//------------------------------//
// The Heroes Meet 
// Story: Through The Crack 
// by grimchi3f 
//------------------------------//


Part 1: Hero's Side - Chapter 2: The Heroes Meet


The first thing to enter Sonic's consciousness was the fact that he was laying down on a hard surface. This was odd considering the fact he had just been in a park, standing in grass. Grass wasn't normally this hard.

The next thing to enter his consciousness were the memories of what had happened at the park. The crack, the library inside the crack, the purple energy, the fact that his best friend had been with him when all this had happened...

Sonic's eyes snapped open and he sat up. The blue hedgehog looked around and took in his surroundings. He was sitting in the middle of the floor of the library that he had seen in the crack. No other library that he had seen had a staircase jutting out of a wall, nor had he seen one that was made entirely from wood and had leaves near the roof. Of course, he hadn't seen many libraries but he knew this wasn't normal.

At the sound of light breathing behind him, Sonic quickly stood up and turned around. Directly behind where he had been siting was Tails, sleeping peacefully. Sonic smiled. The young fox looked so adorable like this. He hated to have to do this but he needed help to figure out exactly what had happened and he needed to figure it out right now.

Sonic brought his hands to his mouth and yelled, "WAKE UP TAILS!"

Tails jumped 10 feet into the air and landed on his face. He quickly sat up and rubbed his head. He glared at Sonic. "Ow! Why did you go and do that for Sonic?"

The hedgehog smiled apologetically. "Sorry but I needed to wake you up to help figure out where the heck we are."

Tails looked around. As he did so, the memories came flooding back. "We're in the library that we saw in the crack."

"You don't say, Mr. Obvious," Sonic said, rolling his eyes.

"Well, other than that, I'm not sure." Tails paused. "Here, let me use my scanner."

He pulled out his handy-dandy yellow scanner and switched on the power. After it was finished booting up, Tails walked around the room scanning everything in front of him.

"Wait a minute," said Sonic, scratching his head, "I thought that that was a translator."

Tails shook his head and continued scanning. "That's just one of its many functions. I built it as a multi-purpose device. In fact, this was what I used to communicate with you when you and your younger self were fighting Eggman in the Time Vortex."

"So... it's sort of like a universal remote?"

Tails chuckled. "Yeah, sort of."

There were a few moments of silence before the scanner dinged, signaling that it had finished scanning. Tails glanced at the results and his eyes widened in shock.

"It's blank!" Tails exclaimed. "Or, well, more accurately, it can't recognize the molecular structure of anything!"

"And that means what exactly?"

"It means," Tails started, shutting off the scanner and putting it away, "that we are far, far away from home. We might even be in a different universe!"

"A different universe? But how... " Sonic stopped himself when he heard a clopping noise on the other side of what was probably the entrance to the library. He and Tails moved to the center of the room and prepared themselves for what might possibly turn out to be a fight.

--------

It was around midnight and a bone-tired Twilight Sparkle was making her way home to prepare for the sleepover that she had agreed to host. After the events of the previous day, a sleepover might not be the best of ideas but she wanted to make her friends happy, even if they hadn't believed her when she had accused the fake Princess Cadence of being fake. After all, she didn't like to hold grudges.

The purple unicorn sighed. If only Spike wouldn't have agreed to stay in Canterlot and help Princess Celestia clean up after the wedding. He could've helped me prepare for this sleepover! she thought, Of course, I didn't need to agree to this sleepover in the first place...

After a few more minutes of walking, she had finally reached her home, the library. She used her unicorn magic to open the door but was stopped short by what she saw inside. There was a blue, spiky haired creature standing next to an orange, two-tailed... fox? Adding to the strangeness was the fact that both creatures were wearing gloves and shoes.

What in the world!? "Um, hello there!" Twilight said, wondering if they could understand her. "My name is Twilight Sparkle... who are you?"

Both creatures exchanged a glance before the blue one answered, "I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"A hedgehog!? But you don't look anything like a--," Twilight covered her mouth with her hooves and blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, that was extremely rude. What I meant to say was that you look nothing like any hedgehog I've ever seen before. Most hedgehogs aren't blue... or able to stand on two feet, or even wear shoes!"

