. Like you said, you guys prevented the event that led to that dark future, but who knows? Grovyle, Dusknoir, anyone else you might’ve known or met before… maybe they weren’t all erased from existence just because you changed the past.”

Fluttershy began to perk up at that and added, “He’s right. You said you were brought back from being erased; maybe, somehow, that world did change, but everyone was able to live in it without being changed too. They could all still be alive in the future.”

Lucario turned away and grunted, “I doubt it. Dialga is the one who brought me back here; in that future, he had been driven mad by the collapse of Temporal Tower and had become a tyrant, and he was already starting to become that due to the tower already starting to collapse when we reached it. I don’t see how…” He suddenly stopped short as he remembered something.

Sonic tilted his head to the side, “What? Why’d you stop?”

Lucario started slowly, “I… I’m not certain because it was an emotional time, but the night that Dialga brought me back, when Pikachu and I were reunited… Thinking back to it, I might’ve heard Grovyle’s voice saying something about how they were alive…”


THERE IS HOPE


Sonic smiled, “Hey, see? There could be a chance he’s still alive.”

Fluttershy nodded, “Maybe the reason you haven’t seen him is because he and others are trying to rebuild and prevent a dark future from happening again.”

Sonic said, “Maybe he and Dusknoir have patched things up, maybe not. Maybe they’re having picnics together or maybe they’re still at each other’s throats, but one thing is for sure: you can hold onto that hope that your old friend is still alive and well.” Lucario turned around at that, now with a small smile on his face. In the stairway, Pikachu smiled at this, getting the feeling that a great weight had been lifted from his friend’s shoulders.

A minute later, the four of them exited the bluff and stood on the path. As he looked down at the Warp Ring, Lucario had an idea. He turned to Sonic and gave him the ring, saying, “Here, get the ring all set up. I’m going to run into town for something and I’ll be right back.” He then turned and ran down the path into Treasure Town. Fluttershy looked down at Pikachu and the mouse shrugged up at her. Sonic looked down at the ring in his left hand and glanced at the trees along the path. He walked down the path and dropped the ring in front of them, causing it to grow to its full size.

Almost as soon as he placed his hand on it, Keldeo came rushing through it, the Mythical Pokémon’s eyes widening as he realized how little room there was in front of him. With a yelp, he planted his hooves against the ground and managed to come to a stop at the edge. Sonic, Fluttershy, and Pikachu glanced back at the ring as Raikou, Suicune, and Entei similarly came through the ring and did the same thing, all of them crashing into Keldeo’s backside. Amazingly, nobody went flying off. “Sorry, my bad!” Sonic called once they were all sure nothing else bad was going to happen.

Entei wheeled on the hedgehog and stomped over to him, saying, ~Yes it is your bad! Were you trying to get us all killed?!~

Sonic asked, “Hey, why would you go rushing through a gateway if you didn’t know where you were going to end up?” Keldeo gave him a sheepish look at that.

Entei bristled, ~Regardless of that, what were you doing?! Do you know how long you’ve been gone?!~

Sonic shrugged as Fluttershy stepped up beside him, “Five minutes?”

Entei growled, but Suicune stepped up next to him saying, ~I don’t know if that’s exactly right or not, but it certainly hasn’t been as long as Entei is making it out to be. Still, you two really should get back there; Mewtwo is getting impatient and while we were able to toss Riolu back to his time, your and Tails’ past selves are refusing to leave until you return.~ She looked around, ~Where’s Lucario?~

Fluttershy answered, “He said he had to run into town to get something.”


FINAL FAREWELL


The blue jackal soon returned with something wrapped in a blue handkerchief. He made his way around the Legendaries uttering, “Sorry, sorry. I’m sure we’ve been gone longer than expected and it seems like I’m prolonging it, but this is important.” As he nudged Entei a bit to get him out of Sonic’s face, a blue berry fell out of the handkerchief, the Aura Pokémon grabbing it off the ground and dusting it off.

~An Oran Berry,~ Raikou said.

“What’s that?” Fluttershy asked.

Lucario inspected the berry for a moment before looking up at the pegasus and saying, “It’s a berry that’s filled with energizing and restorative juices.” He held it out to her, “Here, give it a try.” Fluttershy leaned forward and took a small bite, leaning back as she chewed it.

A moment later, she gave a gasp as her entire body perked up; her wings even extended straight up. She snatched the berry out of Lucario’s paw and quickly devoured the whole thing in seconds. She finished chewing and swallowing before saying, “Mm, wow! I feel amazing!”

Lucario nodded, “As you should.” He looked at Sonic and said, “I remembered that you and most of your friends looked pretty beat when we showed up. We lost most of the Oran Berries in the Treasure Bag in that wave, but we’ve collected lots of them during our adventures and keep them in storage in case we ever need them.” He held the handkerchief out to Sonic, “Here, there’s enough here for you and the others. It’s not much in terms of payment for your services, but I figured it’s something you could use.”

Sonic briefly wondered why he didn’t offer him or Cadance or Spike one when they first met, but he quickly pushed it out of his mind. He took the handkerchief and shook Lucario’s paw, “Thanks, Lucario. This’ll work great for us, actually.”

They let go of each other a moment later and Lucario said, “I know you guys will be able to take care of that monster you’re after. Until we meet again, take care of yourselves.” Pikachu hopped up onto his shoulder and said what Sonic and Fluttershy assumed was a farewell. None of the Legendaries said anything, but they did smile and nod, indicating they agreed with Lucario. With that, Sonic turned and placed his left hand on the Warp Ring, reopening the passage to Empire City. Fluttershy went first and he followed her through.

Lucario and Keldeo moved to one side of the Warp Ring a moment later while Suicune, Raikou, and Entei moved to the other. Sure enough, not long after, Mewtwo shot out of the ring and flew straight out over the ocean seeking solitude, the Warp Ring closing and vanishing as he disappeared off into the distance.

As the silence returned, Keldeo turned to Lucario and talked normally, no longer needing to use telepathy to be understood, “Do you really think they’ll be able to  handle the creature responsible for all this, Lucario?”

The Aura Pokémon nodded, “Absolutely.” He looked up at the sky, “For as messed up as things got, it was a real honor to get to meet all those different heroes today.”
> Interstellar Finale, Pt. I
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


GOOD VIBES RESTORED


“Hey, Sonic! Enjoy your future! It’s gonna be great!”

Sonic smiled to himself as he remembered saying that to his past self before he and Tails’ past self went into the Passage of Time and Mewtwo did whatever mind trick he did to lock their memories away so that, like Riolu, they wouldn’t know too much about the future. The Genetic Pokémon had then disappeared through the Warp Ring immediately after the passage closed to return home and get away from all of them. There had been some words exchanged to assure the others that he and Fluttershy and everything between them was all right, and afterwards, they left Empire City and got back on the train. Tails and Pinkie were up front once again as they ate their Oran Berries while everyone else was back in the passenger car.

Thinking back to it, Sonic seemed to recall things getting fuzzy briefly before he realized that he and Tails had returned home, at which point he remembered that they had dropped in to deliver the good news about Eggman’s original Death Egg and get a little R&R in before they set out again. The rest sure did them some good, both at the time and further on down the line. While they initially did get the chance to do what they had always wanted to, things did become very manic sometime after the Death Egg’s final fall for him, Tails, and Knuckles, leaving them with little time to themselves.

He gave a nod as he looked away from the window to pull himself out of his memories and finished off his Oran Berry while Spike and the ponies did the same, all of them feeling the restorative properties of their berries rejuvenate them. “Mmm, wow! I’ve had my share of Pinkie’s cakes, pies, and cupcakes and I don’t think any of them have ever given me a kick like this!” Rainbow commented.

Spike held the half of his Oran Berry in both claws as he said, “Mm, yeah it definitely has that. It’s still just a berry, though; now if it was a gem…”

Applejack added, “Don’t know about that, Spike, but Ah agree about the berry part. It ain’t the same as an apple; this would barely be a snack! Ah’m glad we ate somethin’ earlier.”

Rarity delicately took a few bites of her berry and said, “Well, I must say it’s just perfect for me. It’s small, so I don’t feel as though I’m overeating, and it’s surprisingly not as messy as I thought it would be. It hasn’t dripped or sprayed anything.”

Twilight wiped a hoof around her mouth before saying, “I should’ve saved a little bit to take home. I would’ve loved to study it and find out what’s in the berry’s juice that gives it such amazing properties.”

Shining finished his berry and chuckled, “Yeah well, Equestria will probably be better off if you didn’t figure it out, Twily.” When the lavender unicorn gave him a look, he added, “I mean say you did find out all there is to know about an Oran Berry and whatever other berries can be found in that world. That would probably put a lot of doctors out of a job. Why pay bits to see somepony when you could just eat a berry and feel better right away?”

Twilight blinked, “Oh… yeah, I guess so.”

Sonic looked at the lavender mare and asked, “Speaking of which, how’s your eye feeling, Twilight?”

Twilight stared at him a moment before raising her right hoof to what was left of the bandages over her right eye and slowly pressing down. She did this a few times, getting a little bolder with her presses each time, before admitting, “It doesn’t feel sensitive…” She moved her hoof to the edge and carefully tore the coverings away, stopping when her eye was exposed. It took a moment but the eyelids carefully parted, revealing that her eye looked normal underneath. The skin around it also appeared to be normal; there didn’t seem to be any swelling or discoloration there. “I can see fine, but does it look bad?” she asked after a moment with her eye half-open.

Sonic replied, “Nah. If I hadn’t seen it earlier, I would’ve said you never had a black eye at all.”

Twilight looked at the others and they all agreed with Sonic’s assessment. “There’s not a trace of the earlier injury, Twilight. It looks like a full recovery,” Cadance said.

Spike grinned, “I wonder which did more: the berry or the cream.” He earned a few laughs for that joke.

As the laughter died down, Rainbow suddenly said, “Hey, I just thought of something.” Everyone turned to look at her at that. She slowly said, “We’ve had a lot of encounters with other worlds recently. Like, really recently. We even encountered Sonic and Tails from the past and they helped us…”

At her pause, Applejack asked, “Yeah? So where are ya goin’ with this, Rainbow?”

The cyan pegasus looked up, “Isn’t it kind of weird that we met the Sonic and Tails of the past… but not ourselves? Seriously, we never saw younger versions of ourselves in all this.”

Everyone finally got what the speedster was getting at. “I hadn’t thought about that, Rainbow, but you’re right. That is strange…” Twilight said.

Sonic spoke up after a moment, “Well, I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but hey, that’s not a bad thing.” When everyone looked at him, he explained, “From the sound of things, no one really got involved with fighting off bad guys until you all met, so this must mean no one here was thrown into fighting early and had to live with some horrible trauma that was repressed by a mind wipe that would come out to haunt you in your dreams, and here’s the really important part: this means the first time you all met really was the first time you all met, so that makes it even more special.”

Everyone considered what he was saying and found that it made a lot of sense. “You know, that IS a good point, Sugar-hog. We’ve been connected ever since we got our cutie marks at the same time, but we didn’t all meet until we were supposed to. Not even this monster we’re after could take that away from us,” she said.

Rainbow grinned, “You know, if we tell Pinkie this, she’s probably going to want to throw another party to celebrate our friendship.”

The pink pony in question was currently in charge of keeping the train going while Tails was behind her, resting his arms on the windowsill and leaning to the side slightly. The fox hadn’t been hurt as badly as his friends had been, but he couldn’t deny that his Oran Berry had given him a burst of energy and relieved some of his stress and anxiety. Pinkie, meanwhile, was back to her usual exuberant self due to both the berry and everything regarding Terios having been cleared up. “…And then they were all surrounded in a rainbow, and then they both changed colors, and then that one reformed around the jewel, and I was all like ‘WHOA!’!” the party pony was saying.

“Mm-hm,” Tails nodded, not entirely paying attention.

“And I know you and Old-Timey Tails weren’t surprised, but everyone else was! Twilight, her brother, her foalsitter, Linky… even the Legendary Doggies were surprised! Or are they Legendary Kitties?” Pinkie droned on.

“Your guess is as good as mine, Pinkie,” Tails shrugged.

“Anyway, they were all like SHOOM, straight towards that monster! And all those other Pokémon monsters were there to help, trying to pocket it in! But the best part is when Fun-Timey and Old-Timey shiny Sonics rushed that big rock and managed to stop it before kicking it back! They must’ve been really strong in order to be able to do that! Do you think that’s a good way to stop a giant rock, Tails? And do you think ‘Pokémon’ is short for something else?” Pinkie asked.

Tails shook his head. Now Pinkie’s wild blabbering was starting to mess with him. He started, “Whoa Pinkie, one question at a time. First of all, I guess it would be if the rock is hurtling at you and you’ve got the strength to stop it, otherwise I think getting out of the way would be the better choice. I haven’t used the Chaos Emeralds’ power as much as Sonic has, so I don’t have as much experience with just how strong they can make someone, which would be important for me to know since I like to think things through. And second…” He was cut off by a beeping sound coming from one of his tails, causing him to glance down at the appendage. “Oh, of course,” he uttered, somewhat irritated and somewhat relieved for the distraction. He pulled out the handheld, flipping it open to check it.

Pinkie trotted over next to the fox and looked over his shoulder, seeing four spots lighting up ahead of the train. “Uh-oh! Looks like we gotta make four stops to keep moving!” she said. She hopped back over to the train controls, “Better stop the train now so we can take care of that!”

Tails nodded and sighed while still looking down at the two screens. “And just when we’re almost to Canterlot too,” he muttered before peering up and looking out the window, the city so close now and still so far. He closed the radar and tucked it away a moment later, already sensing that the train was slowing to a stop.

As it came to a complete stop, the door to the adjacent car opened and Sonic stepped through, Spike and a few ponies coming up behind him. “More trouble?” he asked, even though he already knew the answer. It was the only thing that ever stopped their trip.

Pinkie piped up, “Yep! A quadruple threat! Tails says there are four portals open up ahead!”

Spike snorted and shrugged, “Four? Well sure, why not throw them all at us right away?”

Tails spoke as he stepped away from the window, “I don’t think it’s all bad, Spike. I’ve been getting minor notifications this entire trip about more portals opening up around this white world, but even though we haven’t been back on the train that long, I haven’t gotten a single one yet. Maybe Dialga and Palkia’s repairs have kept them from popping up. And it’s only a minor thing, but there’s something familiar about the readings I was picking up.”

Cadance asked, “What do you mean, Tails?”

Tails replied, “Well, I can’t immediately recall why they look familiar, but they look like something I picked up before, in which case we might be heading somewhere we’ve already been. That could make closing them go a little faster than normal.”

Sonic said, “Hey, sounds good to me, buddy. Let’s get to it.”

________________________________________


STARLIGHT CARNIVAL


Everyone felt a hard surface underneath them immediately after they stepped out of the other end of the portal and looked around. From the looks of it, they were in the middle of the inky blackness of space, but all around them, much closer than the blackness and stars, was a large number of neon-lit ships flickering with a number of colors, mostly different hues of orange and purple. It didn’t take everyone long to realize that they were standing on the deck of one of the ships. In the midst of the apparent fleet of starships were what appeared to be different types of statues or floats that had the same lighting as the ships.

“Wow! What is this place?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked around in wonder, the other ponies and Spike doing the same.

“Ooh! We’re in the middle of a fleet! It’s a star fleet! Do we get to be space pirates?!” Pinkie exclaimed.

Tails waited until the party pony was finished speaking before he started, “Actually Pinkie, if I’m not mistaken…”

He was cut off by a familiar voice coming out of a nearby loudspeaker on the starship, “Attention ladies and gentlemen, please make your way to the main viewing area, where the Light Speed Electrical Parade is about to begi.. Oh, and that concludes our Light Speed Electrical Parade.”

Applejack looked in the direction the voice had come from with a raised eyebrow, “Wasn’t that Eggman’s voice?”

Sonic spoke, “Yep. We’re back in his Interstellar Amusement Park.” He pointed down at the deck of the starship with both fingers, “He called this area we’re in the Starlight Carnival.” He glanced over at Tails, “Guess now we know why the readings looked familiar, huh?”

The fox shrugged, “Yeah, I guess so.”

