//------------------------------// // Sonic VS Rainbow Dash // Story: Through The Crack // by grimchi3f //------------------------------// Part 1: Hero's Side - Chapter 3: Sonic VS Rainbow Dash Sonic stood next to Rainbow Dash in front of the town hall and surveyed the crowd that Pinkie Pie had brought together in a surprisingly short amount of time. There were so many ponies with colors ranging from fire red to mint green; it threw Sonic for a loop. While scanning the crowd, he spotted a gray pegasus pony who's eyes were crossed at an odd angle. No other pony had eyes like that. He pointed this out to Rainbow Dash. "Oh, that's just Derpy Hooves," explained Dash. "She's the town's clumsy mailmare. I'm not entirely sure why her eyes are like that though." She frowned. "She never answers when I ask." "So, let me get this straight," Sonic began, a slight smile stretching across his face, "there's a pony named 'Derpy' here?" Dash looked confused. "Yeah, so what?" Sonic chuckled. "In my universe, the word 'derpy' means--" "Hello everypony! Welcome to Ponyville's first ever inter-universal race!" shouted Pinkie Pie's magnified voice from up in her hotair balloon, cutting Sonic off. "Our contestants are battling for the title of Fastest Thing Alive! First up, we have Rainbow Dash, the only pegasus in all of Equestria to successfully do a sonic rainboom! Our second contestant is Sonic the Hedgehog who is from another universe and is the current owner of the title of fastest thing alive. "The race itself is pretty simple and consists of four legs. The first leg will take our speedy-speedsters to Fluttershy's woodland cabin while the second leg will take them to Sweet Apple Acres. The third leg will take them to Froggy Bottom Bog and the fourth and final leg will take our contestants to the library. First one to the library wins!" She looked down at them and smiled. "Are you guys ready?" Sonic hoped he could recognize all the checkpoints. Pinkie and Dash had shown him pictures of the places just a few minutes prior but, even then, it had been fleeting glimpses. As it was, Sonic grinned his signature cocky grin and said, "Yep." Rainbow Dash flexed her wings. "Oh yeah, ready to whip hedgehog boy's butt!" Pinkie smiled exuberantly. "Alrighty then!" she exclaimed. "On your marks..." Sonic glanced at the crowd one last time. Twilight and Tails were nowhere to be found. He wondered where they had run off to. "Get set..." Sonic got into a sprinter's position and whispered to Rainbow Dash, "See you at the finish line." "Whatever you say blue boy," Dash whispered back. "GO!" And off they went. ------- Rainbow Dash loved this feeling. The feeling she got when she let herself go completely. That feeling was what Dash lived for. There was no way Sonic could keep up with her, especially when she felt so alive. She looked to her right and almost dropped to the ground in surprise. The blue hedgehog was keeping up with her! How was that even-- whatever. He probably couldn't keep that pace for long, anyway. Sonic saw that she was looking at him and flashed her a grin. He turned around... and started running backwards! At the same speed! Dash suddenly realized that he was playing with her, trying to get inside her head. Well, she wasn't going to let that happen; she had race to win! Once Sonic saw that the trick wasn't going to work, he began running regularly again. They were almost at Fluttershy's cabin and Dash was surprised that Sonic had kept up with her this far. Once again, she looked to her right, but this time he was looking at her in surprise. Apparently, he hadn't expected her to keep up with him this long. As they went raced past the cabin towards Sweet Apple Acres, Dash smirked. You don't underestimate the Dash. In order to get to Sweet Apple Acres, they were going to have to pass through a huge grove of apple trees. Lucky for Dash, she could fly over it. Dash let out a hearty laugh as she flew up above the apple trees, still flying at full speed towards the farm. There was no way the hedgehog could keep up with her and dodge the trees at the same time. She had this in the bag. A few seconds later, she was passing the trees. She laughed again. There was no sign of the blue-- "You cheated!" yelled Sonic who was just breaking out of the trees at full speed. Dash almost dropped to the ground in surprise again. "How did you-- oh, nevermind. Anyway, it wasn't cheating; you never said I couldn't fly over the obstacles!" How did he keep up with her through the trees!? This hedgehog was boggling her mind. Despite the fact that he had yelled at her for flying over the trees, they were still racing and still neck and neck. Either he was way too forgiving or he thought he could win even with Dash's 'cheating'. She suspected the latter, and that, in her books, made Sonic about 20% cooler. By passing Sweet Apple Acres, they started the third leg of the race. On the other side of the farm was another grove of apple trees and after that was the Everfree Forest, in which