The hedgehog rolled his eyes. "Well, you don't look like any horse--"

"Pony."

"-- pony I've ever seen before either, sister. Where I come from, ponies aren't purple."

"It's not exactly common around here either," Twilight laughed. "Anyway, it's nice to meet you Mister, uh... Sonic, is it?" She held up a hoof for him to shake.

"Yeah. Just Sonic though. It's nice to meet you too Twilight," Sonic said, taking her hoof and shaking it.

The unicorn turned her attention to the orange fox beside Sonic. "And you are?"

He grinned and said, "I'm Miles Prower, but you can call me Tails."

"You're a fox, right?" Twilight asked as Tails shook her hoof.

"Yep! But I'm special." He pointed to his two tails. "These babies allow me to fly! Do you wanna see me fly?"

Twilight smiled. The fox was obviously young and something about him reminded her of Spike. "Sure, why not?"

"Hold it buddy," Sonic said. He put his hand on Tails' shoulder, "We have more important things to worry about like where we are or how we got here."

"Well, I can help you with that first one at least," Twilight said as she turned on the lights and magicked in a table and 3 chairs. When she turned back to Sonic and Tails, she found that they were staring at her like she was some sort of alien. "What? Never seen a unicorn before?"

"A unicorn? But... but those don't exist!" Tails exclaimed, finally noticing her horn.

Now it was Twilight's turn to stare at them like they were aliens, which they might actually be. "What are you talking about? There are plenty of unicorns! Not as many as there are Earth ponies or even pegasi but --"

"Pegasi? As in the plural form of pegasus?" Tails asked.

"Yes, but--"

"Wow! Pegasi and unicorns!" He turned to Sonic. "We must be in a different universe!"

Sonic nodded. "Definitely."

Twilight was confused. Different universe? she thought.

"But... how did you bring that table and those chairs in here?" Tails questioned, turning back to Twilight.

"I used magic. All unicorns can use magic."

"Magic, eh?" said Sonic. He looked at Tails. "As you said dude, this must be a different universe."

"May I ask, what exactly do you mean by that?" Twilight asked, getting more confused by the minute.

Sonic glanced at the table. "We might want to take our seats, this may take a while."

Once all three of them had taken their seats, Sonic and Tails explained all about the world they came from. They talked about their friends, their level of technology, and how their world worked. They talked about the adventures they had and how they were the heroes of their world. Twilight was astounded. Their world sounded so weird, their technology so advanced. She was also surprised by how much they had been through and how Sonic was apparently the fastest thing alive. Rainbow Dash would have a few words to say about that.

When Sonic and Tails had finished, Twilight explained her world to them. She told them about the pony races; what each of them did and the differences between them. She explained the history of Equestria and how they were ruled by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna who controlled the rising of the sun and moon respectively. The entire time she talked, Sonic held a serious expression while Tails held one of awe.

Twilight only had one question left. "So, you two, how did you get here?"

"Well, you see, we were standing in a park celebrating my birthday," Sonic began, "when Tails here saw this crack just floating in midair. We both went up to it and looked inside. What we saw was this library which, I might add, has a very odd design."

The unicorn smiled. "That's because it's inside a tree."

"Well that explains it," Tails said, "but who in their right mind would build a library inside a-- oh, nevermind. Continue Sonic."

"As soon as we see this library, this blast of purple energy comes out of the crack and sucks us in."

"Purple energy? Wait, hold on, I think I know what that was. Earlier today, my brother got married to Princess Cadence," Twilight explained, "First, though, we had to defeat Queen Chrysalis and her changeling army. In order to do that, my brother and Cadence touched horns and sent out a huge, purple blast of pure love that threw the changelings our of Equestria. That blast must have went through the crack and taken you guys back here." She paused. "But, the real question is, what created the crack?"

"I don't know. The next thing I knew after we were sucked in was that I was asleep... over there." Sonic pointed a little to the right of where the table was.

That rung a bell for Twilight. Asleep... over. Why does that ring a... oh no, I almost forgot; I'm hosting a sleepover!