They both turned to see that Pinkie had moved closer to them, a serious look on her face. “So let me get this straight,” she started. “This is a carnival… on bright, festive ships… in SPACE.” Both Sonic and Tails turned to look at each other for a moment before nodding. The pink pony held her serious stare for a moment before it was replaced by an overjoyed look. “That is AMAZING! That’s even better than being pirates or part of a fleet… in SPACE! Space Eggman, this is the greatest thing EVER!” she cried as she alternated between trotting excitedly around and in place.

Rainbow caught the party pony while she was trotting around and smirked at her, “I thought Sweet Mountain was the greatest thing ever, Pinkie.”

Pinkie stared at her friend for a moment before raising and waving a hoof, “Oh Rainbow Dash, that is SO main story.” The cyan pegasus gave her an odd look while Spike and the other ponies kept looking around.

“Look at all of these spaceships… I’m geeking out here!” Shining Armor smiled as he stared up at the fleet awestruck.

“Well… that makes two of us,” Twilight said as she looked around in wonder.

Spike soon noticed that Rarity looked a bit nervous as she looked around. “What’s wrong, Rarity?” he asked.

Everyone looked at the white unicorn as she said, “I, er… This area is rather spectacular, I must say, but… well, I feel cold for some reason and I don’t think it has anything to do with the temperature.”

Applejack nodded, “Ah think Ah know what ya mean, Rare. As bright and happy as they are, these spaceships make me feel funny.”

Tails spoke, “I’m betting it has something to do with the sheer scale of it all. I think the announcement we heard from Eggman when we originally came here said something about that.”

Sonic said, “Yeah. Let’s get moving, see what we can find. There’s a lot of not-quite ground to cover.” The Equestrians wondered what he meant by that as they started following him and Tails down the deck of the ship.

As they were walking towards the stern, they all heard another announcement, “Rocket your way to the Lunch Pad for a fine dining experience! You'll have a blast! It's fun for the whole family. Please no old people or children."

Shining made a face before saying, “Wow, he really went all-out with the amusement park jokes, didn’t he?”

Sonic rolled his eyes, “You have no idea, Shining. And when he’s trying to do puns and sound threatening at the same time, it gets even worse.”

Twilight looked at him, “When did he start doing that?”

Sonic asked, “We did mention how Eggman’s park plan fell apart, right?”

The lavender unicorn thought for a moment before saying, “No, that didn’t really come up, nor did why Dr. Eggman was capturing Wisps for their Hyper-go-on energy. I seem to recall we kind of dropped it after Baldy McNosehair came up.”

Spike, Rainbow, and a few other ponies, including Shining Armor, laughed for a few seconds at that before Rainbow said, “Still the best thing I’ve heard today.”

Tails suppressed a giggle before saying, “Yeah, I guess it didn’t really come up again after that. Well…”

Before he could say more, Pinkie suddenly said, “Ooh, something shiny!” The party pony suddenly ran on ahead of everyone, her eyes fixated on whatever had caught her attention. After a couple of seconds, they caught up and found her using a hoof to play with the end of a long gray stripe on the ground. After a moment, her hock got caught on the end of the stripe and pulled it up and away.

“What is that, Pinkie? It kind of looks like tape,” Cadance noted.

Pinkie tried to shake the strip off of her hoof, but it refused to let go and she ended up pulling more of it away from the starship. She stopped and stared down at it after a moment before looking up at Cadance and saying, “It sure is, Princess Cadance! It’s some tough, shiny tape!”

Twilight spotted a narrow crack underneath where the tape had been and said to Pinkie as she looked down at the tape again, “Um, I don’t think you should be playing with that, Pinkie.”

Before Pinkie could respond, a nearby loudspeaker buzzed with Eggman’s voice, “Please refrain from peeling off the special space-age polymer holding the starship together. It may look and feel like duct tape, but it’s not. It’s called… er… space tape! Very advanced stuff. Thank you.”

Rainbow deadpanned, “Yeah, that pause wasn’t noticeable at all.” Pinkie, meanwhile, had decided to heed Eggman’s words and was busy trying to pull the tape off of her hoof with her other hoof, which only resulted in more of it peeling away. Growing annoyed as it stubbornly refused to come off, she finally planted one of her back hooves down on the tape and pulled hard, managing to get her hoof free.

Spike noticed that the crack hidden underneath the tape seemed to stretch for quite a bit behind Pinkie and began to get nervous. “Okay, uh, maybe we should move onto another ship. How does that sound, guys?” he asked.

Shining pointed out, “Um, we’re basically in the middle of space here, Spike. None of the other starships are all that close to us. How are we supposed to get to another one from here?”

Sonic spoke, “Oh, that’s easy. There’s some kind of invisible rainbow road in places here that connects the spaceships. We just have to find one of those.”

Tails added, “There are also railings that are similar to the paths here. I’d say they’re more like energy paths than rainbows, but they are pretty bright and colorful when you can see them.”

Rarity spoke up, “Well, let’s find one of these paths and get going then.” She fanned herself a bit with a hoof, “I feel like my breath is going out of me for all of the wrong reasons…” Everyone began moving at a much faster pace towards the spaceship’s stern at that as they searched for viable way off of the starship.


CHANGING SHIPS


They managed to find a path when they were almost out of ship to run on, the path having one of the rails that Tails mentioned next to it. Both Sonic and Tails leapt onto the path and took off running while Spike climbed onto Twilight’s back and everypony save for Rainbow used the rail to follow after them. The rail and the path both twisted and turned for a bit before it led them to an opening along the side of one of the larger starships. As they approached it, they heard Eggman’s voice cutting in and out from a loudspeaker, “Remember for your safety, please avoid- as well as- never under any circumstances- as it is actually a living being and will bite your face off.” The path and rail came to an end when the announcement finished and they all found themselves being tossed inside of the starship.

They all landed after a few seconds of falling, some touching down more composed than others. Fluttershy stumbled a bit after landing on her hooves and looking around, uttering, “Um… Is it kind of dark in here or is it just me?”

As they got their bearings, everyone noticed that the inside of the ship was lit up like the outside of the ship, though the intensity was turned down. Despite that, it actually did seem a little dark inside the ship. “I think you’re right, Fluttershy. I’m glad Eggman toned it down on the inside, but he might have toned it down a bit much,” Shining said.

Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, “Speaking of which, what did he say just now? I could’ve sworn I heard him say something about having your face bitten off…”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, I don’t know. I think his mic got messed up when he was phoning that one in.”

Pinkie began bouncing forward as she said, “Come on, let’s get going! Maybe we can figure out how to control this ship and take it for a ride!”

As if on cue, another announcement came from just ahead of the pink pony, “Just a reminder, please refrain from pushing buttons on the starship; occasionally one might eject you into space. If this happens, your next of kin will be billed for the replacement hatch.” Pinkie stopped bouncing and blinked at that.

As the others came up behind her, Applejack groaned, “So what the hay are ya supposed ta do here? Just sit on one o’ these ships and look at the stars? Ain’t much of a carnival if ya ask me!”

Pinkie fell in step behind the others as Rainbow agreed, “Yeah, at least Sweet Mountain had some attractions, and who knows what he was gonna put on Planet Wisp! It sounds like there’s nothing fun here!”

A new announcement came from a loudspeaker shortly afterwards, “The Hyper-Sleep Ride is now open! Remember, the Hyper-Sleep Ride is not recommended for pregnant women, or people who aren’t willing to be asleep for three years.” Not long after, they heard a second announcement, “Attention: the Muscle Atrophy Simulation will not be open today. We apologize for the inconvenience, but we were not able to find the strength to open it.”

After a moment, Sonic said, “You called it right, Rainbow.”

Shining almost incredulously uttered, “Three years? I-I get it of course, but a ride that lasts three years? Is he serious?”

Tails said, “I’m sure he is.” He looked back at Rarity, “How are you feeling, Rarity?”

The fashionista took a breath before saying, “I think I’m feeling better now, Tails. I don’t know why I was feeling strange earlier, but it seems to be gone.”

A new announcement suddenly came from one of the ship’s loudspeakers, “Attention: the anti-gravity toilets on this level are out of order. We are sorry for this inconvenience and hope that you can hold it for another 20,000 light years.”

Rainbow said, “Good thing you’re feeling better, Rarity. That would have to be the longest wait ever!”

Twilight said with a raised eyebrow, “It would be, technically, but I don’t think he was saying it THAT way.”

Rainbow looked at the lavender unicorn, “What are you talking about, Twilight? He said 20,000 light years! That is a ridiculously long time to have to hold it in!”

Twilight deadpanned, “Light years doesn’t measure time, Rainbow. It’s a measure of distance.”

Tails added, “And even if we’re factoring in how far the Starlight Carnival is from the Tropical Resort, that’s not even close to how far it is to terra firma.”

Rainbow groaned, “Okay, whatever! Eggheads…”


A LITTLE BIT OF ACTION


Sonic spoke up, “Speaking of eggs…” Everyone looked ahead and saw that several Egg Pawns were approaching them. All of the robots were dressed like they were in a marching band, the apparent leader even carrying a trumpet in its hands. Initially they kept trying to act festive, the leader even stopping to act like it was playing its trumpet, but then they started rushing towards the group.

As the group braced themselves, Shining commented, “They’re still terrible with their hospitality. I’ll stop the leader!” His horn began to glow with magic, as did Cadance and Twilight’s, and they shot bolts of magic from their horns at the Egg Pawns before they could reach the group, the shots throwing them off-balance as they tried to keep running. Sonic, Tails, and Rainbow gestured at the robots before they moved, each aiming for a different one and rushing at it to attack, finishing them off.

Pinkie gasped suddenly and shot forward to grab the trumpet, the hat the Egg Pawn had been wearing landing on top of her mane as she landed on Tails’ shoulders, causing the fox to almost fall forward. “Looks like these ‘bots just got done over easy!” the pink pony chirped, playing a familiar silly tune with the trumpet afterwards.

As the others came over, Pinkie continued to sit on Tails’ shoulder as she messed around with the trumpet. Twilight used her magic to pick the pony up off of him and set her down. Standing up straight afterwards, Tails said, “I guess some of Eggman’s robots are still around here.”

Sonic added, “Not a lot of Wisps, though. Wonder if they’ve all been set free.”

Cadance looked at him, “Speaking of which, I think Tails was about to tell us more about what Dr. Eggman planned to do with those little aliens before Pinkie brought his shoddy engineering to our attention.”

Tails nodded, “Oh yeah. Well, basically, he was using them for a mind control scheme.” As they started walking again, Pinkie held the trumpet in the crook of her right foreleg like she was carrying a rifle, her bouncy walk allowing her to keep up with the others.

“Really? He wanted that crazy-powerful energy for mind control?” Rainbow asked.

“Well, it was going to be a planet-wide mind control. Turns out the cannon was built above the Tropical Resort, so it had a straight shot down at Earth. With enough energy, he probably could’ve put the entire planet under his control,” Tails explained.

“And that’s why he was capturing the Wisps?” Twilight asked.

Sonic and Tails nodded, the former saying, “Yep. No idea how he learned about the aliens in the first place, but that’s what he did. Something must’ve gone wrong, no surprise, since when he tried to fire it up, it ended up creating a black hole that destroyed the Tropical Resort and the space elevator instead.”

Shining plainly stated, “A black hole. How did you stop that, much less get away from it?”

Sonic shrugged, “Well, I didn’t get away from it. Never would’ve happened if I’d been pulled down by gravity, and I only stayed ahead of it for a little while running. I’ve got the Wisps to thank for getting me out of that one.”

Tails nodded, “And for stopping the black hole as well. When all the Wisps came together and joined their power together, they were able to restore the ones that had had their energy drained and stop that lightless black. They saved us, Earth, and all of the planets Eggman had stolen for his amusement park.”

Applejack let out a whistle, “Hoo-whee! And Ah thought they were crazy powerful before when that one was in me. Just a small amount of power fer sure!”

Cadance noted, “A small planet with an orbit that brings it close, time travel, gems with the power to manipulate time and space, a cycle of planetary destruction and rebirth, aliens and black holes, now interacting with other worlds… Sonic, Tails, you two and your friends live in a world with a colorful history.”

Sonic said, “Right. Just now we’re experiencing that…” He gave a knowing wink at Tails, receiving a smile in reply.

The fox then replied, “You know, I guess I haven’t really thought about it, but considering how long the Chaos Emeralds have been around, it’s actually not out of the question that their power could have come to light long before Knuckles’ clan tried to claim them. If so, then yeah, it is a wonder our world isn’t like a delta hub or GCS for other worlds. Still, I’m sure Equestria has more to its history than what we’ve been told about.”

Before anypony could respond, an announcement came over a loudspeaker, “We seem to be losing pressure on level seventeen. Please hold your breath against the harsh vacuum of space until you pass out from oxygen starvation. After that, you won't care. Enjoy the ride!” A second announcement blared out a few moments later like as an afterthought, “Please note that this ride is not safe for children under twelve, or over thirteen. …It is also not safe for thirteen-year-olds.”

Twilight looked worried at that. “Level seventeen is losing air pressure? Which level are we on?! Is this ship going to implode?!” she asked.

“Relax, Twilight. Look, we’ll just go somewhere else,” Sonic said.

Rainbow spoke, “Yeah, let’s see some other stuff. Are there any other rides worth checking out here, or are they all still under construction?”

Tails thought for a moment before saying, “Well… there’s one area that’s pretty much entirely dedicated to a ride. I don’t know if it’s finished, but we went there and…”

Rainbow cut him off, “Yeah, let’s go there! We only saw part of the park last time; let’s see if we can get a whole tour in before it gets destroyed!”

Tails looked a bit hesitant, but said, “Well… okay.” He brought the Warp Ring out and activated it, touching it to set the destination. Everyone then walked into it, the ring shrinking once they were all through.


ASTEROID COASTER


Upon exiting the ring, they found themselves on a metal walkway with large pointy spikes/claws along the sides in some sort of cavern with a fluorescent green liquid coming out of the walls and collecting below. After Tails collected the ring, Cadance asked, “Where are we?”

Before Sonic or Tails could, an announcement answered the pink alicorn, “Welcome to the Asteroid Coaster, accident-free for 45 minutes! Now with 32% more asteroids.”

Twilight asked, “The Asteroid Coaster?”

Sonic deadpanned, “Oh yeah, I forgot about the roller coasters here.”

Rainbow looked at him, “How could you about roller coasters? They’re the best part of a park!”

Sonic replied, “Eh, partly because this place reminds me of Eggmanland a little too much, and also because we found out this is where he drains the Wisps, turning them into the Nega Wisps.”

Shining asked, “Really? He does it right here? What, does he do it in plain sight?”

Tails answered, “No, it’s supposed to be behind-the-scenes. We did have to do a little searching to find it, but aside from the Egg Pawns and the natural dangers here, there wasn’t a lot of security to stop us from looking around.”

Rarity peered over the side of the walkway at the green liquid below, looking disgusted before she turned back to Sonic and Tails and asked, “What is that green stuff down there?”

Tails answered, “It’s acid, I think. It spills out of the volcanoes around here.”

Fluttershy asked, “There are volcanoes here?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, volcanoes, fossils, bones… He had some kind of ancient theme going here too.”

Spike asked, “Do you think we could ride some of the roller coasters while we’re here?”

Sonic shrugged, “Sure, as long as we remember to pay attention. The tracks here are either supposed to drop off or they’re not finished.”

Applejack nodded, “There’s another good reason not ta recommend this place ta anyone.” With that, they started making their way down the walkway.


SIGNS OF PASSAGE


As they were walking, they spotted pieces of broken glasses littering the walkway that seemed to have large teeth marks at the edges. “Yep, we’ve definitely already been here. This is definitely the work of the Purple Wisp’s power,” Tails noted as they all carefully stepped around the glass shards. As they got to the end, they looked up and saw five red robots dancing up ahead, each one wearing a cap of some sort and waving something in the air. “More Egg Pawns!” Tails called.

Shining raised an eye as he looked at what the robots were holding. “Are they holding swords? They look like they’re holding swords,” he said.

“I think they’re supposed to be clubs, but… yeah, now that you mention it, they do look like swords,” Tails agreed.