was Froggy Bottom Bog. Once again, Dash flew above the apple trees while Sonic ran through them. Once they reached the Everfree Forest, Dash vowed to fly down into the trees to give the hedgehog a fair chance. Upon reaching the forest, she did just that,barely missing a tree trunk in the process. Still flying at top speed, she scanned the forest for Sonic. When she finally found him off to her left, what she saw made her jaw drop. Instead of just dodging the trees by running past them, he was jumping from tree to tree, sliding under fallen trunks, and even spinning through the thick underbrush. Dash shook her head. She could be impressed later, for now they had entered Froggy Bottom Bog.. She looked at the ground and smiled because, under her at this very moment, was her savior: water. There was no way he could keep up with her now, surely he'd be slowed down by the water. She glanced to her left and, for the third time that day, almost dropped to the ground in surprise. Sonic was running on top of the water! Dash could not begin to understand how that was possible. She and Sonic turned in the direction of Ponyville and began the final leg of the race. ------- Sonic was extremely surprised that Rainbow Dash had kept up with him so far. He had met fast people before (Shadow, Blaze, even Eggman on occasion) but the cyan pony was something else. She sort of reminded him of... well, himself actually. Despite Dash flying over the apple trees earlier, this was the most enjoyable race he'd ever had. It was especially satisfying because of all the surprised looks she'd been giving him. Priceless. Shortly after they had left that extremely overgrown and incredibly spooky forest, Sonic began to notice a white barrier forming around Rainbow Dash. It was still faint but it was growing brighter with every passing second. The sight chilled Sonic to the core. He remembered what Dash and Pinkie had said about the sonic rainboom and he had a hunch that this was a sign that one of those was about to happen. In the distance, Sonic could see the town coming up. He had to think of something fast. He finally decided to use a move he hadn't used in years but was extremely fast. The white barrier around Rainbow Dash was reaching an almost blinding level of brightness. It was now or never. With a sigh, Sonic initiated the move. For the first time in years, Sonic was using the Super-Peelout. ------- After leaving the forest behind and starting on the tree-lined path to Ponyville, Rainbow Dash finally decided to use the sonic rainboom. The hedgehog was going to get it now. Dash closed her eyes and let that wonderful feeling she loved so much spread throughout her entire body. Slowly but surely, a white barrier began forming around her. She saw Ponyville in the distance and smiled. This race was in the bag. Suddenly, Dash heard a sigh to her left. She risked a glance and was astonished by what she was. Sonic's feet were moving so fast that they had formed a horizontal figure 8. Not only that but the white barrier that was currently forming around Dash, was also forming around Sonic at a much faster rate. Seeing this, Dash tried to increase her speed, but to no avail. With a tremendous boom that could be heard from miles around, Sonic initiated a cobalt-blue sonic rainboom. The force of Sonic's boom and her own failed attempt sent the rainbow-maned pegasus careening into one of the trees lining the path to Ponyville. She was unconscious before she even hit the ground. ------- Sonic was ecstatic. He had created his very own sonic rainboom! Granted, it was cobalt-blue, but even then... a sonic rainboom! The feeling he had gotten when he had first created the rainboom was like nothing Sonic had ever felt before. He felt so alive! He was sure that the grin of pure joy he wore right now would never leave his face. Because of his sonic rainboom, Sonic's speed was now tripled. Due to this gigantic speed increase, Sonic reached the library in less than twenty seconds. He almost ran into it but was fortunate enough to stop himself before something catastrophic like that could happen. He turned around and looked at the crowd. They were all staring at him with stunned expressions, even Pinkie Pie up in her hotair balloon. It took her a few seconds to recover. "Um, uh... our winner is the blue blur himself, Sonic!" shouted Pinkie, some of her usual enthusiasm seeping back into her voice. Suddenly, the crowd exploded with cheers and stomping their hooves against the ground. The cheering was quickly interrupted by a female voice from behind Sonic. "Where's Rainbow Dash?" The hedgehog turned to see Twilight and Tails walking out of the library. "Yeah, where is Dashie?" asked Pinkie Pie who was jumping out of her just landed hotair balloon and was walking towards Sonic with Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack in tow. "U-um..." stuttered Sonic, looking back down the path that he had come into town on and seeing it barren of anything resembling a cyan pony. "Uh oh..."