At this moment, the entrance to the library swung open and five ponies walked in carrying sleeping bags on their backs.

-------

Sonic could not believe his eyes. Five extremely colorful ponies had just entered the library. Twilight had said that ponies came in many colors but this still caught him off-guard. There was an orange one, a yellow one, a pink one, a white one, and a cyan one with rainbow colored hair. Actually, that last one looked pretty cool.

The silence stretched on for a couple of seconds before the orange pony spoke up. "Um, Twi," she said, looking at Twilight, "Who in tarnation are these fellers?" She gestured toward Sonic and Tails.

Twilight cleared her throat. "Ahem! Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, meet Sonic and Tails; Sonic and Tails meet Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash."

Silence again. All of a sudden, the pink pony, Pinkie Pie, pounced onto Sonic and knocked him to the ground.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie!" she said enthusiastically. "Your new here and you know what that me--" She was cut off when the rainbow maned pony, Rainbow Dash, yanked her off of Sonic by her tail.

"Sheesh Pinkie, let the guy breath," said the cyan pony, dropping Pinkie to the ground. She helped Sonic up. "Hi Sonic, I'm Rainbow Dash, the fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"

This piqued Sonic's interest. "Fastest flyer in all of Equestria, eh? Well, I'm Sonic the Hedgehog; the fastest thing alive!"

At this remark, all of the ponies, except Twilight, began rolling on the floor and laughing.

The orange pony, Applejack, was the first to recover. "Now if that ain't the funniest thing ah heard all day!"

"Everypony knows that Dashie is the fastest thing alive!" said Pinkie in between fits of laughter.

"Oh, he's a gem Twilight! Where'd you find him?" the white pony, Rarity, giggled.

"That's just the thing. You see, they're--"

"But it's true!" Sonic interrupted. "I am the fastest thing alive!"

"Oh please," Rainbow Dash said, flying at eye level. "Have you ever even done a Sonic Rainboom before?"

"A sonic what-boom?" Sonic asked.

"A sonic rainboom silly!" Pinkie replied, hopping up and down. "It's what happens when a pegasus pony breaks the sound barrier. It creates a loud boom and super-duper-mega-beautiful rainbow!"

"That's pretty cool," Tails said, finally entering the conversation. "In our world only the boom happens. We call it a Sonic Boom."

"Uh, Mr. Sonic?" whispered the yellow pony, Fluttershy, in a soft voice. "You don't look like any hedgehog I've seen before."

"This was what I wanted to tell you guys!" exclaimed Twilight, stamping her hoof. "They aren't from anywhere near Equestria; they're from a different world."

"What exactly do ya mean by that sugahcube?" asked Applejack.

Twilight thought for a second on how to put it in a way to make her friends understand. "They come from an alternate universe. In their universe, the sun and moon rise on their own. The technology there is much more advanced and it's run by hairless monkeys who stand on two legs."

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Well that's a very blunt way to put it."

Rarity's eyes widened. "That sounds absolutely dreadful!"

"It does not!" Applejack snorted.

"Now I see why Sonic is the fastest thing alive in his universe," Dash said, smirking. "His only competition are monkeys and monkeys aren't very fast."

"Okay, first off: they're called humans," growled Sonic who was starting to get annoyed. "Second: that is not the reason; not even close! I'm willing to bet that I'm much faster than you."

Rainbow Dash flew down into the blue hedgehog's face. "Oh really? How much would you bet?"

Twilight facehoofed. "C'mon you guys!"

"Yeah, Sonic," Tails began, "we have more important things to worry abo--" He stopped when Sonic put up a finger.

The hedgehog smiled and looked Dash in her eyes. "My title as the fastest thing alive."

Suddenly, faster than Sonic would've believed possible, Pinkie Pie was between them with her forelegs around their necks. Looking down at them she asked, "Do you know what this calls for?"

"What?" questioned Dash and Sonic simultaneously, even though they already knew the answer.

"A RACE!" shouted Pinkie as she whisked them out of the library.

Applejack shook her head. "Sometimes ah wonder about that pony," she said as she and the rest of the ponies, plus Tails, walked out into the crisp morning air.