When the Egg Pawns began to run towards the group, Pinkie threw her hat away and jumped in front of everyone, standing up on two legs and holding up her trumpet as she screamed, “YOUR CLUBS ARE NO MATCH FOR MY TRUMPET!” Despite her battle cry, the Egg Pawns kept coming and she dashed forward, swinging her instrument and dodging out of the way of their clubs once they reached each other. After several long moments of banging metal and flying robot pieces, Pinkie stood huffing in the middle of a mess of robots innards as she dropped her utterly mangled trumpet on the ground.

“Wow. What got into Pinkie?” Tails managed as he and the others stared in shock.

“I’m not sure I want to know…” Sonic uttered.

Pinkie soon dropped back on all fours and cheerfully called back, “Come on! It’s safe to keep going now!” Despite some apprehension amongst them, everyone caught up with her and they continued on.

Not long afterwards, a new announcement started, “Every visitor to the park gets a free blue hedgehog!”

Almost immediately, Sonic felt a sudden weight on his back at that, pink legs wrapping themselves around his front. “I call this one! This one’s mine!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

The announcement continued, “If you catch one, please feel free to take it home with you, or destroy it. Our choice.”

Pinkie looked up in the direction the announcement had come from and yelled, “Nuh-uh! I caught it! It’s my choice, and I’m keeping it!”

Sonic deadpanned, “Pinkie, get off of me.”

Pinkie responded, “Oh no, you’re not getting away from me that easily! I’m taking you home with me, and nothing is going to make me- HEY! Look, a roller coaster! Come on, let’s get up there!” She suddenly shot off of Sonic’s back and in the direction of a roller coaster that was starting to slow to a stop on a track overhead. A few looks were shared before everyone hurried to catch up with her.

It didn’t take long for them to find Pinkie, who was gleefully shuffling in place as the dragon skull coaster came into the stop. As they stepped onto the platform, they heard an announcement say, “This coaster is not for small children. Or big babies.” A few looks were sent in Spike’s direction, which the dragon returned with an annoyed look. By the time they reached Pinkie, the coaster had come to a complete stop and was seemingly ready for new riders. Before anyone could move, another announcement said, “Please beware of the spikes on the asteroid coaster! They are sharp! …Really! We have to warn people about spikes! Like they won't notice the spikes! I mean, come on! The cars are nothing but spikes! Unbelievable! Wha...! Uh... My... my what is still on?”

Cadance looked up at the loudspeaker for a moment before saying, “Well, we’ve come this far. We can squeeze in one more roller coaster ride, can’t we?”

Sonic shrugged, “Yeah, sure. Just remember what I said earlier.”

Pinkie piped up, “I remember, and don’t worry! My eyes… are PEELED!” She used her hooves to hold her eyelids up to make it look like her eyes were really open for emphasis. She then let go of them and trotted over to Fluttershy, pushing the reluctant pegasus towards the coaster as she said, “Come on, Fluttershy! We’ll sit together in the front car!” Despite Fluttershy’s struggles and protests, Pinkie seated her in the front car and promptly sat down next to her to keep her from jumping out. She then called to the others, “Come on, everypony, buddy up and get in!”

Tails looked at the others and murmured, “She’s forgetting that there are eleven of us. Someone’s not going to be able to ‘buddy up’.”

Shining looked back at Spike as he said, “Maybe Spike can squeeze in between two ponies.”

The baby dragon complained, “Aw, come on! I wanted to sit next to…”

Sonic interjected, “Look, I’ll be the odd one out. I don’t have a problem sitting by myself.”

Twilight asked, “Are you sure?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Look, I don’t really fancy being cramped on a roller coaster like we were in Twinkle Park, but there aren’t enough cars for everyone to have their own seat. We might as well fill them all.” Much as everyone wanted to argue with him, they also didn’t want to keep Pinkie waiting, so they all started to climb into the coaster, being careful to avoid the spikes.


COASTER RIDE


Tails and Rainbow squeezed into the car behind Pinkie and Fluttershy, with Sonic getting into the one behind them. Twilight and Applejack were behind him followed by Spike and Rarity and, naturally, Shining and Cadance. As she tried to get comfortable next to Spike, Rarity uttered, “Ooh… I wonder if it’s a good idea to be doing this so soon…”

Before Spike or anyone else could say anything, they all heard Eggman’s voice once again, “Please be sure your safety belt is properly buckled, or you at least have a really good grip on something.”

Tails looked at the sides of the car before saying, “I don’t think this thing even has safety belts…”

Sonic said, “Right, so we don’t have to worry about unbuckling them if we have to jump ship.”

Before they started moving, Eggman gave them one last word of advice, “Please keep your hands and feet in the car at all times, because there are tiny asteroids travelling at incredible speeds, hurtling through space. Keeping your hands and feet in the car won't prevent you from being hit, but our lawyers tell us we have to say it anyway.”

Rainbow looked at Tails with a raised eyebrow, “Bad guys have lawyers?”

The fox shrugged, “Apparently.” A second later, they all felt a jolt forward as the coaster began moving forward towards an opening in the cave wall.

“Whoo, this is going to be so much fun! I can’t wait to start moving! AAAAAHHHHH!” Pinkie exclaimed in anticipation.

Before they could get outside, they all heard one last announcement from Eggman, “In space, nobody can hear you scream… except for the person sitting next to you, so please be considerate of others. Nobody likes a screamer.” At that, Pinkie let out a whimper as she slapped her hooves over her mouth to keep her screams to herself.

The coaster began picking up speed once it got outside, everyone now able to see where the coaster got its name from as they saw the asteroids floating around. “This is 32% more asteroids? Come on! I thought when he said that, there would be loads of asteroids out here!” Rainbow said.

“I don’t know how he can say that, considering the park was never open to the public in the first place,” Tails noted.  The coaster kept going at its fairly fast speed as it followed the tracks, even going through a shuttle loop.

As the ride continued, Rarity began to feel worse and Applejack was starting to feel it as well. “Uhh… Ah’m startin’ ta feel a bit queasy,” the orange earth pony groaned, both Twilight and Sonic turning to look at her with concern.

“Is the ride almost over yet?” Rarity moaned.

Suddenly Pinkie began to cry out, “Mmph! Mmmph mmph mph! Mmph mmmph!”

Rainbow asked, “What’d you say, Pinkie?!”

Pinkie turned her head around and, with her hooves still around her mouth, cried, “MMPH! Mmph mph!”

Sonic said, “Use your words, Pinkie! Take your hooves away from your mouth!”

The pink pony shook her head, adamantly refusing to scream. Fluttershy started, “Pinkie…”

She was cut off when Tails placed his left hand on the front of the car and leaned forward, pointing ahead as he yelled, “Drop-off, dead ahead!” Everyone looked where he was pointing and saw that the track did suddenly make a 90-degree downward drop, and there was no more track after it.

“W-We have to get off this coaster! We need to bail out!” Twilight exclaimed.

Applejack put a hoof on her should and said, “Yeah, but… where are we gonna jump out to, Twilight?” She looked around, “Ah ain’t feelin’ so light right now, and there ain’t nothin’ around us!”

Tails pointed to the asteroid field ahead of the drop, “If we can get past those asteroids, we should be able to find solid ground!”

Sonic stood up in his seat, “I can clear us a path through those asteroids, as long as everyone has a way to follow me!” Tails held up one of his thumbs while Rainbow and Cadance spread their wings.

As the coaster approached the drop, Rainbow shot forward and grabbed both Fluttershy and Pinkie with her hooves, pulling them out of the coaster while Tails leapt back to Twilight and Applejack’s car. Sonic soon placed a foot on top of his car, causing Shining to realize he was going to jump. “Wait, Sonic!” he called, jumping forward several cars to get to the hedgehog while Spike made his way back to Cadance.

Sonic soon felt an even heavier weight against his back and glanced up to see Shining hanging onto him. “Oof! Okay, dude. If you want to jump with me, I’m good with that.” The stallion wanted to try to talk him out of whatever he was planning, to consider a different plan, but the track ran out before he could say anything, causing Sonic to jump with him while Tails lifted up Twilight and Applejack and Cadance grabbed Rarity with her forelegs while Spike sat on her back.

As he approached the first group of asteroids, Sonic’s eyes locked onto a lone brown asteroid amongst the gray asteroids and shot forward in an improvised Homing Attack, holding his feet forward as he flew. The attack wasn’t as strong as it usually was, but it was enough to cause the weaker rock to break apart and bounce him up. Looking up, he saw another brown asteroid nearby and aimed for it, using the weaker asteroids to navigate the field as Tails, Rainbow, and Cadance flew after him and Shining.

It didn’t take long for Sonic to reach the other side of the asteroid field and he dropped down onto a flat portion of rock, stopping after he ran to the end of it and dropped down onto a metal platform. He then knelt down and allowed Shining to slide off of his back as he asked, “You okay, Shining?”

The stallion relaxed as he felt his hooves beneath him again and replied, “Yeah. Sorry about that, Sonic. I guess that was a bit… reckless.”

Sonic shrugged, “Eh, no problem. Long as I was able to jump and attack asteroids, it wasn’t a problem with me.” While they were talking, Rainbow, Tails, and Cadance caught up with them, Pinkie finally taking her hooves away from her mouth once she was on solid ground again.

Rarity spoke, “Well, I’m glad we got out of that rather easily, but… I still feel a bit sick.”

Applejack nodded, “Me too, Rarity. Ah wonder why?”

They all suddenly heard another announcement, “The space sickness you will eventually get is not the responsibility of Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park or its subsidiaries. Send any complaints to the inventor of space. Thank you.”

Spike asked, “Is that why Rarity and Applejack are feeling like this? Space sickness?”

Tails shrugged, “I guess it could be?”

Cadance said, “Well, we have been surrounded by the blackness of space pretty much ever since we left the train.”

Rarity groaned and asked, “Can we go somewhere else until Applejack and I feel better? Somewhere where there’s less space?”

Tails fished out the Warp Ring as he said, “Yeah, we can do that, Rarity.” He activated the ring and placed his hand on it to set the destination.

Before anyone could go through it, they heard another announcement echo out from the nearby cave, “Remember to try one of our new space pops! All the flavor of outer space with only half the radiation.” Tails made a face as he looked away, his brain connecting the nauseous feeling that rose up in him at that with something else in the park that he lingered on for a few moments. All too late he realized he had thought of a different destination, everyone having already gone through the ring while he was lost in thought. Wincing, he leapt into the ring after them, hoping they wouldn’t be too mad at him.
> Interstellar Finale, Pt. II
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


AQUARIUM PARK


Upon exiting the ring, the fox found that he had been right; everyone was standing on a path in a new area of the park that looked like a mix of Eastern culture and what lay under the sea. “Now what’s this place called?” Shining was asking.

“The Aquarium Park,” Sonic replied. He turned to Tails as the Warp Ring shrunk down and landed in the fox’s hand and asked, “Why’d you pick here, Tails? Why not, uh, Planet Wisp or even the Sweet Mountain?” He glanced in Pinkie’s direction as he finished, sure that the pink pony was all ears at the mention of that name.

Tails rubbed the back of his head with his free hand as he tucked the ring away, “Sorry. I was trying to set the ring for Planet Wisp, but then I thought of Sweet Mountain and when I heard that announcement about the space pops, I thought of Aquarium Park instead.”

Fluttershy asked, “Why did that make you think of this place, Tails? Did something bad happen here?”

The fox groaned, “Yeah, one of the worst experiences I had here…”

Before anyone could ask, they heard Eggman’s voice again, “This exotic aquarium contains many rare and endangered species. Enjoy them with a delicious soy glaze at the Bucket O’ Sushi restaurant.”

Sonic stuck out his tongue and groaned, “Ugh. I had to wait until after we were done up here and back on Earth to find a decent sushi joint, especially after Tails stopped at that place.”

Applejack looked at Tails, “It was bad, huh?”

The fox replied, “I said it before and I’ll say it again: his cruelty knows no bounds.”

Shining said, “Okay, so even if we hadn’t eaten lunch or had managed to lose it while we were at the Asteroid Coaster, the Bucket O’ Sushi would be off the list.”

Twilight looked up and asked, “Is this in some kind of dome? It looks like there’s water outside.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah. We got in here by falling down a long tube that was connected to the entrance. Probably a good thing we skipped that part.”

Spike looked at Rarity and asked, “Are you feeling better, Rarity?”

The white unicorn answered, “I think so, Spike.” She looked at the others, “Can we walk around here for just a little bit? Applejack and I should start feeling better soon.”

Sonic said, “Sure. Let’s just stay out of the water. Don’t need either of you getting seasickness on top of space sickness.”

As they all started walking, Twilight looked at him and asked, “You’re also saying that because you can’t swim, right?”

Sonic replied nonchalantly, “Partly. I’m also saying it because there are fish ‘bots in the water and, uh, I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like getting ‘chummy’ with a shark today.”

Shining noted, “That’s definitely not something I had on my list of things to do. Like, ever.”


EXOTIC AQUARIUM


While walking, they heard Eggman’s voice over another loudspeaker, “Welcome to the exotic aquarium! Any water you may notice on the floor is the result of our diligent housecleaning staff’s mopping and not evidence of a dangerous leak in the… oh, heck with it! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

Cadance looked at Sonic and Tails and asked, “Did you notice any leaking water last time you were both here?”

Sonic replied, “I didn’t, and I ran past a bunch of water tanks while looking for the generator here.”

Tails nodded, “I didn’t notice any problems either, and the Wisps sent it back along with the other planets after Eggman was defeated.”

Fluttershy asked, “So, um… all the planets we’ve been to so far were all taken by Dr. Eggman?”

Tails thought for a moment before saying, “Well, I don’t know about the Starlight Carnival. I think that might’ve just drifted off into space after it was cut loose.”

Rainbow said, “Imagine if it drifted off into the Asteroid Coaster.”

Before anyone could reply, they all heard another announcement, “Water you waiting for? Climb aboard the exotic aquarium for a boatload of- argh, who writes this drivel?”

A voice that Sonic and Tails recognized piped up a few moments later, “You do, boss.”

Eggman spoke up again after another few moments, “Oh you’re right, I do! Ha ha, I’m hilarious!”

Sonic grunted, “Glad he’s so proud of his terrible attempts to be clever.”

Tails countered, “Hey, you make jokes like that all the time, Sonic.”

The blue hedgehog replied, “Yeah, but at least I’m not reading off a script. None of my puns are planned in advance.”

Tails said, “I guess that’s true.”

As they continued on, they all looked at the buildings built along the sides of the path, Spike and the ponies noticing their oriental architecture. “These are very interesting building designs. I’ve never really seen any built like these before,” Cadance commented.

“They look very similar to the buildings we saw in Chun-Nan. Was Dr. Eggman trying to diversify the park?” Twilight wondered.

“Probably not,” Sonic shrugged.

Before Twilight could respond, a loudspeaker blurted out, “Arr, mateys! Experience the honest denizens of the seven seas in Captain Eggman’s amazing underwater aquarium! …This is really embarrassing…”

Rainbow spoke, “Wow. He thinks he’s embarrassed? That was embarrassing to listen to.”

Spike shrugged, “Hey, at least he admitted it.”

Tails said, “It’s also embarrassing because there aren’t really any pirate themes here. The Egg Pawns here were dressed as samurais.”

Shining stopped, as did everyone else, and turned to the fox, asking, “Dressed as what?”

Tails repeated, “Samurais.” He received blank looks from Spike and the ponies. “Eastern soldiers?” he tried, receiving more blank looks in response. He sighed, “Yeah, all right, ninjas.”

A collective “Ohhhhhh!” rose up from everyone staring at him, followed by Rainbow asking, “So does that mean they’re able to do what Espio can do?”

Tails replied, “Well, I think they were able to be teleported in, but other than that, no. I’m pretty sure Eggman couldn’t design a robot capable of what Espio can do by himself.”

Pinkie suddenly popped up between Sonic and Tails and hugged them with her forelegs as she said, “Great! Then there’s nothing for us to worry about!” She started trotting forward again, “Let’s go! I want to see the town!”

After a moment, Tails added, “And he DEFINITELY couldn’t make a robot that could do that.”

A short while later, they passed through a gate and began walking through the streets of the town. As they walked, Eggman interrupted the silence with another announcement, “Enjoy the rides, and remember, in case of an emergency your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device. It won't actually float, but you can use it as one.” Nobody felt there was a need to comment on what he was saying and continued to look around. A little later, they heard him again, “Remember to try out the new and improved waterslides, now with twenty percent less raw sewage!”

Rainbow perked up at that. “Hey, he stole that from me!” she exclaimed.

Sonic looked over at the pegasus with a raised eyebrow, “What are you talking about, Dash?”

Rainbow turned to him, “That twenty percent thing! That’s my line! He’s using it in his announcements without my permission, and the worst part is that someone like him is even using it, not to mention for something like this park!”

Tails shrugged after a moment, “Okay, so… what are you going to do, Rainbow? I think it’s a little too late for a lawsuit; the park was already destroyed before this whole mess started, so it’s not like any guests would actually hear it.”

Before Rainbow could respond, Rarity spoke, “Rainbow darling, enough! Applejack and I are feeling much better now, so we don’t have to stay here much longer. Let’s just see a little more and then we can go.”

Although she was still a bit annoyed, Rainbow agreed to drop it and followed the others as they continued on. Before she did, though, she looked up at the loudspeaker and muttered, “You just watch yourself, fat man. Next time I see you, we’re gonna have some words.” She hurried after the others as she murmured, “Catch me off-guard like that… Well, it isn’t gonna happen next time!”


OBSERVING MARINE LIFE


Shortly after exiting the town, the road they were on came to an end and they found themselves looking down into a deep, long pool of water. Beneath the water’s surface they could see various types of fishes, corals, and sponges, all as they would look and act as if they were in their natural habitat and not a part of an evil genius’ scheme. “Oh my… This is so amazing… So beautiful…” Fluttershy breathed.

An announcement snapped her out of the moment, “The mighty ocean, cradle of life, trivialized for your amusement at Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park.”

After a moment, Cadance said, “Well, trivial or not, this isn’t something that everypony gets to see.”

Twilight looked at Sonic and asked, “Are all of the viewing tanks like this?”

The blue hedgehog replied, “There are some others too, mainly the ones where you look through the glass at the fishes.”

Rarity said, “Ooh! Let’s look at some of those before we go.”

Applejack groaned, “Rarity, do we have to?” Now that she was getting over her space sickness, the orange earth pony was feeling reluctant to continue indulging the fashionista’s requests.

Rarity turned to her friend, “Oh, come now, Applejack. You heard what Princess Cadance said; this is a rare opportunity for us, especially since we’ll never get to see this park and appreciate its nicer points again. Let’s do what Rainbow suggested before and see as much of the park as we can before we leave.” Although she felt that they were wasting time that would be better spent setting things right again, Applejack reluctantly agreed.

After making their way over the water and going through a few short areas, the group eventually found the tanks they were looking for. The glass holding the water in was clean and was made of a clear material, making it easy for them to see the marine life living in the tanks. As they walked and looked, they heard Eggman’s voice again, “Please avoid breaking the glass, as it is the only thing between you and ten million gallons of freezing wet death.”

Twilight flatly remarked, “Subtle.”

Shining nodded, “Yeah. If he had to follow the rules, there’s no way he’d be allowed to say that. So many parents would have a fit.”

Pinkie called from ahead, “Ooh, look in this one! Octopuses!”

As they all made their way over, Twilight corrected, “I believe the correct term is ‘octopi’, Pinkie.”

As they all peered into the tank, another announcement came, “To avoid embarrassing hickies, please refrain from arm wrestling the octopi.”

Applejack said, “Someone would have ta be nuts ta jump in there and wrestle with one o’ these things. Did he really think that was going ta happen?”

Tails shrugged, “Well, maybe if an octopus got out. They’re pretty notorious for that.”

Rarity looked at the fox and asked, “What else is there left to see in this park, Tails?”

Tails replied, “Well, the only place in the park we haven’t been to yet is the Tropical Resort. It’s supposed to be the first stop for all of the park visitors, but we’ve ended up managing to avoid needing to go there this entire time.”

Applejack sighed, “Well, let’s go and fix that so we can finish our ‘tour’ and figure out what else we need ta do ta get back on the road.” She glanced at Rarity as she added, “As long as that’s okay, RARITY.”

The fashionista glanced at the farmer and ignored what she was implying as she replied, “Of course, Applejack. I’ve had my fill of this beautiful aquarium. We can move on.” Tails quietly breathed a sigh of relief as he brought out the Warp Ring and set it for the Tropical Resort, everyone walking into it once it was ready.


TROPICAL RESORT


Upon coming out on the other side of the ring, the group once again saw the blackness of space above them, but now it wasn’t as empty as Starlight Carnival and Asteroid Coaster had been. Around them were brightly lit buildings and straightforward paths that were either made of stone, glass, or metal. Above them, fireworks were going off and to their sides was a pair of rectangle-shaped reflecting pools, and even from where they were standing, they could see palm trees and carved wooden faces.

“Ooh! This is the Tropical Resort? This looks so luxurious and relaxing!” Rarity said.

Pinkie bounced over to the pool on her left and looked down at her reflection. “Ooh! Look at this pretty, shiny water!” she said.

An announcement caught everyone’s attention, “Please refrain from throwing coins, trash, or small children into the reflecting pools.”

Cadance made a face at the last part. “Who would throw their child into a pool?” she asked. Sonic just shrugged in reply.

Twilight looked at him and Tails, “So this is where Eggman wanted tourists to start their outer space vacation, regardless of whether they came up on their own or because he controlled them to?”

Tails nodded, “Yep. It’s a real paradise here. Breathtaking views from the giant Ferris wheel, amazing deals at the shopping mall, and, of course, constant risk of bodily harm.”

Sonic started walking as he added, “Funny that he never mentions the view here. For me, it’s the best part.”

As he and the others followed after him, Shining asked, “What view?”

Sonic pointed ahead as he looked back, “Over here.” He stopped a little further up and looked up and off to the left, everyone doing the same. They instantly saw that he was looking up at Earth, the Tropical Resort offering a perfect view of the blue planet. Unsurprisingly, the Equestrians were amazed by their first proper look at another planet.

“Whoa…” Rainbow breathed.

“So this is what it’s like to see another planet like this…” Twilight murmured.

Sonic spoke, “I did like the Tropical Resort for this view and all the green here… as long as it was the right type of green.”

Applejack looked at him and asked, “What other kind o’ green is there, Sugar-hog?”

An announcement from Eggman answered her question, “We here at Eggman's Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park consider ourselves the universe's first fully green amusement park… although the green is from all the nausea and vomiting, but still, green is green.”

Applejack looked back at Sonic, “Oh.”

Tails said, “Again, I don’t know how that could be the case when the park was never open to the public, unless Eggman tested things himself and got sick.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, I don’t think robots can puke. I think they can only get puked out.”

The group soon started moving again and passed under a large lit archway that said ‘WELCOME’. As they continued, Rainbow asked, “So aside from the Ferris wheel, shopping, and getting beat up, what passes for fun here?”

Once again, an answer came via an announcement, “The following rides are closed for repairs: the ‘Free Money Ride’, ‘It's an All-You-Can-Eat World’, and ‘Pick a Car, Any Car’.”

Applejack rolled her eyes, “Huh, Ah can’t imagine why the first one would be closed.”

Sonic chuckled, “I wonder if the ride is like a money shower. Just a bunch of different kinds of bills just coming out of the openings.”

Tails shuddered, “I would hope it’s that and not something like silver dollars instead, but this is Eggman we’re talking about.”

Pinkie whined, “Aw! ‘It’s an All-You-Can-Eat World’ sounds like the best ride ever!”

Rarity said, “Oh, don’t worry, Pinkie. I’m sure there are plenty of other rides that are still in order. There’s bound to be something almost as fun.”

Another announcement came from a loudspeaker, “Enjoy every moment in the luxurious grounds as if they might be your last, ESPECIALLY if you’re a meddlesome hedgehog, or his fawning sidekick.”

Tails uttered, “I think ‘fawning’ is a gross overstatement…”

Twilight said, “I’m sure if he knew us, he would’ve singled us out as well.”

Rainbow smirked, “Yeah.” She then tried to imitate Eggman’s voice, “Also if you’re a nerdy bookworm, her dragon-breath assistant, an awesome Wonderbolts recruit, an apple-selling earth pony, a shy animal-loving pegasus, a drama queen, or an overly excited party planner.” She noticed some of her friends giving her dirty looks and shrugged, “What? It sounds like something he’d say, doesn’t it?”

Applejack admitted, “Yeah, Ah guess, and Ah guess it’s kinda funny. Still, Rainbow…”

Another announcement cut her off, “Would Sonic the Hedgehog please report to the security office? Sonic the Hedgehog, please report to the security office. We found your... uh... YOUR KEYS! Yes, that's it, we found your keys. No need to be ready for a trap, since we only want to return your keys!”

Pinkie popped up next to the blue hedgehog, “Ooh! We’d better go get your keys before they disappear forever, Sonic!”

The blue hedgehog looked at her with half-lidded eyes, “Pinkie… I don’t even carry my keys with me. How could I lose them?” Pinkie’s expression changed to a thoughtful as though she was seriously considering his question. “I’m sorry I asked…” Sonic muttered after a moment.

As they continued exploring, Shining noted, “Hey… it’s been a while since we’ve seen any Egg Pawns.”

Fluttershy helpfully offered, “Maybe the ‘constant risk of bodily harm’ that Tails mentioned is something Dr. Eggman made up for fun.”

Sonic shrugged, “Well, his sense of fun is pretty weird, so… why not?”

They soon heard another announcement, “Would the owner of a white hovercar shaped like an egg please report to the front desk? Your car has been broken into. Repeat, would the owner of a white hovercar shaped like an egg please report to the front desk? Your car has been broken in- Wait a minute, what the heck?!”

Tails gave a laugh before saying, “Oh yeah, there was another announcement somewhere about it being okay for visitors to leave their valuables in their cars since there’s chance that they’ll be broken into. Guess even Eggman isn’t exempt from it.”

After a little while, Rainbow spoke, “We haven’t seen anything for a while now. Maybe we should just leave now.”

Pinkie piped up, “Aw, I want to at least get a ride on the Ferris wheel! Can we, can we, can we?!” Before anyone could say anything, she suddenly let out a loud gasp and she felt numerous pinches in her knee, the leg shaking as a result.

Noticing the way her leg was shaking, Tails carefully asked, “Are you doing that, Pinkie, or is that…?”

Pinkie looked at him gravely, “Something scary is about to happen…”


THE BIG EVENT


A loud crackling sound suddenly filled the air, quickly becoming louder and more frequent as a purple light began to shine from above. Looking up, everyone saw that four large towers that had purple electricity running up and down them had spread out from the space elevator, a purple ring of energy forming at the tops as they began to shine brighter. Every single light in the Tropical Resort then went out as four more towers along the resort’s circumference rose up, channeling their purple electricity into the ring and causing it to expand outwards.

A few seconds later, an explosion sounded from near the top of one of the inner towers, the explosion traveling downwards and destroying the tower, part of the Tropical Resort (which the group could see was far ahead of them, thankfully), and the outer tower across from it. The destruction of the two towers sent streaks of purple energy flying off into space, one of them hitting and spreading out over the Moon. The group’s focus, however, was on the purple black hole that was growing where the ring of energy had been and the purple energy that was leaking out due to the destruction, the park’s power source soon draining away to nothing.

Twilight, Cadance, and Shining’s horns all lit up with light to counter the darkness, Twilight asking, “Is everyone all right?!”

Applejack answered after checking to make sure everyone was still present, “Ah think so, Twi’! What the hay just happened?!”

Tails answered, “This is the start of the destruction of Eggman’s park!” He looked over at the burning section of the Tropical Resort, “So that’s how it happened. Somehow, one of the cannons exploded, releasing Hyper-go-on energy.”

Sonic asked him, “How come we didn’t notice ANY of this before? We were there and all we felt was the ground shaking; we didn’t even see this place go dark!”

Tails replied, “Um, now’s not the time to be sweating the details.” He looked up at the black hole again, “Now’s the time to be getting away from THAT!”


TIME TO BAIL... AGAIN!


A loudspeaker that was floating by seemed to agree with him, “CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE! Repeat, CRITICAL SYSTEMS FAILURE! All attraction access is temporarily suspended. Please evacuate the park via the emergency exit ahead. THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!”

Pinkie grinned weakly at the others, “I guess we can skip the Ferris wheel…”

Rarity looked at Tails, “Please tell me we still have our emergency exit, Tails…”

The fox nodded, “Coming right up!” In one quick motion, he pulled out the Warp Ring and threw it behind him, the ring expanding to its full size after a second. Sonic and Tails ran over to it and grabbed it, the latter saying, “Come on, everybody!”

Everyone tried to move towards the ring, but the black hole was already starting to get bigger and its power was growing along with it. Bits of the ground started getting pulled up into the blackness, causing Twilight, Shining, and Cadance’s concentration to waver and their lights to go out, making it harder to see what was breaking away.

Suddenly, Spike let out a cry as he felt himself getting pulled up off the ground. “Spike!” Twilight cried as she leapt up for him, the black hole starting to pull her up as well. Seeing this, Sonic let go of the Warp Ring and leapt up, using his Boost to shoot through the air and grab them both, Twilight under his left arm and Spike against his right shoulder.


SPEEDY ESCAPE


He began to feel weightless a few seconds later, the black hole starting to pull him up too. Realizing this, Twilight relit her horn and looked around. She soon spotted a palm tree that wasn’t far away, the trunk and leaves shaking as its roots, for the moment, kept it from getting pulled up. Working quickly, she used her magic to uproot it and get it under Sonic’s feet, the blue hedgehog using it to Boost again, shooting for the ground while the tree was pulled up into the black hole.

Sonic managed to slam his feet against the ground and turned to see that the Warp Ring was still open, though judging by the two magic auras surrounding it, Cadance and Shining were trying to keep it from getting pulled away as well. He shot towards it, seeing Rainbow, Shining, and Cadance helping Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie through the ring while Tails kept it open. He reached the ring after the three ponies made it through and quickly threw Twilight and Spike through the portal too. The five of them looked up for a moment when they heard the sound of a firework going off, seeing the shape of Eggman’s face illuminated in purple against the stars, before they all scrambled into the ring, Shining and Cadance going first with Sonic, Tails, and Rainbow squeezing in after them. Without the magic hold on it, the ring started getting pulled up towards the black hole, but it shrunk down and disappeared before it could reach it.

________________________________________


FINAL TRIALS CLEARED


Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as they rested on and along the sides of the train tracks, happy to be surrounded by near-complete whiteness rather than near-complete blackness with purple coming ever closer from above. “Well, that was a close call,” Spike breathed.

“Uh, yep. Ah certainly didn’t expect to have a close call like we did with that cave at the start of our trip. What else is there?” Applejack asked.

Tails was checking his radar at the moment as he sat up, checking everything carefully to make sure he wasn’t seeing it wrong. He then spoke, “Uh, guys? I’ve got some good news. I’m not picking up any of the four portal signatures, so this confirms that the similar readings were due to them all connecting to the other planets in the amusement park. By going on that tour, we basically closed them all at once!”

Everyone perked up at that. “Really?!” Shining asked.

“Yep! And if I’m not mistaken, there’s nothing else open up ahead! At the moment, we have a straight shot to Canterlot!” Tails said.

Rainbow spread her wings and flapped them so she was hovering over everyone. “Well, come on, then! Everybody back on the train! Let’s go before anything else slows us down!” she urged. Everyone agreed and quickly got up and ran back to the train, Tails and Pinkie taking the engine while everyone else headed back to the passenger car, hoping to recover a bit from the ordeal before they arrived.

While Pinkie took control of the train again, Tails turned around and pulled out the Warp Ring, holding it in the palm of his right hand as he looked down at it. The ring looked like it always did, but Tails could see that what he thought he saw earlier was true: the luster it usually had was gone, which meant it was running low on energy. Using it anymore would probably drain it completely, and while that wouldn’t make it completely worthless, it would surely make it unusable for a long time.

The fox kit thought to himself, “I should probably give it a quick recharge with one of the Chaos Emeralds. It might not be as much of a gateway as it is now once we stop that monster, but this is still a rare instance where we’ve been able to get our hands on one of these. It could still be useful to us, so…”

His thoughts were interrupted when Pinkie called, “Chugga-chugga, choo-choo! Canterlot, here we come!” Tails turned to look at her and saw that she had somehow gotten her pilot’s hat and neckerchief back and was standing on two legs again as she manned the controls. Turning back to the window, he walked over to it and peered out, seeing the city getting closer by the second and no sign of anything that could keep them from reaching it.

As he continued to look out the window, Tails slipped the ring back into one of his namesakes and thought, “Better keep it hidden the way it is for now. It wouldn’t be good if that creature got a hold of it, and I can just give it a quick recharge if we find ourselves in a situation where we need it. I’m sure I’ll remember that.” He nodded to reassure himself and kept looking out the window, watching as their final stop started to come into view…
> EXTRA 1: Work Behind the Scenes
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sonic fell to his knees with his right hand on his forehead while he pressed the palm of his left hand against the ground. Twilight stared at him worriedly; Discord’s magic may have had the intended effect of messing with her mind in order to keep her from believing in friendship, but she was still a reclusive bookworm at heart, even if her heart wasn’t speaking properly at the moment. At the moment, she was not a friend who was looking at Sonic, but an observer; she was concerned about his quick breaths, his eyes and teeth being clenched, and the way his body trembled as he supported himself, but she could not bring herself to do anything more than look on. Her mind was in control and it was telling her she had to stay detached.

After a few moments of just watching, her gaze shifted to the bracelet on Sonic’s left wrist. From what she’d heard, it had been part of the key to opening the castle tower doors and he’d had it on when they regrouped at the entrance. Now she was noticing that the stone set in the top of it was glowing green. It was a faint glow, but it was still noticeable. Twilight continued to stare, wondering what was happening.

In his mind, Sonic took his hand off of his head and opened his eyes, lowering the former and raising the latter to look around. He appeared to be in space as all he could see around him was blackness with white dots mixed in, though it still felt like there was solid ground beneath him as he stood up. “Where am I?” he wondered as he continued to look around, not seeing anything that stood out.

Suddenly he noticed a bluish-white light shining from above. Tilting his head up to look, he saw that it was coming from some sort of mist that was swirling and shaped like one of the many portals he and the others had been through all day. As he stared, Chip’s necklace slowly emerged from the mist-like opening, bringing with it a familiar form. Burgundy fur with white hands and feet, white stomach fur, a pair of small fairy-like wings, a bushy white tail, and a white tuft of fur on its canine-like head… “Chip?” Sonic asked as he looked up into the creature’s yellow eyes.

He received a nod in reply. “Yes. I told you I would always be with you, Sonic. I’m sorry I had to make you seize up, but it was the only way I could bring you here,” the creature said, Sonic hearing his voice despite it sounding a bit ghostly.

“I wish we could be talking at a better time, buddy. Things have managed to get worse than when Eggman blew the planet into pieces,” Sonic replied.

Chip nodded, “I know, Sonic. Even in my dormant state, I’ve felt and seen everything that’s happened. Eggman and his strange, though funny, new ally are trying to reshape everything to suit their interests, maybe even our planet’s cycle of destruction and rebirth. They won’t be satisfied until they control it all.”

Sonic urged, “I have to go back, Chip. That creep Discord did something to Twilight and me, and now he’s probably gonna do the same thing to her friends. I have to do something to snap her out of it.”

Chip said, “He does have unique powers, but when it comes to what he’s done, he’s no Dark Gaia. Even if he knew, his trickery is not as great as he thinks it is. A wise mind and a keen eye are enough to counter his simplest mind trick, but to untwist what he’s trying to do now will mean asserting control over what he embodies.”

Sonic held back a groan as he asked, “Seriously? You’re gonna talk to me in riddles, Chip? If there’s something I need to know, just tell me what it is!”

Chip replied, “You needed to be told that you were too strong to be affected by Dark Gaia’s influence because you believed I was subconsciously protecting you. There is no way his trick can work on you, and I don’t need to tell you anything. You already know how to undo what he’s set in motion, Sonic; you’ve done it before. Remember your greatest strength… Remember…” As he finished speaking, he floated back into the opening behind him and it began to glow brighter once he was through, forcing Sonic to hold his hands in front of his face and look away as the light enveloped him.

Back in the waking world, Sonic’s eyes shot open and his head jerked up suddenly, his right hand hanging in the air as he stared straight ahead. Twilight was surprised by this and backed up slightly with a small gasp. She watched as Sonic blinked a few times, seemingly fine despite how he had looked moments ago. “What happened?” she carefully ventured.

Sonic looked over at her and then down at Chip’s necklace, which was no longer glowing. “I was… somewhere else,” he uttered absently, turning Chip’s words over in his mind. After a few moments, he looked at Twilight again and closed his right hand into a fist, “Twilight… I don’t know what’s going through your mind right now, but you have to listen to me. You’ve got to fight it!”

The gray unicorn gave him a confused look, “Fight what?”

Sonic pushed himself up and quickly walked over to her, putting his hands on her shoulders as he said, “Discord is messing with you! I don’t know how he did it, but he’s the reason you look the way you do! He has you believing in lies!”

Twilight murmured, “Lies…” She seemed to mull his words over for a few seconds, but then she stepped back and said, “No, he… he was right. After everything that’s happened, I should’ve known better. I never really had friends.”

Sonic stared at her in shock. “What?! Twilight, what did he show you that would make you think that?!” he asked.

Twilight shook her head, “He didn’t show me anything. He’s not messing with me.” Her eyes narrowed a little, “He just reminded me of everything I’ve been trying to deny.”

Sonic crossed his arms, “And what’s everything?”

Twilight gave him an odd look, “I never told you, did I? Why all those things we talked about happened?”

Sonic had to think for a moment to remember what she was referring to, but it soon came to him. “What, when you snuck off by yourself back in the jungle?” he asked.

Twilight nodded and said, “I thought it would be best to shift everything to me, to say that it was my fault those things happened… but my so-called ‘friends’ aren’t blameless either.”

Sonic held out his right hand as he spoke, “Uh, okay. Would you care to explain what you mean by that, Twilight? I seem to remember you saying your friends were busy at the time.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed a little more, “Yes, when I was worrying about the then-weekly reports, my friends WERE busy… busy having a picnic.” Sonic raised an eyebrow as she went on, “When I went to them earlier that day, I was hoping I could help them with a problem without having to tell them, but no one needed any help. I was getting desperate and worried, and it was starting to show in my appearance. So what did my friends do when I went to the picnic and tried to explain the problem to them? They LAUGHED at me, Sonic.”

Sonic raised a finger, “Um…”

Twilight cut him off, “No, I’m not exaggerating! They thought it was a joke! They actually thought I let my mane and tail become disheveled and my heart rate and breathing go up all for a joke! I think I even heard Rarity call me a drama queen when I was leaving! I tried to make them understand how it was important, but their picnic was more important to them!” She gave Sonic a sidelong look, “Maybe anyone could come to the conclusion that I did, but I guess not everyone.”

Sonic flinched a little at having his words thrown back at him. “Well okay, maybe… maybe it wasn’t a day where everyone was remembering everything, but you said Princess Celestia fixed the problem that came up, right? That Spike contacted her?” he asked.

Twilight replied, “Yes, he did. And then during the Future Twilight incident, he too decided it was okay to laugh at me. I decide I’m going to worry about a possible danger that will happen in a week’s time and he decides to take advantage of it and eat all the ice cream he can get his claws on while I was worrying and Rainbow and Pinkie Pie were making light of it.” She huffed, “Future Spike… did he really think he wasn’t going to get a stomachache from all that ice cream, or did he think I had a cloning incident beforehoof? Or maybe he thought I did something unforgivable to him before that and decided to intentionally go overboard with how much he was enjoying himself.”

Sonic rubbed his forehead with his right hand, exasperated. “I’m running out of things to say. Not being there for what happened isn’t helping, but Discord has to have done something to her that’s making her act like this instead of how she was acting before. She kind of stumbled over her words and tried to take all the blame, but I think I prefer that to this new spiteful personality,” he thought to himself. After a moment, he started, “Okay, uh… considering how little you said about it before, I’m guessing your brother’s wedding was even worse?”

Twilight glared, “At last, we can both agree on something. Yes, it was. I would’ve been fine if it turned out Cadance had simply changed and it was not Queen Chrysalis posing as her, even though I wouldn’t have been happy about it. I would’ve even been fine with being completely wrong and there was actually nothing wrong with the bride. What I won’t tolerate any longer, however, is the complete and utter lack of faith that everypony, including my brother and Princess Celestia, showed me!”

Sonic asked, “And how faithless was that, exactly?”

Twilight yelled, “Completely! They were too wrapped up in being allowed to plan a royal wedding to pay attention to anything else! No, strike that! They didn’t even have to be directly involved in the preparations to not notice anything out of the ordinary! All Spike had to do was plan the bachelor party and he was too enthralled with the wedding cake toppers to do anything else! The rest of the lot? Applejack was too thrilled that Chrysalis said she liked her treats to notice she threw the rest away! Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy could not tell the difference between demands and rudeness and requests and stress! And Rainbow? Didn’t even bother trying to get to know the bride until she was made a bridesmaid! And my brother… Does he really think I don’t know what a spell meant to combat headaches looks like?!”

Sonic was actually considering backing away from the unicorn with how angry she was getting, but he kept telling himself to stand his ground and not lift his feet. “And…?” he prodded, hoping she was getting close to the part that was making her really angry.

Twilight snarled, “They abandoned me. I’d had enough of them brushing off what I had to say and not paying attention, so I arrived late to the rehearsal and laid out my accusations as forceful as I could. And as soon as Chrysalis started crying, they all turned on me. Shining stripped me of my Best Mare position, my friends walked out without looking back, and Celestia… ‘I have a lot to think about’, huh? Well, it’s a good thing Chrysalis sent me down to the caves where the real Cadance was and we escaped in time, otherwise the changelings would be ruling Equestria. I wonder what we’d all have to think about then!”

Sonic paused for a moment before saying, “Okay well, it’s good that it turned out that Cadance actually hadn’t changed, so it’s a good thing she was found, but you must look back now and realize that whatever you meant by ‘forceful’ probably wasn’t the smartest thing  you could’ve done at the time, right?”

Twilight replied, “It doesn’t matter! Do you see how little they think of me, all of them?! They turn their backs on me whenever I’m standing in the way of their desires and then come crawling back when it’s most convenient for them! Shining basically disowned me when Chrysalis’ mind control spell hadn’t even taken full effect yet, and the fact that they were close to ending the wedding when Cadance and I burst in means no one cared enough about the fact that I had gone missing since the rehearsal! Not even a glance back… do you know how that feels?!”

Sonic took a moment to gather his thoughts and said, “Look Twilight, I really don’t want to contribute anything to this angst fest, and I’m not gonna lie… that really does burn and I’m only hearing about it, but it’s over with now. I’m not saying you should let it go, but there are more pressing matters to worry about right now. Eggman and Discord are probably doing who knows what to Tails, your friends, your brother, and the princesses right now. We have to help them!”

Twilight huffed and said, “What for? So we can once again save Equestria, the land that no longer recognizes how harsh things can be because Celestia expects the Elements of Harmony to keep it the way it is? Maybe if they change things, it’ll stop being full of secrets and lies.”

Sonic asked, “What about my world?! They’re gonna change that too!”

Twilight glanced at him and, after a moment, said, “You, Luna, and Cadance are the only ones I might still care about enough to help… but you’re Sonic the Hedgehog.  You don’t answer to anyone, and apparently nothing can be thrown at you that you can’t stop. What do you need me, or anyone else, for?”

Sonic replied, “Because I CAN’T do everything alone! I never would’ve gotten this far if it was just me, and neither would you! You know it’s true! So snap out of whatever Discord did and remember all the times you and your friends went through!”

Twilight turned away and sat down, looking down at the ground sadly as she spoke, “What’s the point? I might’ve been able to recall what friendship was like and help my friends remember with my memory spell as well the last time Discord was freed, but they also hadn’t really abandoned me before. There’s nothing that friendship or harmony can do to fix that.” She reached up and grabbed her tiara with her hooves, taking it off and bringing it down to look at it. “This used to mean something, but now it’s just a lie, just like everything else I believed in…” Her horn lit up and grabbed the crown, throwing it to her right.

Sonic looked at where the crown slid to a stop for a moment before looking back at the unicorn and asking, “So that’s it, Twilight? You’re just gonna run away from everything?”

She emotionlessly responded, “There’s nowhere to go now. For better or worse, things are going to change soon, and right now, I’d rather wait and let it happen. It might be the only way I’ll ever be able to make sense of anything again. Don’t try to change my mind, Sonic; as impossible to understand as it is, I’d like to keep a little bit of happiness in my last moments.”

Sonic turned and made his way over to the crown, bending down and picking it up in his right. He looked at the gem in it as he thought, “Is this really the way she wants it to end, even with how strong she is? I want to bring back the Twilight I know, but she’s shut down on me. It doesn’t seem like I can say anything that can get her to wake up and listen, just like…” He stopped short and looked up as he remembered the only other time he’d seen something like this, and it was very recent too. “Silver,” he finished.

“You already know how to undo what he’s set in motion, Sonic; you’ve done it before. Remember your greatest strength… Remember…”

Chip’s words played in his head as he remembered what Silver had been like when they first ran into him, how angry he had seemed, how he pointedly believed in one thing despite being told otherwise, how… gray he looked. He thought maybe it had been a trick of the light at the time, but now… “Discord was the one who messed with his head! All he had to do was get Silver to drop his guard for a moment to scramble him. And what broke the spell was…” He remembered them both slamming their Chaos Emeralds together to do something he hadn’t known Silver was able to do. Or perhaps he did somehow and that’s why he did it. Either way…

“A wise mind and a keen eye are enough to counter his simplest mind trick, but to untwist what he’s trying to do now will mean asserting control over what he embodies.”

Once again he recalled Chip’s words as he thought, “Chaos Control. Somehow, it…” He looked back over his shoulder at Twilight, “But will it work on her? She doesn’t know how to do Chaos Control, and even if she did, she wouldn’t try to use it anyway since she’s not trying to fight me. I’d have to do it all myself.” He closed his eyes, “She thinks I can do things by myself… Well, I hope she’s right. Maybe I can still set things right, get her back to normal. Harmony’s no good here, so the only option is friendship’s other half. It got us here and it can get us back. We’re running out of time and I definitely can’t let second guesses stop me now, so… let’s do this.”

As she continued to stew in silence, Twilight suddenly heard the familiar sound of Sonic picking up speed. Before she could turn her head, Sonic crashed into her from behind and pushed her into the marshmallow wall in front of her, pressing up against her to hold her in place. “Sonic, what are you doing?!” she yelled as she began struggling to get away from him, especially when she noticed her crown close to her face. She tried to use her magic, but he had evidently picked up on what Eggman had done earlier since he kept shaking her to throw off her concentration.

As he kept her restrained, Sonic grunted, “I’m sorry about doing it this way Twilight, and I hope I didn’t hurt you by accident. But if you want things to make sense again, I think you’ll be glad about what I’m going to do. Let my rainbow remind you.” As he was talking, he reached his right hand into his quills and pulled out the green Chaos Emerald. Knowing she would manage to get free eventually, he had to act fast. Nodding, he brought the tip of the emerald in his hand forward as he yelled, “Chaos… Control!”

As a light from both the green emerald and the purple emerald in her mane began to shine from behind her, Twilight’s struggling suddenly ceased and her eyes shot open. In her mind, the heightened memories Discord had left her with, which had been flashing by like a sped up slideshow, began to slow down. As the memories stopped going by so fast that she actually had time to really look at them, she began to see the inaccuracies present in them. “No, that’s not how that… Applejack didn’t say that…! They were standing… We were…” Her thoughts were segmented as she sorted through and compared what she was seeing to what she remembered, but it didn’t matter. The fast and repeated memories were no longer constantly flashing their messages at her to the point where she would either accept or go mad.

And as her rationality won out over Discord’s trickery, the change began to happen. Sonic looked down as he heard a shimmering noise and saw that the shine from earlier was once again climbing up Twilight’s tail, but now it was revealing her true colors underneath all the gray. Her legs, her midsection, her mane… the color was coming back to all of her. And as it reached her horn, the pointy appendage began to shimmer with magic building up within. She closed her eyes and released it when she felt she couldn’t contain it any longer, sending it outwards. There was a brief flash of light from both Chaos Emeralds before the light they were emitting dimmed and died down completely.

Seeing that she had stopped moving almost completely, Sonic stepped back from Twilight, her hind legs sliding down first followed by her forelegs. She slowly turned to look at the blue hedgehog in wonder. “Sonic… how… what did you…?”

He shrugged, “Somebody I thought I’d never see again told me to think before I tried anything and this was the only thing I could come up with. I mean, hey, it worked for Silver; why wouldn’t it work for you?”

Twilight thought about his words, remembering how crazed Silver had been the first time they’d met. Somehow the Chaos Emeralds had had the same effect as her memory spell, but it didn’t make sense to her. “I don’t understand. How can chaos override… chaos?” she asked.

Sonic shuffled his feet and looked around a little before saying, “I guess it’s not something that’s easy to explain, but… that’s chaos for you. It can be a splendid thing, just not saying it the way Dizzy says it.”

Twilight shook her head, “I… maybe it’s because I just came out of him messing with my head, but I still don’t follow.”

Sonic looked at her, “I think we’re all kind of led to believe that order, or rather harmony, and chaos are complete opposites.”

Twilight asked, “Well, aren’t they?”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah, but… maybe this is just me trying to put something together real quick, but I feel like they can’t always be because of friendship.” At Twilight’s quizzical look, he explained, “I’m kind of thinking that harmony is like a thing that sustains, that it keeps things the way they are. Then chaos comes along and… unexpected stuff happens and it shakes things up, but it doesn’t mean everything harmony kept in check is gone. They don’t always, but they can come together and make something new, spark something. Kind of like…”

Twilight finished for him, “Friendship.”

Sonic nodded, “Yeah… You know, I could just say that friendship is amazing because it’s beautiful, but I feel like that’s only half-right. I think it’s also amazing because it’s crazy.” Noticing the way Twilight tilted her head, he explained, “Yeah, there are some ugly parts to it, like what you’ve been trying to push out of your mind, especially since it’s possible they could’ve been prevented, but there are also so many great parts as well. All those friendship reports you and your friends have done, all the adventures you’ve had, all the misunderstandings… heck, just the fact that two beings from different universes could be having a conversation like this in a place like this. It seems crazy, Twilight, but I’m okay with that because this is gonna be something worth remembering. Even if our friendships don’t last forever, I’ll look back on this and smile at the thought because it was great to be part of it.”

Twilight mulled over his words for a bit before slowly asking, “So… you think friendship is essentially a mix of chaos and harmony?”

Sonic nodded, “It hurts, it heals… it’s magic.”

Twilight was silent again, looking down at the ground again. She began to breathe faster a moment later and she began to look around as she uttered, “I… I have to… I shouldn’t have let the past control me. I don’t know how my friends feel right now, but… I have to fix this… I have to tell them…”

Sonic smiled, “Now there’s the Twilight I know.”

The lavender unicorn looked at Sonic suddenly and said, “My crown… I shouldn’t have thrown it away… I need it back!” She moved forward and reached for it, but Sonic pulled his left hand back to keep it away from her.

When she looked at him, he asked, “I know you need it to make it all complete, but don’t you have something to do first?”

Twilight took a breath and nodded, “Right. My friends…”

Sonic brought the crown back down next to his left, “You don’t need me to tell you what you have to do; you already know. Prove you deserve this crown thingy.” Twilight nodded, resolve filling her eyes.

Suddenly they both noticed that the walls around them were starting to sag, the ceiling sinking in towards them. “Is this Discord’s doing? Is he trying to force us out?!” Twilight asked.

Sonic remembered how the draconequus had left them and got an idea. He turned to Twilight, “Can you use your magic to make us look gray?”

Twilight replied, “I could, but… I don’t think it’s going to fool him! Not for long, anyway.”

Sonic said, “I don’t think he’ll be completely fooled either, but it might buy us a little time. Just do it, quick!” Twilight nodded and her closed her eyes as her horn lit up. One bright flash later, Twilight’s coat was as gray as it was before and Sonic was completely gray save for his gloves. As he looked at his right arm, Sonic grimaced, “Ugh. How can that guy enjoy looking at this?”

Twilight urged, “We have to go, Sonic.”

Sonic looked up at the ceiling and noticed it was lower now. He nodded, “Right.” He moved to her right side and wrapped his right arm around her chest before saying, “Hey, I’m not gonna put any pressure on you, but can you try to look defeated? It might help sell it.” Twilight nodded and they both turned to look up at the sagging ceiling, Sonic preparing to Boost as he thought, “Here we go…”

________________________________________

“The Princesses are comin’! The Princesses are comin’!” Knuckles, Amy, Blaze, Silver, Marine, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders stopped looking at Canterlot in the distance and turned to see Granny Smith running through the streets of Ponyville and yelling. The streets were mostly empty due to the town-wide quarantine so they weren’t sure why she was acting this way.

Apple Bloom was the first to move, everyone else following after her as she moved to intercept the elderly mare. She managed to get in front of Granny’s path and leapt onto her, holding onto her face as she said, “Granny! Granny, snap out of it!” The green pony was surprised by the sudden action and came skidding to a halt in the middle of the street a moment later, Apple Bloom letting go of her sagging skin a moment later.

The rest of the Crusaders and the others came over a moment later, Silver asking, “Granny Smith, what’s wrong? Why are you yelling?”

Looking behind the older mare, they saw Big Macintosh, Braeburn, and Little Strongheart coming up, the two colts looking a bit winded. “Big Mac, Cousin Braeburn! What happened ta Granny Smith?” Babs asked.

Braeburn panted, “She took off runnin’ suddenly. Managed ta get past us.”

Big Macintosh took a deep breath and said, “Eeyup.”

Before anyone else could say anything, they heard a familiar slow voice ask, “What’s with all the noise?” They all turned and saw Big, Cream and Cheese, and Derpy approaching them.

“Oh, Big. We were wondering that ourselves. Granny Smith seems a bit riled up about something,” Amy said.

They heard Mayor Mare say a moment later, “Yes, we all heard her.” They turned and saw the tan mare walking towards them, the Chaotix, Trixie, and Zecora with her as well.

They then heard a metallic thudding sound and turned to see Team Dark approaching. “I HEARD AN INCREDIBLY GRATING SOUND, AND NOW IT HAS STOPPED… ARE MY AUDIO RECEPTORS FAULTY?” Omega questioned.

They weren’t the only ones, as Spitfire and Soarin flew down a moment later and landed in front of the group, having seen the gathering while they were patrolling what passed for a sky. “What’s going on here?” Soarin asked.

“How many more…?” Blaze muttered, starting to feel a little claustrophobic.

Marine piped up, “Oy! This here Granny took off runnin’ and yellin’! Little Bloomer here finally got her to stop! Strewth, I promise. Just ask ‘Big Red’, ‘Mellow Yellow’, and ‘Bucking Bull’.”

Braeburn muttered, “Mah coat’s not yellow…”

Spitfire stepped forward, saying, “As long as nobody’s hurt here, it’s fine. That’s the big issue.” She stepped up in front of Granny Smith and said, “Now, uh, Ms. Smith, I’m gonna have to ask you to come with me. The town is still under quarantine and you really shouldn’t be out on the streets now.”

There was a thump a moment later and they all looked to see that it was Gilda, the griffin having landed close by. “Hey, I got a better idea. Why don’t you just zip your wrinkled face, you old coot? Some of us are trying to sleep; why don’t you try it?” she snarked.

The Babylon Rogues suddenly flew in on their Extreme Gear a moment later and hopped off near the gathering. “Yeah, will you keep it down? Being stuck in this town was fine when there were repairs to be done; now you’re really making it unbearable!” Wave said.

Granny Smith simply glared at both insulting parties while saying, “You young’uns need ta learn ta respect yer elders. And ya might want ta think about respectin’ royalty as well, since… the Princesses are comin’!”

Knuckles sighed, “Yes, we heard you the first time, Granny Smith. What does…?” He stopped short when he and everyone else noticed a light shining down. They all turned and looked up to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna descending, their wings closing against their sides as they got close to the ground.

“Princess Celestia and Princess Luna!” Mayor Mare exclaimed, all the equines quickly dropping into a bow.

Princess Celestia spoke curtly, “There is no time for this, my little ponies. I’m glad to see you’re all here together.” As she looked over them, she noticed Granny Smith shoot her a wink as she raised herself up.

Espio asked, “Princess Celestia, why are you and Princess Luna here? The last time anyone in Ponyville saw you, you were both heading back to Canterlot.”

Charmy piped up, “Yeah, and Sonic, Tails, and those ponies and the dragon were following behind you in the choo-choo train!”

Celestia nodded, “Indeed. We’ve returned because we need help.”

Mayor Mare asked, “With what, Your Highness?’

Princess Luna stepped forward, “We now know that the creature responsible for this mess, the Time Eater… is being controlled by Dr. Eggman and Discord.”

Rouge rolled her eyes, “Oh my. Isn’t that unexpected. …In case anyone can’t tell, not really.”

Shadow looked at her and nodded, “Hm. It has been a while since he worked with someone or used another creature, but it’s still hardly anything new for the Doctor.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed slightly, “Perhaps this is nothing new for any of you, but the fact remains that our worlds are still in danger, perhaps more so than they were before. And him being allied with Discord is not a good thing.”

Mayor Mare shuddered, “I would have to agree with you, Princess Luna, considering how he nearly ruined Ponyville last time.” Big Macintosh made an exaggerated spit at that, remembering all the buried objects he’d had to cough up when the draconequus’ spell had been broken.

Little Strongheart asked, “What is Discord, uh, Your Highnesses?” Braeburn also looked confused.

Luna answered, “He is a draconequus, Little Strongheart.” Both she and Braeburn only looked further confused.

Celestia spoke, “To perhaps put it more simply, he’s the storybook creature whose shadow you and Braeburn saw.” Silver, Little Strongheart, and Braeburn’s eyes all widened and they shared a gaze as they all remembered what she was referring to.

Spitfire asked, “So, uh, why exactly did you come back here for help, Your Highnesses?”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed slightly, “To prove Dr. Eggman right… and wrong.” She received some confused looks, but she simply turned her head to glance back up at Canterlot as she explained, “Right now, Sonic and the others are trying to stop the Time Eater, but thanks to Discord’s magic, they’ve been split up and the Elements of Harmony rendered useless. They are in danger.” She looked back at everyone, “The tracks all the way to Canterlot are clear and we have chariots on the way here to help move anyone who needs them. If they do not receive help soon, we will lose them and Discord and Dr. Eggman’s victory will be all but assured.”

Her blunt statement shocked everyone, but Knuckles soon thumped his fists together as he said, “Not happening on my watch! It’s one thing if Eggman’s trying to ruin things, but trying to do it with some other clown? I’m definitely gonna help any way I can! Who’s with me?”

Amy spoke up, “I am! Nobody’s hurting my friends or my Sonic!”

Cream added, “Cheaters never prosper!”

Big stated, “I want to help my buddies!”

Jet asked, “Eggman taking down Sonic? That’s not happening until I’VE put him in his place!”

Storm said, “I’m with you, Boss!”

Vector spoke, “Payment or no, the Chaotix Detective Agency ain’t gonna stand around and let the world end!”

Rouge smirked at Shadow, “You really gonna let Eggman take Sonic down before you’ve had another crack at him?” The black hedgehog said nothing in response.

Omega stirred, “I WILL INTERRUPT EGGMAN’S PLANS MYSELF IF I HAVE TO!”

Trixie spoke up, “Trixie will swallow her pride if it means rescuing Twilight Sparkle!”

Soon everyone else was rallying together as well, ready to go to Canterlot and back everyone else up. Gilda eventually couldn’t take the noise anymore and yelled, “Will you all give it a rest?! Why do any of you care?! What are you getting out of this?!”

Luna said, “We are aiding our allies and allowing our world to continue to be the way we all remember, griffin.”

Gilda crossed her arms, “Yeah well ‘pony’, as great as that sounds, some of us don’t get along so great in the world we know. Maybe those detectives can shrug it off, but some of us need help getting by.”

Luna asked, “You would have us be in your debt?”

Gilda replied, “Gold talks to us griffons. You get some of that and I’ll be willing to give it a shot.”

Celestia knew her patient wasn’t infinite and neither was the time they had remaining. They needed to get Gilda to help them, but she also wasn’t about to roll over and give the griffon whatever she wanted. “It is in your best interest, Gilda, to come and provide your aid, regardless of a reward,” she said.

Gild huffed, “Yeah? Why?”

Celestia had a feeling she knew just what to say to convince her. “Because if you don’t, you will be forced to remain here within the quarantine zone, waiting for everything to end surrounded by ponies,” she stated simply, deciding to cut straight to the point like Sonic had earlier.

That caused Gilda to raise an eyebrow as she glanced in the direction of the princess. After a moment, she curled the claws on her right talon into a fist as she pointedly said, “Let’s roll.” By this time, the chariots had arrived and had started setting down near the train station.

As Knuckles, Blaze, Silver, Team Rose, Team Dark, and the Chaotix started following the train tracks to Canterlot and everyone that was unable to fly started filling up the chariots, Luna turned to Celestia and smirked, “I must admit, that was rather effective, sister.”

Celestia smiled back, “Despite what Dr. Eggman thinks, Luna, I have learned a few things while I waited for you to return. And while I haven’t learned as much, I’ve continued learning since then.”

Luna smiled at her for a moment, pleased to see that she seemed to be back to her old self. She then asked, “Shall we be off?”

Celestia nodded, “Yes. I believe we’ve accomplished what we set out to do. We have proven that we are able rally others and we do know more about Twilight and her friends than when we were on the spot earlier. Now we must return to Canterlot once more.” She then spread her wings and Luna did the same. “With as clear a flight as we had coming back here, I believe part of the reason for the train taking so long to arrive was because they were closing the portals we encountered, and that works in everyone’s favor. Let us hurry so that we may join everyone else in supporting Twilight and her friends.”
> EXTRA 2: Dear My Friend For Life
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a beautiful clear night, the Moon and the stars on full display for anyone out at the time. The night’s beauty was perhaps tarnished by the fact that it was one of the nights where it was possible to see the broken side of the Moon, but Sonic didn’t dwell on it as he sat on the grass looking up at the night sky, instead focusing on what Eggman hadn’t ruined yet. “Seaside Hill really does have some great views at night. I never got a chance to appreciate that before. I’m glad we get to come back here for this year’s Gran Prix,” he thought.

Indeed, the time was almost upon them for the second All-Stars Racing Gran Prix, less than a day to be exact. According to Tails, all evidence pointed to tomorrow being the day when everything would be in alignment and the weaker time-space barriers of their world would allow travel to other worlds and vice versa. Last year had been the first time so many different worlds discovered this and, as a way of coming together and proving nobody was bad (except for Eggman, of course), they’d decided to have races that would also allow everyone to get a taste of what the other worlds were like. It was unknown how often this phenomenon was going to happen, but once it started looking like it was going to happen again, it was decided that another racing tournament should be held, especially since last year’s races had evidently managed to catch the attention of worlds previously unheard of as well.

He was pulled out his thoughts when he heard a familiar voice call, “Hey, Sonic!” The blue hedgehog turned to look back over his shoulder to see Tails running towards him with his Miles Electronic tucked under his right arm, the fox stopping when he reached him. “I was looking for you,” he said before pulling the handheld out from under his arm with his left hand and holding it out to Sonic. “Here, I just finished getting this all set up for you like I promised,” he explained.

Sonic smiled as he took the yellow portable machine from his fox friend, saying, “Thanks, Tails.” He held it in both hands, looking down at the screen as he switched it on, the black screen lighting up and changing to a black and green background as words and options appeared on it. “I’ll probably have the hang of this thing by the time I go to sleep,” he shrugged.

Tails giggled and said, “I’m sure you will. Just don’t get too rough with it.”

Sonic looked back up at him with a mock offended look, “Me? Get rough? Dude, do you know who you’re talking to?”

Tails put his hands behind his back and nodded with a knowing look on his face, “Yes. Yes, I do.” Sonic gave him a smirk in reply and went back to looking at the night sky a moment later. Tails moved over next to him, though he remained standing as he too looked up at the night sky. “You know, this really is the better option for you, so I’m glad you prefer it. It’s not exactly compatible with phones,” he said after a few moments.

“Eh. It’s not like anything’s ever come up where you’ve desperately needed to get in touch with me anyway,” Sonic shrugged.

Tails looked over at him seriously, “That day could still come, Sonic. It’s better to be prepared in advance, and don’t forget…”

Sonic cut him off, “Yeah, yeah, I know. And don’t worry; I’m pretty sure I couldn’t forget the old days if I tried.” A thoughtful expression crossed his face, “All the memories…”

Tails went back to looking at the sky, saying after a moment, “I wonder how Twilight and her friends are doing.”

Sonic replied, “Me too. Considering what they told us about, they’d probably really interested in this.”

Tails said, “With the need to make some changes and add the appropriate upgrades to our, Knuckles, and Amy’s vehicles, I really haven’t spent a lot of time working on my machine. It’s pretty much still where it was the last time you checked in with me about it.”

Sonic looked up at him, “It’s all right, Tails. I’m sure Spike and the girls have plenty of things on their plate that they need to worry about too. They probably still have their fair share of crazy adventures, keeping Equestria safe and everything else they’ll travel to the ends of the world to do or find.” He faced forward again, “Of course, if Twilight does manage to beat you to figuring it out, you will be the one who has to explain it, buddy.”

Tails looked over at him, “The Warp Rings are not an easy thing to figure out; even I’m not entirely sure I’ve got a handle on how they work. And since it’s far away from home, she’s probably going to have to find an alternate way to restore power to it.” He faced forward again, “She’ll need to figure that out before she can start working out dimensional travel.”

Sonic replied, “Well, I’m sure both you and she will keep working at it. Maybe you’ll both figure it out at the same time, maybe you’ll beat her to the punch.”

Tails reminded him a moment later, “Or there’s the third option you mentioned.”

Sonic replied, “Yeah, I mainly said that because I thought it would be a motivator, but it doesn’t matter.” He looked up at the Moon, “I’m sure we’ll see them again one of these days, and like I’ve said before…”

Tails finished for him, “Right, we’ll have plenty of stories to share with each other.” They were both silent afterwards, only the sounds of the night’s tranquility being heard. Eventually, Tails stretched his arms and let out a yawn before saying, “I think I’m going to head back to the camp and get some sleep.”

Sonic nodded and said, “Okay. I’m gonna be here for a little longer, but I’ll head back soon.”

As he started back the way he came, Tails called back, “Yeah, don’t be up too late, Sonic. Tomorrow’s going to be a big day.” Sonic glanced back over his shoulder as the fox walked away, watching him until his form became indistinguishable from the rest of the night.

Sonic turned back to the night sky after a couple of moments, wondering not only how the Equestrians were doing, but also the other worlds they’d had contact with that day due to Eggman and Discord’s meddling with time and space. It would seem likely that stopping the Time Eater would’ve undone any further complications they might’ve caused, but now that he thought about it, it wasn’t entirely possible that everything went back to the way it was for all of them, maybe not even for his and Tails’ past selves. Could there still be something they had missed?

Sonic shook his head to get the thought out, knowing he had no way of answering it and that it wouldn’t help him fall asleep. Instead he turned his attention to his Miles Electronic and began tapping the screen, going through everything. After a minute, he found what he was looking for and pulled up the on-screen keyboard in order to write a letter. The action was not an impulsive thought; he was probably used to writing letters almost as often as Twilight used to. He took a moment to gather his thoughts and then began to softly say them aloud as he typed. “Dear…”

________________________________________

Twilight let out a sigh as she looked up out one of the windows in her guest bedroom at the night sky, trying not to do so too loudly since Spike had already fallen asleep. Despite her exhaustion from overdoing it at the dance earlier, she found that she was unable to fall asleep for a reason other than the fact that she was not used to her new wings yet. The sight of Luna’s night was relaxing to her and she hoped it would help her find her sleepiness since, despite what happened a few nights ago, she and her friends were still in the Crystal Empire for a Princess Summit and she, being Equestria’s newest princess, would need to be brought up to speed on what Celestia, Luna, and Cadance had discussed in her absence.

Now that she had some time to herself, she was able to take stock of what exactly had happened. Exactly three nights ago, a unicorn by the name of Sunset Shimmer had come through a magic mirror that had been moved to the Crystal Empire and tried to steal Twilight’s new crown, which now held the Element of Magic gem. The crown had been thrown through the mirror in the resulting scuffle and Twilight had been ordered to go after it and bring it back to Equestria. Spike had followed her and it was a good thing he did; the new yet familiar world on the other side of the mirror had been a hard place to adapt to, even if it was just for a few days. There had been a number of times where it hadn’t looked like she would be able to prevail, but with the help of Spike and the mirror world versions of her friends, she had. The crown currently on top of her head was proof of that.

She took a moment to double-check that it was still there with a hoof before returning to her thoughts, thinking about Sunset Shimmer. Apparently, she had been Princess Celestia’s last personal student, but unlike Twilight, she had not been satisfied learning magic at an even pace and was not at all humble. Based on what Princess Celestia had told her, the magic mirror had been the thing that had led to her special yet strained relationship with the unicorn to come to a head, with Sunset taking matters into her own hooves and learning the secret of the mirror behind Celestia’s back. When the Sun Princess found out, she stripped Sunset of her private tutelage and had her escorted out, only for the unicorn to escape her guards and disappear through the mirror. Even during and after the time Twilight had taken her place at the School for Gifted Unicorns, Celestia had held onto the faint hope that Sunset would come back to Equestria one day, but it had never happened. It seemed that their last meeting, full of harsh words and bitter statements, was going to remain the last time they would ever see each other.

Twilight thought about what she personally knew about Sunset Shimmer. This girl, who had gone from being a student of magic to a girl in a new world who never forgot about who she was and where she had come from, had managed to carve a new life for herself in the other world for at least three years if Twilight had to guess. In that time, she essentially rose to power in Canterlot High School, becoming a bully to her fellow students who had ways of getting exactly what she wanted… at least until she saw an opportunity to get what she thought she really wanted.

When she’d stolen Twilight’s crown, she had intended to use the Element of Magic to give herself something she couldn’t get in the other world. No doubt she had wanted magic since Twilight had found herself unable to use magic at all during her time there, but she evidently hadn’t been prepared for what happened when she finally got her hands on the crown. Somehow, it turned her into a demon and twisted her old desires of ruling Equestria as an alicorn princess into something evil. Her new form desired to conquer Equestria, even using the students and faculty at CHS to help her achieve her goal. It was thanks to Twilight and her not-exactly-new friends coming together and awakening the magic of Friendship that Sunset was freed from this state, the girl that came out of the ordeal broken and remorseful for all that she had done. Deciding not to press anything on her, Twilight had left her to learn more about friendship with her friends at CHS, knowing if anyone would be willing to help her become a better person, it would be them.

As her thoughts came to an end, Twilight found herself letting out a yawn, her earlier exhaustion now back and urging her to climb into bed. Deciding to heed the urge, she used her magic to lift her crown off her head and walked over to where she had left her pack the only other night she had used this guest room. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving this out on the nightstand again. I just need to remember that I put it back in my pack when I wake up in the morning,” she thought to herself as she reached her pack and used her magic to open it, gently lowering the crown inside.

As she was about to close it again, her eyes noticed that her crown almost completely surrounded an object at the bottom of the bag. She squinted to get a better look for a moment before looking up and pulling open the top-right drawer on the small dresser next to her bag, looking inside and seeing the books she had brought along for the trip. She looked confused for a moment before she remembered that she had stopped unpacking that night when she had gotten caught up in the crown and the fact that she was now a princess. Looking back down into the bag, she reached a hoof inside and grabbed the object, pulling it out and holding it up in front of her.

It was a fairly big golden ring that had a magenta sheen along part of its outer rim. It was none other than the Warp Ring Sonic and Tails had given her, and the magenta shine was from her experimenting with using her magic to try to charge it up. For some reason, her magic had bonded with the ring quite easily, though it was still a long way from being in a usable state. When she started packing for the Princess Summit, she’d secretly thrown the ring in her bag, putting it at the bottom so it wouldn’t be seen. She was planning on experimenting with it some more if she found time during the summit; at least that had been the plan before the whole mirror fiasco happened.

Once again, her exhaustion was forgotten about as she turned around and rested her hindquarters on top of the dresser, looking down at the ring as her thoughts turned back to the world on the other side of the mirror. When she and Spike reached the other side, they found themselves changed likely due to the magic in the mirror. While Spike had been turned into a dog, she had become a human like Dr. Eggman and the humans she and her friends had met in Chun-Nan and Empire City, yet she and the other humans in the other world had been different from those in Sonic’s world. While she fit the basic human appearance, for whatever reason, her lavender coat had remained as her human form’s skin color, although it didn’t look as saturated, and the coats of everypony she recognized were similarly their skin colors. As she thought about it, she rationalized that this difference, though minor, was what had thrown her off in the first place.

Aside from the brighter, more colorful skin tones, the humans in the mirror world, from what she and Spike had seen, had quite a bit in common with the ones in Sonic’s world. They had cellphones like the one Sonic had and other electronic equipment, they enjoyed doing things in groups, and liked taking pictures of themselves and others. Twilight blushed as she remembered her mishaps in the school library, wishing she’d paid more attention to how Tails used a computer. It might’ve been one less embarrassing thing for Sunset Shimmer to use against her. Not that that would’ve stopped her from making Twilight look bad, but still.

Twilight shifted on the dresser suddenly and lost her balance, letting out a cry as she tried to keep from falling all the way down onto the floor. She managed to get her forehooves under her before she hit the ground, but she ended up bumping into the side of the still-open drawer on the way down, causing it to fall onto the floor quite noisily and leaving her groaning slightly. She set the Warp Ring on the floor for a moment and picked up the drawer with her magic, sliding it back in as quietly as she could.

Before she could turn around, she heard Spike groan and groggily ask, “Twilight, will you keep it down?”

Twilight turned around at the sound of his voice and said, “Oh, sorry Spike.” She glanced down and grabbed the Warp Ring with her right hoof, holding it up against her chest as she asked, “Did I wake you?”

The baby dragon groaned, his head soon peeking up over the side of her bed as he said, “Well, actually, I was having a little trouble actually falling asleep, but I think I was finally starting to. Then I heard a loud crash and suddenly I was awake and, well, here we are. So why are you…” As his eyes started to adjust, he glanced down slightly and saw the ring up against her chest. The sight of it was enough for him to cut himself short. “Hey, is that Warp Ring?” he asked, feeling a little more awake. His head dropped down and he slid out of his bed onto the floor, making his way around Twilight’s bed over to her.

Twilight nodded, “Yeah. I noticed that I never took it out of my pack. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t, huh?”

Spike came to a stop in front of her and said, “Yeah. Imagine if Sunset Shimmer took that and your crown.” He thought for a moment before saying, “You know, Twilight… that world she lives in was a lot like Sonic’s world. Do you think maybe…?”

Twilight caught onto what he was implying and replied while putting the Warp Ring back in her pack and closing it, “I don’t think so, Spike. Yes, the similarities are definitely there, but I think that’s all they are.” She turned back to him, “I mean, maybe they aren’t, but the fact that there’s no magic in that world…”

Spike nodded, “Yeah, you may be right. Still, you can’t deny that that place brought back some memories.”

Twilight smiled, “That’s true. That reminds me. Remember when Pinkie had her hunch about Flash earlier?”

Spike replied, “I sure do. It was just like the other Pinkie having a hunch about you being a pony princess and the Element of Magic being in your crown.”

Twilight said, “And Pinkie also had a hunch about Sonic being a king, so…” The two shared a laugh at that. “Crazy day for a birthday,” Twilight sighed afterwards.

“Definitely,” Spike agreed, feeling that ‘crazy’ was a good enough description for everything that happened that day. After a moment, he asked, “Do you think we’ll get to see them again?”

Twilight glanced back at her pack as she said, “Well, I don’t think it’s going to be anytime soon, I’m afraid. Between getting used to being an alicorn now and trying to figure out how the Warp Ring works, I’ve still got a lot of work to do before I can say yes. It’s probably going to be a while.”

Spike let out a yawn, turning and heading back to his bed as he sighed, “Well, don’t work on it tonight. You do have to be up early tomorrow.” He stopped in front of Twilight’s bed and looked back at her, asking, “Hey, uh… what do you think they might be doing?”

Twilight replied, “Oh, I’m sure they’re doing their usual things. Solving mysteries, guarding precious gemstones, stealing precious gemstones, building machines, seeing the world… and of course protecting the world from Dr. Eggman.” Spike nodded in agreement and resumed walking again. Before he could disappear around the side of her bed, Twilight asked, “Uh, Spike? Can you remind me in the morning that I put my crown back in my pack?”

Spike yawned, “Sure, if I’m up. Right now, I think I’m ready to try going to sleep again. Good night, Twilight.” Twilight heard the mattress in his bed squeak a bit, indicating he had flopped down into it.

She smiled softly, “Good night, Spike.” She quickly used her magic to put her pack next to the side of the dresser before walking over to her bed, slipping under the blanket as she climbed into it. She peered over the side to see that Spike had already fallen asleep, the baby dragon snoring softly, and decided it was time for her to do the same.

As she rested her head on her pillow, her mind briefly returned to how her magic bonded so easily with the Warp Ring, but she pushed it aside, her tired mind quickly providing her with what Sonic had suggested to her before about Chaos and Harmony to get her to settle down. “I wasn’t sure before, but now I do think he was right then. They really are connected in a way,” she thought. Her last thoughts turned out the lights as she drifted off into sleep’s welcome embrace, “That’s my distant but still close friend… A friend for life…”
> EXTRA 3: Go Fourth
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the aftermath of eradicating the Plunderseeds and saving the Tree of Harmony…

It was getting late. Twilight was aware of this and she knew that, after the day she had, she should be getting to bed. Despite having a small role to play in the Summer Sun Celebration, it had been a tiring day, talking with the nobles of Canterlot and the need of having to keep up appearances being even more important now that she was a princess. By the end of it, she couldn’t wait to get home to Ponyville and the comfort of home. Spike had already succumbed to the latter, heading for bed almost as soon as they stepped inside the Golden Oak Library and relocked the front door. She knew she should do the same, but instead she was sitting next to the table in the library’s foyer, finally alone with her thoughts in the comfort of her home.

Naturally, her thoughts turned to the revelations that she and her friends had made in the last… however many hours had actually passed since Discord’s Plunderseeds started sprouting and creating havoc. Despite her annoyance with the draconequus for withholding this information from her and her friends, especially from Fluttershy, and trying to pass off his enjoying the chaos that had been caused as being a part of a lesson for her to learn, that wasn’t really at the front of her mind at the moment. Instead she was thinking about the Tree of Harmony and the mysterious box it had revealed.

As she’d first learned thanks to Zecora’s potion, the Tree of Harmony was where Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had originally found the Elements of Harmony, which they used to put an end to Discord’s never-ending chaos a thousand years ago. Despite removing the Elements from it, it apparently had had enough magic in it to keep Discord’s Plunderseeds at bay until now. It was hard to say if the vines from the seeds had started choking the life out of it once they began to sprout or if running out of magic was what caused it to start dying, but whatever the real cause, they’d had to return the Elements of Harmony to it to save it, and in return, it revealed a strange crystal box from a flower that sprouted at its roots.

The box itself was a real mystery. Neither Celestia nor Luna knew anything about it, and there were six keyholes on the top of it keeping it sealed shut. “There must be something important inside of it. It came from the Tree of Harmony after all,” Twilight reminded herself. As she continued to think, her head turned to the left and her gaze fell on one row of books on the bookshelf. Remembering what was there, she stood up and walked over to it, opening the secret compartment where Spike had found the book that helped them solve the problem of too many Pinkie Pies.

Inside, just where she left it, was the tubular container that the letter from Sonic and Tails had come in. She pulled it out with her magic and took it in her hooves, using her magic to open it and looking down at the Warp Ring inside. She’d decided not to take it with her when she was called to Canterlot for the Summer Sun Celebration, figuring that she wouldn’t have a lot of time to mess around with it, and instead put it in the container inside the secret compartment to keep it safe while she and Spike were gone.

She sighed as she looked down at it. Despite not having a kingdom to rule or any major responsibilities, being a princess was cutting into her time to pursue her own projects. She’d managed to infuse more magic into the ring and thought she was close to being able to reactivate it, but she still hadn’t been able to spend as much time with it as she wanted to. And now with the Elements of Harmony being gone and the box from the Tree of Harmony…

Twilight said softly to herself, “Rainbow Dash is right. We don’t have something to fall back on if Equestria is put in peril again. The chest from the Tree of Harmony might contain something to replace the Elements, or maybe it contains something else. Either way, it should take precedence.” She looked down at the ring again, “I’m going to have to pull out all the books I can find in the library to see if there’s anything that might mention something like this. That could take me a while. I hope they’ll understand.”

With that, she used her magic to close the tube and levitate it back into the compartment. She then closed it and moved the books on the shelf back into place to hide it. She then made her way up the stairs to the second floor, heading for bed. She had a lot of research to do when Celestia’s Sun came up in the morning.

________________________________________

After getting the Breezies home…

“Not a chance,” Twilight replied to Rainbow.

“You sure? What about a dragon? No? It doesn’t have to shoot fire!” Rainbow wondered as everpony started making their way back to Ponyville, the cyan pegasus continuing to probe her alicorn friend about her transformation spell as they all went. Everypony except for Fluttershy.

The shy pegasus remained where she was as she thought about what her experience with the Breezies had taught her, that kindness could take many forms and that there was such a thing as being too kind. But as she thought about this lesson, it brought to mind something else.

She remembered the day her and her friends had had contact with other worlds, particularly the worlds inside of storybooks. She remembered those worlds particularly because of two individuals: Erazor Djinn, a genie from one of those stories that had become twisted and evil, and Terios, a dark doppelganger of her friend Sonic that seemed to believe he was superior to the blue hedgehog. Between the two of them, they had almost twisted the kindness out of her that day.

While she hadn’t had much contact with Erazor Djinn, she had been shocked and horrified when Sonic had said that he’d essentially cremated the genie’s lamp with him inside of it, though it had been somewhat mitigated when she heard what he had done to Sonic’s friend Shahra beforehand. When the genie (or one in his likeness) had been resurrected by that horrible man Haman, she and Shahra had been planning to try to talk him out of his evil haze, only for Haman to interfere and leave sending him back as the group’s only option.

Terios had been a real eyeopener, though. He was the one who had nearly twisted her mind almost as bad as Discord had before he became her friend and good. Despite all the terrible things he had done to her and her friends, Fluttershy had been willing to look past all of it and give him a second chance when he pleaded for mercy, and at the time it had seemed like Sonic was going to too. She had attempted to comfort the other hedgehog and encourage him to change for the better, only to be suddenly torn away and see Sonic strike him down. She only later learned that Terios had attempted to kill her, and when that failed, a small part of him that invaded her mind tried to get her to surrender to him and give him a new body, but she had resisted and was able to purge him from her mind with the aid of the Elements of Harmony.

At the time, she thought that, despite what he was trying to do, her rejecting Terios had been a very cruel thing to do, but as she thought about what she had learned thanks to the Breezies, she realized it was in its own way an act of kindness. The same could be said for Sonic’s actions as well. Regardless of how exactly it happened, both Erazor Djinn and Terios had become utterly consumed by a lust for power. Nimue had been right back then; while Erazor Djinn might still have a chance based on what King Solomon had said, it was extremely unlikely that Terios could be changed for the better. But more than anything, she realized what had happened to them was a form of kindness as well. Not just for their respective worlds, but to them as well. If they couldn’t let go of their desires, then ending them might have been the only way to set them free from their self-destructive goals.

Fluttershy looked up at the flower Seabreeze had given her as she thought, “I think I understand now. To do the right thing, you sometimes have to do things that others might say is horrible, but just because you do the act doesn’t mean you’re bad. Sometimes an awful act really is the best thing you can do in a situation and others have to come to understand that.” As if in agreement with her thoughts, the flower shined like a rainbow for a moment.

________________________________________

At the end of the Equestria Games…

Spike smiled as he stood on the field watching the fireworks show that signaled the end of the Games, pleased to have finally done something right for the event that was official. It had been embarrassing for him to try and fail earlier in the day, but at least before this, he had managed to use his fire breath when it really counted. He hadn’t really wanted to let anypony down earlier, but he had to prove to himself that he could be as great as the crystal ponies thought he was.

“Oh man… I wonder if… uh… what was his name again? The blue guy! Geez, has it really been that long since the last time I thought about him? Uh… Sonic, that’s it! I wonder if he’s ever gotten caught up in the past before. For all that happened on that adventure we had, there’s probably still some things we don’t know about him. Well, guess I now know why he wasn’t that thrilled about having a statue of himself before; he didn’t think he’d earned it,” the baby dragon thought to himself.

He turned his attention back up to the fireworks. “Well, I guess I proved that I have the potential to be great too today. Maybe not the same way as him, but it could happen. After everything that happened today, I guess I should be humble about what I do. Although… it wouldn’t be too bad if I flaunted it every now and then, would it?”

________________________________________

The day after Tirek was returned to Tartarus…

Rainbow watched the scene quietly with the rest of her friends for a moment before she asked, “So… how long has she been out here doing this?” It was early in the afternoon and at the moment, Twilight was in the middle of what was left of the Golden Oak Library, frantically rummaging through the remains while Spike and the rest of her friends looked on from nearby.

“Since breakfast,” Spike flatly replied. He’d been watching her seemingly be on the verge of a nervous breakdown for hours and he was getting tired of it, but she hadn’t stopped looking for whatever it was she was searching for when he’d tried talking to her earlier, even lifting him up and setting him back down in the middle of his attempt.

Fluttershy looked at the baby dragon, “What is she looking for?”

Spike replied, “Beats me. She got real fascinated with the doughnuts when she came to the breakfast table before she suddenly turned into… this. At least she got outside without tearing up her new castle.”

Rarity sighed, “She must be trying to find everything that wasn’t destroyed by Tirek. That brute, completely destroying the library and her home the way he did…”

Applejack said, “Ah can understand bein’ sentimental, but this ain’t healthy fer her. We need ta get her ta stop this.”

Spike shrugged, “You can try. I didn’t have any luck snapping her out of it.”

Pinkie was the first to bounce forward, stopping at where the library’s front door used to be as she spoke, “Hiya, Twilight! Whatcha doing? Are you playing Hide-and-Seek with somepony? Can I play too?” Despite speaking in her usual bright and chipper tone, Twilight didn’t seem to hear her since she didn’t stop digging through the blackened remains around her.

She let out a yelp a few seconds later when she felt something wrap around her front followed by her hooves leaving the ground. She looked back to see it was Rainbow Dash, the cyan pegasus glaring at her as she held onto the lavender alicorn. “Twilight, that’s enough! I don’t know what you’re looking for, but you can’t ignore us like this! This has to stop!” she said.

Twilight’s hind legs flailed as she tried to get free while Rainbow dragged her backwards. As she was being dragged, her right hoof hit something in the rubble that made a distinctive *THUNK* sound. She immediately stopped struggling and stared at where her hoof had been. Rainbow stared as well, stopping due to being surprised by the sound. The rainbow-maned pegasus let out a shout before she hit the ground a moment later, Twilight suddenly dragging her down as she burst free and ran over to the spot. Rainbow let out a groan a moment later as he lifted her head up, looking up at Twilight.

The lavender alicorn was slightly turned away from her, sitting down as she picked up some sort of broken container in her hooves and held it out in front of her. As she brought it closer to her, she asked softly, “Is this it? Is it still…?” She shook it with her left hoof and a blackened object slid out onto her right hoof a moment later. She threw the container to the side to free up her left hoof, breaking it further while her left hoof brushed the object. After a few moments of this, she stopped and looked down at it for a moment before holding it to her chest, murmuring, “I found it… I found it…”

By this time, Rainbow had gotten back to her hooves and Pinkie and the others had come closer, seeing that Twilight had calmed down slightly. “Uh, Twilight?” Applejack asked as they approached her.

“I found it…” Twilight murmured again, still holding the object to her chest.

Rainbow was close enough to hear her and angrily demanded, “What? What did you find, Twilight?” The speedy flyer wasn’t exactly happy at the lavender alicorn for making her crash, some of the ashes still on her face, but it quickly faded when her friend turned around and showed the object to them.

It was a big golden ring, although it wasn’t too golden at the moment. It was mostly black, with hints of a magenta sheen being underneath the blackness. Everyone immediately recognized it. “Mah stars… Isn’t that…?” Applejack softly asked. Twilight nodded in reply, which caused Applejack to admit, “Ah completely forgot about that thing…”

Twilight looked down, “I did too, until this morning…” Spike rubbed the back of his head nervously at that. It wasn’t a rainbow that reminded her of the Warp Ring; it was the doughnuts.

Rainbow also rubbed her head as she said, “We… I thought you were trying to find everything that was in the library, Twilight. I didn’t know you were looking for something specific…”

Twilight replied, “It’s all right, Rainbow. It makes sense you’d come to that conclusion.” She looked off to the side, “I know… pretty much everything that was in the library is gone. I’ll have to see how much of it I can replace.” She looked back down at the ring, “But there are some things that definitely can’t be replaced… This is one of them…”

Spike shifted to the side a bit and felt his right foot step on something that felt different, followed by a cracking sound a moment later that caught everyone’s attention. He turned and bent down, picking up the object and blowing the ashes off of it to see what it was. It was a picture frame, or at least it was. The explosion had pretty much destroyed it, the cracking sound having come from some of bits of glass that had been on it. The picture was still inside of it though and he pulled it out of the mangled frame, looking at it for a moment before turning and walking over to Twilight. “Twilight…” he murmured as he held it out to her, the alicorn taking it with her magic and holding it up to look at it.

It was none other than the group photo that was taken at the end of Sonic’s birthday party. While the frame had been able to protect it, the photo had not escaped the flames unscathed. The picture had some brown marks as did the edges, the edges being somewhat torn. The damage wasn’t bad enough that it was impossible to see the scene and tell who was who, though. Twilight turned it around and showed it to everyone else.

“It’s been so long since we’ve seen them…” Pinkie sighed sadly.

“You had to know, didn’t you, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight took the photo in her left hoof and hugged it and the Warp Ring to her chest as she sniffled, “I did. I know it’s been a long time, but… I don’t want to lose them too…”

Everyone gathered around her, Rarity saying, “There, there, darling… It’s okay…” as they all came together in a hug.

________________________________________

A few days after the Battle of the Bands…

Twilight walked into her bedroom in the castle, finally caught up with everything that had come in while she was helping Sunset Shimmer and the Rainbooms free CHS and protect the other world from the Dazzlings. Now that peace had returned to the school and she and Spike were home, there was something she wanted to puzzle over. She walked over to the bookshelf sitting under the mirror near the doors. On top of it, all by itself, was the Warp Ring. Thanks to some polish from Rarity and some grease from Applejack, they had been able to get most of the blackness off and expose the gold again. It still had some scorch marks on it that they couldn’t get out, but they had decided that they had to let that go.

Twilight picked it up and held it in her hoof, moving it around a bit as she thought about earlier. A few days ago, she’d been able to make the portal to Sunset Shimmer’s world open ahead of time thanks to a suggestion by Pinkie Pie. With the use of some machinery and the book that once belong to Princess Celestia that Sunset used, with the book she still had, to alert her that there was trouble, she’d made it possible to pass between the two worlds as she or anypony else pleased and she promised to travel back to the other world sometime.

While it hadn’t taken her long to put that together, she felt that she was still a long way from getting the Warp Ring to do what she wanted it to. Thanks to her alicorn magic, she had been able to charge the ring completely, and it showed as it now had a magenta luster that it didn’t have before. Despite that, it seemed she was only able to use it to travel to places she’d been to in Equestria, and that wasn’t worth wasting all of its energy on. Anytime she thought of one of the places in Sonic’s world, even if it was one of the worlds in Eggman’s Incredible Interstellar Amusement Park, the portal closed. It didn’t seem like it was able to make the trip.

“Pinkie was right about using the magic in the book to open the portal, but I don’t have anything that could be used the same way from Sonic’s world. If I want to do the same with the Warp Ring, I’m going to have to find something else,” she thought. She let her mind wander back to what happened in the other world, remembering that the Dazzlings had shown up because of the Equestrian magic that had been brought over through the Element of Magic, which her friends discovered that they had retained. As she thought about this, a new thought entered her head. “When we powered up to fight the Time Eater, we were able to do so because Sonic channeled the power of the Chaos Emeralds into us the same way I channeled magic into my human friends, and the magic stayed with them this entire time. Could the same be true for the Chaos Emeralds’ power? If so, can we draw it out too? If we could…”

She stood up straight as she asked aloud, “Could it be possible to learn to use Chaos Control?” As she came back to herself, she looked around her room and sighed, “Well, I guess I really should settle into this castle and figure out what we’re supposed to do with it before I worry about that.” She placed the ring back on top of the bookshelf, looking at it for a moment before turning and leaving her room. She decided that, while Spike was taking a nap, she would bring her friends over and discuss with them what they should do next.

________________________________________

“…Sonic.” The blue hedgehog in question double-checked his electronic letter on his Miles Electronic before sending it on its way. Once he’d gotten his notification that the letter had been sent, he leaned back against the tree he was seated under and enjoyed the breeze blowing through the air. It was good to feel that again, especially after everything that happened on the Lost Hex.

It hadn’t been long, just a couple of hours ago in fact, since he and Tails had returned from the strange planet and the adventure was still fresh in his mind. He’d taken off on his friends a little while ago saying he was going to go look for something, and he technically hadn’t been lying. He was looking for some peace and quiet so that he could write his letter and think about everything he had included in it.

He’d been surprised when Tails accused him of not trusting him to stop Eggman’s machine. Their alliance with the doctor to stop the Deadly Six, from the start, was tentative and shaky at best. Had he really made it seem like he put so much faith in Eggman in the fox’s eyes? He just felt really stupid for jumping ahead so quickly and causing the Zeti to take complete control. And then he did it again and caused Tails to get captured by them. He sighed to himself; hadn’t he already learned to know better long ago?

“I guess it is possible to forget things without meaning to. Guess I know how Twilight felt,” he muttered. He thought about the lavender unicorn and her friends for a minute before his thoughts turned back to the Lost Hex, specifically to the Zeti. Zavok, Zazz, Zomom, Master Zik, Zeena, and Zor were the names of the Zeti that made up the Deadly Six, and they had proven to be pretty dangerous once they got loose. Each of them had been able to take quite a bit of punishment before they finally fell, though Sonic was unsure what happened to them afterwards. Still, once he and Tails had gotten past them and Eggman, who betrayed them as expected, they were able to not only stop the machine that stole the energy from their world, but send it back.

As he thought about Twilight and her friends again, he couldn’t help but smirk as he imagined what it might be like for them to go up against the Deadly Six. “Rainbows and black and white. Opposites attract! The greatest team match between two worlds. Ponies versus Zeti. Life versus Death. Keepers of Harmony versus Bringers of Destruction,” he snickered. Pushing the thought out of his mind and getting serious again, he knew that the Deadly Six actually were dangerous and was glad that they never got off of the Lost Hex as far as he could tell, but who knows what could happen next? It seemed like the threats Eggman was finding were mounting, and as a result the stakes were too.

He looked up at the sky as he wondered to himself, “Is the day going to come where the Resistance is needed again?”